City Council - Special Meeting

It is 7:15. I will call the special work session for the city council of April 20th, 26 to order. We do have a quorum. Public forum. Individuals may address the city council about items on the agenda or not included on the agenda. Speakers are required to state their name and address for the council record and limit their remarks to three minutes or fewer. Speakers are requested to frame their comments around items that fall within the authority of the city council. Generally, the city council will not take official action on the items discussed at this time, but may place the item on file, take the matter under advisement, refer the matter to staff or committee for a future report, or direct the matter to be placed on an upcoming agenda. Does anyone wish to speak? If you would, sir, if you'd come up to the podium, please, and state your name and address for our records.

Hello, council. My name is Dustin Watkins. I live at uh 210 4th Street Northeast. Give me one second. Sorry about that. Good evening, mayor, council members, and community leaders. My name is Dustin Watkins. I'm the owner of Tactical Turd Soldiers. I am a local lawn care and dog waste removal company built right here in Minnesota. I'm here tonight to talk about something simple, but often overlooked, and that's the cleanliness, safety, and overall experience of the city parks, trails, shared outdoor spaces. Let's be honest, dog waste is a growing problem in public areas. It's not just an inconvenience. It's a public health issue. Dog waste carries harmful bacteria, parasites that can contaminate soil and water, create unpleasant odors, and make our parks less enjoyable for the family, children, and other visitors. And as our community continues to grow, so does pet ownership. More dogs mean more waste. And without a consistent system in place, it becomes harder and harder to manage. That's where Tactical Turd Soldiers comes in. We provide professional, reliable dog waste removal services designed specifically for residential, commercial, and public spaces. Our goal is simple. Keep our community community clean, safe, and something we can all be proud of. For the city, that means cleaner parks and walking trails, reduced health risk for residents and children, a more positive experience for visitors and tourism, and a less strain on the city maintenance crew. We also offer installation maintenance of dog waist stations, making it easier for pet owners to do the right thing while keeping public spaces clean. But this isn't just about cleanup. It's about the community pride. When family walks through a park, when kids play in the grass, when visitor visitors explore our trails, they should feel comfortable, safe, and proud of where they are. Right now, there's an opportunity for the city to take a

proactive approach instead of reactive. By partnering with the local business like tactical to sorry, tactical trade soldiers, you're not only solving a real problem, you're also supporting a local entrepreneurship, and reinvesting in the community. We are ready to provide scheduled weekly or bi-weekly park maintenance, full property cleanups, waste sanitation, installation, and services, and consistent, dependable services you could count on. My mission is to make this city one of the cleanest and most welcoming communities in the region starting from the ground up because of at the end of the day a clean city isn't just about appearance. It's about health, pride, and quality of life. Thank you for your time and I'd love the opportunity to work together and make this happen.

Thank you. You're

welcome. Thank you. Uh Greg Spaford, uh Little Falls Township and 12753 Hilton Road. Um I'm just here to offer a word of support for Dustin. I've known him for the time that he's lived in Little Falls and uh he wants to give back to the community and where he t spoke tonight about uh his boy, you got to look at his website, too. It's pretty darn cool. It's as bright as his shirt today. you're going to be getting a copy afterwards where our good clerk is going to give you a copy of some more information that you can look at when mine is more um on the on behalf of his ethical behavior. Certainly, he's had and he can tell you if he wants uh you know some like we all have some tougher times in life, but um I'm I'm just really impressed with with his character. I guess the other thing I would offer where tonight he spoke about um about dog waste and I'm not sure who's doing the stuff around in the wonderful dog park that we have um or the the other parks and things like that. You've got your good parks people. Um I I would say he's also anything outside and I don't know if you contract with anybody. I noticed the city happens to have two openings uh out there on the grounds, but that's probably a hired type of thing. So, just keep him in mind for various things. Uh check out his website and uh thank you for allowing me to put in a good word for him.

Thanks, Greg. Does anyone else wish to speak? Anyone else? Final call hearing. None. We'll move on to bill discussion. Any discussion on the bills? Hearing none, we'll move on to consent agenda items. Any discussion on the consent agenda items for tonight? Hearing none, we'll move on to council information only items. The first one we have on here is the LMC annual conference June 24th through 26th. Alex.

Thank you, Council President. So, just a quick reminder that the League of Minnesota City's annual conference is June 24th through 26th this year. Uh it is taking place in Rochester. If there are any council members who wish to attend, please let me know before May uh 1st ideally. It's really difficult to get hotel rooms the closer we get. So, we want to try and get that booked early. I do have uh two council members that are currently planning to attend and I will be there as well. Okay. Who are the councilmen? Glaze and the mayor. You can put me down. Thank you.

Um the only other thing we have under other is uh Barrett Pet Foods has invited the council to uh for a tour of their facility. Uh and that tour is scheduled for Thursday the 23rd at 5:00 pm. Um we have already posted the meeting so that would be in accordance with the open meeting law. So we can have a quorum if we want to. Um again I would encourage all of the board members to uh to attend um just to get some good information. Anybody have any constituent messages? I do.

Okay.

Uh gentleman called talking about keeping your city clean and uh his neighbor has a huge compost pile and uh there's a lot of rodents coming out of it which are encroaching upon his property. Plus, they had a fire pit next to the compost pile and they're burning sticks and up in the compost fire pile on fire and there's an old shed just on the other side of it which is next to the neighbor's house. So he has concerns. He was wondering if there's anything we can do if there's an ordinance in place. I feel you know if you have compost piles I mean that's good for gardening and everything but it should be in contained area. It should be where it's not going to cause a nuisance to the neighbors. um do it correctly and maybe you could take it to the planning and zoning and see if they can come up with something that you know addresses this. I'm sure other communities have had the same problem. So anyway, I told him I'd bring bring it up to your attention and we could look at it possibly.

Excuse me. Is that something we could turn to um our ordinance officer Bryce? Uh yes, we'll look into it and see what how that's traditionally handled, but I would see it would be more likely an ordinance. Okay. Thank you. Any other messages?

Yeah, Council President, if I may. um um had a few people reach out with concerned with the parking at the golf course and I spoke to Alex earlier this afternoon and I just want the public to know that we know it's an issue and it's we're it might take some time but it's going to need to be addressed and we are well aware that I think um in speaking to Alex I think Paul might even be planning a fundraiser tournament or for something along the likes of that. I'm not saying it the funds would go specifically for a parking lot, but uh it's definitely something that we know is coming down the pipe and needs to be addressed sooner rather than later. Any others hearing? None. It is 7:25 and we'll adjourn to our regular meeting at 7:30.