City Council - Regular Meeting

Call to order for the city of Canon Falls City Council meeting Tuesday, November 18th, 2025. 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 algiance 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. If I could get a motion to approve tonight's agenda. Motion. Motion from Lisa. Second.

We'll give the second to Chris. All those in favor?

Opposed? That carries. Uh, gets us to our 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. Each speaker will have no more than 3 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, and 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. Tonight, Aaron McMahon, the fair and text amendment. Hi, Aaron McMahon. Hoffman Street. Wasn't planning on coming tonight, but I got a call right before I came [clears throat] from Tim Schwarz of the PCA. Apparently, the city is also also has this information. But, um, he let me know how the study went for the monster truck event on September 13th. Um Tim um the PCA was so kind as to drive down their equipment this time um two years ago, two summers ago. Um they offered to coordinate um an equipment drop with the city, but the city ignored those requests. So they dropped it down. John was not in John was not um the administrator at the time. Um so um the measurements were completed and I believe they were either completed at uh the swimming pool parking lot or um a residence close by. Um according to Tim

um they measured during the matinea and they measured uh during the evening. During the matinea measurement, the total time they measured was 47 minutes and the total time they measured um during the evening event was 57 minutes. Um with regard to the noise standards classification and descriptions, an L10 indicates that the noise exceeded exceeded statute levels 10% of the time. and L50 indicates that the noise exceeded state statute levels 50% of the time. For the L10 or 10% um reading, a PCADL standard is 65. Again, the L10 except exceeds state statute statute levels 10% of the time. The PCADL standard is 65. The pre-event baseline measurement for noise was below that 58.9%. The matinea measurement was 105.9. The evening measurement was 125. Again, the standard is 65. The L50 classification means that the noise exceeded state statutes level levels 50% at this time. The PCADL standard is 60. The pre-event baseline measurement was 55.5. The matinea measurement was 97.5. The evening measurement was 119.5. Again, the standard is 60 for 50% of the time. Tim did have some caveats.

Um, again, the measurement was under an hour, but he said that wouldn't affect the analysis. And he said that the wind speed may have had an impact, but we don't know if that impact would have been to lower the the the measurement or the the data or to raise it. So, I think it's really unfortunate that we didn't have this information for the recent planning commission meeting. And I'd like to just express one more time that that text amendment does not need to be rewritten. They don't need a a a classification, a new classification. Um perhaps the city would consider doing an overlay, a zoning overlay during July 1st through 6th where the Canon Valley Fair can have their event at the Canon Valley Fair and there can be noise. But other than that, there's actually no reason to change the zoning ordinance. Period. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Tonight we have a presentation uh Good Hugh County solid waste and Dick Thompson is here. Hello. Thank you very much for giving me this time. Do you need the camera right there? There we go. Yeah. With this one. This is just an overview. I don't know if you It's laminated, so it's There we go. A little shiny. There we go.

All right. That's um that's a 20 yard container and we empty those. Now we're up to four days a week. When I arrived um with Gdoo County back in um back [snorts] in April, we were at three days a week, but we and we were compressing these down three or four times with a skid loader. So, we're packing them very very tight. So, I had to increase to four days because we were just getting so much garbage in. Now, this is this consists of more than just that isn't all cannon falls. I want you to understand that [snorts] that is a 20 yarder and and so that's basically we're filling almost a day one on a day almost. So, um it's increased rapidly, not just here in Canon Falls, but also um another area that we have issues with is is um Pine Island. So those two are pretty consistent in that where it's we have compartments in our in our rolloffs and they're they're separated by the glass, paper, cardboard, aluminum. [snorts] And it seems like the one that's um usually violated, if you will, the most is the compartment that that holds the plastic. That usually is where well and it's understandable because you know people think well I can throw a milk jug in there I might as well throw the plastic pool in there as well. [snorts] Obviously that's they're not not not both of those are recyclable because the only thing we we can recycle are ones and twos and that's your typical water bottle and most of the bottles that hold juices and that kind of thing. Outside of that milk milk jugs are would be the next category too. um coffee cans, those type of things. That's about it. So, we're very limited and and that's probably what most people don't understand that we we we really can't recycle more than the ones and twos. Um they're just not recyclable. So, that's it's all understandable why

the plastics are a little more so than the others. We did have an exception though here recently. I I did a isolated picture shot of a couple of our containers a couple weeks ago from here in Can and this is strictly Canon Falls. And what I'm showing you here, all this came out of our newspaper compartment, which is one of our smaller compartments. And inside there, you probably aren't going to be able to see it. I'll show you a couple pictures here, but inside there are two our four brake rotors from a car of all things. um in that same container that day we had and we've kind of seen a trend. The guys separate these so they they do see the trends. It's the same guys separating these all the time. So So they're going to see the trends and a trend that they see is a lot of um diaper related, adult diaper related um chucks and those kind of things that are going in these same colored garbage bags. And you see them right there, the gray ones. Those are all full of those chucks. And the guy who who um picked up this particular day, this is what he found here on the outside. Those are plastic [clears throat] containers obviously for plants. Somebody realized they're not recyclable. So I can't put them in the container, but I'll just leave them outside. So obviously somebody who did that, they knew that wasn't recyclable. And there gives you this gives you a little bit ide a better idea of some of the different plastics that we can't take. And again, the plastics we we have a little more understanding where people might question, well, if they can take one kind of plastic, why can't they take all? We can understand that. [snorts] Um, here's the last one. Again, I show I show another closeup of of those of those bags. So the the breakdown what we're what what

our cost is right now it's roughly about $538 every week. My best estimate is is um between Pine Island is probably a third of that. Canon Falls is probably a third of that. So most of our garbage is coming from these two locations. And it's because they're they're really the most active and that's a good thing. I mean the residents are using them. That's good. That's what we want. But what what I what we would like to see is just maybe some kind of communication, some marketing, whatever, directed to what we and they could go directly to our site to see what they to what's [clears throat] acceptable and what's not. So, if there's any way you can help us out with that kind of marketing, that kind of thing, I'll do what I can on my end. And I and I and I've had some luck. Uh when I got there, I started I didn't print some any any professional signage, right? Right. At first, I wanted to see what verbiage worked. So, I just kind of changed it in and out every every week or so. And it did work. It did work. I because what I was trying to targeting there was to for them to break down the cardboard. And my objective was break down the cardboard. I don't have to put as many containers out, don't have to process as often. By doing that, I eliminated weekends. So, my guys didn't have to work on weekends. It worked in a matter of three weeks. So, I know that the I know that just changing the the um verbiage and the communication helps. So, and I'm just basically going for that middle group of people because you're going to have your 10% no matter what we do, they're going to keep doing what they do. Probably got another 20% probably always going to do the right thing because we got some people who in Redwing they're really they are very conscientious about recycling. They are. And then the middle group, that's the one I want to if I can just reduce that group by about a third, we'll be happy because we're never going to eliminate all this and I don't expect to. Any assistance would be appreciated.

Thank you. Sure. [clears throat] You say plastic recycling one and two are okay. Yeah, they're okay. Okay. The bad thing about it is, and I wish I wish the um manufacturers were forced to um when they print these on the bottom, they're going to they're going to triangle like this. You can barely read the one and two. You can barely read it. So, it's very difficult. So, again, we understand why the plastic's a bit of an issue. Any other questions? Milk curtains and not the um plastic milk jugs, but you know, the like cardboard type ones, are can they or can they not? Now, are the cardboard ones? No. Okay. No, not recyclable.

No, unfortunately. [laughter] I've heard I've heard people tell me both ways and I thought I would ask. Yeah, that's just garbage. Okay. Thank you. Um I guess my if I have a question, it's probably for our staff, but don't we have a cameras down there? So, if we have repeat offenders, we probably find out who those people are. And I don't know. So, we don't have cameras down there. We The fair has a camera kind of pointing at it. Um, we don't have Wi-Fi over there, so there's not any way for us to actually have cameras over there. Okay. All right. I think that I think they're Jed and I I think we did speak that there has been a couple situations where where somehow they got the fair board got got a shot and they put them on Facebook. So, sure.

I mean, that's nice. If they could do that every now that helps, especially the atrocious ones. Camera at the pool, too. I think something could be done. We got the pool. I don't know. We'll talk about that. But Yep. All right. Thanks again for your time, John. Jed, appreciate it. Thanks, Dick.

All right, that brings us to tonight's consent agenda. Consent agenda items may be adopted under one motion as presented or may be removed for discussion and resolution as council business. Uh, item A, adjust and correct claims accounting period ending November 13, 2025. Item B, meeting minutes, November 5th, uh, 2025, city council. C. Second reading and adoption of ordinance 412, an ordinance of the city of Canon Falls, Minnesota to amend Canon Falls zoning ordinance by amending a zoning district. Item D, resolution 2845 authorizing 2026 city license renewals. Item E, approve the WWTP headworks engineers report. Item F, approve final pay request for the 2025 street maintenance project. Item G, approve purchase of an IV infusion pump for ambulance department. Item H, approve hiring of part-time paramedic. And item I, approve 2026 agreement for state building code administration. Is there anything the council would like to pull down?

Uh, E. Item E. Okay. Item E will become city business. Item A. Anything else from the council? Hearing none, I would accept a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda. Motion. Motion from Lisa. Second. Second from Jeff. All those in favor? I opposed. Passes. Gets us on to city business, which was item E. It's now item A. Chad.

Um, it's very simple question really, but we're just approving the report, right? And then we want actions because there's a lot of action items there. Those will then be voted on on what comes first in priority.

Yeah. The so then Bill can answer this more, but the next meeting we actually have we'll have proposals available for some of the actions that we're going to take to for the first levels of of work that we want to have improved. So, in aligning the project with what we have for resources within the budget, um part of our conversation was doing the uh planning and design work for for this so that we could then um do a bigger project in 2027 and have the resources available to cover those costs for that for that first part of the project, mainly the the headworks of the wastewater treatment plant.

Okay. So when you toured that's the you know the conveyor for the grit screen removal. That piece of equipment was something that we talked about earlier on in the summer in our budget planning as as replacement replacing and we did have funds uh set aside in the preliminary budget for that project. Um in the evaluation looking at there's a lot more needs that also need to be addressed into that building. Um we believe that we can kind of keep that have that you know limped along up until the point where we just do kind of that whole building all together comprehensively. Yeah. Cuz I saw we had fair good you know like for the order and if we don't start them for two years you know those things might change. So I just wanted to make sure we're not

Yeah. So the expectations Yeah. So the timing of it would be plan design bid in the fall start project early in since this is a more of an interior project is probably something that might be attractive for a contractor to work on in the winter. Okay. Well then I I have no issues with it. That's basically all I wanted to know. So sounds good. All right. I'd just like to say uh beautiful job on doing that report and was very helpful. So thank you. You're welcome. Patrice tell a good story. Uh with that said, I would entertain a motion to approve item A, the uh wastewater treatment facility headworks engineers report. So moved. Motion from Diane. Second. Second from Chad. All those in favor?

I opposed. [clears throat] All right, that passes. That gets us to we want to do reports first. Let's do reports. Uh Naggi EDA met on November 6th. John, do you mind taking that one because Laura is not here? [clears throat]

Yeah. So, uh, EDA, um, [clears throat] actually quite had quite extensive, uh, meeting on that. Uh, excuse me. Let me pull it up so I have it ready. I wasn't prepared for that. Sorry, I was absent from that as well. [clears throat] All right. So, um Laura discussed the loan fund where we at in that stance. Uh we had one uh I do believe loan that is behind, but it's kind of a common practice. They get behind, get caught up, and then, you know, end up there a couple months later. Um, the small town grant from Smith uh was for the packet. Oh, here we go. $8,000 uh for a small town grant uh to develop and create welcoming packets. Um I know that Laura uh primarily uses them gives them to the uh realators so they can use them for closings for the people in hardwood estates because uh we have been getting quite a few that are you know some boomerang so they are coming back to the community but quite a few people that are new to the community as well as up at Timber Ridge we've seen some more activity and the Cannonball apartments. So, we're we're doing that and then it's going to be in a partnership with uh uh students for Amy Donbeck's class at the at the school to to help with that design. I believe uh Abby Rep was one of them that's helping out with that project. Uh then on hardwood, um no activity. you haven't had any lot additional lot sales or closings on the

sec the second um uh part but the which is the first uh phase of the project but the second phase third edition is is going the construction has been has been active uh out there so if you have seen they've they've moved a lot of dirt put in in pipe so we had some fortunate good weather to to do that uh then she discussed the the contract uh and the board made a um modifications to the CEDA contract language to um to kind of build build out make it more current to the work that that Laura is doing. But that contract was um recommended for approval. And then we I gave my presentation uh some summary presentation about the the data center technology park that was happened at the previous uh council meeting. Um and then Laura spoke about the uh egg industry cluster uh and u meeting that she had. It was really focused on cannonfalls things, but the person that was organizing it through USDA scheduled the meeting stuff all in Redwing. So they were hoping to do some tours over here afterwards, but I think there was a little bit of coordination questions, but Laura said it it when she was there, it went really well. There was a lot of a lot of positive uh feedback about the the things that are going on and and just a lot of praise to the uh food systems and interconnection that are happening around this Cannon Falls area. And I'll attest to that as well, having um done some of that work up in my previous community uh working with other organizations. I I do believe you're you're ahead of the game for where we were trying to get to. So So kudos to the this community for for the efforts that they've made on that front. Awesome. Thank you, John. Uh, planning and zoning commission met on November 10th.

Um, we had a very lively discussion about the proposed fair zoning text amendment. Um and after a lot of uh information shared on all different sides, uh the planning commission uh voted to uh uh postpone or however one says it correctly the issue to the December meeting and uh I know a couple members and our city administrator attended the fair board meeting last night um as they invited us and um and that was another good discussion. So,

all right. Thanks, Diane. We'll go around the horn. Jed, we almost got snow today. Um, we were prepared. Uh, all the plows were already hooked up, but thank goodness we didn't get anything. Um, but just want to remind people that as winter is coming to observe the especially if we get uh uh plowable snow that not to park on the streets at night so that public works can get out and get the roads clear. Um, and then I'd like to just shout out to my my streets crew uh street and parks crew the the lights downtown the the changes we made. I think they look amazing. I understand we don't have the garland, but I think we definitely did a good job at the change the changes that they did make. So,

I know we've got a I've heard a lot of good things about the city parking lot, the extra lights and the trees. That's really nice. Yeah. Thanks, Jed. Bill, nothing a nightmare unless you have any questions. We're good. Izzy, nothing. Chief, Dr. Falls will be coming up on the 29th. um really doesn't have much of an impact on uh parking restrictions and stuff since we try to just utilize the roadway rather than closing the road off. Mhm. Uh but just for the residents, it may be a little bit of delay uh especially in the Mil Street U city lot area. So if you're planning to come, just come early, dress warm, u watch the parade, then hang around for the uh the lighting in the tree.

Yeah.

Sarah John. Well, Aaron stole my thunder. I was going to talk about the sound study [laughter] reports. Um, yeah. So, we did finally get that that back. It also in included the um evaluation for the IUP that was approved. That was part of contingency for that IUP. Um, didn't didn't have a formal uh response to it because I was still waiting for additional feedback from MPCA. Um we do you know there was some back and forth communication about that today in terms of the validity of that of those studies. Uh we do believe that information is is valid but if we were trying to enforce this in a you know legal capacity that you know if we didn't meet the standard for an hour long test um which is what the uh state law uh requires. I mean they were for 47 minutes was the shortest one. A couple of the others were were right about that hour time frame maybe a little bit under. and some of the other um environmental circumstances like the wind speed were were off. But we do believe the the numbers to be pretty close to the to action in reality uh for that. Um I would say the there was a little bit of a misunderstanding I think with Aerin's explanation. One of the study locations she quoted numbers for matinea show and evening show that was actually for the evening show and two different locations. So those both those high decibel numbers were just during the evening time for that event and um uh the two different locations where they were moving the the device between the the matinea show didn't actually have recorded any uh or did not exceed the state standards. So trying to kind of figure out how they were so different uh between the day, but I wasn't uh I wasn't in town during that event, so I can't speak to the to the actuality of of how that happened. Um but I did share that information with uh the fair board

president as well um who uh has been very interested in finding out the results and knowing that have committed that you know event like that is probably not going to be something that they're going to request and I think it provides some good understanding to how noise travels in that area. So we're both pretty uh happy that we got the results back regardless of what they they indicated. So um you know I can provide more explanation if I get some more finer details from from that but I didn't feel that was in a full capacity to explain how how all these numbers actually are are calculated and they they work. Um with that and two I had a finance committee right before the council tonight and spoke about uh one next council meeting we'll have an upcoming budget transfer resolution. Um there are some changes to that in terms of what we originally budgeted for for 2025. um you know primarily in the positive but uh you know gives it we have found some opportunities because of just the way things were were calculated before and that we in conversation a lot of conversations with the auditors that we can kind of change things and and use some resources in a little different way to you know kind of cover some some current costs uh needs and uh offset some uh future future expenses. So so positive things on on that front. Uh, and then, uh, just another, uh, couple quick announcements that, um, we did get word that, uh, Shelley Ryan, our attorney through Hoffberry, is going to be, um, leaving the firm at through, uh, transitioning out at the end of the year. So, uh, we, you know, we'll have to kind of look at what we, we have, but, um, you know, this is not unusual. Usually, when you work with a larger firm, um, that tends to happen. Attorneys get cycled out. some you may not leave the firm but they you know take on different cities or different roles. Um so they do have somebody that

would be dedicated and assigned to us as a as a replacement. So um already been through that once even with this firm a couple years ago. So just wanted to make sure that the council was aware of that. All right. Thanks John. Laura I'm good. Chris good. Diane.

Um I I Maggie is also retiring at the end of Maggie. So chamber director Maggie Wilson. Yes, she has uh accepted a position. She informed me last week she's accepted a position with the school and uh will be um no longer working for the chamber after the deck to deck the falls event. But I was I was and I was gonna say in addition uh the Rotary Club is presenting Maggie with the Paul Harris Award at an event this Saturday at six o'clock at Nick's Diner. So anybody is interested I can sign you up and make you buy a ticket. And good good for go out on top. Maggie, good job.

Well and and that's it. And we did this obviously before we knew she was resigning, but it is to honor her work in the community. So, I like Diane's explanation of volunteering [laughter] and I can force you. Uh, Lisa, I'm good. Chad, um, I guess I was at the monster truck event this uh, summer and I thought it was good. I just hope we go easy on them there for a couple of minutes of the entire summertime. But I don't I I remember asking the police chief. There was no complaints aside from, you know, people just knew that was a short event this summer. So that's all I got. All right. Uh I got nothing. So motion to adjurnn. Motion. Motion from Lisa.

Second. Second from Chad. All those in favor? Opposed. We're ajourned. Thank you everybody.