City Council - Regular Meeting

recording in progress. really thick hair.

I think we need a picture. All right. Good evening and welcome to the Chaska City Council meeting for Monday, December 15th. I call this meeting to 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 for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Um, Meliss, will you please call role? Council member Hatfield here. Council member Bennish. Council member Chevlin here. Council member Gra here. Mayor Hubard here.

All right. So, that moves us along to the adoption of the agenda. Does anybody have any additions or corrections on the agenda? Otherwise, I'd entertain a motion for adoption. Motion to adopt. All right. I have a motion from council member Chevlin. Second, and a second from council member Hatfield. All those in favor say I.

I. Opposed. Agenda. Agenda is adopted. All right. That moves us along to visitor presentation. Is anybody here for a visitor presentation? Something that's not on the agenda. See anybody moving up towards the podium. So, we are going to move on to approval of the previous meeting minutes. These meeting minutes were from December 1st of 2025. Does anybody have any addition or correction to the minutes? Motion to approve the minutes. All right. And I have a motion from council member Hatfield. Second. A second from council member Gra. Um any discussion? Otherwise, all those in favor say I.

I. Opposed. meetings are or minutes are approved and then this moves us along to a lot of consent items. My goodness, you guys were busy this week. Um is anybody have any addition or um these items are uh items that receive little to no discussion? Although anything can be pulled off of the consent uh agenda to be uh discussed at more length or does anybody have any questions at all or comments? I have just a couple things. Uh 7E, the feasibility study. I just wanted to say thank you. That was like uh the downtown with the third street. I know that that was kind of stemming maybe off of the discussion. Oak Street and Oak Street.

Oak Street and Third Street. Is that it, Matt? Yeah. Oak Street. Yeah. Oak Street going this way. Third Street go Elm Street. Elm Street going this way. I was so confused. Third Street. I was like Elm and it's definitely Elman Third. Yeah, it's Elman Third. Uh the reason we haven't done that project up to this point is because we have to replace a bridge. And if the bridge was failing, we'd get state dollars to do that. Yeah. So we thought if we waited it out that the bridge might fail and the bridge is really built well. So yeah, one bridge or two bridges. Uh it's just one now, right? Yeah. We we had taken out uh stuff further to the west of that.

Okay. Um but we're going to do exactly the same thing that we did sort of in that spruce and locust area where we put the pipe underground. Yeah. Uh to cover up the the ditch. Yeah. And I and I you there were residents that when I campaigned and went through that area had a lot of questions of that and then more recently one of the residents was really like when when is this going to happen? And so I just wanted to give thanks to this for staff for you guys going out and kind of making it happen at this point. So, it was nice to see that on the consent agenda with Third Street. I know that part closer to 41, so between 41 and um Pine,

that block gets a lot of questions and I know we're waiting for City Square West. The block on that like the literal um what are they called? You step up curb. That's the word. the literal like the curb on that south side of Third Street is so high like you have to like really step up to go like it goes like this. Is there a point that we just like fix that part but instead of waiting for I mean the purpose of it is that was our storm water system. Okay. And so until we actually get the storm water installed in there we really can't lose it. It's not just like cosmetic. It's literally It literally is to to handle the storm water.

Okay, that helps. Well, it doesn't help, but it doesn't help, but it explains. Yes.

Uh, also I just on 7F, the appointment of a planning commission chair and vice chair for for 2026. um commission uh planning commission member Rob Brass uh our chair, he had called me maybe about a month ago or so and had kind of given me the heads up that he was planning to be done at the end of the year. And so I didn't want to let the cat out of the bag early until it was that time. But um now seeing it on the agenda, just wanted to really thank Rob for his um time and energy and and effort in the planning commission is a really intricral part of what we do here as a as a council. They are kind of that first line of you know approval and a lot of times they oftentimes maybe get the most the residents at their most um engaged and emotion. uh and so you know really thanking his time and energy into kind of giving it it its all. So just wanted to and looking forward to seeing what uh commission chair Urbanak um has going forward. So

uh and then 7G is very excited approval of the MSB final approval. So yay. Anyways,

yeah, we'll, you know, the next action step you'll see us come back with um I don't know if we'll bring the bid pack to to have that approved or not in January. I can't remember what we did with public safety center, but for sure uh by the uh beginning of March, you'll see the um see the bid responses come back. uh and hopefully they're within budget and we can keep on moving forward in the right direction. So, uh we've had RJM doing uh cost estimates uh throughout the entire process and Elise and I had a chance I was about three weeks ago, two weeks ago uh to sit down with both Ortell and RGM and really do some um uh what I forget the name of the term now. Um well we we looked at areas where we could do things differently to sale on cost.

Uh and uh value engineering that's what I meant to say. Um so looking at sort of value engineering some areas that really don't have an impact on the look or the functionality of the building. Uh but how we do certain things especially when you have a prefab building like that. where you put things makes a difference because it can make a difference between whether something's really easy to fabricate or whether it's hard to. So, um, we did that and I think, man, I think it was close to $900,000 that we, uh, were able to take out of the the cost of the estimate uh, by doing that and still really keep it, you know, everything that we've talked about within the building. So, um, big kudos to both Ortell and RJM for really taking the time to do that because I mean that obviously makes a big difference as we go forward.

Great. Thanks, guys. Uh, does anybody else have any sort of uh any questions or comments at all in regards to consent items? Otherwise, I'd entertain a motion for approval. Motion to approve consent. All right, we have a motion from Council Member Hatfield. Second and a second from council member Chevlin. Uh all those in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. All right. Consent approved. That moves us along to our action items of the night. So the first action item is AA which is a memorandum of understanding with Trident Development LLC for a City Square West project.

Uh mayor and council members, this is uh really uh dealing with the city square west site and uh developer. we've talked with you about um moving forward on the project. I'm going to let Elise sort of talk about the memorandum of understanding we've worked on with the developer uh to sort of dictate sort of how we'll move forward with actually implementing that. So, turn over to

Sure. Mayor and council members, as you know, we we talked about this in a work session a couple months ago approximately. Um and at that time we were just coming out of kind of um in 2020 you had agreed to work with uh inland development partners as part of developing a concept potentially redeveloping the site. At that time um that we had the work session uh we decided to part ways mutually on both sides with that developer. uh Trident Development had submitted uh a proposal as part of that RFP back in 2020. So we reached out to Trident to see if they were still interested and they were. So, we've been working with them to develop a memorandum of understanding so that uh we're all clear on roles and responsibilities because there's a lot on that site as you know, a private um side to it, a public side to it, lots of different sources of financing going into it. And and as we continue this process, if it's deemed feasible, you'll see more formal development agreements and that sort of thing come forward. But for this time, allows us to kick off that process. So thatouou that you have in your um council packet tonight really has three phases to it. The first one is just a kind of a evaluation and concept phase. It allows both parties to continue to look at the site uh take a look at various concepts uh look at those preliminary cost assessments the financial feasibility that sort of thing. As part of that process, you would see a concept plan, if it's deemed feasible, come back to you all like as part of our normal planning process that we go through. If that is all feasible, we would move forward into really that kind of pre-development phase where we continue working through the different

planning phases, preliminary and final. we'd work through additional financing such as tiff or um other sources of funds that we're able to uh obtain and then you would see those assistant packages and whatnot come forward al together like you would any other kind of private development that comes through the city once that is done and reviewed and again we take the time to review for feasibility if it's feasible once that predevelopment phase is done then we will move move on to the development phase and that time that's when we look at acquisition of properties, demolition and ultimately construction.

So, uh, as we've kind of looked at it, Trident has done a lot of work in Chaza, uh, with multifamily projects and so we've we feel very comfortable moving forward as staff with them. Roger Frink is here from Trident um and would be happy to say a few words this evening um about you know kind of what he's thinking and and the opportunity to get in front of you. Some of you have seen Roger and and Trident's work here recently most recently up um across from Hazeline um in that development with the apartment in the Kohl's parking lot. So um with that we would ask for a motion to approve that memorandum of understanding. It is between the city, the economic development authority, so you'll see it at your EDA meeting again tonight, and then credit development.

Exciting. Yeah. Arter, would you like to come up and say a few words? Oh, would I ever? Well, thank you, uh, Mayor Hubard, members of the council, Roger Frink with Trident Development. Um, first of all, thank you for putting me first on the agenda. You didn't want to hear all the text. You don't want to talk about budget and talk. That's the first thing I look for. Where am I in the gender?

Uh second, I want to thank city staff for all their confidence and dedication, hard work over the months putting this agreement together. Uh when Nate and Elise first reached out, it was like, yes, we're interested, but we need a road map. we need something in writing to um understand and kind of secure our exclusivity in this project in order to spend some money on it and bring a team together. So, uh thank you for all of that. It's really a privilege of course and uh to be considered for this project and we think we'll do a really good job. We have an excellent team of consultants standing by ready to bring something forward and um I think it would really create something special for for CHAS and we're looking forward to being a partner a partner with the city for that. Uh there's a term we're ready to hit the ground running but actually we're already on the ground and we're already running. Uh we've got concepts that we're already sharing among our team, putting some cost estimates together and hopefully be able to unveil that at the next uh meeting with city staff. So

with that, I think those were my remarks. Again, it's real privilege and honor to be considered for this. So hopefully we'll go forward. Any questions you have for me? We were excited to see you on the when we heard about it from Elise a couple months ago. Um thank you. because the other buildings have been really well done and a lot of thought put into it. So, we were excited to hear your name and it's y nice to many of the same team members will be involved with this project as were the Plaza Hazel team. Okay.

Um, one other team member that we have a relationship with but weren't part of our team when we made our original proposal is a commercial retail developer owner. So, we felt that was really important to bring that in as part of our entourage and uh they're very excited about coming forward with this idea as well. So, sure. Yeah.

Yeah. City Square West is like such an important piece of our downtown and I think that's part of why we were so excited to hear your name come up for it and just your understanding of the community and how thoughtful and even thinking about um the plaza really how when we gave feedback or we mentioned things even if it was like a quick mention you obviously like put that to thought and when it came back we we saw that put into action and put onto paper and said yeah that was really good feedback or we thought more about that we like that, whatever it was. And it was, you don't always see that, especially having set up here for seven years now. There has absolutely been times where we said something to a developer and they came back and I was like, "Did you were we at the same meeting?" And that was never the case with you. So, I really appreciate that. And when I think about how important City Square West is, having a relationship like we have with you and your understanding of the community is so imperative for such an important block. So, I'm just grateful and excited to see this. So,

thank you. Those are very kind words. Appreciate that very much.

Yeah. I mean, I echo Council Member Hatfield and Council Member Shogun statements. It is exciting to cultivate that and continue that relationship and knowing our past history and and the work that's been done and yeah, seeing the reflection of the Hazelton Plaza apartment and just the care and consideration that went into it. every time I'm up in that area, it is really, really nicely done. And I know it was one of those sites where at the time we were really grappling with the idea of changing and pivoting from a from the decision of this was supposed to be, you know, commercial and now we're going to make it residential. But it blends really well into the landscape up the up there and then um kind of those added elements that we were wanting to make sure were important. They're they're part of that. So, Safe Square West is a key catalyst site for the redevelopment of downtown to kind of, I think, in my opinion, tie everything with a pretty red bow, right? They're going to have a plaza for programming, um, and housing, uh, that's both, you know, market and affordable and also commercial and the marcado and parking. I mean, all of those sort of elements. And it's nice to hear that you guys have already brought on somebody on to your team that's going to be having that vision for the commercial side of things because I think that that's key and important element as well. So, I am excited, working really diligently hard to kind of help close the loop on the like legislative funding part of it.

So, hopefully we can kind of check that box off as well. Um, but it's really nice to have uh you guys be on, you know, making the plans happen. My one question is, so it sounds like they're going to be coming back to you with a plan in no time for what they Well, when do we get to see that plan? Well, it's gonna um there's going to be sort of two processes happening at the same time. One is going to be more of that sort of internal process where we're trying to economically uh make the the project work and that's probably where we're going to start.

Um I would imagine that we probably would not bring back like a formal planning concept plan um until we have more things secured. Sure. and have a a developers agreement. And you know, we certainly can, but um the with that being said, I do think that at some point in between that, we'll probably want to have a work session uh to to bring the council together and sort of show uh what Roger's putting together to make sure everybody's sort of shaking their head in the same direction and and giving good feedback uh in that process. That's wonderful.

Again, thank you all very much. You'll probably be seeing a lot more of me in the future, so I'm looking forward to it. Not mine.

I will say the best compliment that he received, he doesn't even know he received it. Um, when I was up at Hazeline and they were showing me the villas that they had put up there. Um, they were talking about how nice the apartment building looked as they over the villas onto there. And I gota say in the past they maybe haven't liked our development quite as much and uh um so it was sort of cool to you know to have them say hey this really enhanced uh this corner here. It made it better for the community. Great service. We think it looks great here. So I mean that's I thought that was a really nice compliment. I would hear that Matt. Thanks for sharing that. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I was going to say I have a friend that lives on Birdie Lane, which is if you keep going down that road, like there's four or five houses. It's a small little block between Hazeline and Lake. And they were saying that they really loved your building when it went up because it blocked them from the lights of the the retail, right? Yeah. The retailer. So, but they had nothing but good things to say about, you know, your the development, the way it went in, the way it was constructed. And so, you've got nothing but ra reviews from, you know, the people that have lived by it. We've set the bar very high here tonight. So, try not to disappoint. Oh, you it'll be great. So, Oh, we're excited. If there's nothing else, I'll move along. All right. Thank you so much. Thank you all very much.

All right. So, with that, I think we have council action. Uh motion to approve the memorandum of understanding Trident Development LLC and the Chaza Economic Development Authority and authorize the mayor and city administrator to execute theou. So, uh, do I have a motion? So, moved. All right. Motion from council member Gra. Second. A second from council member Hatfield. Any other discussion? All those in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. All right. Motion approved. Good evening. Thank you.

All right. That moves us along to action item 8B, which is the 2026 tax levy and fund budgets. Uh, mayor and council members, I figured I'd give the exact same presentation again for the sixth time. No. Yeah. Let's preface this that we have seen this presentation a lot numerous times.

Yeah. So, I'm just going to hit some of the highlights uh in here. Uh, first of all, from a market value perspective uh in the community, we saw a 7.51% uh increase. Um, one of the interesting things is that uh more than half of that came from new growth uh in the community. So 4.1% of that came from new growth and 3.4% came from uh uh increases in values to existing properties. So having more of that new growth um you know even though we're obviously in the fourth year of dealing with our building program um does help to to keep the impact lower than it would have been without uh having new growth in the community. So um as far as the key budget items, there was really three uh items that we were dealing with this year. One of them is just our continued use of our tax lo policy uh for dealing with our operations. Uh second one was continued the implementation of our camp program. So the dollars we put towards rehabbing things within the community. And then the last thing is the uh completing the fourth out of four years uh for our uh building program to increase the levy to be able to support the uh the buildings that are are going forward. Uh as far as the first uh uh one establishing based on our tax levy. So we uh base our operational tax levy uh in our policy based on new growth which I had mentioned is is 4.10% U% uh and then on inflation uh which is 3.44%. So those are really sort of the two things that impact uh uh our cost of being able to provide service. So that uh if we looked at that just in of it in and of itself it'd be a 7.54% increase which for the median value home in the community which is a little over $400,000 would be $78

per month. Uh the second one uh really doesn't uh uh add any increase onto our tax levy, but it's a focus that we've had is our uh capital asset maintenance program. Uh and that's where we take and put uh a million dollars uh aside each year to deal with things like overlays, uh uh replacing playgrounds, uh replacing trail surfaces, all those types of things that we need to do to maintain those assets that we have. Uh so we have two projects next year uh that uh are under the uh camp program. Uh one is uh the overlay of Bavaria road from Victoria border all the way down to the railroad tracks uh to the south uh basically Pioneer Trail. That is a $1.4 million project. So we are going over the million dollars this year, but that means that we're going under the million dollars next year to make up for it. We really did not want to split that project in half. if we wanted to to get it done all at once. And then we kept the trail resurfacing. We do three miles each year. Uh if we have about 75 miles of trails and so if we keep sort of on that schedule, then every about 20 years uh every trail surface gets uh gets redone uh which keeps uh keeps it in in pretty decent condition. Um, the one thing with the camp program that we did uh change this year, we started the camp program or fully funded it in 2017, we've never increased it beyond that $1 million. So now we've sort of built in where we increase it by inflation each year to make sure that we're keeping up with those costs. And then the building improvement program is the third thing. Uh, obviously we're two weeks away from being done with the public safety center, so we're we're very close there. Um the municipal service building obviously we just had the final approvals for that uh tonight uh and we'll be moving forward next summer uh

with that. Then we have the the library and then city hall uh as well. Uh so to uh fund that program uh we in essence needed to uh be able to increase our uh levy by uh $1.125 million each year for four years. uh and it got up to uh that along with our utility contributions uh gives us about $6.8 million uh each year to go towards debt service on all those projects. Uh so that gives us enough to fund that. And now uh taking this last step allows us to move forward complete the MSB. Uh we'll move forward with uh construction of the library plan for 2028 and then 2030 is when we would do uh the remodel of city hall with the exception of the plaza uh out in front that we'll pull that piece out of it. Uh we we're always going to do it, but we'll pull that piece out first because uh uh just uh safety issues with that plaza and keeping it usable. Um one thing to uh note with the uh impact of the building program. So when we started this program back in 2023, uh we estimated for the medium value home that by the by the time we fully implemented in 2026 that they'd have a cost of $9 per month. uh additional or 34 uh $9 $9 uh um I'm sorry, $34 per month uh extra. Uh when we uh are going to be finishing this here, the actual impact is going to be $30.50 uh per month. So that came down about $4 uh per month from what we had estimated originally when we started in 2023. And it really had to do with the um the new growth uh that we saw in the community

which we anticipated when we started the program but did not want to we did not want to promise things we couldn't deliver. So uh didn't really build that into the program. Um just some additional things to point out as far as um things above and beyond sort of what uh we uh normally would see uh in the budget. Uh so for this year uh we are going to be producing and mailing six editions of the CHASA today uh which we're starting up again. Uh we also uh are going to be working uh with a new website provider uh this year. Uh we have a compens compensation study that we're finishing up now and so we budgeted dollars to be able to address any discrepancies in uh salaries that we're seeing. Um some other ones, uh addition of a management analyst position, uh starting July 1st to really sort of help with engineering, community development, and administration was sort of the higher level type projects in there. Uh two things in the police department, we have our officer number 32. So that'd be the next officer uh uh based on sort of where we are in growth. Uh that would start July 1st. And on July 1st, we also uh have budgeted for a co-responder uh that would be uh part of the uh part of the department. Um, I would say probably the uh most significant uh impact uh with the budget this year is going to be going to the 247 duty crews uh with the fire department, with the new fire station opening up and having living quarters in there uh to be able to handle uh overnight uh uh duty crews. Um, you know, we've talked about before that significantly decreases the amount of time uh that uh that takes for people to get to an incident uh which especially

in medicals and in fires can be very significant. Um uh the rest of it uh um just some smaller uh items that are just um not super significant in in nature. Those are really sort of the bigger ones. Um, as far as the total budget uh for uh 2026, it uh is 36 million 36,430 uh,50 uh which is a 13.1% increase with uh about half of that increase coming from uh the uh building program and implementing that last uh phase. uh the impact uh to uh residents uh to that medium value home. Uh in 2025, uh the medium value home would have paid $1,533 uh for the year. In 2025, uh uh they would pay $1,75 uh which is an increase of $14.33 per month or $172 uh for the the year. So about half of that, $85 of that 172 comes from our baseline uh programs and then 80 uh $87 that goes to our building program. Uh so it's about split right in half. Uh where that puts us as far as uh tax levy per capita in the Twin Cities, it puts us at 53 out of 84 uh cities. So uh we be at the six uh 63% of the cities are higher uh tax levy per capita than we are and we have sort of looked forward to um next year knowing uh the state actually put out the proposed levies for other cities and um you know we're going to

end up actually pretty close to that probably right around 50 uh you know when we look next year at this time uh and then um you know with that building program being done and then new growth happening, we should see ourselves uh just go right back up that that list again. Um, as far as the uh enterprise uh fund uh budgets, uh we've talked about uh um you know, really, you know, some of the things that that we're doing in in the uh different uh facilities. of the community center. Uh obviously we continue to try to uh you know maintain that as best as we can uh build back up revenues uh you know working to build up uh back memberships after COVID. Uh we have some capital improvements that we need to do uh next year. Uh we have a rooftop uh HVAC unit that we need to replace in the lodge. Uh we also are going to be replacing all of the carpeting on that main floor uh of of the facility. So, that should look uh very nice. Uh replace the indoor pool deck furniture. Uh so people, especially with swimming lessons, uh use that quite a bit when they're down there. And then we'll have uh painting that happens both in the pool and in the uh gym area. Um the uh uh next one I'll talk about is the town course. Uh so the town course um uh continues well we continue to work towards uh trying to balance our resident versus non-resident uh rates. Uh if you remember several years back we talked about getting to a point where we'd have a 20% discount for weekend rates for resident and a 25% uh discount for uh weekday rates. Uh next year with

where our uh rates uh are proposed to be set, uh we would be at a 21% discount for the weekday. We're only 1% off. We're almost there for that one. And we'd still be at a 29% discount for a weekday rates. So we have a little bit of of work to do still with that. Uh but we continue to be very uh competitive uh when you look at the average, especially with the courses. We're we're competitive both with the high-end courses that are out there, but also the courses that are around uh the area, too. Uh which I think is really cool for especially our residents to be able to have that high of quality of of a facility and uh you know, be able to pay the rates they do. Uh just to give you a sense, uh so for a weekend, uh uh 18 hole with a golf cart, uh the average for a high-end course is $120 for a round in a golf cart. Uh our residents would pay uh $65 or I'm sorry, $68 uh to uh golf uh on a weekend. and uh um they'd pay if they were a non-resident they'd pay 86 and so uh quite a bit difference there but even as you look at the uh area courses um so you know sort of like the ones like Deer Run Dog Green Bluff Creek uh courses that aren't as high caliber of ours but they're they're they're choices people have in the area um our residents uh will end up paying $68 uh for a round on the weekend with a cart. If they were to go and look at the average of those area courses, it's $67. So, it's pretty much right on uh even with courses there around the area. Um, as far as the major things in the town

course for next year, uh we uh have uh just continual work on our irrigation uh system. you know the course was our course will be 30 years old uh coming up in uh one year 20 in uh after next year. So there's work that we have to do in that. So we have some irrigation satellites we need to do work on. Uh we are going to pave the other half of the parking lot uh at the uh town course and then work on the uh garbage enclosure. Uh starting, no pun intended, it's starting to look sort of trashy. So, but yeah, I'd need the rim shot.

Wasn't there something a couple weeks ago, too, about the 18th hole or the the land around it? Oh, like the swampy area. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So, that's in our storm water uh fund. Uh yep. But, uh basically all the cattails that are out there. Um, so there's going to be a project to really sort of maintain that uh properly, but that's that's in our stormwater fund. Yep.

Um, our curling and event center. Uh, so uh we continue to have very strong memberships here. We actually saw an increase in membership uh last year uh compared to the year before. Um we really hope espec you know we we tend to see the Olympic years are good and this year being an Olympic year and the Olympic team is from our uh club. We're really hoping that that uh really uh plays strong uh here. So um so uh planning uh for that our event center has continued to do very well uh and uh u you know all the real prime times we really don't have an issue with being able to uh to to fill those times as far as the capital improvements that we have for the curling and event center. So the carpet uh will be replaced in the event center in the hallway.

Are you going to rip that out yourself? I will. I'll come help. I don't People love the pink bubbles. Yeah. It's nobody not a single person. No. Uh so, uh we'll be replacing that. At the same time, we're going to be replacing the the chairs, too. And the chairs, I think I we showed you this that they're going to have sort of the wood back to them.

Uh so, it's going to match the wood in the the actual facility itself. So that you know especially I mean our whole goal with that place was to have have a high-end event center but without the high-end cost so that our average resident would be able to have a really good experience uh within there. So uh I think I think we're really accomplishing that well. Not that it matters a lot for this but those chairs are actually still pretty decent there. Are we putting them somewhere else in another community building? A lot of times we'll uh sell those on auction. Okay. uh like the state will take them on auction, things like that. Yep.

Uh we have some things we have to do in the curling center itself. So uh we have a carpet extractor replacement we need to do. We need to do uh reconditioning of our curling stones. Uh so there's stuff to make sure that they stay in good condition. Um the the rest is is just general maintenance type of of stuff that's in there. The big one is the carpet and the chairs. Um so um that's the curling strand the loop. Uh so uh great thing with the the loop we saw about 25,000 rounds last year. The last time we saw 25,000 rounds out there was probably 2002 2003. Uh we've been pretty consistently at about well the last couple years of the par 30 we at about 14 to 15,000 rounds. So we've increased rounds by about 10,000 uh people uh over since that's opened up.

Um we're planning for about 3,000 rounds at the the Minoas and and still trying to work on looking at how we can program that

um and be more than just a passive thing but something that we could have some leagues or something like that that's out there. Um, we're uh proposing that rates stay the same because we still want to get this introduced to to people uh out there and it's new so we don't really have any planned improvements um for the the facility itself. Uh as far as our utility funds, um the uh when when you look at the util when somebody looks at their utility bill coming from the city, they they have electric, water, sewer, and storm water uh on there. Um people will see uh for the average user of utilities, people will see a 4.87% 87% increase, which uh equates to about $9.82 uh per month. Uh and that's really keeping up with a lot of uh the capital improvement or I should say expansion uh items that we need to do and capital improvement items within uh our system. Um, our electric department has about $4.1 million of work that they need to do next year, which is uh anything from getting uh developments uh prepared and ready uh to come in uh all the way to uh uh putting uh overhead uh lines to underground because it makes it more reliable and safer. Uh and uh um uh time Well, doing things like uh uh extending our uh uh our feeder system up Victoria Drive so that we can have uh redundant uh feeds coming up to different uh substations. So, a lot of work. Uh that's probably the the most uh sort of capital improvement work we've had in the electric fund for uh quite some time.

Um, as far as the stormwater fund, uh, the one was the, uh, the town course, uh, project. Uh, we have, uh, dollars that we put towards, uh, our street reconstruction program. Uh, we have a pump that we need to, uh, replace, uh, down on one of our outlets that goes, uh, out of the flood control system. Uh uh we we have a over $1 million project that we're only spending $85,000 for. That's the one that's over at uh uh Seminary Finn. Oh, yeah. That we were talking about a few weeks ago. So, we have that budgeted in there.

Um and then just some uh general u uh updates uh in our storm water system that we'll be uh doing next year. So, um, so there's a a number of different actions, uh, that you guys have to, uh, take tonight, and they're sort of laid out. Uh, so, uh, one is, uh, establishing the tax levy. Uh so uh there's going to be uh so when we did when we showed you the impact of taxes on a user in the community, we included all the levies together, but we have to physically approve the general fund tax levy separate from the EDA tax levy, which you'll do uh after the meeting. Um included in that uh we're establishing our tax abatement uh levy. Uh now these are uh uh projects that basically uh sort of like with tax increment we use increased taxes to support the development. So they there's they end up being almost more of a pass through for the city than a real impact to people. Uh but then we also have to uh uh adopt the actual budget uh itself. So um so we have uh basically for for this item we have the uh resolution 2025-90 which would uh adopt the levy and then resolution 25-91 which would would adopt uh each of the fund budgets. Certainly answer any questions if you have any.

Anybody have any questions for for Matt? like mentioned before, I mean this is something that we started this budget talk what back in June. June. Yeah, June. So, um we've been discussing this for quite a while. And also, I mean obviously we've got two new council members this year that kind of got introduced into it. But, uh the building program being a large part of our our um tax levy, we've been talking about that for multiple years as well. So, Um, not that it's not important to continually recap and discuss and talk over things, but we're not just breezing through this.

Well, I think it's not something any of us took lightly. I mean, anytime, we talked about this last time, but anytime you have to raise a cost of anything, especially in an economy like today, it's not a something we take lightly, it's not an easy thing to do. Um, but looking at the what we're getting out of it, the return for the city, for the, you know, public safety duty crews to be on, all the things that make this city better, it's um I don't think it's a terrible increase. It's not a ton. Um, you know, we just voted yes for the schools for a lot more and again, very important, too. But I think that the city has been from what I can see this year really managing the budget well, really balancing priorities and really looking out for the needs of the people that live here as well as the infrastructure of what they call home. So, I've been really happy to see the care and concern that's taken place since a year ago when I came here to say that my taxes were too high. Well, I think too, you know, even though this this is being a formal action that's being taken up tonight, anytime anybody in our community has a question over our budget or any sort of um you know item that is uh of concern or or things, I think it's always welcomed opportunity to have a discussion to kind of talk about where the money is going and what what does it provide. And I think, you know, we set our budget to make sure that um the services and amenities that our community members desire and expect um are being well cared for and and run efficiently and effectively so that they don't have to worry about that. I think that's always just the messaging that I like to kind of carry forward when it comes to this even though I know that there is a financial cost to that.

Absolutely. And I think you guys, you city staff I'm talking about have done a fantastic job with ensuring you know that we have for a very small city actually a lot of amenities the town course the loop the communities I mean the it just goes on and on and so you know you think of bigger cities around us like Eden Prairie and things like that they're they've got a lot but they're really don't have any more than we do so it's really amazing to see a smaller city doing I mean that really goes back to the city councils in the 80s uh that that really made a decision at that point that

they wanted to be a place where people could call home uh be a place that that people had the services that kept them in the community and didn't you know have people go out. So,

but you've managed that really well and like I said even like the new parks and the trails overlays and just keeping all of that stuff that one time was new up to date is a a big feat I think. Yeah, I think I mean as I look at I think one of the most important things that we do is take care of the things that that were basically passed down to us. Um that you know really hopefully when we're all gone that we've left for somebody else something really good a community that's in a really good shape. That's always the goal. I'd make a Yeah, agree. I'm ready for a motion. Go for it. Okay. Yeah. Make a motion.

Sorry. Good job. Uh, I would make a motion to adopt resolution 2025-9, prepare less for payable 202026. All right. We have a motion from council member Gra. Second and a second from council member Chevlin. Any other discussion? All right. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. That motion carries. And then we have a second motion to adopt resolution 2025-91 adopting the 2026 fund budgets. So moved. We have a motion from council member Hatfield. Second. A second from council member Gra. Any other discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Opposed.

All right. That motion carries as well. All right. That moves us along to uh 8 C. establish the 2026 utility rates.

Uh mayor and council members, uh this is really an extension of what we just talked about. So, obviously, we just adopted the budgets for uh all of the funds, including our utility funds. And in order to meet our revenue projections that are in there, we need to change our rates to to reflect that. Um you'll see in the staff report uh null did a good job of of sort of laying out um you know what the percent increase uh is uh being proposed in each of the uh utilities uh and then what that uh totals out uh to what we talked about before of being a 4.87% increase or $982 for the average customer that's out there. Um, you know, the things I I will uh point out is, you know, from a rate perspective, uh, we are, uh, well, we are a little over 8% lower than Excel, uh, for our residential rates last year, which is that's sort of our market that we we set uh, compare ourselves. Uh, water, uh, we, uh, are really amongst the lowest, uh, costs for for water that's out there. sewer or about the same as everybody else because all of us have the same sort of input uh cost of having to use them at council for our treatment. Uh which does keep our cost down, but it it means that our costs are are pretty similar uh from city to city. And then our storm water fee uh is one that uh um uh is one that we're below average uh now compared to other cities that are similarly uh situated with uh with things like rivers, uh lakes, uh things that you have to deal a lot more with storm water issues than uh than you do in other areas. Um, I mentioned previously, you know, we have a lot of different uh projects that we're going to be working on uh over the next year. Uh we talked about, you know, the the

storm water uh projects and we said that we have about $4.1 million of electric projects, but probably the one that uh we're going to have the most work uh on is going to be our water uh utility because uh we will be starting after the KPMG event up at Hazeline uh next uh uh last week of June. uh we'll uh July 1st is when we're targeting to start the uh second water treatment plant uh facility uh up there and then there is uh wells uh that we have to to dig to go towards that. So that the water utility is is probably going to be it's going to be our biggest focus as far as um you know work that we're going to be uh doing in that. There's going to be some financing that we're going to have to come back with uh during the the course of the year and we're already sort of looking at how do we best sort of structure that uh as we move through the the year both for our municipal service building but also for our utility projects that uh we'll end up doing as well. Um there are a number of different motions. Um the way we have our uh rates uh sort of set up in our our ordinances we need to uh both adopt an ordinance but also a resolution uh to pass that. So there's uh one, two, three, five different actions.

Yeah, we're going to be in it for the long haul. So uh unless you have any other questions, I just have one question kind of towards the bottom of the RFA is it talks about a 2025 city comparison and it kind of arrows us in. Is this are the rates of the other cities that are on this chart? I'm assuming that's not their that's the 2026 rates. That's their No, that's their 2025 rate. That 1329 is our proposed. Yeah. So, basically they could it could be adjusted to be Yeah. So, I I would imagine we're probably going to be right in the middle.

Yeah. I just was curious if if these were updated numbers. I kind of figured they weren't. Okay. Anybody else have any other questions? All right. Well, should we get this going here? All right. Motion to approve and adopt ordinance 2025 1075 establishing 2026 utility rates. All right. We have a motion from council member Chevlin. Second. Second from council member Hatfield. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. All right. That motion carries. Uh make a motion adopt resolution 2025-86 summary publication of the 2026 electrical utility rates. Second.

Okay, we have a motion from Council Member Gra and a second from Council Member Hatfield. I'm sorry. I thought that was the one we had just done. So, that was the ordinance. That was the ordinance. Now, this is the summary of the ordinance. Okay. Yep. Got it. All right. Sorry, I lost my place in the in the chart here. All right. Any discussion? All right. All those in favor say I. I opposed. All right. That motion carries. All right. I make a motion to adopt ordinance number 2025-1076 establishing the 2026 water and sewer utility rates. Second. All right. So, we have a motion from Mayor Hubard and a second from Council Member Chevlin. Any discussion? All those in favor say I.

I. All right. And then Wait, now I don't know which one we're on. We're on the We're on the fourth one. We're following a pattern here. You got to continue. Okay. I make summary of 1076. Wait. Resolution 87. Okay. Adopt resolution. I make a motion to adopt resolution 2025-87. Summary publication of 2026 water and sewer utility rates. Oh my gosh. Okay. All right. I have a motion from council member Hatfield and a second from council member Chevlin. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Opposed.

All right. That motion carries. I'll make a motion to adopt resolution 2025-88 establishing 2026 storm water utility rates. And I'll second that. And so we have a motion from council member Hatfield and a second from Mayor Hubard. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I opposed.

All right, that adopt that is adopted as well. We got through that together. We all shared the lift. So great job. All right. So, that takes us away from our action items and that moves us along to the bills. Does anybody have a question on a bill as we transition here? Otherwise, I'd entertain a motion. Motion to pay bills. All right. We have a motion from council member Chevlin. Second. A second from council member Gra. Uh, roll call, please. Council member Hatfield. Yes. Council member Chevlin, yes. Council member Grat, I. Mayor Hubard,

I. All right, bills are done. And then that moves us over to other business. So, uh, Council Member Grath, take it away. Um, lost my train of thought on here. Uh, lots of good things. I had a list here. Was going to go off to Matt does all the good work for us here the night. You got busted not doing your homework, huh?

Well, no. I backed out of the meeting all of a sudden. All of a sudden, I was in the piece of it. Um, you know, a couple things I'll just mention that was, you know, you see things in the community that are bringing a lot of people in and a lot of visitors. Um, this last weekend was the Chanahassen Winter Storm Basketball Classic. And you might ask yourself, why am I bringing up a Chanaska basketball tournament? Because it's actually entirely played in the city of Chaza. Um, marriage

because they use they use the Ches High School. So, both my boys are at Chess High School the whole weekend. Uh they use Southwest Christian and they end up using Carver. I I guess they do technically use Carver and then Pioneer. Um because interesting enough, the wrestling tournament takes place at Chad High School. Um so, so that's why it doesn't happen at Chad. But it just it's you know you get talent teams from all over that come in and you know you know are in the community and visiting and um probably left probably truthfully left the high schools less frequently because it was so cold and once you were in you didn't want to leave but it's just good to see and and how the the city shows out school shows out um as kind of a good piece uh that so that was the one I had on top of my head. Um, you know, lots of good things. You know, I will say personally, I will steal somebody's thunder, I'm sure, from up here and talk about the Santa parade. Uh, that's the benefit of being asked to go first. I get to use it. So, go for it.

Uh, the biggest thing is, uh, I haven't seen the weather forecast. I actually think it's 40°. I think it's supposed to be like 40. Get your lawn chairs and flip flops. Yeah, there you go. the mountain. I'm really hoping the snow doesn't all completely disappear because I'm home next I'm home next weekend with my kids on on I was going to say spring break on winter break and it is a blessing when you can say just go outside and play in the snow please like get off the screen trying to work yeah get off the screen. So, uh, but the sand parade, great weather, uh, it is published on the website. Uh, you can find the route, uh, and also follow, uh, they do kind of update that as they go. Sanitary. Yep.

So, yep. So, that's great. It's some, as a fellow council member pointed out, it's reversing this year. So, if you're used to it being late, it's going to be early for you this year. So, uh, don't go out the time you went last time because you probably have already missed it or you're I guess you or you're really or you're really early. I guess one of the two. Yeah. So, no, I think you'll miss it or be really early. Yeah.

So, yeah, I I think it's cool. Um, I I just think it's a fun event because it was simply kind of born out of idea of like how do we get people together in COVID? uh and really and it's one of you know again you look back on that time and there's not much great that came out of it but there's some things that have stuck around that have been really good and again I just think it's been you know a fun event and people still get excited about it um and so encourage you to check out the calendar and uh the map of when it'll hit your neighborhood uh and uh I guess get your lawn chairs and flip-flops ready and um bring your sunscreen too so all good. So, and that's what I have for tonight.

Wonderful report. All right, Council Member Shin. Um, I was only going to add two things. So, um, for those that are interested in plays and all that, St. Hubert's just put on their performance of the Wizard of Oz because Wicked has been so I was one of the munchkins.

Was absolutely adorable. They did a great job and I really hope people both support it this weekend again because it was a fantastic show and all those little kids, you know, they put a lot of effort into it. So, it is K through eight, remember the actor's age, but it was very well done and fun to see on the heels of all the wicked um phenomenon. And then I was also just going to tell everybody since winter break is coming to watch out for all the kids that are not in school and probably be out on sledding hills or ice skates or all the other things that go on. and um make sure you're driving and behaving accordingly on the roads for all of them. Yeah.

Well, and I think the speaking of ice skating rinks, it's been a long time since I remember saying we'll have ice skating rinks ready for Christmas break, but I think we will. Oh, wow. Um so, uh supposed to be pretty warm this week though. This week, but then next week it gets back to more normal temperatures. So, not super cold, but uh cold enough for us to do the ranks. So, um I actually think we'll be in a pretty good position for break. So, and I guess I had a question on that. Just are lakes frozen enough for people to be walking on them? Should we be? I mean, I've heard mixed results. I wouldn't. I think it's I know some people that would, but

I was just going to say I think it's best to contact like the marina or the place that's kind of watches that. It really depends on the lake itself. Yeah. I just saw people out on is it grace or it's this side of the south side of Target, but I saw people out on it the other day and I was concerned that maybe it's not quite frozen enough. But yeah, I mean it's been cold. Uh so there um so there definitely has been ice being made, but it really depends on the lake if it's springfed, all kinds of different factors, but be careful if you're using ice. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of moving water in Lake Grace. Yes. Yeah. cuz it's I mean the culvert that drains that one and makes the water. I used to live right by there. That water runs a lot. I don't know how how

I was worried about the people I saw out there cuz they were kids and not necessarily do they know how to watch for like here listening for cracks and all that. So just be cautious if you're also unbreaking out on ice. Just use one of our ice skating rinks and you don't have to worry about it. Yeah, I agree. I like it. Yeah. All right. Thank you. Yeah.

All right, Council Member Hatfield. Yeah, a few things. Um, the first just want to mention the plaza designs that we saw at our last meeting were presented to the downtown business alliance on Friday morning and I think there was good feedback simil I think some similar feedback to what we had and um, you know, they kind of were just you could tell they were wrapping their minds about around how they could use it and the space. One feedback they had was just um art and incorporating art and so we did talk about kind of how we had mentioned something similar and maybe using the back of the history wall so or building um and what that could look like. So just wanted to share that they was wellreceived and I think there was good feedback. So um that was the big thing coming out of that meeting uh that I wanted to share. Um, some other things, co coffee with a cop is this Wednesday at the McDonald, the North McDonald's up by like Starbucks and Kohl's and that area. So, that's on Wednesday at 10:30. Um, and then coming up in January, the events will kind of kick off again with more. So, the Health and Wellness Expo, which is always really well done with the chamber and our park and Rex department, is on January 10th at the community center at 9:00 a.m. Um, and so that's always a good event to mark your calendar for. The MLK breakfast is on the 19th of January. Um, in the morning right away, and it's always freezing cold, so just be excited for that. Um,

looks like a really good speaker this year. Yes, it does look like a good speaker. It's at the event center. It's at the event center. Yep. as always. So, I think it's always been there at least. Yeah. Um, so yeah, the speaker is I'm probably gonna say it wrong. Ethand Cabba. Did I say it right? Okay. I was I thought I'd heard it that way, but um she's executive director of the Anne Braftoft Foundation who is purpose is supporting girl today strengthens our community now and into the future. So, that um sounds like a great It's always a good event. Like I always leave feeling like really warm and fuzzy about our community. So, y um that's coming up. And then the fishing contest is on Valentine's Day,

so you can, you know, make it a couple's event and go down and do some ice fishing. Oh, yeah. My my wife would love that. I bet she would. And maybe it'll actually be ice fishing this year. Yeah, maybe there will. Fingers crossed. Maybe there's another puzzle, too. I think there is another puzzle when February. Oh, I was very humbled by the one. I think we'll be taking a break from puzzling potentially, but Oh, no. Should we go? Uh, we should be practicing, I suppose. Well, we definitely shouldn't tell people if we do. Um, yeah.

And then, so I think that's pretty much it. So, then the other thing is just want to wish everyone I'm going to probably miss some holidays, but I'm going to try my best. Happy Hanukkah, happy Quanza, and Merry Christmas, happy new year. Um, whatever you're celebrating. There's other holidays in there, but those are the big ones. Um, and yeah, happy all of those things. Um, I'm proud we live in a community and a country that we can celebrate all of those things and different religions and especially proud of our community that we can celebrate all those religions alongside each other um and do it safely and definitely thoughts and prayers are with some people who didn't get to celebrate those things um safely. So, I'm grateful that in our community, we've been insulated from those things, but that we can sit up here and say, Mary, all of those things um and feel safe doing that. So,

really well said. Thank you. That's it. All right. That was wonderful. All right. Uh update. All right. No, I was waiting for something from Ka in the back over there. What is that? A click. thing back there. Nothing. Matt, uh I do have one thing. Um you'll notice in the uh report I did put a couple of options for retreat. Yeah,

they may not work, but I got to start with something. Yeah. So, if you guys could just uh shoot me an email or a text or whatever and just let me know uh if that does or does not work for you. Um it'd be nice to know if like if both of them work for for you or both of them don't or whatever. Um if they don't, we'll find something else. But I just wanted to at least throw something out to to start that that whole process. Sometimes that's the hardest part of a retreat. Getting the date. Getting the date. I'm excited though to have a public safety. Yeah, it'll be fun. I'm like there. Oh, I didn't realize that was I thought it was a joke. Oh, no. No. We'll have it. I really did. I thought it was a joke when we were Oh, no. We're going to have it there. Yeah. We're going to get our money's worth.

Have to bring our own lawn chairs at this point, but it's going to be nasty. from the convent. When is the technical opening of the public safety? Is it before our next meeting? Um, well, there's there's a number of different things that'll happen. We'll probably uh technically we'll probably get our temporary CO uh right around the first of the year. Okay. Um, we won't start moving in, my guess is, until the end of January uh because that's when some of the furniture will start arriving. Um, so that's why I said lawn chairs. Yep. So, um, I would say by the end of February, you'll see that we're pretty much moved in.

Are we going to tour it at the finished project? Absolutely. Yep. Exciting. Yeah. Wonderful. That's all I have.

Well, that was a really great segue into I guess I was just up at the uh the facility. Um, I was able to meet with Senator Coleman and tour with uh with our fire chief and also um officer Preasonius and uh Alisa was there and so got to kind of get another refresh update as far as the building goes and it's come a long way since we were able to kind of walk through it and there's still some route to go as far as finishing touches and whatnot in certain areas. Um, but it's really great to see that vision kind of continue to come to life and just to see all the care and consideration. And I was telling Elise and Stephen this out in the parking lot kind of afterwards that just so much thought was involved in just all the the small details that um you can really tell that we engage together like uh you know police and fire and and and admin you know in order to kind of make everything really shine and be um be accounted for you you know, even in, you know, the fireside, the dormatory dorms, the lighting, like if they when they have a call will be softer, so like they're not jarred away because, you know, the cardiac considerations with that and and those, you know, those are all things that if you're not working in that field, you just don't really think about that, but they're very important and they're important to the well-being and safety, you know, the people that are going to be working in these spaces. And I think that that's just been such a great thing to see. So, thank you to, you know, staff for really kind of continually walking through this building and making sure that it's going to be a great representation for our community, community pride, but also that our departments that are going to be in

there are going to be really, really well cared for. So, so great.

Well, there's been some real detail. I mean, we've every Thursday since for two years, um, you know, get together on the Thursday mornings and I mean, you have the people like I mean, Elise has been the glue. Um, you have, uh, Jamie and Chris and the uh, police department that have done, you know, been right at the table, uh, along with, uh, you know, Zach and Stephen uh, at the table. I mean, it's everybody has worked together on this and it that's what's cool to see is that um everybody's sort of been looking out for each other's uh you know to make sure that things work well together. So, it's uh it's it actually set a really good model when we moved into the municipal service building uh processes. We're just like, "Hey, that worked really good. Let's use the same process for this." So,

yeah.

Well, it was interesting just a little side note, but St. Hubert's had their Advent Christmas program and I think you guys all know Ryan's little son Jack is in the same class as my grace. So we were the way they do this, you can't go into the church until the doors open and it's like a mad rush for seats. So everybody stands outside at 5:30 waiting to get into the doors and Ryan's mother happened to be standing behind me in line waiting at the doors for 20 minutes to get in. And she started talking. She didn't know who I was, but started talking because Grace and Jack were talking about her son being a policeman and how excited he was for the new building. And I introduced myself and said that I was on the council. And she said it has been just night and day difference with how he talks about work, how he's talking about recruiting, how he's talking about what they're going to be able to do. And she was so excited. Then there were other people because there's a lot of Chaza folks that have their kids there that were entering in. And I was expecting it to be kind of a negative conversation because if you look at Facebook pages and things you sometimes get a negative feel.

Everybody was so excited about it and the fact that some of them didn't know Duty Cruz would be there for fire. Some of them didn't know that it had like better evidence lock up but they were so excited about what this was going to bring to the city and what a you know basically lift it was for the police department. So to hear the community talk like that was you know wonderful. And then to hear that the chief was actually saying really good things, too. He wasn't there to defend himself, so his mom helped talking, but it was great. Like, thanks, Mom. But it was really lovely to see and hear people being so excited about something that maybe was highly questionable.

Yeah. I think sometimes when you enter certain spaces, you can kind of feel like everyone feels the same way, but when you kind of really kind of pull the community at large, you find that sometimes those voices aren't always the majority voices or the I mean, people because there's also a lot of and it's in Chan um were saying they wish Chanhass would have a department similar to this now because it's getting so big and it was just like a, you know, a beacon to work towards rather than a oh, they're just spending money. So, I was very happy to see that. Yeah. And I think as as we open the doors up to the new facility and the public is able to kind of come in and see everything, I think that that community pride and gonna be cool will be, you know, really well received. So,

no, it's great. So yeah, I just wanted to touch point that and then I just have some other things just recapping heroes and helpers that the Chaza PD puts on along with um support from you know Bountiful Basket, Chaska Lines, Chaska Rotary, Latino Voices. I think Chaska Heights Senior Living was a part of it this year. Um Target, um I'm probably forgetting some folks. Um but there were so many people that kind of engage on that. Um really great. The they almost 70 kids participated. It's the largest.

Almost $8,000 worth of like gifts, you know, kind of went through the checkout line. They kind of crashed the register system at Target on that lane. That's great.

Um and sadly, yeah, the person was like, "It's okay. okay, we'll be able to do this and then, you know, scan out and then run it in and then something failed and she's was in the back like entering every barcode in by hand to like, you know, redo it or whatever. But um just really really great Bountiful Basket um along with the Lions were able to gift a meal to the family this year, which was something new and so that was really really well received. and uh Gracia from Latino Voices came up and you know just you know that they work really heavily with our community in times of people that are in need. But when you see Gracia in tears because you know somebody the kids requested sheets and um household products because you know their family situation and that was what the kids asked for for Christmas. These are very humbling times and so it's a reminder of the why of what we do to build community and how we can give back and help. So, um it's joyous to be a part and see the excitement on the kids' faces as they shop for their siblings and then even for themselves because they get a gift as a part of it themselves. And if there's multiple siblings, you know, then obviously kind of the the love is kind of shared around. So, um, it just I just love it. It's my favorite thing to be a part of. I'm always really grateful for our CHASA Police Department to take the reigns on this and for officer Martin to be that facilitator. And so, it's it's just so great. So, just wanted to point that out. Um, and then, uh, kind of also recapping that we had our hometown holiday event downtown last weekend. Uh, they had the tree lighting

or not tree lighting. I knew I was going to mess up the gazebo. We had the gazebo lighting. We're starting a new tradition. And if you haven't been down to City Square Park, you need to go because it looks amazing. And everyone's telling me how much it feels like Gilmore Girls, Star Hollow, all that sort of stuff. And it's like, yeah, absolutely. So, and the POS are so cute. So, I know you guys girls over there. Yeah, sure. Let me let me Google that here.

Just take our word for it. Yes, the gazebo looks amazing. Um, it's just such a great focal point for our community. So, it's it's very very nicely done and it was a really fun event. Really well attended. Lots of lots of good reviews. the history center being um the volunteers being kind of on the little carriage horserawn carriage rides and just even in like one little section you know that the carriage ride goes around how much history

that is in downtown Chaza just in one little one tiny little area um people are always really blown away especially people that live in the community and they just are not aware of the history but people that don't live in the community that come solely and to hear that you know our carriage rides are a huge huge draw. And I heard that they were actually in a neighboring community earlier that day and like nobody showed up for it practically. And so it's like it's nice to see that event shine for our downtown and for our businesses that help kind of make that happen. So they counted and it was 484 people went on those carriages and learned about Chaz. More than the four I heard.

Well, it was really cold last weekend. So that's a that's yeah 484 people on a cold day like that took those carriage rides and got to hear more about history and and then I think they had like a record number of people come into the history center too and write that number down. Yeah, I can't remember what she had said, but yeah, you're right. It was quite a few. And so that that is always really really a great event and I'm glad to see it continue um to to keep growing every year. So uh are commission applications open still? Okay, that's closed. So never mind. I was going to ask that question before the meeting. Um, interviews are on the 5th, right? Yeah. Yeah. Uh,

let's see. Uh, and then just, uh, recapping, I was able to spend time yesterday talking to the boys or to the scouts troop um, about, you know, being an elected leader, what that takes, you know, like terms and things along those lines and how city is a little different from county and state and, you know, federal. Um, and then also able to give interviews to fifth graders for Academia's business town. So that was really fun. And then I just before the meeting met with some students from Southwest Christian over a DECA project that they were having and ended up being a part of a video that was kind of sprung on me last minute, but that works and it was really fun. So it's just fun to be supportive of the area schools and and organizations that kind of um are earning badges or trying to do projects and things like that in the community. So, uh, our next meeting, well, we have an EDA meeting following this, but then our next meeting is on January 5th, which is next year.

Uh, and so, um, with that, I just also would like to echo, um, Council Member Half of just, um, you know, merry Christmas, happy holidays, happy Quanza, um, happy Hanukkah. There's so many different celebrations um and people that celebrate different things in our community and just wishing everyone um joy of the season. So, all right. With that, I would entertain a motion to adjurnn. Motion to adjurnn. All right. We have a motion from Council Member Chevlin. Second. And a second from Council Member Hatfield. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Meeting adjourned. Okay. I'm assuming Chris Were we able to go right into the next meeting?

We are ready. All right. All right. So, I call See you next year. See you next year. Merry Christmas, Crystal. See you next year. Where are you going? That's at you, Matt. Clark. You're not out of the woods yet. What? You're done. There's the EDA. Yeah, EDA. That's all right. All right. Yeah, you do too. All right. So, I call this meeting of the Chaza Economic Development Authority to order um for Monday, December 15th. Do I need to give a time stamp? 8:18. Okay. Roll call, please. Commissioner Hfield, here. Commissioner Bennishes. Commissioner Shlin, here. Commissioner Gro here.

President Hubard here. All right. Next is the adoption of the agenda. Motion to adopt agenda. Great. Second. Second. So, motion. Council member Hatfield and a second from Council Member Shlin. Sorry, you kind of messed me up with all that. Any other discussion? Otherwise, all those in favor say I. I. Agenda is adopted. Let's move along to the previous meeting minutes. We actually have two um sets of minutes for approval here. One's from October 20th, 2025, and the other one's from November 17th, 2025. Does anybody have any additions or corrections to said minutes either? Otherwise, I entertain a motion for approval.

Motion to approve minutes from 10:205 and 117 2025. Awesome. Second. All right, we have a motion from Commissioner Chevlin and a second from Commissioner Gra. All those in favor say I. I.

I. Opposed. All right, that passes as well. And then that moves us along to we have two discussion items on the agenda. One is 5A, Memorandum of Understanding of Trident Development LLC for City Square West project. Uh, madame president and commissioners, uh, the item in front of you tonight is the exact same item you saw on the city council meeting. Uh, but this is a letter of intent that's a three-way between the EDA uh because we will have like tax increment and and other economic development tools coming in going into this the city and then trided development. So, this would be approving sort of that third leg of that agreement. Uh, but it's the exact same agreement that was in the council.

Okay. Does anybody have any questions for Matt at all? I know this is something that we just talked about about an hour ago, half hour ago. So, uh, with Go ahead. I'm sorry. No, go for it. Motion to approve the memorandum of understanding with Trident Development and City of Chesca and authorize the president executive director to execute theou. Okay. So, we have a motion from Commissioner Hatfield. Second, and a second from Commissioner Gra. Any other discussion? All right. All those in favor say I.

I oppose. All right. That carries. And that moves us along to 4B. I'm sorry, 5B. Adoption. Adopt EDA resolution number 2025-92. adopting the 2026 EDA budget and EDA property tax levy for payable 2026.

So, Madam President, commissioners, the item in front of you tonight, uh you will see that from a tax perspective, um we use the same policies we do with the city, but uh the building program is not part of the EDA. And so, we really only look at cost of living and new growth in the community. So, that's where we come up with that 7.7% increase. uh which brings it uh from two about 231,000 up to about $249,000 uh for the year. The overall budget uh itself uh is uh um uh $784,811 uh and that really includes all of the um you know economic development activity that we have um you know throughout the year from an operational standpoint. We also have like tiff funds and things like that that are separate, but this is really just the operations of uh uh of the EDA. It includes our economic development coordinator, part of the Lisa's salary, part of my salary. Um you know, because we deal with economic development uh activities, but it's it's a relatively small budget in comparison to the rest of them. So staff is recommending approval of both the tax levy and the uh budget. There is uh uh resolution 25-92 uh that would adopt both of those.

Motion to adopt EDA resol resolution number 2592. All right. So we have a motion from Commissioner Chevlin. Second. A second from Commissioner Hatfield. Any discussion? Like as previously mentioned, that was something that we just went over in the um council meeting. So, all right. With that, all those in favor say I.

I. Opposed. All right. Motion carries. All right. That moves us along to other business. I believe buried my own agenda. Um, and so does anybody have any EDA business. I think the only thing is just thinking uh the work with the property sale from Klein Bank. Yeah. I just um you know I don't know you know I didn't mention it obviously during the other other business but thank you. I mean that's going to help big time for redevelopment of of that um that site kind of straightening everything out. So

and we have a couple developers that are interested that we're talking to. So yeah, our hope is that that sort of spurs redevelopment of that area. So yeah, I mean I think that the community at large kind of feels like it's time and and we share that sentiment as well. So awesome. All right. That's the only thing. I don't think this is economic authority, but I did have a question. Did we ever hear on the Southwest Transit budget for next year like if Metro Council was going to keep Southwest Transit going or I guess Oh, yeah. We're still in the game. Okay. All right. Good question. Good question. Thanks, No, you know. Yeah. Thank you, Nor. Bye.

All right. Well, if there's not any other business, I entertain a motion to adjurnn. Motion to adjurnn. All right, we have a m motion from council member or commissioner Hatfield. Second and a second from commissioner Chevlin. All those in favor say I. I opposed. We are ajourned. Thank you everyone. I suppose I should go pick this up first.