City Council - Regular Meeting

It is 7 o'clock, and I will call the regular city council meeting for Monday, July 20th to order. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, Roll call, please.

Council Member Wilson.

Here.

Acting Mayor Cordes.

Here.

Council Member Bernatz. Here. Council Member Winchell.

Here. All right, next item is the agenda. Is there anyone who would like to make motions to the approval of the agenda?

I actually have a change. Okay. If that's okay, I'd like to pull 6-5 from the consent agenda and move that to new business.

Okay, any other changes?

I have one change, make a modification to item 6-4 on the consent agenda. to state approval of separation and release agreement between City of Farmington and Tyler Wood.

All right, any other changes?

All right, with that, I would seek a motion to approve the amended agenda. Motion to approve the agenda, noting changes in 6.4, 6.5.

Second.

I've got a motion by Steve, a second by Holly. All those in favor? Aye. And those opposed? All right, next up is 5.1, Introduction of Farmington Ambassadors and Top the Tater Days Recap. First I will invite the 2026 ambassadors to come up and introduce themselves.

Hi, my name is Alison Klinkscales. I'm one of your 2026 junior Farmington ambassadors. I'm going into eighth grade at Dodge middle school this year. And the, some activities I'm involved in are the Farmington high school dance team and the middle school track team. My favorite part about the top, the tater days was the kiss the pig.

Hello everyone. My name is Grace Moorhead. I'm your 2026 miss Farmington ambassador. I just finished up my senior year at Farmington High School. In the fall, I'll be attending the University of Wisconsin River Falls. Some activities I was involved in in high school was basketball, link crew, and theater. And my favorite Top Potato Day event was the Hoedown.

Good evening, everyone. My name is Dahlia Nelson. I'm one of your 2026 Junior Farmington Ambassadors. I'm going into seventh grade at Bachman Middle School. Some activities I'm involved in is volleyball, track and field, choir and band, and my favorite thing about Top the Tater Days was the hoedown.

Hi, my name is Callie Carlson. I'm one of your 2026 junior ambassadors. I'm going to the seventh grade at Bachman Middle School. Some activities I do are Girl Scouts and karate, and my favorite Top the Tater Day event was the chocolate chip cookie baking contest.

Thank you, ladies. Next, I will invite Christy and Jeff Kerr from the Top the Tater Days Committee to come up and give us a recap. Or just Christy Kerr.

I usually talk more than he does. Thanks again for having me here. My name is Christy Kerr. I'm the chair of the Farmington Area Enhancement Group, which is the group that puts on Top the Tater Days. My husband and Jeff and I are also the pastors of Homestead Community Church, and we're just so honored to be able to be a part of the community. And doing Top the Tater Days was something that we just love to do because we love to celebrate Farmington. We think there are a lot of really great things to celebrate about our community and being able to see people come together and enjoy one another's company and to highlight all of the amazing things. local businesses and organizations that make our community special is just a highlight every year for us. A couple of things that we want to say thank you to the fire department and the police department and Parks and Rec. They assist us in all kinds of ways of making sure that everything goes smoothly. And we had a great event, lots of fun things happening, lots of visitors coming to town, which is really fun with our new partnerships with Kemps. It's given us more visibility. And so a lot of people are coming to check out that aren't a part of Farmington and they're able to see what an amazing community we have. We also had a lot of new groups come in and support by running events. We have local businesses that run events. We have local organizations, hockey booster clubs that all take little pieces of the whole event and run and organize them and bring volunteers and helpers. And so that is always really fun to see the community come together to do a great event. And one of our goals as a committee has been to continue to try and make this event self-sustaining financially. So we do have a number of sponsors that come in, but we're also finding new ways to generate revenue so that the festival can continue on and that we found out that many of our vendors had record years where they were able to make a lot of financial gains and we do use as many local organizations as possible for all of our events including we had a merchandise store this year that town sports did all of our merchandise this year so we think is a highlight of the year and so we just want to thank again the support of the city for this event thank you steve any questions for christy there's no there's no actually no questions okay um

I mean, Jeff, I don't know why you're not up here too, but I can understand why you chose to sit down, but, um, you know, it's, I mean, really, we see the ambassadors that just came up and the four of you are really the face of the community at parades, at events that you're going to showing off and kind of telling our stories. So thank all of you for just being ambassadors for our community and for Christie and Jeff. I mean, There's a really almost no words because it was so amazing it just draw drew so many people into your point You know this and I mentioned this last meeting I know Holly is very humble about it, but I mean if it wasn't for her and You know her efforts, you know three four years ago. We wouldn't be here today so it's it's really incredible what it's become in the past couple of years and Um, and so just thank you for all the dedication. The fireworks were amazing. I was very skeptical. I was very worried about the fireworks. I'm like, this is going to have downtown burning up, but I was assured that it, that it wasn't going to happen. So yeah, it turned out great.

Thank you. Phil, any questions?

No, I just a big thank you. I very much appreciate what you guys do for the community and have you started planning for next year?

course i'm ready i have a list have a list okay thank you thank you again holly i will say this as many times as people are willing to listen to me um the work that is done by the the group and also by the cat wranglers of said group um to put this festival together is nothing short of a miracle and we all just need to make sure that we don't go one second without expressing our gratitude for that. this is not something that comes together in a few weeks. It's not even something that comes together in a month or two. I know, I know as much as I know, as much as I know that you probably slept for two nights and in those two nights you had about a dozen dreams and started writing things down already for what, you know, what next year looks like and what you have been able to do with the support of the volunteers that you have working with you is Fantastic. It showcases all of the best things about Farmington and about our community. And Top the Tater is a bonus to me. I love the support that Kemp's has given us, but this really is, for me, a highlight of what the community of Farmington looks like. So super, super grateful to you and every single person that has taken on one of the Billions of things that you can do over the time of that festival, because every person I know has a sweet spot that they're very passionate about. And they've got a team of people that are supporting them. And at the top of that are you guys and and everybody at Homestead. And so very grateful for that. And to our ambassadors, I said this last time, congratulations. Um, I know the parades are long. I know they're either rainy or hot, and I know you wait a long time, take a whole bunch of pictures and have massive headaches because of those awesome crowds. And also the work that you're doing is so much more than that because people all around the area are learning about our community because you are going to their communities. And so we're very, very, very grateful. for the work that you're doing to represent us all around the region and for taking all of this time away from other things that I know you enjoy, that I know that you love to be out there for Farmington. So thank you to you for doing that as well.

And I just want to congratulate the ambassadors as well. Best of luck in the next year representing our community. I know you guys will do great. And Christy, Jeff, the entire committee, thank you for the hours and hours and hours and hours of hard work that you guys have put into this committee. to put this event on. I know I was just a small part in judging the recipe contest this year, which I think was new, but we had participants from International Falls and Duluth, I think, and Bell Plain, I think, was the closest. So it was just an incredible way to get people into our community and celebrate Farmington, but also that great product, Top the Tater. Thank you. Thank you. All right, next up on the agenda is the consent agenda. And as a reminder, the consent agenda is made up of routine business items that can be acted upon with one motion. We'll seek a motion to approve the consent agenda.

Motion to approve. Second.

Got a motion by Holly, a second by Steve. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Those opposed, nay. All right. Next up, I believe, is our new agenda. Business item 11.1, the electronic mail retention policy. And I will hand that over to Peter.

All right, good evening acting mayor and council members. For new business I am going to talk about our email retention policy. Email is one of the primary ways we conduct official business and because of that state law requires us to treat certain emails as public records when they document city decisions, actions, or ongoing work. The city follows the general records retention schedule for Minnesota cities, which establishes how long official records, including certain emails, must be retained. In developing this policy, we reviewed how neighboring cities structured their retention timelines and selected periods that represent a balanced middle ground, long enough to meet legal operation and transparency needs, but not so long that they create unnecessary storage or administrative burden. The policy I'm presenting for council approval tonight ensures we meet those legal obligations while also reducing risk and providing consistent guidance to staff and council. To support this, the IT department has implemented tools that automatically apply retention timelines, reduce manual cleanup, and prevent important emails from being deleted prematurely. The policy also outlines clear procedures for legal holds, ensuring that if the city becomes involved in litigation or an investigation, all relevant emails are preserved immediately. Just as important, the policy clarifies responsibilities. Staff and council members need to recognize when an email becomes an official record and stored appropriately. IT will continue providing training, guidance, and support to keep this process straightforward. Overall, this policy strengthens compliance, protects the city legally, improves transparency, and keeps our systems organized and efficient. I'm asking the council to approve this policy so we can continue managing city data responsibly and consistently. That's all I have. I'm open to any questions.

Thank you, Peter. Any questions? Holly?

Well, since I was the one that wanted to pull this out of consent, I appreciate you bringing it up. And the reason I really wanted to have it come out of the consent agenda and into something that was new business is just so that we would actually have it openly discussed and not something that moves through, even though it is very procedural in nature. My understanding is that certainly when we took our seats as council members, this is something that we learn about from the LMC, right? So we learn about all of these retention practices. It follows state statute. I appreciate you telling us a little bit more about this as far as the retention periods and how they exist. I know for myself, one of the problems that I've run into is my iPad continually RUNS OUT OF SPACE BECAUSE I KEEP PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING AND SO HAVING THESE GUIDELINES BEING HERE AS FAR AS HOW LONG DIFFERENT THINGS NEED TO STAY IN DIFFERENT BUCKETS AND THEN ALSO THE GUIDELINES THAT EXIST AROUND ANYTHING RELATED TO LITIGATION OR LEGAL ACTION, YOU KNOW, BEING DIFFERENT FROM THAT. I JUST DIDN'T WANT THIS TO PASS UNDER AS SOMETHING THAT FELT LIKE IT WAS HINDERING TRANSPARENCY BUT WAS MORE OF A NONDUPLICATIVE OR SOMETIMES PROBABLY IN TRIPLICATE OR QUADRUPLICATE WAY TO FIND INFORMATION BECAUSE IT'S ALREADY BEING STORED IN OTHER AREAS. SO IT'S NOT THAT I EVEN HAVE A QUESTION. I JUST APPRECIATE YOU BEING WILLING TO COME AND SPEAK TO IT AND CLARIFY HOW IT'S WORKING SO THAT IF ANYBODY ELSE DOES HAVE QUESTIONS FROM A COUNCIL PERSPECTIVE THEY CAN ASK THEM.

No questions. I'm familiar with it all. Thank you.

Steve?

This might be a question for you, Amy. So we wouldn't... Okay, so when we're talking about holding email that pertains to litigation-type things, does the bucket include... communications which aren't involved in litigation, but could be at some future point, or does that become so broad that it would just be absurd to consider everything? Council Member, the... Let me just give you a random example. Okay. If somebody's tree fell over this morning, and something happened, and they informed us about that, that probably goes to John, maybe it involves cleanup, whatever. seems pretty innocent, you know, but maybe it blows up into something different later. Do we worry about that or do we not worry about that?

I'm not sure about whether the word is worry about that, but the protocol would be that when a litigation hold is issued, it's issued when LITIGATION HAS ACTUALLY BEEN FILED BY OR AGAINST THE CITY OR IT HAS BEEN THREATENED AGAINST THE CITY OR THE CITY RECEIVES COMMUNICATION FROM AN ATTORNEY REPRESENTING A PARTY TO PRESERVE ALL RECORDS, THAT SORT OF THING. WHEN IT'S DIRECTLY RELATED TO ACTUAL, REAL ACTUAL OR THREATENS LITIGATION. FROM THE EXAMPLE THAT YOU PROVIDE, THERE'S NO WAY TO KNOW WHAT COULD TURN INTO A LITIGATION SITUATION AND WHAT WON'T. MY ADVICE IN THAT SITUATION WOULD BE FOLLOW THE SCHEDULE. IF EMAILS ARE RETAINED ACCORDING TO THE RECORDS RETENTION SCHEDULE AND THIS EMAIL RETENTION POLICY, then the city, if it does turn into litigation, the city's position is protected from an accusation of some sort of what they call spoliation claim by a party. If it was just a routine city matter and the process of keeping and deleting emails followed the standard procedure, then there's no real risk to the city.

Perfect, thank you. That example right there was official record, though, because that would be dealing with a resident, so that's an official city operation, so that would have a retention schedule.

Any other questions, Steve?

No.

I have no questions. Thank you for your time tonight, Peter. With that, I would look for a motion to adopt the electronic mail retention policy.

Make a motion to adopt.

Second. Motion from Phil, a second from Holly. Roll call vote, please.

Council Member Wilson?

Yes.

Council Member Bernatz? Yes. Council Member Winchell?

Yes.

Acting Mayor Cordes?

Yes. All right, next on the agenda is item number 12, citizen comments. Before we get to that, I have a statement to read. Citizen comments are a time for anyone to address the city council on matters not on the agenda. Comments from speakers must be informational in nature and may not exceed five minutes. The city council will not engage in discussion or debate in those five minutes, but will take the information and issue a response to those requiring one by the next council meeting. When you come to the podium, please state the city or township that you live in. As part of the protocol, it is unacceptable for any speaker to slander or engage in character assassination or discuss personnel complaints at a public council meeting. As such, speakers will not be allowed to identify city employees either by name or position or to identify any other person by name during the public comment period. If one does, their comments will be deemed done. Please address your comments to the council as a whole, If decorum cannot be maintained during a speaker's time, the council will recess to allow decorum to be restored. Upon return from recess, citizen comments will resume, provided order can be maintained. If order cannot be restored, the meeting may be adjourned. Is there anyone who would like to speak tonight?

David Pritzloff, 20255 Aiken Road. Since Nick's not here, I'm still going to request it anyway. I would like to request the workshop again on side-by-sides. At the last workshop that we had with e-bikes and side-by-sides, a couple audience members weren't even able to have any discussion with it. I would think workshops are open to the public, so where you can have comment and and conversation back and forth, so I would request to the council, and I'm sure Nick will see this, that we set up another workshop so that we could have a discussion about side-by-side ordinances. The other thing that's been brought to my attention, I didn't see it with my own eyes, but it's been said to me that city vehicles have been out by the golf course. Technically there. I was told that they're cutting grass out on the golf course Now quite a few meetings ago after the property was recorded by the city or by the county I I did ask the city as an ordinance Are you gonna mandate that they keep the the grass cut the weeds down just like you would any particular resident in the city? now my feeling is is the city is out cutting the grass and you're probably gonna turn around and tell me that the city's being reimbursed for that. which I would turn around and say it's not for the taxpayers for us to pay salaries and benefits of employees or to have city equipment out there that could break down that we would have to pay for. Now, if you're gonna turn around and still tell me that anything that happens like that is billed to track the owners of the property and you're reimbursed, I find that hard to believe. If that is the case, then maybe you could produce a copy of a check that you've gotten paid for by track. The other end of it is there's almost as many dead trees out there as there is live trees. And from also what I was told is that when they are cutting the grass out there, they are going over dead branches that if you were cutting your own lawn, you'd go through your yard and pick up branches before you would cut your grass and wreck your lawnmower. So if we're out there just hashing up the city equipment that taxpayers have to pay for to repair, I don't think that's their responsibility. Otherwise, if that is the case, if you are out there doing track of favor and cutting the grass, it's certainly not the city's position to do that. You should have hired company that has nothing to do with the city nothing to do with the with the track and have them professionally go out whether they need to bring bigger equipment out there such as brush hogs or what-have-you because when the grass to two feet tall a normal lawnmower even the city bigger lawnmowers aren't going to do that without putting a lot more strain on them so if that's what's going on out there You should just hire a company that comes out and does it. They can build track by themselves. There's no reason that I think the city should not have anything to do with that. It's their property. You would do that to my lot if I didn't take care of my lot. You would send me a letter saying cut your grass because it's 12 inches tall and weeds are going through. You'd send me a letter. If I didn't abide by that letter, you'd come out and cut it and bill me for it, and if I didn't pay the bill, you'd put it on my taxes. But we're talking a city lot, my own private property, not acres of a golf course that you're trying to take care of. It's just not the city's responsibility to do that. I don't think, the other thing is, I don't think as much as the city has to take care of, we certainly don't have to go out there and take care of another piece that you never had anything to do with for all these years. And I would bring up the fact that, you know, it brought to my attention again, is that if you walk up the bike path on Aiken Road, You've got branches and trees overhanging the path that people can't walk, even if people wanted to go buy you on a e-bike at 37, 40 miles an hour. They can't get around you, the people can't walk. There's an area where we could use the people that are cutting grass to trim trees on bike paths so people could actually use them. That golf course is no way a place for the city employees to be at and spending taxpayers' money and or the taxpayers paying for wages and benefits.

Thank you. Is there anyone else?

Nancy Arsted, Castle Rock Township. Look at this map. What kind of a company would do this to people? What kind of a company shows us in their own PowerPoints that data centers are best located away from residential centers and then squeezes a massive one right between two established residential centers? The entire country knows that Tract will. Tract is a developer that will do that. What kind of city leaders would do this to their own people? The entire country knows that Farmington will do it. You created what I call a sacrifice zone for all these people. And I'm in the sacrifice zone. You can love data centers, make money off of them, and you can still look at this map and say, yeah, that's not okay. That's not right. Do you know what story shows up in every history book ever written? People with money and power decide that they can oppress a weaker group of people for whatever reason, but almost always for money. They never call it oppression. They label it progress. And when the people being harmed stand up for themselves, try to fight back, suddenly those people are deemed the bad ones, unreasonable, troublemakers. It's their fault. It's the same pattern over and over throughout history. The strong put their thumb on the weak and blame the people who resist. Women want to vote? Bitter, homely spinsters. They're extremists. Those lazy, ungrateful bastards think they need better working conditions in the coal mines. Can you believe it? You were the one that ran away. Well, what were you wearing? You see, it's always twisted back onto the people who are standing up for themselves. So here in Farmington, what do you see? The audacity for these people to stand up and fight for their homes. The gall they have, scraping a few dollars together to file a lawsuit. Anybody who has ever dealt with injustice, who tried fighting back, knows exactly what we are dealing with. If you fight, they will come at you. Anyone watching, go to the City of Farmington's website, the City Council meeting, agenda packet, April 20th, 2026. There's a letter in there from TRAC dated March 30th, 2026. And read how they talk about the people trying to fight for their homes. They call us actors. We're spreading misinformation, calling what we are doing a theater for public spectacle. Read the tone of that letter, how they describe us, people fighting for their homes. See, that's how it's done. I urge everyone to follow this lawsuit. It's on Dakota County's court site. Watch what's happening. Read the vitriol. You need to watch how they fight. How dare we call them whiny crybabies in our personal emails? How dare we? Remember, your staff asked TRAC very early on how to offset the opposition. That's us. We were to be offset. We are like flies at your buffet table. A bunch of NIMBYs. We presented a petition to you seven weeks ago, now signed by 865 people, and you flat out ignore it. We aren't even worthy of a response. It has nothing to do with a lawsuit. Closed systems use chemicals. We're asking if chemicals are going to be stored and used right here next to our homes. And we don't matter, right? Because we're in the sacrifice zone. We're like dog crap on your shoes and you can't scrape us off. That's how we feel. See, that's how it's done. On November 4th, 2024, four of you voted yes after we begged and pleaded with you not to do this to us. And that night, one of you asked track for faux windows on the 50 and 80 foot tall buildings. Faux windows. That's fake windows. What a slap in the face to the people in the room that night and all the people that live here in the sacrifice zone. So dismissive. And now that person wants to be the next mayor. Farmington, we definitely need new leadership. We need leaders that care, who won't ignore petitions, who treat residents with respect, and who won't put people in sacrifice zones. And I want to thank, too, the Top of the Tater Parade. We had a great time. We had a float in it. We played songs like Hit the Road Jack and Death to My Hometown. We had an amazing, amazing response. People applauded and cheered us the entire route. And I wish I had a body cam to show you all the support we had because people here don't believe in sacrifice zones. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to speak tonight?

Hello Terry Pearson 2475, 225th Street West, Castle Rock. On July 9, 2026, the Apple Valley City Council directed a study to be conducted for the purpose of evaluating whether data centers require amended or additional local regulation. They want to look at whether or not they'll interfere with existing on future land uses and will they have substantial impacts on the environment, the city's municipal water and wastewater system and infrastructure and public health, safety and welfare. These are all concerns that we've brought to your attention for two years. My question to you is, what do you know that all of these communities don't? Why are you so firm in your convictions when all cities around Farmington are calling for moratoriums to do this right?

Is there anyone else who would like to speak tonight?

Carolyn Keefer, Castle Rock. What will happen to the industrial wastewater? It's not addressed in the AUAR as is required by law according to the MCEA industrial wastewater specialist that I spoke to. It is an important environmental issue that needs to be addressed before anything is done on the property. Why so much secrecy? What will be in the wastewater? Glycols as in Rosemont, PFAS, the forever chemical has been found in some, biocides, heavy metals, rare bacterias as in Wyoming. Many of these are not permitted at this time at the Empire Wastewater Treatment Facility. We talked to the guy running it. Will the residents be required to pay for upgrades to the facility to help out the billion dollar company? Will the waste be dumped directly into the Vermillion River? We don't know. Will it be hauled off in tanker trucks, as suggested by some? Will it be dumped into holding ponds for infiltration and leaching into the groundwater, as in Rosemont? We have no idea. Does Tract have an idea? And they don't want us to find out for fear that we will do research and find out how destructive it is to our environment? None of these I would expect of a good neighbor. I am told that we don't know the end user. The existing permit should be revoked and no more should be issued until we know more about what will happen on the site. Then responsible evaluations could be made as to whether this is something that will have major negative environmental impacts for the neighbors living nearby and around the state. Can the Empire Wastewater Treatment Facility handle wastewater from Meta in Rosemont, Farmington, possibly two being built and proposed in Lakeville? We have talked to the plant supervisor and he has not been informed that millions of gallons of industrial wastewater are coming. Why not? What else is in the wastewater? Why is it a secret? Is it because they don't want people to find out what they are doing before they pollute the environment? I have been told by the mayor and city employees that noise will not be monitored. This means that residents living nearby will need to have a decibel meter to file complaints with the MPCA, the Minnesota Pollution Control, and the city of Farmington will not help. In the document, A Guide to the Noise Control in Minnesota, it states, and I quote, the noise area classification is based on the land use activity at the location of the receiver, and determines the noise standards applicable to the land use activity. So the noise standards must be the 60 and 65 at people's homes. It doesn't matter what is on the construction site, once you hit that residential line, it's a receiver-based standard. If the construction or operation of the facility is above the MPCA standards, I guess we need to file a complaint with the Minnesota Pollution Control every day that it's above the allowed level. The construction standards are for the residential properties, not the construction site. The standards change when you cross into residential property. This is another reason that the proposed data center should not be sandwiched between residential homes. Can TRACT grade and cut trees and abide by the Minnesota Pollution Control noise standards? If not, the project should not be allowed. Does TRACT have air quality permits for leveling and grading? Minnesota Pollution Control Agency says, I quote, the Minnesota Pollution Control has a receiver-based standard intended to limit noise levels and protect the health and welfare of the general public. The MPCA enforces the standard at facilities for which the agency issues air quality permits. The MPCAA also works with other agencies and levels of government to enforce noise standards and reduce violations through pre-construction project reviews. I don't know if there's been any. Local agency, that's you guys. Local governing agencies such as cities and counties are relied upon to enforce noise standards relating to the local land use and others have on ordinances regulating noise levels. They're also responsible for not allowing land uses that would immediately violate the state noise standard. For instance, local government should be cautious of allowing a loud local utility facility to locate in a residential area. I am told that the infrasound and the low frequency noise will not be monitored the city and they will not require track to monitor it. Everyone's on your own. If you get sick, sue the unknown end user. Our good neighbor, Tract, will not be there to help you either. The city of Farmington will not help residents living near the site if there are issues. That has been made clear to me.

Your time is up, Ms. Keefer. And leave us to sue the billion-dollar company.

Once Tract sells to the end user... Ms. Keefer, your time is up. It is the residents against the billion-dollar company. We do not know... Ms. Keefer, your time is up.

That was my wife. I hear a lot of that. Anyway, I'm Dr. Mike Kiefer, 22320 Albatross Circle, Castle Rock Township. A lot of confusion on the internet with... various town councils, cities, boards, residents, pretty much all across the country. So I'm just here to focus on what I know about and that's industrial waste water. So aside from the confusion that might be on the internet and what different people say on their websites and things like that. There's basically four toxic chemicals that are in hyperscale data center wastewater. One, ethylene glycol. Two, PFAS, which are forever chemicals which don't degrade and are highly toxic. Biocides, by their very nature, are toxic, designed to kill living organisms. And heavy metals. So we got four known toxins that are in data center industrial wastewater. Ethylene glycol, PFAS, biocides, heavy metals. That's known, that's a fact. We don't have to like wonder about that or be curious about that or think about that or research that. The other aspect is these closed loop systems versus open loop systems. Like a closed loop system is like a great thing and an open loop system is a terrible thing. Any data center that has a proposal that's using millions of gallons of water per day is an open loop system by definition. They have to keep drawing in water on a daily basis and cycling that through. That's an open loop system. So that's just a fact. When they're asking for thousands of gallons or millions of gallons of water per day, that by definition is an open loop system. It's not a closed loop system, okay? So the question is, What happens with the water? So clean water comes in, thousands of gallons per day, millions of gallons per day, it becomes contaminated with four known toxic chemicals. Where does it go? If you look at TRAC's website, TRAC's website, in regard to what they do with industrial wastewater, the proposal for the Cannon Falls data center which is also being run by Tract, okay? So the Cannon Falls proposal, land is owned by Tract, Tract is doing the property similar to what's happening in Farmington. What does Tract say on their website that they're gonna do with the waste water, industrial waste water from the Cannon Falls data center? Three things, one, they're gonna dump it into holding ponds. So basically have onsite holding ponds, dump the poisonous water into the holding ponds and let it leach into the groundwater, basically the drinking water. Okay, fine. They're gonna dump the poisonous water out on the surface of the land. It's gonna leach into the aquifer. Nice. Second thing that they have in their proposal in Cannon Falls is they will dump it into the Cannon Falls Wastewater Treatment Plant. Cannon Falls Wastewater Treatment Plant has no way to treat PFAS chemicals. No wastewater treatment plant does. That's why they call them PFAS chemicals. So there's no way to treat that at a wastewater treatment facility. That water is gonna be dumped into the Cannon River. That's what happens with the water from the Cannon Falls Sewage Treatment Facility. It gets dumped into the Cannon River. The third option, which I find very interesting, on TRAC's website is they say they will partner with local farmers to spray the poisonous water onto food crops. either by selling the water to the farmer so that they can buy poisonous water to spray on their food crops or just give it to them in the hopes that they'll just dispose of it on their food crops for them. What a good neighbor. Let's dump poison into the rivers and on our food crops. Thank you.

Is there anyone else who would like to speak tonight? Anyone else? Seeing none, we will move on to City Council Roundtable and we'll start with Amy.

Good evening, I have no report tonight.

I have nothing tonight, thank you.

I actually just wanted to talk a little bit about the first responders that were out at the accident scene this last week where we lost the life of a child in an accident. And first of all, offer my condolences to the family and families that have been affected by that. And also to say thank you to both our police department and our fire department for the work that they do often is not recognized that has lasting effect within the departments and within the people who serve in that capacity so thank you for doing that thank you for showing up every time and you know for the fun things like top the tater days where we get to do awesome stuff and for the very difficult days where people are hurting and families are affected we are grateful Thank You Holly Steve

Um, let me make sure my microphone was on. Um, for those that may have known him and some of you may have seen the story to a paramedic, Chuck Brady, who potentially showed up at your home or your family's home or your neighbor's home. Um, he sadly passed away. Uh, he was a member of the ALF ambulance, which became Alina. So I just wanted to acknowledge, um, that, and I think it's a, Pretty sensitive, very sad situation, and just wanted to extend my condolences to his family. Secondly, on a different note, we had an awesome donation of $708.25 from the coffee guys this week for a new pool table. And I think we're gonna be looking for a pool table for the senior center, so this is donations that come in for the senior center. And the men at the community center, which would include myself, I'm the mighty age of 58, would love to have a pool table. So I just want to thank them for that donation. It's very much appreciated.

Thank you, Steve.

Lynn?

Just one comment tonight. I'd like to address the mowing comment that was made. Employees are not mowing out at the golf course. If you see city employees out there It may be our natural resource specialist helping them identify dead and diseased trees. That could be a possibility, but just letting the council know that we are not mowing the grass out there. Thank you.

Thank you, Lynn. Melissa?

Yes, so early voting starts this Friday, July 24th. That's actually where your vote will go into the tabulator, so we are open from 8 to 11 on Fridays and Monday through Thursday, 8 to 4.30.

Thank you. David?

Thank you, Acting Mayor, Council. Just a few updates this evening. I won't go into too much detail and update on the PD project. I think Captain Stoddard, maybe he has a little update on that. But I do want to just give an update that I am working on a project page on the website for that project. So that should be working on that. And so that will be going live here in the near future. And then once that goes live, we'll let people know and they can follow along on the PD expansion model project there. Additionally, the fall edition of The Currents is to the printer, so that should be in people's mailboxes right at the beginning of August. I do want to thank Recreation Supervisors Missy Kolbeck and Emily Scheer for all their help in getting that done. Could not have gotten that done without them. their help and definitely after going through that process i'm really looking forward to communications and public affairs manager jeremiah bauman joining us next monday and then lastly the league's annual policy committees have started to meet for those that are aware the The league has multiple different policy committees that are made up of their membership. These committees are meet to then work on different policy statements and stances that the intergovernmental relations team then uses for working with the legislature for either supporting bills, opposing bills, development of legislation that then support Minnesota cities. They also use them for a little bit. They also interact with our congressional delegation as well. This year, I'm serving on the Approving Service Delivery Committee. Linz will be serving on the Approving Local Economies Committee. And then Sam is going to be working on the HR and Data Practices Committee. The Improving Services Delivery Committee we did actually meet this morning, and I will say one of the, probably the most unanimous item that is going to be at the top of the list for the committee this year as we're developing policy language is the issues of e-bikes, e-motos, and e-scooters. That's all I have. Thank you.

Thank you, David. Deanna?

Thank you, Acting Mayor and Council. Tonight, we had our monthly Economic Development Authority meeting. So I appreciate the conversation. And we approved, the EDA approved one additional micro grant to Top Hat Services, LLC, a Farmington business. So I'm excited that this program has been able to reach so many businesses and leverage additional investment into this community. So it's good to see businesses excited about having the city and the eda interested in supporting them and meeting them where they're at and it's fun to see these various different projects move forward so thank you for those conversations and thank you for investing in our businesses that's all i have thank you deanna john

Thank you, Acting Mayor and Council Members. I just wanted to provide an update on the Casa 31 Denmark Avenue reconstruction project by the county, as well as County Road 74, which the activity will include construction of a trail on the north side. The county is wrapping up their preliminary design phase, and they're issuing a request for proposals for final design. They hope to have a firm under contract by the end of September. Design will occur 26 and 27, and they anticipate a contract award to a contractor by March of 2028. Construction will occur in 2028 and 2029, with possibly some restoration carrying over to 2030. So this is a significant project, it includes a bridge, replacement of the traffic signal at County Road 50 and Denmark Avenue. And so we've been involved quite a bit today, and we'll be involved even more as it gets into final design and construction staging. It'll have a definite impact on construction traffic flow in the city. So I wanted to provide an update on that and where that's at.

Thank you, John. Peter, since you're still here with us, anything you'd like to share? Thank you. Kelly?

Good evening, Acting Mayor and City Council Members. In addition to the coffee guys, very generous donation to the Ramblin' River Center. Also want to thank Happy Harry's for their generous donation to the Senior Center. And also some co-workers at Northfield Hospital and Clinics. They donated a park bench in memory of one of their colleagues. We found a really nice place at Meadowview Park for the installation of that bench, which will be happen in the next couple weeks. And then the next Music in the Park is next Wednesday, July 29th at 7 p.m. at Rambling River Park. Five Speeds will be performing their cover band. I want to thank the sponsors, Castle Rock Bank, Farmington Youth Hockey Association, Farmington Liquors, Hobo, Marshall Line, Nesbitt Agencies, and VFW Post 7762.

Thank you, Kelly.

Kim? Good evening. I don't have anything to report tonight.

Thank you, Kim. Captain Sautter?

Thank you, Mayor. Yes, just a reminder that Tuesday, August 4th, is National Night Out. And like always, council is welcome to join us. We will be meeting at Bachman Middle School at approximately 4.30. If you are interested in joining us, you can just notify Chief Seam and we'll get you on the list. Thank you.

Thank you. And then I just, as Holly mentioned, there's been a pall over the community over the last week, and I just want to share my condolences with the family and the friends of the young man who was killed in the accident. With that, I will look for a motion to adjourn the meeting.

Motion to adjourn.

Got a motion by Holly. Second. Second by Phil. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. And those opposed? We are adjourned at 7.51.