City - Regular Meeting

All right, let's open this meeting with the pledge of allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Okay, number two, open public forum. Anybody that is not on the agenda that wishes to speak.

Hey, Dave? Yes, oh yes, Doug. I just wanted to let you guys know, the reason I'm not at the meeting in person is I had some surgery on my ankle, and I'm kind of bedridden here for the next week, so I'm going to be remote from my home tonight.

Yep. I was going to mention that, but I forgot all about it, Doug. I'm sorry. But, yeah, Doug's here, so we have a full council, and we will be roll callers. All right. Anybody else wishing to speak? Otherwise, we will move on to number three, approval of the amended agenda. Can I get a motion? I'll make a motion. Ryan makes a motion. How about a second? I'll second it. Mike seconds it. Any discussion on it? Otherwise, all those in favor, say aye. Aye. Against?

Aye.

Oh, yeah, that's right. Roll call. Doug?

Aye.

Fran. Aye. Mike. Aye. Ryan. Aye. And I'm an aye. Motion carries. Number four, consent agenda. A, minutes, May 13th, 2026, regular meeting. B, minutes, March 16th, 2026, library lease special meeting. C, resolution number 2026, annual liquor and tobacco licenses. Recommendation to approve the consent agenda as presented. Can I get a motion? I'll make a motion. Doug makes a motion. Ryan seconds it. All those in favor, roll call. Doug?

Aye.

Fran? Aye. Mike? Aye. Ryan? Aye. And I'm an aye. Motion carries. Number five, presentation of wastewater treatment facility, 30% design. Pete Daniels from Stantec. Hi, Pete. Hi there.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Council. Hi. Nice to see you again. Thanks for having me tonight. So I think last time, design phase of the wastewater treatment plant improvements project so we've been working for the past number of months to prepare drawings and reports and and um keep working through details and working with staff um on the plan for improvements at the wastewater plant so this is a kind of update presentation um to the to the council tonight um we've got some next steps but just you know favorite questions and and looking for you know input and So here's an agenda of what we'll go through tonight, some background, just a refresher of some of the background and how we've gotten here so far. Reminder, the overview of the wastewater treatment plant, the industrial treatment facility has been online for a couple years now treating the wastewater from the cold stream. Brewery, there is preliminary treatment on the domestic plants. Screening and grit removal are going to remove some of those big solids. Influent equalization ponds, secondary or the biological treatment that consumes most of the pollutants. Again, there's the two trains. There's the old train, the trickling filter that treats the smaller part, and then there's the newer activated sludge. overview of the facility. And just again, a reminder, this part right here is the part that was built for the brewery, the industrial pretreatment and everything else The city's permit was last modified in 2022 to include the industrial pretreatment facility. The permit is currently expired, which is very normal for many. It takes a long time to reissue these, especially when the city is planning a project like Cold Spring is. So we just had a call with the MPCA a month or two ago to kind of just give them an update of where things are at. But they're ready to start working on the permit whenever we kind of have the plans worked out on exactly what's going to happen and timing. The primary goals of the improvements here is to address aging infrastructure. A lot of the facility is 30 to 60 years old. We are looking to get a more consistent treatment process, eliminate that trickling filter system, get everything using the same biological system, and then accommodate some future growth. And you'll see we're going to plan for a little bit of a flowing Really setting the city up for the next 2040 years down the road here. Um, again, I mentioned when the pre treatment facility came online, we run a facility plan. That was the 1st deliverable that Stan tech prepared was that report and we finished that up in 2024 and the approved that. So since then we've been working on the 30% designs. We mentioned we've written a number of memos, design memos that kind of address it part by part of the facility. We have a design report that gives a lot of the background and basis for our assumptions and why we're doing things the way we are. We prepared about 150 plan sheets. So we're starting to get a pretty heavy plan set to start working out details. And then OPCC is opinion of probable construction costs. We've also continued to be working on kind of some of the funding aspects. Some positive news on bonding bill this year that included funding for this project. And then, yeah, the project's already on the project priority list for the state. a partner in this um and i think predator or something might be it might be here so thanks for coming um but um yeah so that's where we're at and in that standpoint on that bonding bill what percentage of the total classes did we get this time yeah so the amount that was in there for cold spring was five and a half million dollars The total project cost is about 57 million. So it's about 10% or so. I mean, it's a big project, but still five and a half million.

Well, I think once we start with a bonding project and we get it, it's more likely to get it in future years to help finish it. That's our hope.

So the current facility is designed for a peak month flow of about 1.8 million gallons per day. We're now planning for an increase to about 2.1 million gallons per day, so about a 15% increase in the hydraulic capacity of the plant. So not a big change. So some of the key pollutants that we designed for, the BOD load or the organic load doesn't change. We are planning for more solids. for the plans I mentioned, again, kind of the three sources that we looked at to come up with this. This is a change from the facility plan. In the facility plan, we were thinking that it wouldn't need to be increased, but through some more work and conversations with the brewery, we realized we needed to add a little more capacity. Here's just some of the stats about Rockville from their 2003 agreement to the agreement that we worked out with them last year. So you can see there are about 20% or so of the flow and some of the key pollutants there of the plant. So by increasing the permitted flow, this does have the regulatory impact of this and just a is what it allows a wastewater treatment facility. And so there's a couple, when the flow is gonna go up, you can either ask the state, well, our flow is going up, we need to be able to discharge more pounds of pollutants to the river. And that is a long process called an anti-degradation review that That's how you do that. Another way to do it is to say we're going to have more water, but we'll keep our pounds of pollutants the same, which means your concentration needs to go down to do that. So that's what we're planning to do in this case because it's not a big increase in it. The concentrations that are going to result are still very achievable with the technology that is going to be used here. So we're planning to do what they call the mass cap limits approach there is what's being planned here. The MPCA has been working for many years to look at how to deal with nitrogen in discharges from wastewater plants. Many facilities already have limits for ammonia. Nitrogen exists in a few forms, and you have a limit already for ammonia. But there's other forms of nitrogen that most plants don't have limits for. But the state has been working on trying to implement that, and they still might. It's on pause for now. The technology that the plant already has does actually treat for that nitrogen. So you're kind of ahead of the game there, which is a good thing. We're planning to continue that process, and it might open things up for possibly some other grant funding that might not exist otherwise. But it does likely mean accepting a limit for that total nitrogen, which they probably wouldn't give you otherwise. But if you take it, if the city chooses to take that limit, it could open up for some more grant funding. we're continuing to work with staff and talk through how that works and work with the MPCA to understand their requirements. But if the city takes a total nitrogen limit, that would be a new limit that you don't currently have in your permit. Yeah, so here, as I mentioned, if we take the mass cap limits, these are concentrations in milligrams per liter. Your current permit is 15 milligrams per liter of BOD. It would go down to 12.8. So it is a slight reduction. Again, these are very achievable with the technology that the city has. Summary of the proposed improvements, basically updating all, every building would get some updates, replace old equipment. that some of the biggest changes is removing the trickling filter process and expanding the activated sludge and biological nutrient removal process. We build a new UV disinfection building. We put the new disinfection in a new building. Electrical service, new electrical service into the plant is gonna be a big upgrade, a new generator just to help prevent electrical reliability. So having reliable electrical service is really important. And then controls upgrades, the alarms and remote monitoring and that kind of stuff would be upgraded too. I don't really look through that, but yeah, maps kind of showing. Well, a couple of things I'll point out here. The inflow equalization, so this is like if there's times of really high flows or high loads from the brewery or something, the city can divert that water into a couple of lagoons right now. They're pretty hard to use, especially in the wintertime. So we're going to get rid of these lagoons and build a tank with a cover on it. So they still have that. It's a smaller capacity, you can see, with the industrial pre-shipment facility online that really helps avoid the need for that. But we're going to build a tank instead of using the ponds for that inflow. And then on the bios, on the solids side or the sludge that's produced from the wastewater plant, the changes, the changes here, it's a lot of the same technologies, but updating, there's going to be a thickening process to get rid of some of that water initially. We're still going to use anaerobic digestion. We're going to kind of modify the tanks there a little bit to get more capacity out of what you have. And then we're gonna have a dewatering building, which is new, that allows, it really squeezes the water basically out of the sludge. So it comes out more of like, it's kind of like a wet dirt kind of thing, instead of liquid. And so that material could go to a landfill. So avoid the need to always landify the liquid, landfilling would be an option. I think I had this slide in there last time, too, but the closest landfill that this would likely go to is the Vaughn Co. landfill down in Becker. It takes dewatered biosolids from a number of other treatment plants as well. I mentioned one of the drivers for this, too. We have the PFAS regulation slide. PFAS is a A lot of environmental concerns and topics around this, the fluorinated substances, state has come up with some new regulations that are on facilities that land-applied biosolids. You have to sample things. You've probably been doing this. Dan is sampling. And if you're above certain thresholds, you have to do different things. So it avoids the need. If you land, you don't have to deal with that. So updated cost estimate from what you saw a couple of years ago, total about 57, $58 million. There at the bottom, we had a couple of years, the facility plan is about 52 and a half. So kind of coming through inflation. We're still kind of right on there, but we, yeah, this is refined based on the new, more detailed design. So funding, we're on the project priority list. with enough points to be positioned for receiving a low interest loan from the public facilities authority. We plan to apply for the point source implementation grant program this summer. That's a July application period each year. And what that's used for, I mentioned that this is for the nitrogen part of this. If you have a nitrogen limit, this is a grant program that can cover the portion of the costs related to that nitrogen treatment only. But we're gonna apply for that this summer. There might be a portion of the project, there's a program called the Green Project Reserve. It's around energy efficiency, water efficiency. So we're going through the project to kind of see what parts might be eligible for that funding as well. We're going to work with the MPCA here in the next month or two to confirm what portions of the project would be available for that and the PCIG program type of bonding bill. Chris, I don't recall up on federal direct appropriation where applications are added. action there but they do have some we got we applied for three and we've been um turned down on two so far waiting to hear on from uh just representing fish park yet so slight chance trying everything we can and whatever grant money is out there um useful bonding is an option for municipalities to pay for projects like this um you know the city's working with a2s2 on the rate study so you know when that i'm not sure where that's at or but that might, getting that completed might help just with planning and how we approach things going down the road, but put that on the funding program slide here. We've talked about should this head project be one big project? Should this be broken up into smaller projects? We're going to continue to have those conversations now that the bonding bill played out. Maybe we'll see how the rate study plays out. But just continuing to strategize around how we approach this will be a key thing that we continue to work with the city on. Yeah, well, for utilization of various funding sources that become available. We'd like to probably continue to move the whole design project, the whole project design as a whole to make sure we're not, as opposed to like stopping now and just looking at a small part, but continuing to keep this, the big picture in mind as we move forward here. And then once we determine if something should be broken off as a smaller project, we can... You can do that, but some more to come on the phasing portion. So just a few excerpts of the plan sheet just to kind of show you what some of the stuff might look like. This is that equalization tank that's going to replace the ponds, but got all the drawings and 3D views, but it'd be a square tank with a wall down the middle. one half for the whole thing to be mixing in there as well to keep the wastewater well mixed before it goes for treatment. Here's the new activated sludge. BNR tanks, these are air diffusers that bubble air up from the bottom, all these little circles bubble air up from the bottom to air it and mix the wastewater. We built two new Two new final clarifiers to settle the solids out at the end of the plant. These are the existing ones. We just built two new ones just like it. This is that new UV disinfection building. It'd be an electrical room and yeah, the light bulbs that disinfect the water as it goes out. And anaerobic digester, we're just gonna use the same tanks, but improve the mixing and heating in there. This is the new sludge dewatering building. As the sludge, the centrifuges squeeze the water out, the dewatered sludge goes into a roll-off dumpster that gets picked up and hauled to the landfill. So yeah, next steps. Great study we know is playing out. We just continue to work through the financial aspects and how this will continue. We are planning to start working on a proposal to present to the city for the next phases of design. Our current contract kind of took us through this point, the preliminary, but now that we've learned a little bit more, we're gonna start working on a proposal to take it through the 90% design. I mentioned we'll apply for the PC grant in July. Intended use plan is on here. That's when the city's ready to actually kind of begin the project. You apply for the IUP. That's the first or the next step in actually applying for a low interest loan through PFA. So we're not planning to apply for the IUP this year, but likely next year we'll be ready to apply for the IUP. Any other next steps, Sam? So that's it.

Yeah, go ahead. Have you worked on any facilities where you've had to do the phasing, where you've had to do a part of the project and then wait a year or two years potentially? How did that work out and how long was the phasing for that?

Yeah, I'm thinking of a city that did the first part before we got involved, but they I think it was, I'm trying to remember the years now, but probably in about 2014, they did a big project to improve their solids dewatering system. So they spent a bunch of money on their solids. But then they knew they had to come back to their liquids part later. And so it was probably five years later, we built the first phase of the liquids expansion. And now they're getting ready to, and then probably another four or five years went by, and now they're doing the next phase of their liquid expansion. You know, yeah, funding comes into play. I'm sure there's lots of other examples, but yeah.

But all the underground pipe, then all that has to be in the first phase, doesn't it? You try to set yourself up so you don't, yeah, so you don't. So there's an upground structure. I mean, it could be because the piping and everything has to be,

And that's why we want to make sure that we're moving the whole design forward as a whole. So we kind of know where other future pipe stubs might need to be and all that kind of stuff. Um, so that we don't miss something and have to go back and some later, but.

Yeah, I think that helps the sludge removal is that can be more than what we do now or less.

It's going to be more. Right now, you don't do that dewatering step. You have two big liquid sludge storage holding tanks, and then every spring and fall, you load out into tankers, and it goes out on a farm field, and you land apply a liquid sludge. So the dewatering part is going to be a new step.

I've been on those fields. Is there going to be less water? Because not too long ago, I worked on an ag tractor that

Yeah, that's kind of part of the driver for this, too, is the challenge of getting into the fields at a certain time and kind of having to be more at your own control of if you can't get onto a field, but you've got to do something, so now this will let you get to There are other cities too that have the ability to do this, but you've got flexibility now. Okay. So what's going to become What's taken off here? So the trickling filter is right here. That's gone. This is the main thing that's gone and some of the stuff with the trickling filter here. The existing UV building is about right here. So it's trickling filter equipment.

So those two tanks are gone too. The first two tanks, I mean the wrong ones.

This is the anaerobic digester tanks. These are going to stay. They're staying. And those four up on the north side there, there's two of them now. Oh, actually, yeah, that's right. And then the two final clarifiers for the tripling filter are also gone. So two clarifiers, yeah. So there's two clarifiers here right now. Basically, we're going to build two new ones.

So there's going to be some demolition.

All right. Is there any action that needs to be taken then? This is just an update. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Thank you. All right. We'll go on to number six then. Approval. Approved guaranteed maximum price amendment number one

Gary and Chris could not be here tonight, but this is what they presented to you at the last meeting.

Okay. Recommendation to approve the guaranteed maximum price amendment number one from Donmar Construction.

So, the amount of suggestions, the same thing they presented to us last time, it actually went up about 20,000.

I didn't and I only know it because I compared them. I didn't get a chance to talk to him about it, but I kind of went line by line down all the bids that they got in 1 of them. Why not? I'm going to say it was concrete or something. So I'm assuming that as they vetted through the. Do we actually look into that before we approve it, though?

Can we do that?

What?

You didn't actually confirm why it went up $20,000? No. Can we look into that before we approve that?

No, this is not a public hearing. Sorry. Oh, okay. Sorry. It's just for us. But to your point, That's why we have Donmar Construction doing it. Donmar Construction does all the vetting for us. They are hired to do that.

We should have something in writing for them. Or do you just want to... Well, if Chris is satisfied with what the numbers are, I guess I'm more difficult with it. But I would like to see it in writing, and maybe they can furnish us something at some point.

Yeah, maybe they can email us what it is.

Now or later, it doesn't make any difference.

Any other discussion? Otherwise, all those in favor, we're going to roll call. Doug? No. Doug is a no. Fran? Aye. Fran's an aye. Mike is? Aye. Mike is an aye. Ryan? Aye. Is an aye and I'm an aye. Motion carries. All right, number seven, dance style request city support of America 250 celebration.

I know I don't look anything like Dan. I was going to say, you don't look like Dan. No, he couldn't be here today. Okay. But I just basically wanted to get an idea of what we're doing to celebrate the 250th anniversary and how the city might want to help out, okay? We've got it scheduled for July 8th. which is the national celebration for the Declaration of Independence. On that particular day at 5 o'clock, they will be, across the nation, people will be reading the Declaration of Independence. So we plan on running an activity from 4 in the afternoon until about 8, with a 5 o'clock reading of the Declaration of Independence. Our focus is going to be on the children and getting them excited about our nation. We're going to be having a story time for the kids that explains the Declaration of Independence. We are also going to be having kids games. We're going to be doing a display of as many military uniforms as we have in our collection out so people can see. We want to do it outside. We'd like to do it on Main Street, just blocking off the section by the museum for it. We are being hosted also with the Cold Spring American Legion Auxiliary. We'll be serving cupcakes as well as ice cream for the kids. And we will be having a photo booth for the kids. There's some ideas that are still kind of milling around, but that's basically what's happening. Let's see what I'm missing here. We're also going to be asking Cold Spring Bakery to become involved as well as the Red Rock, Red Truck Inn for the ice cream party. And then also we're going to be trying to get the Cold Spring Legion veterans involved in some form that particular day. But we are really looking for any more ideas of things that we can do for that four hours to promote the Declaration of Independence celebration. Okay. Does anybody have any questions?

Fifteen pennies.

Where do we get those from? That's our child-friendly friend. Yeah. It was very exciting. At the end of the school year, we normally have tours from the Cold Spring Elementary kids coming in. And we have a big copy of the Declaration of Independence. And the first girl that walked in, she went right to it and she said, is that the real one? And, of course, we explained, no, it was just a replica of it. But she was so excited. All of those kids, and they were all fourth grade, and that's kind of when we went, You know what, we need to get that excitement going with them all. Any other, do you have any ideas that you'd like to see happen in addition? I kind of thought about maybe talking to Teals and have hot dogs there as well as a cake just because, you know, the hot dog is kind of synonymous with the United States 4th of July kind of thing.

This is the historical society.

The Coastal Historical Society, yes. Okay. What was the date again? July 8th. We initially wanted to go on a Saturday, and then when the nation made the decision to go on the 8th, it was like, okay, it's summer. I guess we can do a late afternoon or an evening event.

I think the hot dogs is a good idea, but besides, you could talk to Bob Sable about that also. He would have some ability to deal with it.

I also thought it might be fun to have a jump house, but I haven't found anything that gets me excited about anything having to do with Independence Day or the Fourth of July or Americans. I haven't come across that yet. We are going to be having a photo booth where we have life-size replicas of George Washington and Ben Franklin. We're also having a woman who is the great-great-granddaughter of one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and she's going to be there, you know, just for fun. All right.

Thank you.

Any ideas?

Yeah, if anybody has any ideas, get a hold of the Historical Society. All right, number eight, presentation of the 2025 audited financial statements. Jackie Knowles, hello.

Mr. Mayor and council, I'm going to be going over a summary of the audit results and the city's financial results for 2025. This I'm not, is it in this folder, Chris? All right, the main purpose of our audit is to provide our independent auditor's report. In this report, we're providing an opinion on the city's basic financial statements. We're stating that the statements are management's responsibility, and our responsibility as auditors is to test those amounts and provide that opinion. And this year we're offering an unmodified or clean opinion. It's the best that we can offer and the same that the city has been receiving. What that means is that it provides assurance that the amounts in the statements are presented fairly and all material respects the position of the city as of December 31st. control and compliance with government auditing standards. That's required because of some of the state and federal funding that the city receives. We take a closer look at the design and implementation of internal control and then also compliance with laws, grants, contracts, other regulations. We had one repeat internal control finding related to the segregation of accounting duties. I'm sure that sounds familiar due to the limited staff needed to handle all of the accounting duties of the city. So just, we want council to continue to be aware of that situation. No compliance findings to report. in relation to that report. And then the next report down is the report on Minnesota legal compliance. So another type of compliance test work that we do, this relates to the office of the state auditor and certain state statutes that cities have to comply with. And we didn't have any findings related to those either. And then the last bullet point here touches on our communications letter. which is a separate document from the financial statements. And in that we include some of the required communication to the council. We look at some of the financial trends for the last five years, and then there's some emerging issues or new accounting standards that are coming up. So with that, we'll move on to the financial analysis piece of that communications letter. So we'll start off looking at five years. And the city's tax capacity has been increasing overall over the last five years. That increase amount has varied a bit from year to year just based on changing market values and how much those have been increasing year over year. The city's levy has had kind of a steadier increase and so the tax capacity rate has varied a bit over at about 50% for 2025, that tax rate. Then we'll move on to the general fund, so the main operating fund of the city. And we start off here to just have a summary of total revenues, total expenditures, and total ending fund balance. And we'll get into kind of the details of those numbers in the next few slides. But overall, all three of those numbers have contributed as a result of 2021 activity. And again, we'll kind of look at the details of all that in the next few slides. But looking at revenues first, in total revenues were pretty consistent from 2024 to 2025. There were some fluctuations by source, taxes and assessments that was driven by an increase in the levy. Licenses and permits were down about $89,000. That was related to a decrease in the size and the number of building permits. So that of course can fluctuate from year to year based on development activity. And then intergovernmental revenues up about $68,000. And that was across several categories of aid, police aid, fire aid, some other state reimbursements all. of various smaller amounts. Moving on to expenditures in the general fund, up about $450,000 in total. And that was primarily within the public works category. And that was because of the Main Street Improvements Project in 2025. So a large reason why those expenditures were up. THERE'S A LOT OF NUMBERS ON THIS NEXT SLIDE, BUT THIS IS THE BUDGET TO ACTUAL RESULTS FOR THE GENERAL FUND. SO THE FIRST COLUMN IS GOING TO BE THE ORIGINAL BUDGET THAT THE COUNCIL APPROVED, THEN WE HAVE THE FINAL OR THE AMENDED BUDGET NEXT, ACTUAL AMOUNTS IN THE which is the variance between the actual and the final budget. So kind of a third of the way down, you'll see an $189,000 variance on revenue. So about 5% over budget in total. A lot of that was with intergovernmental over budget, almost $115,000. Again, there's quite a few aids and monies from state and federal government playing into that number. But the biggest reason is because the Fire Relief Association joined the statewide para plan on January 1st, 2025. And so that fire aid is no longer flowing through the city's accounts. their account through the state. But the state of Minnesota says that the city of Cold Spring is the recipient of that aid. So it still needs to be recorded on the city's books in the general fund, even though the city isn't actually like getting that money in their account any longer. So that was about $76,000. So that's the largest piece of that $115,000 variance. And then also on the revenue side, I wanted to mention miscellaneous over budget, that's largely interest earnings, just being conservative with the budget for that. On the expenditure side, in total under budget, about $99,000, that's about a 2.3% variance. And you'll see that was pretty much all within Public Works. Again, that Main Street improvement project, total costs coming in lower than anticipated for 2025. And then looking at the bottom line, the net change in fund balance. So initially the council approved about a $329,000 decrease. Then with the amended or final budget, that decrease was including debt, about $470,000. Again, kind of all tied to Main Street improvements. Actual fund balance down about $168,000. So if you look in that kind of bottom right corner, the budget was outperformed by about $301,720. And then the very last thing that I wanted to mention on this slide, and I'm gonna get into the weeds a little bit here, but I had talked about how the fire aid was not budgeted. So that's why we see that intergovernmental variance. It also was not budgeted on the expenditure side. So it wasn't included in the public safety expenditure budget, but it was recorded as an expenditure. So that is why public safety is the one program on here If that had been budgeted, public safety would be under budget about $42,000. So just wanted to point out that there was a very specific reason why that one program was over. So then we'll look at the cash and investments and fund balances of the general fund next. I'll kind of start at the top and work my way down. So the very top line is going to be cash and investments, and that has mirrored very closely with fund balance, which is kind of that rust-colored line. That's total fund balance. Then the unassigned fund balance is the blue, and that is what's available for spending on any purpose. So it's total fund balance, less the amounts that have been committed. by the council for something specific. So there's a little bit more of a gap between total and unassigned in 2025, because there was an additional $350,000 committed for maintenance, the maintenance department building. And then the bottom line in green, that's the fund balance goal. So that's the amount set in policy, that 50% goal. So you can see for the last five years, the city has exceeded its, And then we'll move on to the Water Fund. Operating revenues were up about $105,000 due to a rate increase and then operating expenses down about $47,000 with less maintenance and engineering necessary in 2025. So operating income both with and without depreciation in this fund all five years. So that shows us and it's building up future reserves for future replacement costs. This is the net position or the equity of the water fund. This has overall gone up over the last five years, although it has been pretty flat from 2023 to 2025. That net investment in capital assets, of course, the majority GO UP OVERALL AS THE CITY CONTINUES TO INVEST IN INFRASTRUCTURE. THE UNRESTRICTED NET POSITION, THAT'S WHAT'S REMAINING AND THAT'S WHAT'S AVAILABLE FOR SPENDING ON ANY PURPOSE. THAT HAS OVERALL GONE DOWN SINCE 2021, ALTHOUGH IT DID INCREASE FROM 2024 TO 2025 JUST BASED ON THE POSITIVE OPERATING RESULTS. AND THEN IN THE SEWER FUND, Operating revenues were down from 2024 to 2025, about $568,000. That was due to the brewery having higher toxicity charges in 2024. And just kind of touching on the overall decrease from 2023 to the current year that we're reviewing. Remember, a lot of the sewer fund was separated. the pre-treatment fund in a few slides. But operating expenses up about $118,000 this year related to an increase in wages and benefits allocated to sewer and then also there was increased depreciation expense on capital assets. So this fund, similar with the water fund, operating income both with and without depreciation each of the last five years, so also building reserves for future replacement costs. That position of the sewer fund, again, here's where we kind of see the impacts of that new pretreatment plant. So the plant came on board in 2022, so the big increase, and then in 2024, it moved out to a separate fund. So we don't see it here beginning in 2024. And then the stormwater fund has been pretty consistent in operations over the last five years. Especially on the revenue side, expenses have varied a bit just based on various project and engineering costs that can kind of vary a bit more from here to here. But operating revenues and operating expenses up about $6,000 and $7,000 respectively in 2025. THIS FUND IS REPORTING AN OPERATING LOSS WITH ALL OF THE DEPRECIATION EXPENSE. AND THAT IS SOMEWHAT TYPICAL WHAT WE SEE AT OTHER CITIES THAT WE AUDIT, THAT THE STORMWATER FUND, JUST THE RATE STRUCTURE AND HOW THAT'S SET UP FOR THIS FUND TO NOT COVER ALL OF DEPRECIATION EXPENSE. SO NOT UNUSUAL AT ALL FOR A STORMWATER FUND. AND THEN THAT POSITION FOR STORMWATER OR THE EQUITY all up over the last five years, a slight decrease in 2025 with just depreciation expense on some of the capital. And then here's the new pretreatment fund that was established in 2024. So a lot of the sewer items coming over and kind of setting up this new fund. So we just have two years of activity here. Operating revenues were up about $278,000 with additional charges to the brewery in 2025 that can help improve the net position of this fund. Operating expenses were up about $611,000, primarily due to the first full year of depreciation taken on the pre-treatment plant. So this fund is reporting an operating loss both with And without depreciation expense, that operating loss without depreciation was at about $201,000 in 2025. So something just to keep an eye on with this fund. The net position of the pretreatment the last couple of years, obviously very capital heavy with the pretreatment plant in the majority of that net position. There was a small new $100,000 restriction this year just in a group And then last, we have the net position or the equity position of all of the governmental funds of the activity as a whole. So this is all of the funds besides the ones we just looked at, water, sewer, storm, treatment, rolled up together. So the net investment in capital assets, again, continues to be the largest piece. That increased in 2025. The city is paying off its debt faster than the capital assets are depreciating. positive to see the restricted net position is going to fluctuate from year to year based on the balances in the city's debt service and capital project funds that are restricted by external parties for a specific purpose and then the unrestricted is what's left of net position taking out those other two pieces and that did increase from a negative position from 2021 to 2024 to a positive in 2025 and that was primarily due to the city paying off bonds issued related to like water, sewer, storm infrastructure. So paying off that debt related to those assets and the positive operations in some of the other city funds to come into play. So yeah, positive results for the net position of the And with that, that's what I have prepared, but I'm happy to circle back if anyone has any questions on anything. I know it's a lot of information to go over in a short amount of time.

Well, we talked about this lack of segregation of the county, but did you find any problems with it, what we're doing?

No, it's just, it's more of an awareness. plan for our audit, we come up with tests to kind of address significant risks. And if we would have any issues or findings that result from that, it would be an additional finding that you would see in addition to that lack of segregation comment, but we didn't find anything. So again, just kind of an awareness with that one.

That gets sent every year.

nothing to do with that right it's kind of circling back to the pre-treatment fund so that operating loss of 201 000 what does that mean exactly is that so is that the city is funding that loss so that's so that's i guess i'm trying to figure out if we need to do something with the money we're taking in from the brewery to help offset that.

Do you mind if I address it? No. It's a great question. So we kind of knew going through the year that the brewery's revenues were not meeting their expenses, but they had asked for kind of some grace period in these first couple of years until they get all the kind of the tweets worked out of the plan get it dialed in better they're still working with some of their levels and jackie touched on one of them is that you know like 2024 they exceeded a lot of levels they have paid a lot of penalties they got better in 25 um but they're still working on that they they do at the end of the year um well they didn't do it in 25 they did in january 26 because we didn't, by the time we closed all the books, but they did bring that, they wrote us a check to level that out. And they paid interest on any deficit in that fund. So the city's not paying any of it. And then starting in 2026, we're going to review that quarterly. So if there's a deficit on March 31st, they're bringing it up to zero. And then we're going to actually, they're also going to give us an extra $100,000 to keep in the fund so that in case there's unexpected expenditures, it's there on top of the $100,000 she mentioned. So they just asked for a couple of years to kind of work through the changes in the plant and the levels. John, is there anything you want to add to that? Yeah.

Okay. I just wanted to make sure, like, they're making us whole at the end of the year in some way, somehow, just that we're not supplementing.

No, and like I said, even the interest on that is they're coming to.

Perfect.

Yeah.

Perfect. Anybody else? All right. Oh, okay. Then I'll read the recommendation. Ryan makes a motion. I'll vote a second. I'll second it. Mike seconds it. Any discussion on it? Otherwise, all those in favor, we'll do a roll call. Doug? Yes.

Fran?

Aye. Mike? Yes. Ryan? Aye. And I'm an aye. Motion carries. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, number nine, approval of fire contracts with townships. Can I just read the recommendation and go on?

Well, just a couple quick comments I wanted to share with you. When I put the packets together, I had sent the final contract to the attorney. I did hear back from them since, and they said they found no issues with it, so our attorney was good with it. And just today, the Collegeville township clerk brought me two signed copies they met last night. and approved of it, and they signed it, so they're good to go. I have not heard back from the other two yet. I'm not sure if they've even met since they only meet once a month.

Yeah.

But I haven't heard any negative feedback either.

Did you get all the little details worked out?

Yep.

And the rented square footage note that you had, they were fine with that little tweak? Mm-hmm.

All right, recommendation to approve the contracts with Wakefield Township, Collegeville Township, and Luxembourg Township for fire protection services for the period of January 1, 2027 through December 31st, 2031. Can I get a motion on that? I'll make that motion. Brian makes a motion, Mike second it.

Any discussion on it? I guess I really wasn't happy about the length of the contract. We wanted to have a longer one, but it was a compromise. It was kind of crazy the way that compromise came up. I would like to see a five or 10 year deal. That's all I had to say. All right.

Any other discussion? Otherwise, all those in favor? Doug?

Aye.

Fran? Aye. Mike? Aye. Brian? Aye. And I'm an aye. Motion carries. Number 10, welcome to Folk Sprint Signs.

So this is a project the EDA has been working on. Fran's got a picture of it there. Yeah, Fran and Doug, feel free to chime in here, but I'll just kind of give you the overall. They would like to have three wooden signs made and put them with the three entrances on the north and south. The BDA's been working on this for quite a while. I sent you the estimates that they got. I did amend the agenda for one little sentence today. We are working with the three property owners to get their approval, so we won't order the signs until we get that. So the brewery, St. Boniface, and Grapefruit Township. So once we get them to all, we have an agreement, we just have to get that.

This is just the wood part of the sign, but aren't the sides going to be granite?

No, they're wooden signs in a cement base. Well, we're working on a granite sign as you're coming from like from Richmond that would kind of mimic the one on the other side But that one's gonna take a little bit longer. It's a lot more work and a lot more expense So they just wanted to get these three going this year

And the west side was getting close to like $60,000. So we had to sell donuts. What's wrong with the east one?

Well, it's still being hit. It's kind of falling apart, isn't it?

How many times do they want?

I think the city maintenance is going to set them, right? What's that? City maintenance is going to set them? Oh, yeah. Or the cement, too, right?

No, we're going to have a contractor for the cement.

For the cement, but the city maintenance is going to wreck the site.

Yes.

Okay.

And Weber's going to fix the other one. What? Weber's going to fix the other one. of three wooden welcome to Cold Spring signs on the following properties at St. Boniface Cemetery, Cold Spring Brewing Company, Suite D, and Wakefield Township Parkland, as shown on the maps provided by staff at a total estimate contingent on getting signed agreements from the property owners. Can I get a motion on that? I'll make that motion. Brian makes a motion. I'll hold a second. I'll second it. Brian seconds it. Any discussion on this? Otherwise, all those in favor say aye. Doug? Aye. Brian? Aye. Mike? Aye. Ryan? Aye. And I'm an aye. Motion carries.

Okay.

Number 11. Discuss civilian review board and employee responses. Kayla Ayersman.

In this folder, I have emails. I'm talking about a question that I already answered. Okay. Did you want to take a look at them? You can pass them. I just need them back at the end. All right. I can't see her. You can't see? Is that Doug?

No, Doug's not on. Doug's not on. Okay. Yeah, he's not on camera.

Okay.

He's just on the phone.

Perfect. All right. Good afternoon, residents of Cold Spring and City Council meeting attendees. I want to touch on my first topic right away, which is city employees' responses to residents via email and phone number. Sorry, email and phone. How difficult do you think it was for me to set up this time? What would you expect city council? Any idea? Should take like one email you'd think, right? Super easy, right? Or no? What's your opinion?

So you got the agenda? Depending on the topic, it may be difficult then how many items are on the agenda.

I guess how long would you take for your response? How many meetings do you think would occur before you'd be able to talk on that agenda? You think four meetings would be acceptable?

I don't know if I have the right answer for that.

Does anybody have an opinion they want to provide?

No? Okay.

We will move on then. Well, if you're not, there's no guesses needed because I counted for everybody how many times it took me. how many emails and how many phone calls it took me to speak here today. Before today, I assumed it would be relatively easy as a resident to schedule speaking time with our local government, but unfortunately that has not been experienced. Chris Dockendorf or other members of the city of Cold Spring have provided me. I originally contacted Chris Dockendorf, Jason Blue, Dave Hyman, Doug Schmitz, Fran Rambler, Mike Fall, and Ryan Hennin on April 8th in regard to bringing the idea of a civilian review board to assist the chief in reviewing police complaints. My email very clearly quoted, and this is a direct quote from the email provided, I'd like this issue brought to a city council meeting in confirmation of a discussion of a civilian review board to assist the chief in reviewing any future complaints. Does that sound clear, city council?

Okay. Yes, it does.

Yes. Chris, does that sound clear? Thank you. This request took 12 phone calls and 24 emails to be completed. And that email that I just mentioned was in my first email. Okay. Just to clarify. Chris Zuckerberg did not complete my request until May 22nd when I verbally read my email to her over the phone and confirmed that this was done correctly. Is that correct, Chris?

It wasn't a request. You said you would like to see it on there. It wasn't a request to put it on there, and Jason and I talked about it, and it is not a recommendation for a civilian review board, so I made the decision not to put it on an agenda.

But you do recognize that I specifically said I would like this issue brought to city council meeting in confirmation of a discussion of the civilian review board to assist the chief, and that is my right as a citizen. Can you please read the CMAP and let me know when you're done? No, I'm not going to read it. If you said that you would like to have it brought to a council meeting. Can you please just read the bottom part then? Because this is your email. This is the confirmation. And this is just a segment. Can you read that? You would like to bring it. You would like it brought to a council meeting. And that is confirmation that I would like to speak on the agenda. Is that clear to you? Or no? No, you said you wanted it brought to a council meeting, but Jason and I decided not. So just to confirm, everybody, it's not clear if a resident emails and asks, I'd like this issue brought to a city council meeting in confirmation of a discussion of a civilian review board to assist the chief in reviewing any future complaints. Is that good enough to set up time with an agenda? That's not clear enough.

Correct, Chris?

You didn't ask me to, no. This is word for word what is on the email.

I would like, it doesn't say I request it.

So it needs to say I request it in order to process a resident's concern there?

That's a good way of putting it. That would be a much better way.

So to clarify, this was not clear to you and you would not expect Chris to process this?

Actually, personally, this review board, I told Chris we're not doing that.

Okay, that's fine, but that's what I'm talking about right now. I'm just talking about the concerns of a resident that work properly. Dave, may I please speak before you respond? That's probably part of the reason.

Go ahead.

Thank you very much. I appreciate that. What I'm asking is if a resident, not me, anybody sent an email saying, I'd like a blank issue brought to a city council meeting and confirmation of a discussion of this blank issue to assist in reviewing. Would you add that topic to the agenda or what would you do with that email? How would that email be processed, Chris?

I can only speak to yours. I would treat it on a case-by-case basis, so I will- So did you process this correctly?

You are confident in how you process my request? Okay. Thank you for confirming that. During the above-mentioned conversation, Kristen heard multiple times that she read my email. Which is this mentioned email? Would you like to read it, city council members, at all? You're also part of the chain, so you should have and should have already read it and be aware of it as well. I verbally read the entire email out loud to her, and then she completed my request within three minutes. So something that took Chris Dockendorf three minutes to perform, which she has paid $127,000, took me, a resident, a citizen, whose time was not respected, 12 phone calls and 24 emails. Do we think it is acceptable for Chris Dockendorf to behave in this way when she's paid $127,000 of her resident taxpayer's money? Because I personally do not. And if I acted that way at any of my office jobs, I would immediately be on double audits. I would have managers coaching me on how to properly respond to an email. Incompetence at this level feels like it's purposeful. It is my personal opinion that it was done in an attempt to make me the problem go away and prevent me from being able to speak and exercise my rights as a resident. I did want to add that only one city council member did promptly answer my email, which is Ryan Hennin. He did read my email and he did respond properly to my concerns. In fact, he would research the idea of a civilian review board. Dave Hyden responded once, quote, directly from his email, I'm only doing this once. The matter you're referring to is a police matter. And as far as I hear from the city administrator, they took care of it, which she did not. The other suggestions you had can go to the committee as she chooses it, which was not an answer response to my email. I directly was trying to set up this meeting with city council, and that is how Dave responded to me. I also left him multiple voicemails asking him to return my call, and he never once returned my call. Fran Ramler also never once returned my email. Mike Fall responded on my email. Excuse me. Sorry. I just need a moment. Mike Fahl responded on May 19th advising he wasn't sure what I was asking. Is that really funny? Because I really didn't think it was funny. It made me really sad.

Because I don't have a phone.

Okay. So he responded saying that he wasn't sure what he was asking, Chris could make this an agenda item. So this is the 19th, still hasn't been done. It was done on the 22nd. So at this point, it still has not been completed. Mike then responded to me, I then responded to Mike on that same day, asking what was unclear about my message and copy and pasting the original statement, which is, again, I'd like this issue brought to a city council meeting and confirmation of discussion of a civilian review board to assist the chief in reviewing any future complaints.

May I stop you a minute and interrupt from then?

Wait till I'm finished. Actually, I just, this is very emotional for me and it would be very kind and I would like, and I'd be happy to answer any questions once I finish what I've spoken.

The council does not set the agenda. The mayor and the city administrator set the agenda.

I totally understand that and we can talk about that later. This is for Chris and Jason. I understand you guys did what's within your responsibility, but you still did not respond correctly to the emails. And that's the point that I'm trying to bring up is the only person who probably respond to my emails was Brian. I'm just trying to put light to that. Does that make sense? So then I said, I quoted and sent him the original email saying, I'd like this issue brought to a city council meeting and confirmation of the discussion of a civilian review vote. Is this the chief interviewing any complaints? Mike then responded two days later on the 22nd saying, I just got your message yesterday. When he had already responded to the email, he said he didn't receive on May 19th. On May 22nd, I sent an email to everybody mentioned because my request for my speaking time being added to the agenda was still not handled at this time. That was at 1043 a.m. on May 22nd. So I sent an email, reminder, this email change started on April 8th, 2026. And there have been multiple meetings after that in which Chris has failed to add my request to the agenda per my knowledge. At that point, Doug Spence emailed me back advising I will not over the phone have a discussion about this issue. I'd love to have a discussion on a city council meeting, which is what I was trying to ask for the entire time. And not a single person resolved it at this point. I then called and spoke with Doug because I, for whatever error on my end of my email, I wasn't able to contact him. So I thought he had blocked my phone or my email address. So I contacted him and I explained how I have concerns with him and how he was not properly reading my emails or addressing my concerns as well. We took care of the blocking. That was like a tech error. He did not block my email and he was able to send a test email and he did work with me on that. He then honestly did some concern that my issue hadn't been handled. So he himself offered to contact Chris on my behalf to have my request added to the agenda, which he, to my knowledge, did contact Chris to do that. Chris unfortunately still did not add the correct item to the agenda. She did not read my email that she multiple times had claimed to have read and processed. So at this point, I received an email from Chris advising that she had added city council blocking meetings to the agenda. At this point, I was so tired of emails because clearly this is not a good way to get anything done or be involved in your local government. Don't email if you want answers. You must show up to city council meetings. You must do eight million things because that is how you are respected, apparently, according to the Cold Spring City Council and Chris Stockendorf. So I then called Chris directly and that is when I spoke to her and had to read the email verbatim for her to do her job. To me, this is unacceptable. I grew up being told working in local government was a privilege for people who had hard work ethics, people who wanted to pick themselves up from their bootstraps and work hard and not be handed spoon-fed participation And I do just want to note, Chris had all of the information needed to schedule this meeting at the very first email that was sent on April 8th. I am so saddened and disturbed by the way I've been treated, and I hope no one else has to go through the same experience. To touch on a positive note, Lois L. and Danielle H. both are employed by the City of Cold Spring and did process my email questions unrelated to the above topics efficiently and professionally, so I do want to appreciate and celebrate that small victory. And then for my last topic, I want to discuss the idea of having a civilian review board to assist our chief of police with any officer complaints. Now you guys probably haven't heard what a civilian review board is. So essentially what it is, is it would be a volunteer civilian review board that would meet and provide disciplinary and policy recommendations to the chief of police on all civilian initiated police conduct complaints. Now, just to clarify, is that funny? I just saw you laughing, so I just wanted to address that. But thank you for that respect.

I don't think you're respecting us right now, so just keep talking.

I'm sorry, what do you not feel respected by?

Just take it out on me.

Okay, perfect. So I will explain that then. So please note the chief of police would have the final authority over any disciplinary actions. It's fine. They wouldn't be disrespectful. I'm sure they're disrespectful. That is their way they would like to shine themselves. Excuse me. Okay. So please note the chief of police would have final authority over any disciplinary actions. So they would just be giving recommendations to the chief of police, essentially. He would still have all the power in that way. So why does this benefit us? It helps prevent bias. There's an issue with only having complaints reviewed by the supervisor of the person we're complaining about. prevent that because it's hard for police to put themselves in civilian shoes, hard for civilians to put themselves in police shoes. That's why a combination of the vote in my opinion is the perfect mix. So what other community benefits do we get from this? Community involvement. So I personally think I love residents being involved in local government. Chris makes it very difficult, as we can see, for people to be involved in local government. I don't like that. I want people to have an easy process working with our government and understanding. And I think we need more people involved in local government. And incidents like this make people not want to be involved. So community members are given a place to voice concerns that will not only be heard by law enforcement. The community at large can be reassured that discipline is being imposed when appropriate, while also increasing the transparency of the disciplinary process. Oversight agencies can improve department policies and procedures. Policy recommendations can prevent issues by identifying areas of concern and subsequently offering options to improve policing. By establishing an oversight system, public officials are provided the opportunity to demonstrate their desire for increased police accountability and the need to eliminate misconduct. So all that information I just provided to you is actually benefits are sourced and cited from NACOLE.org, which is the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement. I personally would love for a more open and honest experience with our law enforcement as it feels as though adding a civilian review board might be a wonderful start to that. I myself have questioned some of the protocols and procedures officers from the city of Cold Spring have exercised, as well as the lack of cooperation I've received from Jason Blue. When I have attempted to educate myself further on police department, their policies, and what our current department goals are at this time. I actually had an interview set up with Mr. Blue, Chris Dockendorf, and then I did ask Dave to attend, but he never responded to the four-voice emails I left him.

I've got a job I have to go to.

So maybe we need to look into a full-time mayor. But it's a good thing he's up for re-election, my friends. So anybody who wants to offer themselves to run for mayor, please do so, because we do need somebody who can respond to constituents. Moving on, so I sent up an interview with this, and it was scheduled for this morning at 10 a.m. I originally sent it on May 20th, and all parties were notified on May 20th of me setting up this meeting and me wanting to ask the following questions to Jason. I will let you know what the questions were. Please explain your approach to promoting the concept of 21st century policing throughout all sections of your department. Second question, based on your knowledge of our city and its demographics, what are you currently focused on for tasks as chief for the next six months? How far along with those tasks do you expect to be in six months? Three, what are your philosophies and techniques used relating to recruitment and retention of law enforcement personnel? Four, explain what methods you use for keeping the city manager informed about problems within the city and issues. Provide an example of a method you use. Five, can you provide an example of where you handled a sensitive critical issue or crisis that affected or had potential to significantly affect your relationship with a manager or chief executive? What was the outcome of that incident? What training techniques did you use to resolve that incident? Please be specific. Do you think having 20 hours of vacation for your first two years of employment as an officer is okay? If not, how have you advocated for change? So they were aware of this email since the 20th, and they chose to email me yesterday at the end of the day with about 420-something, I believe. So Chris emailed me with Jason CC to advise the following, and this is a direct quote of the email I received. I do believe you guys also received it now, too, and forwarded it to you. Police Chief Bloom and I will not be meeting with you tomorrow. And this is in regard to the questions. Police chief and I will not be meeting with you tomorrow. Please consider this email our notice of cancellation. Your unreasonableness when we have attempted to communicate with you are indications that you are not operating with us in good faith. The city will follow up with you as appropriate after the city council hears from you during tomorrow's city council meeting, at which time you can address the two issues on the agenda for that meeting. I did follow up with Chris and Jason already, and I did also CC our mayor asking to confirm if Jason will answer my questions via email, but I have not yet heard back, and from my experience, I probably never will. And he's like nodding his head because he's really proud of what a good job he does. And just so everybody knows, that's the salary to pay Jason Bloom, $116,000 to do such a fantastic job, as he was so proud. So far I feel as though the city of Cold Spring makes it very hard for residents to educate themselves and stay active in their own city's government and that has deeply concerned and deeply disappointed me. I think our city is overdue for big changes because what I've experienced is unacceptable and I truly hope this is a big learning experience for everyone involved so no one has the same experience as me because that is disrespectful and should be ashamed. I also hope the city, now that you know my experience and you have seen this proof and you have the proof in your emails, you take the appropriate disciplinary actions towards employees not properly doing their job. And I will be sure to follow up on that. Thank you for your time, everyone. That is all I have for today.

Just got a couple of updates. I'll just give you 296 calls to date. We're ahead of last year already. I think we had 12 calls this weekend. Oh, really? Yeah, it's been busy. Birding restrictions are off now as a permit from the burning fire warden or online from the state of Minnesota DNR. You're only allowed in the city to have a 3x3x3 pit area to burn branches, no burning leaves, no burning garbage. Otherwise, you'll get a ticket. The other thing is I had Chris some paperwork yesterday. We were talking today a little bit. We'll get more writing written up and it'll go to the state of Minnesota cities and a few other places for the fire truck and the ambulance. So we're working on it. new fire and all doing good good yeah getting everything in place yeah it's getting there it's getting to be filled up already too it's going to get worse in a couple weeks you'll have the company over there company oh we should be fine yeah this will be

Number 13, Public Works Director Report, John Stevey, along with Sam Butler.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor and Council. Hey, John. No request for action, just some updates. Just wanted to let you know that the crack filling for 2026 is out for close to three different companies, Barnelly, Aztec, and Bertram. OUR GOAL IS TO TRY TO DO AS MUCH CRACK FILLING AS WE CAN THIS YEAR, AND THEN WE'LL SEE WHAT WE HAVE LEFT FOR SEAL FILLING. TO ME, CRACK FILLING IS IMPORTANT. SOME OF OUR ROADS ARE A LITTLE BIT OLDER, BUT THEY HAVE SOME DECENT AMOUNT OF CRACKS IN THEM, NOT LIKE ALLIGATED TO CRACK, BUT STILL SELLABLE.

Well, you judge on the quality of their work, or are they all using the same materials?

They have to follow the spec, yeah. Same materials, same width, same depth, all that.

Well, the output we had last year was pretty fast, I thought.

Yeah, they did a nice job. Last few years, we've had really nice crack filling jobs. So that's why we don't put it off for a second. and also do a good job.

Does anybody talk to you about alleys at all? Ceiling alleys?

No.

I know my neighbors talked about ours. I don't know if the city does that or the homeowners would have to.

Well, it's a gray area. Yeah. If you wanted a paved alley, I believe it was 75% or more of the homeowners in that alley. Yeah, we were wondering if that's, you know, we do pothole filling on it a lot of times, but we've never really done any, any ceiling, any major maintenance. I don't know if major maintenance falls under the homeowners of the alley because they paid for it. I don't know. I have to look at that.

So what kind of point out that anyway,

Well, and then that alley we talked about here a couple other times over in the southwest side. I think you put some gravel on there or something.

Well, that was from a homeowner's water main break that ran through that alley. And ever since then, it's been kind of a nightmare. So it's been slowly getting built up. want to replace it, it still falls under the same policy as far as the percentage of homeowners that have to agree with it. Sealing wouldn't do yet then, I suppose. I think so, because the city's sealed it in the past.

You should look into that one. I'll talk to my neighbor and let him know.

The last couple meetings with the lights out by Franz and Red River, just wanted to let you know that the utility companies are aware of them. Hopefully they can get out soon and fix them. The one on Red River, we did get design electric, notify them so they'll be able to fix that if they haven't already. And then I wanted to give you an update on 3rd Avenue Southeast. The last few meetings I've had conversation with you about the right-of-way and where MnDOT's going to stop, when they plan on doing Highway 23. They're not planning on doing Highway 23 until 2033. That's a long time from now. With that, from the north section of our project to Highway 23, it's pretty rough. And it's not like fall apart like the other parts of that road, but there's definitely cracking and things going on. So I had a conversation with Chris. My recommendation was to add it as an addendum or an alternate to the bid for a reclaim and repave on that little section like we did on Main Street. There was a $5,000 charge from the engineer to add the plans and specs to that part of it. We made the decision to have them move forward with it so we could at least see a number because I think it's going to be beneficial. At the end. I don't think it's going to be overly expensive to add that section And I don't think we want to keep that section knowing that their products not going to get done till 2033 It's a very dirty. Are you kidding me?

That's what been done to me set up that turn lane then it's the problem Well, I'm talking about right now.

Yes from basically The radius from 23 all the way back to our project by Chapel Hill.

Yeah And the rest half

So they would add they put in the bid spec for bidding restriping just doing the base course of payment this year because that's all we'll do on third app and then doing the rare course next year so that it all blends in and matches. So we'll have our main bid and then we'll have an alternate bid for that section. And then the bids, it's out right now for bids. Okay. Hopefully in the next I'm assuming week or two we'll have them here presenting bids.

Follow up on that little area. The catch basin, I think on the, I guess the west side, doesn't seem like that's in the lowest part of the road. And there's just ponds there.

You're talking right off the radius of Highway 23? Yes. So that's going to fall on the MnDOT right-of-way part of it. If you want us to address it, we can have a change order during the project at that time, because it's not on the bid right now. But obviously those contractors that are doing this work would definitely be able to tackle something like that.

Because, I mean, if we're going to go through this process, it feels like it might be a good time to fix that little thing then, too. But maybe if we could just add that in there, too, just as an option.

Yeah, I think we can look at that after the bid comes back and talk to the general contractor and have them give us support. And if it's astronomical, then we can just have a local person try to coordinate and deal with that.

And I don't know how much it has to move, if it's something that's doable with rings to try to get it to flow that way, or if we literally have to move the whole structure.

Sometimes it's just the curb and gutter over time that's settling, maybe mud jacket too. I don't know what to look at. Oh, yeah.

to turn the lights, you've got to wait for some other vehicle to trip the lights. Isn't there enough weight there?

Because on my motorcycle, too, it won't trip that. I don't know if that's looping in the street, though. MnDOT should have cameras, but I'm not certain.

I think that is looping.

I know when you're headed south off of Main Street and you want to turn left on the 23 heading east, but I thought they had those more on a timer now or they rotate more because of Pilgrims traffic.

I know when we were doing the feasibility report I had reached out to midnight and they said that anything that was reclaimed there those loops would have to be redone.

Because they took them things out of the pavement for weight and they went to lights in the past years, right?

So that's something we'll have to look at then.

somebody in my motorcycle to wait for something back of me to trip it and I'm up there I just wondering if there wasn't you know like what causes them to trip a laser beam or something or yeah I know like when we did Red River we we changed those two cameras we got rid of the loops it was the extra I don't know what it was 7500 bucks or something we changed at that time knowing that it was the expense if we ever hit the road again we'd have to

Yeah, people are in a hurry. I'll email MnDOT tomorrow and talk to them about that looping, because that might actually complicate things a little bit. I think that could do the intersection. I wonder if that works. Just get off your motorcycle and run out. It's a wave and no big. All right.

I want to bring up that roundabout again. I've talked to our county commissioner twice. I've talked to both the prior engineer and this engineer about doing something about the roundabout. And now the cement is coming out. The last time I talked to the commissioner, he sent a memo to the engineer and advising him to get

yeah i know i see that they usually come because you don't put cold patch in that you put some special they put some special material in there um i can't help that situation but what we can do when we do award crack filling if you want to we can have the crack fillers crack fill those seams shut and fill them in with crack well but it's a coney's job understand that but for that few hundred bucks if it eliminates our problem but it's um it's a it probably more than a few hundred bucks because it's an But I don't know if that will eliminate the problem. You know, that might over time settle too. I don't know. Matt Zinio is the guy at the county that is in charge of that. And we've talked to the right people to get the word along and pass it on to him. I mean, the guy that was here, the head engineer, he's not going to talk to anybody better than that to pass the word along. So I don't know what else to say.

I mean, it's just terrible. I mean, it's just a hazard to see them.

I'll send an email to the county, to Matt, and maybe I'll CC that engineer. I'd appreciate it. See if that gets any wrong.

I mean, John's got anything? Okay, thank you very much. Go out to number 14, City Engineer Report, Sam Butler.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. The only update I have for tonight is really just echoing what Pete had said at the end of his presentation. to do with the 90% plans and specs. Hopefully, it'll take a little bit of time, but hopefully in the next few meetings we'll have that proposal to present to the council. Then the immediate, I guess, next task for Stantec that we started on is, I think Pete had mentioned it just piece of grain. So that's our next step, the proposal, and then go from there.

Is that one of those things where you can get grant money, but you're going to spend a lot more money on the project to try and get that little bit of extra government money?

In this case, not necessarily, because we're kind of mirroring the part of treatment that's already there. That was our plan all along, and it's for nitrogen and

this case no it's not it felt like i think it was a kimball library where they they got not the state or federal funding but a project probably was twice as much as it needed to be just so they could get that funding yeah but that's all paid for i guess maybe it doesn't matter i don't know but okay that's all i would think that's it that's all i got

Just some updates for me. Number one, the speed trailer, the one we ordered that was damaged, the new one is supposed to ship on the 29th, so hopefully we have it in the next week or two and it shows up in good shape. We also listed the 2024 Explorer on MinBid. It's a surplus government auction website. The final total was $7,075, so since we started using that auction site, we've done much better than when we used to do those bids and that type of thing, so Last week, Officer Mueller received a letter of commendation along with five deputies with the incident that occurred over in Painesville last summer. I included a letter from Stearns County Attorney good job to him um and then ordinances uh i think we reported that last time it was in the city was over 130 um town's edge was their own kind of separate number um it sounds like the good majority of them um have taken care of the issues i think we're probably roughly dealing with about 20 people that still trying to work through a few things but um thank you to everybody that uh took care of that. If you haven't yet, please finish that up. Officers are going around. I think they started today or earlier this week of following up to make sure everything was taken care of.

So if they're not taking care of it, they're getting a ticket.

Look at a city citation. If it's still not taken care of, they can do a state citation, which would give them a day in court to let everybody do their side.

Do you see any citations yet?

I don't believe so, not yet. So it will happen soon. So if anybody hasn't taken care of it, please make sure.

How long do they have? Like two weeks or what is the time?

Usually we give them 14 days. They were dated. They took them a couple of days to go around. So the dates on there might, it might not have been actually mailed out until the following week or something to that effect. But from when we mailed them out, we gave them 14 days and then we follow up to make sure.

It's not a shot at people either. I mean, it's just, it's an ordinance that the, take care of it, and it goes away.

And I think the majority of it is, yeah, just little things that need to be, you know, garbage removed, new tabs, that type of thing. Just keeping the neighborhoods looking nice. Thanks for that. Absolutely.

But other than that, that's all I have, unless you guys have questions for me. Anybody got anything for Jason?

Yeah, that curve, that curve around by, We can take a look at it and I think the only other than 72-hour parking we'd have to paint it as a no parking zone or that type of

Anything else No, thank you very much Number 16 city administrator before I just let you know so we Talk a little bit about the library first.

We have walked through last week with the owner and well, actually it was realtor, and the Great River team, and the reconstruction was done every mile, but they found a few things that still need some tweaking, so they're working on fixing those, and we're going to do another walkthrough next week, and I believe it'll be good to go. And then they'll be able to move in, and hopefully even ahead of schedule a little bit, depending on when they get their internet switched. I do have a big sign on order for out here, you know, with our new addresses and things. And I've been putting it out on social media, and I want to take this time to tell the public as well that we're planning on closing on the 9th and the 10th of June to move all furniture, get the phones hooked up over there, internet hooked up, things like that. So we'll be here, but we'll be moving stuff. So then hopefully by end of day on the 10th, we're ready to get work the next morning and move location. So, and just a reminder, this is our last meeting here. All future meetings will be at the DEF.

The June 10th meeting will be at the DEF? Yes, yes. You said you're going to put something in the paper also.

Yeah, I can follow up. There was something in there, but I can put another thing in. We had it in the newsletter, and I put it on Facebook, and I'll put another follow-up.

And maybe on the sign outside, we can put something in.

Yeah. Oh, and also just a reminder to the public that all the elections will be held at the DEF, too. And we'll do our best to get that word out.

All right. Anybody got anything for Chris there? Number 17, commission updates, planning.

Planning commission had a pretty good discussion actually on two different topics. First one was the idea of having a chicken ordinance and being able to have chickens in city limits. Chris did some light work and reviewing and researching it. And, you know, it was a discussion against it some for it some on the fence and um i think at the end of the conversation we had decided to at least have chris draft up that ordinance change so we could have a deal what's that didn't we have that already like eight hands and no roosters Right now you can't have any.

So that was all made up then because some people have chickens, you know. But no, they can't have roosters.

And that's what we've seen in the ordinances is that that was kind of how it was laid out. The number varied a little bit on how many chickens you could have, but the rooster is kind of universally the noise smell smell potentially you know potential for rodents and other things but yeah yeah so we we discussed that and then the other one the other ordinance change was fencing around pools currently we require a fence around pools but with the cover technology that's out there There are many cities now that are allowing people to put in pools without fences because the pool covers are, one, they're locked. So when you close it, you can't open it and you cannot fall into the pool. Is that for above ground pools or ground level pools? This would be in ground pools. Oh, in ground pools. Yeah. These particular covers are very specific.

Research, how many cars are in here? And he was still able to go through and die.

Well, there are different pool covers, too, in this particular one.

I think it's our own safety. We should keep that.

And not to say that something couldn't be done, but it's this particular type. I have it, so you can literally walk on it.

Childhood. You can.

without having a key. But that was the other one we talked about, and that's another one that Chris will be bringing a draft of the ordinance change to the Planning Commission.

Many years ago, we made one fill it up with gravel, didn't we, Chris? Up by where you used to live.

Oh, when they wanted to get rid of it, they filled it in.

Something about they had to fill it, We did, well, we only met on the 11th, so we already discussed all that. Yeah, that was those signs, and the granite sign on there, yeah, so.

Okay, Park Board met. We went to River Links, looked at the park land there, and talked about different things with It's just a matter of getting funding to do it. And that's where it sits at right now. But that's about all we have that day. Oh, we did have Rylan Sabo came and talked about Lookout Park again, gave us an update, which was really good. McCrory Trail, Doug?

Yeah, yeah, we did meet... IT TALKED A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE MAINTENANCE FROM 14TH AVENUE WEST. I'M SORRY, THE ROOTS ARE COMING THROUGH, PETE, AND CITY MAINTENANCE FROM RICHMOND ARE GOING TO TAKE A LOOK AT THAT.

OKAY. AND WE TALKED A LITTLE BIT, TURN OVER TO THE STATE.

I GUESS THAT'S MOVED NOW TO THE NEXT LEVEL. SO IT SOUNDS LIKE THINGS ARE MOVING FORWARD ON THAT.

OKAY.

THAT'S PRETTY MUCH ABOUT IT.

ALL RIGHT. THANK YOU. Number 18 then, list of bills, recommendation to review and accept payment of the accounts payable according to the list presented by city staff. Can I get a motion?

Well, I'll make that motion since our report of the city, I think we can pay them bills.

All right, Brandon makes a motion, I'll vote a second. I'll second. Brian? Brian seconds it. All those in favor? Doug? Aye. Fran? Aye. Mike? Aye. Brian? Aye. And I'm an aye. Motion carries. 19. General questions and comments from City Council. Doug, you got anything?

I just want to say thanks for allowing me to attend online here tonight.

Oh, absolutely, Doug. It's a good way to do it. At least in it.

Yeah, thank you guys.

Absolutely. Fran, you got anything? No, no. Okay.

Mike, you got anything? No. Ryan? Just, Doug, I hope you heal quickly. I need your energy in here. And then... The other thing is I just want to touch base on a couple of things. I know your experience with the city wasn't ideal, but my working with Chris has been nothing but professional. All of my experiences and the people that she has also worked with. I've not heard anything. So this is a little bit of an outlier. So I apologize that that's your experience, but I can tell you that the vast, vast majority of people that come and work here, citizens, businesses alike, have all done very well with Chris. And she is a very, quite honestly, she's one of the friendliest people I've ever met. And then, you know, so this whole scenario is a little bit shocking to me. Chief Bloom as well, very professional individual in all accounts with- Did you see him shaking his head at me while I was learning to do my speech? And I understand, I understand. And I think a little bit of the consideration that probably needs to take place is the messaging. Sometimes it's, and how you phrase it, because I think sometimes when a person has a good idea and you want to sell the idea, it's how the message, message is phrased, how you put it out there.

I read how I phrased the message. Can you explain how that would be met with that?

Can you let him talk? I'm just saying.

I just don't agree with it. It seems like you're trying to smooth over. Just quiet. Please don't shush me, Dave. You need to have respect for everybody. Thank you.

I mean, decorum in the meeting. Is that decorum? It is, because Dave actually, as Mayor, Dave actually can tell anybody to stop talking.

Would you speak to somebody like that?

When you are leading a meeting like this, you have to sometimes. That's just exactly what I mean.

Nobody else was spoken to like that.

But this situation, I'm just saying this is just my comments. That's it. There's no more public speaking from anybody, honestly. And I'm not trying to be rude. That's just how a meeting plays out, so I apologize for that. All I'm saying is that your experience is an outlier. Your experience with how the police is an outlier. that you brought an idea to us, you know, as a council talking about the Civilian Review Board. All ideas are good. We need to vet those ideas, see if they work for us.

They've already said no to the idea.

Yeah, but please, I'm just saying, I'm just, okay, these comments are just, right now, they're our comments. That's it. There's no back and forths here. So the Civilian Review Board Again, could be a good idea in a different situation. Small communities, it doesn't work. I mean, we've had three complaints in six years.

Not true.

Well, I'm just, these are numbers for including yours. So it just, there's a lot of things that just don't make sense about it. My experience, my experience, my experience with our police staff has been nothing but exemplary. I just think your situation when you were talking to everybody, I think some people may get the wrong impression, and I just need them to know that that's not the case.

And they can reach out to me for copies. And I get that.

Again, this is a – I'm telling you, this is probably part of the reason why some of these – the messaging that you're trying to portray comes off so poorly is because of the way you're pushing it. You got – people understand you don't it's just a lot you just I'm just saying this and I think I did do that with my speaking you did yes and I mean you did you did a fine job speaking I'm just saying this group of people do a great job everybody that works for this city does a great job and I just want people to know that I appreciate it and I know the people of Cold Spring appreciate it so Thank you.

I want to add to that.

I'm a person of Cold Spring, and I don't appreciate it. Just so everybody does know.

104,000. I want to add to that. You can keep sending emails all you want, but the only authority that council people have is in this room. And I have no authority to tell Chris what to do. I have no authority. The mayor and the city administrator make the agenda.

But you do read the emails, and you should respond to the emails appropriately, correct?

Absolutely.

Why?

I mean, you don't have to, if you don't, that's fine.

I'll just keep coming to every state council meeting and I'll just shut up.

Please do not be like that. Okay. That's enough. We're done. Okay. Okay.