City Council - Regular Meeting

All right. Call to order the City of Canon Falls City Council meeting, Tuesday, December 2nd. Roll call, please. Diane Johnson, here. Zimmerman, absent. Chad Johnson, here. Jeepson here. Novach here. Croninburgger here. Montgomery absent. Okay. Stand for the pledge of allegiance, please. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Can I get an approval for the agenda, please? So moved.

Second. Uh, first by Nobach, a second by Diane Johnson. All in favor? I.

Motion carries. Um, no one signed up for public input tonight. So, we can move on to the consent agenda. The consent agenda items may be adopted under one motion as presented or may be removed for discussion and resolution as council business. A just and correct claims accounting period ending November 25th, 2025. B. Meeting minutes for November 18th, 2025 city council meetings. Uh C. Approve gambling premises permit application for St. Pius Church. [snorts] D. Approve city hall closure request. E. Approve health insurance memorandum of understanding for 49ers union. F. Approve pay equity report 2025. G. Approve Minnesota paid leave law implementation. H. Approve wastewater treatment plant headworks professional services agreement. I resolution 2846 accepting $1,000 donation from invenergy to the fire department. J. Resolution 2847 approving state of Minnesota joint powers agreements with the city of cannonballs on behalf of its city attorney and police department. Okay. Introduction and first reading of ordinance 413, an ordinance amending city code title 11 relating to fees, charges, and rates. And L, approve 2026 CEDA community development contract. Any items anyone would like to pull down or discuss or can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda?

Um, I was just going to not pull it down, but just comment on one. Okay. uh on K the uh ordinance thing or the fees charges rates. Just my thanks to John and and your staff for not not in uh increasing the uh water sewer rates this year to hold them steady and also for extending the summer sewer credit through the month of October. So thank you.

Yes. Yeah. the I do believe there the impact is um probably going to be offset by you know more homes coming in. Uh so that's more usage within our community anticipating what we'll have. So I don't believe like the revenue is going to be anything negatively impact. So it wasn't it it didn't change on on the sewer side for for the budgeting purposes. But thank you. I'll make a motion to approve. Second. Okay. Okay. A a motion to approve by Chad Johnson and a second by Lisa. All in favor? I I.

Motion carries. Um moves us to reports. Does sometimes um Maggie asked somebody to speak on behalf of the chamber? Anyone? No, she hadn't. But I would just put in the announcements today was her last day as chamber director. Um they the chamber board meets next week Friday uh to discuss um filling the position and they did invite me to uh participate in that conversation. So I'll be on the Zoom call with them because I'll be up in Little Falls working that day. But Okay. Um they did deck the falls and I know that was a success.

Yes. Yeah. I was I was here for that. It it looked like um despite the weather everything went off pretty well.

Yeah. Okay. um library board. Um the only update from that meeting is that we updated the library card policy. So now we do not have an age limit, a bottom age limit for getting library cards. So now you just have to be born to be able to get one. So, up until last month, the rule was kind of putting a block in in the way. It was you had to be six or finished kindergarten. And we were really the only library in the area that had that barrier to access. So, we removed it. And now, like all of the other libraries around us, you have to be born. So,

come and get them. They have to show ID. [laughter] Not the infant. Okay. This kid. All right. And then the joint powers um trail met at uh last week. Nope. It was canceled. Oh, perfect. I'm not perfect, but [laughter] sorry. Mark that one off the list. I I actually don't think they meet in November and January, right? They normally do in They normally meet in November, right? But December, January, they don't. Okay. Okay. And then um go around the room. Um Nicole, do you have anything else you would like to share with us?

Sure. Yep. So, we have some good things coming up this month. Uh I do want to um give a little bit of a recap for Deck the Falls. We had 97 people come to the story time with Santa for Deck the Falls, which is pretty standard amount, but you know, good fun. Um, John said that he liked it. So, I was I was there.

Yep. So, yeah, we had a good crowd. And we have a couple of fun programs coming up this month. On the 13th, we have a holiday cooking compet cookie competition. Sorry, not cooking. We don't have the facility to cook, but we have a competition for holiday cookies at noon. So, bake some, eat some, come to the library. All right. Cookies are always fun. And on the 17th at 5:00 p.m., the CVS Canon Valley I can't remember the words. Holiday. They're having a holiday concert and sing along. So, the singers are going to be doing a holiday concert and sing along. So, Oh, the senior center. That's it. Hannah Valley Senior Center. So, please come to the library for that. We are going to have a Grinch story time this month, too, on one of our Thursdays. I for the Thursday right before before Christmas. We will be closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. And other than that, we will have regular hours this month.

Can I just [clears throat] part of the library board um meeting? I thought it was interesting. We had the numbers from um from Halloween. Yeah, I thought I found that num number to be very interesting. Was it like 1100 pieces of candy, 1100 kids or what was it? We had Okay, so I count every single person who who comes to the library for the trick-or- treat trot and we had 1,441. 1400. Yeah. It's just a lot of people that come through and that's an impressive number. That's all. Yeah. And some of them say, "Can we use the bathroom?" And then some say, "Let's go check out books." And we say, "Go ahead." Yeah. [laughter] All right. Thank you,

Izzy.

Uh, I'm just going to provide a little update on the fair zone ordinance um that was discussion of last planning commission. Um, so this Friday, I'm going to hold time at city hall um for community members, anybody to come in and just share their thoughts or ideas on on that fair zone ordinance. um just an opportunity for people to provide their input before we make more changes or or bring it to planning commission for action. Um so anyone can stop in at city hall 8 am to 4:30 um and just come provide their thoughts and their input. We had a meeting with the fair board uh last night um to speak. Not we didn't have as many community members show up. I think only one community member came. Um so that's why this Friday if anyone wants to come speak about that fair um zone, this is an opportunity for them to do that again before we have um action on that item.

Okay. And um is that proposed ordinance available online? It is not at the moment. Um would it be or is that not allowed? if it was part of the planning commission packet and I think that is is that but that's not online is it? Yeah. Oh [laughter]

yeah we can we'll put we'll put the the old version of that but I I'll add to the comments from from last night's meeting. We you know we are already discussing u potential reduction of number of motorized events limitations on different motorized events. There was there were a lot of um positive things I think that came out of that uh conversation and and direction. So in terms of where we stand will we have something that is ready for decision on next Monday's planning commission? [clears throat] I I don't believe so. Um I think there's there I getting that input and buy in and asurances from the neighborhood is I feel is really important. So um you know [clears throat] that's why we want to make sure that there's there's time for for people to come um and share their input and that that will go into the consideration. We'll share that uh information with the planning commission. So, and the intent would be if it isn't ready for decision, then Monday's meeting will be just more just discussion about changes and things to bring back and uh to a final version.

So, just Izzy, if people can't make it on Friday, are they allowed to email you? That's welcome, I would assume, and all that. Yep, absolutely. They can email me any ideas or thoughts. Um my email's on the website. Um so anyone can send what they have or ideas if they can't um stop in on Friday. Great. Thanks. Okay, Bill. Anything from you today?

Two items. Uh lead service inventory. So just if everybody recalls last spring, uh we did a lead service inventory. Uh that was paid for by a grant from the state and then we did it again in October. And one of the things that's come out of that or after that is we have to notify anybody in the city in perpetuity if they either have a lead service line or they have an unknown service line. So we've been getting some questions of why am I getting this letter and because maybe they participated they had an inspection but that would take care of their the line in their house. So we have to categorize everybody's service line by what's in the house and then what's what we call the city side. So basically from the road to the curb stop. So if we being the city don't know what the material is just because it was maybe built in the 50s or 60s or 70s they still get a letter and they will continue to get a letter. So there's been a little confusion about that. Maybe some of you received a letter as well. So we will do that every year until we eliminate all the unknowns. So now how are we going to eliminate the unknowns is we did apply for a grant preliminarily. We have received said grant. Uh the details are still forthcoming. Uh but what that means is in 2026 we will have a grant to replace lead service lines and to eliminate more of the unknowns. So which is great great news for the city. Uh is there a immediate problem or health concern? No. Uh but this is being proactive. This is the state being proactive and the city being proactive. So again just wanted to pass that along. Uh the second item is also we did receive last year if you recall a PAS grant. So PAS, those are the forever chemicals that are in our wastewater discharge, not in our drinking water, they're in our wastewater. So we continue to work on that. Uh doing sampling throughout the city and trying to identify the sources and they will be meeting with those industries and doing items to correct that uh to help remove that from our discharge.

Uh that's it. Thank you. if I'm assuming that some of [clears throat] the folks that got the unknown letter can I mean I know that you guys aren't sitting around waiting but can they still have someone come out and and check it or is that they can yeah so what I would do is have them call city hall get a hold of Jed uh and and actually a lot of the unknowns are on the city side so you can't actually tell unless you dig a hole to [clears throat] basically dig it out so but yes we'd Definitely if someone uh did not get an inspection here in October, please reach out and we'll make sure that happens. Okay.

Okay, Jed.

Um just a reminder that uh winter parking uh uh ordinance is in effect. Uh so no street parking from midnight to 6:00 a.m. uh from November 1st to March 30th. I'd like to thank the police department for uh going out during this last snowstorm and reminding uh many residents of that and they were able to clear many cars off the street. So, the public works staff was able to do a pretty good job at at getting everything cleaned up and in in one one shot. Um and the other thing I have is uh now that we have snow on the ground, uh we can burn our brush pile. So, we were planning on doing that on Monday. Uh so if yeah if you see a big gold [laughter] cloud of smoke coming out of uh public works down there it's just the brush pile. So thank you.

Yeah, Chief McCormack. A couple of things. Uh Duck the Falls is uh behind us. Yep.

For the police department. That's the last real big event we have for uh 2025. Uh we will uh start planning our 2026 events. um in March and April so we can get that ahead of console before uh those start up. Um but in only a few short months the events will start up again. Uh Jed talked about uh winter parking uh Saturday uh we got a fair amount of snow uh that resulted in uh some cars unfortunately being towed uh ticketed and towed as a result. Uh we were lucky in that uh activity-wise it permitted the officers to get out uh early and try to get people to get their cars out of the way. Um even doing that we still ended up having to tow some. Um and we're never happy when we have to do that. U we know it's expensive for the vehicle owner. Uh but the reality is we get them off the street so that when public works comes out they can go curb to curb without having to slow down without having to worry about parked vehicles. Um it's so incredibly important uh to be efficient in that snow removal. Um so for those of you who did uh get toes, sorry that happened, but uh you know we do our best to try to get vehicles worn before then. That can't always happen, especially if we have a busy night with calls. Um the officers will then shift immediately to um issuing the the the tickets and toes to get them off the streets. But the best advice we can give anybody is if it's snowing, don't park on the street. We ticket and tow when public works tells us they're going to be coming out and doing the removals, but they might come out for one inch because it's a wet, heavy snow. they might not come out for three inches because it's a light fluffy snow that you know um started late in the morning. Just if it's snowing or going to snow, get off the streets with your vehicles. Um that's the best advice we can give and we ask for their cooperation so we

don't have to ticket and and tow vehicles. Uh the other thing would be uh we have the holiday events coming up so we're already into December. Pretty soon we'll be having New Year's. Uh just want to remind people uh when you uh go out for uh any party events and social things, plan to uh have somebody that can drive if you're going to be drinking. Um you know, we want to try to minimize the number of people that are driving impaired on the roadways, whether it's uh you know, from alcohol or now legalized marijuana. Um the impacts can be uh tremendous on not just their lives, but on uh other people if they're involved in accidents. So, drive safely, plan ahead. That's all I got.

Thank you, Miss Sarah. Mr. John, sure.

Uh, just excuse um kind of uh buried the lead for next meeting, but the budget for 2026, I just kind of closed on making any adjustments and edits to that. And the final uh percentage number is a levy increase of only 3.117%. So if you got your sheets, your your proposed tax statements, that's with a 10.8% increase. So this is down to just 3.7. So, I did I did notice in the calculations of that that the estimated um taxable market value that I was given by the county in September has been reduced. So, I'm not sure if that is something that will will factor change um when they do the final tax statements in the early part of next year, which does impact the rate. So, my hope was our rate would stay pretty close to the same, but it looks like the rate might just jump up like less than 1% with this with this amount, but most uh taxable values are proposed for next year are staying pretty flat. So, if you stayed flat, then you'll see just less than a 1% increase. So, so very very good things on on that front and I'll go into more details about what how that all came together. And then just lastly, uh spoke with the um owner of the nursing home today. Um so, you know, reiterated our the city's position with that and he's committed that yeah, we'll be willing to work together. So, I don't believe there'll be, you know, forcible actions, but he knows he's got a got a short window to make something happen, whether it's sell the property and get the get it ready for redevelopment or work with us to apply for the grant and um get it torn down, you know, ensuring that the city is not paying for anything in the demolition of that [clears throat] that building. Okay.

Okay. Um, Diane, I just hats off to everybody for a great Deck the Falls. It was It was great. And thanks for the great plowing job after after the mess. I'm good.

Um, my hat goes off to the police department. I drove by the school this morning and a car had just gotten in the ditch and by the time I could drop my kid off and try to contact an officer, I saw everyone was safe. They they were already there and I know that was within five minutes of the accident happening. Uh those are young, experienced drivers out on the road now and some of them are on their first time in the snow. So, I'm sure it's not the last time this summer I'm going to this winter I'm going to see it. So, thank you. You guys got good officers out there. Nothing. Nothing. What? I got nothing.

Uh, okay. Well, it's been said several times. I'll just reiterate. Um, I did not attend Deck the Falls, but I heard that it was like a Hallmark movie. Um, actually heard that from multiple people. So, thanks for everybody who put that together. Um, and with that, I will take a motion to adjurnn. Motion. Second. Motion by Lisa, a second by Diane Johnson. All in favor? I. Motion carries.