City Council - Regular Meeting

food last night. That's good food. Hey, where were you last? You still got your shorts on me? Yeah. Yeah, of course you did. You were at the fire hall. Premier. Ready to start? Oh, I didn't want to make a quarrel. Call to order for the city of Canon Falls City Council meeting for Tuesday, March 3rd, 2026. If I could get a roll call, please. Diane Johnson here. Zimmerman here. Chad Johnson here. Jeepson here. Noach here. Croninburgger here. Montgomery here.

Please rise 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. Uh before I ask for the approval of tonight's agenda, I do want consent agenda item C. Uh the date has been changed, so that will be amended. June 14th is flag day. That is the day that they are now asking for. So just put that in your notes if you want to. Um but with that said, if I could get a motion to approve tonight's agenda. So motion.

I got the motion from Jeep. I got a second from Lisa. All those in favor?

I opposed. And it is approved. Public input. Public input is intended to afford the public an opportunity to address concerns to the city council. The public input will be no longer than 30 minutes in total length, and each speaker will have no more than three minutes to speak. Speakers may address topics relevant to the governance of the city. Speakers must sign up in advance and must provide their name, address, and the topic they intend to address. Comments must be on topic, respectful, pertinent to city business and adhere to the applicable data privacy rules. Any speaker that violates these rules will be asked to sit down. If the speaker refuses to comply, they may be removed from the meeting. Speakers shall not address topics that are the subject of a public hearing. All such comments shall be made at the public hearing. The city council will not generally act on issues raised by the public input, but may choose to schedule consideration of the item on a future agenda. Tim Demer speaking tonight.

Future agenda. I hope so. Let's I was going to maybe start out by saying I'll maybe I'm hoping to be back here uh often or every every time kind of a um just uh FYI for your information plan six minutes a month to speak to the public and to all your distinguished wish trying to talk um to the mayor and council and staff and the public. So I come up this booklet they hand giving out it's free you don't check just

keep that until after the meeting but use it for your resource and you can show it to me after the meeting. I'm not going to show anybody. You can go get it yourself at the library. It's just a health and it's no I don't do so good just improv just off the top of my head. So I'm reading off of here. Gotcha.

It's ch there or seven chapters I believe or six. The last part is just a quiz kind of whatever it's called. Um but the part about it's titled equality it's in this chapter um five part five healthy environments. So equal equality as we all know we I love how they word stuff saying we may look different. We do we do look different from one another and we're all presumably or most likely the same on the inside. We are all we're all human beings is the point I want to make there. We're all human and everyone deserves a certain amount of humanity to to be treated with dignity, respect, and most importantly, I think the word honesty, you know, it's the same. I I think it's similar to the meaning of truth. what what what is true, honest, and then to be um some city officials claim to be always. They use the word always. Do I got less than a minute left?

Yeah.

So, when they say always, that's that's exactly what it means, always. They don't try to do the right thing. They don't try to be the best, to be better. We all We all I think we all agree. I I I'll be the first one to admit I can do better. We all can. But when when a city official prints on their business card, they hand out to whomever, they they always and to to one other um official said it brought the word perfection, but I get to always do the right thing. Just slip in a word. We try to always do the right thing and integrity, knowledge, and you know the rest of the story. I'll be back.

All right. Thank you, Tim. That gets us to the consent agenda tonight. Consent agenda items may be adopted under one motion as presented or may be removed for discussion and resolution as council business. Tonight, we've got item A, the just and correct claims for the accounting period that ended on February 25th, 2026. Item B, meeting minutes February 17th, 2026, city council. And item C, approve the gambling premises permit application for the Nelson Scoffield Post 4452 with the change to the date of June 14th, Flag Day. Anything that the council would like to remove? Seeing none, I would seek a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda. So moved. Got a motion from Diane.

Uh I'm going to give it to Lisa. There was a race on that one. Uh all those in favor?

I opposed. All right. Carries. Um, if anybody wants to speak about the the new hire for the chamber. Yeah, I do have a update on that. So, Carrie Laorenzan is the new chamber director. She started last week Monday um and we got to meet her. She and Andy Alto came over uh went through a space at city hall. So, I want to kind of give an update on on where that stands. So the the chamber leases the space downtown. Um they do have a monthly cost to that. In our conversations um prior to even the director position being filled, uh we talked about uh going through inviting them to to look at our space here at city hall, see if that was something of interest. And um we met as staff kind of in advance of Carrie uh coming through to visit and determined that the the best space that we would have available for this would be the area that we currently use for elections. Um Carrie's is uh working on a part-time basis. So we would have the ability to structure within kind of the schedule and organization so that it wouldn't conflict ever with uh the election days and we'd still be able to to use that room. um we could it is ample space for office even um them for to have like chamber meetings or committee meetings that they could host there. Um and part of that conversation too uh since we do have a contribution that the city does make to the chamber. I think this would uh we'd look at this as potentially offering that at a $0 rent uh for using that space. it's not used but three times a year for for the city's purposes, but we would look at uh charging to cover some utility costs with that. Uh exploring what that amount could be uh relative to square footage, uh internet if that's needed by by them for services, phone, um anything that

that is a direct expense of systems that they're utilizing within our building, we would um we've agreed that that would be we'd calculate that and include that into the agreement. Uh I think there's uh some additional benefits too if we if we did that. Um just having another person in the building is always uh helpful when we're you know pretty low on or low number of of staff when people want us to take a lunch break or you know we have somebody out on vacation. Just to have an additional person to to be able to kind of cover for us and and handle customers as they come in is is always beneficial. even if they're not, you know, answering their question, they but they at least can get them get the message passed on. Um so I think there's a lot of great opportunities that come with that. Uh I talked about very early on when I started um I went you know we had the chamber had their annual meeting in January about a month after I started and I was asked to be the speaker and I and I my kind of theme of my message at that meeting was you know working on collaboration especially in a small rural community like ours. Um, a lot of things that really happen and get done happen because you're collaborating, you're working together with partners, and having that proximity to the chamber director, having uh her being in the building with us is really going to open those doors for for those opportunities and we can have some, you know, I think better, quicker um conversations to to kind of take advantage of opportunities when they exist. So, you know, certainly more to come on that. They wouldn't be moving looking to move until April anyways. So, we can uh we do have some time to to work through um some additional uh conversations about that lease agreement uh and what you know specifically is going to take place there.

Awesome. Thank you, John. Uh anybody want to talk library board?

I got it. Um I I got two updates. One, um you know, we had Commissioner Anderson here um indicating that future budget might be might be tough, I guess. um foreshadowing a meeting or two ago and and we we were informed, library directors in Goodyu County were informed, commissioners are considering 10% reduction in financial support um 2027 fiscal year. So they're thinking a drop anywhere between 12 and $15,000. So that's just just so we know like that's a real thing that could happen. Um they got to balance their budget. Uh, and then Nicole had wanted me to say tonight, uh, Cindy Molinar is retiring and her last day is on March 23rd and there's going to be an open house at the library in the meeting room from 3:30 to 5:00 p.m. that day. All right. Uh, we can go around the horn. Jed

anything tonight. Thank you. All right. Izzy, nothing. Chief, uh we're almost out of uh winter weather. Uh just a reminder that uh u parking restrictions run through March. Uh but we do get that occasional store storm in April as well. Hopefully we won't be seeing any in the short distance with our temperatures getting up above 40s. But, uh, we just want to remind people when it does snow, please get your vehicles off the roadway, especially this time of year, it tends to be wet and heavy. Um, and public works likes to usually get the, uh, the roadways clear so that if it does get uh, cold, we don't get ruts frozen on the roadway. That's all I got.

Thanks, Chief. I had people ask right away. They're like, "Hey, it's March. Doesn't that end?" I'm like, "End of the month. Got to wait till the end." Sarah John,

I got a couple things. I just want to give an update. We have been receiving applications for the the payroll technician position in administration that will close on March 11th. Um, and we definitely have qualified candidates that we will be interviewing at this stage in that application process, but they're still the period's still open. So, people are welcome to continue to apply. Our steering committee for comp plan will have our first meeting tomorrow at 6:30 right here in the council chambers. Um, so we do have about uh 10 to 12 folks that around the community that we've invited to participate and we I think we actually almost everybody that we had our first invite to um has been able to commit to this. The steering committee's portion is really to help guide um you know the focus areas that we want to ensure that we we um establish and that and that they can help us to invite and get uh those folks into the room. So, you know, whether it's going to be on housing or um employers, recreation, the parks and trails types type type stuff, like getting those things together, uh those groups together to have those deeper conversations is really kind of the help of the focus uh steering committee right now. So, if you're wondering like why am I not in part of this like no that's they're a little more grunt work than it is about the actual plans and ideas and things that we're we're going to be working on. But, uh, really pleased with with how that's shaping out and excited for to start that process. Uh, the Canon Valley Trail, um, the bylaw and agreement update group, we met last week, uh, to go over some of the, uh, final or recent changes that from the major changes that they had. Um, pretty close to having that completed to get, um, that to the approval. So, likely seeing that coming in the next couple months. uh the county attorney was going to review it. Uh and then there was one of the one of the items that we talked about that was a little bit different

was just how do we address the capital needs because they do have a different a number of uh projects that they have capital related. A lot of them are grant funded. Probably mostly 70% of the major expenses uh that they have at least in the immediate ones are covered by grants. But how do we kind of make sure that there's a equity uh built into and a process built into those that remaining portion for uh the agreement with the joint power. So in the conversation the funding structure is a percentage base I believe um I get the specific numbers wrong but it is most uh most of it's funded by the county uh then a larger portion by the city of Redwing and then we have the smallest portion uh in terms of that percentage and we're looking at keeping that percentage uh the same. It was what what it was when it was established 40 years ago. And then just lastly, uh the meeting last night the with at the fire department with our townships. Uh I know Diane and Lisa were able to to attend. I thought that went really well. Um great uh turnout from the township folks and they kind of got to get a little bit more perspective on things happening um at the you know fire ambulance and even the county's EMS director was able to join us.

That's it. Awesome. Thank you, John. Laura, I'm good. Chris, nothing. Ryan, nothing. Diane, I'm just gonna echo what John said about uh thanks to Bryce and Tim for putting that together and for a great presentation and an incredibly good meal. It's always that that's always helpful when you get the meal right. Lisa, desserts. Yeah, I'm good. Chad,

uh I just have notes that the trail board met on February 26th. Um they're coming out with a book. They got a grant for phase two. Um because the trail is celebrating 40 years. Um we had some conversations about getting ahead in case homeless or and things like that are an issue this year. Um just kind of more of discussion based and uh they're talking and looking into doing some research on some of the bridges out there. Um the bridges are getting wore down and they might want to just replace them with a concrete cover. So that's just where that's at. All right, that's it. Uh, I just want to say a quick thing. We do still have an opening for the planning and zoning commission. So, to the council members, if you have a colleague, a friend, somebody that you think would be interested, uh, send them to city hall to fill out the paperwork with Sarah uh, or Ellen at the front desk and by the next meeting, I would like to have so that it's, uh, uh, make an appointment and then if you to get your approval so that we can have that slot filled. So

now the cable commission too there's an open on that. All right. If people and that goes to the the the citizens too if people are interested come fill that out. Um and we will try to fill that when we have applicants. All right. Uh hearing nothing else. I would accept a motion to adjurnn. Motion. Motion from Lisa. Second. Second from Chad. All those in favor? Opposed. We are adjourned. Thank you everybody.