City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome everyone to the regular session city council meeting of the beautiful city of Del Rapids, South Dakota on September 8th, 2026, Tuesday at 7pm. It's Hello to everyone online, watching at home or listening. And I'm so excited to see everybody out in the audience tonight. Thank you again for being interested in your local government and the goings on of your city. At this time, will the clerk please call the roll? Phelps?

Here.

Hine? Here. Nelson?

Here.

Cavagelli? Here. Jones? Here. Ronsagen? Ruesink? Here. Hanslick? Here. Mayor Simmons?

Here. Would you please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance?

At this point, I'll entertain a motion to approve the agenda. Hans Lix will move.

Is there a second? Second. We have a motion from Hanslick, seconded by Jones, to approve the agenda. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. Motion carried. Looking for a motion to approve the minutes from August 17th, 2026.

Is there a second?

Second.

All those in favor of approving the minutes, say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. Motion carried. At this point, we will welcome any visitors that would like to come forward and speak on any item that is not on the agenda tonight. Please try and keep your time to three minutes. State your name and potentially your address. At this time, anybody? Hey, Dave.

Hi, Dave Schmitt. I'll give my address once you guys identify yourselves by what words you actually work. It's been requested what words you're actually in instead of my name. But I'm sure you know where I live by now. With that being said, in answer to your question, seeing how the attorney didn't answer it, Felicia, I knew the answer. Felicia does allow rounding of time up to 15 minutes. It's by letter as well as by statute under federal law. Second part of that is during the conversation, Mr. Phelps, about flock with the sheriff's department. Are you for or against? Because it appeared that you were for. I just want clarification before I state what I'm going to state about flock cameras. At this point, I guess I haven't set my opinion. I haven't been educated enough on it yet. Fair enough. Officers, because I was one at one time, can lie to you. That lie can come either straight forward, which wasn't in this case, or by omission. What he said to you was truthful. He won't put one here until we actually have a camera here by your request. But what he lacked to tell you is that right by your sign that says Del Rapids, three miles ahead, is a flock camera. Taking and tracking, so his grid is there. Where else is it there? Coming straight into town the other way by Midway Station. And that was actually on private property at the request. The reason that they moved it to seven days is because there was a court decision that was recently done for Verizon. It was a 30-day look back. The grid's been in place. The fact of the matter is that data isn't owned by the sheriff's department. It's also able to be violated by state law because their investigations are protected. So if I were to do an open records request, I couldn't get that information from the sheriff's department. But there's a neat work around that. All I have to do is go to another state that allows it, and I can get all the information I want about the state of South Dakota. So with that, I ask and implore you to do a resolution, send it to the county board because they won't hear us on the matter. That's pretty apparent. And be against it because it is a violation of free travel and search and seizure. Next point I'd like to make. There was a young lady which will be coming up after me. She asked about the trees and the tree ordinance and the committee. First of all, Madam Mayor, I ask that you assemble that standing committee that's actually under, I believe a tree board, 2210, page 252 of the city ordinances. To my knowledge, there's no ordinance that disbanded that committee and it's a standing committee. The second part of that is, is the board's authority to actually have trees. And that's 98, page 98, 15.5 through 10. One of those is the board, the other one is the appeal process basically in front of you guys. She'd like to be heard and she'll be speaking after me. And the last thing is the budget's coming up. We have a time system on there for seven grand a year. That doesn't include equipment. I do mine under. Connect teams, 30 employees, $1,300 a year. You guys need to find better options. Just saying, there's a lot of things here that are going to be brought forth tonight, not only by me, but it's being fiscally responsible. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Dave. Anyone else?

I'm back again.

Hi, Solveig. Good evening.

Mayor Simmons, is that right? And Administrator Steven, and members of the City Council, and Dean Hammer. My name is Solveig Larsen Hendrickson, and I live at the corner of 412 East 6th Street in Orleans. I'm here tonight again to highlight the immense value of the 18, that's 18, mature trees on our block. That's one block. that will be cut down. These trees are not just decorations, they are vital pieces of our city's infrastructure. They actively manage stormwater runoff, keep our neighbor cool in the summer, and significantly lift property values, which directly benefits our town's tax base. While young saplings are great, they cannot match the immediate infrastructure services that mature trees provide. Mature shade trees in South Dakota add thousands, that's thousands of dollars in individual property value and provide hundreds of dollars in annual environment and energy saving benefits per tree. A healthy, mature shade tree can add up to $2,000 to $10,000 in one home's value overall. In South Dakota's open landscapes, large trees create a strong focal point, making residential lots significantly more attractive to prospective buyers. Strategic placement on the west and south sides of a home block in tense summer sun, cutting air conditioning costs significantly. In South Dakota winters, Large, mature trees also buffer harsh, cold prairie winds. Real estate and arboriculture guidelines, such as the tree trunk formula method, calculate a tree's worth based on its cross-sectional trunk area, species, hardiness, condition, and location. In Del Rapids, the past especially 40 years, We have prided ourselves on its historic charm, quartzite architecture, and beautiful public spaces. Large mature trees are irreplaceable. They are visual anchors that make neighborhoods highly attractive to new families. Replacing a 50-year-old tree with a sapling will take decades. We ask that the council proactively consider these economic and community benefits whenever managing, trimming, or planning constructions around our neighborhood's canopy. We appreciate the city's forward thinking stance on trees as seen. through the tree rebate program that is currently in the program. We ask that the city utilize tree-friendly construction practices such as root mapping or alternative utility routing when infrastructure is planned for our city block. Please consider these economic and community benefits when planning construction around our neighborhood's canopy. I thank you for your time and your service to the City of Del Rapids. Thank you for your dedication to keeping Del Rapids beautiful and structurally sound. Thank you. And I have a copy for each of you.

Thank you so much. Any other visitors this evening?

Hello, City Council. My name is Alexander Heinemann. I'm a senior at DRHS. I come to you today because at the last meeting, the question of installing flock cameras within Del Rapids was brought up. I, along with at least 50 of my peers within the school, do not want this for several reasons. Flock systems, while being sold to police and HOAs alike for security, are incredibly bad at security themselves. There's an independent journalist by the name of Ben Jordan who created several YouTube videos on this topic. In one video titled, We Hacked Flock Security Cameras in Under 30 Seconds, he shows four separate ways people with ill intent could get into flock systems and do virtually whatever they want with the footage. I will share with you just two of those ways, but I encourage you to watch the video yourself. It's very informative. The first way Mr. Jordan shows is a flaw in Flock's design that allows the installer to connect to the camera. There's a button on the back of the Flock cameras that when you push it, it allows you to connect to the Wi-Fi system that Flock's let out so that you can connect to the camera and see what it's seeing. The problem with that is anybody can press that button. If you climb the pole and press the button yourself, you can get into the Flock camera system. Another way that Mr. Jordan shows revolves around the way that Flock stores its footage. Flock stores all of its footage on Google. Now, you can't just get into the footage by typing Flock security camera footage. You have to do a certain search query that I'm not going to share because we're not allowed to know that. But you may be asking yourself, so what? It's just camera footage. Well, Ben Jordan also answers that exact question in another video titled, This Flocked Camera Leak is Like Netflix for Stalkers, where in that video, he shows that with access to the footage, not only can you edit the footage or straight up delete it with one push of a button, but a hacker could use other websites to see who the people are that are getting recorded, where they live, and even their medical history. Council, do you want to be exposing the citizens of Del Rapids to that sort of danger? Mr. Jordan isn't also the only one investigating Flock. Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon and Representative Raja Krishnamoorthy of Illinois are investigating Flock for these threats to the national security. But Flock is a very useful tool to police. Flock boasts on their website that 20% of all cases in the US were solved with the help from Flock. And the Supreme Court, in the case of United States versus Porter, ruled that LPR data is not a Fourth Amendment search as long as it's intermediate. Flock's entire business model is built to inch ever closer to get rid of that intermediate footage. I don't want to stand here and wait while more and more security is put up to stop the installation of this mass security system. As Benjamin Franklin once said, those who surrender freedom for security will not have nor do they deserve either one. City Council, I encourage you to think heavily when debating on installing FLOC in Del Rapids, as well as get the citizens' opinions before moving forward. FLOC does not just watch for criminals that drive by. They watch every single person, you and me alike. Thank you.

Thank you, Alex.

Do you guys want to see the 50-some people that signed? Sure.

We can pass the drone. Do you need it back?

I don't.

Okay, we can get back to you. Any other residents care to have time at the visitor's spot? Mr. Benson.

All right. Well, I thought of some new things because of all the conversation. I wasn't really planning to speak on this. So, as far as the plot cameras go, I mean, I think we can, oh, I'm sorry, Jason Jenkins, 1402 Potter, Monroe. I think we all agree there's already several, you know, concerning issues of data privacy in our country and our society. That being said, at least in a lot of those situations, people have a little more agency around that. They can uninstall or avoid apps. They can knowingly agree to it. It doesn't feel like you really get that with the cameras. It's hope you can convince the council one way or the other, and if not, you're just stuck with it forever. you know and so i don't know i guess i i'm not saying like completely never consider things like that but there are a lot of serious issues with things like flock hammers so that wasn't really what i was going to talk about but they inspired me to talk about it um If you're curious, data privacy is a very hot topic in just our world, and there's an organization called the IAPP, and they have a tracker of legislation. And if you look at that map, if you were to look at it five years ago to today, there's a lot more state laws that are part of the patchwork. We really don't have that in South Dakota, at least as of now. So it's kind of up to us at this level, this local level, to protect if there is indeed an issue there. Um, the thing that really has been bothering me lately is this idea of like a time tracking system for the employees and the city employees. I mean, I really appreciate everything our city employees do. I guess my general theory on if something's on the budget, especially a new thing that implies that there's some kind of return on investment for it. So. i guess i haven't seen every meeting where it was discussed but i'm not really understanding the return on investment of that expense like it's implying that you feel like there's a serious problem one that's worth spending was at fifteen thousand dollars i don't know the number's probably been massaged over time but it seemed like a lot um i think it was the first speaker so dave Yeah, they said something about it. Really, the thought that I had after mulling it over a little more is, you know, if you're really going to go down that road, the least you could do is get a better deal. I mean, that amount of money just seems like way too much for that. I mean, how are you even going to recover that kind of money? So, yeah, I don't see it. I don't see the calling for those systems or the time tracking. I don't think we should just say Harrisburg has it, T has it, you know, to justify every single thing we do. I think sometimes, like, we don't need to search out, you know, a solution for a problem we might not even have. I guess that's my thought on that. Then finally, it'd be nice if for these meetings, there was an intro mechanism within the meeting to talk about the items that come up. I understand we're already pushing your timeline a little bit as the meeting goes, but it's a little tough to sit here and listen to everything. Then it's almost like we don't have an opportunity to jump in and make a comment about the topics. I know sometimes you do it. You know, it's not very formal. It's just sort of as it's allowed because, you know, we're all thinking about the topics as they're presented in the audience. But, yeah, anyway, thank you for listening. And one last thing about flock cameras. I've heard they have subscriptions, too. So you might be paying for that indefinitely. It's not like you just buy the cameras. So from a fiscal conservative standpoint, that's another factor to think of. Yeah. But I think I'm out of time. So thank you very much.

Thank you. Anyone else want to come forward for the visitor section? Going once. Going twice. Moving on. It is. You ready, Steve? Did you need something? Oh, you're going to sign me?

Okay.

Well, it gives me great pleasure to do Proclamation Day for Dave LeBrun. The City of Dale Rapids, Proclamation Dave LeBrun for his service to the community. Whereas Dave LeBrun has been recently recognized by St. Mary's for 30 years of service as the voice of Cardinal football. And whereas Dave LeBrun has announced Cardinal football games from the back of a pickup to the old crow's nest at Rickaman Field to the DRPS booth. And whereas Dave LeBrun, along with his brother Dennis, have grown, harvested, and donated countless ears of corn sold in support of the Cardinal football program. And whereas Dave LeBrun will be remembered for both his contributions to the Cardinal football, as well as his numerous other contributions to St. Mary's over the years. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the mayor and city council of the city of Del Rapids that we hereby proclaim Friday, September 11th, 2026 as Dave LeBrun Day in Del Rapids, South Dakota. And there it is.

Carrie is here.

So thank you guys so much. We appreciate it.

All right. We're moving on to the presentation and approval of the 2025 audit report. Heidi Bailey has completed the 2025 audit report.

She will present here shortly, and then after we'll need formal approval by council. I have reviewed the report and agree with the final audit that is presented to you. Go ahead, Courtney.

All right. Good evening. Can everyone hear me okay? Yep. Wonderful. Okay. I will get my screen shared. All right. Can everybody see my slide deck okay? Wonderful. Well, good evening, everyone. As mentioned, my name is Courtney Richmond. I'm a partner with Eide Bailey based out of our Fargo, North Dakota office. And this evening, we're just going to go through a high level executive summary of the 2025 audited financial statement results. So we'll first just talk about the overall results and any findings. So My first slide here is just to talk about the primary audit objective. So the primary objective is to ensure the audit is conducted in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards which are issued by the AICPA. We plan and perform our audit to obtain reasonable, not absolute assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement. So when I say this, we are not testing 100% of the transactions of the city. Throughout the year instead we do a risk-based approach and look at the risk assessment overall of the city that really drives the test work that we complete from an audit perspective. As we're performing the audit our procedures include examining on a test basis different evidence to support the amounts and the disclosures that are included within the financial statements. So we're looking at vendor invoices customer bills payroll information all types of supporting documentation to test the numbers included within the city's financial statements. We also look at supporting documentation to support the footnote disclosures that are presented in the financial statements. In addition to this we do obtain an understanding of the different internal controls that are in place at the city. but we do not provide any assurance over those controls. Lastly we do also assess the quality of any applicable accounting principles or significant estimates of the City. So for 2025 the City received an unmodified opinion. This is the technical term. An unmodified opinion is essentially a clean audit opinion. which means the financial statements do not contain any material misstatements and are prepared in accordance with standards. The second bullet point on this slide here is just to bring to your attention this is merely our professional opinion. As mentioned previously we do not test all of the transit transactions for the entire year. Instead the risk based approach that we do really drives kind of the samples and the testing that are completed. So even though the City received an overall clean audit opinion that doesn't mean that there aren't internal control deficiencies and findings that we also identify along the way. So that's what's presented to you here on this slide. There are two key areas that we look at when we're reporting any findings. The first being the financial statements as a whole and the second area being state compliance. So within the financial statements there were two findings identified. The first being segregation of duties. Really what this comes down to is just the overall small finance office size. You're not able to completely segregate every responsibility within the finance function. And so that's what leads to that internal control deficiency. This is very common with smaller cities who have smaller finance staff. And this is something that Del Rapids has had in the past. So nothing new when it comes to that finding that's communicated. The second financial statement finding communicated is the preparation of the financial statements including proposed journal entries and prior period restatement. So as we're performing the audit and doing the testing of the balances there were instances of proposed journal entries to correct and adjust some of the year-end kind of accrual related balances. In addition there was one prior period restatement specific to capital assets and this was just due to recording of the transit building. Part of this was funded by the city. Part of it was funded through an outside party and overall that building belongs to the city. So it was just correcting to get that capital asset recorded on the books. When it comes to the state compliance side of things, there were no issues identified and no reported findings there. Alright, next we'll dive into some more of the numbers within the financials and this shows you the cash investments in thousands of the city for the past five years. You can see it's kind of color coded to break it down by fund type. So the darker blue at the top there is the liquor fund. The royal blue would be your utilities, so water and sewer. And then the green portion is your governmental funds, so that would be primarily your general fund and any other governmental funds that you have. So you can kind of see how you've been trending over time. Overall you see a slight decrease there from 2024 down to 2025. And primarily this decrease for 2025 was just due to the timing of some payments made at the end of the year. specific to construction. So there were some outstanding retainage payables at the end of 2024 that were higher than 2025, so those were paid off during the year. So that slightly decreased the overall cash position there. Next, we'll look more at some of the general fund activity. So this slide is showing you your 2025 budget to actual results. So the left column is showing the approved original budget. The second column is showing your final budget. The third column is showing the actual results. And then on the far right you can see any variance between the final budgeted amounts and the actual results. So overall on the revenue side of things the City brought in 553,000 less than budgeted for. That was primarily due to just the budget of the intergovernmental revenues. There was the full amount of a state grant that was received for a bridge project was budgeted for. But all of the expenses didn't happen in 2025 and all of the revenue related to that project also was not collected in 2025. So some of that was received here in 2026 and that's the primary difference for the revenue. On the expenditure side of things the City spent roughly 1.5 million less than budgeted for. And that was largely due to some planned projects that were budgeted at a higher amount than the actual expenses came in. When we look at this slide I kind of tell you to look at the net change in fund balance line towards the bottom there in that actual column. So overall, the city did spend more than you brought in in the general fund for the year by roughly $365,000, but leaving the general fund with an ending fund balance of just over 2.6 million at the end of 2025. This next slide shows you that total fund balance within the general fund broken down by a different category. So the darker blue is non-spendable fund balance so that would relate to anything that's in prepaid expenses or inventory. The green portion is any restricted fund balance so that's designated for a restricted purpose. The gray there in 2025 is assigned so that's just set aside for a designated purpose. And then the remaining in the royal blue there is that unassigned portion. So that's what makes up that roughly 2.6 million of your general fund balance. at the end of 2025. Next we'll dive into some of the other fund information of the City. First looking at the water fund operations. So on this slide the green shaded line towards the top is the operating revenue. The royal blue there is your operating expenses. And then the navy blue at the bottom is the overall operating income or loss. So for 2025 you can see slight increase on the revenue side. You do see a sharper increase on the expenses. The biggest portion of the expense increase relates to depreciation expense. And that depreciation expense just goes along with the added infrastructure and capital projects within the Water Fund. So those assets depreciate over time and that's really the largest increase there. Overall at the end of 2025 the Water Fund still has remaining net position of roughly $3.9 million dollars. My next slide is the same information for the wastewater fund. Very similar here on the revenue slight increase there as well as an increase on the expense side of things. Once again that expense increase is primarily all due to depreciation expense of the assets and within the wastewater fund the remaining net position at the end of the year is $12.9 million dollars. And then lastly looking at the liquor fund operations overall the operating revenue and expenses up slightly on both leaving you with operating income in that fund of $142,000 at the end of the year and the ending net position within this fund at the end of 2025 is $610,000. So that's all I have prepared for you as far as the executive summary of the audit goes. Does anybody have any questions on anything I covered?

Courtney, the only thing I'll say is on those findings, I've worked with you to try to get that segregation of duties off that I've started this year with council. So that one should be removed. And then the other one should be as well.

Yep. Yep. So the city's put different kind of processes and reviews and approvals in place. to try to alleviate that segregation of duties. So yes, those are areas that are both being worked on for future years.

I think that's it. Any other questions for Courtney? All right. At this point, I'll entertain a motion to approve the 2025 audit report. Is there a second? Second. Any further discussion? All those in favor of the 2025 audit report say aye. Aye. Opposed nay. Motion carried. Moving on to the public hearing. I'll open it, open the public hearing on resolution 2026-21, resolution of necessity on Orleans Avenue project.

I can start it. Attached is a resolution 2026-21, the resolution necessity to implement special assessment process for the completion of the proposed Orleans Avenue project. So this resolution just says that we can special assess the project. It is similar to what we've been doing the last three or four street projects we've been doing, so there's nothing new to this. This meeting is to consider the adoption of the resolution. for the proposal. All the property owners have been notified of the public hearing today via the process that's set out by state statute. So if you have any other questions on that, let me know, but we can certainly open it up to the public that receive those letters.

Any people for the Orleans project? Proponents? At this point, I'll entertain a motion.

Nelson, so moved. Is there a second? Hansluck, second.

All those in favor of the resolution of necessity on Orleans Avenue project, say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. Motion carried. Consent agenda. Is there, at this time, anybody want anything off the consent agenda? I'll ask for a motion.

So moved.

Is there a second? Second. All those in favor of the consent agenda, say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. Motion carried. On to old business. Assurance agreement extension, the Dells Area Health Center slash Avera.

I'll start this off. This old business item and the first new business item are or kind of a tandem discussion and hopefully approval process. The old business item is the assurance agreement extension. The original assurance agreement was established in April of 2024. It called for the project to be, at least this portion of the project, to be completed by the end of this calendar year, which obviously is not going to be done. And so, Telzer Health Center and the City have agreed to extend the agreement as late as June 30th, 2028. There are otherwise no other changes in the assurance agreement. This time I'll take it. I'm sorry. Go ahead. I was just going to say also there's some representatives from Dell Zero Health Center. Brian Breitling is here in case Brian would like to make any statements or if there's any questions that he could answer as well.

Mr. Breitling?

Good evening, everyone. My name is Brian Breitling. I'm representing Dell's Area Health Center here this evening. The purpose of our attendance is to offer the city of Dell Rapids an extension to the agreed upon utility assurance agreement that we signed on April 16th of 2024. Many of you were on the board on the council at that time. For a little bit of background, Dells Area Health Center is a 501C3 community nonprofit organization. Its purpose is to provide care for the sick, afflicted, infirm, injured persons, irrespective of race, creed, or color, and to generally do anything and everything necessary, desirable, expedient, and incidental to the operation of the hospital and medical clinics in all of its phases. DOC was incorporated in 1957, opened in 1959, and in 2002, DOC leased their hospital operations to Avera to provide hospital and medical services to the community. DOC is now 70 years old, and as a result, there have been several upgrades over the years to basically meet current standards, but the overall infrastructure is 70 years old. AVERA and DOC have been discussing modernizing the campus for many years. In 2022, it was evaluated, and the conclusion was decided that renovation or rebuilding on the current site does not meet organizational goals, so we began searching for alternative sites. In 2024, DOC came to an agreement on the purchase of 19.7 acres west of town. We partnered with the city at that time on developing a plan for infrastructure to the site. The original agreement is in your packet, as Steve alluded to. In it, Section 2 describes DOC's participation for the minimum basic water and sewer lines. and then Doc's agreement to cover the hospital-specific additions, the additional costs that we would be expecting on the regulations specific to healthcare. The agreement also allows the city flexibility to expand the utilities as it deems appropriate for future city use. The agreement set the install date of 12-31-26, which is unlikely to occur as discussed. Earlier this year, Doc offered an extension addendum to the city. The addendum that you have in front of you this evening specifically extends it for 18 months until June 30th of 2028. I'll be available for questions if anyone has any. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Brayton. Anyone else at this time want to speak on the extension of the

The reason that I'm here is I'm for it. However, you're signing off on another two-year agreement to extend the ability to have rising costs to that project. As we keep extending that $1.5 million, it gets smaller and smaller. In my industry alone for roughing, costs have gone up basically 25%. And that's just material cost. That doesn't include your labor or anything else. So keep that in consideration as you sign the dotted line at 1.5 as a max. Thank you.

Thank you, Dave. Anyone else would like to come forward and speak on the extension? Hearing none, seeing none. At this point, I'll entertain a motion to extend the assurance agreement.

So move, Hanslick.

Is there a second?

I'm in second.

Any further discussion? Hearing none, seeing none. All those in favor of extending the assurance agreement with the Dells Area Health Center slash Avera, say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. Motion carried to extend. Moving on to new business. Resolution 2026-22, annexation of Dells Area Health Center. Christina, take it away.

We have received a petition from Dells Area Health Center to annex in that property. They have submitted that to us, and it's all stated in the resolution, and there's an exhibit as well that's provided. The property is contiguous to the city and meets all the requirements needed to annex in. The approval of this annexation aligns with Dells Area Health construction timeline and provides the necessary critical linkage in the partnership between the city and Dells Area Health.

Anyone care to speak on this?

Good evening, everyone. My name is Brian Breitling. I'm representing this evening as well. The purpose of our attendance tonight is to request annexation to the city of Del Rapids for that land that we discussed on the west side of town. In your packet, you have three items related to the discussion. The first is the resolution 2026-22. The second is the map of the annexation request. And the third is our petition. As we discussed, DOC purchased 19.7 acres of land on the west side of town in 2024. Our request to be annexed into the city limits qualifying under the South Dakota Quotified Law 9-4-1. Previously, we discussed Dell's Area Health Center, the history and the mutual interest to develop the land to the west by providing utilities to that site and possibly beyond. In addition, the original utility assurance agreement section number four also stipulates that the doc annex the property. In May and June of this year, we did work with the joint city and county planning and zoning committee and subsequent council and commission meetings to rezone the property from residential, from rural residential to commercial. The city of Del Rapids annexation petition changes that county commercial classification to the city general business land use classification. We envision the future healthcare services for the city of Del Rapids and surrounding communities will be delivered at that location in a new and modern hospital clinic designed for current and evolving technology and equipment meeting the growing population trends and ever-changing healthcare standards and expectations. The ease of access off of Highway 115, larger campus space, allowing flexible growth and ability to build while not disrupting existing patient care services are all reasons for this location to offer future healthcare services. While the project is not yet approved by Avera, the annexation of this site to the City of Bell Rapids is the next step. If we receive your support to annex this property tonight, we can continue our planning for the future of this site. And I'll stand by for questions.

Thank you, Mr. Brighton. Any other further proponents or opponents on the annexation? Hearing none, seeing none, at this time I'll entertain a motion to...

Mayor, I just have a clarification just so that it is clear that this annexation does not impact the area property owners along that route. This is their personal property, correct? Correct. Correct. It does not.

Any further points of interest? Well, at this time, I'll entertain a motion to annex the Dells Area Health Center.

Hanslick, so moved.

Is there a second?

Any further discussion? Hearing none, seeing none. All those in favor of annexation of the Dells Area Health Center, say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. Motion carried. Welcome to the city. Annexation. Next one. Steve, or Steve, Speed Reading Reader Signage. Steve, thank you.

Thank you, Mayor. This is... I think the second time we've discussed purchasing some speed signage devices to place at critical entry points to the community. Originally we had looked at mobile units on trailers that provide analytics and things. Those were pretty pricey. And we believe that we can accomplish what it is we're trying to accomplish by basically getting stationary signage fixed to a pole. We have had three primary bids. Depending on how many you want affects the per unit price. Now we've got $7,500 in this year's budget. We've also got something in next year's budget. So if we just want to try one unit this time, I would recommend Stalker Radar's unit for $3,455 per unit. So far, what we've found out is that actually all of these units that we've talked to at the cities that use them are pretty happy with them. This particular unit will turn different colors and blink if you're speeding and say thank you if you're not. And so you can put simple communications with it. It does not collect analytics per se. It's mainly just a speed sign that blinks at you if you're going too fast. With that in mind, it was my understanding that's the kind of thing we were hoping to test drive this year. So we could start with one and see if we're happy with it. If we are, we can buy more in the next budget year.

so i've been kind of thinking about this because it's kind of been my deal for a little while if we have five entry points kind of main entry points into town and no matter how we kind of do the math it looks like it's going to be 15 000 to do five entry points um i was kind of looking at that elon city one harrisburg's had it for 12 years that's a pretty nice long longevity test there. And I, if we have the money, I just go, why not spend the three at $8,000? I know it's $500 over budget, but that way only we have to get two next year and then we would be done. Whereas if we just do one, we still have four more to go. So I don't know if 500 is going to break the budget here.

The only thing I'll say is it'll be more than that because these are just for the signs. So we still have to install them. I think there's going to be concrete. We still have to get a post. Do our public works do those or do they have to come in and install them? I believe they'll be able to do most, but if we need any electrical work, then we might have to hire that out. So my recommendation is to do one this year so we know the full amount to install one. And we did put in plenty probably for the rest next year because I think there's $15,000 in there next year. And essentially I thought that would be for two, but it sounds like we could get a lot more. So that's my thought. Get one. Make sure we like that one because there's all different kinds. Right. And get the dollar amount and completely buying it and installing it.

So, I mean, I don't have a specific this one over that. I was just looking at kind of the dollar amount and the $15,000 and just trying to figure out. But if we want to do one this year and then four next year, that's fine with me, too. But, Steve, you're kind of thinking that Stocker Raider one? Is it just because of the price?

The Stocker Raider, yeah.

Which communities have those then? Did we have that? Did I not?

Yeah, I think Brandon has the Stocker Raider units. Harrisburg has the Elon City.

Okay. So there is a city in the area that has it and has liked it. Okay. That makes me happy then.

Steve and Chris, I have a quick question. Do these come with any kind of a management report? One of the comments was return on investment. That will tell us that, yes, originally it flagged these people. They were slowed down by the sign to see if they're actually effective. And if the location proves to be effective, you know, if a year down the road we find everybody has slowed down, well, maybe we can take that one and spend money and relocate it or something.

I can ask. My understanding was there's not meaningful analytics with...

the ones at this level, that would be very cool.

My question was, are they movable? So if we feel like we're getting good traction, can we move it? Instead of having one at every single entry into Del Rapids, which I think is excessive, if we had two of them, we could move them around.

But why would you move things if they're slowing down and making it safer?

Well, hopefully you've made an impact.

You're just hoping that they keep that.

Once the dog is trained, it's trained until you get it retrained. I don't know.

And if you're going to be cementing in poles and this and that, I mean, they're not as expensive as we probably thought they were. So I just kind of go, we've got five main entry points. Increase safety.

Yeah, I think the direction from council that we received either the last meeting or one before is you did not want the movable ones. You wanted the stationary ones, so that's what we checked into. That's what's in front of you. Minneapolis County Sheriff's Office has a movable one, and they said when it's not used or requested to be put somewhere, so they have that movable one that we can request to put in a certain area if we're having an issue. Okay.

Yeah, I guess the management report would sway me towards one device over another if there is something that we can judge the effectiveness of these devices.

I believe the one in the packet showed that it did have a tracker on the speed. It kept data on it. So just FYI to you.

The Elan City one, it says traffic data analysis. What is it? Software updates, no subscription fees.

Analysis and configuration software.

To be clear, it is not a flock, Cameron. So if you're happy, I mean, Clarence and I kind of worked together on this, and we also talked to MCSO about it. We would pick whatever's the most appropriate spot for the test unit.

And none of these had an annual subscription for the software to run them, did they? Like, is there an additional ongoing cost that goes with these?

Not to my knowledge, but I'll double check.

I haven't. In my previous community, there wasn't. Now, if you wanted more data, I think that would.

Yeah.

But there hasn't been.

Okay.

I guess I would just make the appeal that we go for two and get at least two entry points into Dell Rapids.

I would concur, but with the understanding of getting two, three more. I mean, I guess I disagree with the overkill part of it. We're talking safety here and the flashing light in your face tells you to slow down. That's for everybody coming into town. I don't think that's excessive. I just, that's safe. That's telling people to slow down and be safe in our community.

And we can get two for what we've got in the budget. And so Christina's right, there could be some installation costs.

So would you guys be comfortable with our budget with two of the stock reader at $34.55 each? I know there's going to be a little bit more for installation. Or do you think we should still just stick with the one?

I don't, my understanding, that doesn't include the poll either, right? That's just kind of the, yeah. So, I mean, you have to get a poll yet and then install it. I'd be more comfortable with one unless you guys want to go over a budget and amend the budget, but that's.

Will these not fit on any of our existing polls?

That's a discussion we're going to have to have the DOT because you're going to put it on most likely 115. And so it's a discussion you're going to have, we are going to have, or Steve's going to have to have it with the DOT and whether we can. And we're going to have to discuss with DOT as well for permitting it to install it.

I was under the impression we were going to put the first one open in high school. Am I remembering wrong? No.

I had been saying, in my head, it was South on 115, just because I've had people talk to me about that. Okay. But I think if we get two, I think the next best one would probably be the high school, because that's just... for safety, so I'm not opposed to the 115 if we want to move it to the high school. And you think Jasper? I mean, that's what Clarence said. So if we have a deputy right here, so like, hey, we have five entry points. If we were to get one camera, not camera, sorry, not camera, not camera, not speed sign, where should we put the speed sign?

I think your best option would be The place you're going to see the most amount of cars coming into town is from 115 to the south here. That's where most cars are going to be coming from into town. That's where I see most cars coming into town from. So if you want more, if they do track like speed or anything like that, that's where you're going to get most cars. Otherwise, yeah, between that one and high school, those are both going to be very busy areas. So it's kind of a toss up there on that. But outside of school hours, it's going to be 115 inside school hours over by the high school.

Thank you. Sheriff, you say 115. Is that coming into town or going out of town? Into town. Coming in is the most violating direction?

Well, yeah. Okay. That's, well, and you want people slowing down coming into town, going out of town. You know, you want the safety of people slowing down coming into town. So I'd place it on the northbound side.

Does anybody remember off the top of their head how much we put in the budget for this item next year? Because we were going to do part of it this year. Next year we have 15? Okay. So we could do one this year and figure out what the cost to install and get them fully up and running and then figure out whatever's remaining from this year's budget we can allocate in addition to the 15 for next year. Right, we can carry that forward any remaining dollars out of this 7500 that we had allocated this year. You can, I mean, we'd have to adjust the budget, but yeah, you can essentially.

Okay. Do we know if this is following the safety plan that was done a few years ago? Does this have any impact on that?

I think it was part of or one of their recommendations.

I mean, I don't know if 115 was included or if that was just more city proper. Okay.

Dave.

Dave Schmidt, 108 East 14th Street. Before you purchase one, because you're talking about different places, there's three different ways to power it. Each one of those machines probably costs something else, like different amounts. Say you do it over by the high school. If you're doing it by the high school, what utilities do you have out there to power it? So you're going to have to get a solar one. That's going to cost you more. If you're talking about something coming into town, you can put it on any one of the streetlights and tap into the electric there. But you have to look at the big picture. First come up with a plan where you're going to actually have it. Then figure out what infrastructure you have to use. Have a complete plan when you're doing stuff. Don't just say I'm spending one here and I'm adding it there. Have a complete plan when you're doing this so you have a rate of return, you have your cost up front. It's more than just purchasing a sign. That's where the thought comes in. That's where this stuff has to be looked at and discussed before you get here to make your decision. And I realize you can't do it without the board, but that's where, and I realize he's not here tonight. I'm not picking on him. Clarence does a great job. But that's where Clarence's expertise needs to be in this decision and have it procured of what you're actually approving than just the sign.

Thank you, Dave.

With this sign, being the city would have to be on city property. We couldn't go 115 because I think the city limit, we couldn't go too far south or we're not in city limits with the city sign. It's more of a question than anything else. We have to work through that. Yeah, work with the state on all that and everything. Okay.

All right, this time I'll entertain a motion for something regarding these signs.

That's where it would be nice if we got the mobile unit from the DOT or the sheriff's office. If we had that one, that one could go on 115 South, and we could put this one someplace else.

My understanding was the mobile is temporary. We don't get it all the time. Right. Yeah. So it's great for like at the park for a week or so at the beginning of summer. But I don't think the county is going to let us have their mobile.

No, not permanent, but at least that would get the start. We could put our money in on city-owned land or property.

And the state has worked with other communities that have these, so I'm not too worried about where the limit is for the line because there's one down by Renner Corner.

I was going to say, if DOT, who put that one in? Was that Renner or was that the DOT? DOT.

I don't know, but I'm just saying they're going to work with us. They're not going to not have us get our community more safe. I mean, I think they are just as wanting safety as we are.

So I've never done this before, but I would like to make a motion to table this until we have a more clear idea of if it's solar powered electricity, bring in clearance to the conversation and have a decision on where it will be placed.

We have a motion on the table to table. The signage is there. Second. Second. Any further discussion? All those in favor of tabling signage, say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. Motion carried to table signage. Moving on. Reading first ordinance, creating a pool advisory board.

First reading of ordinance 961, which creates the pool advisory board, which we've discussed the last couple meetings. It sets the duties, responsibilities, authority, and organization of the board.

Anyone have anything on the pool board? Anything on the pool board?

Nothing?

All right. I'll entertain a motion to approve the first reading of Ordinance 961, creating a pool advisory board.

So moved.

Is there a second?

Cavagelli seconds.

We have a motion by Hines, seconded by Cavagelli to approve the first reading ordinance 961. Any further discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed nay. Motion carried. Moving on. First reading ordinance 962, the 2027 budget.

This is the first reading on the budget. It's from the budget work sessions council has contributed over the month of August. I have made the changes council requested at those meetings to prepare this first reading. There cannot be any substantial changes from this reading to the next. Just an overview, the 2027 budget overview is there's $13 million in capital projects, which is about 61% of the budget, 8.3 million in O&M, debts, transfers, et cetera. Total is 21 million. Just to compare to last year, Last year we had 8.3 million in capital projects and 8.7 in the O&M. So the O&M actually went down from last year.

At this point, I'll entertain a motion.

So moved.

Is there a second? Council looks second. Any further discussion on the? First reading of the ordinance 962, 2027 budget. Hearing none. All those in favor of the budget, say aye. Aye. Opposed nay. Motion carried. Next item on our list, the first reading ordinance 963, parking during snow removal alert.

This section of the codebook needs to be updated for a couple reasons. Section A1 needs to be updated to two inches. The public works director, Clarence, has asked it be changed back to two inches, as all the signs in town say two inches for a snow alert. Prior to the last change in this section in 2011, it was two inches, and for some reason it was changed to three inches at that time. So staff is just asking to change that back to two inches. The other thing is the alert notification needs to be updated. Last winter it was noticed by the county sheriff's office that we had to announce on the local news media because of the wording in the ordinance. We primarily use text message and Facebook to get the word out for snow alerts. So the new wording changes the language to or. So we can use local news media, text message, social media, or whatever other sources are available. This gives us just more flexibility on snow alerts announcements and makes it clear when an alert is automatic if the accumulation of snow is two inches or more. This would be the first reading.

At this point, I'll entertain a motion. Sounds like some move. Is there a second? Second. We have a motion on the table to approve the first reading ordinance 962, parking during snow removal alert by Hanslick, seconded by Jones. Any further discussion? Hearing none, seeing none, all those in favor of said resolution say aye. Opposed nay. Motion carried. Moving on. Job description of part-time custodian and advertise the position.

Due to lack of consistent service and some ongoing inconsistency with the cleaning service that we had here at City Hall, we canceled their services on August 17th. During the budget work sessions, it was mentioned that we're going to move to a part-time custodian, and we budgeted for that. next year and that we are having issues at that time with the current service. The cost of moving to a hired part-time custodian will be a cost savings in the end. At this time the library wants to keep their current cleaning company and will reevaluate towards the end of the year. Attached is the job description for the part-time custodian. The job description was created by our HR department and reviewed by our HR consultant, city administrator, and finance officer. The timeline for council approval would be approved tonight. We would advertise for two weeks and probably set a deadline to apply by September 25th, and then the goal would be to have that recommendation on the October 5th meeting to hire.

in the meantime city staff is keeping city hall presentable until someone is hired about this time i'll entertain a motion uh before we move on to a motion can i just point out one one line under the physical demands for this job description, must be able to read, understand, and speak English. So I read the job descriptions of our city administrator, our library director, our assistant finance officer. Those were three that I had readily available to me. And none of them required an employee to be able to read, understand, and speak English. So while I understand it'd be great to be able to communicate effectively with our colleagues, I'm not sure that if it isn't required for some of our other positions, that it shouldn't be required for this one.

That one, I believe, was added by our HR consultant, so our HR expert on that. If you want to remove it, you certainly can remove that one.

Well, there was a time in this country that we were proud to say that we We're a country of immigrants that we offered opportunities to people while they assimilated and learned to speak English in this country. And I think it would be inappropriate of our city staff and our city hall to say we're not going to welcome the same type of people that we all came from. Because unless you were a native-born person in this country... you immigrated and there's a pretty good chance that your ancestors weren't speaking English when they arrived here. So I think we should remove that statement.

Is that a motion? Question before you make your motion, would that also apply to the necessary knowledge, skills, and abilities? Number two, ability to follow verbal and written instructions in English.

I don't think it necessarily has to be in English if they can understand verbal instruction or written instruction. Or they could use a translator service.

Or they could use an or ability to follow verbal or written instructions in English or some other form of communication.

There are lots of translations. There's a lot of options to translate. readily available on a phone that most people have available to them. I'm not going to get hung up on somebody having to speak English or read in English that they can translate. So I would make a motion that we update the job description and bring it back.

Is there a second?

Second, Nelson.

Any further discussion?

Just clarification, you're taking it out of both spots or just the one?

I think it needs to be removed from both. Okay. I don't think there needs to be a demand for English written in there, especially if we're not going to require it from anybody else in our employees.

Do you want to just approve the job description with those two lines removed?

I don't think she's saying remove the entire line. She's just saying remove the English portion. Right?

I mean, it's fine for them to be able to understand their instruction given to them. It just doesn't have to be done in English. So, help us out. How do you think it should read? Ability to follow verbal and written instructions, period. That would be under the necessarily knowledge, skills, and ability. And then we remove item number three under the physical demands. I just wanted that clarified. Thank you.

So do you want to make a motion with those changes?

There is a motion on the table. No.

There's a motion to update and bring it back. If we can just make those changes tonight and approve it.

Do you want me to just amend my motion or do we need somebody to say no to? You can amend.

We can amend it, I believe.

Then I will put it back on the table to amend it, removing item number three from physical demands and updating item number two under necessary knowledge, skills, and ability to end the sentence at written instruction period and remove in English.

Is there a second? We already have a second.

I'm sorry, we already had a second. Nelson, still second. Second.

Okay. I don't know if I can repeat all of that in the motion, so I'm going to try and clarify. We are going to approve the job description with the sections under 3.3, removing the English speaking responsibility requirement and understanding the English requirement.

any further discussion clarification they just went one way east 14th street is this only for city hall position parking just city hall not downstairs or anything they would include a portion of downstairs okay if that be the case i don't see anything about driving in there i suggest we put that in there too driving the reason being is you have a comfort station for the RV parking in the summertime, which is allegedly supposed to be out kept, and I don't know if it is, by city employees to be actually spread out, washed for the people that actually rent that facility. With that being said, I don't know if that's true because Claire wanted it, and this is prior to Christine, wanted it to be done by a volunteer. I didn't see that volunteer this year. I know my conversations with individuals, down there in that aspect when the games go on the bathrooms get trashed and then the rv residents aren't taken care of so my suggestion is all city facilities because even during quarries pins rented on that facility it was up the pins to maintain that bathroom for an event for the city so if you're hiring a custodian and you're increasing staff Make it worthwhile to include all of the positions of what needs to be cleaned for the city in their part-time capacity.

Thank you. Any other further discussion? So hearing none, seeing none, all those in favor of the amended motion regarding the custodial job description, say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. Motion carried. Moving on, draft ordinance, foot scooters and electric personal assistive devices.

Mayor, I'll take that. We have attached a draft scooter ordinance. It's a resulting product from the Policy and Procedure Committee meeting a couple of times most recently, August 19th. City Attorney Hammer has also reviewed it and provided additional comments and edits, which I've incorporated. The highlights of the ordinance would include requirements for operators over and under 14 years of age, which are delineated. A no-riding zone on 4th Street between Clark and State Streets where you could walk your scooter but not ride it. There's hours of operations and there's enforcement provisions. If this suits council, we would bring it back one of the next meetings for first and second readings. The ordinance itself needs to be sculpted a little better. Christina will figure out exactly how it fits into our existing ordinances. So I would invite anyone on the Policy Procedure Committee or Dean to jump in if they have any additional comments.

My only question, and I wasn't able to make that meeting, but how are we treating or where are we treating the three-wheel scoot-scoot thingamajiggers, whatever they're called, those electric things that are now becoming popular? Are they going to be under the golf cart ordinance, or can we wrap it into one? I can see them being more of an issue.

So I was going to ask during our other opportunities for council members to bring things forward for the golf cart to be one of the next items policy and procedures tackles. I think this one was specifically for the motorized scooters and we'll tackle that golf cart separate. Okay, thanks.

I just have a concern. We've got a 14 and under for drivers under 14 and under, do we have a minimum use age? I mean, are we talking six, seven-year-olds can go ahead and do this five, four? I mean, how young are we going to go here? Because that's... How are you going to ID them? There has to be some sort of sense of reason of how young is okay.

The sense of reason comes from home.

I am for child safety 1,000%, and I've said it over and over and over again, but the sense of reason and safety comes from home. And now we're saying a person under 14 cannot operate on sidewalk from Clark to State Street, but I could go get on my bicycle and ride down the sidewalk. Okay, I'm just clarifying. But then, so a said five-year-old, four-year-old even, I've seen them, who can't read, is going to get on that sidewalk and ride down, but we would rather have them on the street. And my other thing is, we're going to have yet another ordinance in place that is not followed up on. That is my biggest complaint because I see other ordinances that are not followed up on. So then we're going to have people on Facebook saying, I saw little Johnny without his helmet on. Where's the sheriff? Well, guess what? The sheriff can't be everywhere all the time. Again, I have a nine-year-old and seven-year-old. Seven-year-old doesn't ride anything because that's a whole other story. But nine-year-old? Where's her helmet? I have everything I can to make her wear her helmet. But it starts at home. But we're going to say, you must do this. But then we're not going to follow up on it because the sheriff can't be everywhere and it has to start at home. and you want to sit here and say, we got to put an age limit on, so now you're going to tell me how to parent. Because guess what? My nine-year-old has been safely riding a scooter since she was probably five. Does she make mistakes? Hands down. Does she know to stop at crosswalks and streets? Yes. Am I a perfect parent? No. But we have to start at home. We've talked about our SROs getting in the schools. More safety in the school talk. We have to build it. But putting in an ordinance is not going to fix this issue.

Amanda, I don't disagree with you that putting in an ordinance isn't going to fix this issue. You're right. This starts at home. However, having an ordinance in there for everyone allows our law enforcement, when they see dangerous activity, to be able to stop and engage in safety and say, these are the rules that your city wants you to operate by. They want you to be safe. If we're not going to put any ordinance in place, then we just say, there's no rules. Go ahead and do what you want. It isn't going to mean that law enforcement is going to stop everybody. And we're not asking them to punish everybody. But it gives them a mechanism to say, here's safe guidelines. And here's how the city would like you to operate these devices. And when there's repeated offenses, then it gives our law enforcement a mechanism to escalate punishment.

Just like our golf cart ordinance. Right. Because I see it every day. Multiple people, the same people who do not follow the golf cart ordinance. All the time. All the time. And I live on one of the most highly traveled streets where the sheriff is there, too. And in the same vicinity. I'm just... and I've expressed this and we're okay to have different opinions, but I will be voting no because I feel another ordinance is not going to do the trick at all.

One of the elements that we did talk about was the educational component to this whole thing of information at the schools, take home, be posted around town. Where, yeah, you come out with an ordinance that 14, you can go from this right here to here. Well, we got to be educated about the helmets to provide parents with the refrigerator hanger items to help them understand the whys and what for and what should and shouldn't be done. Sure. Dave Schmidt, 108 East 14th Street. I'm calling one. I have two points. One is a point of order. The Policy and Procedure Committee met, am I not mistaken. There's been no report to you guys of what went on, other than being handed an ordinance. With that being said, a step further, Mr. Hammer has been kind to tell us more than once that it's an advisory committee, not open to the public, doesn't have to be. No records kept, doesn't have to be. But the thing that Mr. Hammer neglects to say, because he should be on top of our ordinances, that all committees must have written information sent back to the council. It's part of your ordinance on the rules for you guys. So you guys don't obey your own rules. That's the first point. The second point, Ms. Hind, I appreciate your comments. And that's where I'm gonna push this back to. I, for a long time, got pushed from this board, including city administrator, including the sheriff's department, doing this. It's your responsibility to enforce the ordinance. No, it's their responsibility to enforce the ordinance. Who's actually enforcing the ordinance? I still have an outstanding complaint for solicitor's complaint after hours and without a permit. I've requested numerous times how to get that ordinance enforced. We were told that the last time the sheriff was here, straight up, they're not enforcing our local ordinances. That's your first problem because it comes under your contract, first of all. Second of all, it's up to you, as the Sheriff's Department eloquently explained and I have explained to you, it's up to you guys to tell them exactly what you expect. That's where the problem is. So before you pass any more ordinances, figure out how to enforce them in the first place.

Thank you, Dave.

Good evening. Thank you. Yes. My name is Marcie Steigle. I am 705 Westview Drive, which is a lot of golf carts, a lot of scooters, and some bike trails. So I would have to say I agree with Amanda. I believe it starts at home when you have six kids hanging off the golf cart, seven, eight of them, young, definitely not driving age, driving around up there. But I've also seen adults. Coming off of the bike trails without stopping at the stop sign. In fact, one of them yelled at me the other day because I didn't stop for them. Which you have a stop sign, sir. So we do need some training. It does start at home. Like she said, I don't think an ordinance is going to change it. I think we need to go back to. some safety town like we used to have when my kids were in school. We need to start putting that in the parks and maybe a park committee could come up with something where we, excuse me, where we haven't. So that's what I have to say. I don't think an ordinance is going to happen. If we're speeding in town and you post it on Facebook, they didn't see it, they're not going to do anything. Same thing. They can talk to the children, they can talk to everybody, but the ordinances aren't going to work. We have to start as a community figuring out how to train everybody to use the bike trails properly and streets and sidewalks. When I was in high school, I remember they were really huge on not allowing us to be on the sidewalks for safety of people coming out of the buildings. Again, I don't know where that, that's kind of a gray area because we don't want the kids on the streets. So it's hard, especially on Main Street. But so good luck with that. Okay. But I just wanted to say an ordinance probably wouldn't, I don't know if that's going to help. So thank you. Thank you.

So it has been a challenge and that's one of the reasons it's taken a while to kind of get at least this far and get something started and that's why it's a draft. I hear people say it starts at home and it's education. This is our way of saying to our community, this is what we would like you to educate your children on the rules of this community. If we don't have an ordinance, every family gets to decide what the rules are. And then there's no community. There's no organization. It also allows our deputies to start enforcing when they do see serious issues. They're not going to see them all. They're not going to enforce them all. But when they have the same kids, the same instances, that gives them an opportunity to have that conversation and discussion. And that's why I'm in favor of putting in an ordinance. Back to the sidewalks, I too was a little bit like, we want the bikes on the side. We want the scooters on the sidewalks. And we worked with Captain Zischka. He said the theory behind that is if there is a pedestrian and scooter incident, there is a very good likelihood both will survive that. You start putting these scooters on streets with underage drivers and the outcome is probably not going to be favorable. And so that's why the theory, unlike when I was a kid and we weren't supposed to be on sidewalks, that's now why that has kind of shifted that thinking. So that's why you will see the ordinance written the way it is. You will see this restriction on Main Street, walking your bike if you're under 14. If you're over 14, you have the state authority of riding on a street, and that's why the difference is there for the over and under 14. So that's a little background knowledge on how we got to where we are with this ordinance. Thank you.

Wendy, if I can add to that too, one of the things we talked to the captain about was mentioned on the enforcement side, if their equipment, and maybe the deputy can even attest to it, will not detect the scooter speed limit, how fast they're going. Their radar guns don't catch kids on bikes and scooters. So to put a speed limit in here, it's unenforceable because then it becomes a he said, she said type of a scenario. So that's where the captain kind of laid toward that idea to it. If they see a problem, if the department sees a problem, they're going to talk to the parents and educate, hand them the information versus writing citations for everything that a kid does. Again, pushing them to the sidewalk, you're not going to go 20 mile an hour down any sidewalk in Del Rapids. I mean, that'd be tough to deal with. Well, maybe some of them you can. But supposedly, yeah, their radar equipment does not detect it, a kid on a scooter. So that's why that doesn't have a speed limit.

I would just like to say as well that having the ordinance you can then easily put that ordinance in an educational piece and put it into a program because you're using that ordinance to help with the enforcement, the education part of it.

Tom Early, 302 East 10th Street, where we have a four-way stop every day. Golf carts are on 10th Street every day. Every day there are the youth with the electric scooters, the other ones that make a lot of noise. Most of them don't stop for the stop signs. I'm at the county fair here last week, and there's this young boy hopping around on crutches. And my usual comment to anyone with crutches or a cast on their leg is, oh, did you do that skiing in the Alps? The kid says, no, I was on my electric scooter, and I got hit by a car. He didn't break anything. These muscles, they told him to stay off of it, so that's why he was on there. So I says, guess you were pretty lucky, weren't you? Yes. What I fear the most, and we went through this a number of years ago, is having somebody get killed. And that's just the reality. We're letting people use golf carts. We're letting them do it. We're just doing it. But if something really bad happens, then you'll be here talking a lot longer. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ehrlich. Well, I'll entertain a motion.

Are you looking for a motion tonight, Steve, since this was just a draft? I thought we were just trying to get eyeballs on this to all of council.

Right. It's just a draft and really a report from what came out of the committee meeting. Okay. Mayor. Mayor. That's okay. I mean, we can bring the first reading back at the next meeting. Really, it's just if anybody has any changes on specific areas. If not, we'll write it as in your packet. Or if you have anything that comes up as you read through it this week, let us know.

Are we clear on that then, everyone? All right. Moving on. PINS operating agreement modification discussion.

Mayor, I'll take a shot at that, and Casey would probably like to say something as well. So, Casey's been working with the city, and I know with the mayor, and perhaps some council member, too, expressing concerns the city might deny his liquor license renewal, which would really... put a cramp on rebuilding plans if he didn't have a liquor license, and we certainly understand that. Christina has confirmed the liquor license is going to be dormant for a period of two years. State law is cited before council can consider denying Casey's license for the future. So the only way that the liquor license would not be renewed is if the council decided not to renew the operating agreement. which doesn't have anything to do with inactivity. And the city can't just say, you know, we're not going to renew this operating agreement just because we don't feel like it. There's got to be some kind of reason, some kind of breach in the operating agreement. Invoices weren't paid. So there's no concerns about inactivity this year or next year, only the way you would view the operating agreement when it comes back in November. So Casey's been compliant with the operating agreement in the past, at least to the point where council is willing to work with him. Staff doesn't think that there is really risk in us taking this license away. However, we also realize this is a giant decision for Casey moving forward. And if you so wish, Christina and I can get together with Dean to work together to see if there's some wording that can be added to the operating agreement about inactivity. That's what I had for you. I know Casey probably has some comments as well.

Yes. Actually, I was encouraged to write things down. Otherwise, they don't always get addressed. So I wrote down kind of all my points for you. Thanks. Thanks. These are just some of the things. So at the end of the day, I'm not super worried about inactivity. What I am worried about is kind of the same thing I've voiced for several years now. It's the fact that it all comes down to a decision made by eight individuals. So I don't have complete and utter faith that I can just... ultimately invest millions into a project and cross my fingers and hope that in the meantime, some other business, some other opportunity doesn't come up that would better suit that license. And of course, generating revenue for the city, because I know that that is ultimately what it comes down to, right? So I went through, I don't know if any of you have actually read the operating agreement. And I say any of you mean council members. And I am a guy that asks if you want fries with that for a living and polishes bowling balls. So I'm by no means a smart person when it comes to the law. However... The verbiage and wordage used in it just greatly puts all control into the city's hands, whether or not it gets renewed, explicitly certain sections of the operating agreement. So I kind of went through. I have had an attorney as well involved with this. It's amazing when you get into a multimillion-dollar project how many attorneys you have to hire. so in the process of hiring all these i i have had them go through all this stuff with me so one of the big things that um you know that i would like to see uh changed is that uh year over year having to reapply for this license doesn't allow for me to have any um i guess confidence year over year. So to give you an example, Brookings issues 10 year liquor licenses. So state law allows us five years with a five year at the end of the five years, you revisit it, which allows you the additional five years. So at minimum, I would love to see a contract term that's comparable to the well, Norby's agreement, right? We reevaluate that every three years. I would love to see that to provide me with a little bit of certainty rather than continuing to rely on a one-year agreement. Kind of the rest of this is more stuff that I thought was more important to have my concerns laid out for Dean and for Christina and Steve. But just the verbiage overall, like, Throughout the operating agreement, it could be a major violation or a complete and utter... I could accidentally not hand Christina an invoice or the liquor company could maybe not hand her one that is included in my bill. That's enough technically by our agreement currently to take away my... liquor license. There's nothing explicitly giving like an outline as to how we would handle those things and those you know breaches of the contract be it a written notice or an opportunity time frame to fix it. So these are just, I mean, I don't think it's necessary to go down to every single point. There's half the words I don't even understand. Anyways, I think the biggest thing is it's like specifically number 10 in the agreement specifically says cancelization of this agreement shall be made upon 90-day written notice by either party. Does not give an outline of what it would require. None of that type of stuff. So I think the biggest thing, I kind of put this in there, my position, I'm not asking council to surrender its authority. I'm asking for clear rules and reasonable protections on both sides. If I'm going to make a multimillion dollar investment in downtown Del Rapids, I need to know that a minor technical issue or an annual contractual discretion will not place a core part of my business at unnecessary risk. And it's just outdated in general. Point 16 doesn't allow me to hire a bartender that's 18 years old. State law allows me to do it, but we don't. Unless 50% of my business revenue is generated solely by food. So it's just such an outdated operating agreement. It just gives me 0 confidence to move forward. I know at minimum 6 of the 8 of the council members. I take that back 5 of the 8 with the exception of Amanda Fran and Brian. We've had discussions about these concerns of mine. You know, yeah. It's just kind of the point where I just can't, like, I'm not going to hire a $30,000 architect to draw me up plans to even present to the next hurdle being the planning and zoning side without, like, just guarantee the place. And that's what it comes down to for me.

Casey, if I can add some input to you here. I do have, we'll call it extensive firsthand in the liquor area. For example, first off, your comment on the one-year agreement, I personally, I agree with you. I would not be able to run a business on a one-year agreement on anything.

Every year, I mean, you guys know this firsthand. First meeting in October. I mean, I'm here every single year, first meeting in October. And from beginning of August until that meeting, I'm stressing the hell out constantly because I know the majority of you have had me. Man, that was one of the first things I bothered you with right out the gate when you took this position was, like, concerns that, like... It isn't a comfortable way to do business, right? To constantly, every single year, have to worry about whether or not... And I know that this is something that will easily be... I mean, you guys are all professionals, so I'm not saying this is how it will go, but ultimately it comes down to whether you like my business or not. There's plenty of gray area within this agreement that, I mean... I could absolutely lose everything I worked for rebuilding this sector. And it takes a missed invoice with zero direct outline on how things are handled from that point on. So sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt.

I've got three points here for you, Casey, and fellow council members. First off, running a business on a year-to-year on anything, personally as a business owner, That would make it extremely challenging if not impossible to run a business. My second point is when you bring up the council's decision authority. I personally was caught as part of a liquor sting and I had serving to an underage person where I had to go to the Sioux Falls City Council and beg to keep my license. That is not what you're talking about is not abnormal. And that, I don't, I'm not gonna get into laws because I'm not an expert on that, but yes, I think there are stipulations to keeping a license. So in violations, I think are reviewable by the council and that's why they're all of us here. The third thing, and I had firsthand was talking about your particular situation. I worked with the VFW in Sioux Falls that had their liquor license moved into our facility. You cannot have two liquor licenses under one physical address. So they used, their liquor license went inactive. So they had the exact, I don't say exact, but very similar situation. They were coming up on the two years of inactivity, and Sioux Falls, a liquor license is fairly expensive investment. I worked with the VFW, worked with the city and the county, and what we did is we transferred that license to the Washington Pavilion. Whereas the Washington Pavilion did not need them to spend a half a million dollars on a liquor license. So they transferred at a fee of $10,000 a year payable to the VFW. And if the VFW ever moved to their own facility as in their separate agreement, would get it transferred back to the VFW. That agreement, that transfer agreement, also had to be approved by the Sioux Falls City Council. So this council would have to approve any transfer on that. But that helped eliminate the inactivity concern that they had of losing their license because now the Washington Pavilion is able to keep the license active for them. So that's my three points. Yeah, I agree on the one-year thing. The council, I think, I don't know the laws, ultimately has the authority on all liquor licenses, whether you keep them, they don't keep them revoked, the things, and then possibly consider looking at, it'd be a you thing to look at a transfer. If you go that route, then come back to the city council with that terminology.

Okay, so I wholeheartedly agree with a lot of what you say. I think the city and the way the liquor is run, and I'm not an expert on any other community for that matter, but I think we are. overreaching into people's businesses when it comes to selling beverages of the adult version. I don't think there's an easy fix. I think it's a long one if we could get it tackled or even if there's an interest in doing so. But I do hear what you're saying that your investment in downtown will be the largest investment on Main Street in many, many years, decades, as far as I can tell. And yes, you would need to, in my opinion, need some assurance from us that we won't go and say, oh, somebody opened up down there and we're going to give them a liquor license. We have one. It's not being used. So I can attest to what you're saying or agree to, I should say.

Casey, I do have a question. Are you looking at just an amendment or an addendum to your existing one, or do you want to rewrite the... Well, my existing one comes, I mean, it's done shortly.

So I guess the whole plan was, and this is why I started this kind of discussions with several of you in the past two months, and I've been in City Hall talking about this, is because I would like to see it changed before... the renewal process. Because I'll be honest with you, if it doesn't get changed, I'm not even going to spend $1,000 on a hope and a dream that two years from now you guys approve it again or the year after. I'm not trying to be rude, but I mean, at the end of the day, you guys, I've been up here several times over four years and that several times post the fire and be different if I felt like I was... adequately supported through this initial phase. And I think I've made it very clear that I haven't felt that way. And yeah, I just, I need something, right? Like, at the end of the day, I need something to like, give me a little bit of confidence, because at the end of the day, like, What we're asking and what everybody's asking of me is constantly, every day, all day long, I don't even go out in public as often anymore because it's, when are you rebuilding? Why haven't you started yet? Why haven't you done this? Why don't you buy Pizza Ranch? And it's like, listen, I haven't even gotten a chance to. literally breathe after all of this. So in the meantime, I understand the state protects me from inactivity. That isn't as much of a concern. That really isn't. Because at the end of the day, I'm not even worried about being inactive completely. I would love to do pop-up events. I have a rather large parking lot right now of flat surface that I could put a circus tent up in and do inactivity. chiseled seeds at harvest time. I'd love to do all those. I'm bored out of my mind right now. But I just need something to make me feel like this is a... I just used it last week when I was in speaking with Steve and Christina. I need it to be a collaborative effort. Like that's what I'm lacking right now. And I think step one is collaboratively after four years of these concerns, like let's address them. Let's get to the nitty gritty of it. Like we're the only ones doing a year to year agreement. I mean, amongst the hundred other things, I'll save my whole concerns with the 10% because fortunately that's the downside of hiring attorneys is they also point out stuff you didn't really want to continue to address, but yeah. I just starting now, I just need to have some kind of I just something like something that is said like, gosh, Casey, we want you here and we want to work with you. And if that means right now, you need a little bit of peace of mind and a little bit of time to like start moving these things forward. Then let's let's do that, I guess.

So go ahead. Sorry.

It sounded like it was coming from behind me. I'm like, what?

Who's yelling at me from back there? So when you're asking for this to be reviewed, are you advocating that the liquor license be rewritten for everybody? Like the operating agreement for everybody? Or are you asking for a specific carve out for you? Yeah.

I don't want special treatment. I've never wanted special treatment. I've made that very clear. It's the same reason I'm not out here asking for free money and handouts. I just need a little bit of guidance. I'll go back to, until I bought pins, I never even owned my own house. That was the first big boy purchase I ever made. And now I'm just thrown into the fire of how to navigate. I mean, shit, for three weeks, excuse me, sorry. Shoot, for three months, I've been under this impression that it was you guys that rezoned my lots. um i'd come to find out thankfully because christina's sharing it with me on last thursday like that isn't even the procedure and it's like so rezone yes but replant no i just want to rezone into one lot i don't want six lots that's all so whatever that seems like it's even that i can't even get the words right but i don't have anybody guiding me with this stuff right like i don't know like I'm just a little bit surprised. And so I don't want special treatment. I mean, if you think it's more necessary to make this a one-off agreement with just me, I guess. I mean, sure. But I think Brian brought up a great point. I don't know anybody that wants to operate on a one-year deal. That's like me leasing. I don't think Norby's would lease the building if they only had a one-year contract, right? Because there's always the inevitable. What will happen? What could change? What laws are going to change during that time? So, I mean, yeah.

So ultimately what you're asking for is that the city's operating agreements for everyone be modified in a way that also makes it reasonable for you to continue doing business too.

I mean, I guess I haven't spoke directly with the other license holders, but I feel like if I were to point out to like, say Casey at prohibition, all of the like gray area involved in our current operating agreement, I feel like she might have concerns she didn't have before. You know, at least I mean, stuff got pointed out to me that I was like, geez, I wasn't even worried about that. But I guess I should be, you know, and that's that's where I guess that was me. So, yeah, I mean, I think it would be definitely worth looking at as a whole.

Well, I guess my concern comes in that while you have a unique set of circumstances, anybody could appeal to us with their own unique set of circumstances. And I don't think we're wanting to engage in an individual operating agreement with every single entity.

I don't think that that makes sense personally. I mean, would it? favorably benefit my current situation? Yeah, I'm sure it would, but I don't think as a whole it makes sense to have individualized operating agreements.

No, when we do operating agreements, I think you have to treat them all the same. And I think probably Dean's thought too, like we have to treat them all the same. So if the operating agreement is going to change, it'll change for all of them. So a couple different things here. I've started to look at this. This is not one thing I've reviewed since I started, but over the last few weeks I have. I have some notes that I'll discuss with Dean and go over this thing that you gave me, Casey, we'll review as well. So the other thing is you have an operating agreement that you can set two, three years, whatever, but the liquor license is annual. Like, that's state. Like, that is an annual thing, and state has their own rules. So we approve the liquor license here. It goes to the state. The state has to check off boxes and make sure things are met before they approve it. So I just want to make sure you know there's two different approvals here. And so you can't change the liquor license. That's a yearly thing, yearly payment and a yearly license that the state has approvals to go through as well.

That is something we have discussed that in the past. For all of you that have been with me for four years of this, the state has three requirements. They will rubber stamp that without even blinking an eye. For some of you, you may recall that the day before the new year happened, I know if Chad was here, he could back me on this, but I think, Steve, that was one of your first things you had to deal with is that they... The state proved it was at that time somebody within our city hall that wasn't going to come down and print my license. But that isn't like the state. They rubber stamp that you did the three things they ask of you. You're going to get your license. They aren't going to push back on that. So it's yeah.

So do we need a motion or no? Okay.

Okay.

Dan, I totally agree with the extended years. Being an independent contractor, I don't operate on a yearly contract either. Although my clause says 30 days, either party can terminate the agreement. So if I had 90 days, I'd have more cushion.

So it's 90 days under what? That's an additional protection. But at any time, you technically could take it away without notice. It's how it's written in there. it's a very i i'm not saying like i don't know who wrote it or what how it all that all plays in it's just that with times have changed and with that i mean so does the color gray and i i don't really want to operate in the gray anymore like that's been very tiring for me for the last four years i just i really want some security so that i can move forward because at the end of the day uh I mean, it doesn't sound all that great to go back to work every single day and rebuild, but I would really like to. I would like to at least have that option and for it ultimately to be my decision when it comes down to it.

All right. Any further discussion or any more questions?

I look forward to you rebuilding.

It's been a lot of work.

It's been a lot of stress. All right, thank you for your time.

Thanks, Casey.

Thank you, Casey.

We have, moving on, we have no finance report. Moving on to the administrator's report. Steve?

Mayor, just really quick, the annual SDML conference is in Aberdeen this year from Wednesday, October 7th through the 9th. If you, if anybody is itching to go to Aberdeen during these times, please let us know. That is it.

Okay. Council, anyone have anything this week?

I just want to jump in a little bit. I was hoping Alexander Heinrich would have stayed here, but it's probably getting close to his bedtime. His petition said at the top that there's been conversation or discussion among council. There's been no conversation or discussion other than a question about the flock cameras to Captain Zishka. Interest. So I just want to to tamper that a little bit. Flock cameras, the only time they've come up has been at that previous council meeting. Nothing has been discussed, decided. It would all go through budget anyway, and we just went through budget. Nothing is budgeted. So I just kind of wanted to follow up a little bit and just say to the community and to Alexander, I am so impressed, though. I am so impressed that these high school kids talked about this. They got, you know, organized about it, collected signatures. So kudos to them for doing that. Just I wanted to, like, let him rest easy that we're not looking at getting flocked cameras. So that's where I'll leave that. Okay.

I agree with you too, Wendy, that I was impressed to see him here and for a while we were here. I wanted to let him know that there was actually something in Sioux Falls tonight regarding flock cameras with the, I forget what group they were talking about the flock cameras and pushing back at the county level. So that was interesting.

Anyone else? Just a couple items. I wanted to see if policies and procedures could review our golf cart policy. We've identified some gap there. So if we could put that together at some point. And then I had a community member approach me and ask if it would be possible to put changing tables, infant changing tables, in our bathrooms at the pavilion, in both the men's and women's bathrooms, because that is a space by families frequently, and it would be nice for them to have a surface to change an infant on. So parks could entertain that.

Pavilion, right?

Yeah.

Pavilion.

Pavilion, for sure. But if we're considering... a project to redo the bathrooms down at the park. It'd be nice if we could consider changing tables in those as well as we consider construction.

It's unfortunate that that wasn't thought of to begin with.

I'm sitting there going, really? There's no changing tables there? But you can tell the age. I no longer am changing diapers.

Anyway, it would be nice if parks can entertain that one.

We'll look into it.

Thank you.

I'm just really just shocked that they're not in those places. So, yeah. Yep.

Nobody wants to lay their infant on a dirty bathroom floor to do that. And I was kind of surprised when somebody brought it to my attention and not the age group that I'm, you know, living in right now. But I was like, oh, that's a good point.

Anyone else? And I have nothing. So saying that, I will entertain a motion to adjourn.

Move to adjourn. Is there some seconds?

All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Motion adjourned. Have a good night, everyone.