City Council - Regular Meeting

recording in progress.

Oh my gosh. Fashion horror. Good evening everyone and welcome to the Chesca City Council meeting for Monday, December 1st. I call this meeting order at 7 o'clock. Would everyone please rise for the pledge of allegiance? I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, Elise, would you please call role? Council member Hatfield here. Council Ben here. Council member Shlin here. Council here.

Mayor Hover here. All right. Uh that moves us along to adopting the agenda. Does anybody have any additions or corrections on the agenda? Otherwise, I entertain a motion to adopt. Motion to adopt agenda. Okay, we have a motion from council member Hatfield. Second. A second from council member Benish. All those in favor say I. I opposed.

All right, agenda is adopted. Uh and that moves us along to visitor presentation. Does anybody in the crowd want that doesn't that is not here for an agenda item uh wish to speak towards the council? Um do you want to come up and introduce yourself or you want to just hang back? Okay. I won't put you on the spot today, but appreciate you being here. All right. Seeing that nobody's coming forward, we're going to move down on the agenda over to the approval of previous meeting minutes. So these city council minutes are from uh November 17th. Uh, does anybody have any addition or corrections to the meeting minutes?

If not, I'd entertain a motion for approval. Motion to approve previous meeting minutes. All right, we have a motion from Council Member Bennish. Second. A second from Council Member Chevlin. Uh, any other discussion? Otherwise, all those in favor say I. I. Opposed.

All right. Minutes are approved. And then that moves us along to our consent items. These are items that generally um receive little to no um discussion unless they need to be pulled off of the uh consent item and they can certainly be added towards action items. Uh or if someone has a quick comment or question. I have a couple quick questions. 7A for Oakidge. Um have we seen marked improvement on their safety plans for their security of their building?

Yeah, say. Well, yes, and there's uh in this it actually requires them to bring it up to the standards before we'll actually issue the temporary uh CO. So, there's still things that have to occur, but uh once they do, then this would give us the ability to issue that seal. Okay, perfect. And then t and I will say typically we don't bring these back because we because there are standards that they have to meet to get a temporary co but we felt especially since you guys have seen this one before we wanted you guys to be aware sort of what what was going on. Yeah.

Yeah. I appreciate that. The other one um is more just out of curiosity. 7D. Do we have an officer like um ready to go for that? Yeah. Hunter panning. Okay. So, he won't be a school resource officer because isn't he'll be a school resource officer at uh the intermediate district. We have uh we have uh Fernando is up there now uh with the IAA and we'll backfill somebody into the uh position up at the high school and then they also share with their middle schools. So, we'll as part of this whole transition, we'll also be promoting somebody else into an SRO position.

Okay. So, that just that hasn't happened. That it hasn't happened yet, but Hunter is going to be the one that's permanently there. There'll probably be some transition stuff that we have there, but he'll be the one that's permanently there. Okay. Those are all my questions. I had one question on the Costco signing. Is are they saying that they're going to share their parking lot with Oakidge? you I I I guess I'm not aware. I can speak to that. Um so I don't have a visual, but if you think of the site,

um there's a parking lot that is south of where Oakidge is located. It's kind of sandwiched between Oakidge and the Springs um development, and it's across the road from where Costco is. Y

that's a shared lot. Um currently is a shared lot and that's part of that part of how the approvals occurred for that whole development. Um the change that's being proposed here by the folks who are looking to operate Oakidge is that during the point of construction and completion of the main lot of for Oakidge which is located generally north of the building um that they would be able to use the entire shared lot with with Costco during that time. um because while construction is occurring on that lot on the main lot um it won't be accessible to the point that it is now, right? Um and so that would be kind of a a temporary interim status and that's something that uh they did talk to Costco about. That's why you have that attachment in your packet um showing that interim parking agreement.

Yep. Makes sense. And then my only other question, I see the audit on the city from Clifton Larson Allen, which funny enough I was an intern there during my but um is that the audit firm we always have used? It was the audit firm we used last year. Okay. So last year was our first year with them. First year, right? Yeah, first year with them. So this would be continuing that engagement. Okay, perfect. Y

All right. Um, any other any other questions? I had an opportunity to also talk to staff for 7A and just double-checking that, you know, it was something that was kind of in the normal wheelhouse of what, like you had mentioned, Matt, that that's something that you guys, you know, have done. Um, just to make sure that they're kind of being along like everyone else, so being fair. All right, with that, uh, I would entertain a motion for approval. Unless anybody has any other questions. Motion to approve consent. Okay, we have a motion from council member Hatfield. Second

and a second from council member draw. Any other discussion? Although otherwise all those in favor say I. I opposed. All right. Consent is approved and that moves us down to our action items. We just have one big one. AA truth and taxation public hearing the 2026 tax levy and budget. This is the one that's going to be really interesting. Here you go. All right. Um, well, tonight, uh, I obviously, uh, we work throughout a good portion of the year getting to the point where we set our our budget and our tax levy because that's what sort of determines what are we going to do next year.

And so, it's a big part of what we do as part of our our operations. since I think we had our first work session back in June uh talking about this and have had work sessions and and think things since under the truth and taxation process. Uh what ends up happening is we establish a preliminary levy that has to be done by the end of September. We provide that levy to the county uh who then takes our levy along with every other local levy, puts it on a tax statement, sends it out to you. And most people I think probably got their tax statement about a week and a half ago or so uh which indicates u what everybody what every local jurisdiction's tax uh levy is uh or is proposed to be.

You want to look at it so you can speak to it. So it um you know has every uh you know tax levy what it's proposed to be uh but that looks at the total impact of the taxes uh what it changes uh from uh year to year and then gives uh information on when the public hearing or the truth and taxation public hearing will be held uh which is the public's opportunity to be able to come forward hear what's being proposed be able to ask questions make comments uh you know things uh along that nature. Um we take no action uh tonight uh on the budget. It's purely to uh basically sort of lay out uh the what's being proposed, take any comments that people may have. Uh and then what we do is we then uh get feedback from you guys. Uh we take that and when we put together our final uh document for the budget which we'll bring back at the December 15th meeting. uh and that the December 15th meeting uh we'll end up doing sort of three things. Uh we'll be uh uh setting the the budget for each of our funds. Uh so that's not just the general fund. The general fund is what we're focusing on tonight because it's the only one that has a tax levy associated with it. Um we also then set the tax levy and then we uh also then uh you know for anything we haven't set rates yet for for the upcoming year for like utilities things like that uh we take the action to to actually get those established. So uh again this is information uh tonight and then action at the December 15th meeting. So um first slide um where we've been. So first thing we always look at is our objectives uh for budgeting and uh these have not changed for some time. These are the things that we use to put

together the budget uh document uh that you'll see or you're seeing before you now. Uh so we want to support our mission of being the best small town in Minnesota and put our dollars towards those things that help uh achieve that. Maintain our existing high quality service levels. fully fund maintenance and replacement of vehicles, equipments, and phys physical assets on a regular schedule so that we don't get behind uh and end up uh you know starting to stack things on top of each other. Uh fund new programs only after existing necessary programs are funded. Uh develop a long-term budget plan that's sustainable to support the service levels our residents expect. Uh fully fund the needs of our street reconstruction program. and then budget utilizing a plan that avoids a a draw down on our city's general fund budget reserves. And on this one uh based on uh feedback that we've received from uh our uh bond rating agencies, we've actually been working to build up that general fund reserve balance to get that to a strong position. Next uh slide is our tax levy policy. Uh so this one was set back in 2015. Uh up until 2015, we had had a policy uh which uh basically established our tax levy based on uh keeping a constant tax rate. Um the thing that that didn't do and we saw that really clearly uh through the uh recession period when you started to see a retraction on values is the cost of services went up. Uh but if you followed a constant tax rate, your resources would go down. And so what we did is we established a tax relief policy that was really true to really what does it cost us to provide our services. So we limit tax growth to capture new growth in the community. So we want to make sure that new uh growth is paying for itself that people in town

aren't subsidizing uh new growth coming into town. Uh and ex and expenditure inflation. We we need to make sure that we're keeping up with inflation because things cost more from one year to the next. and only increasing the levy beyond that point if new service uh levels or app uh assets or initiatives are being added. And like we've been talking about, this is the fourth year. The new thing that we added starting four years ago and we've been building it up for four years is our building uh initi building uh fund initiative. Um and I put down here capturing new growth does not really impact existing taxpayers. Um the uh it actually helps it actually helps uh add more tax base to be able to spread those costs against uh and it also makes sure that new growth doesn't come into the community and doesn't contribute their fair share towards services especially when we have to increase services when new people come into town. Next slide. So the last year at this time these are the things we are talking about. We are talking about our continued utilization of our tax levy policy. Uh our continued implementation of our million-doll um uh capital asset maintenance uh uh plan. Um we were talking about our staffing study implementation being completed. Uh so uh just last year at this time we were talking about how that was the end of our staffing study and we didn't have to continue to uh uh levy for that. Uh we're uh talking about uh that being the third year of our four-year building improvement program uh that we started in 2023 and had done it in 23 24 25 and then 26 obviously will be the last year and then continuing to build our general fund reserves and we added uh back in 2021

uh $300,000 annually to our budget to build reserves to a healthy level. And uh we increased our fund balance. Uh in 2020 it was 1 point 1.9 million. Uh we now have that up to close to $7 million uh after our last audited statement in uh 2024 which represents about 33% of our general fund budget. The target we want to hit is 40%. And really it's about a cash flow issue. It's we only get tax uh we only get taxes remitted to us twice a year. uh we get them in December and we get them in July. We don't get them monthly. And so 40% is really to carry you from a cash flow perspective uh throughout the the course of the year. So where are we now? The slide you guys all hate. Um so the local government aid payments. Uh we've talked about this before that uh this is one that used to be very significant for us. uh we lost it uh in 2003 going into 2004 and by 200 uh 78 we lost it alto together. It briefly made an appearance back in about 200 uh 14 15 uh 16 and 17 and now we're at zero. And the reason I bring this up is one you know you know the question comes up is well how did we get behind? How did we get behind on buildings or how did we get behind on staffing? A big reason we got behind is because we lost this local government aid that was coming to us from the state and we didn't relevy those dollars once that uh once that aid went away. Part of the reason for that is a real good reason is the period that that uh LGA went away in 2003 four five and six were the some of the highest building years that we had seen. Uh so a lot of the new growth that we were seeing was sort of

masking the fact that we were losing a million dollars a year. But once that that growth went away that million dollars meant something. It was a real impact in there. Um but I think the good thing is is uh you know we uh you know after you know going through completing our uh staffing study implementation we really sort of gained back that million dollars. we really got ourselves back to where we should be and back to those staffing levels our staffing study uh had called for. Uh next one is population and household growth. This show shows uh both where we're at and where we're going. So the 2024 which is the last population estimate that the Met Council has is 29,830 uh which is 11,292 households. Um obviously the growth has continued pretty strong uh over the last uh year and so we are uh most certainly over 30,000 uh people now. So we ultimately you can see in 2040 uh we project that we'll be at about 36,000 people. That's probably pretty close to when we're going to peak out uh for for uh land being uh uh developed. Uh but we do expect that you know if we see household growth happen at the rate that we've been seeing it happen over the last almost decade uh that uh you know by 2040 we probably are fully developed.

Does that mean even like highrises or new apartment buildings that would build on land available? So what we'll end up seeing after full buildout is we'll start to see I mean you start thinking of suburbs are in closer you know where you see field I've seen yes Richfield is a big one. Richfield has the issue where they have people that never left their homes and they couldn't attract new people into the community and so their schools suffered because of that. And so, uh, you know, we've been in this mode for 40 years of growing. Um, within the next 15 years, we're going to be in a mode of not growing.

And that's how we handle no growth is very different than how we handle growth. And so, uh, you know, what we'll see then is is we'll probably see redevelopment projects. And that's where you'll start to see more high dense, uh, projects, uh, like that. across our school district encompasses areas that are still fastly growing like and that's a big deal because you think about Chanassen I mean Channassen's almost fully developed and so I mean they're not going to add much to their population we'll add about another six 7,000 people but Carver you know they're at 10 10,000 now

they they'll add another 30,000 people you know if Victoria's at 10,000 they're going to add another 40,000 people So yeah, we sort of have the best of both worlds. Uh that uh we'll really I mean I think those communities have benefited from Carver and Chan for years being able to support the growth of to support the school district and in the future we're going to have to really depend on them to support the uh the school district.

But that I mean that to get back to a community like Richfield that's a problem. like in Richfield, they were a school by themselves and so they, you know, once they stopped growing, they're, you know, they didn't have the people coming into the school like they did before.

Uh, building permit revenue, we continue to see really high numbers of this. I I mean I remember back in the you know that 03 0405 time period uh when we were right around a million dollars and we really thought we were humming along at that point and now I look at the permit numbers that we have uh compared uh back then and you know obviously we uh 23 was our peak at about 3 million but we're pretty consistently seeing about uh you know$ 1.5 to2 million a year uh in permit revenue and that's coming in all sectors. I mean

it's nice to see even how much of that is um like adding on or um remodel is not the word word but maybe it is remodel. Yeah. No, it's it's absolutely true. I mean, you look at the number of permits that we uh that we issue, and yes, some of them are new construction, but there is a ton of permits that we uh give out for remodeling homes, for reinvesting into properties.

And so, I mean, that makes a huge difference in how we keep value in this community. Um, so, you know, that's something that's that, uh, you know, really stands out. um you know and this and again we're seeing this from all sectors. We're not seeing it just from residential. Uh we're not seeing it just from commercial or just for industrial. We're really sort of seeing a mixture of those uh types. I mean right now, you know, obviously we have housing that's going on up by your house and up by my house. Uh we have Beckman Coulter uh that's building a new industrial building up there and and uh uh in commercial u you know we've seen uh obviously the Costco area just uh open up and so we're we're really seeing those those types of developments in really all different sectors of the market and I'll show you the breakdown in just a few minutes here of sort of what where that's gone uh from a valuation perspective. So next uh slide uh shows where the market values are uh in the community from 2024 to 2025. If you look in the bottom right hand corner, you'll see that it's 7.51% increase in overall market values in the community. And the thing that I think is interesting and actually I think really helps us from a tax perspective is uh the fact that more than half of that growth is coming from new construction. So 4.1% of that growth is coming from new construction and 3.41% is coming from uh coming from existing uh homes increasing value. Uh if you look at the residential column which impacts the most people uh you can see that about the percent the average percent market change uh that people saw uh in their existing homes is about 3.95%.

Um, and then 2.83% of it came from uh came from new construction. Uh, commercial industrial, we saw a 5.23% increase there. Apartments, we saw a 19.85% increase. And that's sort of the remaining valuation for all those units. We had 600 plus units that were added into the community. So, we're seeing some of that uh come in, but 55% of the market growth is coming from new construction. Last year, it was 53%. So, we're we're definitely seeing more than half coming from new construction. And uh like I said, 4.1 of the 7.51 in total market value growth is coming from new construction. So again, that's helping shift more of the tax burden away from existing uh residents that uh when we're seeing more new growth than than increasing values from existing properties. So the next slide, this is where we see the breakdown. Uh so we, you know, we have 75% of our community is is residential. uh 15% of the valuation is from uh commercial industrial, 8% is from apartment and say 2% is egg, but that's really sort of the undeveloped to to future development uh property. Um but I to me the thing that stands out is in 2024 uh our commercial industrial properties uh were at 9% of the total uh market value. Now they're at 15%. Uh so we've seen a pretty uh decent increase in industrial uh uh growth uh within the community and some of that is also like Costco and things like that.

Right.

So again uh this just means that more of that burden's being shifted away from the residential properties in the community and we really expect this to continue for you know some time. So, I know we're talking about our last year of our building program, but next year we won't have that. And if we continue to see this type of activity and we don't have that program we're having to pay for, that's just going to uh you have all that much more impact, positive impact on on taxpayers. So, the market value history, you can see sort of uh where we've been. Um the uh I go back to 2009 because that's the recession and you can see how we went I think it's the first time probably in Chesca's history we went backwards in valuations. Uh and it took us from 2009 to 2015 before we actually uh built back up the valuation that we lost in the community during the recession. So, I mean, I don't know, that time flew by to me, but that's a long time. I mean, that's six years that it took to rebuild back, just get back to where we were. Uh, but since that time period, you can see what's happened with property values. Uh, we all remember 2022 values. That's when

that was fun. That was not a fun time. Um but uh but that's that's sort of what we saw with valuations in community and we just continue to see those uh go up 22 for 23. Oh yeah. Yeah. So it's it was our first year of our building program all at the same time. It was really great if you were selling your house because your house went up in value but again for the shock on the proposed tax values was huge because people's values went up which% one up and then we were implementing this and we had some really in-depth conversations. Yeah, I think that's the year I cried at Facebook.

Yeah, that that one was not a fun year. No. Um but then if you look at steadily risen sense I mean on that graph it's very steady you know more controlled growth is better than just big and one of the things that happened and I think co had something to do with it is there was a lot of people that made moves during co Yeah. Well they decided they didn't need to live in the city anymore and became well I mean it was the you know the the commute went away. technology kind of changed that sort of thinking. So, and and what it did is it put a huge demand on housing.

Yeah.

And that hu and it the county I I sort of felt bad for the county because it happened all at once and they and if they wouldn't have caught up, they never would have caught up. So, it's so they almost really needed to take that. But the next slide really shows uh this is new construction value increase. Um so just giving you you know a sense of how much new construction has impacted uh our growth and you know 2025 uh especially. Um but I also put this in here as a reminder that even during the recession uh back in 2010 I have it in 11 uh it was smaller but we still saw growth uh in the community even during the recession. And uh we looked at this in particular back in 2014 and 15 when we were changing the tax policy. Um you know to to have the discussion about even though valuations were going down um new pe new people were still moving in and so it meant that it was it was costing us more to provide services even though valuations were going down. Um so um we we have not seen a year that didn't see some type of new construction value increase probably for 40 years. So next slide is showing uh the transfer we make from the electric fund uh into uh the general fund. And this is sort of a two uh uh sort of two pieces of this. 5% of this is the rightaway fee uh to match up with what we charge uh Minnesota Valley and Excel. It was the action you guys took uh earlier this year. Uh it's also called a franchise fee. Um so that matches up. So when you look at if you look on your bill,

whether you're Chesca Electric, Minnesota Valley, or Excel, everybody has the exact same rightaway fee. um the other 5% because we've always made a 10% transfer into the general fund to help reduce taxes. Uh one of the benefits of having an electric fund is to help you know keep taxes down. Um is that the other 5% ends up being a transfer we make directly into the uh into the general fund uh to help you know mitigate you know the cost of increasing services and try to keep our taxes down as much as possible. And that's something that started back in the uh mid 80s and has really gone sort of from that point forward. But you can see uh I think the other thing this illustrates is if this is 10% of our electric sales. This shows you what how much our electric sales have increased.

Yeah. So you can see back in 2008 we were at $2 million. We're at over $5 million uh for 2026, which means that we've more than doubled the amount of electricity that we're selling in the community. So the next one is talking about key environmental factors that we look at. Um obviously population and and households uh they're increasing um and we continue to expect anticipate approved projects coming online. So we know for certain we see High Point Vista is doing sort of their development stuff out there now. Uh Fultonwood which is just across 61 is doing it at the same time. Uh so we and then we know that they're uh the Hassic property uh that's across from our park.

Uh they have now come in with a developer. So we know that they're going to be coming to us pretty soon saying that they want to develop that. Uh so uh residential is going to continue. um which is good. Yeah. And and you know the you know the other one we're starting to get some interest in is developers interested up on Mcnite Road. Um so that's you know something that um you know the first time we ever talked about it um it seemed like a long ways away and now it's sort of we're on McNight Road. So, uh, the new second being repaid, you know, there. So, south of the arboritum and north of Mcnite Park. Okay. Yeah.

I always forget that the bridge get fixed. Yeah.

Uh, development. So, permits have continued to outpace our budget. Uh we continue to have development interests and uh two industrial bu uh buildings uh are under construction uh in 2026 with the concept plan for uh the big woods industrial park uh is going to be coming forward and they do have an enduser for one uh building right now. So, uh, I would expect that they I mean they're not going to they're going to want to get to a point of having footings and foundations uh by sometimes late later in the summer next year. So, we'll start to see that develop. And then market values have continued to see increases. Uh, you know, new new growth has uh outpaced uh increases on existing pro uh properties. And again, the good thing with that is that helps shift some of that tax burden away from existing residents. So where are we going for 2026? So we're only talking about three things uh for 2026. Uh continued utilization of our tax levy policy. Uh continue implementation of our camp program and then the last year of our building improvement program uh which will be very nice to just have it done. Uh so first one uh first item the operational tax levy policy. Uh so again we look at uh setting a levy based on factors impacting the cost of services. So expenditure inflation is the first one. Uh so the you know cost of providing the same services increases. Uh 3.44% is the uh inflation uh number uh that uh that we're using. it. This this number is hard because it's actually it's a little light uh because our cost of getting some of these things have

actually increase faster than inflation and it's based because it's based mainly uh for product. It's based on availability for people. It's based on availability uh you know that there's more demand for uh there's less people who are applying for jobs. Uh and so you know keeping up with that uh and then new growth uh new growth comes right from that chart uh that we got from the county represents 4.10%. So expenditure inflation plus new growth uh uh equals the the tax levy increase which would be 7.54%. So if we weren't doing the building program uh our the percent increase would we would see would be 7.54%. Uh and because new growth has outpaced growth in existing property values, this you know decreases the impact on existing properties. The impact to a medium value home um would be uh 6.07% increase or $78 per month, $85 annually for our operational levy. So that difference between the 7.54% increase in the levy and the impact of 6.07, 7. That's the that's where new growth impacts. So, we're able to spread that uh out more. Uh and then again, under our policy, any additional tax occurs only if there's a new program or service being implemented. So, again, this would be the fourth of four years of the building improvement program. Uh that would add an additional $1,125,000 to the overall tax levy. So for a camp program, so the purpose of this program is to maintain our existing assets to keep them in good conditions. Um so the types of things uh these the camp program is probably our most

popular program we have because it makes immediate impacts on places. So, new playgrounds, uh repaving roads, um doing uh trail resurfacing, um you know, re rehabilitating city parking lots or retaining walls. There's all kinds of things that we just need to make sure that we're maintaining. Um the one thing that we are uh budgeting in this year is when we set up this program back in 2017, we set up as a million dollars a year. What we didn't do is we didn't like increase it by inflation each year. And what we're doing is we're starting to fall behind. So from this point forward, we we have a program in where, you know, uh we would increase it by the rate of inflation, the same inflation we use it with the tax levy to make sure that we can afford to do the same amount of projects each year. Uh so for instance, it's more expensive to do a overlay of the street than it was in the past. So, and this uh next slide shows our uh proposed uh we only have two things in 2026. Um we are going to repave uh uh Bavaria Road going from the Victoria border all the way down to basically the railroad tracks. I have personally heard many comments about why we didn't do this this year. Um, so people are very anxious to see us uh do this uh project. Um, so it's it's it is well needed, welld deserved. Uh, but then we also each year do $60,000 of trail uh resurfacing and 60,000 it's basically $20,000 a mile. And so we we do three miles of of trail reservicing. We have right around 75 to 80 miles of trails within our system that we need to maintain. And so if we do three miles

each year, we basically are able to keep uh keep it on sort of a 20-year rotation. Uh which is about right for a for a trail.

Um 2027 28 sort of shows what we're going to be uh focusing on. Maybe the only thing I'll just focus on 27 is uh point out that we're doing less in 27 from a monetary perspective. That's because we're putting more into 26. Uh because it uh it would not make sense for us to break Bavaria Road in half. Um we really need to do that in one just false swoop and just get it done. Uh but then that means in in 27 we'll do a bit a little bit less uh in we'll still do stuff but a little bit less to balance it out between the two years of the programs.

Out of curiosity for that $20,000 mile sounds like a lot. It probably really isn't when you think about driveways and stuff, but is it totally removing what's there or is it just resurfacing the existing truck? So they mill uh what's there? So, basically, it takes the top layer of the of the surface off and then they repave it. And actually, if it's $20,000 or Yeah. $20,000 per mile because we do it in-house. If we were to if we were to Yeah. If we were to, you could probably expect it's at least twice as much, if not more, if we were to hire it out. Yeah. Okay. And I guess the playgrounds. Yeah. Yeah,

probably the best place to to see this year where they did it uh was uh right along Bavaria Road um sort of in front of Bountiful Baskets. Uh they they did it there. It's it gives you a sort of a sense of what they do uh there. Okay. A little bit more visible. I mean, I guess we just got estimates on driveway and it's $8,000 through. It's just a small driveway. So, I can I guess I can see where it's a mile long. Yeah.

Yep. All right. the building improvement program. Um I think you guys are probably well aware of the history uh of that. You know that that it has been a strategic priority uh of this council since uh uh 2022. uh and um and that's also when uh we did a citizen focus group and sort of started the process and obviously since then I've done a lot of engagement type of things uh going out there and and talking about and now it's it's pretty hard for people not to know that there's that program going on because we've I think we've talked about it a lot.

Well, and we have one building that's on the side very visible. So yeah, and you know, we just had it with Chesca today. Uh just came out what a week ago or whatever and we had it in there too. So just continuing to try to get the message out and obviously that'll continue because this is obviously the end of uh raising the dollars to do it. We still have how many years of building left to actually do.

Uh next slide. Uh the priorities obviously public safety was priority number one uh and that uh will have completed uh within about a month. Uh so we're really close. Uh municipal service building uh within about a month and a half. We'll have the uh bids and and or the specs uh the uh put together the construction documents. Uh we'll go out to bid sometime in mid January. uh get that back probably in midFebruary and we'd like to be in a position by the beginning of March of actually uh entering into a contract with a contractor to to move forward with that and then start in May. Uh library is the priority number three. City hall would probably be priority number three, but we really need to get rid of the library to deal with city hall. Uh but uh library that's one that uh we're going to be starting shortly sort of the sort of the public process of of doing that. And uh um we've already sort of started the process of talking with the county about um you know we have to build it but they have to operate it. And so

I was just going to say people might fight you on the uh library being number four priority. There are a lot of people in this community that felt like that should be number one. Yeah. No, that's fair. But it it is ranked appropriately in there, I think. So, it's fair. The uh but this is one that uh um I actually I actually think this is going to be the toughest one to implement. Um because it's not just us, it's the county too that we have to to work with uh on that. Otherwise, they get no say. What's that? Then they should have to pay. Otherwise, they get no say. Yeah. It's you have that conversation. Let me know how it goes. That it's uh um

Lisa Anderson and I are going out next week. So, we'll have that conversation.

There we go. So, um you know, so that uh that will be priority number three. We will start in 2026 a public process for that. So, uh more to come on that. And then city hall, obviously that's more of an internal uh type of thing. Uh but and we're not the great thing I think about the city hall space is the way we've sort of staged this and set this up. We will not have to add on to this building. We can we can renovate this building. Uh you know, put back in conference room spaces and things that we're just missing. Now, we use card tables out here all the time for meetings. And so, you know, having actual meeting room space will be uh be nice, but uh that that'll be the the priority number four. And then the next slide just sort of goes through and sort of talks about the dates. Uh so you can see the last project city all remodeling we would anticipate 2030 is when we'd actually start uh that project and then we talked about everything in between. So this is the total uh cost of the uh building improvement program. So almost $120 million. And you can see the uh contributions uh the tax levy is a majority of the contribution going into that. But the utility funds also contribute uh primarily because the utility funds like with the municipal service building. That's a good portion of that. Well, it's three quarters of that building is is utilities. Uh but we also have things like utility billing here. uh that is part of utilities and so contributing that to make sure that each fund is contributing the the fair share. And then uh the next slide I I feel good about this this slide because I think it sort of shows where we started and where we ended. Um you know now we know you now we know exactly

where we're going to end. And you know, we anticipated on the left that when we ended this program, we'd be at uh $34 per month as a total impact uh to uh a resident for this program. Uh and we see that where we actually ended up was at $30.50 per month. Uh so, you know, a lot of that came through growth uh that happened during that time period. Uh but uh you know we we definitely were able to perform better than what we had anticipated uh when we started this uh program. Just a couple other uh uh notable items here. Uh the public safety funds. Uh we've talked about this before. We received in late 2023 um the we received about $1.2 2 million. And um I still have this in here because we still haven't spent all those dollars and uh we're finishing up all the FFN uh for the public safety building with these dollars. Uh so that it ca it couldn't have come at a better time uh for us to be able to really contribute and make sure that we were able to get the things that we really wanted to be able to get in the the public safety building. But the one down below is one that continues. Uh so uh the legislature in 2023 uh did a metrowide sales tax of 1%. Uh25% of that goes towards creating affordable housing and that's given directly to communities. Uh we received uh $339,000 this year. We'll receive about $345,000 next year. And then we can expect uh that that we'll be getting that every year. Um and what what we've been doing so far has been have been using these dollars to contribute to towards

community land trust projects uh where we can create permanent affordability uh with homes. And it's sort of interesting. I I was reading in the Star Tribune yesterday, I think it was, uh they had an article on land trusts and how they felt that they were the only real tool out there that was able to uh create and maintain affordability in housing. uh which is interesting because I've never seen an article done on that before, you know, talking about that. But that's how we've been utilizing those dollars um is is putting it in, you know, working with the CDA who runs the the land trust program and then helping provide those dollars and then they provide dollars too and and then, you know, slowly but surely we create more permanent affordable houses around the community. Um, this one we already talked about. Um, we did obviously set up the franchise fee uh with this last year. So, we'll see that impacted in the budget this year as far as new revenue uh coming in from Excel and from Minnesota Valley. Um, one of the things that that we're working on right now is actually taking over Excel's uh territory. So, uh, you know, if we take it over, then we're getting, um, if we take that over, then obviously we're the ones providing the electricity, and so, you know, then we deal with it like we do the rest of the community. We continue to have discussions with Minnesota Valley. Um, 2040 is the agreement we have with them when we can take uh over the territory that's uh out basically where the Big Woods Industrial Park will be. Um, that's going to be important for us, I think, to have in the in the future, uh, to serve. We'd love to be able to find a way to purchase it sooner, uh, than 2040. Um, I'm not sure that they're going to agree

to that, but that's going to be something we continue to to work on. So, as far as the actual budget additions uh, for this year, uh, ask a question on that. Minnesota Valley and maybe I missed it a couple weeks ago, but how do they actually have CHA? Was that one time that not Chaza? So through annexation or so we annexed that area. It used to be Chaza Township. Okay. So we had everything that was within Chaza. Okay. Um but we didn't have everything that was in the townships outside that was going to become Chaza. Okay.

So they they had that territory years and years ago. But that particular land was actually a swap that was done back in the I don't know late 80s um where they had if you know where uh Michael's Foods and the there's a data center where Integress used to be that all used to be in Minnesota Valley's territory and so there was a swap that was done with the territories to pick up that and then and then they kept that till 2040. Okay. Because it seems like the industrial going in there. That would be a big electric. Oh, for sure. Which would make a lot of money, but Yeah. Yeah. Makes sense. For sure.

Uh so, as far as the new bud budget additions uh that we fit in based on our our policy here and and on growth, uh first of all, we in communications, we have $74,000 to produce and mail six additions to CHASA today. Uh, so we've already sent out two uh so far and we've gotten really good re uh reviews from that so far. Uh, and then we have $10,000 in there for we need to move to a new website provider. So, we'll be doing that work next year. Uh, in administration and human resources, we're currently in the process of completing a compensation study. We put $385,000 into the budget to be able to implement any recommendations that come out of that. We don't know that we'll use that. Um, you know, if you know, if everybody came in on market, then, you know, we wouldn't have to use any of that, but we anticipate that there's going to be some positions there outside of market. Uh, so it's it's put in there to be able to have some resources to be able to uh to be able to draw in for that. And then there's uh um you know, a couple sort of uh smaller items. Uh we have we're trying to move to uh all electronic uh type of uh uh systems instead of instead of all manual

instead of me running down the city hall.

Say you're running down the city hall. U trying to be a little bit more uh up to date on that. Uh and then we uh we have additional required safety training now that's required from OSHA and so uh we have to up our contract with safe assure to be able to provide that training and then uh we have a management analyst uh position that's built in that would start on July 1st and this would be a position that would be more professional support services to engineering uh community development and administration. Um we have a lot of uh things that are just bogging down uh the work especially in the engineering department uh you know development agreements uh that um they they take a long time to to develop and uh or uh you know processing these all sound like stupid things but processing payments like with MDOT when we're getting reimbursed for highway 41 project these are all super time consuming type of things. We need to have somebody that has prof professional level experience to be able to to do it. Uh doesn't need to have a lot of experience uh coming in. Uh but uh um I fear that if we don't add something like that uh that we are going to burn some people

get buried. Yes.

Yep. uh police uh we have uh our officer number 32 uh which would uh start on July 1st. We have the co-responders worker that would start on July 1st. Uh and then we have just some smaller things. We have to uh uh making sure that we go through wellness screenings for our officers on a regular basis. um we want to uh bring on two more people to train or onboard into our SWAT operations. So our SWAT we actually are in a consortium with multiple cities and so we don't have to provide the uh equipment, we provide the people uh that are trained uh if there's incidents that pop up and then uh uh some operational costs with our new detention center. Um to me the most significant thing uh that we're adding and this is coming with our public safety building o uh opening is in fire adding an overnight duty crew for 247 coverage

going be huge though I it's so nice I mean the amount of fires in the last month three three I mean yeah and you know and five minutes is like uh is a real uh critical time, isn't it? Fire doubles every minute. Well, and quite frankly, more often that heart issues or strokes or things like that, you know, when they're having to respond to the station and then go out to a call,

you know, now they're going to be responding directly from the station 247. It's going to I think it's going to significantly impact our positive outcomes that come. I also think it's a good recruitment tool. You know, fire departments are all struggling. Yeah. You know, and having this be something that is a scheduled, you know, you don't you don't have to, you know, plan your life around it, you know, like, you know, the paid on call model, you know, it's just a different world now. So, and that living whatever you call it or dorm thing that's in the public safety is beautiful. Like that's a draw.

Yeah. And it's a place I mean all these people have other jobs and so it gives it gives them the ability you know to sign up for a shift go in you know if they're there they can work on work uh you know they they can do what they need to do for the rest of their life but still be there to to take care of services. So I is there no way when medical calls come in like that just to route them to ambulance or EMTs the So one of the challenges with with EMTs is that they're not always within our community. Um they flow. Sure.

They flow called system status management. You need to move your trucks to wherever depending on how many trucks you have available at that certain time is where your coverage is. And there might not be a truck in Chaza all the time. Okay. The calls do get routed to Ridge View's medical dispatchers and then the closest ambulance does get sent, but it may still come from another community. It might come from another service.

We've done mutual aid for Rich View before with Henipin County because we come in from Eden Prairie and Glen Lake sometimes in Minnetonka. Um and they'll vice versa. They'll do mutual aid for us and come into Eden Prairie, Minnetonka, Shore View. Um you know, those those areas. Um, but yeah, it's you're you're never guaranteed to have an ambulance five minutes away. I mean, that's why a duty crew who is five minutes away could start the processes of helping someone, I guess. And this is probably very naive. I always thought an ambulance was always up at either the 212 medical center or the fire station.

No, they're they very rarely are at those places. the uh you know typically what we saw in the past you know especially when people had to go to the station is the first people there were the police

and you know and then it was fire and then it was ambulance. Now we're sort of seeing police and fire come at about the same time and then if the ambulance is close then they'll come at the same time. If they're out of ser you know out of you know coming from a different area then they might come last. But the key is starting the processes. Uh and then once those processes are started, then the EMTs can take over. Uh paramedics can take over when uh when they actually show up on scene. I'd like to point out too that this is a very cost effective transition in the sense, you know, if you were going to go full-time, I mean, there is that is a huge cost to that and and that that's all dependent on, you know, there are communities that have to do that because of their size and and scope and layout. But you know these this issue this single issue over emergency services. This is an issue that is talked about I think I mean within the four mayors and our you know within our school district the three of us or the four of us talk about this constantly but other just mayors across the the state or metro area. I mean this is the number one thing that you know people are talking about

when like when I go to ICMA conference every year this is an issue nationwide and it's issue worldwide I mean it this is an issue everywhere and it's only going to get worse because uh population aging population and self-driving cars and well and people and people live a different type of lifestyle than in the past I mean in the past I mean you think about these people who were on the fire department for years that responded whenever the bell rang. Um it's harder to to recruit people for that now. Yes. And it's not honestly I don't think it's fair to ask them to do that either. Yeah. You give up your life when you

when there's a different model that we can provide that's cost effective. Yes. This is a bridge to to get that and to be able to have that. So that's I just wanted to point that out.

That's that's very good. Um with uh we do have a addition of administrative assistant for uh July 1st and one of the reasons we put this just July 1st is we sort of want to see how traffic works in the building before we actually make any moves. Um maybe we don't need it. Um you know it's we we you know that's sort of the way Steven's approaching this is say I think we're going to need it and let's budget it for July 1st but let's see how things work. Let's see how how the building functions and and how people utilize it. Would this person float between both both? Oh, no. Just on the fire.

Yeah. No, we we definitely would have to have somebody on the police side for sure. That for answer my own question. Yeah, the police side for sure. We need somebody there. Fire side we think we do, but he's just going to sort of sort of see how it works.

Yep. Um, we have some additional supplies uh for gear. Uh, and actually this is this is for new firefighters we have coming on, but it's actually because the gear has actually increased in cost so much uh that uh um that we had to increase that. And then uh really sort of implementing a more robust wellness uh program for our firefighters. And then building inspections. Uh we do have a building uh tech permit tech position. Uh really uh we could use a full-time now. Uh but uh they were hired on as part-time, but they're retiring this year. And so this is a good time for us to transition to a full-time.

And then uh we we budget for an intern in the uh parks department in the summer. And really that ends up being the person who gets to run most of the programs for uh for the summer, you know, when they're on, you know, nights and weekends and, you know, that's that's a good job for an intern. So, yeah.

All right. And then I I won't go through all these, but this this shows all the different uh vehicles. We have a schedule for our vehicles. And so like plows are 20 years and trucks are 10 years and and so we have a schedule uh that we have in place for for when things get get replaced. And we like to try to make sure that we replace them on time uh because they can start to cost more to maintain uh than to get a new one if you keep them past that time period. Uh so you can show there's a couple slides here that um how are you getting in unmarked car for 35,000 that's so cheap.

Uh so we get them through a state contract. Uh so uh we can get them directly through there without having to go out for bids. So we know exactly what we pay for them. Really? Yeah. Also costs a lot less to have an unmarked car than it is to Yeah. put everything on a marked vehicle. Yeah. There's there's a lot of equipment that goes into the squads, but even like a basic Ford Explorer, which are what a lot of squad cars are, are 60, 70, 80 if you go buy them for yourself. The satellite radio. Yeah, true. Yeah. They don't they don't have a lot of the bells and whistles. Um, speaking of marked, again, the plan of the re the wrap Yep.

is as they were replaced. As they're replaced. So, as they're replaced, uh, we're going to that white stripe around. And I I don't know if you remember when Ryan came in and talked about this, but the reason for that is, uh, so often we'd have people say, "We never see police officers in our neighborhood." And we'll say, "Well, we did go through your neighborhood." Because the cars before when they're just black, they're sort of like any other car. Like any other car. Yeah. There's a lot of studies that show visible policing as a benefit to communities. Yes. And so, you know, you know, Ryan said, I want I want people to know this is a police car going through their neighborhood so that they know that we're making those

the sheriff is a white county sheriffs are white. Yep.

All right. So, this one gets to the actual impact. So again, the 2026 general and EDA levy would be $23,995,562. Uh so that's the levy itself is an increase of 14.06% but because of growth uh that's not the actual impact uh to homes. So the median value home in 2024 was $390,000. So that meant in 2025 that house would have paid $1,533 in uh taxes for the year. The median value in 2025 is $410,400. So that means that city taxes payable in 2026 would be $1,75. So that's an increase of $172 per year or 1433 per month or that's an 11.22% increase. So you can see the difference between what our levy increase and what the impact is is really based on that new growth. And then I also broke it down too to show you just what goes to the building program and what goes to the baseline. So the baseline represents $85 of that cost and the building pro building program represents $87 uh of that cost. And just to give you a sense, um I mean I've been sort of asking people around sort of what where are they at? I was at 4.5% increase. Um I generally were seeing people anywhere between 4 and a half to say 6 and a half% as being sort of the general increases. I'm looking at one right here for n3% uh increase. I won't say who it is, but uh um but it's I'd say generally um people have been in sort of that 4 and a half to 6 and a half% increase for their taxes. Anybody who's been above that,

what I've noticed is that their valuation, their house increased more. That's what I saw when I took out when I considered the valuation of my home went up. Um, I think my home value went up like 9%, my taxes went up 10 point something percent. So, all things considered, the impact had my home value not changed would have been something like 1 point whatever.

Um, but because my home value went up that almost 10%, there was more of impact. And that's kind of what I'd seen and heard when talking to others too is their home value went up. But I think that is kind of a testament too to like capturing growth in a community and how important timing of these are because that's been my takeaway of sitting through this presentation now for seven years and really like looking at these numbers and how it impacts people and it's you know a lot of people have said wait with the building program and I kind of shudder to think of what that would actually cost not just in inflation but in not being able to capture this growth and we would all be seeing definite double digits on our tax statements if we continue to push this off. So I the being able to capture the growth we're seeing right now is so huge and I see that on my proposed tax statement when I get it and even the you know capturing the value of my home's increase in it. So

and I think a couple years ago we had really high it might have even been last year because I came in and told Marwin Shittle that I thought my taxes went up too much. So, I do think like depending on the value of your home or where your home was located or whatever, it may have hit different years. But also what he told me last year and you know it really was true is that for so many years your taxes didn't go up in the city because we tried everything not to that we're kind of playing catch-up and that really made a lot of sense because 10 years ago we barely saw them go up. So, well, we went through a time period for 2009, 10, 11, and 12 where we didn't increase the tax levy at all. Yeah. And that's what he was telling me last when I came to this exact meeting to complain was that

but that was it was mainly that was mainly due just to recognize that there was a recession going on um and not increase it. But yeah, no I that's generally what I've sort of seen across the board. I know I talked to Nola, you were about the same um in yours and um just been asking friends and um I think that's generally about what what people are seeing. Um, next slide just again sort of breaks down sort of where your your tax dollar is going. It's it's relatively an even split uh between there's a little bit more that goes to schools. Uh but generally

that's the increase that's not on your proposed tax statement is that levy got passed.

Yes. The one thing that's not on there is the referendum is not on the tax statement. Yep. And then um the next slide shows the uh this shows how we've sort of built up our building program. So the the orange represents our baseline services and the uh the red represents the increases that we've seen with the uh building program uh that gone on. And then next slide shows where we show up uh for tax levy per capita. Uh so we are 53 out of 84 cities. So that's at uh 60 that puts 63% of the cities lower than than higher than us. Um, we actually had an opportunity at Elise found this last week and we've never got this before, but the state actually sent out everybody's proposed levies for 26 so that we could do sort of a comparison. And if you remember when we started this whole program, I had sort of thought that we' we'd end up at about 44. Yeah, I said I thought we'd end up at 44 lows. We're going to be at about 50 or 51. Uh so um which means that we're going to be better than median.

On the back of that statement, there's one that shows the current cities around Yep. all the cities and townships. Yep.

But we we should end up at about 50 or 51 uh on the the list. Uh so better than median and and again which makes sense because it we performed better than we thought we would have with the uh with the building program too. And then this shows uh basically just sort of a breakdown of the major uh revenues uh that go into each fund. So uh property taxes make up uh 17% um or I'm sorry 17 uh% increase. Now 17% increase is 17% increase into the uh general fund. We also use the tax levy in our equipment acquisition fund too. So, uh, that doesn't mean that their tax levy went up 17%. It just means that's how the percent increase that went into our general fund. So, less is going into our equipment acquisition. Uh, we see the increase uh, electric uh, and gas franchise fees have gone up by 13% and that's based just on growth. Um, licenses and permits. Um, you know, we've seen obviously seen an increase in there. Um we have admin charges to the funds. So each one of our funds so instead of like if you go over to Shakipi public utilities they have their own payroll person their own finance person that um you know and a lot of utilities will have or a lot of different funds will have their own sort of administrative structure that goes with. So for us uh what we do instead of having that is we have the uh funds pay the general fund uh to pay for my services pay for null's services pay for Lisa's services because we provide payroll payroll pay provides it to

everybody so we basically charge a fee to our funds to be able to uh support the services because we put all of our administrative uh service functions within the general fund. Makes sense. And then the next slide's going to be way too hard to see. I can barely even see. Everyone has to see if they can list off what snow removal costs. Yeah. I mean, this this breaks This is actually if you look in your uh packet that I gave you, it's in here.

That chart is a lot easier to read on that. Uh but uh basically just some of the things that uh you know I put in here um that I haven't talked about. Um one is in community development. We did uh put in some dollars for uh updating the downtown master plan. Uh so that's in there. Uh we put in uh dollars obviously we've talked about building up the fund balance. So putting in unallocated dollars. Um I did have a question. Why are we doing the school district's maintenance if they're their own if they're already getting taxed off?

So they pay us for it. Uh so Yep. So they contract us to do it and and honestly I wish that they would contract us to do all of it because you know we always sort of, you know, talk about it. You know, they're really good at educating kids. We're really good at growing grass. And so so it's everybody has their strengths.

Everybody has their strengths. And I honestly think that it would be, and I've talked with other administrators about this, too. I honestly think it would be better if cities actually did the maintenance for the uh school district grounds and fields and things like that. Um, we definitely uh we don't do everything. We do sort of the big things for them. They do all the mowing uh still, but uh we do uh all the you know, fertilizing, irration, uh those types of things. But uh but we we actually get compensated for that. Okay. Y I was just always wondering then.

Um and then maybe just one other thing. Um so we continue to shift some of those uh park and wreck true park and wreck costs out of the community center fund and into uh the general fund where you typically see them. So, we haven't done it all at once because we can't afford to do it all at once. But, we've tried to as we can continue to try to move more of those true park and wreck services out so that the community center can truly start to take care of itself and not park and wreck too. Um, then the next slide. Um, so you've completed three of these boxes and we only have one more box to complete. Uh so obviously we've we've done everything had the truth taxation hearing uh and then December 15th is when we would establish uh the budgets for uh for everything as long as well as the levies. So that's it.

All right. Um thank you. And we do have to have a public hearing public hearing, right? Yes. All right. So, officer whatever you have a lot to say about that.

Yeah. So, uh thank you Matt for the presentation. I know for like you had mentioned this is not our first time seeing this. Um but this tonight I feel like we we should each take a moment to kind of talk about our thoughts and feelings as far as the the upcoming budget as council members just because it's part of the reason why we sit up here and make these decisions, right? Um and then also um have the public hearing as well. So should I should I This is my first I do the public hearing first.

Okay. Let's let's open the public hearing. Um uh at 8:14. Does anybody from the public wish to to engage? We have a community member from Chanhassen here, so he's probably not going to engage too hard on us, right? Um, but uh, yeah, I don't see. Make sure there's nobody on. Oh, is Okay. Um, Christa, is there anybody on Zoom? I didn't know.

Okay. I was like, I didn't know we were All right, that's good to know. Um, all right. So, I'm going to close the public hearing at E15 just because there is nobody in the audience that is here to wish to it to speak to it. Um, which I think kind of lends to Matt your point of like looking at the truth and or looking at the tax statements knowing that kind of where they range and fall and then this is our fourth year of this building program. So, uh, does anybody want to kick off our thoughts and feelings part of this uh, reflection of our 2026 budget? I can start, mayor. Sure.

All right. Um, you know, I think the the piece that I will speak to is the building piece. That is the obviously the bigger piece of it. Um, almost, but that is kind of the above and beyond piece that we've taken on. And I will say that, you know, someday I will not be sitting up here. That is a true statement. But there will be something I am proud of and is really supporting that program from its inception. Um, you know, I I do really think I was talking to someone the other day. It's like, you know, if anyone really questioned, actually was it was an officer actually. I was just like, you know, it's funny because it's like if anyone ever really, you know, early on question that the best tool was like just go tour the police and you tell me that we don't need to do this, right? Like that to me still was the most obvious thing ever. There's lots of other good stat stuff happening which we needed to do, but that to me like that moment when we toured that space because I was naive, right? come this building and space is down there right um you know so I appreciate that uh and so I'm proud of that I've also taken the approach that I will never minimize what that percent number means to person because it means different for everyone right um for some that's like yep okay great others that's on fixed incomes that's that's money that they weren't planning on having to spend um so I understand that and I appreciate that uh and I you know we never take that decision lightly. In next meeting we're going to vote on this. I will I I will never take that decision lightly as well knowing that I um you know voting to add a cost to everyone right uh to be to be frank. Um but it's I do look and say you know when people choose to live in communities uh they do look at tax rate won't underestimate that but they also will look at services right people want to know that we take care of the most important people in our in our in our

city police and fire right I think they rank up there as some of the most important people in a community because when that you need them they're there for you right and that is important

um you think of protecting assets uh you know we need to have snow plows, we need to have trucks and does it make a lot of sense to have those sit outside and then they depreciate faster and taking good stewards of money? No, the answer is no. Right? So you look at the the the public the you know MSB building. Um city hall speaks for itself, right? We've talked about the space and everything like that. Um you know and then the library, right? I I always talk about the library because I may have been early in my life here in naive of understanding what the importance of libraries were because like I more than just books

it is 100% right and I've learned that and I look back foolishly on when I maybe thought differently about that but it is it is more about books it's gathering spaces it's meeting spaces it's organizations using it for a space to to get together because they've outgrown and they're growing and they need that space and that opportunity um you know so again I think uh people busy lives. I 100% get that. Uh I will say that since that four-year journey, the people in the crowd have gotten less. Uh doesn't mean there aren't people that care. I certainly know that. But I I also think they they see they're seeing a vision of what it looked like. They're seeing the support. Um and again, so I'm I'm super excited about the direction fully. I will not take lightly in two weeks to to say that, you know, I'm voting to to to raise uh a levy on someone and it's a cost that someone may or may not be able to afford and I understand that and that's I'll never take that for granted. Um but I also am very proud of the services and the the buildings that we're going to provide for all members of this community.

Well said. Anybody else? I will say because unfortunately I will not be present in two weeks for this but to make my thoughts known um I think it's fair I think it's equitable I do echo a lot of the comments that council member Gro has stated everybody has stated up here um that this is a decision that we don't take lightly and we do understand that there are people who live on a fixed income or paycheck to paycheck and this could be a hard pill to swallow for some people. Um, but I do think for the services they're getting, it's more than fair. Um, and in fact, it makes it a better makes Chaza one of the better best places to live in the state of Minnesota, I think. Um, and we are having to pay play catch-up in a way, but I'm glad we're doing it now and not five years from now when it would cost possibly twice as much. Um, and while we have this new growth from the commercial to industrial, I think that's a great way to capitalize on on that. Then, um, really just make Chaza the best small town in Minnesota. So, um, I would I would be voting for it as well. Um, and again, I don't take that lightly either. Um, but these are things that we need to have in order to maintain the level of service we've promised to our residents and also to stay on the cutting edge as well. I think we're we're heading in a lot of the right directions with what we're doing. So, that's all I've got.

Awesome. I would echo what uh both of my fellow council members said. Um it isn't a decision that we take lightly whenever we're talking about income and what people are going to pay. But I think much like we talked about with the school board uh you know maybe a month ago now good schools are a reflection of a good community and so are good communities a reflection of the services they have. So you know we have to pay for those services. We have to keep those buildings up. Um, we have so many great trails and parks in this fairly small city. If you think about square footage, we're not a big city, but you see people congregating all the time in our parks. You know, there's this new park coming that's going to be amazing. Um, new all new facilities. It's just setting Chesca up to continue to thrive. And I think it's a sign when people are moving here so quickly and building permits are on the rise that people are seeing that. So, um, just like we encourage people to vote yes for schools and to keep our schools strong, while it may not be the most advertising thing to see your taxes go up and, um, you know, I I 100% agree with it, it's definitely something we need to do to keep our city thriving and beautiful. So,

wonderful.

Yeah, this is always like this meeting. I don't take the fact that there's no one sitting here as a sign that everyone's happy about it. So, I don't think that's true. We're not silly. But, um, you know, I do think that there's been a lot of effort put into kind of establishing the the why behind the building program and and the services we provide. And and to me, I don't see some people look at the public works building, for instance, say, "Oh, that's a nice new shiny building." And and I look at that building and I say, "Okay, we can finally really do right by our firefighters and do right by our police officers, those people that run into emergencies first and that we take such great pride in. And then the same with the municipal services building, those plow drivers that get up at 2 a.m. and plow all that snow and and making sure they, you know, can get into equipment and in a building that makes sense." and and that that's what I see is being able to provide those services that are so important in our community that people rave about on Facebook and social media and to their friends and to their, you know, real estate people that make people want to come live in this community. And so, you know, I I don't think see them as new shiny things. I see them as necessary things um to make sure that people continue to love living here. So, I think that's really important, but I also think um I'm grateful that these decisions are made by your neighbors. We all live here and we all come from different backgrounds. And I say this every year, I think having representation that reflects our community is important. So for me being a single income in I live in a small house downtown Chaza like obviously Chaza downtown um and to know that I'm

looking at my neighbors and saying you know there's the single mom two doors down or there's the senior on a fixed income down the block and and those are the taxes that are going up. and to keep that into perspective even doing this for seven years and and going through the building program for this many years. Um to keep that perspective of looking down the street and who you're impacting and is it smart? Does it make sense? Are we doing it for the better? And so that's really what drives this for me. So I'm sure we'll say more next week when we vote on it, but I think that that perspective is important of were your neighbors doing this? We all have day jobs. We all come from different backgrounds. We come sit here and help make the hard decisions with that vision for the community. Looking around corners saying, "Where do we want to be five years from now? Are we still going to be a community people want to live in? How are we going to get there?" And making the hard decisions that people ultimately are going to be really mean about on Facebook, but it's worth it at the end of the day because we know we're doing better for the community and we're doing the smart thing for the community. So, I think that's all my thoughts on it. I probably could keep going for two hours, but none of us need to sit here that long.

I No, I mean, um, you know, sitting in this chair in this different role, it's kind of it's been listening to each one of your perspective as a fellow council is really rewarding. Um because I feel like even though we like you said do come from different backgrounds, we have, you know, different lives, um we collectively see a vision here and see the purpose and and end goal of that vision. And I think that that really hits home to our desire to have a community that is for everyone and that is um maintaining high quality services. You know, oftentimes in my role, people say, you know, what is one thing that, you know, keeps you up at night or, you know, makes you stressed out or whatever. And I would say, you know, these decisions are the hardest decisions. I always want to ensure that Chaza stays both an affordable place to live and a community capable of delivering those highquality services that people deserve. And when I think about um those services, like all of our council members have touched on, those are services that we don't think about every single day. You know, when you turn on the light switch, when you flush your toilet, when you run your tap water to fill a glass of water for your child or yourself, um when you call 911, uh you want that person to be down there quickly. And even like this weekend having that fire, knowing that we have a Saturday duty crew during that time, that those are minutes saved. While that um garage structure was probably a loss, they also rescued some animals out of that and that's very meaningful to those homeowners. Um and if there were, you know, souls in there, they would be rescuing those souls and that those minutes matter. And that also containment of of that fire matters. And that's one of the worst things that

someone could ever experience in their whole entire life. We want those services to be there for those people and we want the dependability of all of those services so that you don't have to think about that and that shouldn't be things that we have to think about. And so we're tasked with making sure that we carry those services forward and that they're the best that they can be. I'm excited that we are entering our fourth year of this building program. It has been a journey. It's been something though that as we sat together as a diff slightly different council many years ago, we knew that this was going to be a difficult task, but it was a necessary task and it wasn't going to get any easier if we stretched it out over a larger number of years, you know, as far as the cost of construction and inflation. Um, and we knew that we needed to have these buildings be in the best that they can be to provide those services for our community. and we needed to do it now. We're still in a state of growth. Um, at the beginning of the year, I got I had a community member reach out to me and I have community members reach out time to time just sharing their thoughts and feelings over, you know, worry over the worry over taxes. You know, if you lived in this community for longer than 10 years, like, yeah, you've definitely seen a reflection of tax growth and and that is totally understandable. And so when people get worried like that, I appreciate that they reach out to me and that we are able to have that conversation. And that conversation stemmed um a lot of that discussion that we all have had about the why um with everything, but it also stemmed with, you know, he had kind of said, well, what are some of the if you know, what are some of our efficiencies? Like how are you guys as a city being more efficient? And so, you know, some of the things that I think, you know, are always worth mentioning is that, you know, by having those electric utility being involved that helps contribute dollars back in and it helps offset the costs. You know, that our municipal

service uh that our public works that they do the mill and overlay on our trails and do the playground equipment that helps save costs. You know, these are like little things that add up to big dollars over the stretch of our whole entire budget. Um, and that those things are important uh to see as cost containment. You know, that we're not just spending dollars here and there willy-nilly. Um, we're putting dedicated amounts of money into things that we know are going to make an impact and making sure that we're saving money when it's necessary. Uh, so those are kind of the main points that outside of kind of what was already said that I really wanted to make sure got said. But I also like to reiterate as well that when we talk about this, I understand that we're asking people to pay more and that when we're asking people to pay more, that's taking away from other areas of their household budget or that might be impacting them in a in a negative facet financially. And that is one of the hardest decisions that I have to, you know, take on in this role. Um but that but when we look at things and we look at the community as a whole and the intended purpose of the services and what they provide and the buildings and what they provide these are important things that they and they need to move forward. So okay um do we have to do anything else with this?

No that's it. Like I said, no decisions tonight, decisions on the 15th and it'll be decisions for everything, not just the general fund.

Okay. And you know, to round off this conversation, I realized that this was the opportunity for a public hearing. I realized that yeah, we didn't have anybody in the crowd and that hasn't always been the case. And whether people are sitting here and they're coming up here and asking their questions, those are always really meaningful conversations. And I know it can be a very intimidating space to come here and stand before and be kind of on camera and on YouTube and all that sort of stuff. Um, but if anybody ever has any questions while there while this was the PE public dedicated hearing towards this, that doesn't mean that you can't reach out to any one of us and have those conversations. I would rather you have those conversations with one of us or with city staff or myself than, you know, maybe asking people on social media. I would just let's have a conversation. So, all right. All right. With that being said, in my computer I have to dial back into it again. I'm going to go off the paper agenda. That moves us along to bills.

Yeah. Oh, there should be. Oh, yeah. Okay. All right. Oh, I thought I closed it. We closed it at 850. Close the public hearing. The motion is written there's an option to continue.

Okay. All right. Um, so we are closing the public hearing. I can't get back into my computer. Let me Thank you. Oh, now I can't find it. Um, I'll make a motion to close the truth and taxation public hearing and establish December 15th, 2025 as the date to consider the adoption of the 2026 budget and final tax levy. All right. So, we have a motion from Council Member Hatfield. Second. We have a second from Council Member Chevlin. All right. Um, any other discussion? All those in favor say I. I. I. Opposed.

All right. Motion carries. All right. Thank you, Null, for for addressing that and the And I don't if I didn't say it before then the the public hearing closes at 8:33. I thought I said it but maybe I didn't. You you did but I get what what Yeah. You have to kind of put a motion forward to like really Okay. All right. All right. Um Okay. Now that moves us down to bills. Does anybody have a question on a bill? I have one question. Okay. It's on um page two or page one of the report. I guess it would technically be for Ancom communications. I think I've seen this before, but I can't remember what it's for. Cellular system public. Is that what does that mean?

Uh, council member Hefield, that is for the new public safety facility. And that is some of the equipment that they are buying for um to put in their radios and and other things that they need for that um uh facility be fully operational. Got it. That makes sense. The next line does for the radio system does say public safe, which makes more sense than Okay, great. Um, that was my only question. All right. Anybody else have any questions on a on a bill? Otherwise, entertain a motion to approve the bills. Motion.

Okay. Let's do motion from council member GR with a second from council member Sheplin. All right. Uh, roll call, please. Council member Hfield. Yes. Council Vanishes. Yes. Council member Chevlin. Yes. Council McGrath. Hi. Mayor Huard. Yes. All right. So, that moves us along to other business. Um, Council Member Hatfield, kick it off.

All right. Where do I start? Um, went to the tree lighting. Um, that's always fantastic. Um, I don't know if we want to consider this. anybody's ever said it, but I know we say it starts at 6, so it makes sense that the tree gets lit at 6, but I heard people like running through the lobby of the um curling center being like, "Oh, they already turned it on." And I think just from an event standpoint, I don't know if we ever want to like consider doing it like 6:05 or 6:10, the actual lighting, because you say the event starts at 6:00, people get to their car there at 6 and don't get to the

tree lighting. It's kind of like why I send people It's why I send people down as a wedding planner. I send people down the aisle at, you know, if their ceremonies at 4, I send them down the aisle at 4:05 because people don't get their butts and seats. It's just something to consider. I think as a very I did hear people like, "Oh, they already turned it on." So, well, I think with the other trees lit too, people probably get confused. You just make them all in the dark over there. That might be that might be tough. I don't know if I can figure out how to flip five switches. We're all standing there with just strategically like I was literally talking to Matt as he was like I can't talk. I got to plug this in daisy chain all the electric cords you know really.

He'd have a Clark Griswell fail. Yeah. I know a customer was asking me a question like no no no I I can't miss this. I can't miss it. I would have been like horrified. You would have been I would have been just marked from the background like no it's working for me. I I swear to God that is the most stressful event of the entire year is flipping that switch. I've never seen him like that. He was that stretched. That's funny. Um but yeah, it was a fantastic event. I really love Santa arriving at 41 and coming in. That line to get pictures with Santa was long the whole night. Oh yeah,

we had to like eventually leave it cuz um my niece had to get home and go to bed and so um it was just like a fantastic event. But it was fun to see the Grinch set the Santa line. The Grinch people were I didn't even know the Grinch was there. Totally miss over by the cricket pine.

I was in the Santa line. Yeah. Um so that was a great event. And then of course um uh small town or small town small business Saturday um happened. Uh, and so great to see people down in the businesses. I with the snowstorm, I think there were probably a little less people out. Um, but it was still great to see people in the businesses. I saw a statistic. Um, well, I guess let me back up. Um, I also just want to, you know, there was an announcement of a business in the community closing this weekend or I think it was this weekend and it really made me think like, you know, everyone there were lots of comments about like what the city could do and and of course we want to foster a good city or a good business um environment, but as a business owner myself, I know that businesses really they rely on you've got to it's on the business to be successful and you want to create a good environment. We try and do that here. But also, it really made me think about as I was shopping at some of the shops, like if you want to see a business, stay in your community. Go to that business and give it your money. And I saw a statistic somewhere that was like if you spent $60 less on Amazon or Target or Costco or wherever and you put that money into a small business, that would be billions of dollars into our small businesses um this Christmas season. So, I want people just walk away with that thinking just in the spirit of Small Business Saturday of if you really like having a business in your community, you really like a certain restaurant or you really like a little a small shop or whatever it might be and you know the place you get your car detail, whatever small business it may be, you like having that in your community, go spend your dollars there and that's the best way to make sure a business stays in your community. So, um, it just made me think a lot about that as I was, um, downtown this weekend doing some shopping. Um, and we just are really lucky to have all the businesses in Chaska, both downtown and, um,

throughout the rest of the city as well. So, with Small Business Saturday, I just wanted to mention that. Um, and kind of along those lines, right now, downtown Chaza has their um, gifts with purchase at some of the shops, so I thought I'd bring them. A cute little ornament and a fun little magnet for your fridge or bag clip. Chip clip. Chip clip. Yeah. Yeah.

So, and it says historic downtown Chesca. And this one has a picture of the gazebo. So, here's my bag from Carver Junk and the cute little gifts. So, um if you want those, I personally really like uh getting the ornaments every year and it's kind of fun to collect them. I like that the downtown businesses do that. So, encourage everyone to get downtown and do that. And a great opportunity is this Saturday for Hometown Holiday. Um there'll be carriage rides led by the history tour history center there. The shops have specials. There are there's usually s'mores. Um all sorts of things. So definitely go downtown for hometown holiday. I've seen a lot of holiday markets on the 7th. So um lots of different businesses having those holiday markets this weekend. I think it's a big big big good weekend to go spend your dollars downtown or in any of the businesses. I shouldn't just say downtown, but the commons across the whole um city. So, that's that. Um Sip and Saturdays are still happening downtown. Um some other things coming up. Uh December 5th, this Santa's at the community center. They have a couple of sessions. I think those spots will probably fill up. So, um if you want some good affordable pictures of with Santa, those are good ones. Uh December 17th is the Santa Parade. So, uh, that's like literally one of my favorite days every year is the Santa parade, which sounds silly, but I'm a 5-year-old at heart, I think. And then some other things going on. Um, you know, our fire department grew their mustaches this November. And I really think everyone should take a minute to go vote by December 3rd at midnight.

Wait, I missed it. We vote. Yes. Go vote. I missed that. Go vote on whose mustache is best. Oh, okay. Um, and it's a lot of fun. I'm going to vote on Spark. I got this in a month. Congratulations. Way to go, Matt. Way to go. Another one.

So, I think that's fun. So, go support our fire department. Go vote on who did it best or just whoever you want to vote for. Um, and some other things. Commission applications are uh due by December 12th. So, if you would like to join any of our commissions or boards, um you can do those by the 12th. the human rights award nominate um you know people or um organizations for the human rights award by the 9th. So that's out there. Um and then of course that'll be awarded at the MLK breakfast which is January 19th which is insane to start talking about January of 2026 but it's coming up quickly. So and then the final thing I'll just ended because I just talked for a long time is thank you to our plow drivers. I was out and about on Saturday like I mentioned and I was like, "Yeah, the roads are fine to go to this other community a couple communities over and then I was quickly reminded that driving in Chesca during a snowstorm is much different than driving in other cities during a snowstorm because our plow drivers are the best and I will die on that hill every day of the week."

You know, I I want to add on to that. I was in Duth this weekend and I stayed in a place that was at the bottom of a hill and they were putting on Facebook that they were gonna have all their streets plowed by noon. Nope. And I it took me an hour to get my car up and out of there. I've never seen past 8 a.m. Don't they pay for their plowing through their sales tax? I have no they must not pay enough. That city with the hills is very hard to salt and I mean I would never want to live there or Seattle because of that slope. Yeah. Yeah. I just it made me appreciate waking up and

you know 7:30 8:00 in the morning the streets being cleared. I mean it I think that is one of the things we take for granted so much in this town. Yeah. Yep. 100%. Our Yeah. Our plow drivers are amazing. They had a fantastic video. Fall down. Can't trust everyone. Yeah, really crushing that uh social media game lately. So, props to that team. That was an eye-catching video. Yeah, that's all I had though. Wonderful report. Um, Council Member Bennish, take it away.

Yeah. I also just wanted to reiterate our my thanks for our city's plow drivers and everybody who works in public works and they do an amazing job and it don't take it for granted like I think a lot of people do because they drive to places where maybe by the time their day is done it looks the same, but it wouldn't look the same when you're leaving your house in the morning. So, And also uh about what council member Hatfield stated about small business Saturday and the announcement of a small business closing in Chaza. I totally agree. If if you want to keep these businesses around, you have to spend your money there. That's really all there is to it. I mean, I don't I I honest I saw the comments and I don't really think there's much the city could do, but the business itself and if you look at national trends and statewide trends, um it just they got, you know, between a rock and a hard place. But if you really want to contribute, you've got till the end of the month. They're I saw a post today that Trauma is um their merch is 50% off until it's gone. So through the end of the month if you want to contribute what you can to them to maybe go on to another venture. I know they've got the vineyard. Um but you know, you got to you got to spend your money if you want to keep businesses local. So that's all I've got.

Well said. Council member Chevlin. Um I wanted to call out public safety. On the night of the tree lighting, we were going home and there was a huge I don't know what happened, but huge accident on the 41212 bridge. One car was flipped over another car. Firefighters, paramedics, everybody was It was a horrible accident. So while everybody was celebrating, and I'm sure Santa got dropped off fairly quickly for that truck to get back up there, um it was really amazing to see city workers celebrating on one end and then doing what they are, you know, um, day job requires them on the other. So, just huge shout out to those guys who may have left festivities to go help out up there.

Um, and then otherwise, yeah, I think everything else I have has been said, so I can keep it short. Um, I got the comments about tree lane. It's a fun event. Um, I think moving it up is a good choice, right? I think year one it's kind of hard. That was fabulous. It was nice, right? It's kind of a balance of like I like a little I mean I there's some pictures that popped up in my feed of in front of the tree and you're in snow pants and hats and gloves and snow on the ground and I really like not having a jacket on, you know, but not

I was saying there's there's so I think it's it's certainly uh just fun. It's just fun to see people I thought the addition of the glow-in-the-dark cotton candy was cool or the flashing life cotton candy was kind of neat. Um, thankfully my kids steered away from that line. Don't eat enough sugar. But lots of kids did. Thank good job with those. Poor mini donut guy was a single guy. He was doing the donuts and the cash register. Like poor those donuts were really good. they were

there is uh mini donuts is the singular smell that miles away you can tell that that mini donuts are being made like right um and then uh just to touch on the commissioner uh applications you know I certainly think it's uh encourage people to apply and look it's a really good um you know first step in the government right I moved here 18 years ago uh was looking for opportunities to get to know Chaza uh had a background down through volunt or through summer recreation jobs. So working on community fields and summer wreck. So was on the park board for I forget actually. I think I turned out I believe I turned I think that's all true. Um but it really just got me the opportunity to just learn about the city to in a in a pretty low stressful like you you you that you think that maybe these are intimidating. Parkboard's certainly not. Planning commission a little bit more work. that's a little bit more intimidating, but like there's different levels of involvement and and so I just encourage people because I really I mean if you look a lot of us up here serve through that had experience. It's a good way and I I'll be flat out honest if I would have not have been on that park board I would not be sitting here today. I just wouldn't have had that interaction. I would have had that moment when to understand different things of the city. It just gave me a good opportunity and say like, "Hey, I kind of want to do that." And so, um, I hope like last year we had really good candidates and we had too many good candidates and we had to say no to them. I hope that's the problem we have again. Um, it's a good problem to have because it means people are engaged and want to be involved their community. Uh, and so just really just a shout out to if you for those who are thinking about it, do it. Um, it's pretty fun, low commitment generally speaking. Uh, And who knows that someday you might be sitting up here as a result of it. So just a good opportunity. Santa parade was touched on. Uh that will be a snowstorm. That's just the

fate of the world. Don't say that. Uh so there more fun. It doesn't real with them all. But it is a good and there too that that event I just you look back and it's it's one of those things where things that came out of COVID that were good, right? you know, you think about through that which is co and the word good don't go together at all. Uh but there are things that we adapted to and learned through and and kind of kept and the chass cares is a good example. The s is a good example. So just really positive things and so I really encourage uh use the tracker, find that on social media because it like it's it's a an event. It goes a long time 4:30 till what it say till 9. Is that what it said at the end?

It goes through every neighborhood, doesn't it? It attempts to attempts to, right? And so, uh, no one wants you to stand on the cold for two hours waiting for Santa to arrive, but you can time it right and know when they're coming in your neighborhood. And it's always never too late to get on the good list. Never too late. It is one of those like real life moments where you're like, "Santa like all of a sudden hear the siren." At least for me, I hear the sirens and I'm like, "Santa and you get to run outside." And again, 5-year-old at heart, but your kids, I'm sure, will enjoy that, too, of like There's two things that I'll give my kids right now is hearing Santa coming or the ice cream truck in my neighborhood. Those are literally the Oh, yeah. There's two of them. There's two of them. And they're in my neighborhood every Sunday.

Windows are open. They're out. Uh they don't even have money with them at the time. They usually can call to yell back, I need money. But um yes, never too late to get on the good list. So, uh that's what I have. Great report. Even are you a CHASA resident? No. Okay. Because we have youth positions at these commissions, but nonetheless, um, okay. Uh, Elise, nothing. Nothing. Ashley, Kristoff, nothing. Matt, nothing. Nothing.

Oh, okay. All right. Well, I'll round it out. Um, couple things. The Matts by Weekly mentions it. We were able to uh close on the Big Woods property for conservation. So, I was joking that I felt like Matt and I were buying a house together because we were signing like title paperwork, you know, those are like things that you just don't think of in this role and you're like, "Wow, this is kind of weird." But, um, but no, this is is amazing um to have those grant dollars. So really thank the staff for all of their hard work and um Ashley put in a ton of work.

Yeah, Ashley specifically making this happen. It's huge for our community. It's huge for the environment, huge for just the conservation of that amenity. So you know one thing maybe I will add something. Oh all right. So really

yes. So, um I found that particularly satisfying to purchase that property for the city to be able to preserve because I've uh you know, when I was a kid, I read all the Little House books. I've read biographies on the Engles family and and I felt like I've had this tie to the Big Woods like my entire life. And then to be able to go in and, you know, sign a document that's going to permanently preserve a part of our history in this state was really cool. Yes. I just I just thought it was really cool.

It it was it was it was fun and it was you knew it was creating a big impact for future generations. So, uh, uh, also in the bi-weekly, um, we have a new deputy police chief coming on. So, he'll be sworn in, I believe, on Friday. Yep. Friday at two. Mike Tanek, Tenk, Tenk, Tenk, Tanke, uh, will be joining us. Tenk said it. All right. Well, I look forward to meeting him. I have not met I have not met him yet. So, um, but yes, in the council chambers. So, if any other council member is coming or planning,

I'm thinking I'm gonna come. Just we'll just post it. Okay. Let's do it up. So, um, yeah. So, just wanted to call out and congratulate um congratulate him. Uh, look forward to meeting him and seeing uh him in the community. And then uh recap. Yeah, tree lighting was amazing. My son lived his dream being able to flip that switch and then kind of fun seeing him on WCCCO later on that night. So I didn't really go did not just a like little piece. They did a long piece on our whole treeing show because it's the coolest. Yeah. He was just like, "Oh, I'm going to be here. I'm going to do this." And I was kind of like, "Where's your camera like where?"

You know what? Come to think of it, I didn't know that was happening. And you did sound a little nervous. So that makes sense now. So you were on t live. You were not live but TV.

Yeah. He was like he was kind of stalking the stage and he approached and he was like we're going to do this. So it was really fun to see on TV. So uh I remember years ago when we went to one and he saw Mark's grandkids and he was like when do you when when do when do one of us get to do it? And I was like you got to be the mayor in order to do this. And he was like oh okay big goals here. Um so uh let's see. We Oh, one other thing that's in the bi-weekly, I know, but we were able to So, so city staff, myself, and then Commissioner Anderson, and then some of the county staff went around to five metro area libraries and kind of toured what the libraries looked at, some of the amenities that each library carried, and just their square footage, kind of looking at kind of the architectural elements and and kind of u how the layout is, you know what we liked, what we didn't like, just to kind of start the vision process. Obviously, there'll be more input with the community and also us. And then um but we kind of wanted to kind of get that process started. So,

did any of our librarians go with uh Jod did? Okay. So, she was there um and she obviously knows ours well she's the director now, but was

Yep. Yeah. Li Yep. Uh and so I think you know as we walk through this process this is good to start this now this is going to be kind of a nice long journey that we have and I think it's really good to be able to kind of see where things you know what we like what we don't like kind of kick it off um and also kind of you know work with the county as far as what you know what's going to function well um from the agreement that we have in in regards to the staffing and and materials and everything that that they propose or that they they provide. So, I just wanted to mention that one thing if I can mention, mayor. Yeah.

Too is I know that um some of us last year, the year before, I can't remember, sat down and um met with Kevin Spencer. Kevin Spencer. Yeah, that sounded wrong for a second. Yeah, he's our branch manager.

Our branch manager here at CHASCA to kind of like dream with him a little bit about what the library could look like. And so I'd encourage the new council members if you have a minute, reach out to Kevin. It was I think probably one of the best 45 minutes to an hour I spent in in that year because it just was good to hear I think it was last year about what the dreams what could be for our library right from someone that sits in our library every day. Um, and it was it was enlightening and it was fun and it but it was just really good too and um you know growing up in this library you think at least for me I grew up in this library so I knew a lot about I thought I knew a lot about it but getting to hear from Kevin um was really was really interesting and going into this process. So I just encourage you if you can reach out to Kevin I'm sure he'd be open to chatting with you.

Oh yeah he would be he would love that. So it's time really well spent especially going into this process. Yeah, he's he's got a really great vision. He um has kind of the points kind of articulated out of what he'd love to see. Um you know, but also just having a conversation for for ideas. So, you're right. Well, no, the other group is Friends of the Library. Judith, I forget Jacobs or whatever lives next door to me. I can't It's Conniey's Jacobs from Judith something. But anyway,

they're a very invested group. Yes, they are so invested and they are always telling me about things the library are doing and book sales they're having and don't you know collections they're doing and I never knew the library did that much. So finding people who are in the know about libraries and all the things they do other than books. I know I should, you know, Kevin does a really great job of putting together these little monthly newsletters and as a friend of the library, I get them, you know, we talk about all the programming and I should really just bring them here so that we can see because that that is a really big touch point because there is so much programming that happens at that library. So, and a lot of I mean we still have very little kids in our house and a lot of times my opairs will just take them to the library to play or to hear story time or and to hear all the things they do. It is quite amazing.

Yeah. Yeah. Yep. So, and then just lastly um next meeting uh is Monday, December December 15th. Um and you talked about hometown holidays, right? Yeah, I just shut it. Okay. I don't know if I said the time or anything. Well, I think the tree lighting is at 5 five o'clock. Oh, and there's a coloring contest. And I think that um

you can go on Facebook on the Downtown Chaza's Facebook page. They have the coloring pages there. You should get your kids to do it because they I think have had lower entries just because we don't have a paper. So, I'm, you know, spread the word. Um, who knows? Maybe all five of us color of age. I told them that they should have an adult. Um, um, but you know, it'd be really, really fun to get some entries. It's always really fun to see. But yeah, they have a color and contrast. And then the the prizes, they get to light the gazebo. That is the plan. As of right now, we plan to light the gazebo. Details still to be worked out.

Details to be determined, but um, and that is this upcoming Saturday, so five o'clock. which is the fifth sixth. It's the sixth. Sorry, I don't have these dates in front of me. All right. Now, moving along. Last thing. Our next meeting is Monday, December 15th. No work session. I don't think we will have anything for work session at night. And that was where we set our budget officially. So, okay. All right. That's it. Uh, no, we have mosquito control. Oh, that's just a report. Okay. That those those are just fun facts in those by the way. Yeah, I always know how many there are.

No, I mean it is fascinating. I like to look at the quarterly reports, too, just I don't want to know how many of those damn things there are. I like seeing where things sit. Um, all right. If no one has anything else, I would uh entertain a motion to adjurnn. Motion to adjurnn. All right. Motion from Council Member Hatfield. Second. And a second from Council Member Bennishes. All those in favor say I. I oppose. Guess what? We're adjourned. Thank you.