City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, it is 6.30, Monday, July 27, 2026. If we could, city and mayor, city council meeting. We will call to order. If you join me for the Pledge of Allegiance, please.

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. Do we have any additions to the agenda tonight?

No additions tonight, Mayor.

Hearing none, I'll look for a motion to present or a motion to approve the agenda as presented.

Motion. Second.

We have a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposing sign. Motion carries 4-0. With that, we will move to public comments. If there's anything that anyone would like to discuss that is not on the agenda, please come forward. Seeing none, we'll close public comments and move to consent agenda. Is there anything on the consent agenda that needs to be pulled for further discussion? Hearing none, I'll look for a motion to approve the consent 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. We'll jump right into business items and consider adoption of ordinance 253, granting a cable franchise to Comcast.

Thank you, Mayor. We now have before us the final version of Ordinance 253, which grants a cable franchise to Comcast. As we recall, we've gone through our solicitation process, receiving applications. We had our public hearing. We introduced the ordinance at the last meeting. It has been posted on our website for the required 10 days. for legal publication, for public consumption, and then here we are tonight for the final adoption. Once it's adopted, it'll go off to the newspaper for publication, where it will become effective. With that, Robert joins us once again. Any additional comments, observations?

Nope. I agree. I just work with all of you. We're looking forward to building and seeing.

All right. Well, thank you for being a good partner in this. A little bit on the construction update. We did meet with their construction management crew last week. It was a good productive meeting. They're looking to get in in August to start construction. It'll start in the Hidden Creek and Shimcore area. From there, we're looking at going to Coldwater Crossing, Sunset Meadows after that, and then the remainder of the community after that. The goal is to have done this year by the time snow flies or by the time they can't quite get in the ground anymore. And it'll just be the distribution system as is for now. The trunk line will come likely through County Road 30 during the reconstruction project next year. So the system will be ready to go, but it just has to be hooked up with the service next year and then it'll go live. Perfect. Thank you.

Any questions before we jump into it?

I know this has been in front of us a few times now. So with that, then I'll just look for a motion to approve ordinance 253, granting cable franchise to Comcast.

Motion. Second.

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

Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign.

Motion carries 4-0. Thank you very much. So with that, we will jump to consider approval of quote for old schoolhouse trail lighting.

Thank you, Mayor. This is one of the projects the Park Board has been working on for 2026, is the addition of trail lighting along the trails in Old School House Park. We solicited quotes for this. It's a bollard-style lighting, and in the packet is a spec sheet. You can see it there. We got two quotes back, one from AME Electric, your mayor, and one from Extreme Electrical Service of Norwood Young America. spec dealt the same project although there was a very large price difference reviewed this uh prior to the park board meeting and uh either ame was just really generous or extreme through a higher ball on it because it was apples to apples i did have an electrician take a look at it to make sure the specs i couldn't see anything different between the two and it was pretty simple spec so i had an electrician take a peek and said yep this is apples to apples so um In the AME Electric quote, there was an addition of $4,200 for directional boring rather than open trenching. This would allow them to go underneath the ground to directional board rather than having open up dirt. Then we have restoration work afterwards. The park board did discuss that and it was their recommendation one to go with AME Electric of mayor for the project, but also to add in the directional boring to save on the open trench work and then the restoration work waiting for grass to grow, things like that. Quick map of the area just to get an idea of the trail lighting. Here we have Old School House Park, and the spacing is approximately 60 feet between bollards for the 24 that specked out in AME's quote. So you'd start around this area, and they'd be on the south side every 60 feet over to Old School House Park, and then it would follow the east side of the trail south until about the edge of these houses here. It would end about there. There is a street light that's right here and we didn't want to put 1 right in here just in case windows and lighting right there. It's just off the residential, just a hair to stay off of that.

And approximately how many lights set next 2424. Thank you. And does the quote include they're purchasing the lights all 24 of them they're going to put in the cement. footings and then wire everything they're doing start to finish.

Start to finish the whole thing. So it's balled lightings, the bases upon which they'll be fastened to and set upon, conduit with the wiring, insulation, all of that.

And just to be sure I'm clear, it's approximately 60 feet between.

Right. In the memo it had sighted 90. I misremembered that because when Adam and I went out there to pace it off, I based it off of what Coney is spacing along the parkway, and that's about 90 feet. Is there a spacing? But when we got out there and started stepping it off, we're like 90 seems a little wide for old schoolhouse, so we shortened it to 60 and that seemed better. So quoted at 60 and that's where we got the 24 perfect bollards total from.

Wonderful timing like this will be.

Will this be installed this year or yes, he's looking to get the work done this fall.

And it'll be far enough away. So like for snow removal when they pull the trails.

Yep.

Keep spacing on there so we don't actually and then we'll just have to probably whip around in the summer.

And I think that's all I have any other questions. Hearing none, then I'll look for a motion to approve the quote from AME Electric for $36,300 plus $4,200 for directional boring. Motion second. We have a motion second. Any further discussion?

I'm excited.

We've talked about this for a while. Long time. It's really needed over there.

Yeah, I think this will be great.

Is there at all any talk about doing Ridge Park like West Ridge Park?

There's talk of other ones. This one, we try to stay within budget, and this one was the one that is trying. But yes, there's talk for more.

I think that would be great to look at, and as Nikki probably, when this first came up, it wasn't so much to make sure parks were lit. It was to try to connect to downtown where people could walk up to the restaurants and the bars and it was determined at the time again this is 10 years ago to get people from cold water crossing up and then through westridge from historic mayor It was kind of at the time Hidden Creek had the path going from Casey's down a lit path for them to then turn up. So it seemed to make some sense to do that. So that was kind of the idea of it all when it first came up. A lot of residents talked about they would love to see that to be able to walk. for all the right reasons, right? I mean, or walk home from some of the establishments if they needed to.

And now it's twofold with safety.

I really like that we're installing, I think.

Yeah, I just want to make sure that there's talk of other parks and then even the one in Hidden Creek, there's a long trail.

Oh yeah, I'm pretty sure that was one of the main ones we talked about too. So we've talked about kind of all of it. We even talked about gazebo lighting, but that the one in the old schoolhouse park was. Yeah, no, I know what the mayor was mentioning, not to mention it becoming more of a safety concern as the years go on. Just keeping our citizens safe at night, kids and all that. So right, right, but I agree with you.

Alright, any other discussion?

Nope.

Excuse me. Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries 4-0. Thank you. And with that, we will move to City Council reports. Council Member Faust, anything to report on?

I have nothing.

Council Member Jackson.

Just while you heard the tree lighting, we've got, we talked about Mayor Rising. We've got Music in the park coming up in September. We talked about National Night Out next Tuesday. Lots of things getting things all in order for all of that. Lots of ideas for maybe helping a little bit more with mayor rising next year.

National Night Out is the 4th. Yep, 638 30 is that the correct 6 to 868 perfect thank you. Calls for McNeely. And one late item, I did attend the open house, and this was prior to our previous meeting. I attended the open house that Carver County had for the Conroe 30 construction. Yep. They had another open house, got some more people in, had a few more details. I just didn't want people to get concerned if they started seeing activity, a lot of markings, a lot of flag. They're going to start doing a lot of that legwork now, but construction still is slated for next year.

Do you know when next year?

No, they hadn't dialed that in yet.

And were they still talking about maybe keeping the road open and just...

They're going to do their best on that. I mean, that's still up in the air and we got to see how that comes in with their quotes and what their quotes come in and what are they going to do if they're going to detour or not detour based on getting the best pricing, I'm assuming. You know, obviously, if they close, they can get it done much faster than flagging and doing all that. But some of that's still to come. okay but i don't want people to get uh worried they're still working out some of the the land that's getting taken and how they're going to resolve with all the homeowners and things like that but i don't want people to to worry you know any of the residents that something's happening sooner than later it's it is not okay And if anyone has anything, nothing going on this weekend, there is the New Germany is having their softball tournament for the firefighters. So mayor will be participating in this year. So if anyone has a chance, stop down, cheer them on. They've typically done well. They unfortunately did not take first last year, but they are always in it. And there's a good chance this year they will. And that's in New Germany.

I think we play 7.30 Friday night. Thank you. I was going to ask.

I was going to say that. I think it's on their Facebook site, but I didn't have the schedules in front of me. And that's all I have. So with that, I'll 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. And with that, we will jump right into the workshop and call the workshop to order.

Thank you, Mayor. So we're kicking off budget season once again. I think it'll be pretty smooth this year. Usually, we got here the budget timeline, the preliminary levy forecast, take a peek at. And this time, not doing the council classroom course that we did last year, just as it should still be fresh enough in people's memories. But usually, we wait until later in the season to do utility-related stuff. But I want to put the utility rates in front of council early, not to make a necessary decision right now, but to mull it over and give it some good thought. So with that, Jumping to the budget timeline. So tonight we've got our review of the timeline forecast and utility rates real quick. And then as we usually do, we're going to spend the majority of our time on the general fund and the CIP leading up to the end of September. At the end of September, we are by the end of September, we are required to set our preliminary levy and budget. And how state law works is that once you set your levy, you can decrease it, but you cannot raise it. So that's why the heavy focus on our general fund, we want to get that figured out. Um, Some cities will put a little bit higher of a preliminary levy to buffer against some changes that may happen. Historically, I've always liked to try to hit it right on the money and I've been pretty successful in that. So we'll do the most of our work there, set the Truth in Taxation public hearing at the end of September for the first meeting in December. And then after that, we start hitting enterprise funds for the bulk of it with some tweaks into the general fund as we get more information that comes in. LGA is finalized in September, so we can make tweaks to that. We start getting health insurance info, other insurance info as that trickles in. We can then make tweaks there, but we should have a pretty good idea of walking into it. Looking at the levy forecast, we've seen this spreadsheet many, many times before, but again, once again, taking a peek. So this tracks a bit of the history of the CIP, the three components we have to our overall levy, the capital improvement program, the debt service portion, and the general fund. So this tracks a bit of the history we have here starting in 2021. And then we kind of take a peek at what that's looking like according to our CIP going out to 2030. This is a living document. So this is something we review every year and tweak and update as needed. So it's not just something that we have gets thrown on the shelf. And then we look at it once a year. So for preliminary 2027, when we're looking at this, we're not having too many changes to the CIP portion of things. Everything's staying relatively steady. The one change is it's going back down to 560 because this year we put the extra funds into the trail sidewalk replacement to balance out the overall levy to keep it steady from last year. TO THIS YEAR FOR A 0% INCREASE IN THAT. SO RETURNING THAT BACK DOWN TO THE 125, AND THEN AS THE PROJECT PROGRESSES, WE CAN MAKE THOSE DECISIONS LIKE WE DID LAST YEAR. WHEN WE GO DOWN TO DEBT SERVICE, WE CONTINUE TO BE ON THIS KIND OF FLAT LINE OF THINGS FOR THE TIME BEING. WE'RE DOWN TO OUR THREE MAJOR DEBT SERVICES IN THERE, WHICH IS THE 2023 A MILL AND OVERLAY, THE 2021 B, WHICH WAS THE FIFTH STREET RECONSTRUCTION PROJECT AND INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECT, AND THEN THE 2021 A BOND, WHICH IS THE FIRE STATION. on that. That'll continue for a while. As we get towards 2023, as I've mentioned before, we're looking at a bigger project that involves multiple mill and overlays as well as potential reconstruction of Second Street, Canary, kind of the downtown alleys might be included with that. And then some utility work with that as well. But as we get into 28-29, we'll begin more of those planning processes. And there will be a debt issuance associated with that project. Simply, we don't have the funds built up to do so. But we'll work on all the financing as we get closer to that project.

And then when it comes down to the general fund portion...

As I do with all every year when we start this off, I set that exactly. So 2027 is the exact same as 2026. And then as we shape up our budget, we can tweak that towards the very end, see what we want to do with that. But we're hitting our just kind of flat line here. I was a little bit higher. This is probably as low as we're going to see it potentially in this area, not a whole lot lower. But when we look at the total, as we come down to the base here for the total levy, scoot that down just a hair more. For total levy, as it stands now with all of that, looking at a little over 7,000 grand less than the current year, but as we tweak budget, I'm sure that'll get massaged a little bit as we get towards that. If that were to hold steady, that would represent a 0.55% decrease and the tax rate would go to about 35% from 35.83. You can see we used to be about in that 49-ish range and now we're down to about 36, so. We've done good progress there. In future years, where do you see these changes happening? That's really the, I put on the general fund, it's just a 4% inflation factor. Whether or not it actually happens is what we determine as we get closer to those budget seasons in there. So just a little predictor out there to give a flavor. So that's what I've got on the preliminary forecast. Any questions on any of that? So mull over as we get to you want to continue to try to hold flat steady again as we get more budget information. We'll get that all updated, but it should stay relatively stable here right for a few more years. So we're not predicting a whole lot of massive change on that front, but. And then probably the meat and potatoes of the discussion tonight. Utility rate study questions so. One of the bigger projects we have out there is our wastewater treatment facility project. That's about an $11, $12 million project. We're looking at rehabbing a lot of the infrastructure out there as well as building a new biosolids storage containment facility. That would expand our capacity to hold biosolids out there. And we're still shoring up the financing for that. We're on slate to receive about $4 million in PSIG grant funds from the state. We are slated to receive about $1 million from the federal government as part of that. We do have our reserves that we're contributing, and we have our set debt service amount that we're targeting towards. The whole goal of that is to put together the financing high so that our utility rates don't have wild fluctuations in there. We're trying to keep them as stable as possible, even with a looming large project. But with that, we don't quite have all the funding. We got the million from the feds. We probably need another 4 million more to shore up the rest of the project. We'll continue to apply for those in future years and hopefully get more. But with a project not executed, the status of the funds, we'll take a look at the debt service portion. So in the water fund, I'm gonna squeeze that in there. Okay, all right. So in the water fund, you can see we've had debts. We have two major debt services in here. One's a large one, one's a smaller one. The large one was just paid off. You can see 2026 is the final year. And that was in 2006 for the construction of the wastewater treatment facility. We have the secondary one for the upgrades to it. That would think we're done in 2020, I believe it was. But that one is now paid off. So now we have pretty flat line on the water fund for quite some time. So with the debt falling off, we don't have anything to replace it with. There's no major projects that need to be completed. So this frees up some flexibility in our water structure, our water rates that we can do. And then we look at the sewer fund in 2024 was the last of the major debt in that category. It's dropped to zero since. What 2027 and beyond represents, it doesn't represent actual debt we have. This is the planned debt for the wastewater treatment facility. So it's proposed the debt that we knew was coming down the pipe, but it hasn't materialized yet because we haven't let the project, because we don't have funding short of it. So that being said, the sewer fund has no debt in it. The water fund is dropping off debt. So when we look at our current rates, because our current rates still support those two debts that are in them as they currently stand. So a decision city council needs to make is what do you want to do with the rates walking into 2027 and beyond, depending on when that wastewater treatment facility project kicks off. Three of the obvious options right off the bat, but any of you can think of are welcome. You can keep rates the same. Money can still flow into those funds, continue to be built up. That's okay for the sewer fund because the more money that gets built up is the less that you have to issue debt for when the project actually takes place. And the water fund, since we don't have anything really upcoming, it would just be building up the fund more. And right now it's year end. It's probably going to be around 400 something thousand, which is pretty good for a fund balance when you look at those totals. Option two is you can adjust them down to where they just need to be. Don't worry about the future debt. FOR NOW, BRING THE UTILITY RATES DOWN TO WHERE THE BUDGET CALLS FOR THEM, AND THEN AT SOME YEAR IN THE FUTURE, YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO RAISE THE SEWER RATES TO COMPENSATE FOR THE NEW DEBT THAT'S COMING ON. THERE'S PROS AND CONS TO THAT MERIT. People get the utility rates as they need them where they are today, but memories are short when it comes to city finances in public. That's just the way it works. So you are praised for doing well here if you were to move things down, but three, four years from now when you have to jack them up, everybody gets angry when you do that. Option three is you can adjust the rates to where they would be had the project been authorized. So you would set the sewer rates to where the debt service would call for them if the project had been let. And then the water rates get adjusted accordingly. in the same manner. So water rates would go down, sewer rates would go up to where that debt service would be, and then money just still gets built up in the sewer fund, but then you can adjust it later once we finally let the project and see how that lets out. That's the scope of what we're looking at. Any questions off the bat for that?

So what are we looking at right now? Is that an option or is that just current?

So current is sitting right here on this, what's predicted for year end. So rates, so a little bit of utility rate history. I forgot to add this part. So we have utility rates going back to 2020. In 2021, water and sewer were increased by 3% from where they were in 2020. And then storm was raised by 25%. It sounds like a lot, but the residential rate went from $5.60 a month to $7 a month. So dollars-wise, it wasn't that much. Percentage-wise, it looks like a lot. Then from there on out, once we got beyond 2021, water rates have not changed since 2021, save for what we did this year, but that was the Minnesota testing fee. And that's an in and out. So that's a state mandated thing that we have. We have no control over it. So that got adjusted a little bit, but as far as tier rates go and usages and base fees and water, they haven't changed since 2021. They've stayed flat. For sewer, there was, so 2021 had a 3%, 2022 had zero, 23 had a 3%, and then it's been unchanged since 2023. Storm, same story. It was changed in 2021. It's been flat ever since.

I mean, my first thought is I don't want to do a roller coaster.

I really don't.

Because knowing I would bring them down if we didn't have this big project coming up.

Right.

But knowing that we have this big project, kind of like what we're doing with the sidewalks, what we're doing with a new fire, like we're every year so we can pay more in cash and not take out a big, we don't know what interest rates will be. We don't know some of those things where if we can come in with cash, that is very helpful.

And I agree, but we're not deciding that tonight, right?

No, we're not deciding anything tonight. I just want to bring this up to council that gives you plenty of time to mull it over, make sure you come back. Because we won't decide any of this. We set rates November, December for the following year. So we still have months to think about it, but we want to make sure we're making it.

It's good to get that in front of us and start noodling it. It's something that's not going away. No.

And I mean, I think that we talked about that hopefully it can stay pretty steady because we could bring water down, but sewer goes up about the same percentage because we don't have the debt water. And we've pretty much done everything we need to for the next however many years, 10 years.

Other than some, that'll be associated with this street project.

Yeah.

Which will be minor in the grand scheme of it. But if you model that scenario where you adjust it to what I'll call predicted with the project, generally you search for a surplus goal of between 5% and 10%. So I have the upper bound 10% there. If you were to reduce water rates by 12.5%, which is what that represents. You'd still be at that 9.6% funded, so you could reduce rates 12.5%. If you had the debt service added in on the sewer end, you would need to raise rates by approximately 21%. Percents are great, but what does that really mean for someone's utility bill? Like when they look at that, what does this really mean? So we get down to...

Okay, this is what I was going to ask for.

Yep. So down here, I have a utility bill estimator. Yep. So depending on what your usage is, average is probably $5,000. So if you're looking at that in 2026, your utility bill is around $114. With those changes, it would go to $122.20, and that's per month, depending on your tier. And over here, we just have like 2.5%.

inflation factors going forward.

What does that mean in actual dollar differences? Got those scoped out down here, so this tells you your month over month difference from 26 into 27. What that would be on a monthly basis with those changes.

Okay. So some people have two water meters and some people have one.

Right.

So I only have one. So my water in is the same as my water out. Right. Correct. Okay. People who have two water in isn't necessarily equal to water out because if you're just doing, if it's the irrigation meter, that's not getting charged sewer. Right. Okay. So every bill is going to be slightly different depending depending on if you have one or two water meters.

Correct. This gives you a generalized idea of what that ballpark is going to look like. Okay. This assumes one meter without irrigation.

So even lowering and increasing, there will be an increase. Right.

Yep.

If we were like starting the project next year.

Correct. Water would go down, but sewer goes up. If you were on an irrigation meter, that wouldn't affect you because you're not getting charged for that sewer. Correct. So this is ballparking it based on a normal household.

Could you go back to the bar graph of showing the sewer? This one? Yes. So we're looking at if the project went on and we had bonded, we're looking at $175,000 worth of debt service. That's principal and interest. So now would you be able to sometime in the near future, what would it do to rates to absorb that $175,000? Is there a way to do it? or is that the one that you just showed us?

This shows absorbing the 175.

Okay.

So this scenario right here is you adjust water rates down where they need to be, but then you adjust sewer rates up as if that 175 was in there.

Okay, so then that 175 that's collected then would be used to pay when we actually do the project.

Right. So then right now that 175 that is built into the rate structure, it goes into the sewer reserve fund. It sits there until execution of the project. And then we would simply, however, if it's one year, two years, however.

And we have a deadline where it has to be completed by a certain time, correct? Or no? I thought there was a, like it had, or the project has to at least be started by a certain date. Like, or am I just wrong about that?

That was, if and when we take the funding from the state and the feds. So we're earmarked for it.

And we have to do this because of new regulations.

Phosphorus regulations, one, plus the equipment out there is getting to the age of replacement.

Right. And the biosolid facility was converted into that.

the elongated shed was converted into biosolids storage right now. We currently go through, I think it's about a quarter million gallons worth of biosolids. And then that storage facility is 140 something thousand gallons worth, if I remember correctly. Pulling way back on some memory there.

No, I'm just trying to say like that does need to actually be fixed or not fixed, but.

That's a converted building that was never really designed for biosolids, but they made it work.

Yeah.

So just so I make sure I'm fully clear, the 815 that you have highlighted for the 5,000 gallons in 2027, that's what it would be per month of an increase to absorb that 175. Correct. Okay. So 80, $96 a year for 5,000.

It's been fortuitous, the timing on the debt service that, that 2014 has dropped off. And then also the water debt being final paid that one section in 2026, freeze it up with no new property.

and obviously i you know we don't have crystal balls we can't predict but 2027 we thought maybe the pro i mean what realistically are we looking at 20 not 2029 are we looking at 2035 i mean i'd say 2029 at the latest okay okay

Because when I started here, you guys were mid-process of designing the facility. The new biosolids storage facility, I believe, is 1.2 million gallons in size. A potential alternative if we do not shore up well. One is you debt service for more and you have to increase the rates more. That's an option. Option two is we engage Bolton and Menk to see what would be to reduce the size of the biosolid storage facility to save some cost on the project as an alternative.

Okay. Thank you. Any other thoughts, ideas on this or take it home and digest it and obviously this will be a top item for us to to work through.

So the grants that we secured, the money just sits there until we need it.

Correct.

So we're still working on more funding.

Correct.

And we're still thinking we're most likely going to have to bond several million.

We're bonding, I think it was 1.75 million. Okay. It was 2 million actually.

Okay.

And bond.

and the rest we're hoping to get in grants?

We got about 2 million coming out of reserves, about two in the debt service, four from the PSIG, and the remainder was hoping for feds to come through on that. We got a million out of the five we needed from the feds, but we can keep applying year after year for additional on that. And that's the goal.

So we've already saved 2 million for this project?

Yes, we have a sewer fund is currently sitting on 2.3, 2.4 million. And the bulk of that will go towards that, this treatment facility project.

Okay. So we already are, we've been planning for this for a little while. Okay. But this will kind of jumpstart it to get to the rates where we will be when the project actually starts, but that reserve money then will just be less that we have to actually have in debt service.

Yep.

Okay, that's all I had.

Perfect. Any other thoughts, questions on this?

Nope.

Perfect. Thank you for the overview at least. That'll give us something to start thinking about.

That's all I have for this starter workshop.

Awesome. Thank you.

Perfect. Thank you. So any other questions and we'll return. Thank you.