City Council - Regular Meeting

There you go. Good evening everyone and welcome to the Chesa City Council meeting for Monday, January 5th of of the new year, 2026. I call this meeting to order at 7 o'clock. Would everyone please stand and rise for the pledge of allegiance? I aliance 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. All right, Elise, will you please call a role? Council member Hatfield here. Council member Bennish here. Council Chevlin. Council member Gra here. Mayor Huard

here. All right. Next, we have adoption of the agenda. Does anybody have any additions or corrections on the agenda? Otherwise, I'd entertain a motion to adopt. Motion to adopt the agenda. Second. All right. I have a motion from council member Hatfield and a second from council member Gra. Uh, all those in favor say I. I. I. Oppose. Agenda adopted. All right. Next, we have visitor presentations. We have a few on our our schedule here. So, I'm just going to list them off in order. We have uh David Reichy. Did I pronounce your last name correct, sir?

Okay. Well, you can come up and correct. You're looks like you're here to discuss uh Mount Pleasant Cemetery, so come on down and um we'll just have you state your name and address for the record. Sure. Sure. My name is uh Dave Ricky Rick

and I live at 10:22 Morris Drive in Italy. So, good evening and uh Mayor Huard, city council members, I want I want to thank you for let letting me give a chance to speak a little bit and also I want to thank uh you all for all the work you do and all the service and the the well the well-built community you have here in Chaza. So, so I'll uh um I'm here to speak about the uh some improvements to the Mount uh Pleasant Cemetery. And first, let me introduce myself a little little clear. I'm Dave Ricky and uh my wife Janet and we've lived in uh Chaza here in the Alawwood community for about two years now. And uh we moved from a a farm down by Fairfax. I farm for 53 years and uh and we're really really enjoying it here. Um in those years I was a township officer for 45 years. Then I was I served on a um small rural REA company for 21 years and served on several boards and commissions. And so I've been in this a little reverse for me. So I've been there and but uh yeah, I'm um um I'm a Vietnam veteran. I'm a member of the Chesa BFW and the Chesca Legion and the Historical Society. So um and my focus tonight here is of course the Mount Mount Pleasant Cemetery. And over the years I uh I've worked with about three different cemeteries

uh two church affiliated and one was a township and city one of the original cemeteries in the area. So I've uh and there there are small cemeteries but you know they all present the same problem. uh you know long-term care and uh Mount Pleasant Cemetery borders Adalwood. So my wife Janet and I we've enjoyed walks down around through there and we've noticed that uh there's certain things that need some attention and gravestones, trees, and other issues. And tonight, if there is interest in restoration, Janet and I would make a proposal to pledge $5,000 in a matching grant. But now, these these are not these are matching grants through funding, not city dollars. So um and uh and we hope to uh get funds from various organizations here, but of course uh that's all up to you guys. And I'd be willing to serve uh on a fundraising board or information board or anything like that. So, I'd just like to probably close here with one short story. Um, when I was a kid, went to to grade school in Fairfax and across the the railroad tracks were uh real close to the school. And I remember the farmers bringing in in the fall, they'd bring in sugar beats and

load them on the train cars there. And of course they went to Chesca and little did I didn't know anything about anything back then but so um you know there was a lot of sugar beats raised in Redville County but you know now you have to say who would ever think that 68 or 70 years ago I'd be standing here in front of the city council talking about sugar beats here in Chaza. Yeah. And uh and probably possibility here in that cemetery um you know there's probably some workers that process those beats that are buried there you know uh along with veterans and a lot of the former pioneers here. So, um, in closing, I'd just like to say that, you know, history has a way of, uh, coming around full circle and, uh, and it it it's a connection that binds us all together. So, that's a So, with with that, thank you. Uh, I do have some pictures uh uh of of some of the issues there. I can leave them here.

Yeah. Yeah, you can bring them over this way. Thank you. It would be interesting to learn more about all like who takes care of those. My dad is buried um there. And this summer I spent some time cleaning his stone because they get I don't know his got a bunch of green stuff growing all over it. So I did some research to learn how to clean it properly and I'd buy very expensive chemicals to do it. It was like $30 for a little bottle, but it was worth it. It's my dad's gravestone. So, I got to spend some time there this summer like cleaning it and because it's kind of a labor of love. You have to like do it and then come back and then do it again. Come back. Sure. Um

but I I I think that's interesting. I'd be interested because it is where a lot of um the founders of Chask are buried and there's a lot of history. Of course, there's the um religious cemeteries as well, but be kind of interesting to know. So, I appreciate you coming and sharing. And cemeteries are often probably overlooked things that people just drive by and don't give a lot of thought or they make the joke like wave at all the dead people or whatever joke my mom always makes when we drive by. But, um, I think the they're easily forgotten. So, I appreciate you coming and sharing and not forgetting the people buried there. And, um, yeah,

thank you. Yeah. I I I will mention that we one of the cemeteries, the church cemetery that uh that was chairman for for many years of that one and we a few years ago we hired a company. It's called Gravestone Restoration and they came in and they they raised up all the stones. They polished them or you know cleaned them all up. It was amazing the job they did. And there's other companies out there, too. But, uh, there are companies there. But, uh, uh, this is going to take some fundraising because, you know, there's a lot of trees that need to be removed out there. Uh, and maybe maybe some, uh, some of your parks uh, planners here, we could work on something. But, um, I think I think you'll find we had no trouble, um, getting money raised for that project. And I think you will find that uh if you can with social media and you get things rolling here uh you'll be pleased and you know we're kind of all in this together. So

absolutely if if if you'd be okay with it. I'd be interested in setting up a time may get together for coffee and we could sort of talk about certain details of it and you know some ideas. Yeah. May after we're done here, I I'll just come back and grab your number from you and yeah, plan on getting together or I can Yeah, send it to you. Uh we're going to be gone for a couple weeks leaving Friday and I'm gone for weeks right now. It works out fine. It sounds like your schedule's well aligned. Yeah. Yeah. Any other questions? Well, I I just want to first I want to thank you for your service. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome.

Um and thank you for your active commitment to the community. um being a resident here, you know, uh and sounds like actively fundraising to kind of help preserve our history of Chaza, it's really important. I had the honor of being with the honor guard on Memorial Day and traveling to the various cemeteries in our community and um that was one of the cemeteries and you're right it's in tough shape and like council member Hatfield had acknowledged that sometimes those things can be really easily overlooked because it's not oftentimes a space that you spend a lot of time in um but it's a very important space and so

it just takes something sometimes a spark to get it rolling. Yeah. And I appreciate you being that catalyst, you know, being that person that comes down here and um acknowledges that and gets the ball rolling. And I was going to suggest connecting with city staff to see what can be done, but uh it sounds like we'll get the ball rolling there. And so, thank you guys so much for both coming here and being here and bringing this to our attention and being a part of this community um and enjoying this community. We love it here. Good. We do. I love hearing that. Well, thank you. Thank you. Enjoy your evening.

Um, all right. Uh, Christa, is Eric Hansen maybe on line on Zoom?

He was with Southwest Transit. Okay, maybe um Eric maybe got tied up. Uh, so we will move along to our other visitor presentation and that is Marshall Graange with an update on the Southwest Chesa Community Park master plan. All right, great. Thank you, Mayor and Council, for allowing me to come and give you an update on the plan tonight.

Um, I'm just going to go ahead and share my screen here. get this set up. All right. So, um I think the intent tonight is really to give you an update on where we're at with the park plan. I'm going to um reel us back a little bit just to create some context um on how we got here tonight. But um what we really want to do is we're trying to move forward fast. We want to make sure that we're not moving too far too fast. Yeah. Don't let the train take off without us. Is that Yeah.

Some details are starting to come together and I think Yeah. Like Matt said before we get too far down the road, we want to get feedback from you. Um and we'll talk about a little bit later too, but we're we're choosing to go into a little bit more detail before we bring it back to you for approval. Um so we'll talk about that, too. So, I believe it was back in late August, early September was the last time I came before you to give an update, which was after we spent uh the entire summer doing a lot of community engagement, getting feedback from people around the three different concepts we had made available for people to look at and take an online survey and meet us out and about at our various park events throughout the summer um to see what people were thinking about them. And as part of that update, I had shared some of the survey results and just a kind of a refresher here of the top 10 things that people had identified they wanted to see in the future park. And this would be again in addition to um the understanding that we already know we're going to build a destination sized universal design playground along with a miracle league baseball field. So in addition to those two things uh there before you was that top 10 list. Um so um that was something that we then took into account um going forward and just looking at kind of the the timeline for the planning process here. It moved us into sort of this refinement phase. So, this is where I'd say it's a little gets a little bit more difficult where we're now trying to take those

three concepts. Uh, the feedback we received from the community, um, the understanding of the the site of the park and the different natural resources that exist on the site, um, the market analysis we conducted. Um, and keeping in mind the budget, trying to narrow that down to one preferred plan. Um, so we've been doing that over the last few months. And, um, on the next slide, I'll I'll walk you through where we're at. But I would say that what's that I said, should we drum roll with the park?

Yeah, I know. Um, but just just to point out that there's been several meetings over the last few months and what I'm going to show you is really a representation of feedback from the park and rec park park and recreation commissioners. Um, we've had a couple two or three really good work sessions and in-depth meetings um with our consultants over at Confluence along with um several meetings with other department heads that are involved in in this planning process. Um, so yeah, drum roll. Here we go. And I apologize. I had actually printed out larger copies for you to follow along. I don't know. uh how well you're going to be able to see it on the screen here.

Um I don't know if I can zoom in or not. Oh, it's not in the package.

Um but I'll try to just use my cursor here um to point things out. And you can see there's a legend on the right hand side. Um, but starting out, um, I'm going to kind of start along the western edge here and the main parking lot and, um, kind of work in the middle and then move up and down from there. Because I think what we're starting to see here is really the the central kind of plaza area here coming off of the the main parking lot is really where you're going to see a lot of the um active play components um of the site. Um this red area here um I think is depicted as number five. This would be the um all-inclusive playground, the the universal design playground. So, we want to make that um pretty close to the parking lot for people to access. Um and then this sort of white area would be a large plaza um welcoming people into the park off of the parking lot. Um, and then number 17 up here would be the the Miracle League baseball field that we talked about.

When you say plaza, like would there be are I'm assuming like seating like things of that nature in there? Seating elements. We're showing just some um, you know, planters and pollinator areas. So this kind of a nice welcoming area um for people to kind of access in and then go from there to the various components of the park. Would you kind of say it could be similar to that pathway at Fireman's between like the food stand and the actual building how it's kind of like the pollinator? It's just kind of like the welcoming area. Would it kind of similar thought? Okay.

And actually quite a bit larger to be honest. Um, and it's hard to see. And again, this is still a work in progress, but as part of the um parking lot flow of traffic, we're thinking of a bump out here that would be like a drop off zone for people to drop off um their kids or if it's more of a handicap situation um and people want closer access. It could also be situated where that's the lineup of food trucks. um on occasion. Um we could also set it up for um food trucks to also go right up into the plaza um area as well. So it's pretty spacious. Um number one here, that would be the park building. So that'd be the primary park building. um

um later as part of our um items that we're still working on. Um let's see here. Number eight, coming off of the playground area. Uh we're looking at like a small amplitheater, a grassy area. Um really utilizing some natural slope there. Um, it'd be a little bit more of an informal amphitheater for kids to just kind of play and imagine, but you could also see where parent it'd be a great spot for parents to sit and relax um potentially have a picnic um in proximity to the park and the or the playground kind of nooked right in there. This number seven uh with those four little dots. I don't know if you're seeing that, but that's depicting a a water feature. So, potentially some sort of um small splash pad. Again, we don't know size and scope quite yet, but um that did rank, I think, second on the list within the feedback we received. So, we're showing it for now. Um we want to position it, I think, adjacent to the playground. So, it's sort of an extension of the playground area. Um, but also make it um somewhat proximate to that main park building. Um, so we have access to mechanical features and things like that.

Um, working down here kind of sitting a little bit lower. Uh, you can imagine, you know, off of this edge things start sloping down um towards the southeast. Um, we're showing a bouldering wall. So, kind of a neat area. Sort of another extension of play, but a little bit separate from the playground. Um, that can provide a little bit more of um, challenge for some of the older kids and teens to play on. Is that like a natural wall or like is it like a rock climb wall that

it could be? Again, we're just sort of carving out the area, but it could be um more of like a manufactured sort of bouldering wall. We would do it such where it's not at the height that would require staffing. It'd be more of a horizontal bouldering type of situation. Um or it could be literally like a pile of large rocks that kids play on, which at community park that is that rock gets played on. You see so many kids is playing on that rock. You think about going up on the Northshore and all the kids playing at the Duth up at the by the lighthouse and

Yeah. Yeah.

Um and then kind of coming south of the main playground area, we're we're showing a large open lawn area. So there again, neat area for kids to just run and play, free play. um adjacent to the playground. Um and then within there we're showing uh this would be like an open air shelter building. Um so an area where people could reserve it. Um, but it could be just a first come, first serve um, picnic area for people to um, gather and um, have a picnic uh, next to the playground and the the open lawn area. And then coming a little further down from there, we're showing a um, a basketball court zone. A little bit more non-traditional though. It's set up in a circular fashion. So, um it's meant to be more casual basketball shooting rather than competitive, you know, back and forth um play.

And then we've got a set of um four pickle ball courts um with then another um shade and shelter building um sitting between those two elements. And then um coming around here uh this colorful uh number 10 area would be uh community um community garden and forest area, food forest. Um another another thing that really ranked high in some of the feedback that we got. Um, and I think it um sort of plays and honors uh the fact that this was a former farm site. And so how we can incorporate um potentially community gardening to um um maybe some cut flower uh type um activity um and maybe even um some fruit type plants for people to pick. And the thing we're thinking about there is maybe rather than it being plots that people reserve and pay for, I think the uh the direction the park and recck commission suggested would be that we work with local community groups um that would want to um volunteer to help u manage that and then it would just be open for anybody in the community to come and pick food or pick pick vegetables, things like that.

The city that Christian goes to school in Ohio has one of those. And it's pretty cool because kids go to like the playground can go pick tomatoes off or, you know, pick a ear of corn or, you know, whatever the case may be. But it's basically, you know, they say, you know, they say don't take a lot, but take what you need and and all that type of stuff. But it's it's sort of cool because a lot of kids don't get an opportunity to like an edible classroom. Yeah. To be able to, you know, their parents don't garden. They haven't grown up on a farm. They don't know where their food comes from.

Well, I think it's kind of neat. Um there was a garden club that formed here through the library. And weirdly enough, most of the members are from the Bloomington area because they kind of had a passion for it. One of the kind of the requests was to have something like that formatted here. you know, maybe through the the lodge, the AOA or something like that. I think that's a really nice connection point for people uh to be able to meet each other and engage with each other. So, I really like that idea. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of programming opportunities. Yeah.

Um and yeah, and then, you know, to support that area, we'd need some sort of again shelter building, possibly some tool storage, um some things like that. um kind of coming down into the big woods area. It's shaded, but it's meant to be within the woods, but would be another separate natural play zone within the woods. So, think of stumps, logs, twigs, branches, you know, for kids to just again play in nature, build forts, move things around. um really intended to just get dirty and have fun and build things. Um and then a whole um you know trail system trail system within the big woods that would be natural trail. Coming around, we've got just couple other grassy um nook areas, I would say, off of the trail that just provide again more opportunities for nice seating areas. Um I think number 20 here we're showing is like a a hammock grove. So just something different and unique for people to just hang out and relax within the nature. Um coming coming further east, um we're not really showing it the best on this plan yet. Um but the intent is for there to be an 18hole disc golf course. um that would really consume a lot of this southeastern portion um of the site um and then really carry up into this yellow shaded area um

because it would require quite a bit of acreage to get the full 18 um whole course in there. Um we think this is a a great amenity that really becomes a destination um site. um for people to come and play a full 18hole course. Um and I think it just really kind of threads the needle with nature and play and sport um really well um on this site. Um so we're currently working with um one of their designers out of their De Moines office who that that is their specialty designing disc golf courses. So that's being worked on um behind the scenes. Um, as we speak,

this is one of those if you do a disc golf course correctly, you'll have people like tea time after tea time after tea time. Like a build it and they will come. Yes. It's a very If you build it incorrectly, nobody will use it. Yeah. And I think this one lends itself to a lot of neat holes um within the woods area and then um some holes that would um sort of be out through the prairie restoration. Um so a good mix of of um so is that challenges? Is that something that will have like tea times and check-in and things like that?

No, typically it's like if you go to the courses it's first come first serve, but you'll see like a line of people in the parking lot just sort of waiting for the next group to tee up. Sure. Okay. Shakipi just redid theirs over in Lions Park. Did a really nice job. And there's constantly people out there. Yeah. I always see people there when I go to high. Yeah.

Yeah. And then we're showing um uh another small parking lot that would serve that um disc golf course um area. Um, I think it can also serve as just another parking location as like a trail head for people just wanting to come and walk the trails or maybe get more right into the woods. Um, and then we would have another park shelter building off of that parking lot with the intent for that to have yearround restrooms um as well. Um what we're showing in yellow here kind of throughout this whole site, it would really be prairie um restoration. Um so bringing a lot of um nature there and a a lot of pops of color um over time. And then within the center part of that site coming off of the upper park building and that plaza, this will then become in the winter the primary um sledding hill area because there's a lot of slope that occurs um kind of right from here on all the way on down.

So that'll be great. I think that's something that you know we don't have a lot of here in Chaza. So bringing that winter element will be great with some parking is nice. Yeah. Well, and then parking potentially and you know if there's special days with the shelter building, maybe have it open for you know like concessions like hot chocolate and stuff like that. Yeah. Yep. Sleds over there.

Yes.

Yeah. And then the intent would be for that park building to serve as a warming house and things of that nature during the winter. Um let's see here. Then kind of coming up into the northeast corner would be a large open lawn area. Um again really one of the top things that was identified in the survey was open lawn um open play areas. Um so we would have that there and then there'd be another um park shelter building off the trail. Again, an opportunity for people to reserve that and have uh family gatherings um adjacent to some open grass. And then moving kind of over to the northwest corner, um we would have a baseball diamond. Um, as of now, we're thinking that would be more of an intermediate size diamond that um could serve both baseball and softball um needs. And then in the far northwest corner would be the full-sized soccer um field. And then I think the other thing to just point out is really the awesome trail network um throughout um throughout the park. There's a lot of intention here and get a lot of loops and things of that. So, I I think there's going to be just a great opportunity for people to just go there and

get lost in the get lost and walk the trails, find places to sit and relax and and take in some some nature and and things of that. The other thing we're doing um and sort of gets back to a comment that you had made um several meetings ago about turf

turf opportunities there is to look at sort of cost differentials between the two and even potentially look at going and talking to the associations and saying could we do like we've done with the Chesca Cubs where we've actually upfronted like if if we wanted to do a uh something to to partner partner um that we could upfront dollars for the incremental cost and then maybe it's a 10-year payback or something like that. But to, you know, to really see is there really a desire to to get turf fields in there and um you know have an opportunity to to partner up for the people who would be using them.

Another thing we're starting to talk about is a theme for the park. um that could play into some of the design elements and things of that. And Confluence had brought forward this notion of the pollinators revenge and just the different opportunities that would be at play there. Um so the this would really be highlighting the various pollinator type bugs and birds and bees and butterflies um that really are quite important to our ecosystem. If you see there, 90% of flowering plants rely on pollinator animals and a third of our food uh is reliant on these pollinators, but yet um they're starting to become endangered. Um and it's it's an issue that um needs attention. And I think there's a neat story to be told here in that this site a long time ago had even a larger swath of big woods and you know then um some of that was taken out for that area to be farmed and then now we're reverting it back to a park site in which our intent is to bring back more of the woods, bring back um the prairie and really kind of provide an environment for these pollinator species um to thrive. And um I think there's kind of a neat story there to be told. And it was again also um based on feedback we had gotten in our survey. We had asked a question about if we were to create some sort of theming or whatnot to the park or the playground, what would you what would you like to see? and a lot of it was nature-based type theming. Um, but there you can see there are some actual

endangered um, pollinator species um, here in Minnesota. Um, and then and along that top row and then on the bottom row is just an example of some other um, type of pollinator um, animals. And it's kind of fun. There's a lot of color. uh kids are interested in bugs. Um and so the next slide sort of depicts just some of the things that we could potentially do with it. You know, there some various colorful mascots. Um Confluence had provided some other precedent examples of um other park locations where you can see they're doing fun things. And then you can just imagine the various signage and wayfinding types of things we could play off of it. That's fun. I like that color palette, too.

Yeah, it's very inviting and Yeah. Great draw for kids. All the color and it's wonderful. Yeah.

So, here's the list of things we still need to work on. One of them Matt already alluded to, but um as I said earlier, we're we're wanting to take this more to a 30% design before we bring it back to you um for approval. And that 30% design is really going to allow us to get a little bit more detailed than just a basic concept plan. Um it's going to get us into more of the grading plan um that's going to be needed, which is a big deal on a site this size um to take into account. And it's going to give us the ability to um come back with, I think, a little more, I'd say, confident cost estimation. um so that what we come back with, you know, we want to feel confident that we're going to be able to implement um going forward. Um we're currently coordinating with community development and engineering regarding the Hassic um development. So, this would be the land just to the west of Savannah Way. um they've submitted a housing concept plan that's coming um before the planning commission um here in a couple of weeks. Um so we're coordinating with that development to um make sure we're um aligning access points off of Savannah Way between the development and into our um parking lot um into the park, the main parking lot there. Um, we're planning to hire an architect for the design of the park, the main park building. Um, that's a little bit outside of the scope of what Confluence does. So, we need to get more of a building architect. Um, so we can start understanding what that can look like and what the costs

are going to be. And I think the intent there will be to have them design two different types of plans. one would be more of that basic level park building that mimics, you know, what we're doing in some of our other community parks. Um, and then I think the other one would be more of that ideal with some additional indoor space that could allow us to um do some, you know, recreational programs within it. It could be a situation where people it could become a rentable space um for various you know gatherings and things like that. Um this week Friday uh staff along with Confluence will be going out to landscape structures in Delano. They're a playground manufacturer um that is exclusive with uh Miracle League and they really specialize in these universal design playgrounds. Um they've already done um a playground concept in the past for us um that was in response to a community design group we had put together um to get feedback. So, we got a really good start, but this would be really kind of a followup now that we know a little bit more about where the playground's going to sit on the site. Um, and potentially, you know, the the theme that we talked about and to see, you know, we got to start taking it to the next, you know, level of detail to start to understand how that's going to lay out and what the costs are. Um, as Matt alluded to, we want to set up meetings with um the sports associations um to talk about the athletic fields um and see whether or not um they're interested in um contributing towards um

the cost to upgrade those to turf um along with um lighting. So we're gathering those cost estimations from confluence to see what would be the difference between natural grass and turf. If you do end up doing if you end up saying that turf is viable option on the design you had like a soccer field and one baseball diamond. Would that provide flexibility then to take the soccer field and make it into additional baseball diamonds like that? Let's say they have a tournament or something because I know like a tournament one's maybe not going to be unless I guess it's spread out through a community. You probably know this.

Yeah. I mean most a lot more. Most communities you go to there they go to multiple different parks for Okay. There's some there's some communities that have all the facilities at one place. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I will make my comment here because it's a good question. Um one thing I just like I think is and I'm sure there's a reason expression. The one thing that really excited me and I have obviously a bias towards baseball that's well known and well documented at this stage.

Um but was the concept of having that kind of large open space that was flexible so it could be you know four U12s and two U16 fields. um that's not in here obviously that's and so I'm curious on where that landed because obviously that I guess squares your turf a little bit more versus a field. Um so I'm curious on the thoughts and what the conversation was around that maybe it's logistically difficult if it requires setup and removal of temporary fences and whatnot. Um, so I'm curious on on on the conversation with that because that excited me because to your question, mayor, I do tournaments can go multiple place from the cities. I think the tournaments that are most enjoyable for kids tend to have concentrations of fields in the same place because then you get you stay there. You're not having to move. You interact with the other teams. You you hang out as a family of baseball players. Um it's done lots of different places in different uh ways. Um but I think that's just again that's my reaction kind of my observation. Others maybe like being on the one field

and there's one game going on and then you you know you pack up and go to the other field type of thing. So what you're referring to more is instead of having the separate baseball and the separate soccer the concept that had just the one square. Yeah. Yeah, it was the big square. And again, I think there's um I think what attracted me most to that was the flexibility for multiport because you can do lacrosse which is growing. You can do tackle football which is shorten fields. You know, there's a tackle football group we my youngest fifth grade they play in Victoria because there's not enough fields in Chesca. Now it's CCFA so it makes sense to be in Victoria too which is fine.

Um you know the biggest field charge which was good if if only one new athletic softball baseball field was going to be built. The larger size that U16 size is the right is the shortage, right? Because right now you only have the one at community and then you have Lions Park that doesn't really play well because Southwalk dominates it, right? Which is fair. So that's kind of a shortage. No, Sunset's not uh Sunset would be a full size. The full size. Yep. So it's the in between. Yeah, the U12, U16, it's kind of I mean it's like 200 foot fences,

240 and then 300 is kind of the piece. Um, but I will also say like the U12 the association will give you feedback. Right now they continue to put games out at um Augusta

Augusta because we're short of you know fields and everyone likes us out there and they like us out there but that that can always change too. So that that was like a I I don't need to keep talking about that, but that that was the concept because I just think that big space provides the greatest flexibility because I think to the point of turf, the more players who would be players by teams like soccer, lacrosse, football, baseball, softball, it's a wider group of people that would say I assume that those teams would like turf, too. I'm not can't speak for all of them. I don't speak for all of them. Um versus just a turf baseball So now you have two associations, right? Like that that was that piece. But as I mentioned, there is someone has to put that temporary fence out or set that space up and um and obviously the more people you invite to contribute, the more expectation comes with that and the more demand for that space.

Going to use this. Correct. Right. So I I I hear that. But that was that was intriguing on that first concept. Um, and again, I certainly understand that I'm up here to represent the greater good of Chesa, not just by interest in baseball by certain means. Um, but that was kind of what I talked about with with that turf space. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'm not to divert off that the path of the wrap up here or anything like that, but when I looked at it, that was the only thing. I love all of the concepts. We have a lot of diversity within that park. I think that makes it a rural destination like you guys had touched on um and really hits those points of the play nature and sport what you say sport sport

um but I also think like diversity of appeal of some of the like associations and that was that's a world that

I'm just not in and so it was like okay does multiple fields being together make more sense does not matter, you know, that sort of thing. So, I'm not looking for like a rewrite or anything, but just curious if like turf is a viable option, uh, you know, feasible as far as on a financial perspective and like you said, you don't need to bring everybody to the table because maybe lots of expectations and a lot of broken hearts of use. But, you know, if it makes a more flexible space, maybe something like that, you know, so that tournaments can happen that might make it more appealing to those groups to have that sort of buy in. And I think with that buy in of that, I think about the economic viability of our downtown area benefiting from that because people are coming in obviously from out of town. Um, the opposing team is typically from somebody that's been traveling and they're going to eat somewhere and they're going to spend time somewhere. So,

yeah, I will comment, mayor, if one other comment that was I think viable to your question about groups if you're running a tournament for though so like historically in baseball the twelves parents run the chass classic for baseball having groupage of fields is much better because then you can assign you know everything's there field maintenance concessions versus spacing right so like with the classic it's pioneer which I have lots of opinions about pioneer um lions and community and so you station that and then it's easier to run because you can just centralize all the stuff you need there versus spread out becomes harder but

like I get it like it's you can't put like I'm not looking to say like let's put eight baseball fields next to one another that's not the kind of park that I think any of us are saying that you know should be done but it's like well if it's flexible to have it be a more multi-use space and but when you get put on a field as a baseball team a softball team and the one field there's no concessions, you take notice. And the reason and it's not that they're being mean, it's just that that one field wasn't really supportive of having the concessions versus the main site that has all the things, right? And you notice that it's like, oh, that's a bummer that we're there, but okay. Sorry.

I think that's good feedback. I think that's exactly why we wanted to bring it back now is to is to say, hey, before we jump into 30% design, we want to make sure that we're all on the same page with things. And what I'm sort of hearing is that u the corner that's designated for athletics, the more flexible we can make that the better.

I think so. I think that works. Like again, doesn't need to be just all like diamonds everywhere or anything like that. But I think yeah, having that openness so that something can happen that's just more than just the one I think lends to a little bit more of a buy in for those organizations that are if we're especially if we're coming to them and saying, "Hey, wanting to contribute to this, they've got to see the benefit as well." And I think that really lends towards that. So I don't know how that can get worked out.

But you make magic happen all the time, Marshall. Well, I mean I would share, you know, there was some thought and discussion into that, you know, and to your point, there is a lot of logistics, moving fencing, storing fencing, um, scheduling becomes a different situation.

Um, you can only have certain user groups at a time, you know. So, there's some pros and cons versus just having more of a designated type of setup. And then I think some of it was also without us understanding whether or not turf is even going to be a viable option. This was kind of what we're showing. But I think we can play around with that northwest corner. um and consider that further especially if we do meet with the associations and we see that there's a commitment to contributing to it because I think that was the primary feedback from the commission was that investing in something like that if it takes away from other things that is being shown in the park that's what they would not support.

Yeah. I think their concern I think their concern was that if it's if that's really being put in by the for use of associations then there should be some contri contribution from the associations but that I think Marshall makes a good point is and this is something that I think would be a good discussion with the associations is to really bring both plans. Yeah. you know to to bring the one that sort of shows uh you know the baseball field and the soccer field separate and saying hey the reason we are having this separate is because putting turf in is really expensive and we have to replace

and um but if we wanted to move to something that's going to be able to be used more often maybe there's opportunity for a partnership and here's what it could look like. Yeah. Yeah. Is lacrosse played on soccer fields? Yes. At the same size? I I think it's I think they're pretty generally the same. They're different lines, but Yeah. Yeah. It can be played on it. And I also know the more associations you get involved, the likelihood of all the opinions being the same gets harder. I I get that too, right? Yeah. Um so yeah, I like I said, I or one association can contribute more than another. And then

well and I think some of it gets down to equity too with the associations is that I mean obviously you know certain sports have a ton of kids and certain kids don't and so maybe it ends up being a a you know per capita type of a

well and I think too and in regards to like I think that if we're going to go down that pathway is the recognition of like you said scheduling turf maintenance or setup Th those are all things that take labor and resources and that they need to have investment in it too. I know a lot of times like being on an auxiliary part of these sports programs in my my profession, I know that in discussion with a lot of board members that there are volunteers, but then there are a lot of parents that are just willing to write the check and not do the work. And so I think that's some of their issue too is the the human, you know, resource of like having volunteers. And so I think having that discussion with them to see what's actually what they feel like is realistic and feasible for them because obviously I don't want to put our park and racks into a position where they're over labored or anything along those lines. I just don't think that that's a desired outcome or goal of anybody. So I think I think having that meeting and kind of seeing where things are at is going to be really really beneficial. Well, part of it I think what we're going to have to understand a little bit more from and it's probably confluence is

understanding how difficult is the uh is the labor of s changing the fences and stuff like that because uh quite frankly there's certain things we probably don't want to have volunteers do. Okay. And that makes sense. And that um and if we just have to build in that resource that's what we have to do. Um because you know I've seen things where we have turned to volunteers where we probably shouldn't have

and you know and and um and this might work may not but I that's one of the things that I'll be curious of with confluence is to get a sense of is this something that you know associations actually go out and set these things up themselves when they reserve fields or is this something that really needs to be city staff

and when you say associations just to be very clear it's the coaches right like so so just as a perspective like uh every once in a while the baseball association the twelves can use it as a fundraiser and they'll line the fields and they don't drag the city drags and the schools drag right to get them smooth but like the lining of the baseball fields um and that's up to the parents of the twelves like last year as a parent of 12 the feedback the prior year was it's a lot of work and it doesn't really raise any money so every game I got there as a coach and I was comfortably because I did this this was my summer wreck job when I was in high school line softball fields and I don't even drop the line. I can stare at the space and run the chalk and good thing about chalk is once you screw up you just wipe it away and start over. But that's that's who ends up doing it. So like in this situation

again if it was easy and the fence is like post here everything like that. Again, I think they have beautiful images of what they've put in with like the quad with it all facing in because again I you don't want to put I I am not a fan of the pin wheels where you're dodging balls the whole time, right? That was great. But what you don't see in those images is like how difficult is it to get that fence in the right spot for that right size field?

Which is I think a great question. But yeah, again, that's just my opinion because I think diversity of and I think it's also future proofs a little bit because um I love baseball, my kids love baseball, but for a long time baseball's numbers were dropping. I think that's coming back up again because MLB made some changes and the game's watchable again a little bit truthfully. But soccer, you know, lacrosse is growing, soccer, football, right? Like some of that flexibility futureproofs that a little bit. Field hockey, any of that, field hockey. um you know that so I think I think that's one thing that doesn't change is that there's always going to be a physical activity that's going to need a field

but it is it is easier soccer lacrosse football all those field sports are a ton easier because you can use the same surface for each of them. Baseball and softball end up being unique uh from a field configuration standpoint. Um, but smell a new sport being invented. Square baseball. Yeah, something like that. Rectangle baseball. I just had one other question in regards to that that kind of came to mind is lighted fields. Is this something that is going to happen over there or anywhere in that park? As far as like I think that's part of the discussion with the associations because quite frankly um

I know we have signage in those neighborhoods the like the lighting that we use at other fields. It's not used during the summer. It's I mean this is shoulder season stuff. It's it's it's a lot of it might be our own flag football leagues, you know, that uh you know, that end up using the the lighted fields. Um late season baseball or Yeah. Yeah. I mean I It's been a long time since my boys were in baseball, but there was very few times that they played a game that went super late where it was like dark. I think the only places like Prior Lake I think was probably one that could have

that's what they're known for. I mean lake that's like the experience kids like to play under the leggings. It's like one time they have the ponds which they've done a few different times. But yeah, I would echo that there is tournaments that would be helpful because you could put a later game but general season games in the summer you get enough daylight hours. It's the spring and the late fall. I think you're right. I think more tackle football and flag football use like if you look at the park behind the school Clover Ridge those lights come on for not for soccer they come on for tackle football then well they're not on during the summer they're on in the fall and you know so it's it is those fall sports that use the lights

about an hour to gain an hour

yeah and I suspect again I don't speak I don't speak on behalf of any association thing but if if it is, you know, on the baseball side of things, I think the value of turf versus if it was a turf or lights conversation. I think turf would be like my preference. I I'd be curious to see what the associations say. You can ask Greg Riggs that question. He'll share it with you, I'm sure. Um, he always puts me on the spot, so it's fair that I put him on the spot in this meeting. At his baseball meetings, he always calls me out beyond the council for the record. Um, so it's good that he can watch this meeting. See, I called put his name out there. Um, because we also talked about a previous meeting, too. Lights can be done after the fact, right? Yeah.

You know, turf can be done after the fact, but you already spent the money on the grass, right? So, it's not really after the fact. Yeah. Yeah. Just curious. I don't think anyone in my neighborhood would complain if lights didn't show up right away. But you're right, the signs have been up there for that very reason from eight years ago. We could have put up a big sign lit. Yeah. And people would have Well, I just know that that Yeah. the neighborhood's grown obviously since, you know, um since uh yeah, you first moved in and since this park has been conceptualized and stuff like that. Just was curious. Yeah. You know, curious.

But it's in the right spot, right? It's the furthest if it were lit. the furthest away from I guess there' be houses on the other side. There's going to be houses, too. I was just like it was the will probably get occupied after the park goes up. No, they're already they're already there. Well, I think you were thinking of Oh, yeah. Holics. You're correct. Yeah. But along that northern edge, there's homeowners there already. But

I mean the good news though is the lighting technology is a lot better now. So it it doesn't really spill spill out as much as the other than the sports side of it and us sort of looking at those two things. Is there anything else that stands out as you're like holy moly that's that's that doesn't meet our vision? Because again, going to 30% design is going to cost us some money to do it. And I just want to I just want to make sure before we took that next step forward that at least we're speaking the same language. Could you forward us this that we can like zoom in a little?

Absolutely. But I think largely I think it looks great. Should do tube rental for the the snowill in the winter. Oh, I wonder if this put a magic carpet in conceptually of the conceptual. Oh, look at that. I figured it out. The buck hill. Zoom in a little. How much parking learn how much parking is there? Learn something new. Sorry, Marshall. Do you know how much parking is there? I mean, I mean, it's concept. From what I recall, I think that I think we got almost 340 spots. com. Yeah,

we're not that type of city council. So, the only thing that I noticed is like if you're going to have a community garden, it's going to need water. Yep. So, and I didn't hear that. So, that's what I was thinking. Yeah, that's a very good point. So, we would need Yeah, we'd definitely need to run water and that would be part of that shelter building. Okay. That we're showing. Yeah, that's an excellent question. and some compost areas and Yep. Yep. Get really earthy and get some rainwater collection barrels. Yes. Yeah.

Yeah. I just the parking I know we've talked several times about parking um because you're trying to avoid overflowage into the streets of the neighborhoods. I was just curious um you know Kings Park and what city is that over there? Lichfield. No, Lakeville. Lakeville. That is an example how not to do parking. Um because when they host those fields, parking is a disaster. Um and so like just you know concept and again it's always one of those things like if there's a big soccer tournament you're probably going to have some spillage into the neighborhoods.

Um you know that's a 5% of the usage moments. You know it's hard to plan for a huge parking lot that gets used a couple times a year that way. But I was just curious. Can you go down to the woods part? So, there are some walking trails in the woods that aren't a part of the disc golf, right? Yep. Not going to get smacked in the head with Right. All those right there.

Okay. That's all. Okay. That's what I was thinking, but I wanted to just make sure because I think people were really excited about all the walking options of this park and part of it being like in the woods. People like to walk in the woods. So, I think that's an important piece. That's perfect. So keep in mind what's not being shown on here u because we haven't sort of strategically sort of thought how best to go about utilizing these dollars, but we still have another uh grant that we haven't used for acquiring more property in the big woods. Okay. And so we're in discussions now about what parcel that should be. Um because the area that sort of looks like it's right there,

uh a lot of that is undevelopable. It's wetlands. It's it could be great for trails going through there and stuff for connections, but it's not real developable. Um typically those are the parcels we end up with as as donations to us as part of the development process because nobody wants to pay taxes on them. Um, and so we're sort of working with the developer out there, uh, to look at how we maximize those grant dollars so that that area in the center ends up being part of the whole. Yeah. Okay. Amazing.

Yeah. Because I think part of what's exciting and when I've talked to people is like the idea of going somewhere in Jasco where you feel like you're not in a suburb, like you get to hang out. And we do have a lot of good spaces like that, but this is I think people were excited when I talked to people like walking through the woods and being like feeling like you're not in the suburbs, you're in in the woods.

And I feel like like Founders Ridge and Harvest, they're kind of cut off from our trail system. Like they they're they're part of it like you but it's not it's a little bit you have to do a little more work. Whereas like if you live in one of the more Jonathan neighborhoods or even down like downtown area, those feel a little bit more interconnected and a little bit more established. So being able to offer this is going to be huge amenity I think to those growing neighbors over in that area of Chaza. It's going to be amazing. Yeah, I think six years ago when my door knocked, that's probably one of the concepts was, hey, we don't have trails here yet. Now, that was because how was you know what come chicken egg problem, right? Right.

Um but yeah, I think you're right. and like the topography is hard and so this is like this solves that problem too. So yeah, it's great. Yeah. So I I feel pretty confident that we're going to fill in that center section there so it becomes more of one area. Yep. Very cool. Yeah. Yeah, Michaela to your point that's a good question and it was talked about quite a bit at the park and recck commission level sort of this notion can can disc golf and trail walkers coexist. Yeah, that's interesting because it was like if if they can't, you know, we they definitely valued

more of the ability for people to be able to walk the trails.

Yeah. Um but we do have um Jason Branch who's an avid disc golf player. Um and he was pretty adamant about them being able to coexist that disc golf players are pretty chill and you know it doesn't matter if they got to wait a little bit longer before they throw to let a walker through type of thing. So we felt we felt good about proceeding ahead and incorporating the disc golf course because we really do think that'll be a neat feature of the park and attract people. Yeah, I mean that sounds like like you said a really unique amenity that will bring a really I think devoted and a group of people that will want to come and I think the key point to this park is that obviously our community members will find and lots of areas to pro have provided enjoyment but I also think it's a destination for people in the surrounding communities

to be able to come and check it out and enjoy it as well. Yeah, really. It I do think it captured something for everyone. Like it really does feel like no matter stage of life or physical ability or um what you like to do, there's kind of something for everyone. And I think that was an important piece of this park is that it really can be any community member could come and find something they enjoy. Thanks folks for coming out and sticking it around. Thank you. Thanks. No, I would say I mean I

I do I think this like it hits so many wish lists, you know, with all the I mean we threw a lot of things out there and it is amazing to see how much we incorporated into this design. As I said, I don't want it to be like all baseball diamonds or anything like that. like this is so great that you guys were able to really kind of nail this down and there's so many cool amenities for so many different groups of people. Um, great job. Yeah, really, really good job. I think it's I just want to point out to the council because I don't want to state the obvious and maybe you all know this, but because it's not showing because it's a Google image, but on Persian there where it's grayed out and there's no houses. Yeah, that space

those houses. Those will be houses. There are houses. They're already there. Yeah. Okay. But because I was trying to figure out where my house was at and I was like, "Wait, there's houses. They're not showing because it was a Google Earth image at the time." But so that's So you think about like spacing of lighting as an example. Yeah. Um that's the closest and then the flip side of on Savannah, there'll be houses on the other side of Yeah. But like obviously there's going to have to be houses over off of Founders Path over on the north side of the screen. There is houses. Yeah. And I'm saying there's going to have to if we're talking about lighting that area, those lights are going to have to be there.

And you talk about so no lighting, you talk about like, you know, you you talk about, you know, the fall off of lighting and everything like that. It's not so much on the ground as much as what is the second level of a house having to do because light comes down. It's, you know, the spill. Yeah, sure it can contain on the ground, but it's the atmospheric haze of of light that's so just being strategic about that,

you know, engagement and that just to make sure and you're right, the time that the lights are most in use at the ball field is in the fall, you know, which makes it kind of a double-edged sword because if you have young children, you're back to school and you got those nighttime bed, you know, earlier bedtimes and stuff like that. But, uh, that's just all stuff. But it's we've signed for it and people are aware of it. Just making sure that we communicate that as I we plan through through that. So I keep thinking of things as I see it. I think it's a good also comment that I do like the location of those pickle ball courts because obviously lots of stuff in the news about the noise of pickle ball and like cities or residents of cities very upset. Yeah. Um

so I think I don't know how like how you judge what the appropriate distance in that space but that is kind of tucked in there. One, it's also, keep in mind, going to be blocked by the school and the school. Yeah. We're sort of thinking proximity away from anything on the other side. The school too. Yeah. That's one of the comments that we we've been getting really positive comments on the pickle ball courts. People love our pickle ball courts. One of the reasons for it is because they're so secluded and so you don't have to worry about the noise impacting people around and and it also blocks the wind too. The neighbors don't often times like to hear the smack of the paddle on the I've never heard a complaint from those. There's like not here. Not in our No, not in our neighbor.

Yeah. Yeah. No, no, I know. I'm just I was just saying I've never heard complaints. Yes. Yeah. 100%. Or people that put them in their backyards, things like that. They're coming out with new screening now that helps prevent wind, but it also really knocks down the sound too. So, need like a white noise overlay. That thing's coming out. Yeah. I think they're even trying to invent a better a ball that isn't a noisy ball. Yeah. Yeah. Evolution of the game. They're going to be heated courts and Yeah. Yeah. And you're seeing, you know, a lot of trees around the perimeter and obviously those take to mature, but that's everything. Yep.

Yeah. I mean, obviously it takes a few years for them to build out. I just know even from just anecdotally being in my neighborhood and the row of town houses that face the outfield of the ball field and granted the majority of the lights are in the outfield and they're pointing towards the highway towards no homes but there are some that are pointing the opposite direction and when you go up onto that second level of a home you see it if I if the the one window that my in my home is our office which I'm never in. I'm not adversely affected to it proximity-wise where I'm at, but like yeah, I would need room darkening shades if that was like a bedroom for a child and stuff like that. So, those are just things that need to be

I think smart implementation of lights. I will say like in your space like if you drive and like you're like, "Oh, what's going out the field?" And the lights are on, there's nothing going out the field. Yeah. That that will everyone. It happens. And like weather happens actually to to Park and Rex to your guys' credit that doesn't happen very much. Like it really doesn't. So appreciate that. And you a lot of times when it does it's because it rained and like that just just be like Prior Lake. They those lights shut off at a certain time and depending on if your team's winning or losing. Oh yeah. At 10 o'clock those lights are always

You will indicate You will indicate this may be a true story. you will indicate that when you think those will shut off and that the game can't continue. Maybe experience maybe we need to slow down a little. Yeah. Well, we appreciate the feedback. So,

yeah. Yeah. And I just I I want to mention too that while I get to be the one to sort of share the plan here, this is a true team effort. There's staff across almost every department helping out with this. We got our consultants helping out with it from Confluence and Stantech. And then really a big thank you to the community. You know, it's the community that participated throughout our engagement that ultimately helped shape what this looks like today. And that's that's what ultimately makes it makes it fun to do. So, I'll probably keep repeating that as I give updates because I just appreciate all the different perspectives and help um that staff are putting into this.

Yeah. No, thanks thanks to for putting this together, the continued work. Also, thanks to our parks commission for, you know, evaluating these plans as well. Yeah. Yep. All right. Wonderful. Well, great. Well, thank you. Yeah. And I I think we're aiming to bring it back March somewhere in March is what we're aiming for, but we'll kind of we'll bring it back when we're ready. Gives us something to look forward to. Yeah. Get us through these cold months. All right. Thank you. Yeah. Thanks, Marshall. This is weird because this felt like an action item. Like it felt like Yeah, we're still in

and so we're still in the visitor presentation section of our agenda. Well, we had talked about doing as a work session, but then we got interviews come up and we're like, you know, we have a short meeting tonight. Let's just do it tonight. No, I think this is perfect. It just was like discombobulating like, oh, yeah, we're only in the uh visitors presentation. Um, okay. Well, that moves us along then to approval of the previous meeting minutes. Uh, these meeting minutes were from December 15, 2025. Uh, I'd like to entertain a motion or unless does anybody have any additions or corrections to the meeting minutes? I got logged out of my computer. So, motion to approve me uh previous meeting minutes.

Okay, motion. We have a motion from council member Hatfield and a second from council member Benes. Um, any other discussion? Otherwise, all those in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. All right, that is carried. And then we're going to move along to our consent agenda items. These items uh we'll see little to no um discussion, although we can certainly pull something off of the consent agenda. Uh but we can certainly also take a question on something. Does anybody have any questions on the consent agenda items?

We should do approve consent. Okay. Thank you. I have a motion from council member Gra. Second and a second from council member Hfield. Uh any other discussion? All those in favor say I. I oppose. All right. And then we do not have any action items tonight. So that moves us down to bills. Does anybody have a question on a bill? There we go. Back again. Don't be like track my password. Um, no questions. But I appreciated that it was shorter. I was like, "Ah, short bills tonight." Nice. Yeah. Yeah. There wasn't uh I thought it would be the other way around.

I did, too. We were gone for a long time. Yeah. Just felt like uh we were we've been gone for a while. Um All right. Well, if no one Motion to pay the bills. Okay. Thank you. Second. So, I have a motion from Council Member Hatfield and a second from Council Member Benes. Um All right. Alis, will you call ROS, please? Council member Hatfield. Yes. Council member Bennish. Yes. Council member I. Mayor Hover. Uh I All right. Bills are paid. All right. That moves us along to other business. I believe you caught me off guard there. I was I was like, "Oh, that's right." Uh and that with that, why don't we start with Mr. Council Member Gar over here to my left?

Well, uh I had so much prepared and then forgot my computer. No, in I did. Um You called yourself out.

I did. I know. I did. I It was a typical like Monday school starting and everything is just discombobulated. So, I've been running it off my phone, which is great. Uh, happy new year, right? 2026. I was joking here as I was signing something for the council that I was the first time just this moment in this last hour that I had to like write the first date and almost wrote 25. Um, so I appreciate that. Uh, and so just want to wish everyone a happy new year. Um, I'll use this because I have it here with the Chesa Human Rights Commission celebrates Dr. Martin Luther King, Monday, January 19th at the Chesca Event Center from 7:45 to 9:30 AM a.m. Thank you.

And it's going to be cold. You know what? It's going to be beautiful weather the next couple weeks. It is. I looked at the weather for that day in my 14-day forecast. Cold negative one. It's always cold. Always really cold. Yeah. Wow. So, yeah, fun events. uh great uh speakers, great time to get together and celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King. So, we'll take advantage of that. Um outside of that, I guess I'll just uh I think we say this all the time, but I think it gets uh demonstrated time after time with the public works and ability to keep us all safe on the roads in the city of Chaza.

Uh I will encourage people if we freezing rain tonight and tomorrow to drive safely. I I had a conversation with my 13-year-old, which is not too far away from driving when you really stop to think about it. Um because on one last Monday when it was like ice rink somewhere like 41 around a bus by Costco and up that direction,

dicey. Um and he's kind of asked questions like, "Well, how do you know if it's slip and sliding?" And it's like it's kind of weird that you kind of do that, but ice is super hard to drive in. So, don't be a hero tomorrow. If it's icy, take your time. Give yourself extra time. Snow, you can drive in ice. If it's really icy, it can be tough. So, but shout out to those who clean the crew, put the long hours in. Um, and perfectly timed going in front of my driveway when I'm ready to leave. It's beautiful. I always wave. And I actually say that honestly because it means that I don't have to worry. I can go snowb blow it and be done. So, but it feels like I'm always out there and they're always happy and smiling when I wave at them. They're probably like, "Who is this person?" Wave.

I know who drives your route. So, yeah. Uh, that is all I have. Wonderful. It's a great report. You sort of stole my thunder because I was thinking about drivers, which I still will, but let's move it down to Council Member Bench. Uh, I don't really have anything, but happy new year to everybody. So, make it a good one and we'll see where things go this year. Great. All right. short and sweet. All right, council member. Sure. Um, take it away.

I was going to say thanks the plow drivers also and our public safety because of the day it was icy. I know police and fire were out um a lot with vehicle incidents and stuff. So, um, thank you to all of our public servants that are going out on the roads when we don't want to. So, um, also thank you to the Santa parade was amazing. So, parks and wreck and everyone that participated in that. It was awesome as usual. I don't know why. It's my favorite. I like love it. It comes by my house and it is my favorite thing. So, I just thought there were even more vehicles this year and that was fantastic. My little one-year-old niece got to see it for the first time and um obviously she's one, but um it was still fun to be out there with her and her to like see the lights and things. So, um that's always really well done. So, thank you to all of them. Santa, Mrs. Claus, Grinch,

Buddy, Elf, Buddy, Buddy, Buddy, and Buddy's Buddy. Yeah, buddy. Okay. So many elves. Um, so that was great. Uh, wanted to give River City Days a shout out. They're celebrating their 50 years this year now that we're officially in 2026 and they have a new website. It looks really nice. They even have like vendor applications and everything out there. So, congrats River City Days. Um, I'm sure we'll say it again as we get closer, but I saw that out there, so I thought I'd mention it. Um, and then the community center has punch passes and that's pretty recent development. I think that's awesome. Yeah. So, if you're like wanting to just dip your toe in

figuratively or actually at the community center, you could get some punch passes. You were waiting all night to say I wasn't just waiting for it. Um, so you could get some punch passes and see if it's something you want to actually sign up for a membership for or it's something you don't go as often. So, I thought that was pretty exciting to see. Um, speaking of the community center, Saturday, January 10th, so this Saturday at 9:00 a.m. is the Wellness Oh my gosh, now I don't have it. The Swellness Expo Southwest Chamber.

Yeah, with the chamber. So, there's a lot of good vendors at that. Um, 9:00 a.m. I think it goes till 11 or 1 or something. So, go check out um all those great wellness vendors and that's always a really good event to go to and kind of kick off your New Year's resolutions with. So, um last year they had puppies from the Humane Society. Gosh, I didn't see that for this year, but I hope so. Killed me with delight and sadness. Can't take them home.

Um and then we already talked about the MLK breakfast. Uh, I feel like I'm missing something. Maybe I'm not. Oh, um, this Saturday and they have a few events coming up. The history center has some spots left and they're getting started with genealogy. Um, so this Saturday they have a few more um through February, I think. So, on Saturdays. So, check those out. It's on their website. You can like go register there. But, it's really, really interesting stuff. in the history center always does such a good job at like doing those things like genealogy and digging into history and you know the buildings and this so this is specific to genealogy um and your family history and whatnot. So

is it in relation to Chaza or just literally finding out your own family history? My understanding was it was like in general. Oh that's really cool. Yeah. And how to like look into it. It's like instructive. Yeah. Yeah. So um there's still spots left for the Saturday. I guess I thought I'd mention the history center, too. Um, that's all I have. All right. Great report, Elise.

Uh, the only thing I wanted to share was right before the holidays, we received information back earlier this earlier in the fall, you approved an application to deed uh for Minnesota investment funds from Marada Controls, which is just north of Costco there. um they were awarded $220,000 for the creation of 29 new jobs. So that's new. It's following up on an action that you had taken before. So great report. Right. Wonderful. Uh I won't pick on Ashley in the back because she looks like anything. NHS.

Well, congratulations on your work anniversary. That's all I've got. That's amazing. That's a great report. That is good. Yeah. Very good. Um, well, we like having you here, so thanks for being a part of our team. Uh, Kristoff, nothing. No, nothing cool like her. Um, all right. Well, no worries. Uh, just a couple things that weren't covered. The state of the city address for like the community is on January 28th. It's a Thursday. Anyways, this is 28th. Wednesday. Wednesday. It's Wednesday.

It's a Wednesday. And uh and that's from 6 to 7:30. So, the speech itself will only be about like 25 minutes. But then the really cool thing as I was talking to Kevin today was that each of the city departments will have a table and they'll be talking about something in particular. Um you know I know that uh for example uh community development will be talking about this uh plaza this upcoming summer. That's the only one I know about. So I'm going to use them as an example. And if that's what he's changed his mind too bad. Now he's locked into it. Um but you know so those sort of things. So, and it sounds like there's going to be maybe like um tie-in with the arts arts consortium as well. And so, it just sounds like it's going to be the makings of a really fun and unique event.

Yeah. If you go up to the art gallery now, Steve Kelzer has his wood work uh art display and he's going to be at the event that night demonstrating some of how he puts together. He does stuff with like wood veneers and patterns and it's really impressive. So, uh, just be sort of another activity for people to be able to participate in.

Yeah. And I I just think it sounds really exciting. I appreciate all of the city staff and all of the departments kind of gearing up to do this. I think, you know, um we really enjoy doing the state of the city, uh speech and and coalition with, you know, the other communities at the southwest chamber lunchon, but that's oftentimes only heard by our business community members, which are very vital important member of the community, but I think our regular everyday, you know, citizens that live in this community um would like to kind of know what's going on, too. So, giving that opportunity. So, I'm excited. and it is at the Chesa Community Center in case I didn't say that, but the 28th 6:00 to 7:30. Um, and then the other thing that I did not write down that I thought of that Michaela may have been thinking about and I'm trying to drum it up in my head because it's happening next month and now I've lost that train of thought, but it's it's coming up. That's some sort of it's

fishing contest. Fishing contest. Thank you. The fishing contest. Thank you. It's on a lake. It is Valentine's Day. It's Valentine's Day. I know that the Polar Plunge is happening that same day. Um, and so I'm not I'm assuming our uh police are going to be jumping in again. I don't know. I haven't heard word on that, but uh but I do know that the fishing contest is happening here at Fireman's Park. I do not have the specific time. I'm hoping that Michaela can type really fast

from 1 to 3. Yeah. 3 p.m. And uh and if you if you're a community member and you're interested in in purchasing a raffle ticket, go find one of your firefighters, they're probably more than willing to sell you one or hang out in a bar long enough they'll find me long enough to find out. Yeah. Or to find them and so they'll come hit you up.

Um yeah, it's uh it's a really fun event. It's fun just to support the firefighters in the community. Um, and that money gets used towards a lot of really good things like the teddy bears that go to the kids that are affected by, you know, a fire and incident. Um, it also goes towards like team building events like the softball and some of those camaraderie events that the uh fire uh department has um and things of that nature. So, I think that's all I got. Otherwise, because Martin Luther King uh day falls on our normal council meeting day, we are pushing that meeting back to January 26, Monday. That's our next upcoming council meeting. And that's all I have. Anybody last call? Otherwise, I'd make a motion to adjurnn.

Motion to adjurnn. Okay. Second. All right. I have a motion from council member Hatfield and a second from council member GR. Any other discussion? Actually, I don't say that during this. All right. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Thank you everyone. Robert. Yes.