City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, it is 6.30. We will call the Monday, June 22nd, 2026, City of Mayor, City Council meeting to order. If you could please join me in 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. Thank you.

And with that, do we have any additions to the agenda tonight?

No additions tonight, Mayor.

Hearing no, I'll look for a motion to approve the agenda as presented.

Motion.

Second. We have a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Motion carries 4-0. That will take us to public comments. If there is anyone who would like to discuss anything that is not on the agenda, please come forward. And if you don't mind stating your name and address for the record, Jude, we'd appreciate it.

Yes, Jew Lagoo, 14580 62nd Street. So I need to verify the amount of restitution I owe the city here on my bulldozing expedition. I just got out today, and I got four more days left to serve on that deal, so I want to make sure I got the exact amount.

Yep.

I had it surveyed. There was no road there. It was a road stub. I think we all could agree on that. But at any rate, I need to know that amount.

So I can end that felony charge. What's the best way to get it to you? Email? I mean, we don't have the number in front of the city administration. Yeah, you know what?

An email or a text message.

Email or text would be best. That would be great. Nick, do you have both?

I should, yes. Okay. And then... Your number and email hasn't changed, has it? No. Okay. And I have his number, too, if you need it.

But please ask for a verification on it.

Okay.

As far as if I received it or not.

We'll get that sent tomorrow, Nick?

Yeah, tomorrow morning. Tomorrow morning, I can get that out.

Yeah, yeah. Just reply back. Let us know you received it.

Yeah. And... Please make sure you guys look at that because I'm disputing the amount. At that point in time, you guys were going to stiff me for $48,000 and you cut it down to $30,000 as soon as I disputed it, which was the whole amount for the City of Marist Road projects. I'll leave it there. Secondary item in regards to the franchise, so I own all along County North 30. So if there's any cable running through my property, um, I'm just saying, you know, it's going to be a problem.

And so, you know what, I don't know.

Nobody's told me anything, but, um, I was in negotiations with a, um, a company, um, several years ago, uh, we'll call it 19. And then, um, And then the city claimed it to be theirs, but it's not. So before things get along, go too far with Comcast or whomever, Jaguar, we should discuss that item there. And then I guess in closing, you know what? I'm still in dispute on the plane and zoning, and I really don't know what happened there. I was following the planning zoning's proposal, and all of a sudden there's 50 extra pages, and you guys amended a document that you hadn't even approved yet. At least that's how it reads. I'm just wondering, you know, what is the planning and zoning ordinance? Because there's like 50 extra pages there, and a lot of them apply kind of just to me, and I'm concerned about that.

So is this our policy? You know what?

I'm not up on the terminology, but what I do know is that they proposed a new policy plan zoning deal. Ordinance or code, I don't know that. But you guys... Kind of approved it, but you approved it for your review. And then it came back. It was approved as amended. So I don't know what you guys, what the initial one was.

It'll be all in our recordings and our minutes. Everything would have been recorded.

I know. I understand that. But it's not available to the public is what I'm saying. Because something was approved and then it was amended. The policy should be.

um is that on is that on our website yeah so all of our ordinance which are proposed We're required by law to post those on the city's website. So on the city's website, there's a section of proposed ordinances, and we keep all of those on there. And then when we get done adopting ordinances, a couple times a year, we have the city code that's online. And then the entity we work with, American Legal Publishing, they will then update that code. So you don't publish the amendments then?

uh we just published the final final and any discussion those the recordings will be are online okay because what i said online was there were too many amendments to publish and that you had to check um

yourself online is what it stated so when you have a very lengthy ordinance there are state law provisions which allow you to publish a summary of it because if we publish the entire zoning code in the newspaper it would cost a gajillion dollars so you're allowed to publish summaries of them and then you always have a caveat there's always language in there that says if a member of a public wishes to see the full text get a hold of the city and then we'll email that out Okay. Right. Okay. Email or print it or whatever method they want to receive it.

Yeah. That's just for the newspaper that we have to put in the newspaper. The stuff that's in our online, we'll have all, we'll have everything in there. Yep. Okay.

But it didn't say too many in there yet. That'll be accurate.

That was just for the newspaper part. Just like Nick said, it would have been pages and pages that we would have had to have put in there.

Okay. Okay. I'll take a look. Okay.

Perfect.

And then, um, Yeah, I guess in closing, you know, it would be nice if you guys share once again what your plans are in regards to the park. And, you know, this PUD, going back to the planning and zoning, you know what? it's just on my land.

Okay.

It's not up on, uh, you know, Stone hedge or whatever up there. And it's, and I've a PRD there and I don't get it. I don't get why my farmland was declared, um, not homestead or residential, you know, and you pass that ma'am. And, um, you know, that's the income to me. Okay. That's 15 grand a year. And it's behind the sewer plant. You guys are more than welcome to go back there. It's a regular junkyard back there. I mean, it really is. And you plow up a wall and on the flip side, on my side is where all the bags of all the compost are. And, um, You know what? It's been farmland forever. And I don't get what the rush or the hurry was for it to change zoning. Okay? And the real deal is along the river, the boundary is the middle of the river. And you guys went to shoreline. And that creates a big problem with that little hump up on top there. That's in Hollywood Township. And it screws up all kinds of property descriptions. And it's a big deal. All of a sudden, now my driveway is a road. And it's a big deal. Okay? Because it's not my driveway that you're after. It's all of Hollywood. That's the bottom line of Hollywood Township. Okay? And that's the bottom line of Watertown Township. And that's 12 miles of property descriptions. Okay? And then you move down to that half section line where the trail is. You know what? There's another 12 miles on one side. So no offense, Nick, but when you plug in the new Catalyst system and you hit the auto button, you just changed hundreds and hundreds of property descriptions. And you shorted out Hollywood Township about 200 feet along the whole bottom line. And it's a problem.

So let me interrupt us. No, no, I got five minutes. Thank you. Thank you. And then you'll get your information tomorrow. Thank you.

Yeah, I guess the baby is. I don't want to do any more time.

Thank you.

Thanks, Jude. Thank you.

All right. With that, we'll move to a consent agenda. Anything on the consent agenda needs to be pulled for further discussion. Hearing none, I'll look for a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. Motion.

Motion.

We have a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries 4-0. That will take us to our business items. Consider approval to surplus limestone seating blocks.

Thank you, Mayor. When we installed the fence or we're looking at installing the fencing around the splash pad, the question came up of what to do with the limestone seating block that had been existing. That was sent back to Park Board for some discussion, and then they decided that we should remove that in the limestone seats. that existed and then go with regular park benches. So we had Public Works remove that. They're currently sitting at the Public Works yard right now. Since then, Bo and I have had discussions thinking what we could do with them around town and staff, we don't have any recommendations on what to do with them for their potential use. So bringing this forward to consider surplusing the seating blocks that would give staff the ability to advertise to sell either to a private party, obviously it would be a private party, but an individual versus maybe a landscaping company, see what we could get for them. Other avenues could be we just continue to hold on to them to see if anything could be done with them, but bringing it forward for discussion and consideration.

Thank you. Any thoughts on these 15 limestone blocks.

I just feel like we could use them at some point, maybe dog park or along pathways for a place to sit down. That's kind of what I was thinking.

I was going to propose that we maybe hold on to them for a year. Take another look at them in a year and see if we... I mean, they're nice. They're decorative. We could use them for something. Maybe it's even permanent. Permanent uh uh barriers in the thing that we don't want people into or we got 15 of them right what about at each hole at the disc golf i don't know i talked about that a little maybe a few of them out there might be some nice landscaping you know but i would propose i don't want sir we hold them for a year i don't want to go much more than that and and i was talking to nick and five years from now they're still sitting back there overgrown with weeds and we can't even see them but I mean, they're $3,000 worth of them there.

So Park Board doesn't really know what to do with them?

Vague ideas, but nothing specific.

I mean, I could see them along a trail, this place to sit down. It's a maintenance-free bench. I mean, I don't know. That's kind of what my thoughts are.

If you would, Nick... If we did put them up for a surplus item, what's your thoughts are? You take them all, or we'll give you one or two, whatever you want, or is it all or none? Did you have any thoughts on that?

I think we would want to piecemeal them out. No one person, I think, is going to want 15 whole blocks. What could they go for?

Yeah, what could they go for? We purchased them for $200.

BUCKS APIECE BACK WHEN THEY WERE SOURCED BY CRS WHEN WE BUILT THE SPLASHPAD.

I THINK THEY'D GO PENNIES ON THE DOLLAR.

I FEEL LIKE WE HAVE ROOM TO STORE THEM?

YEAH, THEY'RE CURRENTLY AT PUBLIC WORKS.

AND IT'S NOT CAUSING ISSUES WITH STORAGE?

NOPE.

THAT'S JUST MY THOUGHT, BUT I'M NOT GOING TO BE OPPOSED TO IT. IF WE WANT TO GET RID OF THEM TOO, I'M FINE.

Well, I mean, what if you look at getting rid of some of them, just see what we could get for them. I only see like putting it in a grassy area. Now you've got a weed whip around it. And if you don't maintain it.

Well, but you could do it nice. You could lay it like a rock bed, you know, border it so you can mow around a decent. Right. I mean, I know it's added costs, but at the same time, like I said, it's a, maintenance-free park bench as well or decorative or...

I mean, I don't think there's a harm in either option. If we want to hold and have this discussion, you know, our park board just thinks of it. Or we sell half of them and we still have, you know, seven of them, eight of them.

Did they just not fit inside the fence or didn't look good?

They didn't really look good with a four-foot fence and those being two or three feet tall.

I think people didn't like the texture for sitting with your swimsuit on. They weren't super comfortable.

Especially for kids. They were too tall for kids to do anything with. They'd be more climbing up and falling off.

And seeing the fence now, knowing what the blocks looked like, it would have looked odd. Going with the regular park benches is the right move for seating in there now that the fence is in? So it's looking at that repurposing.

I mean, they're cool blocks. It'd be cool to use them for something. I just don't know what yet.

I'll look for them. If anyone wants to make a motion for either side of things, feel free.

I'll make a motion to keep them for a year. See if we come up with any ideas. All right.

Do we have a second?

Second.

We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Motion carries 4-0. Consider approval of closure of Coldwater Crossing on July 11, 2026 for the Mayor Rising Community Festival Tractor Parade from noon to 3, but we do have a tighter timeline now from the committee on Thursday when he sent this. We didn't have that dialed in yet, which is what time, Nick?

They narrowed that down. They'd like to see it close from 1 to 2. tightening that window for an hour instead of new to three. But the parade route is the exact same one that was had last year, starting over at the compost site, going down 30, they'll go, and then our ability to close down is that cold water crossing run. And then they'll go back on 30, up Blue Jay, ending near the festival site.

So if there's no questions for Nick, I'll look for a motion to approve closure of Water Crossing on July 11, 2026 for the Tractor Parade from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.

I wasn't here last year. I just remember we had a big discussion about it. We didn't have any complaints about it last year.

We had one.

Okay.

And the way it felt is I don't think there was any solution that would have been acceptable to that person. They just simply did not want the parade running through. They had a doctor's appointment and they were just really bent out of shape about that. But the committee last year, they put out flyers on the door hangers. I think it was a week in advance. And they had signage along the road as it was leading up to it. So I think the process was good. And to have one property owner out of all of them have a major.

I think if we do the same, I don't see a problem with that. Yep.

No, I mean, I just, I'm not a fan of closing a road, like a residential road for a whole hour. Because if I lived there, I probably would be annoyed. Personally, this is just me personally, but if we had one complaint from last year, I don't want to prohibit something that seemed successful last year and people did enjoy. So the majority of people, I just, I struggle unless it's like a construction thing, not being able to get to my house. I think I would struggle with that. But if we only had one complaint and people enjoyed it and it's a positive for the community, then I have nothing against it.

I think the other 10 over, you almost echo that exact sentiment.

Close from one to two, but if they get done in a half hour, as soon as the parade is over, the street can be used again.

And based on what I saw last year, it couldn't have been more than 20 minutes.

Right, but it starts and it's like once the parade's passed, it's, you know, so if you're at the front end of it, it's open the second the parade is over. Yeah.

So sneak out either way, but. Alright, any. Did we get a motion on that? So could we have a motion to close Coldwater Crossing on the 11th from 1 PM to 2 PM for the parade motion? Second, we have a motion a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say aye.

Motion carries 4-0.

Now we'll take a look and consider approval of the 2026 election judges.

Thank you, Mayor. We're back in election cycle after a year, year and a half off, getting back into the swing of things. And Alicia's been hard at work as our city clerk organizing the election. So thank you to her for all of her effort on that. And the one thing we're kicking off with is we have a deadline coming up July 17th by which we need to appoint our election judges for the state primary election. We'll likely come back at a later date for the general elections just to reaffirm the list if anything changes. But this year, we have our slate of election judges there. They've been applied for and taken off the state list that we're mandatorily required to take from. So we should be good to go coming up here.

Perfect. Thank you. I'll look for a motion to approve the election judges as presented.

Motion.

We have a motion to second. We have a motion to second. Any further discussion?

Theodore and Ted are two separate people. Theodore Sampson and Ted Sampson.

Good catch.

One person?

Sorry.

That's okay. Maybe it was like a father-son deal.

Oh, yeah. All right.

Any further discussion?

Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Motion carries 4-0. That will move to City Council report. Council Member Hale, anything to report on?

Nope, I have not had any meetings since. Council Member Fosch?

I do not have anything.

Council Member McNeely?

Nope.

And I do not believe I've had any meetings either. We are going to... I'd love to get a public works committee meeting for next Monday. We're hoping to start talking about the sonar of the ponds that we discussed at the last meeting. Nick, do you want to give a quick overview of some projects coming up?

Sure, Ken. The Highway 25 trail was completed on Saturday, it sounds like. I walked it this morning. It's a very clean install. There wasn't a lot of extra disturbance along the side. So restoration, what little there is to do, will take place this week. A little minor backfilling and seating, but it looks really, really good. They did a good job on that. Next week, we'll have the bio seal in the seal coating areas. So that'll take place this week. On Wednesday, the parking lot will be closed down. Well, the accesses will be closed down for their reconstruction. That'll happen this week. And then until next Friday for concrete curing, because we need a week of that. Public Works is going to be installing a temporary ramp access. So we have the north one, we have the south one that's going to go in the center there to still allow access to the parking lot on an interim basis. And then next week on Monday, Dakota Prairie Composting will be in town to chip the brush pile out at the compost site.

Perfect, thank you. One thing I did forget to mention, the city administrator and myself did attend at the meeting, the Fieldstone HOA meeting from last week, and Nick gave a brief overview of what was going on in the city and the community. And Deputy, our... Assistant Chief Pat Berry was there, also from the Sheriff's Department, gave a quick update on kind of the regionalization and kind of gave an overview of that. So that was well attended. With that, then, I will look for a motion to adjourn.

Motion.

Second. We have a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Aye.

All those in favor sign. We are adjourned.