City Council - Regular Meeting

And then it's not one person at this point, but we basically have our GIS team um set up the main projects and then we we like to have our primary construction oversight or construction admin people grabbing the pictures when they're on site so it is a very current picture and then also providing that update so it's here's what's going on. We want it to make sense to the residents. um we can put a lot of technical verbatim in there if we need to, but we just like to go here's what you can expect so that they don't wake up one morning and all of a sudden everything's changed. So that's kind of our intent behind it, but uh we update that. Okay. I think that's helpful. I think it's possible somebody would go and not find what they're looking for and throw the accusation that the city isn't doing whatever.

Yeah. and now we can point to you and say you're not doing it. And I think it's it's like a 300% fold improvement because we've the city has never done anything like this before. So I think from a resident's perspective, they're going to see things that they've never seen before. So that on big project to do otherwise. Yeah, of course. So right, moving on. The next item on the agenda is well wellhead protection plan amendment. Len Taylor requested action. There's a recommendation to the council to set a wellhead protection plan public hearing for May 13 at 7:00 a.m. in the city council chambers. With that, over to Lan.

Thank you, your honor. Earlier this year, you approved uh the SWIP surface water inlet protection plan. Um as that protects the surface water, the Ottertale River and Wright Lake Hoot Lake um this wellhead protection plan protects the water um subsurface water. So we look at things like um abandoned wells, septic systems, um things like that. um fertilizer plants, feed lots, anything that can um contaminate our underground water that would eventually get into the aquifer and get to our well at the water plant. So, this plan u currently that we're under was implemented in 2017. We have to by law every 10 years update that plan. So, just want need to set this hearing for May 13th to uh kick off that update to the wellhead protection plan um for 2027.

Would somebody care to make that motion? I'll offer that. Thank you, Laura. I'll second it. Thank you, Laurel. Any questions of uh Len? This is another one of our state things. So, with that, all those in favor say I. I. All those against same sign. Hearing none, the motion is approved. Everybody good with that on the consent agenda? Yes. The next item is uh declaring Chris Tongith Day, May 6 as a community festival. And I will Andrew Brenth will give an update on that.

Yeah. Thank you, honor council members. If you haven't heard, you're probably living under a rock, but uh we have a local gentleman that's in the top five on American Idol, which is super uh crazy, incredible, exciting. When uh contestants reach the top nine, producers from the show start to reach out to the hometowns of each of the contestants. They they work directly with the city governments. And so a few weeks ago, we started a dialogue with producers of American Idol. Um if contestants make the top three, they go to those communities and host a hometown celebration, including a parade and a concert. And so, um, they talked to nine because the timeline in which everybody's working is is really kind of a crazy one. So, you don't have a lot of time to prepare. And, uh, Chris Tungseth, who is our local, um, American Idol celebrity at this point, has gone from 9 to 7 to 5, and they're continuing to hone in with those communities on what these celebrations may look like. So, as as recent as yesterday afternoon, we had more conversation with him as we kind of dial things in. And um where we've landed at kind of a high level is a 5:30 parade on May 6th and a 7:30 concert behind the Kirkbride. There'll be more information forthcoming as we make some final definitive decisions in the coming days. And then of course, um, where the timeline gets pretty crazy is we don't find out until about 8:59 p.m. on Monday, May 4th. They travel Tuesday and the event is Wednesday. So, um, we're doing a lot of leg work in advance of that. I'm anticipating that Chris will make the top three and there's a lot of excitement around that. Um, if Chris does not make the top three, we will still have an event. It will not happen on May 6th because he does have some obligations to the show through the

finale on the 11th, but our hope would be to do it shortly after he's released from his obligations in Hollywood and he's back in the community as a as a welcome home homecoming type event. So, all the planning is not for nothing, but it uh you know, it'll be dependent whether or not that happens on May 6th. The reason we're asking to declare this a community festival is because with that declaration, we can provide things like barricades, garbages, city services, staff time, some of those things. The city is technically the host of the event. Like I said, they work directly with the local government and there's no budget for the event. So, it's kind of one of those like, holy smokes. I have to give a lot of credit to a lot of people. Um, first of all, the Chamber of Commerce, as soon as they heard, uh, about this opportunity, they stepped up and offered to be the fiscal host. And with that, um, Lisa is putting money out now with the hopes that donations, business support, purchases of shirts, some of these things come through and help to make them whole. So, they do have some exposure. They've taken that on. Um and then beyond the chamber, everybody that we've asked, we we assembled a group uh fairly quickly after we heard uh the possibility and and we brought people in from different areas of Chris's upbringing that were important to him. Hillrest, the college, people from the school district, his church, um, Uncle Eddie's, who is his former and and current employer, um, Outstate Brewing, who he, um, you know, kind of went he's worked for them, but also has kind of gone through their little, uh, performance circuit, and that's where he spent most of his time on the stage and media partners and and everybody to plan and and it's been amazing to see anything that we've asked about, people have immediately jumped and said, I'll take that on. I'll do that. I'll sponsor that. Um, we haven't heard a no yet. And

it's it's it's incredible. It's things like um American Idol producers want Chris to be in the parade on a Viking ship. Lynn called Pat Schol and he said, "I guess I'm building a Viking ship." You know, he just jumped right at the opportunity. And they're they're they're started on this Viking ship, so that'll be really neat. And I mean, it's it's dozens and dozens and dozens of community members that have said yes, whatever you need or they've taken things on. It's it's just been an incredible um showing of community and support and I think Chris feels the love. If he doesn't, I certainly do from the people that have rallied around the community and and uh it's exciting. So I Lynn, do you want to add anything?

No, the the community partners, we've started with about 20. we we're out of room to host any more events. People just keep more and more people keep coming. Um even if there aren't coming to our little meetings, you know, we got a call from um Evan over at Toast yesterday. I'll feed all the volunteers that work these events. Um churches say as many people as you need, we'll we'll provide those as volunteers. You know, Nathan Johnson is another person you should also really stepped up with pioneer. Yeah. He and Eric Johnson are taking on all the parade duties which awesome. Our law enforcement, they've been great. EMS, everyone's been great.

There are volunteer opportunities. Nathan Johnson's coordinating that. We put a QR code on the city's Facebook page yesterday. If if somebody's looking for a way to get involved, we need help with uh parking, crowd control, beyond law enforcement. We're going to have law enforcement all hands on deck. It's a significant event with with a lot of logistical challenges, but we're working through those. Also mentioned do for Joe and Boots on the ground.

Yes, it was important to to American Idol and important to Chris to have some something with uh motorcycles and Doe for Joe and Boots on the Ground stepped up big time. And I'm not going to reveal any sort of filming plans or or non-public events that are going to happen. They're going to be here for 24 hours filming different areas and doing their thing. But, uh, the motorcycle groups are going to play a big part in that and there's a lot of, uh, different people that have been engaged. It's just really kind of a neat and exciting opportunity. And, and honestly, it was really fun over the last week to see how the community rallied around. The mayor's um, put on a lot of miles with Chris, the six and a half foot tall Chris cardboard cutout. Those are all over. Those are being deployed regionally. I know one's going to Detroit Lakes today, Fargo, Alexandria. So, trying to get the word beyond Fergus Falls, this is a big deal. I mean, getting that many eyeballs on our community. You know, James talked about redevelopment of the RTC just briefly today. Hollywood eyes and and nationwide eyes on that facility. It's going to look pretty darn cool from drone shots and and a big concert. Um, all these things are good tourism and and economic development exposure. Sorry. Idol has told us prepare for 10,000 people or more that can attend this event. So, we have a lot of eyes looking at Fergus Falls. We're really hoping that Fergus Falls puts on their best show supporting him with the downtown area for the parade to be the same um route as Summerfest and then the concert will be at the RTC and Center for the Arts has been amazing. They're coming over here all the time to get the organization of that. But imagine 10,000 eyes plus Hollywood looking. The producers are fascinated by the RTC building. So it's another cool economic development thing we never felt would fall in our laps this way.

Are we feeding them information on the history of the RTC? So if they do any they have a blurb. Thank you. They won't do a blurb. They won't. I can't imagine. But if they say something about the history of the building, I was gonna say putting this in reality. They're going to film, you know, obviously they want an hour parade. They want kind of a roughly kind of an hour, you know, at at the RTC and then, you know, they want to go to Pioneer, they want to go to kind of other things and they don't want their schedule to be long,

okay? And they want to do they they want to do a lot of other things and then it's all going to get condensed into three minutes. So, and I think, you know, um I know Al and I have had this conversation, but this this would be a good time. Not only is it America's 250th year, but this would be a good a good opportunity for people to go out in their yards in the next two weeks and tidy up stuff, you know. Um you know, all those kind of like, you know, these guys are basically going to take over the sky, you know, videoing, you know, with um with a drone. So, you know, um there's going to be a lot of people coming into town, so first impressions mean a lot. So, you know, if you've got something an ornament in your yard that doesn't really belong there, you know, this this would be a good opportunity for the community to put on its best face and mow the grass and uh you know, clean up. You know, this the city has swept the streets already post kind of like the winter, but there's a lot of people leave their cars on the streets. So, you know, the sweeper goes round that and so, you know, there's leaves and and dirt and stuff, you know, still in the streets. You know, clean it up, take it to the dump. Um, you know, so, you know, it it's, you know, we need to take some pride in our community and this this could be that opportunity to everybody rally around and get that done. To that end, having the best foot forward, I I failed to mention the walk of flags as well.

So, the theme of the day and the parade is red, white, and blue patriotic. The walk of flags has agreed to put up the flags. They need volunteers as well. So, plug for that. But really, thanks to them, they Tony Ren is who we reached out to and he said, "Yep, not even a hesitation. It's going to happen." So, that's going to be a heck of a cool shot when people see that from a drone and and you know, throughout the community. The other thing I wanted to mention is this is the first time that anybody from Minnesota's ever been even in the top 10. So this is, you know, like I was like, can I lean on colleagues that have done this before? You know, reach out. Nobody's done this before. It's that big of a deal. So it's really kind of neat. and uh Lynn has been in contact with some of the communities that hosted these events over the last couple of years in Kentucky and and we're going to talk to Louisiana and um we're learning, you know, some some good insights from people that have done it before. Um what what not to do, what to do and so those are helpful. But this has not happened in Minnesota before. So, it does feel a little bit like Chris has become the the Minnesota and the Midwest candidate. And I think that's the that's the key to success here next week.

Is the 94 interchange is there any way we can push this thing out to the 7th to close that thing?

I have multiple messages into Mandot making that request and I have not gotten a firm commitment on whether or not that can happen, but um I wouldn't hold my breath. We've had that conversation with American Idol and uh that won't prohibit their film crew in any way and and we're trying to strategically place parking locations which are still to be determined um in ways that we would encourage people from like the Fargo area coming in on 88 and people from the other direction um ensuring that it makes logical sense for them to get off at 55 which is the roundabout exit. So, we're trying to be strategic about where we're directing people that day to avoid that exit should we not get the cooperation of of the contractor in mind to do that. It's a pretty pretty big ask on on a big project.

Is that something instead of just going to MIDOT where we can start talking to Rasmusen and some other legislators to help make those calls? We could the time frame is just so short, right? And these processes take a long time. So, we are working um soon, well, we'll be here soon to go to another logistics meeting to talk about some of these issues and we're coming up with some contingency.

The other thing that you'll see on Monday night is uh we're asking your honor to proclaim that as Chris Tunget Day in Minnesota or in Fergus Falls, excuse me. And we're going to go with that date for the proclamation regardless because we just it has to happen on Monday and we're not going to know till after our meeting that night. So, um if he shouldn't make it to the top three, it's still going to we're still going to celebrate that. As Chris Tung said, they um from a proclamation standpoint, but we'll have a a community celebration um shortly after when he's available.

And I think that's the other thing to you any of kind of the people that sponsor or give money, you know, to kind of help defay the cost of kind of putting this on the day will still take place. um it will just take place on on an alternate you know and we we would probably try to aim that towards a Saturday as opposed to a Wednesday so that you know then there's more more participants you know communitywide that can obviously you know take place but as Andrew said it's also subject to American Idol basically are controlling this whole event um and and and and likewise you know just from Mark's benefit they're not giving us any money. So, um

yeah. So,

yeah, we asked them the one of the questions we asked them was, "Do you have like a a guide or best practices?" And they said, "No, but that's a good idea." And it really is a good idea. The other thing I just want to say is like it's going to feel like we're part of a movie set, right? I mean, the the reality is this is for them to get film for their finale on the 11th. If you're in these events, they're going to dictate to your point, Mayor, exactly how they go. It's not going to be like you're at a concert at the at the Fargo Dome. It's going to be, you know, folks, this is we're we're on air, go, you know, if something bad happens, cut, start over, do it again. Um, so it is it's going to be like being on the set of a movie. And I mean and just just for benefit of as we are sitting council members one of the other things is that there's there is zero political kind of you know rhetoric in in this whole event. So like for the parade you know there cannot be any kind of anybody that's running for election or that's up that's got the potential of coming up for election. So the parade won't won't include you know I know normally Jordan Raspersonson and you know Jeff Becka have kind of like a vehicle and do something but so none of those things can take place they wanted to be apolitical.

Yes we will be placing that with about a 200 person marching band and many many many motorcycles and lots of community floats. So the pre float QR code is also on the city's Facebook page for people to register. Is the city doing a float of some kind like for city staff or like are we wanting to put a float together for the city? The uh council could do that. Laurel, yeah, if you guys Brilliant. I wasn't going there. If you would like to, please. Logistically, we're going to be so like we're going to be stretched so thin. We're going to have Well, we'll have all the fire trucks and probably, you know, public safety type things, but our public works is going to be stretched thin the entire day. So, I I don't anticipate we're going to have the ability to do a whole lot with that.

Because the other piece is that they don't want people, you know, like obviously, you know, the concept portion of this is going to be at the RTC, but they don't want people uh separating. So, you know, they don't want us to let anybody into the RTC grounds prior to a certain time. So, that that forces people to go to the parade. They want masses of people in in the locations where they film. And so, you know, as I say, it's it's it's kind of an interesting thing, but as you as Andrew said, this is putting this on the map and this all eyes on. And so, I mean, that's where it's kind of been important to try to get people to kind of like share, you know, on their family kind of social media to sort of like vote for this guy. I mean, he's in the top five now, so it we have to kind of work on it being a given that he's going to get into the top three. And uh you know, it's it's a popularity contest. So, the more people that share it and say, "Vote for the Midwest guy, you know, upper Midwest guy," um that's kind of like it. And the Fargo TV stations are now starting to pick it up. So, you know, um we need the Minneapolis ones to do that. So, we'll see how it how it goes.

So, I would suggest maybe your honor, we don't put it on consent on Monday just so you have the opportunity to encourage people to vote one last time before the evening, but but we should move this forward to Monday night and and declare it a community festival. So, do we have need a motion for that? Please. I'll do that. Oh, and and I will second it. So, all those in favor say I. I. The motion is approved, I think. Announcements. Uh, board of equalization meeting on Fergus Falls residence on April 30th at 9:30. I don't know which council members are attending that. Fish and are on the list, right? When and where is it?

County building in 9:30. Yeah. May 4th 5:30 city council meeting. Um May 6 potentially um 5:30 American Idol Hometown Hero Parade downtown and 7:30 American Idol Hometown Hero concert in RTC grounds. And then May 13th, uh 7:00 committee of the