City Council - Regular Meeting

It is 7:30. I will call the regular city council meeting for April 6, 2026 to order. Uh there is a quorum. Um all individuals are asked to either silence or turn off all cell phones, pagers, and other electronic devices that may disrupt the meeting. And at this time, if we'd stand for the pledge, please. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Before we approve the agenda, um we need to amend uh under number four, approval of bills. Uh we need to add void check number 14 221 with replacement checks number 114246 to 114 247 all dated 4626. With that, approval of the agenda. Approve the agenda as posted in accordance with the open meeting law. And here in place all agenda items on the table for discussion. What is the wish of the council?

Make a motion to approve. Second. Motion by council member Glaze, second by Mayor Zilka. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? I opposed. Carries. Approval of minutes. Special work session meeting of March 16th, 2026. The regular meeting of March 16, 2026 and the strategic planning meeting of March 23rd, 2026 approved. What is the wish of the council? I'll make a motion to approve the minutes. Second. Motion by council member Hansen, second by council member Ligran. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor?

Opposed?

Carries. Approve of bills. Electronic checks 4137- 4174 and checks 114166-114245 totaling $572,46853 and void checks 1129921323114109 totaling 1,500. $1129. And also void check number 114221 with replacement checks number 114246 and 114247 all dated 4626. What is the wish of the council?

I'll make a motion to approve the bills as you read it. Repeat it. Second. Motion by council member Gosk. Second by council member Glaze. Any discussion? Yeah. Can you repeat that whole thing again? Uh, no. Any other discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? I opposed. Carries.

Awards, donations, presentations, and proclamations. We have none this evening. We'll move on to the consent agenda. Under that, we have the application for exempt permit, bingo, pull tabs, and raffle. Church of our lady of Lords July 26, 2026. Approve application to conduct offsite gambling Little Falls Lindberg Lions raffle and pull tabs at Morrison County Fairgrounds June 25th through the 27th 2026. Approve. Application for temporary onsale liquor license Church of Our Lady of Lords July 26, 2026. Approve. Appoint seasonal golf course and pro shop attendance. Golf accept and appoint. Cleanup and recycling annual grants. Morrison County approve letter of retirement. Brian Linquist, police officer receive lower potency hemp edible retailer license. Little Falls Smoky's Tobacco Inc. DBA Smokies Tobacco and Vape Center. Approve policy 19 drug and alcohol testing drug-free workplace act non-commercial drivers update amend and adopt temporary sidewalk display or promotion application. People for Democracy March 28th, 2026. Ratify and confirm. Water report March 2026. Receive. What is the wish of the council?

I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda. Second. Motion by Mayor Zilka, second by Council Member Glaze. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? Opposed? Carries. Public hearings and letings. We have letings. First one is voting booths Americanmade election equipment administration award. Alex,

thank you, council president. Uh so we're finding that our existing voting booths are at the end of their reasonable lifetime. Uh we don't believe that they'll be safe to continue using for much longer. So we uh put into our 2026 budget to replace them. So we're looking to replace it is a total of 30 standard ones and three ADA compliant which would be 10 per precinct of the regular one ADA which is uh we have to have the ADA with the uh state laws for elections. We got two bids. One of which is the low bid being 6,654. The other was $6,97946. So, we are looking to uh for council to award the low quote from Americanmade election equipment with the lower bid of 6,654 for the purchase of 38A compliant and 30 standard ones. Again, this was covered in our 26 election budget.

What is the wish of the council? Make a motion to approve. Second. Motion by council member Meyer. Second by council member Lundberg. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? Opposed? Carries. Item two, water main components for splash pad and changing room bathroom facility corn main parks. Ratify and confirm. Greg.

Thank you, Mr. President. Uh, as you know, we're working on the splash pad uh changing room facilities currently. Um staff went out for quotes from Corin Main as well as Dakota Supply Group for the water main components. That's to get the water man or the water into the splash pad or into the changing room and then into the splash pad portion of it. Uh Corin Main's price was $7,9235. Dakota supply group had a quote of $8,5752. We're asking the council to ratify and confirm, meaning we've already ordered it. We've already received the material uh from Corin made in the amount of $7,9235 and that would be charged to the park improvement fund. Thank you. What is wish of the council? I'll make a commission. I'll make a motion to uh confirm. I'll second it.

Motion by council member Glaze, second by council member Goshik. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? Opposed? Carries. Item three, roof replacement of control building and garagey roofing wastewater. Greg,

thank you, Mr. President. Uh, as you mentioned, we are looking at replacing the roof for the control building and the garage. Uh, staff went out for quotes um for the roof replacement from both uh Busussy Construction as well as Hersog roofing. Hersog gave us a quote of $93,000. Um, Busussy gave us a price of $88,500. We did budget $90,000 for this in our 2026 budget. So, we are asking the council to approve the quote from Booy Roofing out ofway Park in the amount of $88,500 and that would be charged to the wastewater improvement fund. What is the wish of the council? I'll make a motion. Second. Motion by council member Liginrren, a second by council member Lungrenberg.

LR Lberg. Thank you. my mistake to you. Any discussion hearing? None. All those in favor? Opposed? Carries. Item four, fishing pier improvements at Labor Park Remarine Parks Award. Greg.

Thank you, Mr. President. If you recall, we received a $10,000 donation from the Westside Improvement Association for a couple of items. One of them was the new decking at the Westside Fishing Pier. Um, so we reached out to Rearine for a proposal on improved decking as well as a ramp for that for that fishing pier. Um, their proposal came in at $7,200 and that would be charged to the donation um, which would be the park improvement fund from the westside improvement. What's the wish of the council? Make a motion to approve. I'll second. Motion by council member Gosh, second by council member Meyer. Any discussion?

Yeah, Mr. Council President, go ahead. I see some of them sitting back there. I would just like to thank them again for that $10,000 and we're going to put it to good use from what I understand. So, thank you. Any other discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? I opposed carries. Item five, recommendation of wastewater treatment facility phase 2 dewatering shank instructors inc award. Greg.

Thank you, Mr. President. Uh we went out for bids for our wastewater improvement uh phase 2. On March 26th we opened bids. We received five bids. They ranged from $4,68,800 to $4,994,77. Engineers estimate was $4,500,000. So this was under uh under the estimate. Um, we are recommending to the council that they accept the recommendation from SE and award the project to Shank Constructors out of Brooklyn Park in the amount of $4,68,800 and that would be charged to the project fund. What's the wish of the council? I'll make a motion to award. Second.

Motion by council member Hansen, second by council member Lundberg. Any discussion? Yes. Have we ever had any uh work done by them in the past? We have not. Um I spoke with in regards to that and they checked with with their folks and they have worked with with Shank in the past. Um so I expect good results from from them. Any other discussion hearing? None. All those in favor?

I opposed carries. Item six, resolution 2026-25, award bid, Knife River Corporation, public improvement 416, 1st Avenue Southeast, adopt. Greg.

Thank you, Mr. President. On March 31st, we opened bids for our project, public improvement 416, which is 1st Avenue Southeast. We received one bid for the project in the amount of $882,914.90. Our estimate was $828,000. So, a little bit over uh the engineers's estimate. This evening, we are asking the council to award the bid to Knife River Corporation in the amount of $882,914.90. And that would be charged to the project. What is the wish of the council? I'll make a motion. Second.

Motion by council member Meyer, second by council member Glaze. Any discussion? Yes, Mr. President. I'm Greg. Do you think on a job that's pushing a million dollars and we get one bid, maybe we should pause, seek other contractors. I'm I'm just thinking out loud here. There was quite a few plan holders, so I was surprised when there was only one bid. Um I was anticipating about three of them just based on who was out looking at it. Um but we only received the the one bid from from them. So, yeah, may have conflicted with other jobs they had potentially. So,

well, to follow up on Councilman Hansen's point, um do would it would it put the project off? I mean, if we went out for a bid again, would is that going to yield any different results?

I wouldn't just because of the timing of things. Um, obviously, this area is part of the arts and crafts and so we have to get it done before September 1. Um, I would say if we put it off, then we probably wouldn't be able to do it this year just because of the timing of things. I'm not surprised that Knife River was the low bid, even they were the only bidder, but the low bid just because they're right in town. Paving is their bread and butter. Um, so it doesn't really surprise me. It's it's difficult for other contractors to compete just because they have to haul the mix here. So unless they have another project from Morrison County that's close and they may have a plant, it's theirs to lose essentially. I mean, they're pretty much 3/4 of a mile away from their exactly plant.

Or do we need to ramp up our schedule of getting the bids out in the future? I mean, do we potentially Okay. I mean, I'm not going to I'm not going to advocate we hinder this project, but at the same time, it's it's not cheap, right? Any other discussion hearing? None. Resolution call, please. Lundberg, yes. Lillian, yes. Meyer, yes. Zilka, yes. Nafla,

yes. Glaze, yes. Hansen, yes. Gosh, yes. Carries. Item seven, intent to purchase 2007 pumper tender truck. Chief,

thank you, Council President. We spoke about this at the strategic planning session two weeks ago. Um, you have the intent to purchase before you. In reviewing our our current apparatus fleet, we identified the possibility of replacing our current heavy rescue and one of our tenders with a pumper tender if we were able to locate a used one. We identified one with Lake Elmo. They're requesting 125,000 for that truck. So, we're seeking authorization to execute that intent to purchase. Um, and then we would declare those two current trucks as surplus. What is the wish of the council? Make a motion to uh approve and authorize.

Motion by council member Gosh, second by council member Lunberg. Any discussion? Uh Mr. Council President, you plan on selling the other two, right? Correct. Yep. Okay. If you just put bids out for that for sale or how did that work? I was just wondering. There's multiple ways. The last couple we sold on typically either on an online auction or sealed bids, but there's other marketplaces we can use now. So, we're going to have to talk about that with staff. If those are options, it depends what our city policy is. So, we want to maximize whatever we can get back for them. So, if we do it by auction, we'll probably set a higher reserve to try and get a decent amount for them.

Okay. Okay. Thanks. Any other discussion? All those in favor I opposed carries. Old business resolution 2026-21 golf fee schedule adopt. Alex.

Thank you council president. So bringing this back from last council meeting. Uh there's a lot of notes left for coun for staff to go over on the golf fee schedule. Um, one of the largest components that was discussed was the possibility of an etiquette course for minors to allow them to golf without uh, adult supervision. With the amount of time constraint that we have before the course starts and some logistical concerns and just making sure that it's offered, what does the course cover? Um, items like that, if it would be volunteered, paid, etc. Um, we thought that that might be really difficult to do in time for the 26 golf season. So, we looked at other possible options that might help alleviate some of these concerns. Um, so we did propose lowering the age in which an adult is required to 15 and below. So, if you're legally able to drive yourself 16 and older, we one might deem that they could be responsible to golf without an adult. Um, I also want to highlight that we did have on the fee schedule that the Little Falls High School golf team, which one could argue does have the etiquette class being on the golf team, um, if they're on that, they do not require an adult at any point at any age. Um, we did also add a couple additional items that were not on the fee schedule before, such as the tournament fees, um, club rentals, half off membership after July 4th. Uh, did clarify a couple bits of wording. Um, otherwise, the fee schedule charges are the same that were in place last year.

What is wish of the council? I'll make a motion to adopt. Second motion by Mayor Zila, second by Council Member Lundberg. Any discussion?

Yeah, Mr. Council President, I just have a little thing that naws at me. I work for the city and I can go out and hit golf balls for free on the driving range, okay? And I don't pay anything for them. It's all free. And then a gentleman or a lady or a family has a membership where they pay 800 or 17 $1,500. They have to pay for golf balls on the range before they go out and play. They have to pay a 325. And that just kind of bothers me that they should, if they're a member, they should be able to hit golf balls for free. It just bothers me. Is it

I I I know some clubs do and some clubs don't. I I understand that. But I thought it would be just a nice thing we could offer if we if you know before they play on league night or they could go out and hit golf balls and warm up and go play league because I know most of them do anyway, but that's just something I'd like to see. I I don't know if it's wrong or right. Council President, if I may,

um I I don't I don't disagree with you. Uh, Council Member Glaze, but I I I I do want to I do think we have a little bit of a different course than we do some of those surrounding courses. Um, it's just a different style where you go to a particular course before you play, you hit, you know, 20, 30 balls. Um, in Little Falls, I know I know the range, and I it's always going to come down to dollars and cents, right? The range is actually a pretty good money maker for the course. Yeah. because um there's less overhead, right? I mean, we got to provide the golf balls and it's actually it'd be it'd be tough to cut that from the budget and expect them to be successful.

Um I'm the one that made the biggest stink about the rates and I spoke to Alex about it and maybe this year is probably not the year to make major changes. One thing I would like to make a change is age 18 and under for the youth nine through or 18 holes um where they get to play without an adult. I just I just think it's such a great program for the youth of our community. And I think if you're a senior in high school and you graduated high school and you have that last summer before you go off and do whatever you're going to do, um you know, the summer you're 18 till that September, October, you're not pro probably not going to play a lot of golf. I just I just like to still con encourage the youth to use the course because that the citizens of Little Falls are paying for, you know, until they are that 18 years of old age. So, I don't know how the rest of the council feels about that, but I would like to see that age 18 and under instead of age 17 and under. And

sorry to believe to clarify because I believe you may have misspoke based on our conversation this morning. It's 18 and younger to golf for free. with the 15 and younger requiring adult. Correct. Okay. So, does that doesn't mean that I'm sorry, what? Repeat that. Um, on here we currently have 17 and younger golf for free. You're looking to propose 18 and younger. Golf for free. I'd like to propose Thank you. 18 and under. They only and I'm an amendment to this. 18 and under. Thank you. something we're going to have to look at early next year before golf season starts. I think we can amend it now, can't we? I don't know.

That component very easy to amend before we publish this. We can change that. Um any more procedural components, things that would involve setting up um changing around our systems would be difficult when we're looking to open the course this month. So, if you're looking to capture the golfer that's recently out of school for some folks, then they're going to be almost two years out of school, right? I mean, if we say 18 and under, well, that's do people 18 years of age and 364 days old, right? They could be in their second year of college. Do people graduate high school at 16?

17? I can. Okay. Lot of 17. I'm not I mean we can't we can't put because you know some individuals don't go to college. So I think I don't know we I just you're asking a high school senior you know who's working a summer job for 15 bucks an hour to pay what is it 800 bucks or is is there a youth rate? There is a young adult rate of 400. Okay. for 18 to 24.

Still, I mean, you're asking a, you know, Little Falls High School senior to pay 400 bucks when they're making and they're s, you know, maybe they're saving for the college or their future or whatever, what have you. I just I would just like to as a community, I would just like to make sure we see this program, this youth golf program out through as a whole. Mr. President we can discuss this forever and uh there is a time but I believe at like uh Alex said

was the season is here. We were supposed to open the 30th until this last snow. So we should have had all of this stuff in place already. So going with what is presented is I'm in favor of that and I'm in favor of having future discussions. Council President, go ahead. Um, in the yellow up here it says 17 and under, but if you go all the way over to the right under young adult, it says over 18. So there's a gap there. Correct. Um, so what 18 year olds aren't even included in this.

That was that was a typo. Thank you for catching that. The intention was if you were legally a minor, it would be free. So 18 to Yeah, we were trying to clarify some of the wording. We must have missed that section. So, um it would be 18 to 23 would be the young adult. Obviously, these numbers can change to council's wish, but that was what we proposed based on college age. And council president, so this is up until you turn 18 years old. When you turn 18 years old, now you're a young adult and not a youth. That was that makes that makes sense to me. Discuss this.

Council President Fe, um, and the only thing I'm not proposing we don't approve something. Obviously, I'm I'm I'm proposing just that one minor adjustment just to follow the youth golf program through. Okay. And in that, I would recommend um clarifying that young adult to be 18 years old to under 24 taking out that over. So, we don't have that gap. So, so all the years are accounted for. The word over correct? Yes. So, is the council okay with those current changes that Dave was just talking about for this year? Yes, we'll have to vote vote on it. Is that part of uh

Well, he wants to amend it before we vote on it. I think you should amend it. Okay. So, I think we all agree, council, do we make those changes before we vote on it? To clarify, it's changing the no charge to 18 and younger in addition to Well, then we would change the the young adult. We would leave it at over 18. Then we wouldn't need to amend young adult or change it to 19. Yep. Okay. So, do we have to So, Mr. Zilka, do you approve that motion with this amendment? Sure. Okay, Miss Miss Lungard, do you? Yeah.

Okay. Okay. So, it is a resolution. We'll be voting on the resolution with the amendments. Um resolution call roll, please. Lrren, yes. Yes. Meer, yes. Zilka, yes. Canopla, yes. Glaze, yes. Hansen, yes. Gosh, yes. Lenberg, yes. Carries. Moving on to new business. Approval of large-scale street and sidewalk event application and waiver criteria checklist. Approve. Alex.

Thank you, council president. Um, so we realized that we didn't have a formal process for our largescale events. Um, such as we didn't have a formal application process. Um, and we realized that with our current code, we didn't clarify what dollars were coming from where directly billing for cost incurred. So, not that things were going incorrectly before, but we feel that we could be doing a better job being more accountable and transparent for what it is we're doing, the services build, um, and overall the operations that are taking place within the city regarding these large scale events. As of today, this would only apply to the arts and crafts fair as well as the antiques and collectible fair that takes place at the same time, but we do know that we are looking to expand on the events that take place within the city in the future. So, we wanted to make sure that we had our foundations uh set. So, for this year, um we'd like to propose these changes, see how it goes with possible changes in the future. Um with this um in our codes today the application fee is $80 per day uh per the fee schedule which we are looking to keep. The uh application also formally authorizes the individuals who are applying that uh the city may require them to pay for services of the city for the events specifically such as law enforcement, fire, public works. um additional administrative review equipment etc. This is unique to each individual event which would be determined at the time of the application and uh time of approval of set application. We also would like to propose changing the license fee. I realize there's a typo on here. Um it's actually from 25 down to $10 per license. That money is

currently per code. Up to uh up to $3,000 of that goes to the sister city fund and any remaining dollars goes to the parking lot fund. By lowering that um that those dollars can be allocated to the designated things per our code and then cover the staff time behind the scenes as we prepare for all of the meetings, all of the work that we do, making sure that street closures are aligned properly. All the logistics um would come from there with that lowered um booth fee. Now the city would be able to charge for any PD, public works, etc. without hopefully putting them over in their budget. So for instance, we'll take the chamber who is here if we do have any questions today. Last year the chamber paid around $11,000 in their application overall because of booth fees. So this year it would be if we were to push these through, it would be less that they pay on that front, but they were not charged for the police time and the public works time. So we would be able to bill them for the cost our staff incurred specific to their event for those days. And on top of that, we have a waiver fee um that or a waiver system set up that if they qualify for certain things um then we come to council and council gets to decide if we would like to charge them for the full cost of the city's um time or council can choose to wave some of that as a participation for their event. At the end of the day, the goal is mostly just cleaning up and changing things administratively so that we are more clear and transparent on our end, hoping that this is a wash or uh beneficial to the nonprofits that are hosting these large events in our

community. I do not foresee this unless there are major changes um increasing the cost incurred to the chamber, but obviously we can't tell until we actually know what the u actual cost is. What is the wish of the council? Council president, I'll make a miss motion to approve. I'll second it. Motion by council member Meyer, second by council member Gosh. Any discussion,

Mr. President, if I could. Um, I think that the chamber does a fantastic job uh for arts and crafts. It's just totally incredible and it increases every year. So, I just to make I just want to make sure that they can be a little bit profitable um rather than uh losing a lot. So um that would be a concern. Um and this so this is only for this year we're looking at right this well this would be well for the arts and crafts and the antique show. Right.

Right. I mean it would be this moving forward. We want to see how it goes on in 26 to see if there's any adjustments we may need to make to the code moving forward. Okay. Uh question and I I read through this, but my mind's a little foggy tonight here for some reason. Um what qualifies how many people need to have to qualify for a large scale event? Allison, do you remember the details on that? She has the whole code memorized already. She does. She's very good. Uh this is something we've been working on for months, so I apologize. It's been back and forth trying to make sure we get this right. Um I think it was the use of public

road or sidewalk space is what categorizes it into the large scale per our code today. Our city Yes. So our city code when we look at it for large scale events has it tied with sidewalk. Um, so any event that's being held in a park that's not um putting down a like not closing a road um or using public or city services is is not considered that it's not interfering with a sidewalk or like so any like the church's bizaars or any of that kind of stuff, right?

Wouldn't qualify. All right. And then uh another question had what about um Freedom Fest? So because they are located on the fairgrounds, they do not qualify for city licenses, permits, etc. Uh we they do have to apply for liquor through us, but an event permit, they are um agricultural society. Thank you. The agricultural society component, uh they do not need to apply for event permits through the city. Okay. Any other questions?

Um yeah, if I may, Mr. Council President, we all know everything's get more expensive, more expensive, and I just want to make sure that we don't chamber on the west side people, antiques people don't have to charge so much money that they're going to lose customers. And that's I don't know if that's coming up, you know, with this thing you're changing. I just don't want to see them having to price themselves out of business is what I'm saying.

So this system is designed to update things and again be more transparent on our end. We are suggesting that we lower the booth fee. So the initial cost would be lower and then we would bill them for the cost incurred. For instance, PD in their time, public works in their time, but council, we also have the um the waiver waving fees criteria checklist which is on page 94 of the packet. Uh this will help council where we can come to council and say this is what they're doing. This is what we would be billing them for. Does council agree or would like would council like to wave some of our costs? Um we did not have a formal process for this before. So again, just formalizing it, making a little bit more um clear and consistent moving forward and council can decide if we want to wave for instance public works time um cleaning using the street sweeper on parking lots and sidewalks. So that would be within the realm of control of council as to how much we charge them on that front.

Okay. You know, you say something about $80. What's the $80 worth for the application fee? This is the chamber application fee or uh whoever would qualify for this large scale event. So, as of today, sponsor of it. Yeah, it would be the chamber and then antiques.

Okay. Well, again, I don't know how many years we've been doing the arts and grass. It's been a long time. And uh uh it's a big thing for us and and I think Frank brought it up at the retreat maybe I don't know don't remember but instead of we keep losing stuff to make people come to the city but we and I don't want to lose the arts and crafts because we're they're having to charge too much money for all the expenses. I don't know if that makes sense or not, but that's I don't I just want to keep it down so we don't price ourselves out of this.

This change opens up the ability to lessen our fees from them should council wish it on the waiver of city time. City time. Okay. And I believe too that uh some of the people that apply for that can actually volunteer to do some of that stuff themselves to

keep the cost down for what they need to do. Yes. So staff has been having extensive conversations with the chamber about this. Uh we did specifically talk about um so for instance one of the biggest time consuming parts uh on our end is public works and the work that they do setting up barriers getting the benches out street cleaning etc. Um so we've been working with them to help them facilitate volunteers to do some of that work so it's less things that we would need to do on our end thus not having to charge them for or wave. Uh so we're working with them. My intention is for the public works times specifically to be broken down into three components uh versus last year. So part of that responsibility their volunteers would take on and we are working with them on that. Part of that responsibility we would bill for and part of the responsibility which the amount of which is determined by council could be waved.

Okay. And then again just to clarify this is going in for 2026. Correct. It's something you want to see correct carried on. But after 2026, you go through and evaluate it and then make changes to this application or whatever it is criteria checklist and then bring it back to the council to redo those changes for 2027 if needed. If needed. One of the time constraint components we have right now is we feel that our code could be worded better for this. Unfortunately, the process to get the code updated is time consuming and it would hinder the arts and crafts fair process. This is our middle ground for this year.

My concern was that we're not voting on something that's going to be to the future that we take a look at it, see how it works this year, evaluate it, and then adjust adjust it for the future. I feel that this is a halfway step in the right direction, possibly threequarters of the way. Um, mostly the code could use some updating. We're just under time constraints on that one. So, I do believe it is beneficial for 26. And you have discuss this with the chamber on the westside improvement and they're on board with it. I have not talked with the westside improvement. I have talked with Pervo about this. Um, and we've also had a few meetings about what we were thinking along the way. And you're on board with it, Mr. President.

Go ahead. You know, you made a remark uh pertains to sidewalk usage, road closure. I don't see where that applies to the antiques and collectibles. We don't shut down roads for them. They have no sidewalks. Uh I feel they should get a better break. In fact, when you said something about volunteer services, I think they do a lot of it already. Uh, I'm just having trouble thinking that you're going to charge the same amount for vendors out there as you are for people using the main city per se.

So, because of the nature of the amount of people that come through there, uh, so they do not pay the same amount as the chamber does in this circumstance. They pay for the amount of booths that they have in their section. So, if they had 10 booths, they would be paying only for the 10 booths. um they do benefit from the foot traffic of the arts and crafts fair. Um I believe and Allison, correct me if I'm wrong, I believe that was a primary component um just due to the overall nature of the size of the event.

Yes. And and looking at policy 15 which we found um that indicates that $3,000 from both of them that goes towards that the sister the sister city fund and the parking lot fund. So they were grouped under that policy that we that it was approved two years ago I think 2024 2025 but they're grouped together because of the foot traffic. So council president if I may go ahead

that leads to my question what you're talking about. So the sister city fund which I think we should fully fund um and then the parking lots. I mean, we're t Greg with the parking lot situation. Is this going to hurt? Is is the are the funds going to still go towards the same things $3,000 to the sister city and then what's above and beyond that go towards like so for charging for police services? Can you inter can you transfer transfer funds like that? police department hours versus so no this the amount that's charged for police department hours would go to reimburse the police department fund because obviously they're spending money for their staff there

a lot of it's going to depend on how much is waved you know in terms of fees and such um and that's up to the council's discretion because obviously we have to pay our employees um to be able to to do work and and so that number is going to be dependent upon how much we wave and how much we you know put onto the under this the public works department portion of it. So So does it go towards just you know staff putting parking picnic tables and whatnot or does it go towards like actual parking lot improvements and does that a number that's going to affect that budget because I know we need repairs to a lot of our parking lots as it is

it will um and so we'll just have to be mindful when we do budgets to dedicate money towards a parking lot fund. So like right now or in 25 our staff we had to pay them regardless. But whatever we got from the booth fees that portion of it would go into the parking lot fund and portion of it would go to the sister city fund. And so now we're going to be a little bit more transparent in terms of how much is being used at the police, how much is used at the public works. And some of that will go into to fund those portions of it. And then we'll have to be mindful when we budget to incorporate something for parking lot improvement. Well, the reason I bring it up is for that reason exactly. I mean I mean we're charging $25 now. We're we're proposing to bring it down to $10. I mean it may as be 10 cents for all that's going to do, you know? I mean, we're still everything's getting more expensive and I I don't like it just as much as the next person, but I think we need to be mindful of where this money gets designated and what and so we're not raising the levy again because we're not funding our parking lots because this money is missing all of a sudden or not or going reallocated, not missing.

Does that make sense? So, I think I I would be fine with just leaving it at the $25 and I think people understand that things get more expensive and and then look having an ongoing conversation like council member Canopl what the city needs from these organizations. Dave, I think I think the point in lowering those costs is that right now we are not charging them for police or or parks or parks department or we're not charging them for the staff to take and set up all those picnic tables and we're not charging for the police to, you know, be at the event. And so we would start charging for that and we would justify that by lowering those fees and potentially then it would be a wash. It would be about the same amount that's coming in. It would just be done in a more transparent way so that we can come right out and say this is how much we charge for police. This is how much we charge for the street department. This is how much instead of it all just coming in one big lump sum of $11,000. Now the city is being more accountable in how we're breaking down those charges. Right.

And so that's what this is about. But I do have a question that's not related to that. Um, the sister city and the parking lot funds, how was that decided? I mean, why is this money not going into the parks department? Because the parks are really taking a beating during the arts and crafts festival. So, how was that decided upon that it would be those two? Long long long long time ago, those two funds were decided and it's ever it's been that way ever since. Jeremy maybe remembers before. I think it was even before Jeremy.

I'm I'm glad you brought it up because I was going to too. I I I'm wondering out loud if we should strike that line. I I the I saw that sister city fund and I'm like what are we doing here? I I do believe that that's actually covered in the code which identifying there are some components of the code we would we might want to look at changing. We're just cutting on time. If we wanted to do that now, it would probably hinder some of the work. It's written right into the code, I do believe. So, it's She's pulling it up right now. Um, we have it in some formal documentation in our city as to where it's allocated. It might be in the code. It might be in a a policy elsewhere. And we are very

policies. Alison's Allison's on it. But yeah, we we do identify that that's something worth looking into. It just might not be something for this year. Well, and council president, if I may, that bodess my question. Are these things going to get unfunded with this change in policy? Not with this change. No, not with this change. We would have to change city code to do that or change or change the policy.

Right. I guess I guess and I understand what you're saying, Councilwoman Lumbg, as you know, as far as the you know, money coming in, money going out in different categories. Um, all I'm saying is to make sure that, you know, when it comes time for budget season, we're not saying, "Oh, we need, by the way, because of this the lacking funds, we need an extra $8,000 to keep our parking lots sealed or what what have you." So, that's going to be an issue. Well, I'm just saying let's make sure we're not Well, I think that

what the levies are doing the last, you know, over the course of the last three years, we we really need to be mindful that we're not adding into these budgets because we're cutting costs on other things where I to, you know, the vendors bring money into the community and the community does support this event. I think $25 is completely appropriate wi with the changes coming. That's just how I feel. And I would uh briefly uh council member Lumbberg explained it very well and what we've been doing in the past is underfunding our staffing. So and it's just transparency and accountability for where those dollars are going. Totally understand.

We can easily put a note a post-it note on our budget notes for uh the years going forward to uh make up for any loss dollars that go to the parking lot right

fee or fund which we agree does. We need to make sure we're funding that appropriately. You know, it's the same it's the same situation that we had with the Rosenmeer house. We weren't, you know, we weren't charging any rent for the Rosenmeer house and then all of a sudden, well, gee, we have no money. And it's the same thing I don't want to have happen with the parking lots where we're losing this income, so to speak. And all of a sudden, our parking lots are all dilapitated. And it's like, well, gee, we have no money. Let's just not make the same mistake twice. And I totally understand the whole premise. I just want to make sure we Okay, watch out. All those in favor?

I oppose carries. Item B, resolution 2025-6A, amend 2026 fee schedule. Adopt. Alex, thank you, Council President. Um, this one's real easy. So, you just voted uh what you just voted through includes a change to our fee schedule. So, it would be changing the uh booth fees from $25 down to $10 per booth in for the 26th year. What's the wish of the council? I'll make a motion to approve. Motion by council member Gushik, second by council member Glaze. Any discussion? Hearing none. Resolution call roll, please.

Tra. Meyer. Yes. Zilka. Yes. Kafla, yes. Glaze, yes. Hansen, yes. Gosh, yes. Lenberg, yes. Ljugrin, yes. Carries, we have a problem, the president. I think they're just debate on if it was 20 or 25, but ultimately we're uh what is before you right now is the vote to change the 10. Correct. Correct. Yep. Okay. Uh item C, planning commission recommendation resolution 2026-24 approving master plan update expansion and renovation of suburban mobile home park. Adopt. Greg.

Thank you, Mr. President. On March 9th, the planning commission had a public hearing for master plan update of the suburban mobile home park on the east side. Uh the planning commission is recommending approval of this master plan update. They do have uh five conditions that they would like on there and they're pretty straightforward. Uh the development shall comply with the submitted plan dated January 13th. Final site grading utility plans shall be subject to review and approval by the city engineer. Storm water management shall comply with city requirements. Um all required state licenses shall be obtained prior to operation of the expansion and that future expansion if there is any beyond this approved site plan shall be require an amended master plan update. uh we did not have anybody speak uh opposed to that on the March 9th meeting and so we are recommending approval of that uh resolution 2026-24 this evening's wish of the council.

I'll make a motion to adopt. Second. Motion by Mayor Zila, second by Council Member Hansen. Any discussion? Uh Mr. Council President, may I ask where we're expanding to? Right. Yeah, if you look at the next uh slide. Okay, let me see. And they're they're reorientating a number of the lots um and then expanding to the to the northwest in that little culde-sac area. It's actually a decrease from what the original plan was, the original number of lots in there. Um they're making them a little bit wider and and angled better. Um so it'll be it'll be less units there overall. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Yep. Any other discussion?

So, this is not a conditional use permit. It's just a master plan. Just a master plan. Okay. This is currently zoned R4, which is mobile home. Um, so it's it's an allowed use in that in that zone. It's just a matter of master plan. Um, on how it's laid out and they're getting all new water and sewer lines. That is part of their project. Yes. Good. They need them. Yes, they do. Any other discussion? Hearing none. Resolution call roll, please. Zilka. Yes, Kafla. Yes, Glaze. Yes, Hansen. Yes, Goshik. Yes, Lunberg. Yes. Ligrin. Yes. Meer, yes.

Carries. Item D, resolution 2026-23. Declare surplus property and authorize sale thereof. Adopt. I guess we've got the police chief, public works, city engineer, fire chief. One of you guys want to take it?

I can I can start with it. Um, attachment A, which is resolution 2026-23, we've got a number of, uh, items that we're looking at declaring surplus. Uh, from the public works side of things, we have roughly 70 32gallon garbage cans that we're looking at uh, declaring surplus and disposing of. These are the ones that have been returned that either broken or extremely dirty that we just can't get cleaned. We have roughly 150 new or very clean ones that we would be still swapping out with people if they wanted uh, different ones. Um we don't have a use for these 70 garbage cans. On average, we get about two 32 gallon cans back in every every week um as we change them out. So our quantity of 32 gallons keeps expanding just because people are converting over to those 64 gallon can uh containers. So on those we're looking to get approval to dispose of those 70 32gallon garbage cans. And for the PDS, we have six of our old Glocks. Uh we started a process a couple years ago of replacing all of our old handguns. These six Glocks will be uh traded in for new equipment. So we're just asking that we are allowed to uh declare them surplus. We can sell them, trade them in, and purchase new handguns.

Okay. Then the fire department are the two apparatus that we spoke about earlier with the intent to purchase. The 2005 Freightlininer heavy rescue and the 2008 uh international tender. And just to note that uh the proceeds from the sale of those two would go back into the fire equipment fund. What's the wish of the council? I'll make a motion to approve. Second. Motion by council member Glaze. Second by council member Liligrren. Any discussion? Yes. the 32galon garbage cans. Can you not keep a few of them to replace any of those who are currently in use?

We have 150 surplus or extra ones that we that we're keeping stock to be able to replace them. So, we've got more than what we would need. More than you need. Yeah. Okay. Any other discussion? Well, I'll just piggyback on that. We're not ordering any more of those, right? The the plan is as long as we have organized collection, if they're available, they're available, but we could theoretically reach a point in time when we don't have any anymore and you're going to a 64gallon cart. In theory, we would have that situation. I just don't see that happening because we're getting two 32 gallons every week coming in. So, we'll have plenty of 32 gallon ones. Any other discussion? Hearing none. Resolution call roll please.

Canopla. Yes. Glaze. Yes. Hansen. Yes. Go. Yes. Wberg. Yes. Lilian. Yes. Meyer. Yes. Zilka. Z. Yes. Carries. Item E. Settlement agreement and release. Oracle America Inc. Approve. Police chief. Oh, I'll I'll take that one real quick. Um, so from our close session discussion, we are looking for city council to approve the confidential settlement agreement and release between Oracle America and City of Little Falls and partnering agencies. What's the wish of the council? I'll make a motion to approve. Second. Motion by council member Gosh, second by council member Glaze. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor?

Opposed? Gary's announcements.

Mr. president, if I could. Um, I got a call from a lady named Deb Risk who was originally from originally from Little Falls and um I asked Mr. Kimman to meet with her also and we met with her and uh she is going to be trying to help us find ways to get grants uh for the um bridge over the railroad tracks. So, we'll see how that goes. She was very kind and uh friendly and she said she would help us in any manner that we needed. So, uh that was a good thing. And then a couple days later, I met with Amy Clolobashar and people online were kind of thumping me. Um, because I met with her, they were not understanding. Uh, they brought up that we were talking about child care, which we weren't because Amy supported that when it came up last time. And uh so there was over a thousand uh likes and not likes. Um but yeah, so we've had two meetings that uh will be beneficial I believe for our bridge project uh going forward.

Great. Any other announcements?

Yes. uh number of people from the west side. There's uh an apartment going up there. Uh they called me and said is there asked is there anything they can do to stop it? They felt like they were never informed it was going to happen. They don't like it in their neighborhood and uh and it's most of the people in that area. I'm just going to interrupt you for a minute. Um, you arrived late for the um, work session and during that work session there were two petitions that were put in. One for um, taring of the roads there and one against the apartment complex. Um, and Mr. Jed Venderhill Venderhoo,

he came up and spoke at that time and addressed those concerns. Okay. Just just so you're aware. Well, I'm aware now. Okay. I did talk to Dave about a little bit. I was just going to mention there were a number of other people too. The Robinsons and the Barnes and uh

well all the locals, but it's going to happen. What's going to happen? Uh I just told them I'd bring it up. And the other thing is is and this is an ongoing thing. Uh Shane Cole from Domino's would like us to address the parking again. Uh we've been round and round with this. Uh I don't know what we can do. Uh I felt like, you know, uh a lot of these downtown businesses, they buy these businesses knowing how much parking is there and to try to change it later when there's really nothing that can be done. because if we allow more parking for one of them, we're taken away from another. So, uh, if there's any kind of resolution in your planning, Mr. Kinman, please address it because it keeps coming back. I I would say let's go ahead and get that on the planning commission agenda to at least have a conversation because I've heard from other businesses own business owners um with some legitimate complaints in my opinion um not just complaints but

proposed solutions

to those complaints and then I I'll go another step further since we're we're talking about what's going on the west side and I did reply via email to the petitioner that area is zoned R3 so there isn't a function where it needs prior approval right the lot meets the setbacks and it's allowed by zoning they get a building permit they build their building right so the only thing we can do at this point I mean if they have a permit on that it and they're starting. It would be unfair to try to put the brakes on that in my opinion. I think looking off into the future, we need to make sure the zoning is consistent with the use of the neighborhood and that that's open for discussion. I'm not saying it is or it isn't, but that's the reality of the situation. It's zoned for what's going there.

I have one council president. Okay, I know everybody wants to go home. Um I think it's wonderful that we had a woman come forward and offer to um help with grant writing. And I'm just wondering if there's going to be any kind of repercussions or um if there's any going to be any legal issues with having someone outside of the city write grants on the city's behalf or would she just find them and then you would write them?

We would work with her. We would work with her to to write those grants. Um so short answer is no. there wouldn't be any repercussions in regards to that. Um it would be likely something where we would hire her to do that and define that and help put together like a marketing plan and stuff for it. So um that is done on occasion for bigger projects such as this. So that's not uncommon. So she'd be hired like as an independent contractor. Correct. Yep. Yep. And she was very excited about helping the city of Little Falls where she was born and raised. Yep.

Any other announcements? Seeing none, I will adjourn the meeting at 8:31. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you guys for being here. It's very rare we get this many people at a council meeting, so it's nice to see you guys here, especially this long. Were you talking about those sitting up here?