City Council - Regular Meeting

Oh, okay. . . . .

Yeah.

Thank you. All right. All right. Is that true? No, it is good. Thank you. Thank you. That's a great brush. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

This meeting of the Eau Claire City Council will come to order please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. City Clerk, please call the roll.

Council Member Brewster.

Here.

Greger.

Here.

Johnson. Mboga. Miller.

Here.

Orth.

Here.

Otto. Here. Reed.

Here.

Schoen.

Here.

Serrano.

Here.

Worthman. Here.

All right. Welcome to the Tuesday, May 26th meeting of the Eau Claire City Council. Tonight we have kind of a variety of things packed into one uh, afternoon. So we're first going to have, um, one public hearing item and then our public comment period. And then we will have our legislative session after that, uh, where we have our, uh, and then after the, uh, legislative session where we discuss and vote on items, we will have a closed session. So, so just kind of, so you have a lay of the land. Um, but we'll start with our, our public hearing and there are copies of the agenda in the back of the room if anyone needs those. So we have, just to kind of explain how our public hearings work, there is a, for anyone who wants to speak on the one item we have for public hearing, agenda item number one, there is a sign-up sheet in the back of the room that you can use. But if you decide, like during the presentation or at a later time that you Before the agenda item has been before the public hearing closes you can still come up and speak So I'll just do a call out for that if you didn't get a chance to sign up earlier, you'll have four minutes to speak and when and the light will be green for the first three minutes at the at the podium there and There'll be one minute of the light being yellow before you run out of your four minutes and at that point It'll be flashing red And then there are other ways to contact the city council if you don't want to speak on items. There is a blue comment form in the back that you can fill out and hand to the clerk up here. Or you can email the city council. All of our emails are on the city website. And then there is an electronic comment form on the city website as well, and that's EauClaireWI.gov. But we will go to that first agenda item. Agenda item number one, under public hearings, we have public hearing on an ordinance amending Title IX entitled parking during specified hours of the coded ordinances of the city of Eau Claire to amend the effective date of paid parking. And we have to present on that a city manager, Dave Solberg.

Thank you, Council President Gregert and Eau Claire City Council. Our parking administrator was not able to be here this evening with a sudden illness, so I'll be giving the presentation today for the item before you. This is a hearing on a pretty simple item. to amend the effective date of paid parking from June 1st to August 1st of 2026. The main factor for this is the lead time for the parking kiosk is taking longer than anticipated. They should arrive in June, but then there's also necessary preparations for the bases and foundation in some of the areas of downtown that we need to get a concrete base underneath for proper installation of those. And just for the benefit of some of the council members that haven't been through here on That haven't been through here Through the parking journey over the last couple of years. I have a brief history and update on how we got to this point of implementing the and then delaying the parking and the paid on-street parking. So I guess just I'll get started with the brief history. In 2024, we had a parking study conducted for the city to look at how the parking operations in the city operated post-COVID. During the COVID pandemic, there was a significant change in downtown usage. Here we go, downtown usage. Thank you, Haley. And this is the executive summary that came out of the parking study. One thing they wanted to reset the parking program to basically start over from scratch because some of the uses and how downtown parking was operating warranted a fresh start. One of those recommendations was to implement paid on street parking and that's reflective of restructuring pricing in the past and currently we have free parking on the streets the most desirable parking spaces are free but their time limited for two hours. The recommendation was to restructure it so those most desirable parking spaces had the highest cost and then the less desirable less convenient parking spaces were lower priced. Typically, the further away from the most desirable locations would be the lower-cost options. Then we wanted to simplify enforcement. Right now, with the two-hour parking, we go through downtown, we electronically chalk the tires, then go through two hours later, and then enforce. And if you're not in compliance, you would get a citation for extending past two hours of parking in the downtown zone. after paid parking goes through it'll simply be whether you've paid or not so the parking enforcement will go through downtown and if you paid you're good and if you haven't paid then you'll either receive a warning or a citation and then there's a lot of a lot of complaints in the past that um PARKING RESIDED IN THREE TO FOUR DIFFERENT DEPARTMENTS. THE POLICE DEPARTMENT HELPED WITH IT, ENGINEERING HELPED WITH IT, COMMUNITY SERVICES, AND WE HAVE WORKED SO FAR THIS YEAR WITH OUR PARKING ADMINISTRATOR AARON ROTH TO CONSOLIDATE PARKING operations enforcement and all aspects other than design and some of the engineering aspects of things under the parking administrator and the neighborhood services division. So with the paid on-street parking that's before you today to be proposed, back in 2025, the city council approved paid on-street parking in the full recommended zones that were in the parking study. So in the purple zones, those are $1 per hour, and then in the green buffer zones around it, those are $50, or 50 cents per hour for those zones. And the city council both approved the map that you see before you and then the two-tiered aspect of that. There was a slight change. The parking study recommended 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. for paid on-street parking and then free parking when you're able to park outside of those hours through a... discussion and public input from the businesses the time for on street parking was shifted to 1 p.m. to 11 p.m. to allow the downtown businesses to have free parking basically from 6 in the morning until 1 p.m. so starting out with this program there'll be no fee parking on the street and no time restrictions in downtown so Barstow Street from 6 a.m. To 1 p.m. Monday through Saturday and then all day on Sunday there will be no no restrictions on the parking in the downtown area in the maps that you see before you So with the implementation of where we are in the implementation for this, we're in the process of consolidating parking operations to one location. The city council also authorized outside experts, one for the parking utility and another for marketing. In the previous year's budget deliberations to be used this year for experts to help with unveiling on-street parking. So... the our parking program is using those experts uh and then right now we're in the signing the installation of signing marketing equipment for the revenue collection and that's where the delay occurred meeting the june 1st time frame that council originally set out last year we felt it was much better to have everything in place and do it right even if it's delayed for a couple of months than it is to deliver it hastily. Typically, in the ramps, we're getting 80% of our revenue via the phone app and 20% on the kiosk, but we still felt that having 20% of people being confused trying to comply with paid parking would be too high. So that's why we're proposing the delay, and the resolution before you in the packet indicates that starting date. If it's approved, the paid on-street parking would begin August 1st. We're going through the public outreach process right now, and we'll have boots on the ground helping people with navigating and answering questions and using either the apps or the kiosks. Once we get to August 1st, and basically August through the first part of September, parking compliance will be the focus of enforcement. Not citation issuance for that. So the parking study recommends grace be given with When the program is unveiled so that's what we'll be focusing on trying to help people understand how to use the program rather than penalizing them for not being successful the first time or two they they try to park downtown and after the the paid on-street program is implemented and everything seems to be running smoothly there are a number of other issues in the parking study that will be the next focus of the parking administrator and that would include public private partnerships and a number of other things that are in the in the study so that's a just a brief history and a why we're proposing the delay and i'd be happy to answer any questions

Thank you, City Manager Solberg. I have a question from Council Member Miller.

Thank you, Council President. Thank you, Interim City Manager. Question about, you just mentioned the outreach that's going on right now. Can you just give a little summary on what kind of outreach is being done? How's it going? What kind of feedback you're getting with that?

We've hired DECI to help with the outreach on that. They're doing social media. Aaron Roth is reaching out and talking, or our parking administrator is reaching out and talking with businesses. There was quite a bit of concern when we were rolling up to the June 1st deadline that to make sure that from the marketing standpoint, the ducky had concerns that everything was going to be, all the ducks were going to be in a row and lined up. So it's doubly beneficial. I think they felt that it would be better to have a little bit more time to unveil and educate, as well as to get the equipment the equipment installed. As far as the sentiment, I would say that there's still an equal amount of anxiety and apprehension of the local downtown businesses on the effect of paid parking. Similar sentiment that the city council heard when it was approved last year to go with paid parking. We're trying to do everything in our power to make sure that when it's unveiled. It's clear clearly understood It's not surprising to people. It's it's fun. There's benefits along with it, so They are also working the the parking group is also working with businesses to try to identify Parking spaces on the top level of the lismore ramp across the street That could be available for downtown employees at a discount rate since we're not using that the quick stop spots or something, some other name other than loading zones in downtown to try to help the businesses with like DoorDash or if somebody's going into a business and just grabbing something and going out. So they're working with the businesses for a number of issues that the businesses have identified that would be a benefit to either their employees or their operations downtown. They're not included in the delay right here, but they want to bring that forward to council before August 1st so we have all of the changes going together. So even though nobody wants to... Nobody wants to... pay for parking if it's already free, but we're hoping that they see the best value in that. And then going further, they'll connect the payment for on-street parking to better branding, better capital infrastructure, and then also the discussion of replacing the more expensive things with the parking ramp downtown. There is nervousness among the businesses, though. I think that's fair to say. Thank you. I have a second question. Council Member Werthmann?

Thank you, Council President and Interim City Manager Silberg. Do we, is that August 1st date the smartest date to pick versus something a little further out that gives us more spaciousness? And maybe, I'm just thinking about August 1st as being still kind of in that summer, in the middle of summer, or within the summer season. Does it make sense to wait until August? Schools back in or some other date in the future and gives more time to roll out the different pieces Just just wanted to ask.

Yeah, the rationale is to have it up and running You know, that's one of the reasons that went into the June 1st before it's kind of a down season for you know, instead of once you get We'd like to have it up and running and running smooth and understood by the time school arrives, when we start having the students back at the end of August, early September. But then once you get at September, October, November, and you're starting to get into the holiday season, we would prefer not to have the messaging of come downtown go shopping by the way we're changing parking we'd already we'd already like to have parking familiar at least in people you know the first time and i you know i admit you know i do the same thing the first time you park and with the different apps out there you're like oh i have to download an app but then when it's downloaded it's it's easy to use so we would like to have it start in a slower time period and as people start returning downtown it kind of grows together and becomes part of the fabric of it um i would say if it didn't start this summer i would I would probably wait until after the holiday season and do it in January or February of next year instead of throwing it out this fall in holiday season.

Council Member Serrano.

Thank you, Council President Gragert, and thank you, Interim City Manager Solberg. Do we have an estimate of the cost of this delay and the impact to our budget for 2026?

So we're covered with ARPA funds through the rest of this year. We estimated the program for seven months of... revenue we estimated conservatively just to make sure that you know if we didn't overestimate on that so that was about four hundred thousand dollars for seven months worth so a little bit less than fifty thousand dollars a month so we're okay with this year with that estimate I I think if we're effective at rolling it out and people understand it and we're having compliance I think we probably have a good shot of beating that estimate even with the delay in implementation on this, if we do a good job rolling it out. So, yeah, if we push this back like another year into 2027, then we would start to have budgetary concerns with the parking administrator position.

Great. Thank you.

Council Member Miller.

Thank you, Council President. One other question. You mentioned a grace period when this program starts. Is there a time frame or how would that grace period work? Like, you know, you get so many, you know, get out your free cards or the time frame or how is that looking to work?

Well, the parking, so the grace period up front, we're going to try to give the best customer service we can and try to encourage people along. We don't have a two-week period or a three-week and then all of a sudden everybody's going to get tickets. I'd rather have it rolled out and be accepted even if it takes an extra week or two weeks to have more emphasis on enforcement.

Thank you.

We're hoping, what we want are compliance because the way our finances work, the parking utility and the parking fund is funded with revenue instead of the citations. The citations go in the general fund. So if we're out issuing citations, it doesn't help balance the budget to pay for the parking administrator salary. It's people using the app and paying for that. So that's what we're going to try to help and encourage people. But yeah, I believe the parking study, if I remember correctly, And I didn't have a chance to read through the whole thing, but I, you know, not a get out of jail free card because we won't obviously put anybody in jail for parking infractions, but they even recommend giving, you know, for giving a ticket a year, you know, with some people, you know, and being human about it because we don't want to shy people away from downtown because we're over enforcing, but we do need to enforce enough that we're getting the revenue of that. I would rather have 95% revenue and zero citations than to have 60% people using it correct and have 50% of the people get tickets on there. But yeah, the parking study does stress to have good customer service and be human about it. Thank you.

All right, any other questions from council? Thank you, interim city manager. So we want to open this up for the public hearing. Let's check and see if anybody has signed up and back. OK. Is anyone interested in speaking to agenda item number one on postponing the implementation of paid parking?

OK.

We'll close the public hearing on this item and we'll visit that one a bit later in our agenda and the business agenda. The other, the next item or the next area of the agenda is the public comment period. Did anyone sign up for that? Otherwise I can explain what it is too. Okay. Is anyone interested in the public comment period to speak on items that that we didn't just discuss. Okay. All right, well, thank you. We'll move on to the consent agenda. So those are items up to number 17 in the agenda. And these... So there may be folks here for items on the consent agenda. So unless an item is pulled out from the consent agenda, all the items will pass or fail on one vote. And so therefore, if your item is up to number 17, you're free to go. But you're also welcome to stay at the meeting. Do council members have any? questions regarding the consent agenda or wish to remove any of the items for separate consideration okay so um then on a motion by council member serrano and seconded by council member brewster the consent agenda has been moved is there any discussion on the consent agenda all right seeing none uh city clerk please call the roll

Council Member Brewster.

Aye.

Craiger.

Aye.

Miller.

Aye.

Orth.

Yes.

Otto. Aye. Reed. Aye. Schoen.

Aye.

Tarano.

Aye.

Orthman. Aye.

All right, and that passes unanimously. We now are going to do two proclamations. this afternoon, and the first one will be for Pride Month. And I would like to invite Kayla Johnson up to the front, and I'll read the proclamation. So whereas June is considered Pride Month and is celebrated internationally, recognizing the Stonewall riots in New York, the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ plus movement, and whereas the rainbow flag was created in 1978, and is internationally recognized as a symbol of the LGBTQ plus rights. And whereas Harvey Milk is recognized as the first openly gay person to be elected to public office, serving on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, and Eau Claire has benefited from having multiple LGBTQ plus elected officials on city council, school board, and county board. And whereas LGBTQ plus history is a rich and integral part of human history, and Pride is a celebration of societal inclusion celebrated annually by members of the LGBTQ plus community and its allies. and whereas members of the LGBTQ plus community continue to have hardships in life at a disproportionate rate, including discrimination, harassment, intimidation, poverty, homelessness, school harassment, physical assault, violence, hate crimes, mental health issues, and substance abuse concerns, And whereas the city of Eau Claire wishes to be a healthy, safe, diverse and prosperous community for everyone. Now, therefore, I, Jeremy Greger, president of Eau Claire City Council, on behalf of the entire city council and the citizens of Eau Claire, do hereby proclaim June as Pride Month in the city of Eau Claire. and encourage all residents to promote equality, enrich alliances, inspire inclusion, and celebrate diversity. Congratulations.

Do you want to say a few words now?

Thank you, Council President Greger. Thank you, members of the council. It is very meaningful to receive this very visible type of support, especially at a time where supports sometimes seem few. And our LGBTQ plus community members, especially our transgender siblings and our youth, are facing a climate that we have not seen in the current climate in a long time some of us for the first time during our lifetimes so to have the city of eau claire stand here in support and stand alongside with us and visibly with us this year more than maybe any other year that i've said thank you at this podium means everything and we're so excited to bring pride back to the community and celebrate because again now more than ever it's so important for community members to come together and to continue to express joy and to celebrate together so we can continue to retain hope and push for a better tomorrow for everyone i think we all share a common goal here when i say that we want to see every community member no matter who they love or how they identify see a welcoming home where they can sit at a table with their friends without fear and But thank you.

All right. Thank you so much. And our next proclamation will be for Wisconsin Bike Week. And we'll welcome Grant Zasterpole to the front.

and his excellent shirt.

Whereas bicycles represent freedom, connection, health, and adventure, often serving as a child's first experience of independence and opening the door to a lifelong love of movement and exploration. And whereas bicycling brings people together across generations and backgrounds, creating stronger neighborhoods and fostering a sense of community through shared experiences on streets, trails, and public spaces. And whereas the 2026 Wisconsin Bike Week theme, Bikes Build Community, reflects the important role bicycling plays in connecting people to one another, to local businesses, to parks and trails, and to the natural beauty of our region. And whereas cycling promotes physical and mental well-being, supports environmental sustainability, reduces traffic congestion, and encourages residents and visitors alike to experience the city from a slower, more connected perspective. And whereas the city of Eau Claire is proud of its culture of bicycling, walking and outdoor recreation with an extensive network of trails, bike lanes, shared roadway features, transit connections and public spaces that encourage active transportation and healthy living. And whereas the city of Eau Claire has been recognized as a bronze level bicycle friendly community by the League of American Bicyclists, reflecting the community's ongoing commitment to creating a safer, more welcoming environment for cyclists of all ages and abilities. And whereas Creating safe and welcoming streets is a shared responsibility, and all roadway users, including bicyclists, pedestrians, and motorists, play an important role in looking out for one another and understanding the rules of the road. Now, therefore, I, Jeremy Gregert, President of the Eau Claire City Council, on behalf of the entire City Council, do hereby proclaim May 31st through June 7th, 2026 as Wisconsin Bike Week in the city of Eau Claire and encourage all residents to celebrate the ways bicycles build healthier people, stronger neighborhoods, and a more connected community. Congratulations.

Thank you, Council President Greger, and the rest of the city council. I don't know if there's much more I can add that you probably haven't already heard in the proclamation or from side conversations with Jeremy at any point in time. But again, very happy to see the city of Eau Claire reaffirm its commitment to creating bike-friendly and bike-safe communities. Biking... I believe brings us closer together. It allows us to see our city in fun and new and exciting ways. And it really does build not just healthier bodies, but healthier neighborhoods, healthier communities, healthier economies, healthier environments, and altogether a healthy and thriving place to live. And again, thank you so much for reaffirming that commitment to Eau Claire for everybody and Eau Claire where everybody can roll through it.

Thank you, Grant. Thank you, Grant. And I happen to have some Bike Week posters, which I'll pass one in each direction so folks can take a picture and add items into their calendar. So great. I will move along to our business agenda here. So that starts with agenda item number 18. And this is a resolution granting a Class B fermented malt beverage license to Saki LLC, doing business as Motel 6 of Eau Claire 2305 Craig Road, our Zoo Patal agent. And we have our assistant. City Attorney Blake Herbison here to present on that item. Thanks for joining us.

Thank you, Council President Gregert. Good afternoon, council members. So this licensing item reaches you on business after a license review committee identified a handful of concerns in our review process. In particular, there are a handful of open fire code violations that are existing at this Motel 6 location, and there's been delays in responding to and resolving those violations, which raises some concerns from the License Review Committee's perspective as to the applicant's ability to comply with city raised concerns, and particularly if there were to be compliance issues in the alcohol realm. uh and this uh and among other issues here raises a a recommendation from the license review committee to recommend postponing the granting of this license until uh august 11th council date of 2026 to give the applicant an opportunity to demonstrate their ability to resolve these open fire code violations And it will also give them an opportunity to attend the next fake ID training held by the health department and police department to ensure that they're equipped and ready to properly identify fake IDs and deny age-restricted sales of alcohol at their premise. That fake ID training would be on August 10th, so a relatively short turnaround to prove that they can resolve the open code violations, attend that fake ID training, and otherwise get ready to be licensed at that premise. So I would recommend postponing this item until August 11th, and I'm available for any questions at this time.

I'll ask that question. Okay. Thank you so much. Council Member Werthmann. Thank you, Council President.

Mr. Herbison, what's going on at the site of this Motel 6 that there have already been a number of violations or calls for service in terms of overdosing and alcohol. Is there a restaurant on site? Are people just bringing in alcohol onto site? What's going on with that?

So motel, hotel location, private guest room residences, carry-ins are likely to be coming in. It was also explained to the License Review Committee that individuals may be going to outside bars to drink alcohol, then they return to their rooms for the evening, in which case the incidents come forward and calls for service are uncovered at that point, too. So that's highlighted here for your consideration of the license as a whole.

If I could follow up, I mean, it's not an uncommon thing, I would guess, that happens at hotel-motel establishments? Or is this site seeing a lot more calls for service than normal?

I guess we've got... Deputy chief of fire here who might be able to speak something to the to the medical incidents that are occurring here And carry-ins are not wouldn't be prohibited at the hotel after this this license premise if you were to grant a license here There would just be the addition of alcohol on-premise potentially available to folks for your consideration, so Part of the reason we wanted to bring it to business was to highlight those incidences and to give you that discretion of whether to grant or not. But as far as medical. Sure.

Yeah, to speak to the medical portion, anytime we have any type of occupancy where they're requesting a change in any type of occupancy, we look back and see what has happened in the past. In this particular place, we've recorded this year alone, I believe, five overdose type calls. That's not to say that it's the business' issue, it's more the individual's issue. Obviously hotels, motels, stuff like that, you have people that are coming short term, some may be long term. So we're not really too interested in that. Our perspective more is the life safety code violations that they have been delaying, particularly to the fire doors not being in working condition. the alarm panel's not being, it's been in trouble mode for some time and hasn't been repaired. So that's more of the aspect that we're taking it from, not so much the incident type calls that we're going to.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Council Member Miller.

Thank you, Council President. Thank you. Assistant City Attorney?

Yes, Assistant City Attorney.

Make sure you got your title right. So you had recommended postponing this until August 11th, and there's the fake ID training on August 10th. Is that enough time? Do they need to approve anything after that training to be in compliance? I mean, obviously if they didn't show up, you'd report back on the 11th, but is there anything they need to do between the 10th and the 11th? Could we postpone it two more weeks until the 25th? Or is the 11th enough time?

So the 11th would give us enough time to know whether they attended that course, which is what we're asking that they do is to attend the fake ID. So they'll get that experience with fake IDs, blacklight flashlights, and then given our expectations of licenses is that they would implement those practices. So once they learn it... it'll be up to them to implement it and to follow it. And if we see future issues related to age-restricted sales, we may take separate actions at that time based on, whether that be citations or in the event that it's bad enough, it could be suspensions, revocation, proceedings implicating their license. So I'd recommend at least August 11th if a later date would be preferred by council I have no objection to a later date to give them Some more time this postponement would ultimately give the city an opportunity to collect more data and information and see are they responsive to our requests for compliance That we would be able to report back to you in August and if they're moving in the right direction Can share that information? More time means more data

Great. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Brewster. Thank you, Council President. So in my mind's eye, I'm struggling to – this motel doesn't have a restaurant or bar or anything attached to it, does it? uh not that i'm aware of so is this a request then to to sell alcohol in like a like a little convenience area that a lot of hotels have you know like a soda candy bar kind of thing yes so their uh their plan for service would be to have a locked cooler behind their front desk

and for their front desk staff to conduct the sales. So it would be like if you were to approach the front desk, if there's convenience items behind there for purchase, that would be the point of sale for, say, a can of beer from the fridge that they have stored behind there. Yeah, so they would they would check the ID Based on what we're requesting that they would do they would use a blacklight flashlight to identify fake IDs Confirm that it is a lawful sale and then would be able to Have have that alcohol, you know potentially in the lobby area or the license premise includes its it'd be the lobby area Hallways and just based on kind of how hotels work, they could potentially take that back to their room as well.

Okay, thank you.

All right, any other questions from council before we move this item for discussion? Okay, thank you for your presentation and for answering questions. work on this um so let's see so on a motion uh by council member worthman and seconded by council member orthis item is moved um is there any discussion or proposals by council let's see we have council member brewster yes i'd like to move to postpone this item until our august 11th meeting okay so we have a Motion to postpone to August 11. Is there a second?

I will second. OK.

So is there any discussion on that motion to postpone?

to august 11th of 2026. uh oh sorry council member otto yeah just speaking in favor of the motion it sounds like there are two issues in play then there's the number of emergency calls that are happening in this hotel and we don't necessarily know where it ranks in terms of how often how often these are compared to other establishments, but then there's also the fact that they're not investing in necessary equipment, and before you get a liquor license, you need the basic equipment for public safety, so I think this makes sense.

Sure, thank you, Council Member Otto. Council Member Miller?

Thank you, Council Member. Yeah, liquor licenses are a privilege, and there are obligations that come with these, and not only would I expect the applicant to comply with the training on August 10th, but also expect that the fire code would be addressed before I would be in favor of a grantee license.

Okay, thank you. Any other discussion on that motion to postpone to August 11th? OK. City Clerk, please call the roll.

Council Member Greger. Aye. Miller.

Aye.

Wirth.

Aye.

Otto. Aye. Reed. Aye. Schoen.

Aye.

Serrano.

Aye.

Werthmann. Aye. Brewster.

Aye. All right. And that motion to postpone to August 11 passes unanimously. So thank you for that. We will move on to our next agenda item. This is number 19, resolution approving appointments and reappointments to various boards, committees, and commissions. And we will have Councilmember Brewster present on this item as he is chair of that. of the Advisory Committee appointments.

Thank you, Council President Greggert. Yeah, so we have some appointments, a lot of reappointments actually, but some appointments as well. For the Administrative Review Board, we will be appointing Jill Christopherson. For Pedestrian and Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee, Richard Martin and Hagen Martell. For the Library Board, reappointing Charlie Schell. And for the Sustainability Advisory Committee, appointing Brian Brown and reappointing Taylor Greenwell to Transit Commission.

Okay, thank you, Councilmember Brewster. Are there any questions for Councilmember Brewster about that slate of appointments and reappointments? Okay, so on a motion by Councilmember Miller and seconded by Council Vice President Schoen, this item is moved. Is there any discussion? Okay, seeing none, city clerk, please call the roll.

Council Member Miller.

Aye.

Orth.

Aye.

Otto. Aye. Reed. Schoen.

Aye.

Serrano. Aye. Werthmann. Aye. Rooster. Aye. Greger.

Aye. All right, and that passes unanimously, thank you. We'll move on. to agenda item number 20. This is a resolution appointing a council member to the vacant positions held by council members on boards and committees. And I will present on this item. So we held our organizational meeting on April 21st. That's where the council members that were seated at that time appointed each other to various boards, committees, and commissions, but several were left vacant in anticipation of a District 2 appointment, which we now have Councilmember Orth, who joined us on April 28th. And so the proposal would be to, well, we would need essentially a motion by someone to fill in the blanks on the resolution in order to appoint Councilmember Orth to the following boards and committees and commissions. So there's the Fiscal Stability Committee, the Visit Eau Claire Tourism and Cultural Arts Grant Program Committee, and the Board of Review. There's an alternate seat that's available. So is there any questions about this particular resolution or that presentation or can we move this item? Council Member Brewster. Thank you, Council President.

I was just wondering, is it possible or is it already, is it too late to include the appointing of a person to the landfill committee as we discussed in appointments? Since it's not on the agenda, I don't know that we could. Okay, because I guess all the openings are listed, so that's one we're going to have to do separately. All right, never mind. Yeah, we can certainly look at that soon.

Any other questions about the resolution to appoint a council member to the vacant positions? Council Member Werthmann?

Thanks, Council President. I also wanted to raise that when we had our organization meeting, I said yes to taking on membership with the Waterways Parks and Urban Forestry Commission. But that is one that I am more than willing to give up to another council member who maybe didn't have a chance to go for it or is interested in taking it on, because I have quite a pretty heavy load of different commissions. So I'd like to raise that up, too, that if we filled this Landfills one is we should put the waterways, parks, and urban forestry back on the agenda. And Council Member Orth said she would consider it potentially maybe next year, but maybe even sooner. So I just wanted to let folks know that that is one that I would be OK if someone else wanted to take it.

Yeah, happy to discuss that outside the meeting. Appreciate that flexibility and offering more opportunities. So I'm going to move this. I'm going to have this item moved so we can discuss it further. So on a motion by Councilmember Otto and seconded by Councilmember Reed, and this item is moved, is there any discussion or discussion any motions to amend the resolution. Council Member Miller.

Thank you, Council President. I think Robert's rule of orders doesn't allow me to directly give a question to a particular council member, but I would be curious if any council members are interested and willing to take these three positions and could say so publicly.

Council Member Orth.

Thank you. I would love to take these three appointments. Thank you. Awesome.

Council member Brewster.

I would make a motion that we insert council member Orth's name in the resolution And pass it All right, so we have a motion by council member Brewster and we have a light on from Mr. Otto.

Okay. Thank you So seconded by council member Otto So there's a Motion to amend the resolution to add Councilmember Orth to the three slots for Fiscal Stability Committee, Visit Eau Claire Tourism and Cultural Arts Grant Program Committee, and the Board of Review Alternate Position. And that motion was by Councilmember Brewster, seconded by Councilmember Otto. Is there any discussion? OK. City Clerk, please call the roll on that.

Council Member Worth.

Aye.

Otto. Aye. Reed. Aye. Schoen. Aye. Serrano. Aye. Werthmann.

Aye.

Brewster. Aye. Rager.

Aye. Miller.

Aye.

All right. And that amendment to the resolution passes. And I think we need to vote on passing the actual resolution with amended. Is there any discussion on the resolution amended? All right. We will ask the city clerk to please call the roll.

Council Member Otto. Aye. Reed. Aye. Schoen.

Aye.

Serrano.

Aye.

Werthmann. Aye. Brewster.

Aye.

Reker.

Aye.

Miller.

Aye.

Orth.

Aye.

All right, that passes unanimously. We move on to agenda item number 21. Resolution authorizing the city manager to enter into a state municipal agreement for a state-led highway safety improvement project for construction improvements of an existing intersection of Birch Street at Hastings Way as part of State Project 799502-92-93. Director Ness is up to present on that item.

Good afternoon, Council. This is an agreement that the City of Eau Claire would enter into with the State Department of Transportation, the Northwest Region. It's a Highway Safety Improvement Program project, or HICCP, is the acronym that we call it. It's a grant program through the Bureau of State Highways that offers assistance for improving roadways and intersections that are experiencing high numbers of crashes or severe crashes. Looking at our local system overall, and at intersections that are maintained by the city we asked a consultant to look at the hastings way and birch intersection it is has the highest number of crashes at this location and they were able to identify some improvements that we could take to improve the safety of this intersection. So working with the Northwest Region and their HCEP coordinator, they determined that the improvements that they had recommended would help this intersection obtain this grant funding. So, by accepting the resolution today and the three-party agreement, it would allow us to move forward with design improvements out here and Hopefully reduce the number of crashes at this location The map on the left shows the general location of the intersection the right shows the current configuration of Hastings Way and Birch Street Some of the recommended improvements that the consultant recommended looking into further design of would be turning the kind of, it's a sweeping right turn right now on all four approaches. It would reduce that angle to have a better right turn angle for vehicles making that movement. Additionally, the signals out there are on monotubes and there's a signal head over each lane. They have black back plates on them and you can see kind of an example of a black back plate versus a yellow back plate on the signal head. So if you drive Claremont Avenue, you'll notice the yellow back plates on the signal heads. It just helps improve the visibility of the signal head for the motorists at the intersection. Other recommended improvements would be existing out here, we have four lights for this very large intersection. So adding additional whiteway lighting to the intersection, some high visibility crosswalks, so the blocked crosswalks instead of a standard crosswalk to help guide pedestrians. Overall just traffic control equipment upgrade at the intersection which would allow us to track vehicles, pedestrians, bicyclists better, make better accommodations for the timing of the phasing. They did look at the traffic counts and the dual left turn lanes going northbound and discovered that our traffic volumes don't warrant dual left turns there. So they're recommending at this time reducing that to a single northbound left turn lane and have it be a protected only phasing. So it would only be able to make a left turn on a green left arrow. There's additional potential improvements that could be made, but overall the design process will go through a couple different iterations. This is kind of just the beginning of looking into the intersection and making sure that these Improvements can be made within the right-of-way. We'll meet the standards that we need them to meet and the guidelines that are required through just improvement projects with the site distances and placement of the infrastructure. overall the project is right around 1.3 million dollars with a 90 state federal funding 10 uh local funding which results in us paying approximately 137 000 for the improvements at this location that includes the design fees and the construction fees and it's It's a pretty amazing opportunity that we can make this type of improvement using a grant funding project to move this forward. Originally, or the proposed timeline would be to have a consultant under contract to do the design in 26 and 27. Hopefully have our, plan specifications and estimates done in 27-28 with construction in 20-29. If there's any questions related to that, I can take those.

Thank you. Director Ness, we'll have a question from Council Member Brewster.

Thank you, Council President. Once construction is started, how impactful is that going to be? Is it a repaving of the entire intersection, or is it just chunks along the side? And roughly, how long would you expect construction to take?

Really dependent on what the design ends up being at the intersection, I would say, for the timeline and the construction phasing. Right now, with just changing the right turn lane approaches, I would think they'd probably try to do that a quadrant at a time. And... You know have your normal traffic control related to that quadrant we can make some design changes to Improve the The time frame related to the curing of the concrete so things can go a little bit faster But there's still gonna be your curb and gutter your lane one of the things I didn't mention is that was proposed is still trying to, or still accommodating the large truck movements to make those right turns. So there would be truck aprons that would be included with this design as well. So there'd be the pouring of that as well. But really, I think we'd have to get into the design more to have a more specific answer on that.

Okay, thank you. Thank you. Council Member Werthmann?

Thank you, Council President. City Engineer Ness, I wanted to ask about the public input process for a project like this. And I guess in the overall context of how do we, as in a local community that brings 10% of the money, how do we have a say in the design of this project?

That's a good question. With the design process on this, we work with the consultant to come up with different improvements for the intersection that will meet the criteria outlined by the state for the funding. You know, if there is information that the public would want to relay to our department, I'd say call engineering at any time and let us know about an experience that they've had at this intersection, a concern that they have about this intersection. It's a very large intersection. and has just had, it has challenges. So we'd like to get as much information related to it as possible to make the changes for improvements moving forward.

Could I get a follow-up? So kind of along those lines, one of the things that I notice, because I go through this intersection a couple times a day usually, is that people go through, especially the north and southbound, they go through at high speeds. And I'm assuming that that makes things more challenging because you might be traveling 45, 50 miles an hour along Hastings and not see someone stop in front of you or not see someone come out in front of you. And so I just wonder why this intersection isn't being considered for potentially a roundabout or some other sort of more fundamentally different structure, which is, I'm seeing a lot of those in other areas of the state. The Fox Valley has a lot of roundabouts, intersections with high volume of traffic. So I guess that's one question, and then one comment if I could make. There's actually a pretty, it's kind of like a deer crossing area that happens on Hastings just south of this map. And there's not great whiteway lighting there. And I almost wonder if we could have that be a part of the project, which is to add more lighting, but also add more lighting to the south. Because I notice that people don't see the deer crossing there. And... I've noticed a lot of people slam on their brakes and do other kind of erratic driving behavior because of the deer crossing in that area. The roundabout, I guess, is the question. Is that even an option here?

With the HICCP funds... The improvements that we had recommended, low-cost improvements are typically ranked higher and awarded the funding, just I believe, so the funding can be stretched further across the state. But at this location, we did not. go over looking at changing from signals to a roundabout at this time. That'd be a pretty major investment and change in the area, but I mean, it is something that we can talk with our consultant and the region on as well. Within our funding right now, we wouldn't be able to move it along the timeline that we're on with this project.

I appreciate that. So the funding of doing something like that is just way beyond a million point two or whatever this is, if we do a roundabout.

Yes.

All right, thank you. I'll move on to Council Vice President Schoen.

Thank you, Council President, and thank you, Director Ness. I know in the agenda packet there is reference to also some pedestrian wayfinding improvements, I think underneath the tunnel that goes underneath. And I was wondering if you could, I guess, elaborate on that, because I also use this intersection a whole lot. I mean, driving to and from home, but also walking my dogs and crossing that intersection, not using that pedestrian tunnel. I mean, it's a really intimidating intersection for pedestrians to use. So I'm curious, just, you know, the wayfinding improvements that you could highlight would be helpful. And then also any other kind of pedestrian improvements within the intersection itself.

was just really making an emphasis on providing pedestrians and bicyclists that there are alternative crossings in the area if they do not feel comfortable using the signalized intersection to cross at that location. With the tunnel to the south, you can kind of see it on the aerial photo. And then along the west leg as well for the trail system. So there are those two tunnels that are accessible in the area. Just giving better direction to how to reach those, what the distance is potentially. Looking at improvements on our signage to direct people to use those. if they so choose. But otherwise, within the intersection itself, some of the improvements that were recommended were those high visibility cross blacks, improving the whiteway lighting, so the intersection lighting to... if there were pedestrians within the intersection at night or in the dusk hours, in the morning hours when it's not quite light out yet, just to provide better visibility of the pedestrians or bicyclists within the intersection during those time frames. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Otto?

Thank You council president I remember maybe 15 years ago that was an overpass just because we're thinking about that intersection now and the current design sounds like it's not working but An overpass would be way over budget and outside of the scope of this, but if we're thinking about that intersection, can you think of any reasons not to restore the overpass outside the expense? Does that run against the design of Hastings Way nowadays?

I guess I had a picture of the old interchange on here and I thought, oh, I'm not going to go into the history of it. But yeah, it really, you know, when we jurisdictionally transferred Hastings Way when US 53 bypass was built from the state to the city, at that time it was decided to eliminate the interchange and consolidate it into one very large intersection we've had issues here with with the crashes some patterns some speed concerns through here but by Looking at the crash data and looking at the proposed improvements, we do believe that we can lower the overall number of crashes at this location. Definitely not eliminate them, but at least reduce the amount of calls for service at this location, which I think is a win because we're reducing collisions, impacts to motorists, potential injuries, reducing the service calls for our emergency services departments. Going to a roundabout or a Bacton interchange, we would have to look at land acquisition again. Related to that, there was quite a bit of land transactions that occurred at that time going from the ramp terminals down to a single intersection. So that would be, again, it'd be a larger project that we would have to forecast out for.

Thank you. I think I have a question, too, just about the scope of this and maybe a future project. But there's one of the desire lines that I see for pedestrians in particular to try to access the underpasses. There's various underpasses in there. There's one for the Old Abe State Trail that goes north-south under Birch on the west end. But then there's the underpass for bicyclists and pedestrians to the south of the intersection under Hastings way. And there's a, there's a lot of pedestrians that like to walk down over by like the, the circle K, um, in the Northwest kind of down the hill to the underpass. And there's kind of like a, um, I guess I call them goat paths, but they're like a, basically a dirt trail that people created. Um, And it seems like maybe there would be a way to get a staircase in there so that people can access those underpasses better. Is that something that would be outside the scope of this grant?

Not knowing exactly where that location is, I can't say yes or no, but it is something that we can follow up on with the consultant as we get into the design of the project.

Okay. Thank you. All right. Any other questions for Director Ness? All right. So we can... move this to discussion. Thank you so much for your presentation. So on a motion by Councilmember Serrano and seconded by Councilmember Brewster, this item is moved. Is there any discussion among the Councilmembers? Councilmember Miller.

Thank you, Council President. Last week I had the opportunity to attend a talk given by Director Anderson at the Western Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, and this came up. This intersection here for the city of Eau Claire, it ties for first in the number of accidents per year, and is number third at rates, so how many crashes per vehicle. So in either way you measure this metric, this is a very crash-prone intersection, and You know getting such a grant the paper 90% of improvements to this would be quite beneficial In reducing the number of faxes to happen here So I'm very pleased to see this proposal come our way because it's either number one or number three worse intersection in Eau Claire Depending how you measure it Thank You councilmember Miller Councilmember Werthmann

Thank you, Council President. I just want to thank City Engineer Ness for her work on this due diligence, figuring out how we can put federal and state dollars to work in our community on a Pretty unsafe intersection. I do think there's something about speeds through this intersection with just the volume. And I hope we can look at that as well. It just moves fast. And coming from someone who was in an accident just a couple intersections away from this, speeds matter when a crash happens. And so I hope that a part of this is redesign, but also maybe we need to think about getting a little bit more serious on enforcement and bringing our speed levels down through this intersection just so people have a better chance of being okay if a crash does happen. Just want to add that.

Thank you, Council Member Werthmann. Any other discussion? All right. City Clerk, please call the roll.

Council Member Otto. Aye. Reed. Aye. Schoen. Aye. Serrano. Aye. Werthmann. Aye. Brewster. Aye. Greger. Aye. Miller.

Aye.

Orff.

Aye.

And Larry. Bogan. Aye.

All right. And that passes unanimously. The next agenda item is number 22. I will be recusing myself from this item and passing the gavel to our vice president, Sean. And I'm just going to step into the back.

Thank you, Council President Gragert. So as Council President Gragert is recusing himself of this item, I will help facilitate this. So the next item on the agenda is a donation of funding for sponsorship. This is a resolution accepting a donation of funding for a partner sponsorship to Bike Chippewa Valley Inc. for the printing of an updated edition of the Chippewa Valley bike map. And we have Director Ness to present.

Thank you again. On the screen is kind of an example of what the Chippewa Valley bike map is. I brought a copy along of the 2021 map. And there's a stack in the back of council chambers if anyone is interested. We had a donation come in for sponsorship of placing the City of Eau Claire logo on the back of the maps and for printing of the maps. Moving forward for the updated map that's coming out The logo would have the bicycle and pedestrian Advisory Committee Noted on the back it It's a map that has been around for quite some time. It's a great tool and reference for the bike ability of our community on street and trails and We had committee members from BPAC in the past that have gone and ridden the trails and helped, or the roadways, the streets, the routes, helped determine what the comfort level was on those and contributed into the ranking of how this map is laid out. So it's a great resource. It comes in at a very timely time. time for bike week coming up here at the beginning of June. So we appreciate the donation coming in and we will be using that to help support the printing of this map. Again, the maps are found at local bike shops. We have sets of them at City Hall here. I'm I'm sure that Chippewa Falls has them at their city hall, Altoona. But just wanted to thank our donor for the support of printing these. And then also wanted to kind of give a plug for Bike Week coming up here. There's a lot of events related to it. Council President Greger sent out the flyer or passed that around, but it starts off on Sunday, May 31st with a bike beach party and family ride kickoff at the Haymarket Plaza. Sunday at 2 p.m. So if anyone's interested, that's the beginning of Bike Week with an activity and lots more to follow after that. So again, the donation today would be for funding of the sponsorship of this map and approval of that for us to move that forward. I can take any questions if there are any.

Do council members have questions for Director Ness? I'm not seeing any. Thank you. Thank you. So to move the item, in a motion made by Councilmember Werthmann and seconded by Councilmember Ortt, this item is moved. Is there any discussion? Council Member Miller.

Thank you, Council Vice President. As the council representative on the BPAC committee, I would just like to thank this apparently anonymous donor for their donation in order to get the city of Eau Claire name on there to reinforce our commitment to bicycle and pedestrian activity in the city and also to help fund the printing of these maps.

Any other comments or discussion from council? Okay, seeing none, clerk, can you please call the roll?

Councilmember Reed. Aye. Schoen. Aye. Serrano. Aye. Werthmann. Aye. Brewster. Aye. Greger. Amboga. Aye. Miller. Aye. Orth.

Aye.

Otto. Aye.

And that item passes unanimously. Hopefully our council president reappears. OK. I'll hand the gavel back.

Thank you, Vice President. Our next agenda item is agenda item number 23, resolution authorizing the city manager to enter into an offer to purchase agreement with Steven and Crystal Meyer for the purchase of property located next to Highway 12, parcel number 1802222710051300003. And we have Director White to present on that.

Council President Greger and council members and I think we'll come up with a way to shorten those parcel numbers moving forward for the agenda items. So the project is one that we had brought forward as a discussion for council. We're looking forward to approval, a review and approval of the land purchase at this point in time. The light blue area is the 22 acre parcel as it's located in the higher reference to the city. It is along Highway 12 on the western quadrant of the community. about a mile and a half or so from the city boundaries. Going into a slightly higher level detail, the site is currently an ag location. It is under ag production. To the east of that space is an energy company that does tanks and energy storage. It is heavy industrial area by zoning and use. and the site is again approximately 22 acres the owners are stephen crystal mayor some of you may recall these are the the property owners that we purchased approximately 80 acres from south of the country gym site along county t a number of years back and ended up doing a trans a uh transfer with the Gateway Industrial Park to create some new industrial park space. They have some additional space that they were interested in selling, so we connected with them. The space is offered out at $25,000 an acre, which is the same price we purchased for the approximately 80 acres up along County Line Road, or County Line and County T. The site is intended to help service needs in the western edge of the community. This site is being evaluated as a brush location, a brush site location. HIGHER ACREAGE THAN THE CURRENT SITE LOCATED IN THE GATEWAY INDUSTRIAL PARK AREA. AND EASY ACCESS HIGHWAY 12 MAKES IT A QUICK IN AND OUT FOR CITY VEHICLES AND RESIDENTS TO DROP AND PICK UP RUSH. WE'RE ALSO LOOKING TO USE IT FOR OTHER SERVICES THAT MIGHT BE NEEDED AT THE CENTRAL MAINTENANCE FACILITY. THE CITY DOES NEED TO STORE THINGS LIKE AGGREGATE ROCKS, SAND. material that are used throughout the community. As the community's been growing, and the Western Quadrant is an area that we are growing, this site serves for the community's growth patterns to provide that same type of storage and services in an area that the community is seeing growth in. Again, the price was agreed upon by the mayors and the city, and we'll be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Director White. Any questions from council? Council Member Mboga.

Thank you, Council President. I think I did ask you. Thank you, Director White. I did ask you about this one. How would the city resident react? We don't have money. Where do we have the money to buy this land?

I will turn at this point in time. Kitsie Winters, our financial director, is not here, but I will invite Michael Corolla, one of our budget analysts, up to be able to address that question.

Good evening, Council Members. Yes, I didn't have a chance to speak with Kitsey before tonight, so I can definitely speak with her on this tomorrow if needed. My understanding is that this would be paid for. We have funding within our Fund 434 for land buildings and equipment for land acquisition for various city needs, and I believe we've had funding budgeted for a few years for land acquisition. So as far as my understanding is, it would be paid through our land acquisition fund for 34. I believe there was 500,000 budgeted in 2026, and then I believe there's another 500,000 that's proposed in 27 in that account as well for that capital project.

Thank you. Can I ask Director White? So can you go back to the regional agenda?

Yes.

No, the regional, the main agenda of the region. Oh, yes. How did you come up with this number?

I'm not sure how the parcel numbers are allocated. I know they have references to like county, township, a whole number of things are put into there. Some of those front numbers stay static. So we'll figure out which ones we can actually cut off and not have to represent moving forward. But there is a method to the GIS madness in those parcel numbers. I just can't explain it at the time right now. I can get you an answer for that, though. I'd be happy to. Thank you so much.

Council Member Orth.

Thank you, Council President Gregert and Director White. I did have a couple of people reach out to me today with concerns. They were money related, so thank you very much for explaining that allocation. in Fund 434 because that answers several of the concerns right there. One of the other concerns that was noted was that with that site being near that energy, that there's propane tanks there and that a fire could trigger an explosion. That was one of the concerns. Another about the region, again, low-lying area. Is it a wetland? And then the other things that came across were fears, like people think that the city is interested in this property to build a data center, and that seemed to be the strongest concern of all.

Certainly. To address the first one, as far as propane goes, this is an industrial area. You have industrial and heavy commercial operations and adjoining properties to the east. If they leaked propane, it would have blown up already because some of the heavy operations to the east would have addressed that. So these are safe operations. They're heavily regulated. They're heavily inspected. That's not a concern. That is why they're put in these types of areas. Our use, our intended use, which is brush storage and storage of aggregate, it doesn't create a lot of other activity. It doesn't see sparks. It's not manufacturing or production of any type. It's just storage of static materials. So that type of concern is not really a concern. There are operations like this in other parts of the community that have businesses much closer to them, including true manufacturing. Not to the scale of this one, but it's there. These are... heavily maintained, heavily accounted for, so there's not a real concern there. As far as the concerns, it's a 22-acre parcel. You can't build a data center on a 22-acre parcel. We are purchasing it for our intended use. And it is an area that's growing, so it is something that we recognize that. There's a lot of the land, the Mayer family who are selling this piece to them, they have additional land in and around this space. could be future growth down the road. But for our intents and what our need is, is defined by serving some direct city needs. And that's what we're pursuing at this point in time.

Thank you, Director White. Vice President Schoen.

Thank you, Council President Gragert. And forgive me because I think this is the first time since I've been on council actually that we've gone through a land purchase that I can remember being a part of. So I don't know if this is typical, but I did notice So on the cover sheet for this item, it does emphasize the intended use of brush storage, but then it does note long term the site provides an access to support future growth in this area as the city continues to expand. And then within the agreement, itself for the contract. There's a section titled intended use of property and that maybe there's enough broad language there but it does seem to emphasize again the use as a brush site so I just was wondering if that restricts us in any way to how this parcel would be used or potentially developed in the future. Just looking for more clarity on that point.

No, the language would not restrict us in any way to doing that. It's primarily what's intended to be used. As we've been talking to Central Maintenance Facility, the team over there expressed that they do have spaces where they need to store other material that is part of utilities and streets. And this is a way to help support an area that's growing and put it closer to an area that's growing. So it may have other functions. We may see at some point in time that this is a good location to locate vehicle storage or some other type of equipment storage or a small facility building or storage that serves another city function. From the property owner standpoint, it works. They're not really concerned about that. They have a price that they had specified. One of the things we did specify, and this is a little bit different than the last agreement we did with them. Previously, we had a clause in to lease the land back to them for continued ag use until we had a viable project to move forward. That's what we did on the 80 acres along County T. In this case, we chose not to do that. Our intent for use of that for city needs is fairly direct, fairly current. So we chose not to do any lease. We just referenced them that this is a likely use. It's also a bit for their knowledge because they own land on the other side of Highway 12, so it kind of defines what we're looking to do with the space. Although, as we said, it may serve other functions for the city that we haven't even recognized today, but we'll accommodate as we continue to grow.

Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Werthmann.

Thank you, Council President, Director Roy. I apologize I left the room for just a moment. So you might have covered this already. But this site, in terms of our comprehensive plan, I assume that it fits what's planned for in the future in this area.

This will be part of the discussion as we look to modify that document moving forward. You'll notice the blue area in there is just outside of the sewer service area. It highlights the fact that our sewer service area has not been updated since 2005, which contravenes what DNR specifies it should be done every five years. So it does fit in with our longer projections. It is within the SSA study area. And we will be taking a look at land use as part of our 2027 comprehensive plan update moving forward. So that will definitely be part of our discussions, part of the input from the community as it relates to that. And I apologize, I just realized I didn't answer another question from Commissioner Orth. There are no wetlands in this space. We did the delineation confirmation. There are some wetter areas right along the interstate, but this space has no identifiable issues at this point.

Thank you. You have a second question, Council Member?

Yeah, thank you, Council President. Is there... We've talked about a composting opportunity on our future brush site. And I've been in conversation with our interim city manager. Do you foresee that this could be such a location given that it's, I don't know, outside of kind of main residential areas? But does this site offer that potential?

Absolutely, it's in adjacent to what would be an industrial area. We that will be zoned public for our Purposes, but to the east of it. It is zoned industrial So it would be an appropriate type of use and could very well serve that function in the future. Thank you Councilmember worth.

Yes. Thank you again Have has there been any concerns from neighbors in the area

We have not heard from anybody directly about this space. The industrial user to the east has not specified. The neighbors directly adjacent to the west, we have not. My office has not heard any feedback from them. I don't know if any other departments have, but we have not anyway.

Thank you. I have a couple of questions. So I see that there's presumably a town road, a Volendorf Lane. that's on the western edge of the property accessible from State Highway 12. I'm trying to anticipate how we use that as an access road that is maybe safer for people to go maybe off of 12 onto that road to then access the brush site. I guess I'm just trying to, if you have any information about how you anticipate making sure that people can safely access this given the speed of the highway and like the fact that you may have queuing of vehicles because of certain hours available for use of the brush site. And then another question kind of related to that use is what you anticipate doing like from a buffering or screening standpoint given there are some residential properties. that are adjacent?

Certainly. In the immediate access, we'd probably look to use whatever existing agricultural access is used by the current farmers. It is built, they run large grain trucks, heavy equipment in and out of that space, so that will provide the immediate access. We can analyze that from our engineering department and our streets and utilities, what would be the most appropriate way to access in and out of that site. And then we can make appropriate improvements to facilitate that, whether it's maintaining or upgrading the ag access, perhaps using the lane that's in there. I'd have to check to see if that's private lane or if that's public road. But there would definitely be some opportunities to look at that. And, secondary, what was the secondary question?

Yeah, the second question was related to, like, how you're planning to buffer or screen the property given the types of, you know, it's given some of the residential property that is adjacent.

Certainly there is existing vegetation along the property lines that edge the field. Um, there would be no reason for us to touch those. So that natural screening can be left in place and then we can put in appropriate buffers depending on what we're putting in. And there's likely to be some level of fencing, our fencing and aesthetics have to be code compliant the same as anybody else. So we would look to address any type of screening at that point in time. Um, How that lot specifically is laid out in terms of their fence and how the access is will be determined a little bit by the final use and what city uses it has and what activities are going on in that space.

Okay.

Thank you, Director White. Any other questions from council? Okay. Thank you.

Yeah, thank you so much.

So on a motion from Councilmember Miller and seconded by Vice President Schoen, this item is moved. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, City Clerk, please call the roll.

Councilmember Schoen.

Aye.

Serrano.

Aye.

Werthmann. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. And we had a public hearing on this earlier, but I will read it again. Ordinance amending Title IX entitled parking during specified hours of the code of ordinances of the city of Eau Claire to amend the effective date of paid parking. So I don't think we necessarily need any more staff presentation on this. But thank you for that earlier, interim city manager. But are there any questions for staff at this juncture before we move the item? Okay. So on a motion by Council Member Ramboga and seconded by Council Member Otto, this item is moved. Is there any discussion? Okay. Seeing none, City Clerk, please call the roll.

Council Member Serrano. Aye. Werthmann. Aye. Brewster. Aye. Greger. Aye. Mboga. Aye. Miller.

Aye.

Orth.

Aye.

Otto. Aye. Reed. Aye.

Schoen.

Aye.

All right, that passes unanimously. So under ordinances for introduction, item number 25, I will just read this item. And we will see it on our agenda in two weeks for hearing and consideration. So that's Ordinance Amending Chapter 17.03 entitled, Use Standards of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Eau Claire to Permit Heavy Vehicle Parking and Conditional Uses in Residential Zones. And that is coming from Council Member, Vice President Schoen and Council Member Miller.

So our next... Point of order, Council President. I think you're required to ask if anyone wants to suspend a rule to take up these items tonight.

Absolutely, yeah. So is there any interest in suspending the rules to take up this item tonight?

Yeah, I was going to say, I think this has to go to plan commission before we can take action on it. And that hasn't happened yet.

So yeah, that was just a first reading then. So the next part of the agenda is announcements and updates from the interim city manager or from council members.

I'll jump in first with just a few announcements. In an hour, Tuesday Night Blues in Owen Park begins. This is a time of year when all of our outdoor activities start to kick into full swing. Thursday, this coming Thursday, May 28th, we have Eggs and Issues, sponsored by the Chamber, and it's the legislative summary session for this past legislative session. If you're interested in attending that, let the City Manager's Office know, and we'd be happy to get you signed up for that. Next Thursday, June 4th, sounds like summer, begins in Phoenix Park, followed by on Friday, Food Truck Friday from 11 to 7 in Phoenix Park. And then also Friday, June 5th, Fairfax Pool opens up finally. So we're at that time of year. No further announcements.

Thank you. Any announcements from council members?

Council Member Brewster. Thank you, Council President. I just wanted to let you know that depending on what time we get done tonight, there is a fundraiser going on right now at the Lakely Intel 7 for improvements to Upper Mount Simon Park by the Northside Hill Neighborhood Association. So I thought I'd throw that out into the ether.

Thank you, Council Member Brewster.

Just one, I'm just going to double down a little bit on the Bike Week stuff.

There is one particular event where I think that the planning committee wanted me to emphasize for council members to attend, and that would be the Bike Week party, which kind of overlaps with Food Truck Friday toward the end of that night on Friday, June 5th. So it's at Haymarket Plaza where there's a lot of different you know, organizations that are tabling bike shops and things like that. And there's also the presentation of the BPAC Awards, the Bike and Pedestrian Advisory Committee's awards program. So that's from 5 to 7 on that Friday, June 5th. So the Bike Week party.

All right.

So Food Truck Friday is happening at the same time. And therefore, that's where the food is, just across the river at Phoenix Park.

I apologize, I did miss one update, but I'd like to congratulate Lane Berg and his family on his first granddaughter on Thursday, Juliet May Evangeline. So Lane is a grandpa.

Wow. Exciting. Yeah.

Um, thank you. Any other announcements? Okay. We do have a closed session next. So, um, so I will read the notification of that. Um, upon a motion duly made and carried the city council may go into closed session to discuss and receive negotiation direction for the sale and development of city owned land along County line road. and adjacent to Jeffers Park. This item involves deliberating and negotiating the potential sale of public properties, which is authorized for closed session pursuant to Wisconsin Statute section 19.851E. And do we have a motion to go into closed session?

I'll move.

Second. OK, so we have a motion by Vice President Schoen and seconded by Council Member Brewster. Um, is there any discussion on that motion? Okay. Uh, thank you. Uh, city clerk, please call the roll.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Okay.

And that, that motion to go into closed session. passes unanimously and can maybe give a couple minutes for folks to exit the room or if anyone needs to use the restroom and we'll start in three minutes two to three minutes well how about let's start in five minutes so people can have a proper break take five okay

Thank you.