City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, good evening, everyone. This is the June 17th, 2026 Cottage Grove City Council meeting, which I'm calling to order. Our first order of business this evening is the Pledge of Allegiance. Will we please rise? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, will our clerk please do the roll?

Councilmember Clawson. Councilmember Olsen. Here. Councilmember Thede. Here. Councilmember Garza. Mayor Bailey.

Here. Thank you. So next on our agenda this evening is open forum. This is the opportunity for anyone that wants to speak on something that's not on tonight's agenda. We did have a sign-up sheet out in the entryway, and I don't believe we had anybody sign up. So in the event that somebody came in that wants to speak, this is the time to do it. Is there anybody at all? All right, I'll go ahead and close open forum and we'll move to number five, which is adoption of the agenda.

Move the agenda.

We have a motion by Council Member Thede. Second. Second by Council Member Olsen. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Number six is presentations. We have none this evening. Number seven is our consent agenda. Is there anything council would like to pull off of consent?

Excuse me. I'm good. Move consent.

All right, we have a motion by Council Member Olsen and second by Council Member Thede. Any further discussion? SEEING NONE, ALL THOSE IN FAVOR SIGNIFY BY SAYING AYE. AYE. AYE. OPPOSED? MOTION CARRIES. AS WE'RE REALLY MOVING ALONG HERE. NUMBER 8 IS APPROVED DISBURSEMENT. 8A IS TO PAY THE BILLS.

MOVE THE BILLS?

SECOND. IT'S KIND OF FUNNY TO ONLY HAVE THE TWO OF YOU HERE. SO WE HAVE A MOTION BY COUNCILMEMBER ROLLS AND SECOND BY COUNCILMEMBER THEDE. ALL THOSE IN FAVOR SIGNIFY BY SAYING AYE. AYE. AYE. OPPOSED? MOTION CARRIES. NO PUBLIC HEARINGS, NUMBER NINE. NO BID AWARDS THIS EVENING, WHICH IS 10. 11 IS THE REGULAR AGENDA ITEMS. WE ACTUALLY HAVE TWO THIS EVENING. THE FIRST ONE IS TOBACCO COMPLIANCE VIOLATIONS. and it was Holiday Gas Station and Smoke Shop and Vape. And our Director of Public Safety, I'll promote you right now. Interim, okay. Brad Peterson is gonna walk us through this, so welcome, Brad.

Good evening, Mayor, Council. We're here tonight to talk about a couple tobacco compliance violations that have occurred. So by way of background, just let council and the audience know that Codge Grove PD does conduct two tobacco and THC checks per calendar year. We do that for two reasons. Reason number one, it's statutorily required by the state. And reason number two is that we feel that The proper hiring, training, and supervision of staff that sell tobacco is important to maintain compliance with state laws and city ordinances, as well as it's a useful tool in keeping tobacco and nicotine products out of the hands of underage users. So unfortunately, we did have two businesses fail the background check. As you mentioned, the first was Holiday Gas Station at 8490 East Point Douglas Road, and the second is the Smoke Shop and Vape. Those compliance checks occurred on May 27th. The silver lining, if there is one, is that for both of these businesses, it is their first violation in the past 36 months. I'll spare you all of the details, but I'll highlight some of the key notes. We follow a very strict procedure when we do this. It's not trying to be a game of gotcha or use of deception. We choose a juvenile, or I should say an underage minor. Typically, they're known to us. They're family members or they're explorers. If they happen to be minors, we get consent from the parents. We photograph them, we verify their ID. They're given very specific instructions. They're told that they can't be deceitful in any way. If they're asked about their true identity or their age, they have to give an honest response. If they're asked for ID, they have to present their own identification. So again, it's not a game of gotcha. We're just making sure that the businesses are properly checking ID and not selling to underage persons. If there is a violation, what will happen is the decoy will exit the store with the product, present it to the officers, explain what happened. The officers will enter the store, make contact with the clerk that made the sale, identify the clerk, ask them about what happened, inquire whether they visualized the ID or asked about the person's age, generally question them to see how and why that improper sale happened. And as well, management is notified, and we'll check records to make sure there are no prior violations. And then finally, a notice will be delivered to management for the business, and they're invited to be present at tonight's meeting. The intent of this slide is just to show that if somebody does check ID, it's readily apparent that they're dealing with a person that's under 21. There's a couple cues. First is the orientation of the ID or driver's license. A horizontal ID indicates that they're over 21. A vertical means that they're under 21. And there's other visual cues on there, including a stamp that says under 21. So if they do check, it should be readily apparent that the person is under 21 years old. So now I'll get into some of the actual details of the incident. Again, this happened on May 27th. The redacted police reports were included in the counsel packet for your reference. The decoy in this case was a 17-year-old male. He entered the store with a recorded monetary note, and he made contact with the clerk, asked to purchase below 9-milligram pouches. In this case, the cashier did not request his identification, so the decoy paid with a $20 bill, exited the store with the product, and informed officers what happened. The officers entered the store, made contact with the clerk, and he admitted that he did not check the ID because the decoy appeared to be old enough because he had a beard. A citation was issued to the cashier. It's a misdemeanor citation for sale of tobacco to an underage buyer. And then, like I said, later on we did make contact with the business and gave them an invitation to be here tonight. And there are some representatives from Holiday Gas Station here that will give an opportunity to respond here in a moment. So now I'll address the second violation, which happened at Smoke Shop and Vape at 6980th Street. Again, this happened on May 27th. We used the same 17-year-old male decoy. He entered the store with that marked $20 bill and asked to buy Zinn pouches. The cashier did not request identification again. The decoy paid, exited the store with product, handed it over to the officers, reported what happened. The officers entered the store, made contact with the clerk. He admitted that he did not check ID, stating that he thought the buyer might be old enough and added that he didn't want to inconvenience the buyer because he was walking with the aid of crutches. Management was notified, the cashier was cited for a misdemeanor sale of tobacco to a underage person and then management was notified and there is a representative here willing to speak as well. So I have two recommendations before you. Recommendation number one would be that we allow each of the businesses an opportunity to respond to the alleged violations. If they choose to contest, I would ask that council schedule a hearing at a future date. If they wish to admit to the violation and accept responsibility, council should impose a scheduled penalty of $300, being that's a first time violation in the last 36 months. And I'll stand for your questions.

Council, do you have any questions at all? Brad, I know, real quick, I know for alcohol, there's kind of a tiered system. Do we have the same thing for tobacco?

That's correct.

Okay. So this would be, if they were to have another violation, then it escalates. Correct. Okay. All right. Sounds good. Thank you. All right. Why don't we start, and thank you, Brad. Let's start with the holiday gas station. Do you guys want to come up and share? Just state your name and address for the record. Thank you.

Amanda Nellison, N-E-L-L-E-S-S-E-N. And I'm sorry, what was the other question?

Just the address.

Oh, the address of the place, 8490 East Point Douglas Road South in Cottage Grove. So obviously we're here for a reason. We did have a file at compliance check. That employee has since been terminated, so that's one of our things that we did to hopefully, moving forward, this won't be an issue. We are also implementing, starting July 1st, we are going to be a 100% carting store for any age-restricted products. We also just so happen to have a store meeting tomorrow at which we are going to do some retraining that one of the city people provided to us. So yeah, that way we can, hopefully this won't happen anymore.

Yes, good.

Do you have any questions?

Yeah, Council Member Olson.

Thank you for being here this evening, first of all. Appreciate that very much, and I also appreciate the insight into what you've done thus far to handle this. My question is, do you have electronic means to scan IDs and identify whether somebody is of age or not of age through your POS system?

Yes.

Okay, so in this circumstance, is it that the individual responsible simply did not do that, or what exactly transpired there?

Correct, he did not ask for an ID at all.

Didn't ask for an ID at all? Correct. Okay, all right. And the reason I ask is I work in the business, and I know that that's a really good way to ensure that you don't fall into this trap is, A, you card everybody and b you have an electronic method where it basically flashes right up on the screen in front of everybody hey look this is not something that we want to do but if they don't even ask for id obviously that's a challenge so i think you handled that appropriately thank you okay any other questions all right thank you and then um we have uh the smoke shop and vape

And again, just your name and address for the record.

Sharif El Barawi, 6990 80th Street, Cottage Grove. So we have been in the business for about three years in Cottage Grove, and we didn't have any violation before. The problem is mainly from the employee. So in our system, we have like a digital calendar which tells the employee what date it's specifically on. We also have an app that whenever you scan a product, it pops up for the employee. There is a way that they can skip it. It's usually by visual verification, which just shows that he visually has seen the ID card, which we're not going to allow this anymore. ANY TOBACCO PRODUCT, ONCE YOU SCAN IT, IT SHOWS TO THE EMPLOYEE SO YOU DON'T FORGET ABOUT THAT. SO THAT WAS TOTALLY LIKE AN EMPLOYEE MISTAKE AND WE HAVE TERMINATED THE EMPLOYEE AS WELL. WE GAVE HIM LIKE TWO WEEKS JUST TO AS A NOTICE SO HE CAN FIND ANOTHER JOB AND ALL THAT STUFF. BUT IN THE MEANTIME, TOO, WE WERE HIRING ANOTHER PERSON TO BE ALWAYS WATCHING HIM. He had a previous experience. He used to work in the smoke shops before, and we checked like he was trained. In his defense, he was saying when he saw the guy, he came with a beard and crutches, so he didn't want him to struggle with his ID, but this is not an excuse, and we're trying our best not to happen again.

Okay. Counsel, any questions for him? All right. Thank you. So thank you both for coming. Obviously, I know having to terminate employees, I'm not in the convenience business. I'm in a different part of retail. But anytime you have to term somebody for something like that is not a joyous day by any means. But I do appreciate the fact that you guys took it seriously in both cases. And I certainly, myself personally, would hope that we won't have to see you in the in the future and that you'll just continue to pass like you've done in the past, so. All right, so Council, number two is the imposing of the penalty.

I move that we impose the scheduled penalty of $300 for the first violation in a 36-month period.

All right, so we have a motion by Councilmember Thibaut. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Councilmember Olsen. Any other discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you for coming tonight. All right, and the second item under regular agenda is B, which is Geneva Meadows, second edition, zoning amendment and preliminary plat. And Max Erickson, our planner, is going to take us through this one, so welcome, Max.

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor and members of council. Lennar has applied for a zoning amendment in a preliminary plat for development to be called Geneva Meadows second edition. The request includes a single parcel that is 13.14 acres. Parcel is currently zoned R1 rural residential. The applicant is proposing to rezone the parcel to R3 single family residential and plat 23 single family lots. Parcel is located at 8591 Geneva Avenue South, which is located south of 85th Street and west of Geneva Avenue. It is located along the St. Paul Park and Cottage Grove city municipal boundaries. The site is currently a rural residential lot with an existing residence. There's a gas pipeline easement which runs along the north part of the property. The site is currently accessed by Geneva Avenue South from 85th Street to the north. Geneva Avenue is a private drive within City Right-of-Way, which also services a residence at 8701 Geneva Avenue and other developed property to the south. Because Geneva Avenue is located along the municipal boundary, there is an existing joint powers agreement in place between Cottage Grove and the City of St. Paul Park. to provide a right of way for Cottage Grove to maintain the ability to provide access to the residences within the city of Cottage Grove. The applicant is proposing to rezone the parcel to R3 with a density of 2.13 units per acre. This is consistent with future use of the property being low density residential in the 2040 comprehensive plan. The proposed plat consists of 23 single family lots, which intends to meet the zoning district standards of the R3 zoning district. The existing home at 8591 Geneva Avenue will be included in this development as a remnant parcel. The proposal will create a mix of 65 and 75 foot lots, which are consistent with the R3 zoning standards. There are eight outlots which have been proposed for this development. Two of the outlots, A and H, will serve the development stormwater needs. These two outlots will be deeded for the city for stormwater maintenance. The stormwater plan has been reviewed, and a plan review memo has been issued to the applicant, and a final stormwater plan will be submitted with the application of the final plat. There are five outlots that have been proposed to incorporate the pipeline easement and a remaining wooded tract which borders the Feld addition subdivision to the north. The developer does not wish to implement an HOA and this area is kind of impractical to maintain. So the developer has communicated with the adjacent landowners to deed these outlots TO THE RESIDENCES OF THE FELD EDITION. THERE WILL BE A DEED RESTRICTION THAT WILL BE REQUIRED FOR THESE OUTLOTS TO ENSURE THAT THEY REMAIN UNDER COMMON LAND OWNERSHIP. THEY CAN'T BE COMBINED AS PART OF TWO DIFFERENT PLATS. THIS IS SIMILAR TO WHAT WAS APPROVED FOR THE SUMMER'S LANDING FOURTH EDITION IN 2020. CITY PARKS AND TRAILS MAP DOES NOT INCLUDE ANY PARK OR TRAIL ON THIS PROPERTY. So, no park dedication will be accepted as physical property. Cash in lieu of physical dedication will be required for park dedication. Primary access to the development will be from Summit Avenue, which is currently under construction in St. Paul Park as part of the Geneva Meadows First Edition. This development will consist of one road with a cul-de-sac to be known as Geneva Court. To prevent through traffic, the developer will remove a segment of Geneva Avenue from the existing residence on the property to the proposed connection on Summit Avenue. The remainder of Geneva Avenue located south of Summit Avenue will remain. Both existing residences will have their private accesses preserved. As a roadway connection will be through St. Paul Park, sewer and water will also be serviced by St. Paul Park. A joint powers agreement is being coordinated with city staff to provide sewer and water of 22 of the lots from St. Paul Park. The existing residents on the site will continue to utilize a private well and septic. Water and sewer will be stubbed to that property to provide a future connection for sewer and water should the property owner choose to do so in the future. City of Code requires the tree inventory for the site. The applicant has provided a tree inventory and preservation plan for the development and is required to mitigate tree removal. They will provide mitigation via landscape plantings with the remainder being cash in lieu of. Lennar is proposing to meet City Code with all required lot trees. The developer held a neighborhood meeting on April 10th, 2026. There were questions and comments pertaining to the construction of the development, which included the removal of a stand of trees, which exists between the pipeline easement and those residences of the Feld addition. There is no plan to remove these trees and that area will be dedicated to those residences. An additional question which was presented, including truck hauling routes for construction activities. A St. Paul Park attendee of this meeting asked whether the truck hauling route would utilize St. Paul Park roads like the first addition. And since this is a Cottage Grove project, we provided that the truck hauling route will utilize 85th Street to Grange Boulevard 261. There will be significantly less amount of truck traffic than the first addition located in St. Paul Park. On screen is an example of a few home products that they are proposing to offer to this community. These are similar to products found in like Greymont Village, which is currently under construction, and as well as Talcott Glen, which was preliminarily approved in March. And with that, I leave the recommendation before you. There is a representative from the applicant here as well to answer questions. Staff.

Council, any questions for staff at the moment? No? Applicant, would you like to come up and just state your name and address for the record?

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the council, and hardworking staff. My name is Steve Grohuski. I'm a project manager with Lennar. My home address is 5542 Bimini Drive in Minnetonka, Minnesota. I'm just here to put a face on the application and let the council know that we look forward to doing another successful development in the city of Cottage Grove. We've been here for a long time. I hope the city's been happy with what we've been doing. And again, we look forward to, in fact, in the future. If there's any questions, I'd be happy to answer them. kind of filling in for the original entitlement manager who started this project. He decided to move on to either greener pastures or other pastures. So I was volunteered to attend this morning, or this evening, and put a face to the application.

All right, sounds good. Council, any questions for him at all? Not really.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

Thank you.

Appreciate you coming in.

And I hope you have a successful Strawberry Fest this weekend. Thank you.

SO I HAVE A QUESTION, I DON'T KNOW IF IT'S FOR YOU, MAX, OR IF IT MIGHT BE FOR JENNIFER. THE DEVELOPMENT PART IS FINE, IN MY OPINION, ANYWAY. WE'LL VOTE ON THAT IN A SECOND. THE REMNANT PARCEL THAT'S THERE, THE HOUSE THAT'S STILL GOING TO HAVE ACCESS TO THE MAIN ROAD THERE, IS THERE, IN THE FUTURE, IS THERE A POSSIBILITY WHERE THEY COULD COME IN AND SUBDIVIDE THAT EVEN FURTHER? BECAUSE I CAN'T REALLY TELL HOW BIG THAT LOT IS. SO IF THEY DECIDED, HEY, WE'RE

You mean the one that's surrounded, not the one that's further south?

No, the one that's there.

Mayor, members of the council, Mr. Krenner has wished to retain his parcel, and he was very specific about the size of the parcel that he wished to retain. And so staff has worked with him to preserve as many options for that in the future. So yes, he could subdivide. We've worked with the utilities and with road access to ensure that all opportunities are preserved to ensure opportunities exist in the future if he so desires.

That's why I was asking is because with the road, the way it would be set up, there would literally be no access with homes to the west of them, north or east, I'm sorry, and south, there would be no access. So that's why I just wanted to verify if that was the case. Okay. All right. That was my only question. All right, so council, unless there's any other questions, we have two motions. If somebody would like to take the first one.

I'll go ahead and move to adopt ordinance number 1115, approving a zoning amendment to change the zoning of 13.14 acres of land located at 8591 Geneva Avenue South from R1 Rural Residential to R3 Single Family Residential.

All right, so I have a motion by Council Member Thede and a second by Council Member Olson. All those in favor, signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed? Motion carries. And Council Member Olson, you want to do number two?

Mayor, I'll move Resolution 2026-083, approving the preliminary plat for a residential subdivision to be called Geneva Meadows Second Edition, which will consist of 23 single-family homes to be located at 8591 Geneva Avenue South.

All right, so we have a motion by Council Member Olsen, second by Council Member Thede. All those in favor on this one, signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. All right, thank you. Good luck. And hopefully we'll see you at Strawberry Fest this weekend.

Thanks for making that drive from Minnetonka to come out here. Yeah, that was a drive.

I bet it was.

We've been hearing that a lot lately. We've got a drone show, though. Okay. Get the bus out down there in Minnetonka on Bimini Trail and Collect everybody up and come on out.

There you go. All right. And thank you, Max. Next is council comments request number 12, and I'll start with council member Rosen.

Thank you, mayor. I have three this evening. First of all, I wanted to extend a thank you to our parks department for a really fun bus tour. last week we had the chance to spend some time on the bus with our parks commission and some other members of various city commissions and also our pine ridge garden club the mayor and i were able to to join along with councilmember theody and WE HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO KIND OF DO A CHECK-IN IN A LOT OF THE NEW PARK SPACE THAT WE HAVE IN THE CITY OF COTTAGE GROVE IN VARIOUS STAGES OF CONSTRUCTION. WE ALSO WERE ABLE TO TAKE SOME TIME AND STOP AT THE CEDARHURST MANSION AND SEE THE PROGRESS THERE FROM CONSTRUCTION FROM BELLA GALA. AND ALL IN ALL, IT WAS A REALLY REWARDING NIGHT. THERE WAS A LOT OF ENERGY ON THE BUS AROUND ALL OF THE DIFFERENT PROJECTS THAT WE HAVE GOING ON. IT'S A GREAT WAY TO SHOW SOME OF THE VARIOUS COMMISSION MEMBERS WHO DON'T SERVE ON THE PARKS COMMISSION BUT SERVE ON OTHER COMMISSIONS ALL THE WORK THAT OUR PARKS DEPARTMENT IS DOING. AND IT WAS ALSO REALLY GREAT THAT WE GOT TO SEE A LOT OF FAMILIES AND YOUNG PEOPLE HANGING OUT IN THE PARKS TOO. SO VERY EXCITED FOR EVERYTHING THAT WE'VE GOT GOING ON IN OUR PARKS DEPARTMENT AND OF COURSE that project at Cedarhurst is coming along very nicely and I think I can speak for the Mayor and Councilmember Thede when I say it's been a long time coming and we're pretty excited to see that come online. The second thing I wanted to just mention briefly, Mayor, is we have a golf tournament coming up sponsored by our Mississippi River Valley Beyond the Yellow Ribbon. It's our second annual Hometown Heroes Golf Tournament, and it will take place on July 31st at River Oaks. We had just a phenomenal tournament last year the weather was perfect, River Oaks did a magnificent job of hosting the tournament, we had a lot of great volunteers, and based on all of the planning meetings and things that we've had thus far this year, it looks to be even better. I really wanted to mention as well, A DEBT OF GRATITUDE TO MARATHON PETROLEUM FOR STEPPING UP AS OUR PRIMARY SPONSOR FOR THE EVENT THIS YEAR. THEY'VE REALLY COME FORWARD IN A BIG WAY FOR US. AND AT THIS POINT, BASED ON MY MOST RECENT INFORMATION, WHICH WAS A DAY OR TWO AGO, SO THINGS COULD BE DIFFERENT, We have four whole sponsorships left for $500 per hole and we have about 10 team slots left and will be completely full for the tournament this year. So this is a joint effort between our Cottage Grove Lions Club, our Mississippi River Valley Beyond the Yellow Ribbon Network team and the Cottage Grove VFW in addition to all of the various sponsors. I'LL CERTAINLY LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING EVERYBODY THERE WHO'S GOING TO BE PARTICIPATING. I THINK I MIGHT EVEN PLAY THIS YEAR. LAST YEAR I DID MORE OF THE BEHIND THE SCENES STUFF, BUT I THINK I GOT ROOKED INTO PLAYING THIS YEAR BECAUSE SOMEBODY HAD TO CANCEL. AND MAYOR, I'M NOT SURE IF YOU'LL BE PLAYING THIS YEAR, BUT I KNOW YOU WERE THERE LAST YEAR. SO HOPEFULLY YOU'LL BE ABLE TO COME AND SEE US ANYWAY, COME AND VISIT. AND THEN THE LAST THING I WANTED TO MENTION IS THIS YEAR'S Freedom Fest for the Cottage Grove Lions Club at Kingston Park will take place on July the 5th with a really exciting fireworks show. The mayor's been great about helping with fundraising for this event through our Cottage Grove Lions Club as well. We're looking at a significant increase in funding for the 250th anniversary of the nation and the show that we're gonna put on this year. We're very excited to host everybody at Kingston Park. The fun starts at five o'clock, come on down. we will have glow sticks, we have bike raffles, we'll have a military band will be there performing. In addition to all of the various vendors that we have on hand, McMart with their ice cream, we also have the roasted corn vendors and cheese curds. The Cottage Grove Lions will be serving food and we've even decided this year because it is the 250th anniversary OF THE NATION THAT OUR FIRST 250 CUSTOMERS WILL RECEIVE A FREE HOT DOG FROM THE COTTAGE GROVE LIONS. SO WE ARE GIVING AWAY 250 FREE HOT DOGS. THAT DOESN'T MEAN, DAVE, YOU CAN GET IN LINE AND GET 10 OR 12 AT ONE TIME. THAT'S NOT WHAT WE'RE DOING. IT'S THE FIRST 250 CUSTOMERS. SO BRING 249 OF YOUR CLOSEST FRIENDS AND WE'LL MAKE SURE THAT EVERYBODY GETS A FREE HOT DOG. AND AGAIN, JULY 5TH, It's a Sunday evening. It will be at Kingston Park, and we're looking forward to a great crowd just like we had last year.

With that, Mayor, I'll turn it back to you. Awesome. Thank you, Council Member Olson. Council Member Brithidi, I think there's something red going on this morning.

I know, right? Certainly, Mayor.

I guess Justin didn't get the email.

Yeah, memo. But at any rate, yeah, so tomorrow is Strawberry Fest is starting. It's finally here. Festivities start at 4 p.m. tomorrow. Tomorrow is the family day. So we've got like the kids tractor pull. We've got... you know, some different bands and so forth. It's supposed to be a, you know, beautiful weather. It was supposed to be a beautiful weather Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Friday might have a couple of things, but if we get enough, I've told if we get enough smiles out there on Friday, you know, that Mother Nature will look down and say, you know, they'll just kind of spread the, part the clouds and...

Maybe we can get some visitors from Minnetonka to bring the good weather in. What do you think of that?

There you go, right? Yeah. Okay. But it's going to be a great time. Parade is Saturday morning at 10. You know, it's supposed to be beautiful weather on Saturday all day long. And we got the drone show this year. And again, so that's supposed to be pretty spectacular. We've kind of upped the ante on that a little bit because we got such great response from it last year. And so I'm really excited. And you can find out about all the bands, all the activities, all the events. You can go out to cottagegrovestrawberryfest.com and get all that information. And I believe if you're a Facebooker, you can look up Cottage Grove Strawberry Fest, and we do have our page and so forth for that. So it's going to be a great time, as usual, and we look forward to seeing everybody there. There's a couple other things here I was going to mention too. We have the Green Garden Award. I didn't know whether you were going to mention that. No, go ahead. You want to nominate a beautiful local garden for Cottage Grove Green Garden Award by July 3rd. 2026, of course, to celebrate stunning residential curb appeal or eco-friendly sustainability. You can submit entries for multiple categories and winners will be honored at the August 5th City Council meeting. So visit the Cottage Grove Parks and Recreation website or contact the department directly to find nomination forms and submit entries. So that is the Cottage Grove Green Garden Award. Get your nominations in by July 3rd, 2026. And I'll talk about Patio Week quick too. Yeah, go do that. Okay, well the Discover Cottage Grove is actually hosting Patio Week this year from July 12th to 18th. And so far, we've got Muddy Cow, Junction 70, and River Oaks have already confirmed their participation in featuring exclusive menu items and food and drink specials. And for additional updates and details, be sure to watch and check the Discover Cottage Grove Facebook page. And the website. And so I believe the website is www.discoverkindnessgrow.com, right?

It's cute to have you look over at staff. Tammy, you are the best.

She's like, yes, that's right. That's right. All right. So that should be really neat, too. So there you go.

Fantastic. All right, just piggybacking a little bit on some of the information that's been shared here tonight. The one thing I did want to mention, and we hear a lot about this, I think people can see that if they're watching on TV, Every resident, every business in Cottage Grove gets the City of Cottage Grove newsletter. And in the newsletter, to your point, there is something in here about Strawberry Fest. Also was going to mention Movies with Moe, which is this coming Friday also, July 17th and August 14th at Highlands Park. AND THEN THE FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION WHICH COUNCILMEMBER ROLSON MENTIONED. SO A LOT OF THINGS AND THE WEBSITES AND THAT, YEP, HE'S GOT ONE RIGHT THERE, PERFECT. THE WEBSITE IS THERE AND YOU CAN SEE ALL THE DIFFERENT ACTIVITIES AND THINGS THAT ARE HAPPENING AROUND OUR COMMUNITY. SO I JUST ENCOURAGE YOU TO TAKE A LOOK AT THAT. THERE'S ALSO LINKS ON THERE for our lovely 80th Street Rehabilitation Project. So if you want to know what's going on there, the website is also listed there. So again, refer to the City of Cottage Grove newsletter, or you could go to our website too. The other item I wanted to mention too, I want to say, is obviously, as you heard, this weekend is Strawberry Fest. And with Strawberry Fest, over the years, for the public that may not know, we have obviously a lot of city staff that help WHETHER IT'S PUBLIC WORKS WORKERS OR PUBLIC SAFETY DEPARTMENTS, EVERYBODY'S OUT THERE MAKING THIS SUCH A GREAT COMMUNITY EVENT. BUT ON TOP OF THAT IS NUMEROUS, NUMEROUS VOLUNTEERS. EVEN THOUGH COUNCILMEMBER THEDE IS ON THE CITY COUNCIL HERE AND HE GETS HIS huge salary for being on the council. Massive. Massive salary. He also volunteers his time for Strawberry Fest. And so I would just ask from the public standpoint, when you're out, whether it's on the parade route or whether you're going to go to the festival Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Yeah, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. If you see somebody out there that's a staff on it, usually you guys have your shirts on. Yeah.

That'll be red this year.

Red this year. It says staff. Please go up to them and say thank you because they're the ones that are putting on this amazing event. They're the ones that do all the work behind the scenes. And literally within a week or two after the festival is finished, they're already starting to plan for the next year. So it just goes to tell you, and again, other than the city's involvement with public safety and public works and all that, it's 100% volunteer. So please share your appreciation with them. And then also share with them if there's something else you'd like to see, right? Absolutely. If there's other ideas or you want to get involved, obviously definitely do that too.

We love to have people come and... WORK WITH ALL OF US AND EVERYTHING, TOO, SO. EVERYTHING, TOO, SO.

ABSOLUTELY.

ABSOLUTELY. AND IT'S WORTH MENTIONING, AND IT'S WORTH MENTIONING, MAYOR, THAT, YOU KNOW, MAYOR, THAT, YOU KNOW, COUNCILMEMBER THEDE IS A COUNCILMEMBER THEDE IS A MEMBER OF THE ST. PAUL PARK MEMBER OF THE ST. PAUL PARK NEW PORT LIONS CLUB. NEW PORT LIONS CLUB. I'M A MEMBER OF THE COUTAGE I'M A MEMBER OF THE COUTAGE GROVE LIONS CLUB. GROVE LIONS CLUB. THAT'S AN ENTIRE VOLUNTEER both sides and the Lions will be there as well. We also have volunteers from Mississippi River Valley Beyond the Yellow Ribbon who will be there. We have volunteers from our various commissions including Discover Cottage Grove, the board will be there. So this is an all hands on deck event. I appreciate you bringing that up because it is really a community event for the community by the community.

Absolutely and it gets bigger every year. IT DOES. IT DOES. IT DOES. AND THEN THE LAST THING I JUST AND THEN THE LAST THING I JUST WANT TO MAKE MY LAST PLUG WANT TO MAKE MY LAST PLUG BECAUSE THIS WILL BE THE LAST BECAUSE THIS WILL BE THE LAST MEETING BEFORE THE FOURTH OF MEETING BEFORE THE FOURTH OF JULY OR THE FIFTH WHEN WE DO THE JULY OR THE FIFTH WHEN WE DO THE CELEBRATION OF THE WEEKEND I JUST WANTED TO EXTEND MY APPRECIATION TO NORTHPOINT, 3M, HY-VEE, RENEWAL BY ANDERSON, TENNESSEE SANITATION, HOENSTEINS, VAN METER, AND OLD NATIONAL BANK. ALL OF THEM ARE WHAT IS PUTTING ON THIS SPECTACULAR 4TH OF JULY CELEBRATION TO CELEBRATE THE 250TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE NATION THAT WE'RE SITTING IN TODAY. And it is going to be a spectacular fireworks show. We do appreciate, once again, the Lions Club kind of taking the forefront. They've asked me, as I've been for the years now, go out and see if we can get people to donate or businesses to donate. And I do hear a lot of cities pay for theirs. In our case, we don't. We had years ago. but really tried to shift it a little bit to get more community involved again. And our business community here in Cottage Grove stepped up. So one, OUT AND CHECK OUT THE GREAT FIREWORKS ON SUNDAY NIGHT ENJOY THE FAMILY GET TOGETHER AS AS COUNCILMEMBER OLSON MENTIONED AND THEN LASTLY IF ANYBODY IS LISTENING AND YOU GO HEY YOU KNOW WHAT MAYBE NOT THIS YEAR BUT NEXT YEAR I'D LIKE TO BE A SPONSOR WHETHER IT'S STRAWBERRY FEST OR WHETHER IT'S FOR THE FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION REACH OUT TO ONE OF US UP HERE WOULD BE MORE THAN HAPPY TO INCLUDE YOU IN THE FUTURE SO That was it for my comments. There is no workshop open to the public this evening, and there's no workshop that's closed to the public this evening. So believe it or not, we're at adjournment. So I heard Council Member Olsen first, Council Member Thede second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Enjoy Strawberry Fest, everyone.