City Council - Regular Meeting

Call the order for a Watertown City Council meeting for February 2nd, 2026, my wife's birthday, by the way. Happy birthday, Tanya, if you are there. Um, so let's please rise while Hank Roso, the chaplain of the Watertown Fire Rescue, leads us in prayer. Thank you. If you'd join me, please. Our gracious heavenly father, as we gather here this evening, we thank you for all these good people that are around us for this special occasion. And God, we thank you for your presence. God, we're also thankful for things that we usually take for granted like law enforcement, firefighters, and paramedics, those first responders that watch over us. We thank you Lord for the great things that we enjoy in this city, the utilities, the streets and snow removal. All these things we take for granted. God, as we come together, we thank you that because you're here and your Holy Spirit's here, we pray that you would give wisdom and insight and understanding. And Lord, also we thank you that we can share this common bond together as love for our community. We ask your hand of blessing in all these things in each one here in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. Okay. Don't don't jump the gun on me. We have a special guest who's going to lead us in the pledge of allegiance today. Elliot Moffett is a young man who I happened to meet not long ago and he just had an interest in the city. And I've actually been mentioning this when I've go when I've went around and talked to elementary schools if any if anyone wanted to come and lead this uh city in pledge or prayer. And uh Elliot was brave enough to be our first volunteer to come and do this. So, thank you so much, Elliot. So, at Elliot's guidance, we will all do the pledge. So, you can guide us as you as when you are ready.

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. You nailed it. Great job. So, Elliot, I'd like to give you a chance. Would you please introduce your family that's here with you today? Yes.

Um, that is my mom, Courtney Moffet. And, um, my dad and my sister are Jeff and Isa Moffett. And then my papa and grandma are sitting next to them. And they are Dave and Dory Moffet. All right. And what's your favorite class at school? And what's your favorite activity like hobby? I'm homeschooled and my hobby is swimming at the outdoor pool or the gym. Nice. And playing hockey. So you don't have a favorite class that your mom teaches at home?

Well, I like math. I'm glad someone does. That's not All right. Thank you so much, Elliot, for being here and doing this for us tonight. I really appreciate it. Thank you. All right.

Finance Officer Bob Zen, please call the role. Okay. Player here. Here. Mormon here. Jirens here. Peters absent. Jetty here. Allan here. Thank you. Forum is established. Uh just a note, Councilman Peters may be joining us later. We're not sure. He's uh in the process of traveling right now. Forum is established. I will ask if anyone has a conflict of interest that they would like to disclose here. Councilman Hoyer.

Um not so much conflict of interest, but I do just want to be transparent and say that I'm currently a board member on one of the nonprofits that is appearing tonight. Um, of course I don't stand to realize any direct gain or anything as it is a nonprofit. Um, but yeah, I plan to participate in discussion and vote and of course that is open for you guys too to discuss.

All right. Thank you, Councilman. Any other disclosures? Right. Can I get a motion to approve tonight's agenda? Motion made by Councilman Allen, seconded by Councilman Shuddy. Any discussion on that hearing? None. The motion is to approve the agenda. All those in favor, please say I. I. Motion carried. We'll go into open forum. If there is anyone here who would like to address the council on something that is not on tonight's agenda, now is your time to do so. I'll close open form. We'll go straight into contracts and change orders. Item 10A an approval of professional services agreement amendment number two which is a final for bidding resident engineering and construction administration for the egg spray hanger area and taxiway project with Helms and Associates decreasing the contract amount by 30726 to for a total contract of roughly $437,000. We go to our city engineer Justin Peterson for more information. Uh thank you, mayor. Uh this amendment is to close out the contract with Helms Associates u related to the Eggspray project. Um the construction admin portion was just a little bit higher. The resident engineering was a little lower net uh decrease of just over 30,000. So I'll stand by for questions.

Thank you very much. Council, can I get a motion to approve the agreement? Motion made by Councilman Hoyer, seconded by Councilman Mormon. Open it up for any discussion. Council, any questions, comments? All right. Feel okay going to a voice vote? All those in favor of approving the agreement, please say I. I.

I heard Councilman Jur vote I. So, all those opposed, nay. Motion carries. Item 12A and 12B are very similar. So, we will do one testimony from our finance officer, but we will have to take two motions separately by council. So, item 12A is an application for a transfer of a location for a retail malt beverage in South Dakota farm wine license from downtown Sushi to downtown Sushi. So, basically their old location to their new location. Item 12B is an application for changing a wine and cider license. Same thing downtown Sushi from the old location to the new location. Finance officer Bob Zen, please tell us more.

Okay, thank you, Mayor. Yes, this is simply a location transfer. I will point out that um for the transfer, a conditional use was approved by the board of adjustment on December 18th of 2025. All fees have been paid and the notice has been published. So, everything's in line with the location. There's any questions, I can answer them. Thank you.

Thank you. Can I get a motion to approve 12A? Motion made by Councilman Allen, seconded by Councilman Shetty. Councel. Hearing no further comments, we'll just go to a voice vote. Oh, sorry. Thank you. I will open a public hearing. Is there anyone who would like to testify on this item? I'll close public hearing now. I will open it and I will assume Councilman Allen and Councilman Cheddar, you're making that okay making that motion. Okay. So now council, is there any discussion? All right. Hearing none, let's do a voice vote. All those in favor of approving the transfer, please say I. I.

Any oppose say nay. Motion carries. Item 12B. I'll open a public hearing on the transfer of the wine and cider. I will close the public hearing. Can I get a motion to approve this transfer? Motion made by Councilman Shuy, seconded by Councilman Allen. Council, any comments? All those in favor of approving the transfer, please say I. I.

Any oppose? Say nay. Motion carries. Item 12 C is an application for a transfer of a retail malt beverage and South Dakota farm wide l Farm wine license and video lottery license from For Amigos LLC, Cowboy Country Store, Cowboy Casino. See, where is the two? and to the cowboy. So basically just a different location. So same thing as downtown sushi just a different entity. Finance officer Bobzine, please tell us more.

Okay, thank you mayor. Yes, so this one is a little bit little bit different but it is a transfer. So, with this one, it's just aligning the licenses with their correct sales tax um license with the state and then also making sure the footprint is correct because they do have two video lottery licenses as well as their offsale liquor. So, it's more of a cleanup. They haven't gotten anything new or anything different. Just a little bit of cleanup between the sales tax license and the footprint. So, if there's any questions, I can answer them. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. I will open a public hearing. Is there anyone who would like to testify on this? I'll close the public hearing. Can I get a motion to approve the transfer? Motion made by Councilman Allen, seconded by Councilman Mormon. Any comments, council? Hearing none. All those in favor of approving the transfer, please say I. I. Any oppose say nay. Motion carries. We're on to item 13A, city council consideration of a funding request from downtown Watertown Collective in the amount of $90,000 over three years or $30,000 annually. First, we'll go to our city manager, Alan Stagger.

Thank you, mayor. Uh the item before you tonight is, as the mayor said, a request from the Downtown Watertown Collective for a a funding of $90,000 over each of the next uh over three years. Um this item is before you tonight uh rather than coming before you during the normal budget process because the organization didn't exist during the budget process. Uh this is a newly formed group that was incorporated in uh December of last year. Um as you consider this proposal tonight, we do have a group that will will be making uh a proposal. I I did want to call your attention from an internal city perspective. A couple of things about the group. Uh first of all there is a clear alignment uh between between the objectives that we have as a city and the passionate group of leaders who have brought forward this group especially in terms of growing population as we strive to grow to 30,000 people in 2035. This appears to be the type of new and different thinking that we need. Um I would like to talk about the funding. Uh Trent, if you could bring up bring up the slide. So this request, although it is outside of the budget process, is something that uh we do have line of sight to fund. Just as a reminder, we do have what we call the third penny, which is the gross receipts tax collected on um lodging and entertainment uh in the community. The budget for the use of those funds is up on the screen uh before you and that uh is roughly 1.3 million that is collected on an annual basis. You can see on the chart the organizations that

are currently slated to receive those funds including an internal transfer to the park and wreck fund uh visit Watertown at 350,000. We do continue to have some maintenance obligations at the Watertown Event Center. Uh the tenant has taken over most of the daytoday, but we do have some that we plan to fund on an annual basis. We've been funding the Chamber of Commerce for 90,000 and finally the July 4th fireworks and uptown Flowers for 40,000 and $7,000 each. We have been collecting about a million three to a million4 per year. So as long as sales tax revenues remain strong, uh we should be able to fund the request from the collective through current year tax revenues. We also have a fund balance in this fund in excess of a million dollars. We do have some tenative plans to spend some of that fund on uh retail recruitment activities as well as potential future renovations at the Watertown Event Center. So, the key message for here tonight is you do have the ability to fund this at $30,000 for 2026 and then obviously we could continue to budget it going forward for the following two years. I'll stand by for uh for any questions.

Thank you, city manager. I will now invite the public to come up. I would ask for proponents first. Could some proponents please come forward? And with everyone, if you want to testify tonight, just please just state your name and who you're representing if it's someone other than yourself, but I assume if you're a business owner, you're just representing yourself. So,

okay, just wanted to make sure. Hi guys, my name is Alicia Holen. Thank you for having us here tonight. I want to take a little bit of extra time to thank those of you who took some time out of your busy schedules to also meet with us and an and give us the opportunity to answer some questions prior to meeting. We thought we would Could I have you speak a little bit closer to the microphone? There we go. Is that better? Yes. I'm scared of microphones, so this is not great.

So, we thought we'd be interesting to start this presentation off with a quote. We encouraged the formation of a new administrative organization with the exclusive focus on downtown Watertown. Ideally, this organization would in time become a nonprofit to act as a steward of downtown Watertown on behalf of the entire community. This new organization would booster, brand, and promote existing business and foster the creation of new businesses in the downtown Watertown neighborhood. I'm gonna ask you guys a question. Does anybody have any idea when this was printed? I would guess uh H2O 2020 so back 2011.

Anybody else? Good. It came out of the planning cheret in March 18th of 2016. Actually, Megan's going to hand out some folders. That is the entire strategic plan that came out of that meeting. Um and we can touch on some of that here going forward. So, one of the first things we wanted to talk about is why are downtowns important? Now, I know some of the council is aware of of some of this, but we do want to take this opportunity to do a little public education on this. There's been a lot of questions on why the downtown, why not this place or that place. We just wanted to touch on why downtowns are just a little bit different. Walkable downtowns improve the quality of life, which helps cities attract and retain workforce talent, especially when we're talking about young professionals and retirees. A healthy, walkable downtown that invites the public to participate in its government and supports the concept of community should be a city's goal. Downtowns act as community gathering spaces strengthening civic pride, social connection, city identity and provide safe family orientated or entertainment. Um such things that we have done downtown, Carnival on camp, the public or the pumpkin pooa and the downtown trick-or-treating. And then we did a deck the downtown series of events this year that touched on the living windows. We did a sparkle um a sparkle evening, the cookie crawl and sounds of the season. Um locally owned downtown businesses recirculate up to three times more money locally than national chains. This strengthens jobs, services, and tax bases. Strong downtowns also increase property values in and around the core, expanding the local tax base without expanding infrastructure, while they also generate more activity per square foot than any other commercial area, outperforming strip malls, big box, and big box district.

Part of the H2O 2050 plan included some of this some of this downtown effort. Um 2020 had a large success with the Prairie Lakes Wellness Center, the Ice Arena, and Foundation Plaza coming out of that. Now that 2020 has come and gone, it's time to set a new set of goals. So 2050 identified four major priorities within the Watertown community out of 3,500 surveys completed. They looked at housing, workforce development, community building, which are some of those social services, and child care, as well as activities and recreation with a goal to make Watertown a more dynamic destination to live and work. Now, that activities and recreation group was subdivided into three arms. Those arms were Lake Compca, the key recreation assets, which are parks and facilities, as well as the downtown. Part of the strategic plan for the downtown had two major focuses and of that was the return of the downtown advisory board. So back about five to eight years ago we had a downtown advisory board. There's about 10 to 15 businesses that were actively included in this. That kind of wean way we w weaned down to about 8 to 10 businesses. Um the downtown was kind of sad. Would that be a fair a fair thing at that time? Um there was a lot of boarded up buildings, boarded up uh businesses. So we had a co coordinated effort to fill those spaces and then we also offered loans to help with maintenance and renovation through the old urban renewal funds and community events. Once we kind of had some traction with this, more businesses wanted to be involved. Uh and so we opened it up for businesses to come to the table with that group of eight to 10 people. And what happens is when you get eight to 10 businesses that were leading something and you have another 30 businesses that come in,

it's really hard to get everybody rowing in the same direction in the same boat. So the downtown advisory board kind of dissolved. Um so we structured the downtown Watertown Collective with that in mind as a membership organization where all members will have a voice. Now, the second part, which is where we're at tonight, was the creation of a downtown coordinator position overseeing downtown development and programming at the city level or through a main street type lo type program. This is our next hurdle. This has been discussed for 10 years downtown. It was originally funded in 2021, not as a new concept, but in 2022 that funding was revoked for lack of any traction on that. Okay. I did the right thing. Um, so why do we need a downtown coordinator and why should the city invest? Cities with a dedicated downtown manager or coordinator consistently outperform volunteeronly downtown efforts in community- based events growth, cleanliness, and business retention. Downtown events can increase foot traffic by 20 to 40% direct directly boosting sales for surrounding businesses. Small businesses thrive in coordinated downtown districts where shared marketing and events reduce individual business costs and risks. Resilient cities invest in their downtowns. Communities with active downtowns do recover faster from economic downturns and adapt more easily to change. And public investment in downtowns actually attracts private investment. So for every $1 invested publicly, it often leverages 10 to$15 in private investment.

That one. All right. Well, good evening, Alicia. Wonderful job. The microphone didn't eat you, and we got through that, so that was great. Uh, gentlemen, thank you for having us, Megan Olsen. Um, I've been in this seat a time or two, but I come from a different perspective. I come as a downtown business owner. Uh, I come as a representative from these fine folks behind you, uh, members of the newly formed downtown collective. Uh as Alicia me mentioned uh 2025 was the year that we um actually just in the last few months have re received our status. What started as a collaboration through great intentions with the visit Watertown bringing downtown businesses to the table. We quickly learned that party planning by a committee is a terrible idea, right? It's like trying to pick out all of these things and we're all rowing in a different direction. And so finally when we were able to weed out all the wants and needs what really boiled down to everybody had the same want and the same need and that's we need a coordinated effort. And so uh we went to work developed a plan developed an organization and here we are today. Uh our organization 501c6 member-based organization. Why do we need a standalone organization? We have a gap. That's the easiest way to explain it. There is a need. There is a need in services, in advocacy, in education. Uh there there's a gap that we feel feel partnering with the city, partnering with the community foundation, and partnering as independent business owners. We can work together collaboratively and fill that gap. Um let me see here. Yeah, go ahead.

Oh, you want to do this part?

Okay. Uh, another question we've had, you can go back to that one. Why does a downtown get a special organization versus other areas of town? This is a great one. Um, I come from a place of spending most of my career collaborating with businesses all over this community. And historically, for those of you who are Watertown natives, you'll understand that there used to be an organization called the Magic Mile Association. There was an organization and still may be of of mall businesses. Why the downtown? because now we're early adapters, right? We're here today and we hope that maybe we're turning over a new leaf and and down the road these other organizations will get together and do the same thing because that's what comes out of strong collaboration. So not why one or the other, but why not everybody working with the same model.

Okay, I think we we touched on that one. You can go to the next slide. So, our requesting fund or our our funding request uh for the $30,000. We are here asking you for a grant. We've explained each of this each of you that we've had the opportunity to have this conversation. We are not asking to stay on the city books past three years. You will not see the whites of my eyes coming here after 2029 saying we were so close. If this model cannot stand alone on itself, raise the funds it needs to through events, through membership driven um activities, then it didn't have the merit that we feel it has. Uh the Watertown Community Foundation in conjunction with 2050 this last week awarded us a grant, the same ask we're making of the city today, uh for $90,000, $30,000 over the course of three years. Uh the folks behind you have put their money where their mouth is. They've written checks. We've started in the first initial week of a membership drive. We're up over 30 members to date. We have lots of packets in the next few days that we will go out and collect. Folks are on board. This is the first time I can sit in front of you and say we're happy to see everybody is rowing in the the same direction. Okay. Um, again, current successes. Alicia talked on this a little bit. It aligns with the 2050 strategic plan. This is a wonderful way to message to the community as a city council. We're on board. We get this. We understand. We recognize the successes of 2020. And here we are. We're ready to help and partner for 2050. The resurrection of the downtown advisory board. We've uh formalized that with the downtown collective. Uh we're coming off of what was just reported last week as strong sales tax numbers for 2025, the last quarter. Uh I think

if you talk to the retailers up and down Kemp Avenue all around the downtown district, they're going to tell you that an effort of working together collaboratively. Um many of you remember if you're from Watertown, stores used to stay open late on Thursday nights. We were able to accomplish that this year. People were excited about it. There was a buzz. We even were compared to a Hallmark movie, which is kind of a cool cool notation. Uh, but we had a wonderful holiday season. People love the nostalgia of what we're bringing back to downtown. So, yes. Does it benefit downtown businesses? Absolutely. Does it benefit this community? When you, as private citizens, go to another town, do you drive around and go, "Hey, that Buffalo Wild Wings looks just like ours." Or, "Hey, they've got a target, too." No, people go to downtowns. That's how you take the pulse. That's how you understand what's going on in the community. Do people care? Are they there? Are they gathering? Are there things for families to do? Does everybody feel welcome? Is it a space that we treat like the front porch of our community? That's questions we have to ask ourselves when we have requests like this as a community, as a council. So, looking forward, uh, we have some great ideas on how to come in front of you and show you that your investment was money well spent. Uh, we'll be tracking through an opt-in program, sales tax revenues in the downtown area. Uh, increasing further further foot traffic to events. Um, improving collaboration. Several organizations that we're excited to collaborate with. uh things that are already happening in the downtown, the Carnegie Christmas Market, the holiday lighted parade, organizations that are already doing something. How can we as a downtown collective come around them, make it bigger, better, provide them with more volunteers, help them with funding challenges that they may be having? Um definitely promoting an arts and

cultural experience throughout the downtown. And again, being financially independent after year three. That's huge. We don't want a handout. We want a partnership. The Watertown Community Foundation believes in it. The men and women behind you who have written checks believe in this. We're asking you folks to be bold. We're asking you to be early adapters as we move forward into this. And we're really asking you to take consideration in making this investment for downtown. I I think I just wrapped up the conclusion. I think I think that's it. I should have had the clicker,

right? Um I I want to read this. This is out of the sharet and and then I will uh yield to to my counterparts uh in the audience. But this also comes from that sharet. And this is keep in mind almost well it's 10 years ago as the heart of our city. Downtown is rich in history and vibrant with fond memories that people hold near and dear to their hearts. It's where first dates happened and ice cream treats have been shared with grandchildren. It's where the locals would gather once a week to pick up their groceries, do their shopping, and share conversations with old friends and perhaps make new ones. As families grow and share memories, the legacy and the strong bond of the community has established is passed down to the next generation. Our community takes pride in the history and it delights in sharing that history with others. The community has established a vision to once again reestablish a vibrant history throughout the re revitalization efforts to benefit future uh future generations. So again, that's our ask tonight. We appreciate it. We understand lots of consideration, lots of education goes into this pro uh this process, but we feel extremely passionate and we feel very sure-footed about the direction that this organization's headed. and we'd be happy to answer any questions that you might have for us.

I would suspect there might be some, but I'll ask you to just hold steady for right now. Um, I do want to tell the mafets, you don't have to stay for the end. You're more than welcome to, but um I would like to ask our IT assistant tonight, Trenton Willard or Wallard, sorry, to uh bring up myou and I don't want to I let me rephrase that's not myou to preamble this a little bit. As city manager Stagger said in his comments, new and different thinking is welcome in Watertown. New and different thinking is what we're going to need in order to become the community we have a vision of it becoming in the next few years. That means we need to start doing things differently and better. One of the things that I think we collectively as a city of as a city could have done better over the last few years going on for quite some time is having a better understanding between the money that the city of Watertown provides to outside agencies and what we get in return. more importantly, not what we get, what the citizens of Watertown get with their tax dollars when we fund an outside agency. As city manager Stagger showed in his presentation, we give quite a bit of money to several organizations, but we also donate a lot to other organizations as well. That was just in the BBB tax. We give a lot of money to other organizations from other funds in the city. And it's really just we have not done a very good job of holding ourselves as a city accountable for what we are getting for the citizens of Watertown in return for the money that we are granting to this organiz to these

organizations. So one of the changes I would like to suggest is we are going to stop calling them donations. We are going to call them accountable grants. These are grants to outside agencies that will have some accountability to them. We have never asked for accountability in the past to any outside agency. So, I apologize to the downtown collective, but you're the first one to come up and ask. So, I'm just going to set the precedent here with council's approval, of course, but this is my suggestion. And I want to also say that this was at least presented to several members of the downtown collective board. I'm not sure if it was all of them, but you can tell me if there's any problem with this, but this was something that we worked on together. So you can see the memor memorandum of understanding and this is just to basically get us on a better footing of what the collective can expect from us and what the citizens of Watertown can expect from the collective. So you can see you know it has the purpose the purpose is was already detailed by Mrs. Olsen and Mrs. Holene and the terms of agreement will start upon the agreement and it goes for three years. So right there we have it set straight out that this is not going to go on in perpetuity. The funding commitment is spelled out. And then in number four, if you could go down there, Trent, in number four, it has what the downtown collective agrees to utilize the funds for. And it's specifically spells out what they are supposed to use the money for. And then in the paragraph after the bullet points, you can see that these funds are only for designated purposes listed herein and not for any other purpose without the city's prior written approval. A request for redirection of

any grant grants funds must be submitted to the city in writing and approval is subject to the city's discretion. It's just an understanding that we know where the money is being spent so that we can understand what we're getting on our return on investment. Number five shows the downtown collective responsibilities. Item 5.1 they are obligated to have four signature or big events every year that can be like winterfest. It can be I know that they have lots of ideas um and we just want to make sure that they are doing those hopefully quarterly but possibly more. We don't know. Um item 53 is we will use to maintain the financial rec record records related to I'd like to include the between to the use of all funds. Um but then the collective will agree to provide the city with their files and records so that we can look to make sure where the money is going. Again, this is something that we probably should have been asking for for quite some time. We just haven't. And this is just what I think we need to do for the citizens of Watertown so that they know that the money is being spent for good purpose. And then item 5.4 is they will do an annual impact report to the city showing their progress. Trent, if you could go on to the next page. It shows the city's responsibilities. And again, this is just a this is an agreement. I highly doubt this is going to be necessary because I know all the people involved. But again, this is something that it's better to set forward at the beginning than wish you had it later on. Item seven, if you could go on to that, is a performance review that they will

come forward to the city. I haven't yet decided if this is going to be at a city council meeting that we'll decide that later. But um the collective will review their outcomes and reportings, discuss upcoming initiatives, identify opportunities for improvement, and confirm continued funding for the following year. And then the rest is just a little bit more of a memorandum of understanding. So again, this is something that I feel strongly about that we can make this partnership as strong as possible, but also set a precedent that will be able to be followed by the city of Watertown going forward with other outside agencies. That is one of the proposals that I had suggested. The downtown collective agreed to that. Uh council, I'm going to ask you to have that as part of the proposal tonight. So that if you have any questions on that, you sure can. The collective has agreed to it. I will now open it up for other testimony from anybody else who would like to come to the microphone. My name is Amanda Cohane. I am co-chair of H2O50.

Liam Cohane. I wear quite a few different hats. I'm authorized to speak on behalf of the community foundation tonight. Um, but I'm also a business owner, longtime downtown booster, and I'm part of the H2O50 uh project. Well, first, uh, I had this great speech, but you guys are awesome, and I don't feel like I need to read it verbatim, so I'm just going to kind of speak from the heart because Megan and and Alicia did so well with the facts. Um, Megan and I were actually kind of on the same wavelength, except I wasn't going to call downtown the front porch. I was going to call it the living room. Um, and I say that because that's where everyone goes to congregate, to hang out, to eat, to shop. Um, and I like that analogy because it just shows that downtown benefits every single person in our community. Not just someone who lives there, not just someone who works there, but people in north of, you know, the north side of town, the south side of town, out at the lake. We all benefit from having a thriving downtown. Um, and the more sales tax, the more dollars we have, the more things we can do, the more progress we're going to have. Um, and so, you know, over the past year as H2O50 co-chair, it's been kind of an honor, but also just awesome to see everyone work together, come up all these great ideas, uh, not just downtown, but I've had the luxury of of meeting with the a couple of other um, excuse me, the other committees as well, and they are all rocking. They've got all these great ideas um, and big things coming. And so today, it's great that we get to come in front of you and ask for this partnership, this grant, uh, for the downtown coordinator position because it is so important. And the cool thing that Alicia and Megan have done is that they've separated this entity into something different than we don't already have already. Um, you know, while a lot of our other organizations do have fantastic

missions, they're citywide, but we need someone here now that's going to wake up, eat, sleep, breathe downtown. Create those activities, create th those networking, those relationships, build the downtown, support the business owners. You know, they it's their living. It's their make or break. uh in order to be successful, we need to all work together and support everyone. Um while I know that the proposed $30,000 a year for three years is, you know, quite an ask, it's important and it's necessary. And those funding, those funds that are going to come from hopefully the city as well as a community foundation are going to be the leverage this organization needs in order to leverage future funding, both private and public, in order for them to be financially stable in those three years. Um, so while we've done a great job with the big investments, Ice Arena, Plaza, etc., it's time to now focus on our people, on our programming, building us up, keeping us strong from the ground up so that we can continue to grow, hit that 30,000 mark by 20, what was it?

30. 2030. Are we hitting 30,000 to 2030? Fantastic. I love that. 2035, I think. 2035. Okay, cool. Um, but again, the the awesome thing about going through this H2O50 process is that it shows that we've been able to just dream big, even H2O20, right? We've done a lot of really great things there. But now this vote tonight hopefully allows us to bring those dreams into reality.

Wonderful job, honey. Wonderful job. Um I I'm I'll be real brief because I think everyone and I um I think everyone's fairly educated and you've probably gotten bombarded by everybody already. Um brief brief history. I I I was in the downtown cheret 10 uh nine 10 years ago and it was really an incredible experience and if you guys haven't read that uh that strategic planning it's a really really neat document and we've checked off quite a few things there but there is a lot of emphasis on the down town coordinator and a and a dedicated 501c pos uh uh company um uh entity uh and we've been talking about it for nine or 10 years now but it's time that we get it done and God bless Megan and Alicia and the other collective board members and everybody else that's sweated it out for nine ten years. Um because there's been a lot of talk, but we're finally doing it. And so I'm so darn excited to see this progress. Um I was on the community foundation board when we voted to approve a grant for the WDC that unfortunately didn't get legs underneath it. Uh it just got caught in, you know, some transitions. Um so this has been something that's been in the work for a long time. The community foundation supports this wholly entirely. As a business owner, I support this wholly entirely. As somebody that's been around just long enough to have seen some of the progress we've made, I support this wholly and entirely. I want to point out something really cool. Well, frankly, two cool things. Was it last was it Friday?

Was it Friday night? Man and I went downtown uh to go to the local um hour wait. Now, some people might think that's a bad thing. I was excited because holy smokes, when have we had an hour wait at a restaurant um and I'm not trying to badmouth Kyle or anything, uh because there was a butt in every seat. Um uh we went over to we went over to WBC and it was darn near standing room only. It it took us five or 10 minutes to get a seat. Um how cool is that? And I can't remember a time where it's been like that. Uh, the second really neat thing I want to point out is if you look in this room, and I don't want to um I don't want to diminish the the accomplishments of some of our wiser downtown business owners and building owners, but there are a bunch of young uh family business owners uh that either and building owners in downtown Watertown, myself included. Um, but the Shelton's, uh, uh, AMJ, uh, Megan, uh, Alicia, uh, how cool is that that you're looking at a bunch of fairly young folks that have young families that that chose to raise their kids here in this community and they chose to invest in our downtown. Um, that's really, really special. And if you would have told me 10 years ago sitting in the opera house that that was going to happen, I would have told you that was pretty high hopes. Um, and and so I want to I I want to let's just see it through. And with that, I'll quit talking. So, thank you guys. I appreciate your consideration. I know none of this is easy.

Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to come up and testify? From those of us that have been around for a long time, um, I would like to say that yes, I've seen several different things that have happened over the course of years. This goes back a lot longer than 10 years ago. We've had I'm sorry. Just please identify yourself. I I know who you are. I think we all do. Sorry. I'm Kberg. Thank you.

And I have the classroom connection over here on First Avenue. My husband and I also own the property there. Um anyway, we have been working for several years and it goes back more than 10. And I can tell you from being on the urban renewal board and on the WBA board, if the city cannot come up with funding to help, there is no way we can survive on our own. It takes money to do all of that. And having the community foundation put in some the people that own the businesses, you know what? We invest every day in our buildings and our business because it's our livelihood. And anybody that has done any work with economic development knows that even when an industry decides to look at a community, they come in and they look at two things. One is our school district and the other one is the core of the community. And if the city has not invested in the core of the community, they're going to say, "Why should we invest in this and bring our business here?" So, this isn't just about which businesses are uptown. This is about what it's going to do for all of Watertown. And when you take a look at what other communities do, just so you know, Aberdine, Brookings, and Sou Falls all have either uptown or downtown groups that work together with their city. The cities invest finances in those groups. And they they not only put on promotions, but they also help the property owners with whether it be grants to help them paint a new facade,

help them make connections with the South Dakota Historical Society, all kinds of things out there. There's programs all over, but somebody has to coordinate all of that. And you know I I for one have seen a lot of people come and go and have done a lot of things. Um investing time, talent and money is important. And I just think that that, you know, I sit there, I look at myself, okay, yes, I have a business that I've had for 29 years, believe it or not, and yet I volunteer a lot and mo almost all of it is for the uptown. And yes, I call it uptown. But you know, um the parade is one thing that brings a lot of people. And why is that important? It's important because it gen it brings people, it gives us sales as business people, but it generates tax for the city. And so, you know, if you're thinking that maybe this is not a good investment for our city, I'd like you to think about that again because this is exactly what we should be investing our taxpayer dollars in.

Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to testify? Good evening. Um, I'm Angelica. I'm the executive director of Visit Watertown. Uh, we're Watertown's destination marketing organization. Uh, we're in support of the city's investment into the downtown collective. Um, we will continue to be a partner and collaborate closely with them. Um we already promote are proud to promote Watertown as a destination and this will only further enhance um that with making downtown a destination in in with itself. Um we were happy to be a part of the early conversations of the downtown collective um and to really get the downtown meetings going and look forward to being part of the continued growth of Watertown and the downtown. Um, and then I'd just like to end with a quote um that really speaks to the importance of investing in a vibrant, attractive city center. Um, and I think you guys have heard this before when I've when I've presented, but if you build a place people want to visit, you will build a place where people want to live. And if you build a place where people want to live, you'll build a place where people want to work. And if you build a place where people want to work, you will build a place where business needs to be. Um, and I just think everything the downtown collective is doing will only um, help us get there. So, thank you.

Thank you. Is there anyone else who'd like to testify?

Hello, Joe Make Peace. I think I know almost all of you in the room. Um, I have Make Peace Jewelers along with my husband Tim Makepiece. Tim Make Peace at 26 years old set out for the American dream, bought his own business. today were really successful. I kind of stopped going to committees because I thought I've kind of done my time and Megan called me one day and she's like, "Will you just come and have coffee with a group and now I'm on the board." But it is it's an energy that Tim and I haven't seen. And Dylan, my stepdaughter, has joined us in the business. So, Make Peace Jewelers will be going another 35 to 40 years. We're going to sell Elliot a ring someday. And I just I haven't seen this momentum ever. And I've been uptown since 1990. Tim's been there since 1982. But the energy of these people, the ideas, I am definitely the elder of the group. That's why I brought Donna here tonight and I want to speak before he does. But I just encourage you. It's just it's an energy I cannot explain and we're all in it for the long haul. I do think it'd be a great investment. We're the heart of the city and accountability, we will give it to you. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to testify?

Us of course. With all these young people here, I thought I better join them. If everything were working, we would not be here tonight and there'd be no organization that brought to your attention this and Reed wouldn't have had to have an organization that met with him. Everything were working, we wouldn't be here. Times have changed, unfortunately. Downtown used to be made up of businesses, the largest the city had. They kind of ran themselves and everything energy all moved around them. We have to provide more energy ourselves now. Uh and we really don't have much of a choice, can as I see it. If we don't do something to try to give energy to downtown and to fill some of the places that are missing occupants and providing some kind of assistance for people that are thinking about opening something downtown, giving them some kind of moral leadership in the community. We're not the the opposite is going to be true that it'll continue to have attrition and then we'll have a really big problem. What do we do with it? You know, and and we have to reverse that. We have a good opportunity to do it. And um I've never seen the community as kind of focused on this issue. Um, I'm

talking about the people that you see that brought this uh proposal to you. I'm a part of it from from having a business downtown and I know that we do need leadership among ourselves and all together. If we don't get that leadership from ourselves and from being all together in this like the city council being together with us, it's not a matter so much of money. The the money will be helpful, but it is a matter of our leadership. That's what's at stake. We have to call on ourselves to become leaders in a way that we haven't ever called ourselves to become. Otherwise, it's not going to be a good result. Um, you know, if you there's the old adage, if you do keep doing it one way and it's not working, it's not very likely to be working the next day. And we just have to correct ourselves as we go along. In 2018, Jane Miner was at uh the bookstore one night. She had just published Broadway, the first of a three-part book series about the downtown history. Uh we were packed in there. We couldn't get another person in the store. And everyone kind of chuckled about how much interest there was in downtown. Well, there interest is still on in downtown. And that interest is on people in our area that we have from western Minnesota to Redfield, you know, to Cicetin, Brookings. People are interested in our downtown. They go to other downtowns and they'd be interested in ours. And so we just have to get ourselves put together and give a

big kind of a push on this. I like the idea that we have to have major events and we have to work together. We can do this. I'm very confident uh that we can do this. I spent my life trying to be a leader in in education in this town and uh in trying to provide a way focus about how you should behave as a citizen to be a leader in the town. We all have to call on ourselves in times like this to just do that and u and just put whatever we thought in the past or whatever we thought didn't think about in the past we have to just put it aside. I might add that Jane Miner gave us a great pattern. She defined downtown. We have a we have a historic downtown district. We can label it a historic district. We can put on signs on our buildings that it's a historic district. We can have pictures inside of our stores about the historic district. We can have a history of our own store. We're missing the boat. So, I say let's just get on it.

Thank you, Mr. Roberts. I'll just ask you. I don't allow applause um for good reason simply because if you applause for one person and then if you ever have opposition and it just becomes I I just out of respect for everyone just ask you to please refrain. You don't have to worry about that with me. Okay.

It's not really fair that I have to go after him. I'm Jamie Mack. Um I'm the executive director at the Goss uh Goss Opera House here in town. Um working downtown every day. I see both um the incredible potential that downtown has, but I also see the challenges that we face. and I've been at the Goss for five years now and I am the most excited that I've been yet um by being part of a very random group of people that came together and and all of us have different kinds of businesses and different um missions and different ways of doing this. But we all um are coming together in a way that is just truly exciting. We have momentum that I haven't seen yet. Um Megan stole my my line. I was going to say downtown is the front porch for our community. And you know, when it's quiet, everyone notices. When you go to a town or a community and you you drive to their downtown, their unique area, and it's quiet, it's it's a statement for the town. And we have an opportunity right now to to do that same thing. You know, when it's quiet, everyone notices, but when it thrives, the whole city benefits. It's it's rising tides raises all ships. And I really believe we're in an opportunity right now to to raise all of Watertown by by giving the downtown the direction it needs um that we're all craving and wanting to help us keep growing. You know, um I hope you came downtown in the last quarter um to go to some of our events. Um we have no shortage of ideas and part of one of our biggest problem is raining them in because we want to do the cookie crawls and the sounds of the season and the living windows. How fun was that? We we had so much fun and so this momentum is important and it's working. So please don't consider this an expense. Consider it an investment. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there anyone else?

We're coming up as a team. Um my name is Olivia Ort House. I'm the new owner of Gather Coffee Co. And I will just say that I took um Angie Repy's place on the board of H1250 and I've been very welcome in to the Watertown Downtown Collective and I feel like I've known all these people my whole life because they just have arms wide open and they want to involve you and that it's totally boosted my own business and how I've gotten to meet so many new people and make connections and I've gotten to see downtown thrive. So, somebody who hasn't been downtown for more than two and a half months, I I like it a lot and so I want to keep on seeing it go.

I'm Michelle Wadsworth. I currently own AMJ Style um right across from Miss Olivia on 202 East Kemp. And um when I first came to town, I was excited to come downtown and check it out in 2001. One of my favorite places to go was Derell's. I missed them. They were one of my favorite human beings and they were also one of my hugest supporters when I opened. Instead of seeing me as a competitor, they open armed. I would often go in and he would be like, "Michelle, you should be doing this, not that. You can't do that for hours. You need to be doing this, Michelle." You know, um I was so pleasantly surprised to see that welcome. And I hope I can be here for 25 more years. Um, but that is going to be guaranteed on foot traffic downtown. Um, another one of the big questions I did see kind of trickling around and I just want to touch on because we don't want pats on the back. I promise that's not what it is, but what we give to our downtown is often not seen or heard. Um because a lot of times when there are small fundraisers going on in town, big fundraisers going on in town, um they aren't funded by the big box companies. They are funded by downtown um and all of the other small businesses in town. I don't I'm not speaking out of terms that there aren't businesses out there, but um um first quarter when it is a little bit tougher, uh we see a lot of traffic on fundraising. um for the new year um we don't want to say no, but the only way that we can say yes is if we have support and traffic and sales. So, not only do we want to bring amazing events, we want to say yes to every family and every, you know, whether it's a positive, it's

a a school coming to us, a private um ballet class, or whether it is a financial burden for a family or a hardship. We want to be able to say yes, but we can't unless we're thriving. So, um I am also on the board for Downtown Collective and also a member on the board for Fallout Shelter Ministries. um they are not here because they are on a missions trip. He had a beautiful statement. Um I am not underestimating what he had here, but we have touched on it. Just know that they are on board. I'm speaking for Rich and Barrett M. Um that they're on board and they really have been a huge supporter for us also. So thank you for your time.

Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to testify? Got two people coming up. I need a teammate. Come on up. We can do it together. We're neighbors. We are neighbors. We are neighbors. Well, this is the bearded crew hanging out with you right now. So, Darren Shelton, uh, newly downtown to my current business, which is called Bulldog Branding, but not new to downtown as my wife and I have invested three now going on four businesses into the Watertown downtown.

Uh, my name is Josh Y. Um, and I have the Watertown Merkantile Company. Uh, we opened uh that April of 2025. And uh just a little bit about what that is. Uh we offer antiques, collectibles, vintage items, furniture repurposed, handcrafted items, locally made items. So our business, we have just one business in downtown Watertown, but we have over 40 vendors that have a business within my business. So they're bringing in people from all over. Um and we're excited. We're going to actually be expanding that in the next 60 days. and we'll have 55 to 60 total businesses just under my little rooftop there. Um, so we see people you should I invite you guys to come in and check out our guest book. We've got people from, you know, the community within a 100 mile radius. We've get people in from Wisconsin, Texas, Tennessee. I've even had people uh from uh Europe into my store. So, that's pretty cool. Um, so when these people come down to Watertown, it's just absolutely, you know, they're rediscovering it because somebody from Tennessee has no idea what's in downtown Watertown. Um, this past summer I visited with a guy that uh just travels all around and uh I visited with him outside for about 15 minutes and he was pointing out all these things in downtown Watertown. He's like, I like that and I like that. I like that. And this it's kind of what this guy's job um he doesn't work he works for a major corporation but in his spare time he goes and checks things out and he was just totally admiring our downtown and um you know when you you think you got something going good but then when you get that outside input in it just tells you that you're doing it right. And um I should mention too that I'm also a board member of uh of the Watertown Collective but uh we're just excited about what's going on. Um, I was also the chair of Pumpkin Palooa. If anyone remembers Halloween uh 2025,

rainy, drizzly, cold. Um, we had I had in my store alone, I had 97 trick-or-treaters. It was a huge night for downtown Watertown. If the rain wouldn't have been there and it would have been 20 degrees warmer, I estimate we probably would have had 2500 trick-or-treaters. uh Kobberg and uh she's been running that downtown trick-or-treating for years. We just took and and expanded it even more and it was absolutely phenomenal. Um just so many people just to come down downtown Watertown and walk those streets. It was safe, it was fun. We closed down Kemp Avenue, so it made it safe, family, fun environment. Uh and we've got a lot of things planned for 2026 and beyond. I know that in that memorandum it asked for four events that we report on. Yeah, that'll probably just be the first quarter maybe. So, there's a lot of things that we've got and we hope that you guys will support us. Uh great group of people and we're just really looking forward to where we're going to take downtown Watertown. Um I think it's just needed to grow and bring attention to Watertown. Um, and I ask that you support the downtown coordinator and in our uh what we're going to do and what we uh really have planned. It's going to be awesome.

Very good. I can say being neighbors to Josh downtown, part of my successes that I've seen in the first six months of being open is because of him. They come in because they're coming to his store and they walk into mine and go, "Oh, this isn't Josh's store." But I win because they walked in. So, it it goes hand in hand. And so, a lot of the points have been made. I didn't think about calling downtown or uptown Watertown a porch or anything like that. I called it strong legs when I was writing my notes tonight. And if we have strong legs, we can lift the world together. And so to have our strong legs build from our original historic downtown means the absolute world. For those that know me outside of sitting here tonight with you, I came from a nearly 20-year career in education working at Lake Area. And I got to be quote unquote the face of the school at a lot of events. And that's what I looked at when I thought of this position when we were talking about this. If we can have a face to this, if we can make a point of contact that not only that Josh could talk to, that I can talk to, whomever this person is, but then if a business wants to come downtown, they'd have somebody to talk to or when my wife and I decided we were going to go downtown, we just are like, well, whatever building's open where we didn't know who to talk to. So, it would bring that consistency. It would bring that face and it would bring what I seen in the first 20 years of my career. that was it was the the point that you could go okay I can identify that person identifying factors that we don't have right now so that is really where I see this running the rest of my points have all been hit by this amazing group behind us but definitely look at this as an investment not an expense if anyone in the community says you know why not join this rent it join that we want to see every direction of Watertown grow east west north south but for those of us that are investing our money into Watertown and are putting our families down here we need this next little push forward forward to make it the next 25 years. So, I thank you all for your time. The rest of my notes have been reiterated by this group behind us. So, thank you all behind us and thank you for having us up here. Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to testify?

All right, I will close public testimony, but stand by in case we have some questions. I will ask councel to uh can I get a motion to approve the request? And I am just going to assume that theou is part of it.

Thank you, Councilman Allen. And a second by Councilman Shetty. Councilman Allen, would you like to start us off with any comments? Thank you, Mayor. I can do that. Um, couple things that impressed me about this effort and I was on the steering committee of 2050 when I got to town. I hadn't been to town very oft uh when I was asked to participate in that. I've always believed in community planning um not just at a city level but at a broader level and that's what 2050 was. It was a group of committed citizens coming together and saying, you know, what direction do we want to go and how are we going to get there? And I I I'm a big believer in uh if you don't know, you don't have a destination, any path will get you there because it doesn't matter what you do if you don't have a destination. And I think we do have a a clear destination in town. And I think um I think as a city uh we're working to do the same thing for our efforts. Uh we all have limited resources, but we all know that if we pull together, we're going to be able to achieve things that we couldn't otherwise achieve. Um I uh couple other just points that I would say. I I I really do believe it's an investment. uh you know and I think that as a city we need to invest in uh what our citizens want and that's the other thing that came out of 20150 was I don't know where we ended up 3300 3500 surveys people filled out that survey and they said this is what we want our community to be this is what we want it to look like this is how we think we should get

there and to me having the city council tonight vote to support this is in fact um saying to those 3,500 citizens, thank you for your commitment to this community and and we're behind you and we think it's a worthwhile investment. Um I uh I may have other things to say later, but I think that's uh that's enough for now. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman Allen. Anyone else like to speak? Councilman Mormon. Uh, first of all, I just want to thank everyone for being here tonight. Um, I want to thank the Megan and Alicia for the meeting we had this uh this morning together uh situations and um uh things we're going to be voting on like this. I love to meet in person and talk with people about it. Um just for some some some some items for public information education uh with this uh lots of times when we get funding requests um it happens during the summer that we look at it for our next year's budget. Um, this one comes to us out of the blue. And I will say, um, it wasn't until Thursday evening, I I can't speak for the rest of the council, but it wasn't until Thursday evening that I even knew there was a Watertown Collective. It wasn't until Thursday evening that I even knew that uh, Watertown um, community foundation had funded this group already for 90,000. So, just for the public's information, um, a lot of us are just finding out here very recently that this even exists and is, uh, is coming before us now tonight for the extra money. Um, I guess I have a few questions. I don't know who would want to answer them. My my first question would be what will be the application process and selection process for the coordinator position?

Well, um we will start that process if we are indeed funded uh and go through that. We have a board of directors that are established and we'll use best practices of course. Um the job will be posted. We'll define what first before we even post a job, we have to go through and we have to fine-tune what the job description entails, what we're looking like, what what we're looking for in an ideal candidate first and foremost, right? Good hiring practices. Uh secondly, we want the right person and we're going to vet that person. We don't want a warm body because we have funding. I think that's an important part of it. We'll get applications. No doubt will we get applications, but I think that the uniqueness of this group and the different skill set that each of these business owners bring to this board and this organization is going to help. They're each going to be looking for a little bit something different as we ship uh as we sift through those applicants. And so, have we formalized a process? No. This is step one. We will go to step two through a job description. And we're open to input on what that looks like.

Okay. Um, and then just looking at uh the packet that you had sent out, the 2026 projected budget. Um, just so I'm reading this right, and for the public's information, the part-time coordinator position, you're looking at a salary of $50,000 a year.

We haven't defined that necessarily as part-time or full-time. We're looking at what does the budget number look like? And do we write them a $50,000 check? Well, there's a lot more. you know, if you have employees than just writing a a flat here's what we're going to pay. There's other costs into that. Of course, you know, there's benefits, there's insurance, there's payroll taxes, there's all of those things in consideration. That's a very preliminary budget that we put together to bring this presentation forward. Okay. So, you haven't decided yet if it's going to be a full-time position or if it's going to be part-time or how many hours would be required of this person.

It's absolutely contingent on how these pieces all come together. Um, I can tell you this and based on our conversation this morning, anybody that applies for this job and thinks that this is a 20hour a week job and they're going to punch in and punch out can probably save their ink and their paper because that's not how these things work. Anybody that's worked in community development, anybody that's worked for these nonprofits knows that if if you're going to apply and if the people here are going to take you seriously, it's going to have to be a labor of love. And we want you in with us. And I don't want to hear after 20 hours, gotta go. I'm done for the week. That's not how this is going to work.

Okay. Then just looking um at some more of the budget here, we have $25,000 estimated for an operating budget. Um I guess I'm not sure what that would all entail and then $15,000 is marked for actual marketing. Right. operating budget when we start talking about events and we expect to have events revenue that will offset that as well.

Okay. All right. Um, you know, I just I I really appreciate this. Um, I will say since I was sworn into my position on July 7th of this last year, there has been nothing that has come before the council that I have received more response pro and against than what we're discussing right now tonight. Um, anytime we talk about downtown Watertown, passions on both sides are incredibly high. Incredibly high. And in fact, as we've been sitting here, um I'm still receiving emails on my uh laptop and my phone is still buzzing and it's all with people um having comments about this particular issue. So, I will say that uh this is a hot button issue. Um and I I will also say uh I don't know how my colleagues are going to vote. I don't know how the vote's going to go tonight. I will say this. If it's a yes vote, um I wish you all the absolute best. I hope it works out very, very well for you. Just know this, you will be under the microscope like you've never been before because we have talked as a council and as employees with the city of Watertown. Um we need to take an incredibly hard look at the money we are giving to these different organizations. So going forward, um it's it's going to be highly scrutinized and we're definitely going to be looking for return on our investment. Um and if we need to change money around, uh if if one area we think is a lot more valuable than another, that could possibly some be something that's on the table. Um, I will say also if if the vote is a no, um, I will say this, it's probably not a absolute no. It might be a no that's

more like not yet or let's talk about it more this summer as we put together our future 2027 budget. Let's take a look at where all our money is going and let's take a look at where we think it can go best. So, thank you. Thank you, Councilman. Any other comments? Councilman Shy. Thank you, Mayor.

Well, yeah. Thank you for everybody that's involved in this to to move this forward and for meeting with me earlier today. Um before we had met earlier today, I um just by looking at the agenda item and doing a little bit of emailing um I had some questions and concerns which were confirmed with some you know some other local residents or business owners. Um one being the the uh the other portions of the community when you talk about downtown Watertown uh versus 212 8120 you know this initiative is is responsible for downtown Watertown. And some would say, "What about they they would say, "What about the other areas of the community?" Well, there there are some saying that tonight as we speak. I guess I know it's been touched on a little bit, but could uh could you touch on that just one more time just on how this affects the community um just so we get a better grip on the the big picture. It's not just the city trying to be show partiality to downtown because I don't believe that would be the whichever way if the vote were to go yes. I don't believe that's the goal, but that could be embellished on a little bit. That'd be appreciated.

Well, we talked a little bit about uh during our presentation about, well, why the downtown? Why not the mall area? Why not 212? Why not? Why not? Again, I think as downtown business owners, we would champion and cheer those other parts of town to become adapters. Put a model in place, see if you can get buy in, see if you can get funding, and make it happen, right? Because the more people that come to this community and are excited about what's out by the ice arena and that are excited when they come to the Watertown Winter Farm Show or, you know, everybody across the board is going to definitely benefit. Um, will it benefit downtown business owners to make this a bright, exciting, vibrant place? Absolutely. But will this affect young families in this community that need a place to gather and hang out and something to do and something healthy and exciting and lowcost free, a gathering space, right? That's what the heart of the community is about. That's what a downtown. Where else do we all come together collaboratively, independent businesses, but all come together to one place? There isn't another spot in this community that people do that. And so I think it it's absolutely about the front porch, the living room, the man cave, whatever you want to call it. That's that's what we're talking about today. And the city essentially does get to vote in a lot of situations about where they invest, where they use their economic development tools, whether that's through, you know, tiff funding, whether that's through building new facilities on one area of the town or not. That naturally is going to spark some economic drivers, right? We know big box stores have plans. They see a a Hobby Lobby come in and guess what pops

up not far long after? An Aldi grocery store. Right? Those are the types of things that we see happen strategically. What we're asking is for you to be a strategic partner with us and invest in the folks here day in and day out that are, you know, making that very same investment. Does that answer it? It does. Thank you. because that's, you know, the goal of this here tonight even, right, is communicate to the community because as as Councilman Mormon said, there's there's people in both sides of this and sometimes it just boils down for me it was at least here over the weekend was gathering information. Yeah. Because as much as I may be partial or bent one direction or the other,

I you know, I come to these these these decisions being open-minded, make sure we're looking at it from every angle. So, I do appreciate your if if there's a group of of business owners that are watching and they're on 212 and they want to sit down and have a cup of coffee. I've got 10 individuals that are happy to show you how we structured this and see if there's a way that we can help you do the same thing.

And that that touches on on my point with this is, you know, again, as a city, we don't want to show partiality in what we do. And so if if let's say the vote were to go yes, let's just say um just be sure, hey, let's be open to then if if this momentum starts to trickle into other portions of the community, other initiatives come come into play, let's make sure we're we're helping them out as well. So I'm just yeah, I just want to make sure I guess when I look at this, I'm looking at that direction, too, so we're not just trying to tunnel vision on one item. It's a good problem to have if you've got people beating down your door saying, "We want to collaborate. We want to make this bigger and better." That's a great problem as a community versus people sitting on their hands.

Another point here is the last thing we want to do is is stifle um I made made a few notes here and I can see it is is leadership energy that that's been mentioned a few times and I can see it um the momentum. So, you know, because I thought again as I tossed around different ideas even messaged a city manager on this as well. Um, I was like, well, do we do we uh defer this to a different week to make another another another two weeks from now or to have some more conversations on this? That was one idea that I was working through to make sure we get all the information needed. However, there's been a lot of information tonight that has been brought forth. And so, I do appreciate everybody that spoken that has spoke to this and brought their their their expertise, their their take on it. That that definitely helps with the decision. tonight. Um, I just want to touch on a just on a personal note, I guess, is when I moved here in 1992. Um, and I've been on Camp Avenue for 34 years and, um, as managing a business, then moving into the sales rep side of it, and then now um, starting up a nonprofit organization. um the sign downtown. Well, they said we had 20,000 people already back in 1992. And so when I look at that 20,000 and we're at 23,000, I don't know if we really like that percentage of growth from in the last 34 years. So again, if you could touch on this, I'm going to get back to the sign in a moment that I was downtown back then, but uh if you could touch on the population growth, if there's again, you may touched on it some, but just for again for the public to really kind of extract out of tonight some of these these points. What what can this do for population growth? If you could answer that as well.

Kberg said it best, right? And I I will take and and give her the credit for the comment she made about the fact when you bringing new people to this community, whether you're recruiting doctors, whether you're recruiting engineers, um whether it's Watertown Development Company bringing, you know, a potential new prospect into this community. It's not just the person running the business, but it's their spouse. It's their families. How can we plug in? How can we pack up our lives, move from somebody somewhere else, and why should we come to Watertown, South Dakota? Those are the types of decisions outside of, you know, obviously financial obligations and financial packages that are put together to present to these folks. But what does it feel like? How does it feel when I go downtown? Are people excited about having me there? Are there events going on? Is it attractive? Or am I driving down the main street of this community and and windows are boarded up and you know what there might be one or two stores open and wow there's a sad looking Christmas decoration. That's not what we want as a front door to this community. And you can't attract people to a place where, you know, it's not vibrant and growing. And I I think it's one of the best economic development tools you have at a fairly low investment from the city of Watertown to to definitely see some return on your investment.

All right. Thank you for that input. Um, you know, again, on the personal side, I was 22 years old. I moved to Watertown and and uh I'd never been further north in Sous City, Iowa. And so I moved up to Watertown and and fresh out of college and I remember I drove out to the lake and I was like looked like I moved to the ocean because in Nebraska there was a gravel pit that we used as a for skiing and things like that. And so when we're touching on the amenities that we have in a community, um other areas, all these things that we've done that we've invested in in capital improvements, our lake, um however, downtown, I I can see how this downtown I I've got a feeling you have a grander vision. I mean, when I think of downtown, I look at going to Omaha to the Old Market and and uh going to Spaghetti Works and and the horse and and you know, buggy rides and and just some of those shops downtown. if there's a way to get this downtown uh even more. So, it doesn't mean to compare apples for apples, but um I can see that if this can help launch us into the the next phase of this city and growth and community, I I'm all for it. And and so again, my only reservation was was how does this affect the other portions of the community and and other, you know, that they feel like they're being left left out? But however, I believe we have touched on that tonight. So, I guess I'm being optimistic and hopeful that this momentum can can flow into other portions of the community as well. Um, so on a final note on that, two things. There's a lot of quotes and analogies made tonight, but there was one quote that Olivia made that just summed it all up. Yeah. She said, "I like it a lot." So, anyway, yeah. such uh I appreciate your your your quote on this as well. Now, but one final thing, if this were to pass, could we com could you commit to a summer timing event where you can

have the mayor in a dunk tank? Is that something that Okay, I I digress, but no, I just wanted to these are some questions I had. I appreciate your input on this and and I do appreciate the energy, the leadership, the momentum. Um hopefully that there are some questions that are answered for the rest of the community in other areas of the are rightfully so that they're they're concerned about. So thank you. Thank you Councilman Jirens. What do you think? Thanks mayor. I uh am I coming through clear enough? Yes, you are. Thank you.

Well, you can even do this stuff from Interstate by Wall, South Dakota. Anyway, um I'm coming at this from the same perspective that the last two council spoke about. I learned about this on Thursday night. Uh this decision comes way too quick in my world and to make good reasonable decisions. Uh I also come from point of view that I believe we need to give this at least a couple more weeks. Uh I'm with Megan. Uh I like that open indication. that those of us business owners on 212 if we want answers come to get it. But if we we generated the kind of energy tonight um would we be rewarded with a $50,000 grant would the group that is going to be building around our amazing amazing ice arena legs I formed a group would we have to jump in for 30 grand there? How about Lake? Would that be another 30? Where does this stop and where do we have things that we're overlapping on right now? So being brought up to speed, I would say half speed within three days is not enough time. Uh, I've learned a ton and what I have learned is what I've known for a long time. What I've learned more is about the energy of collaboration and the energy of of those that have put a tough work to them. So I like the comment that Councilman Mormon made

I I'm sure that this is not done uh whether to pass but what I really am concerned about is something that Councilman Shetty just brought up multiple groups that need to come and do we have the money to do it? We sure do. But do we have the money left over to fund the curtains and the flooring at our conventions? That's been on our priority. This pops up and boom. That's okay. Can we do it? Yes, we can. Is it right? I have questions. They won't be answered. I also have come at this from a perspective of I'm just going to call out the uh the elephant in the room, you know, one thing that you can't be afraid of anymore about what others are sharing, what others are sharing with you. And I know a lot of you in the group have have had frustrations, but I believe this is and could have been part of the chambers, part of a couple other inv uh water development form as someone mentioned. I think Leah mentioned it, but there's been some great great talks and and and part of it failed down that road. Um, these are entities that should be at the table tonight and should have been at the table uh for the last few weeks, months, and years and it's stalled. So, mayor alluded to it early early on in his comments that we

have really accountability. Uh, all these organizations that considered this these types of funds is well if I ask for it I'm going to get it and I don't have to be accountable that's what really gets me when we start hiring coordinators what's their talent level and I know Megan I know Alicia I know now two more board members because they actually said they were just first time I knew there was a board even developed but who's going to hold that person do they have a talent Will this person and will this organization be a part of setting up some amazing opportunities that we have at Foundation Plaza for for music for summer Thursday night lives? I mean uh we've had that that place has been amazing. Uh but but we we hear that there's a lack of funding. uh if there was the right person at the right brought more talent in talent that after I've talked city of Deadwood uh and and me and their downtown coordinator who does this type of thing I've person of this group from the Twin Cities they're driving through on their way to Deadwood Let's pick them up on the stage. They'd love to stop and do a gig. And they're extremely talented. They would like a motel room. Sure, we can count the motel room. We have our sponsors that that person you're lacking right now. And that that's kind of one of another one of my unanswered questions. Uh is where does it end? I read your packet very

well thought out. tons of time to look into this uh really really really good information. Uh but I I'm a big advocate of of downtown and and and all that excitement that it brings and we're only doing it on Thursday nights. We've got more opportunities on weekend more opportunities the hot rod show downtown which is another downtown event that I'm an advocate and everyone who watches the council in the last three years knows that advocate for the entre he's an advocate for every one of those business owners that stood up tonight and had great comments brought incredible energy I am concerned that we have this type of money that's going out to positions are doing this and that if we have to that the council, mayors, managers and your crew could get together and go uh but we can prioritize this then I'd be more comfortable tonight. I am not comfortable uh voting uh and a lot of it is just mine but I love the energy and I I I really am supportive of what you are here to stand for. That's all I have.

Thank you, Councilman. Councilman Hoyer.

Um so I'll start on a light note. Uh just for Councilman Shutty so you know the mayor has been dunked in a dunk tank before. It was actually at an event called Carnival on Kemp which was made with the first advisory board. Had a lot of energy at one time. It was housed in the development company um when there was a lot of shifting going on over there. That's kind of when they started losing momentum. I was on that board um at the time as a liaison for the council and yeah, I mean we just kind of lost momentum and the leadership that was there wasn't there anymore and you saw what it looked like to not have the structure and the support to push an initiative along. Um we lost a lot of opportunities to dunk the mayor. Um, on top of that though, what I like about this group in many ways, and I'm involved with them, too. Um, they've been talking since the summer and a lot of that before I was on council, I had actually started trying to get a little bit of a group together just to focus on trying to get that board back together because I I miss the energy. Um, my background is the arts, theater. Um, and so I know what it's like to collaborate in a group and to create something from nothing. um how to pull a little bit of that magic out of just suspending disbelief and giving people an experience that they can walk home remembering and talking about for the rest of their lives. Um the comment about, you know, I was downtown for Christmas and it was like a Hallmark movie. It coincided that the opening night of the Carnegie Christmas Market actually was the night of the living windows as well. And so people had been walking about. It was snowing that night, too. So let's let's add a little more effect here. It was snowing that night and they had gone out to these businesses and saw folks in windows doing these different scenes, which is fun in itself. I mean, it's so magical to put up some string lights and it's snowing and you're in the downtown and what a what a view that is. But it combined with somebody else's initiative that already had happened. So, we had the museum who puts on the Carnegie

Christmas Market. I participate in it every year and devise new and creative ways to try and stay warm every single year. I serve beer at it one year. Tap lines froze. can never do it again. I just sold candles this year. Much easier and they provide more warmth. My point is it made a more exciting, immersive experience and Christmas for whatever reason this year in the downtown just had more oomph. Anyway, I'm involved in a business downtown. I've seen it um when things are going, when things aren't going. And if anyone knows anything about like the brewery, like we've always just scrapped together events from the hip. um lots of folks and and this maybe comes from that background too. So keep in mind I got this crazy arts background. I've also got a military background. So I know how to make an operation get put together real quick and execute. Sometimes we as big government entities lack execution. And so we do these cool things like we pay tons of money for these really cool studies that tell us lots of stuff and then we talk about it. We talk about it and guess what? Then we meet again and we talk about it again and then it goes on a shelf and we forget about it and it loses steam. This group is a group that got together, felt a little bit of that happening in some of those early meetings. You know, we had some pretty good talks about dog poop. Um, if you know there's a dog poop problem in the downtown. Well, they uh put up more dog poop cleaning stations and so it helped reduce some of that and that was a win, right? That's a win. City Hall has one right outside, too. It's not just about that, though. Um, we wanted to see more happen. And so, a small group that had just been consistently bumping together, kind of knew about the H2O20 stuff. Um, Alicia hadn't joined the group at that point. Um, but decided like, hey, our our goals kind of align here. It it's trying to get a conversation going. And it does

tie back to that Cherrette which wanted a separate 501c group to form that was outside of everything else that can hyperfocus. Sou Falls does the same thing. Their downtown is bumping. Now I'm not saying we have to copy Sou Falls. We're Watertown. I like to think boost Watertown all the time. But it just gives you more of a hyperfocus. The expectation to put other organizations that are staffed by three people to cover an entire community and it's all on them. I don't think that's realistic. I don't think that's fair to those organizations necessarily. And maybe over the years, we've put a little too much on their plates and put a little too much on them and just thought, "Okay, band-aid, it's fixed. They'll take care of it." This is a group of like-minded people coming together, creating a plan, and getting after it. And so that small group, you know, we were like, "Okay, what what can we do? Pumpkin poo. We do downtown trick-or-treating. Um the K's group has been doing that for so many years. How can we support that? How can we grow that more? How can we make it safer for our community? Chief Tumi just stepped out, but we reached out to them and said, "Hey guys, would the police department be willing to collaborate with this group and we closed the roads and make it a little safer?" We actually also invited some of our big manufacturers in town to come participate too and do a touch a truck with it. So, Tra had a truck down there. Dakota Bodies came down there too. It wasn't exclusive and that's one of the things that Olivia kind of touched on. She's a new business owner in the downtown. This is inclusive. And so we could have easily, you know, just pushed her out, said, "Oh, you're new. You don't know anything. You're young." I like to go I've been on a Ken Burns kick. So, uh, I like to point out Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence when he was 33. I've seen comments on Facebook where they're like, "All these wet behind the ear young people, they don't know anything." Thomas Jefferson was 33, man. Our founders were about that age, too, during the American Revolution. So, young people can do things. I wouldn't dismiss them. Point being, these guys have a lot of momentum going. They've put a lot of their talents and

pulled them together. You have a bunch of business owners who all know how to market. They know how to create a strategic plan. They know how to create events. Um, my first year in Watertown, I moved back in 2019 coming off of active duty military service to be in a business in the downtown because I believe in the downtown. I mean, Councilman Chuddy knows this. We're we were both WC representatives at one point. So, we get what it's like to be downtown. We get this cycle with the city where we we're rah rah rah rah and we push and we build a thing and then we tend to pull out after it's done. We build Foundation Plaza. That's awesome. Now we have to follow through and we have to create programming. This group has offered to take a lot of that on and create more of those events. They've collaborated already with the community foundation who have their name on that park. They're likely going to do more events in the park and utilize it more. I think it's great that we have the opportunity to do a public private partnership on this. I think it's amazing that the mayor took the time to get a memorandum of understanding because believe me, I believe in accountability and I believe that you need to hold people to a standard and if they don't execute the standard, you bring them back to the table for retraining or you terminate it because they just didn't follow through. And we've made mistakes in the past. I think this is a really strong opportunity to, you know, kind of write some of those wrongs in some ways. And as city manager Stagger pointed out, we have a history of approaching things from the same mindset every time. This is a way to think differently. And yeah, it involves a little risk. You have to take a chance. That's scary. But nothing's gained if you never take risks. You have a vetted group. You have accountability in place. Yeah, they're going to probably make some mistakes once in a while, but it's a group that's going to talk about it afterwards and go, "How can we do this better?" Because they already did that with the Christmas stuff. They had that after action review with Pumpkin Palooa, and we always pray for better weather. But they're taking on more. Um, you know, if I can pull

together something like Concerts on Kemp in two weeks and get sponsorship for it, and I didn't pay anything out of pocket, I think these guys can figure out a lot of this stuff and get it on the ground. They're all business-minded people. I think it's unique that you have business-minded people with a direct interest in seeing it succeed. That's a heck of a spark for motivation. Um, so I'm behind it. And I'd also just say the thing that is unique to downtown and maybe other businesses do it. I guess I don't know. I'm not in that seat. But what I see them do is like us during the pandemic when we didn't have aluminum cans. I called Sean Dempsey and he said, "Yeah, man. I got you. We stocked up like crazy. just, you know, you can pay at cost and we'll level that out. And they took care of us and we got through the holidays because of it. When I ran out of ice last Saturday, I called over to gather because I knew they had 10 minutes left before they were going to leave and I went, I know they got a giant ice machine and I know there's probably some ice in there. And they were like, "Yeah, dude. Come over. You got some five gallon pales. Come fill them up." Popped over, did that. And so what I'm saying is that these are all local people working at it, working together. Um, we're never in competition with each other. We're trying to bolster one another up. Um, having somebody young in like Olivia, it's it's great to be able to give her some mentorship and drive her along. That group has the unique ability to do that. And I don't think we've seen that in the past with a lot of other things. It's a good way to network. It's a good way for me. I mean, I talk to people all the time, guys. I'm I'm I'm out of business every day talking to the public and people visiting our community and educating them about what makes Watertown special. Why is Watertown the way it is? And I think this drives more of that. Um so I would say that in general I'm for it. It might feel like a surprise to some of our council members as stated, but I would also encourage you if you ever want to, you know, get out and go on the downtown, I'll be your liaison. I live two blocks off the downtown. I work in the downtown. I can tell you a lot about

it. Um, and the people that work there and the people that visit it. So, if you'd like to learn more about it, I'm always here for you guys. Um, and yeah, they've been around, like I said, since the summer, since Halloween. Um, they had articles in the current, multiple, and so it's not a new group. They've been at this for a while. Um, they have my full trust and confidence. HO50 is behind it. The community foundation's behind it. So, I'm behind it, too. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman. I'm going to take my opportunity to speak now because I believe strongly in the fairness of everyone gets to chance to speak and then you can speak a second time. I know that there's councilmen who might have questions. So, and I also want to address the people who might be watching this. And I just say if any of you who are in opposition to this came down to testify, I would have given every one of you a chance to testify on this. I think I have a long history as mayor of being fair to everyone who wants to show up and take part in their local governance. So that's just a matter of fairness. So the other part of this is I believe strongly in letting people speak because the public needs to know that we are deliberating this. We are thinking it through and what the process is that goes into making this decision. So that explains a little bit how the length of the meeting might be going on. So, I will say I've been in support of this idea for six years. You might ask me, how can it be six years when the first some of us heard about it was Thursday? Well, there's a couple reasons. Number one, I knew about this 10 years ago at the Sharrett. I think most people who were active in the community had at least heard about it. Six years ago when I came on city council, even before I was mayor, I had to get my head around

what this position of governance is. And I had to do a lot of reading, a lot of research. And I learned that the closer you are to the people, the more local the government is, the more important it is for that government to invest in the community, in the people. And that's the best thing that we have going for us in Watertown is the people who are interested in this community. So when we have a group of concerned citizens who want to come forward and do something great for their community, I'm going to support them. I want as many people as possible to get behind making this a better place to live because we have enough naysayers. We need more positive people and when they come forward, we need to affirm what they are trying to do this to this to to this community. some of the research that I did back six years ago as councilman and this and I will tell you I did it because I was not in favor of an ice arena. I think I've made that perfectly clear. I'm still not a big fan of vice, but I had to do research and I had to understand what it meant to the community and how the dollars that you spend recirculate go back into the community and the impact that it has outside of just dollars and cents. It makes a huge impact the investment that you have. So, some of the things that I found out, let's forget about ice. Let's just go downtown. learned a long time ago, some of you might remember Peter Kagayyama coming into town about five years ago uh for the love of the for the love of cities. Some of the studies that I found out there, the best money spent in a community that it circulates through the community more times than any other money ever spent is downtown.

Large part of that is because they're owned by local people. They employ local people. So every time you buy I don't want to call out gather but you know if you're if you every time you buy a cup of coffee you are supporting the people who are working behind the counter you're supporting the owner you're supporting even the people who live upstairs in the building because that building has to be maintained and those people living in these apartments have to have a place to live and we got a lot of people living downtown so that money circulates because it goes to so many people. The local multiplier effect is what it's called. And it has a four times bigger return for the community if it's spent in a downtown area. That's just a study. And I will further show that of all the studies I did, money invested in downtown has never had a negative effect on money not spent downtown. So, I understand how people can be concerned like, why are you putting it downtown? Why not, you know, why not at the mall or this road or that road? I'm not opposed to that. But the thing is is what studies have shown is you spend it downtown, you increase the vibrancy of the entire community, which then is literally a rising tide lifts all boats scenario. So you spend it downtown, your business, no matter where it's at, is going to improve. Angelica Yuthi mentioned this that again studies have shown and we have actually shown it uh at visit Watertown. If you have a town that people want to visit, then they will want to live here. If people want to live here, then businesses want to come here. They will spend money. They will

invest. Again, this circulates over and over and over again. Furthermore, I will go a step more and say the number one factor for people deciding where they want to visit and where they want to live nowadays is fun and adventure. It's not cost of living. It's not all these other things. It's fun and adventure. And if you actually look at it, if you want to look at there, and there's lots of studies, I just ask anybody just look at them. All of these communities across the United States that have revitalized their downtown and thereby revitalized their entire community. They have three things in in common. A public private partnership. That's step one. You have to have that because if everyone is not working towards the same goal, you're not going to succeed. The second thing all of these initiatives have in common is community involvement. I think we can check that one off the box with Watertown 2050. And the third thing, and this is where you get in fun and adventure, cultural investments. I will challenge you. Sou Falls is obviously growing gang busters right now. I think most people in Sou Falls and the material that I have read, it was a result of the money they spent at Riverwalk in downtown Sou Falls. Tens of millions of dollars. And I'll bet I was trying to do some research to find the opposition that came forward at the city council meeting in Sou Falls to say, "Well, why don't I get any of that?" I guarantee you the Empire Mall is not complaining right now. I guarantee you no home builder, no developer, no business owner in Sou Falls is complaining about how much that town is growing and how much that investment in downtown Sou Falls has paid dividends for the entire community. That's why I believe very strongly in

this. So I would urge a positive vote on this to move Watertown forward. We need to do something to vitalize, revitalize, invigorate our community. We've got a vision. We need people who have and share that vision to take us forward. I'm going to support this. Councilman Mormon. Um, I I will just uh I will say I wish we had more time. I wish we would have had more time to take a look at this closer. Um, I wish it wasn't something that had been sprung on us. Um, to protect all citizens, the 23,000 plus that live in the city of Watertown. Um, it is our job to very much take a good look and make sure their tax dollars are getting spent wisely. Um, and anytime you got to make a quick decision, it doesn't leave a lot of time to really look and say, is this being spent in the best possible way? Out of all the people that have reached out to me, um, and I want to say thank you to them if if you're watching and everything, uh, there's two main themes that this specific issue has brought up. One theme is we really want to see uh a great and vibrant downtown. So, we want this to go through uh we want to give downtown all the help that they can get and we want to have a very active um and just busy and you name it downtown. The other thing that the other side of people that I'm hearing from have said and when we talk about like building the downtown park and everything that has been done over the last years and if you've lived in Watertown for 40 or 50 years um you

know that the downtown has been a constant on trying to help keep it relevant, keep it busy, keep it vital to our community. The question that people are asking, and this is for everybody in the room to know what your fellow citizens are wondering is at what point does this animal that we continue to give money to, when is it going to be satisfied? How much do we continue to try and make this work? and what how long is it going to take the tax how much tax dollars will continue to take before it could live on its own and not need help from their tax money. So ju just so you know that's the two sides of um all the emails and correspondence that I'm getting. Um and I just say that so you know it. Um, I could keep that quiet, but what good is that if we're not transparent of what people that are watching this and that are responding to this, the concerns that they have. Um, and the only other thing I would mention, um, whether anybody cares or not, I would say if we're using city taxpayer dollars to help fund this salary, I would just like my fellow colleagues to know that the the potential, and I realize it's not set. I realize the hours aren't set and everything like that, but the potential salary that our tax dollars, the city's tax dollars, um the citizens of Watertown's tax dollars would be going to fund the salary for this position is a higher salary than what we pay a lot of our own city employees and it's higher than what a lot of people that even work in the city of Watertown have even made or probably will ever make in their lifetime. So, just uh I'm just throwing that out there. Um do with it what you will, but I think if we're spending taxpayer dollars, we have to be conscious of everything. And whether that's an easy thing to talk about or

not, um if we're not conscious of everything, then we're looking at everything through blinders. So, thank you. Thank you, Councilman Jurns.

Thank you again, Mayor. And for those listening in, listening in online, uh I agree with the mayor's comments. I agree with the excitement. I agree with this group. I agree with Councilman Hoyer's uh uh comments. Uh that I am all for. Let's go, go, go. Uh what I'm going allude to a little bit of what Councilman Mormon just said. What most of you have not is the amount of opposition that I have received by text messages, phone calls, and emails. Again, like Councilman Mormon has seen, the theme's not all negative. The theme is actually very, very positive. The theme is we have all kinds of coordinators in town already. Are we overlapping? Uh the other the other thing I'd like to to point out is that I believe we should have the deputy mayor uh Councilman Kyle Peter involved in this. I believe we need his input. I believe he was the only councilman invited to the 2050 which may have he may have had like the mayor uh as I can tell based on your research mayor and I can tell based on your comments all very good and I feel very accurate uh they they're very accurate comments uh but learning about this at the last minute I I believe we should table this until uh Councilman Peter's here I want to I want to publicly hear his comments and and I want to publicly hear from each councilman. Uh I couldn't quite tell if Councilman Hoyer was making comments because he's going to vote for it. I

couldn't tell early on if he abstained or if he has recused himself. Um that's all good. Uh I'm I'm I'm not upset. Uh, I'm just saying that I believe I'd like to have some collaboration uh with with the rest of the council on whether this is um something that can um be done in a more without as much opposition. I guess really I'm a I'm never afraid of opposition that don't I'm not putting my finger in the air and waiting for which way the wind is blowing. I believe in this uh But I also believe that that the opposition that I spoke with and talked to and had emails from uh also need a voice and not just from a couple councilmen uh but also this would give them a chance to reach out to us now that this is public. In fact, one of them opposed said, "I'd like to know who the players are." And I go, "Me too." You know, why why do we just find out tonight? Well, I know trying to get this done quickly. We've got momentum. I love the momentum. I don't think a couple weeks or four weeks is going to slow my our momentum down. I believe that that you have the right energy uh with your group. I believe we have the right energy within the council. Uh I I just believe this needs a little bit more input um from others that are now going to reach out to us uh and also from uh the deputy mayor who um got caught up in in u in meetings and couldn't uh couldn't get couldn't join us with us tonight. So I would propose and I would move uh that we table this for two weeks at least u not to slow it momentum but to learn and learn more

about with the opposition. I don't want to be blinded. And as Councilman Hoyer said, he goes, "These things get excitement and we've seen them through the years. They get excitement and they fizzle a little bit. They fizzle because someone starts fighting. They fizzle because someone lost energy. They fizzle because we hired the wrong person." Uh th those are the things that I believe we we should really uh collaborate on and hear more about over the next couple uh two to four weeks. Uh so I make a mo motion uh that this be tabled uh until uh our next council.

Thank you, Councilman. I'm going to ask, could we rephrase your motion to defer action instead of table? Okay. Thank you. Um, we have a motion to defer action until the next council meeting. Do I have a second? Seconded by Councilman Mormon. We are on to discussion of deferring action. Not on the proposal, just the deferring action motion. Councilman Hoyer.

Mayor, um, do I have the ability to just clarify my statement that was just alluded to there before we defer this? So when I say that they fizzled, it's because they did not have the support of the city or from like the downtown or sorry the development corp. Um it wasn't the individuals that were in the group that lost momentum. It was the formalized group that was hosting it. Um so yeah, it wasn't the individuals that lost their enthusiasm. We just kind of scattered and kept doing our thing. But that's what I meant by that. Lynn and I'll um go to Councilman Mormon. The reason why I would like to uh table it at the moment and then bring it back, you know, in two weeks or whenever is essentially um with the money that the city is looking at matching, I would like to take a deeper look at what are our expectations and where do we want our $90,000 spent? um as opposed to just handing handing them the $90,000 and letting them go with it for the next three years. I know Alicia and Megan and I um when we when we met this morning, we did they did uh talk about if if need be, they would be open to uh the city putting specific stipulations if we didn't want our money used for salaries. um if we wanted the money that we offered to be used specifically just for marketing or or a couple different areas, they were open to that idea. And I I just I would like to have the time to um and maybe I'm the only maybe maybe the rest of my colleagues, you know, are are not on board and would be, you know, we're fine just giving them the 90,000. I think in the in the spirit of protecting all the citizens in Watertown, trying to find the happy

medium, I think it would be valuable it for their tax dollars to be spent um specifically how we feel it's going to benefit the city the most as opposed to just writing a straightup check and then telling them go do with it what you want.

Councilman Shetty. Thank you, mayor. Um, so when this first be got on the agenda on Thursday when I when I received it and looked it over and um, pumping the brakes, I guess, if you will, was something that I was I have been considering even into the this day, even was one of my my as I uh messaged city manager Stagger, we we I talked to him briefly about that as well. Um now the reason that I was considering deferring it um before we even got to this evening was for the same reasons that have been brought up. So the question though tonight I guess is is have these questions like the questions I've had that have been brought up by Councilman Mormon, Councilman Jirens, have they been answered tonight? Will they be answered any differently in two weeks from now or four weeks from now? That would be the reason for deferring this, I believe, is is there more information that we need? And so that's what I'm basing my decision on here tonight on this particular item here about deferring is have have these questions been answered? Um have we properly communed uh communicated to the city to other entities other businesses other portions of the of the of the town with businesses and on highways or whatever else. Um have we communicated the impact this may have? Do we have facts to to you know to back that? Um the accountability, have we communicated the accountability aspect which was a big part of of this going into this too was what are we going to do differently as a city as as a governing body um in accountability and that's well tonight now Mayor Holene has brought forth theou that I believe this isn't a one-hit wonder you pretty much made it this is where how you would like to move forward as a community. So the accountability aspect has been answered tonight I believe and so that's why I'm not going to vote for deferring on vote yes for deferring on this because personally I

believe you know the the the majority the the the weight of these answers have been answered tonight. Yes. Can there be more details to iron out? Can we work out a few more things? But um not just based off momentum and energy um because these were reasons why I was going to I would have voted. I would have actually made the motion to defer. Um, however, I believe the answers have been these questions have been answered. So, that's where I'm at on this tonight. Thank you. Councilman Councilman Allen, did you have something?

Yeah, a couple of things. I I think we um we have a fiduciary responsibility to the citizens of Watertown. I think all of us on the council recognize that. Um but I also think that we have a responsibility to the community and to the citizens of the community. And I keep coming back to the fact that uh 2050 uh surveyed 3300 3500 citizens in this community and they said this is what we want to do. This is where our priorities are. This is the kind of community we want to live in. And I think anyone I mean we were begging for people to get engaged in 2050. We had events, we publicized, we spent money, spent a lot of money uh individuals that, you know, to do that survey. I mean, I don't know where we ended up, but I think we probably spent about $100,000. Did Did the city spend a h 100,000? They did not. They spent nothing. And that was a group of citizens who said, "We feel strongly enough about this, that we need a plan going forward for the future that we're going to invest in this and we're going to find out what the citizens of uh Watertown want and we're going to drive toward that." And so I think to now say, well, now, you know, because things have been done in the past that maybe weren't we didn't have full accountability on. So now when we have a memorandum of understanding that outlines pretty clearly what the accountability is and how this group is going to meet that accountability guideline, I think I feel pretty comfortable saying, "Yeah, no, I I feel I feel good about that." Um, it's impossible to know in advance

uh every eventuality in this. I mean, well, let's see the job description and then let's, you know, I mean, boy, we could put up a lot of barriers. We've never done that in the past. Uh, the city for many years has given, I think, $200,000 to the Watertown Development Corporation, $90,000 to the chamber, and we've never said, well, you know, here's what we expect for that $90,000, and you can only spend it on this. you can't spend it on a salary or you can't spend it on that. We've never done that. And maybe that's wrong. Maybe we should do that. I don't know. But I do know that this downtown coordinator, you you can't say to the chamber, "Well, now chamber, you need to really focus on downtown Watertown." Because the chamber would say, "No, I I can't do that. I'm a membership organization and I have an obligation to every member that pays into the Chamber of Commerce. I can't just focus on the downtown. And I do think that the mayor's comments and the the studies that he cited and the other research that he's done is quite clear and I've seen the same thing. It's about the recirculation of dollars in a community and an investment in the downtown. I I most recently moved from Oaklair, Wisconsin. Where did they invest all their money? Downtown. Uh Wilmer, Minnesota had kind of a dismal looking downtown. That's part of the problem that they have is a lack of investment in their downtown. So I think that the that that from my perspective and and I heard some of the negatives as well although I would say you know probably 10 to one I've heard positives about this proposal uh in the emails

that I've received and the people that object to it I think are those who feel like well boy you know why aren't you supporting me with that kind of effort and I would say if you got involved and were engaged in 2050 and some of these other efforts. A, you would know what was going on because nobody was saying, you know, you can't participate in this, and B, you would maybe feel a little bit more of the energy that uh those of us who have been engaged feel from this from this uh group. And I, you know, I mean, admittedly, I moved back to Watertown in 2022, but I was born and raised here. And I look at the things that are happening in the community. And I'll I'll talk about the holiday parade a little bit because my father, who most of you or many of you know, is 102 years old, and he was the grand marshal this year. And do you know what one of the cool things was about that for me is that my grandfather, his father was the marshall of the parade back in 19 I forget the year now, but it was a long time ago. And my grandfather was riding a horse in that July 4th parade. And my grandfather spent his whole career in Watertown with an animal hospital in downtown Watertown right off of Kemp Avenue. And I I just feel like uh the history, the legacy that's here in this community and and is, you know, the spirit that I see young entrepreneurs carrying forward, I think is something we need to cultivate. So I'm also a no on deferral. Um you know, I I just don't think that what I'm going to hear from the negative side of things is going to sway my opinion. I think we've I and maybe it's because I know more about it

than some other council member, but I I just feel like the time is now to go forward. Um, everything takes a long time. This will take a long time, too. But, uh, I'm I support it for those reasons and I'm a no on deferring it until two or three weeks or Thank you. I'll give you two a chance if you want to address it. uh if waiting would impact it negatively or positively or whatever. If you want to say something, you can, but you don't have to. Just continue to

Okay. Um I will weigh in on this and perhaps it's easier for me because as I explained earlier, I've had six years to come to this decision. So, two weeks is not going to change my thought. And I will also say for my respected and esteemed colleague in from Ward Day and a good friend, Councilman Mormon, he's already said he's had more correspondence on this item than any item ever at city council. I don't know what more we need to hear. We've already heard more than on any other item. we'd hear more positive, we hear more negative, and it just comes back back down to us to vote on how we think we should move forward or not. And so that's why I will be voting no. Any other comments on the motion to defer? Councilman Hoyer. Um, of course, just echo everything Councilman Shuddy, Mayor Holene, and Councilman Helen have said, uh, what I would go with as well is that I am your Watertown City Council member at large. I represent all of you. I got two nos in my email. So, I'm sorry if there were other voices out there that were loud. They sure weren't using my email. Um, and I'm an open conversator in the public, too. You want to approach me about anything? You betcha. We can talk about it. I love talking about potholes. Um, it's that's the common one, right? But I just full transparency, I got two that were against it. Um, I said it before, I'll say it again. Um, actually, let's touch on this real quick, too. I didn't hear any opposition in this room either. Um it was posted public had an opportunity as well. Um we love to talk about things and again this is I'm not it's not a dig at anyone

or anything like that. We love to talk about things. When you're presented all the facts and you've gotten them all it comes down to leaders to make a decision. And I'm with Reed. I I've known about this for six years that I mean I got back in 2019. Um I've immediately became involved in the downtown. So I've I've heard these discussions too. They've been talked to death. Um, I think it's more important tonight to take action and as a leader make a decision. Um, yeah, they'll iron some stuff out. That's normal. Every organization does. Um, and so for me, I would say that I don't think we defer this. I would say be in favor of seeing this out tonight.

Right. Thank you. And Councilman Jurns, I'll give you a chance to speak last, but I just wanted to make one other thing clear is your comment upon Councilman Peters possibly being here. I also believe that I think my councilman can know this from my history that I will go out of my way to suspend a vote, do a vote on a different day if it means having someone here who wants to vote for or against something. I proved that with the downtown liquor license or the restaurant liquor license where we deferred action and we did it on a different day. I have that history. If Councilman Peters ever said to me that he wanted to be here to to vote on it and I was in contact with him all day and all day yesterday, if he had even said once that he wanted to vote on it, I would have taken that into serious consideration. But he never did. So that I mean I will totally respect any any other elected official on this but um on that one I I understand but that's why it doesn't weigh heavy on me. Councilman Jurns I will give you the last word before we vote on your substitute motion.

Uh thank you mayor. U you know uh your guest comments about six years. Um, that's uh that's respectful and I can tell by your comments and I can tell that you have prepared doubting it one bit. But what I have heard and what I've heard again tonight is from the 33 years of being a business person. This has been a subject that's why I'm a big advate of this. That's why I'm an advocate of downtown uh Watertown and I I support a lot of what this has. It just doesn't enough. I still have unanswered questions. And what I'd like, and I know we won't do it tonight, but what I'd like is my fellow councilmen and the mayor to and and I've heard some I've heard some of this tonight, don't get me wrong. It wasn't ignored. But the organizations that should have been doing this for the last 33 years, not just six years, where were they? Why did it not happen? And why do we need keep discussing it also? So, I agree with you. Absolutely. And there are 90% of what we've talked about, 95% tonight, I'm on the same side as you. The opposition didn't reach out to certain council people because they have a business in downtown. If I'm if my

business is in downtown and if I'm uh there, I'm going to completely find ways more ways to advocate this. But these are not businesses that just come up with an idea to say I'm opposing it because I don't have business down there. And no, these are these are people that have been involved in politics and on the boards and on the actual um organizations that we've been talking about and are also on board with this. But their questions deserve to be answered and that is why are we spending someone else already said it why are we spending $90,000 in a certain place and can't get collaboration with that so that is why I brought this to the table it was not that you weren't giving anybody fair fairness here or unfairness So, I don't want to be accused of that. Thank you for bringing it up. But that is not what this was about. This was about others hearing why they don't like it right now today. But they are still in very much support of this. And again, because this is going to go down um and and we're going to lose the delay. I know it already. Um, I want to say I'm a big advocate again for what has been done and the energy that has been spent here and for anyone to insinuate in their comments tonight, mostly from the council that I am not for this and

that I am here trying to dig the deep hole of making things sit around for three months. No way. That's not me. That's not Lindurance. And everyone knows that Lindurance is here to make decisions and make them fast if they're needed to. So that's my comments. No hard feelings. We're here. Life is short. Let's get going. Thank you, Councilman. And I just want to make make it clear. I apologize if I gave any insinuation to you or any other councilman or anyone in this in this room that if I um if you felt like I disrespected you or or was speaking for you, I don't want to do that. I want to applaud you and everyone else. We're just trying to make the best decision for Watertown and weighing all the evidence. And and if you want more time to make the best decision you possibly can, that is you're right. And that's why we are now going to vote on the motion to defer two weeks. If you are in favor of deferring a vote on the well, if you're in favor of deferring act final action on this, then you will vote I. If you're opposed to that, you will vote no. Finance officer Bob Zen, please call the role.

Okay. Fire

Allen, no.

Motion fails. motion fails. We are back to discussion upon the original motion which is to approve the funding request. I will say we've had a very thorough discussion already. I don't want to take away any final comments, but I would say I think we've talked a lot. I want to just say thank you to the downtown collective for working with us and uh if it goes if it's voted in favor hopefully you'll do great work and we'll all be we'll look back on this in three years and wonder why we didn't do it earlier. I also want to thank you for being willing to partner with me on working up that memorandum of understanding. I think that's a really nice step forward for the future of Watertown and our budgeting process. Thank you. Any further comments? Motion is to approve the funding request. If you are in favor of that, you'll vote I. If you are opposed to that, you'll vote nay. Finance officer Bob Zen.

Okay. I Mormon Nate. Durens. Hi. Study. Hi. Allen. I motion carries. Motion carries. Thank you very much. Thank you.

I will give a moment to let the audience disperse. Okay, council. I just make sure that the doors. Thank you.

Oh, they're in trouble now. We're on to item 13B, an approval of resolution on the plat of the Kain Beal edition. We'll go to our community development manager, Brandy Hen, who has patiently waited.

Thank you, mayor. So, this plat uh typically would be administratively approved because it is um only replplatting three and a half lots and condensing it into two conforming lots to the current zoning designation. Oh, and then the screen just unless you're unless he was converting it fine, which I don't need I don't need my screen pulled up. Okay. Um, so this this property is zoned R3 multifamily residential. And the reason why it's before city council and the planning commission previously is because with this replat, the lot line now makes the existing decks on the existing duplex non-conforming to the setback that's required in this district, which is 9 ft. The decks are currently um they will be 13 in off of this new property line. The property owner has the understanding that if the decks are to ever go away that they would have to come back for a variance request or not be able to rebuild them uh in the future. And then the other there's a property boundary that's non-conforming on the west side for where the duplex currently exists, but that is not creating a a greater nonconformity with this replat. So with that, I'll stand by for any questions.

Thank you. Can I get a motion to approve the resolution? Motion made by Councilman Hoyer, seconded by Councilman Shetty. conversation council. We'll go to a voice vote. All those in favor of approving this resolution, please say I. I. Any oppose? Say nay. Motion carries. Item 13 C is an approval of a resolution on the plat of Williston third edition and authorization for the city manager to sign the associated development agreement. Community development manager, what do you have? What have you got for us?

Okay. Thank you, mayor. So, this is a plat that will be um it's one one platted lot that will now be creating seven conforming lots. Um they're all zone C3 highway commercial and then there is platted ride ofway associated which is why there's also a development agreement with this plat. um all of the construction plans are approved and that is what the development agreement is reflecting. So again, I'll stand by for any questions. Thank you. Can I get a motion to approve the resolution? Motion made by Councilman Mormon. Was it

um we'll say Councilman We'll say Councilman Mormon, seconded by Councilman Shetty. Okay, with you guys. Okay. Motion is to approve the resolution. Any conversation on this? Motion is to approve the resolution. All those in favor, please say I. I. I. Any oppose say nay.

Motion carries. City council member announcements and introduction for topics of future discussion. I don't want to steal something from my atlarge councilman, but I was it was just brought to my attention today that on February 17th. I think this is extremely appropriate given the conversation of earlier today, the AARP is going to be hosting trivia night at Watertown Brewing Company and they are going to be talking about walkable cities and how important it is for the future and vibrancy of a community. So, it is trivia night. It is at Watertown Brewing Company on the 17th with a public message along with I would guess quite a bit of fun.

Mr. Mayor, is it the 19th or the 17th? I think it's the 19th. Is it the 19th? Okay. Sorry. Yes.

Okay. Thank you. Any other announcements, Councilman Mormon? Uh just on the lighter side, I believe the Watertown Arrows boys basketball team is either 10-1 or 11-1 or 11-1. We have a phenomenal basketball team this year. I encourage everybody to come out to the arena and watch this Tuesday. They'll be taking on Sou Falls Lincoln, which I believe they're rated number one. So, if you want to watch an incredible basketball game here in the city of Watertown, uh Tuesday night, um you're going to want to be at the arena. Thank you, Councilman Hoyer. I think you said it earlier. You You said today's Tanya's birthday. Yes.

Well, I'm going to use my power as well to wish my daughter also a happy 8th birthday. So, happy birthday, Rosie. Submit. Allen. I've got no birthdays to announce. Uh, I uh I do want to um I don't know where everybody parties, but I don't see downtown. I think of it as the kitchen because when I go to a party, that's where people gather is in the kitchen because that's where the food is and so forth.

Um on a on a more serious note, I don't want to lose a thread that I uh mentioned the last time we were in in council, and that is about communication. And I think tonight uh we saw yet another example of uh the fact that I think as a city we can do a better job of communicating. Um we have a a communication officer. Uh I think we're still trying to figure out how to um communicate the many things that we've got going on in the city and to do it in a way that best informs the community. And I uh I don't want to lose that. I want to have that conversation as a council because I think it's important that we look for ways um that we can involve all of the various media that exist uh from print to to radio to whatever. Um I think we need to give our media outlets an opportunity to ask questions. Um and right now it seems kind of scattered. Uh, and I think that uh we could it would behoove us to do something in a more coordinated fashion. Um, I I don't know what that looks like. I want to have that count that conversation with the rest of the council because I think, you know, there's just a lot going on. I mean, I I saw Mr. rehored uh making an announcement tonight, a press release about uh the drug uh grant money that we got and what that's going to do for us. And I think, you know, boy, that's that's really interesting. I hope everybody knows about that, but I, you know, I don't know. It it kind of goes out in fits and spurts. And so I'd like to find a way to to do some better communication because the one thing I know um we do have a great story to tell in this community. Uh and I I think we

just need to to work to do a better job of that and to engage our media partners uh in doing that to the best of our ability so that we don't have these communication gap. So thank you. Thank you Councilman. Anything else? Well, Councilman Jern didn't say anything either. City Manager Stagger, any report?

Uh, a couple of things to report on. Um, first of all, our next council meeting will be on Tuesday, February 17th, due to the President's Day holiday. Um, at that council meeting, uh, one of the items that will be on the agenda is the annual report of the library will be delivered. That's, uh, an annual requirement. Uh we also have a planning uh commission meeting scheduled for February 19th at 4 pm. Uh at that meeting, the agenda is just beginning to be compiled, but we do anticipate the planning commission will be reviewing a tax increment financing district request. And so that often gets uh quite a bit of public interest. So, I wanted to get that message out early that that will be uh on the 19th of February. On the 12th of February, the Watertown Development Company is hosting a a housing conference at the Watertown Event Center. Um you you can go to several websites and find a a link to reserve a spot at that conference. There are several speakers coming in to talk about best practices in developing housing in communities. Just a couple of updates on two items that you approved last fall that we are currently rolling out. Uh the first one is code red which is a community notification system. We are actively in the rollout phase of that. There have been a a couple of articles and discussions on what that means. We anticipate full roll out in March. Uh and also our ethics reporting hotline. We are in the process of scoping the various call trees and where calls go uh with an objective of rolling that out in the month of March as well uh for mass use. Final thing that I have, we need volunteers. Uh we continue to have

people that would like to rotate off of some of the boards and commissions and committees that we have. right on the center of the uh city web page, we've now placed an icon that's called apply to serve where you can uh submit an application. It just has a few questions um and and the ability to state your interest. I have nothing else for tonight. Thank you, city manager. We have no reason to go into executive session. Therefore, I will take a motion to adjurnn. Motion made by Councilman Hoyer, seconded by Councilman Mormon. Any discussion on that? All those in favor of adjourning, please say I. I. Any oppose? Say nay.

Motion carries. Good night and God bless you, Watertown.