City Council - Regular Meeting

So I'd be happy to do that.

Yeah, great, exciting.

All right, everyone.

It is July 27th, 2026.

It's 5.30 p.m. hello we have a chatty bunch here tonight hi everyone i'm calling the city morehead city council july 27 2026 meeting to order it's 5 30 p.m i'm mayor shelley carlson the morehead city council welcomes public input on issues listed on the agenda or of general community interest time and council permitting speakers will be limited to three minutes each if you would like to address the council during the meeting you'll need to fill out a form provided by our city clerk and i will call you up during the citizens to address the council item on the agenda you'll need to state your name and if you are a morehead resident if comments were submitted to the clerk prior to the meeting via email or phone those comments will be entered into record for more information on participation please visit the council meetings page on the city of morehead website at moreheadmn.gov We, the Morad City Council, collectively and with gratitude, acknowledge the sacred land the City of Morad is built upon. We acknowledge the people who have resided here for generations and recognize that the spirit of the Dakota, Ojibwe, Métis, and all indigenous communities permeate this land. With that, could I get a roll call, please?

Ryan Nelson. Nicole Mattson. Here. Heather Niecemeyer. Here. Emily Moore. Here. Deb White. Here. Lisa Borgen. Here. Sebastian McDougall.

Here.

Chuck Hendrickson.

Here.

Mayor Shelly Carlson.

And for those who are able, please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. All right, and City Manager Molloy, do we have any agenda amendments?

There are no amendments to the agenda tonight, Mayor.

Okay, then moving on to the consent agenda. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda?

So moved. Second.

Sebastian and then Lisa. Motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, roll call vote, please.

Niesemeyer? Yes. Moore? Yes. Borgen? Yes. White? Yes. McDougall?

Aye.

Hendrickson? Aye. Matson?

Yes. All right, that motion carries. So moving on to recognitions and presentations, we have a Morehart Award tonight, so I will turn this over to our Governmental Affairs Director, Lisa Bodie.

Thank you, Mayor. On behalf of the Morehart Selection Committee, I am presenting a nomination for you and the community to celebrate tonight, and that is FM Kicks Band Executive Director Tim Johnson. Tim is being recognized for his work over the years to bring the joy of jazz to the whole FM community. Maureen Kelly-Jonason submitted Tim's nomination on behalf of the FM Kicks board, indicating that Tim has spent countless hours over the past 10 years organizing and promoting the band through his administrative talents while playing for thousands of local jazz fans. Efforts throughout the years include grant writing, fundraising, purchasing music, recruiting, arranging, and directing the band, performing for residents and students, and so much more. so much more than we think of when we watch a performance. The Summer Youth Jazz Camp is entering its third year of operation and is also run and coordinated by Tim. The nomination indicates, although his position is part-time, Tim devotes many hours to ensure that Moorhead can boast a vibrant jazz scene. So with that, Mayor Carlson, would you like to present the Moorhead Award?

Well, thank you very much. It's very honoring and humbling to accept this award, and I accept it on behalf of the FM Kicks Band. It's just a wonderful opportunity to work with the musicians in the area, and it's just humbling when these quality of musicians put up with me, you know. And I gotta say, we have our jazz festival on August 2nd, and on August 1st, at the 4M4, we have a jazz night, so come on out and share the joy of jazz with us. Thank you very much. Anybody that knows me and the band, come on up.

All right, looking right here. Three, two, one.

And thank you so much for bringing such joy to the community and teaching young kids how to do it as well. And for bringing so many people to celebrate. And I think there was one more presentation and celebration as well that Ms. Bodie wanted to present at the council meeting.

Thank you all. This is a surprise. It's not on your agenda. Our marketing and communications people are top notch. And very recently our team was recognized by the Minnesota Association of Government Communicators with a Silver Northern Lights Award. And the award is for what I call a work of art that is in Viking Ship Park right now. And that is the trailer that our parks department uses for river arts and other festivals. You see a before picture that the parks department brought to Caleb and said, what could we do to make this a little bit better? and Caleb made it a lot better. And so I wanted to recognize him because last week when we were in New Ulm, we picked up the silver award for this. And I will note that Moorhead was the only community outside of the seven county twin cities metro area that won an award. So I think we should recognize Caleb.

Can we deputize someone to, can we get someone to take the photo?

Yes. Good idea. Photo of our photo taker?

Yes. The lens off the cap, or the cap off the lens. Okay.

Congratulations, Caleb, you do incredible work for the city. And you have just given us a huge facelift with all of our graphics and the design and the work that you do throughout the city. And we are so grateful and appreciate it so much. So it is an award that is very, very deserving. So congratulations. All right, moving on to the July 13 2026. meeting minutes. Do I have a motion to approve? SO MOVED. SECOND. MOTION AND SECOND. ANY DISCUSSION? SEE NONE. ROLL CALL VOTE, PLEASE.

HENRIKSON.

START WITH ME, HUH? YES.

MCDUGAL.

AYE.

BOERGEN. YES. WHITE. YES. MOORE. YES. NIESEMEIER. YES. MATSEN. YES.

ALL RIGHT. THAT MOTION CARRIES. All right, we are down to 14A. And I will, yep, 14A, we will turn this over to Travis Schmidt with Moran Public Service.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members. I just wanted to present to you tonight the S-1 agreement extension with Missouri River Energy Services. This has been a long-standing, multi-decade agreement we've had with MRES, and roughly about every 10 years we go through the process of extending that agreement. BEFORE THAT WE WILL TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT WESTERN AREA POWER ADMINISTRATION. WESTERN AREA POWER ADMINISTRATION IS OUR FIRM ELECTRIC SERVICE SO WE GET THEIR POWER FIRST AND ANYTHING ABOVE AND BEYOND THAT IS SUPPLEMENTAL POWER FROM MISSOURI RIVER ENERGY SERVICES. THAT'S WHY THEY CALL IT THE S-1 AGREEMENT. Again, this is done for a multitude of things. Again, a lot of things are to clean up things that have changed in the last 10 years, like environmental attributes, renewable energy certificates. Those are some of the main changes that you'll see in the agreement. Now, the S-1 changes are very immaterial overall. It's just cleaning up what they've got for that and extending it for the next year. So the contract, if approved tonight, will end in 2067, not 2057. That's a current one. If you guys also approve it tonight, this will be the sixth amendment to this contract that we've had. Again, MRES is a fantastic partner for Moorhead and Moorhead Public Service. They do a lot above and beyond just supplying that supplemental power, such as leadership training. They also do energy services, rebates for us and help us out with those whether it's a project in town or a customer project they they come in they evaluate they help with the rebate process as well too besides that they also provide a lot of our media or and or flyers that we have as well too so again great partnership it's been long lasting and we're just requesting that you approve this the mps commission did approve this last tuesday attorney shockley and attorney bulger have both reviewed this and are comfortable with the approval

All right, thank you. Any questions from Council Member Niesmeyer?

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Could you tell us, should people be interested in reviewing the contract and the changes, the only way for them to see it would be to look in our City of Moorhead packet, or is there a space like MPS agendas and packets or on the website for Moorhead Public Service that people could look and see those changes in those six amendments, for example, if they were interested in reviewing that sort of information?

Correct. Yep. You can just email MPS and we will provide the tract or strike and underlying changes that are available.

Excellent. I know there's always conversation about what goes into energy and energy costs. And I know that there is an open utility process for changing rates. but when we look at contracts that go to 2067, people might have just an extra interest in sort of looking at some of those terms and conditions and what that extra energy means to us at Morehead Public Service as co-op owners.

Yep, correct. And I will just add to that. MRES follows a very similar process that Morehead and Morehead Public Service does when it comes to rates. Typically they look at it on an annual basis and they also forecast out several years as well too, so.

Excellent, thank you.

Any other questions or comments? If not, I would entertain a motion to approve this resolution.

So moved, Niesemeyer. Second, Moore.

Motion and a second. Any other discussion? If not, roll call vote, please.

Borgen? Yes. McDougall?

Aye.

Hendrickson?

Aye.

Mattson? Yes. Niesemeyer? Yes. Moore? Yes. White? Yes.

All right, and that motion carries. And I need to go back to citizens to address the council because I inadvertently had to cross that off my list. So if there are any citizens who wish to address the council at this time, you're more than welcome to. I don't have any up here, so. All right, I'm moving back onto the agenda to 16A, and I will turn this over to our police chief, Chris Helmock.

Good evening, Mayor, council members. We're here to talk to you tonight about an opportunity that we have as a department, and we need your permission to move ahead. One of the priorities for our department is to improve our organizational culture, and with that is to enhance our efforts to improve our employee wellness. And we're here tonight to present to you an opportunity that we have to really take a huge step towards making that improvement, and not only for our department, but also for our regional partners in both North Dakota and Minnesota. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Assistant Chief Bill Alfelt, who is going to talk to you a little bit more about this opportunity. He's actually spearheading this effort in our department. So turn it over to Bill.

Well, thank you, Chief. Council members, thank you for just giving me opportunity here to talk about what I think is a really good opportunity that we have coming to us, hopefully, if we're allowed to apply for a grant, and if we're offered this grant, we accept it. I'd like to give you a brief explanation of what we're talking about. So this is a grant that's offered by the Office of Community-Oriented Policing, or COPS. COPS is out of the U.S. Department of Justice. And this grant is provided, it's a Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness Act grant. And there's an acronym for it, but I'm not even going to try it because it's a long one. It's offered to state, local, tribal, and territorial law enforcement agencies. It would cover the fiscal years of 2027, 2028. No match is required. So if we were to receive this grant, it would cost us nothing. And we're asking for a $250,000 grant. The basic purpose of the grant is to implement new or enhance existing programs that offer training and services to support officers and mental health. And for us, this would be new. It would provide counseling programs, peer mentoring, suicide prevention programs, and stress reduction programs. It seeks to increase the delivery and access to mental health and wellness services in three ways. Increase law enforcement agency capacity to provide mental health training and resources. Increase law enforcement agency capacity to implement peer support networks for crisis and non-crisis circumstances. And increase law enforcement agency capacity to create a culture of wellness by supporting the implementation of mental health education and development of those resources. Working with a group called Trauma Matters, who provides a network of therapists and counselors who are specifically trained to work with first responders, both in person and online, we would hope to, if receiving this grant, make all of those things possible for not only the Morehead Police Department, but others in our region. The way we would have written this grant and would like to apply for is The grant would allow all active or retired sworn or civilian law enforcement employees with 100 miles of moorhead to work with a trauma matters therapist free of charge. And so this could be either teletherapy or in-person therapy. Something Trauma Matters has done in the past and would do if we were to receive this and move into Minnesota is they would allow for training of individuals. And they would actually look for individuals locally who could do in-person therapy in Moorhead. There are currently ones already in Fargo. But... we would be the first group to do this in Minnesota using this grant. And so it would take them some time to come in and do that. Right away, they could provide teletherapy and therapists could be used in Fargo for this to work. So that 100 miles is only in Minnesota and North Dakota. It doesn't extend. It technically could extend into South Dakota, but we've written it to only stay in Minnesota and North Dakota. And it would keep it in basically the Red River Valley, maybe just a little bit further out. But would open up these types of therapeutic services with counselors that are trained specifically to deal with first responders and some of the things that they deal with, especially for extended periods of time within the profession. And so it's just an incredible opportunity from multiple different levels. We met with our city finance office who's prepared to manage the financial side of the program if awarded, mainly by helping pay invoices. and assist with information quarterly for the quarterly reporting, which would come from my office, but with their assistance. So that's a little bit of the who, what, when, where, why, how, or who, what, when, where, and how, but here's the why. Law enforcement officers are called to this job and respond to years of traumatic events, and we know we're going to see those traumatic events when we're called to them. But those who are called would not have it any other way Accumulative trauma from responding traumatic events can take its toll on the officer though And so just some brief stats as to why we might want to do this not only for City of Moorhead officers, but those in the region to be a regional leader in that regard on average 184 officers died by suicide each year and Studies have shown that cumulative trauma over long law enforcement careers leave 67% of veteran officers with some symptoms of PTSD. And many times this is underreported. So that's what's reported just because of stigma that is surrounded not only in society, but in our profession, which if this program is brought in, we would try to bring training to change that culture. That's that culture change piece. It would bring mainly preventative therapy and that's what, if allowed to apply for this grant, we would want to use the majority of that for preventative therapy and even post PTSD therapy. So preventative therapy, if our younger officers start seeing therapists just briefly, occasionally, strengthens the body's natural recovery processes during traumatic events. reduces the consolidation of traumatic memories, and builds resilience before trauma occurs. So that's pre-PTSD. We could do this right away in their careers. Post-PTSD, it's also very helpful. Shown reduced distressing symptoms, restoring control, changes harmful thought patterns, process traumatic memories, reduce avoidance behaviors, improves mood, sleep, physical health, all things that In law enforcement and first response, we see a lot of issue with built coping skills and resilience. And then the other side of this grant, it would provide resources for peer support. So our agency currently has a peer support team, has multiple members that we do fairly regular training with. This would allow us to enhance our training with other portions of its money if we were rewarded it. But what peer support does for an agency A peer support team normalizes stress reactions and prevents long-term harm, provides on-scene or near on-scene emotional stabilization, provides debriefing after critical incidents, They provide a shared experience, and that's why we have a peer support team is there are oftentimes a lot of people don't understand what we see or what we've done other than others that have done it. And it's also another very important part to this is if law enforcement or first responders go to therapists who aren't trained to deal with law enforcement or first responders and to hear some of the stories they might tell. I've actually heard stories of coworkers where they go in to try to get some help, and the therapist says, I can't listen to that. I'm going to have to leave. This doesn't happen with that. And it's the reason why we want to have a specially trained therapist in this regard if we were to get this grant. And it's the same reason why we have peer support also, is there's a shared experience and there's an understanding of what's going on. Peer support helps connect staff to professional mental health resources, strengthen the agency culture and awareness, and maintain operational readiness. So they're always looking out for people that might be exhibiting signs of post-traumatic stress or some type of stress from the job and look to prevent it. So that's a brief, somewhat brief explanation of what we'd like to do here with this grant if allowed to apply and hopefully receive it. So I'm prepared to answer any questions.

All right, thank you. Any questions or comments? Councilmember White.

Thank you. First, I want to just speak in support. I think this is fantastic. I know when we were able to secure some funding earlier to hire Dr. Erin Sumola-Folkert, that was a resource that we were able to share with our officers. And I know that that is not something that they had in many other law enforcement agencies in our region. And so right from the start we were a model for what we could do to provide that kind of really necessary support. And so I think it's wonderful and I really hope that we are able to do this and that then brings more resources, we can support more officers and hopefully see them doing more in other areas as well. My only question was, you mentioned first responders. So I wondered, is this strictly law enforcement or could we also allow our firefighters to participate in these programs too? Because as the daughter of a firefighter who I know my dad still talks about things that were 50 years ago, those things just don't go away. And so if we were able to do that, if not, I hope we'll pursue things like that in the future. So if you could address that question, but I'm 100% behind this. Thanks.

Most definitely. I appreciate that. First off, Dr. Aaron is an incredible resource for our agency, does a phenomenal job. And he's already starting to do a one-year check-in with all of our officers. That's something that was implemented this year of as hopefully looking forward to next year and being able to do this type of thing. He's preparing them for it and doing a phenomenal job in that regard. Yes, when I saw this opportunity come up, I actually asked, would fire be included in this? And because it's a COPS grant, it's a Department of Justice grant, the answer would be no. Would definitely be a good thing to look into for our fire Department also is there also on a daily basis exposed a lot of traumatic incidents that they know they're going to see they signed up for it to understand it, but also would be great to receive some help to prevent some of these things. So we looked at it. We thought about it.

Member Morgan.

Thanks, I totally support this as well. I think it's a great opportunity. I had a chance to go to the Chamber's event last week where our chief and the other three chiefs, local chiefs talked about things that are happening in law enforcement. And I think sometimes we as the public hear a lot about mental health of the people that they run into and how we need more mental health services. And we kind of forget that the people who have to deal with this trauma every day also need some support. So I think this is wonderful. And I just want to give a shout out to our chief, you did a great job really representing more head in that discussion. So thank you so much.

Council Member Matson. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Also supportive, I do have questions. I don't want you to read my questions as anything negative or anything like that. So what is the length of this grant if we were to receive it?

This is a two-year grant. There's possibility for extensions also if for some reason it wasn't fully spent.

Okay, do we have a plan then for how to sustain these programs after the period of the grant ends or is that something we're considering or thinking about looking forward?

So in all reality, this is a program that was being run on the North Dakota side and it's going to be running out in 2020 and at the end of this year, at the end of 2026, it's been extended. So it's something that we've seen and that the chief and I are both very familiar with from our former employment. We've seen that it works, but it's very hard for an agency to reapply And so what we're hoping to do here is build a little bit of support, not only on the North Dakota side, which we already have, but on the Minnesota side where we can say to other agencies then, all right, let's keep this ball rolling. Let's keep everybody in the same area and you reapply the next year and you reapply the next year. That's what we're hoping to do with this, but it's good. It would be hard to reapply for this same grant just by the way that it's offered from the Department of Justice.

Right, so I think that's a really good plan and if that doesn't happen, I just want us to be thinking about if these are things that you need, I want us to be thinking about how we can get them to you even if this isn't the way. If this way doesn't work in two years or we don't have another mechanism to get this, I want to make sure that you guys have what you need and so I do want us to be thinking about if we can't make that plan work, what do we do next?

I agree with you 100% on that. I'd love to see this work in many other ways. So thank you.

Yep. And my last question was, is there, because this is a hundred mile radius, is there any particular administrative burden on you beyond the reporting? I mean, are you having to facilitate things or do the individual agencies take care of that for themselves?

How this will work, I'll only have to do quarterly reporting. That'll be with the help of finance. They'll keep all the numbers and be able to provide reports from what I've heard in the discussion we've had with them so far. The only other obligation I have, and I would continue this even after the grant expires, is there's a committee being formed of all the agencies that are being affected. And so I would remain on that committee.

Okay, thank you very much.

Thank you.

Council Member Niesmeyer.

Madam Mayor, again, in complete support, I have lots of questions for you. Wonderful. I heard asked about how this differs. You talked about how it will extend the support for first responders. You clarified for Council Member White that it was specific to sworn police officers only. Does that alleviate some of Dr. Aaron's and any of Dr. Aaron's time that is being spent since we will be able to have additional services to be able to support fire in that. I heard you interchangeably say first responders and police officers, and I got really excited that more could be included with this. So knowing that we already have Dr. Aaron on contract to do some support, I am curious if that for his allocated hours, we would have support to share with some of our fire folks. Do you anticipate that? I have no idea the details of his contract and what that would look like. You did say that you're doing the checkup once a year at least. for all folks, which I think is excellent. And I don't know how many firefighters we have that would be interested in it. But as you said, everybody who is responding to calls potentially has some engagement with traumatic occurrences. And that is not only traumatic, but the potential for secondary trauma and PTSD is great. for all of our first responders. And so I'm just sort of brainstorming here and thinking.

Right. So this would not replace Dr. Aaron. It would be as a supplement to him. So Dr. Aaron has taken a pretty substantial period of time to do those checkups that we were talking about and still is not complete. And so we have to see exactly how long that will take, but it's taking a substantial period of time. He is there, he's not a full-time employee by any means. He's a contract employee. And I know that he gives of his own free time quite a bit for the stipend that he's getting. So I don't know how far we'd wanna go down that road with adding more work to Dr. Aaron. This would supplement some of the things he's doing. The grant is being written not only for police officers, but civilian employees at the police department also. Where I was talking about first responders, just to clarify, is the therapists are trained in working with first responders. But this grant in and of itself is for police officers and for civilian employees at the police department. And so what Dr. Aaron is doing is he's also providing a little bit of that direction to our peer support team. He's there weekly, for sure, looking around. making sure checking it to make sure peer support team is doing well and checking in with people that he works with. We don't know who they are, but he's checking in with people that he works with. And so I hope that answers some of your questions. I would hate to burden Dr. Aaron with adding more to a contract employee who's, he's giving a lot of his own free time.

And I don't want people to work for free. As a union supporter and contract laborer, I think it's very important. He brings an outstanding skill set as well. And so as Councilmember Mattson had said, even beyond the fiscal year 27 and fiscal year 28, if we see a need among our civilian staff and our Firefighters, I know Sanford is an ambulance and that's sort of tangential, right? But look for that need and if there is a need, I think we should explore it. I think that is something, hearing your stats, we're very moving. Our previous chief had shared some new sworn officers experience like in my first three months I experienced one death and we had one new human who in their first three months had nine and I was like oh that is a little bit of a difference now of course times have changed our community has grown and the world has changed a great deal and so knowing that but also knowing more about humans and the need to care for not just the neck down, but the neck up as well is really important. And the call rates for mental health calls, I've only ridden along once and it still sits with me. Some of those important engagement elements that we have with folks who they themselves are dealing with mental health crises and it is not a criminal sort of engagement which I'm sure y'all dress for criminal engagement and like fun stuff. I shouldn't say fun stuff but that sort of activity but in reality that is not necessarily what happens day to day that there is a lot of layers to go into that. And so looking forward, my hope is that we could look to expand services. I don't know if that was part of your spiel or your committee is visiting, but I anticipate the police office departments up and down the Red River Valley also have colleagues that are not sworn officers that are also doing fire that are doing lots of things in our community. And so if that topic were to come up and we could have federal or state to state grants to support that, I think that would be absolutely outstanding. I also like the idea of trading. Be like, if Fargo just did it and Moorhead does it now, maybe Grand Forks takes it next time. I enjoy that collaborative element, but also having this rise to the surface I think is of the utmost importance. And so being able to be preventative and be supportive not only of the sworn officers, but their families and our civilian staff as well is incredibly important. And so the $250,000 I think is kind of small really, but my hope is that you and finance are able to manage it and manage it well and look forward to planning for the future for a really, really supported first responder group. And I'm speaking broadly beyond just the COPS federal grant.

Thank you. Any other comments or questions from council members?

Can I move to approve authorizing submission of the Fiscal Year 26 Startup Law Enforcement Mental Health Wellness Act program grant?

Second. Okay, I have a motion and a second. Again, any other discussion? If not, roll call vote, please.

Neesemeyer? Yes. Moore? Yes. White? Yes. Borgen? Yes. McDougall? Aye. Hendrickson? Aye. Mattson?

Yes. right and that motion carries so congratulations uh go ahead and good luck on getting the grant application in and hopefully we'll get good news soon thank you thank you all right moving on to mayor and council reports do any council members have any reports from boards or committee assignments this month councilmember white

Thank you, Mayor. I attended an age-friendly Moorhead meeting on the 15th, and I wanted to share a couple of questions that came up. And these are some things I can let our city manager know, and we can follow up on them later. But they did have questions, first of all, if we know of any developers that are looking at building 55 and older housing. And I know that that's an ongoing issue. And it was a good question and also another reason for us to look, I think, at more incentives or things that we could do to encourage that type of development. I also had a question about lighting on 50th Ave as you go towards Bluestem. We've got a lot of folks, but a good number of seniors that are walking their dogs there. And when the days are short, they would really like some more lighting in that area. And I wanted to mention that they are working to bring in some folks to do a presentation for developers on universal design. And so as we're looking at talking with developers about putting in new housing, if we put in things that apply universal design methods so that these are units that are much more accessible than maybe your typical design for housing units then that increases the pool of places where people can live on the 15th and the 20th i attended map bus meetings and i just wanted to mention that julie bommelman who was the coordinator for map bus is has retired she was on a leave and then is retired and so we are in the process of reviewing applications so i'm on the search committee along with some city staff and others from our other partners and it's nice we have a good pool of applicants and hopefully we'll know within the next month or so month who our next coordinator for map bus will be On the 15th, I attended a Red River Recovery Initiative meeting. And I just wanted to mention, because we had a second presentation on kratom. And if you're not aware of what kratom is, it's something that's becoming an increasing issue, not just in our community, but in others. This is something that in many ways has similar, it's similar in terms of how it impacts the effects of the brain and things like that, similar to opioids. But it doesn't respond to naloxone and it's currently unregulated by the federal government It's considered sort of a health supplement and so you can buy it in convenience stores and things like that but we're starting to see a growing number of overdoses from Kratom and so just working at if you're hearing about this in our community as well as lots of other places this is becoming a an increased health problem all over the country on the 22nd i attended the river arts festival and it was a really special one because it was the indigenous takeover and so i wanted to just give thanks to brandon beatty from the indigenous association and to one of our city staff members steve french because this was a great example of a good collaboration where we brought in a community organization brandon worked at having all indigenous community members participate in activities. So there was traditional drumming, prayer, traditional dance, an indigenous rapper, a fashion show from an indigenous fashion designer, and lots of great food. And so great example. I'd love to see more things like that. And so many thanks to Brandon Beatty and to Steve French. On the 23rd, I attended a CAP LP meeting and wanted to mention a couple things. One is that we did get an update on the homeless outreach in our community, but particularly here in Moorhead. They said here in Moorhead, they are having great partnerships with our Moorhead Police Department and also with river keepers. And so identifying folks that maybe are encampments, along the river, sleeping in cars, and that they have been able to get many of those folks into some housing. One of the things that they mentioned is that the heat and the smoke has been really challenging. We're all struggling with that, but when you are unhoused and you don't have any place to go, it's particularly challenging. one of the things that the homeless outreach staff have been doing is freezing bottles of water and bringing them around to folks that they are um meeting um who are currently unhoused in the um through their outreach um but it's something to think about as we see this more often that we're seeing these long periods uh i know council member niecemeyer and i attended a workshop on how cities respond to extreme heat. And so some places are looking at, you know, we have warming places in the winter, maybe we should start thinking about cooling places in the summer for folks that don't have access to cooler places to stay safe when we have these extended periods of very high temperatures. And the last, oh, and the other thing I will mention, two other things with CAPLP, they were able to get over a half a million dollars from the state that will be used for homeless prevention and assistance, and this is part of the funds that were allocated by the legislature, by the state for, in response to Operation Metro Surge, that we know that there were a lot of people throughout the state but including in our area who were adversely affected by operation metro surge and this is necessary or very helpful funding that can help folks that couldn't go to work you know for a lot of other reasons were harmed and were at risk of losing their housing and then lastly a really exciting thing that cap lp did if you didn't see is they had their work camps so this has been in our area they just finished up last Saturday, Friday, I think, there were 275 kids from all over the United States and Japan who camped out in Barnesville and then were in different places doing service projects. They did, I think, 17 projects in Moorhead, and most of them are projects where if you have, say, a household that needs a ramp, or they talked about, we had one gentleman who was living in a in a trailer home, not only did he need a ramp, but for his limited mobility, but for years he's had a hole in the floor of his kitchen, and so would have to work his way in his wheelchair around this hole through the floor in his kitchen, and they were able to make some very necessary repairs. So big shout out to CAPLP for their work camp and all of the great projects that the kids did. And lastly, I attended this weekend the Volunteers for Ukraine Social at Riverview Estates. And it was a great event, nice opportunity for the community to come together and also show support for our friends from Ukraine who are staying with us and just wanted to mention too many of those folks right now are at risk of losing their TPS, their temporary protected status. That's due to expire in October. And many of them are also having difficulty receiving work permits. And so anything if we can just raise awareness about that. We've got folks in our community that don't have a safe home to go back to in their home country. And we should do all that we can to to make them feel welcome and supported while they're here. Thank you.

All right. Council Member Ines Meyer, then Council Member Moore.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I have several meetings that I'd love to report on as well as some upcoming events. SWAC, Solid Waste Advisory Committee, met on July 23rd. As I mentioned at our shindig, also known as a council meeting two weeks ago, we were able to announce a $2 million grant. Specifically, this is a five-year grant from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, or MPCA, for $2 million with a $.75 million match. over that five years for organic composting within Clay County. There is a group of residents as well as the Clay County solid waste staff that worked together to put in that MPCA grant and are currently working on that grant signing contract in order to start work on getting quotes for the work to lay down an organic composting pad as well as the machinery to enable that. new action and again the organic composting is not going to start with residents instead it is going to start with large agencies that create a lot of organic waste like school districts long-term care facilities colleges universities and a variety of other spaces that serve a lot of folks food and other organic waste materials. Solid waste committee advised and sent forth a tipping fee increase of $4 that would total a tipping fee of $60 and that pays for the Red River resource recovery center, the salaries at the RRC and the landfill for the Clay County. Also a fee proposal for $5 increase per parcel fee is being proposed to the county board. Look for that coming up. Also on July 23rd, the Resource Recovery Center Advisory Committee met, and so that was myself, Councilmember Hendrickson, as well as Paul and Randy from our own City of Moorhead Public Works, met with Commissioners Mojo and Campbell, and Corey Bang, the Solid Waste Director, about our current contract for the Resource Recovery Center. It looks like things that are going quite well. The City of Moorhead has reduced our staff from two to one, and we're currently assessing needs and looking at redundancies to see if that one position needs to be filled. The county said that they will wait to receive an addendum for reporting and responsibilities changes if that needs to be done in the coming years after the assessment of staffing has been done or completed. Upcoming this week. We have Moorhead Public Housing Agency is meeting tomorrow. We'll be reviewing the budget as well as security updates for the last couple of months. If you would like to join us, we'll be at Fieldcrest Townhomes tomorrow, Tuesday. July 28th at 1130. Also coming up is Night to Unite, which is Tuesday, August 4th. Thank you to all of the neighborhoods who signed up for a shindig, a party in your driveway, your street. I know that our first responders really look forward to getting out. I do not have a car with flashing lights, nor do I have stickers, but I am looking forward to seeing lots of families out visiting with their neighbors, enjoying games, food, and lots of other things. I'd love to see you if i don't catch you please reach out and send me a note if you are getting together outside of august 4th i know a work night is always tricky to get folks together so some people choose to schedule their community gathering together and council member moore and i would love to schedule a time to meet with your neighborhood so that is all for my updates

Council Member Moore.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. All right, so I had the West Central Initiative on July 16th, and just wanted to report a couple of things out from that. And one is that we had a great presentation from Susan Brower, who is our state demographer. So she studies growth and changes within our state. And she just wanted to let us know and have us be prepared in thinking about our future as the growth is decelerating. So that's due to falling birth rates, folks dying and then also pretty extreme drop in international migration right now. So as we face this slow or this deceleration of growth, one thing to strongly consider is increased efforts to staff critical workforce areas, because that could be a coming challenge for us. So I just wanted to share that piece of information. The revolving loan fund is in great shape. The comprehensive economic development plan is in great shape. One piece of not so great news is that there's a couple of executive orders out there, 14154 and 14260, that are aimed at punishing organizations that believe in climate change or extreme weather patterns that are happening right now. And the West Central Initiative does believe in those things. We have it on our website and really focus efforts to help mitigate that within communities. And because of that language, we are expecting to lose about 70K in funding from a federal grant next year. But knowing that that's coming, we are preparing for it. But I just wanted to share that. Thank you.

Council Member Neesmaier.

Sorry, Madam Mayor, I forgot one thing. I was meeting with a resident this morning with Council Member Moore, and they mentioned they had never heard of the 11th Street and 14th Street corridor study. And so as a reminder, the survey is currently open and available on the city's website through this Friday, July 31st. And the interest is in collecting data and information around the 11th Street and the 14th Street corridors. They are currently one-ways. They are seeing about people's thoughts and feelings about walking, biking, and driving in those spaces. And we would love to have more engagement. There have already been over 300 folks who have engaged in the survey. They had an open house a couple of weeks ago. but really just to push that out one more time on a public forum to get out there and complete that survey. It's really quite short, and any and all public feedback is really appreciated.

All right. Any other council members with reports? All right, from Mayor Ports, I met with several individuals who are looking to start businesses here in the city of Moorhead. Also, myself with several council members, we attended an event that was held by Churches United to look at some of their future plans as far as what they are hoping to do as far as expanding in the community selling the Dorothy Day House and things of that nature. Just really appreciate the work that they do in our community. We had our last Safe City Night and Sergeant Scott Kostorich is in the room and just want to extend a lot of gratitude to you and also our Parks Department for putting on some exceptional events. the community in various parts of the city. It was very very well attended and just very well put together. So thank you for doing that every single summer. Also attended a ribbon-cutting for a new home that Habitat for Humanity is building in the city of Moorhead. This is a single gentleman who has a daughter that is moving to Moorhead now from West Fargo and she's excited to become a spud this fall and Habitat has three other homes that they're going to be building in the city as well So there are going to be a number of people who now will be able to have a place that they get to call home Fairly soon also the chief and the assistant chief of police and I met with a leadership from the United Liberian Association of North Dakota. They also participate and have individuals from Clay County as part of that organization and a lot of great information was shared and I think that there are gonna be some unique BE DONE BETWEEN COLLABORATION BETWEEN THE POLICE DEPARTMENT AND THE UNITED LIBERIAN ASSOCIATION AS WELL. THAT IS ALL I HAVE. SO I WILL TURN IT OVER TO YOU, CITY MANAGER MOLLY.

THANK YOU, MAYOR. NO UPDATE OTHER THAN REAL QUICKLY, UNITE UNITE ON AUGUST 4TH. WE'LL SEE EVERYBODY OUT THERE. JUST WANTED TO LET THE COUNCIL Leanna Secord and our police departments putting together all of the neighborhood block group parties and events. So I checked in with her today and that's still coming together. We have folks that are still sending in their parties. So there's going to be a lot. So you'll get a list of those in your ward along with addresses and a map and other information coming later this week. Thank you.

All right, thank you. And we do not have an executive session and no new business. So it is 622. And with that, we are adjourned. So good night, Moorhead.