City Council - Special Meeting

It is uh 7 o'clock. I will call the uh special work session of the city council meeting of March 2nd, 2026 to order. Uh we do have a quorum uh 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 a committee for a future report, or direct the matter to be placed on an upcoming agenda. Does anyone wish to speak? Does anyone wish to speak? Does anyone wish to speak? Hearing none, we'll move on to bill discussion. Any discussion on the bills? Hearing none, we'll move on to the consent agenda items. Any discussion on the consent agenda? Hearing none, we'll move on to council information only items. Um, first up we have the Morrison County Historical Society Riverbank Reconstruction Project Update. Mike Worch Worchester and Camila Warzeka. Welcome.

Good. Good evening. Thank you for having us. And we're here to update. It's been a long session. I had to go back through my my notes to kind of refresh my memory about when we started and it was in 2023. And so it's been a while and thanks to the city council as well as the county commissioners uh we were able to get an LCCMR grant with help of Shannon Wetstein at soil and water uh without a plan which you helped provide us to get an engineer to give to build uh build a plan so that we could go and get the grant. We also at that same time, Representative Krisha uh was able to uh get an appropriation for 700,000 at that at that that same year in 2023. And uh Mike is going to talk a little bit about what's been happening and uh we've also had a little bit of a few delays, but thank you.

Hello. Uh I'm Mike Worcester. It's like the city in Morster. I was I was debating which way should I go with that one.

Your first instinct was correct. So you're fine. You're fine. I trust me I'm used to that. Um I will not go into too much of the arcane detail of what we dealt with but as Camille said we have been working on this process. I've been at the museum, it'll be four years in May and go back close to another seven or eight years beyond that that this has been an issue out there at our building and it's been a lot of people involved, a lot of planning, a lot of plans, a lot of meetings, a lot of back and forth. And uh she talked about delays. Yes, we had experienced um unfortunate delays throughout this process that put us off almost two years past where we had originally hoped to do this work after we started receiving the funding. Um and I'm I'm not trying to be too terribly critical because there's a good side to this too and that some of the delays came at the behest of the Army Corps of Engineers. They wanted us to continue to do archaeological surveying on our property. Now, we always knew our property had some pretty some significance archaeologically, but in working with them and the Max Band of of Ojiway Tribal Historic Preservation Office, we found out just how much significance we had. And I will tell you one moment this summer, it was pretty cool to hold in my hand what was estimated to be a 2,000-year-old fully formed Arrow Point.

Wow.

Yeah, I said that, too. And then some. It was pretty amazing. So working with them was fantastic. And so there was one good point out of some of these delays is that we really got a good sense of what what was under our ground and during the entire process too. And you'll when we go through some of the photos, we had representatives from the tribe there the whole time um working with us as we dug because as one of them put that he said our history is under that ground and it's just as important as what you have above the ground and we didn't argue that. So, at one point, even in July of this past summer, we really didn't have a clue when we were going to start. And we knew we had a limited window. We knew we we knew the vendor, the u the excavators needed a certain amount of time to get this work done based on weather, based on conditions, based on all of it. We were sitting in September still not 100% certain when we were going to start. And we were starting to get nervous, very, trust me on that. And then all of a sudden within days it fell together and we were told October 15th that's the day. That was a Wednesday which was strange but that's what they did. And then on top of that we had the other part of this which was the building work which was part of the legislative appropriation and the biggest item that was going to be done was the roof and our roofer said hey we're ready to start. I said good when? October 15th. You noticed in the photos that you kind of scrolled through how that played out. So, it just literally came together in a hurry and so we had to scramble to get everything going and we did and they moved and they moved hard and I will also tell you if you've been out on our property and you know how the beautiful trees that we had out there. It was really hard to see them go. It was very very difficult to see like our big white pine go and all of that. But we knew it had to be done. Um we kind of like our view now to be honest. We really do. But

we miss the trees. We we truly do. But it, like I said, it had to be done. And going through and watching them excavate was pretty amazing. Um, these guys have done this before. The it's an um company called Sunramm Excavating out of Excelsier. And they do a lot of work with other soil and water conserv conservation districts. And so they came highly recommended. So they they absolutely knew what they were doing and they went at it and they dug and they scraped and they dug and they found out just how hard that ground was underneath us. They had to bring in special equipment just to dig to get at some of the hillside. And there was a few of the photos that um I I won't tell you how many photos I took um with my camera and with my phone and um some of the drone photos that Soil and Water was kind enough to give to us. Um it was pretty amazing to watch. And at one point and in one of the photos um I did say I was standing below the water level. I'm not kidding. I was standing below the water level because we were down 30 feet from ground level where the museum was all the way down and then they started building back up and then six inches at a time they built back up and that's what they had to do and they just kept layering it and layering it all the while mind you we had representatives from the tribe and hired archaeologists sift checking everything and making sure we weren't missing anything. Um and I mean I'm a highway engineers kid. I've been on my share of road construction projects and culvert replacement projects and um all sorts of of building projects, but this was pretty amazing and it was a lot of fun to watch. And well, it wasn't fun when the vibrating excavator would kick in, but that's that's another matter. So, we'll just deal with that. And then again, all the time they were working on the roof, too. And within 10 days, they had that brand new roof done. And then that aspect is done. and and Camille noted we had kind of separate pots of of money working on this which meant we're we were we were

juggling a lot of different work. We were juggling the hillside work and we're juggling the building work at the same time. And um I've probably got about four spreadsheets on my laptop at work that tries to keep track of all this because the funding comes from different sources and has to go out to different go out different ways. And so that's been an interesting exercise too. All told, here's where we're at. We're probably at about 80 to 85% done, which isn't bad when you think about it. Now, if you go out there right now, what you're going to see is a a series of giant tarp pieces covering the hillside. And those were intended to keep erosion down come spring. And Sunramm wants to start April 2nd. I think they're being a little ambitious on that, but we'll see. And and if we are able to do that in one in one month's time, we'll have it done. And by done, what we mean is all the rest of the excavating because there's still more excavating and rebuilding to do. And then the installation of the vegetation, which has to be done on top of that, the fencing, and then the reinstallation of the burm, and then last but not least, we'll get a new parking lot out of all of this. So when that's done, so again, fingers crossed, 30, 45 days, we'll have it all done. you know, but like we found out last fall, we weren't always quite sure when we were even going to start. So, we'll we'll, you know, and I mean, obviously that depends on road restrictions and that depends on um I think all of us know what it can be like at the end of April sometimes when you get suddenly 8 10 inches of snow and I guess we're going to wait and that's okay, too. But our goal again is to have that work done um end of May, early June, and then after that, we'll commence again with getting the rest of the building work done. But in terms of Yeah, if you're

scrolling through and you're looking at those photos, um you can definitely see they were right down at the waterline and uh it was it was really interesting again just to watch that. We'd have people come out and just kind of stand there and look. We'd let them do it and that was fine. and uh our they as long as they didn't get in the way of the excavators, we were good. But yeah, in that particular bottom photo there, what you see is again how they basically had to layer it all the way up. And we're act we're going to get more um hillside than we originally had, which is interesting, too. And it's going to be a bit of a better slope and all of that. Um it's been a fascinating process to walk watch just in my you know four to five years that I've been around plus Camille going back what a decade now at least a decade more than a decade um of trying of start to finish on this but um I don't want to say the finish line is in sight but I'm beginning to wonder if it will come into focus here at some point especially once we can actually start getting mobilized again to get started on the rest of the work. So, that's kind of where we're at. Um, I didn't want to belabor it too long, but any questions from anybody on any of the work?

No. Those excavation pictures are unbelievable when you look at what they're doing there. It's like,

yeah, there was a couple of them that I took after they left and I just kind of walked the path down to below the water level and then I turned and looked back up and I went, "Yeah, I'm I'm down here quite a ways." And it it was a bit walking back up too, you know, and and what you really don't get a sense of is how almost how steep that drop is until you're standing down at the bottom of there at water level looking back up and realizing how really far down you are. Um, and one of the issues they ran into, again, I mentioned the the the toughness of that work, they had to bring in, it looked like a giant basically picker because that ground was so hard. I mean, we knew that when we did the soil samples, but we really didn't realize how hard it was until their bucket just couldn't even move half move that and they had to bring that piece had special bring that piece in special to get at that and just work on that.

Do you find any more artifacts?

Yes. Yes, we did. Um, a lot of it the same stuff. A lot of they call them points and shards is what they call them. And eventually those will all work their way back to us. But right now they're in possession of the max band because then they evaluate I think was what they have to do is evaluate if there's any any potentially sacred orerary objects because then they are allowed to keep those and then we get back what they don't keep. But we'll work that process through and that's going to take a little while also because we've been working with them for close to three years now too on the surveying and then they want to come back and do more because of how much they are finding on our property and how much they believe is there and it ties also up to the Lindberg property too because they've done a lot of work up there and what I finally asked them was well what's the difference and they said how they worked it laid it out to me was whoever would there and This isn't just something that happened for a few years. They talk multigenerational is what we're so we're talking hundreds of years, not just a couple of decades that people were on this site. They lived basically when they were there on the by the limber property but did their work down by us. So that they find on the limber property they find pieces that indicate living elements but with us they find working elements

which is really interesting too. You are welcome to check out our website and social media. We have some really cool time lapse videos of the work they did too. That was a lot of fun to watch. Otherwise, you're welcome to come out anytime. Give us a call. You're welcome to come and see it. We are we are more than happy to show people around and show them what we've been doing cuz it's been we want it to be as open as possible for people because it's been we've had so much support from the community on this, from the city, from the county, from the state of Minnesota, from private individuals. We've had townships give us money. We've had family members of the wirehousers give us money. It's been it's been a really great effort. Um stressful at times, yes, but it's been a fantastic effort. So, we're very happy for that. Thank you for all your work.

Thank you.

I just wanted to mention uh while it it it's more expensive what we did it it's going to last longer. We didn't want a retaining wall. We didn't want it which will decline over the years. This will the way the the mic was describing the building up every six inches there was MSE fabric that's laid between. So, it's building up that whole area stronger. And with the vegetation, it'll just get stronger. It won't deteriorate like anything that we commercially might put in there as far as building a wall. So, we're pretty excited. It's a little costly, but it in the long run, it's not going to require maintenance that we might have had that we can't afford. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Okay. Um, moving on under other, I'm going to stick something in there from me. Um, the, uh, meet and greet that we had, uh, last week here, uh, the first time we tried that. Um, and in my opinion, it was, uh, a great success. Um, I didn't anticipate as many people showing up as did. I was very pleased that we uh, we had that many people there. Um, and I'm sure that we're going to be uh doing that again. Um, but what I would I would like to ask each of the council members, if you would please. Um, since not everybody talked with everybody, um, if you could make a list of the items that you discussed with the people from the community um, that were brought up to your attention, if you could make up a list and then send that to uh, Alex um, she will compile that list so that when we get to our strategic meeting uh, in the end of March here that we can go through that list um, and look at those things that um, the community had concerns about and so then we can possibly use that list to address some of those concerns. So if you can do that within well the next week

week to two weeks um send that into her um that would be great. Just pinpoint you know fire hydrants you know or manhole covers you know um those kinds of things. Okay, those are two that I have. Um, can I bring up some of the stuff under constituent messages or do you not want to do that? Well, as soon as I get there. Yeah. Oh, no. I did. Well, you were saying you want that list. I didn't know if you wanted me to bring up anything or not.

No, just that just if you just want to send that I I don't think we want to discuss those items that were discussed here during that night. Um, but I think if we just take those and compile them in a complete list and then we can look at that and sta save some of our time in our strategic planning to go through and discuss some of those when when everybody's there. Um, because yeah, we could go on for an hour just talking about everything that we heard. So, I think just doing it that way would be the the best way to do.

Um, and then I think Alex, you had something that you wanted to bring up also. While we're talking about strategic planning, um I just wanted to since I have most of you gathered here right now, uh if you remember our structure that we used last year for the strategic planning, little bit of homework on uh priorities for that each individual council member has for the next year, three years, five years, 10 years, talked through all of that. Um is that a format he would like to use again this year? If so, I can assign you homework again. Frank is nodding. He likes homework. No. Former teacher is way back. Yeah. Homework. No. I like the way it was run the last time.

All right. I'm just honing in the details on it. I want to make sure that I'm I'm covering grounds. Do we want to again approach that in our our multi-year or do we want to have a little bit more of the directional theoretical discussions? A little bit of both. Both. I can balance both. Yeah. It's a little bit of both. combination of both of them I think would be beneficial. Perfect. Yeah, I'd definitely like to sorry definitely like to have directional theoretical discussions as far as what our That's good. All-encompassing view of Little Paul should be all right. I can do all of those things. Cool. That's all. Thank you.

Great. So, we'll move on to constituent messages other than those discussed at our meet and greet. Uh, well, I do have a couple that were also discussed at the meet and greet, but I got phone calls on. And one of them was, and I talked to a police chief about this, was the cameras that they're setting up. Uh, they were worried we're playing 1984. And I said, "No." And I told him what Kyle told me that uh, Mr. Ruby is going through that. and collecting the information and you know we're not going to use it for this other than things like um what missing kids and stuff like that and uh the other thing is I heard from one person who was very technical about it and he cited to me what California is using flock also and he said they were pretty loose with their information just so that's what he told me because they're trying to get out of their lease and they can't in California. And um but that's I told him I talked to well I talked to Kyle about it and I discussed that with them. Um and the other thing that I got a phone call on was again the ATV just so you know that was brought up again. I got a couple phone calls on the side by sides and that thing and I talked to Alex about that today a little bit. So, but that's what I got.

Okay. I think just to remind the community with the flock thing that that is just a uh a trial program, right, that they're going to initiate in April and just to um set it up and take a look at it. Uh the city has not decided to go for it or or invest in it or whatever. It's just a trial period to see what kind of information we get, how it is valuable to the police department. So, just we haven't put it into place yet. It's just a trial. Any other constituent messages? I'm sorry. I got one more. No. So, I know it's been I had a busy week on the phone. Go ahead.

Uh, a gentleman who lives across the street from this hockey rinkham forestry up here. He told me, he says, "Dave, you are wasting your money. Nobody goes there." Just so you know. And I talked to Greg about that also. Yeah, we've been we've been discussing that quite a bit. Any others? If not, I will adjourn the meeting at 7:21 to our regular meeting at 7:30.

How you doing, David? Antibiotics.