City Council - Regular Meeting

Well, good afternoon and happy St. Patrick's Day everyone. It's 4:30 on Tuesday, uh, March 17th. Uh, I'm Eric Wara sitting in for Andrea Becker, who is one of the thousands of people who got, uh, their flight canled down in Florida. Um, at this time we'd like to call the city council meeting for the city of uh Newm to order. At this time uh, sorry about that. Sorry about the first order on the uh, business is the consent agenda. Counselors, what are your wishes? So move. Second.

Uh, we have a motion and a second. Uh, any additional discussion? Those in favor signal by saying I. I. I. That motion does carry. Moving us to 2.1 uh lease for lawful gambling at Johnson Park New Baseball Association. A resolution to approve the New Baseball Association Nubra to sub submit a lease for lawful gambling activity at Johnson Park during the 2026 baseball season.

A second. And did you want to talk Mr. Schugle or not? Councilors, I was just going to bring a little background uh from the park and recck commission that this is before you because this is a lease for charitable gambling at Johnson Park, so city park. Uh the park and recck commission unan or not unanimously but 4 to one recommended that this uh receive a resolution. Uh New Baseball Association is not here tonight, but what they intend with this is to do like three to five events of season. Um, and more than likely it's like 50/50 raffles and such like that. So, just a little more perspective for all of you. Thank you.

Thank you. Well, we do have a motion in a second. Is there any further uh discussion? Director Jorgensson, please call the role. Councelor Christian, yes. Councelor Schmidt, yes. Councelor Mack, yes. And councelor Wa, yes. That motion does carry. Uh, moving us on to 3.1, a summary of business conducted at board meetings.

All right. and I attended the park and wreck meeting. Uh, one item we just approved, so I don't have to fill you in on that. Uh, Director Schugle did give us an update on the uh, comprehensive plan for the park and wreck. Uh, it should be on schedule a little late maybe, but staff is working on it. Uh, you also have all read in the paper already. We had an in-depth report from the Pollinator Park Group what their intentions are for this year. Great program. Uh, EDA. Uh, normally I turn that over to President Andrea Becker. He's not here this evening. As most of you read, we did approve the now policies that we're going to redo after the strategic plan. The first one done was a commercial loan program. That policy has now been improved. Everything is in writing. Uh the next one will be the what I'm going to call the housing part of it. They're going to have a work session on that when we do the policy. And other than that, it was just business as usual. That's it. Councelor Mack,

I've got nothing. Councelor Schmidz.

Uh, Vice President Warm and counselors, um, Heritage Preservation did not meet yesterday, uh, due to, uh, lack of items. Cable Communications has not met recently. Um, but the one item I have to add was last Wednesday, I was at the cap in St. Paul um, as our sole representative from the city of New Alm at the League of Minnesota City's annual day on the hill. had a nice long visit with uh Senator Dames, Representative Torqulson, Governor Walls, and actually the new mayor of St. Paul. So, it was a successful day and uh I think uh we garnered some more support for our fine community from the state of Minnesota. End of report. Very good. Thank you very much. And I have nothing new to report either. Uh which moves us to 4.1. Uh recommendation from the safety commission on a school zone speed limit. I'll turn it over to city engineer.

Thank you, Mr. Vice Chair and uh councilors. Uh with us via Zoom today, we have uh Tom from SRF Consulting Group. Um and I'll turn over to him very shortly here to give a presentation on the uh school zone speed limit study that they performed. Um this was presented to the safety commission at their meeting um at the beginning of March here. Um, and just background, the commission ultimately decided uh to recommend to the city council implementation of of this uh findings in this report. So, I will turn it over to Tom and let him run through uh his presentation and work performed.

All right, thank you. Is everyone hear me just fine? Yep. Do you have the presentation up or do you want me to share it? Why don't you share it, Tom? That might work easier. That way you can control it. All right. Share the right screen here. All right. Do you see the presentation though? Yep.

Perfect. All right. So, like just said, my name is Tom Sack. I'm a traffic engineer at SRF Consulting Group. Apologize I couldn't be in person today. the impending snow this evening. I didn't want to have to drive back to the Twin Cities for preparations of it. So, um dealing a lot with that here lately, it sounds like. All right. So, a quick overview of uh the project that we took a look at. So, I'll go through a little introduction of the project, the schools we reviewed, the data we collected, the observations we collected, um the analysis that we completed with this information, and ultimately our recommendations. So, a quick intro on schools on speed limits. Um, you know, these schools on speed limits are aimed at improving safety for kids walking and biking to school. uh they can be very effective at slowing down driver speeds especially if you uh provide enhancements with them more than just the static sign. Um you know typically we can see reductions of 5 to 10 mph u maybe up to 15 depending on the speeds. Um most of the schools in New are relatively working in residential areas. Uh the high school kind of the the one that's um outside those limits a little bit here. But in general, the neighborhood schools are are truly the best uh for some of these. Um you can get a little bit reduction up there in group safety. Um the graphic on the right just tells you a little bit information here about um what happens if there's a crash at certain speeds. Um but really showing, you know, the slower people go, the better the outcomes are if there is a crash. which obviously we would prefer if there's not a crash, but if there is a crash, um slower speed, people can stop sooner and there's a much better chance of survivability and less chance of injuries um at a slower speed. Um, so in addition to this, you know, building off of some of the work that's

been previously done, there's the the safe walking routes in New Orle. There's a biking bike graphic similar to this um just showing that there's all these bike walking and biking routes throughout the city um adjacent to the school. So, we have this plan. a better way to kind of enhance it if we can um try to get school zone speed limits a little bit slower, people traveling a little bit slower near the schools um when kids are um going to and from school just to uh make things a little bit safer for everybody. So going through the schools reviewed uh we reviewed all schools within the city um both public and private um comprehensive review throughout the city. We did add uh one school kind of after the fact. We can get into that here in a little bit later, but um we were able to review every school as part of this study for the potential speed zones. Um just a map showing the locations of the school. As we talked about, majority of these schools are relatively urban. Um you know, within neighborhoods for the most part um so near kind of residential local roadways. um in in slower speed areas just in general. The high school is kind of the one that's the outlier there. So, the data we collected uh we collected speed data in both the summer and the fall just to kind of get some baseline information. We wanted to take advantage uh of the summer when we could um just to see if uh we collected the data then uh when school was not in session and we collect it again in the fall just to see what the um change in speed behavior was between the the two seasons. Um so we collected in the week of August 18th and then also again the week of September 30th um back in the fall of 2025. Uh we use speed radar units to collect some information give us that baseline information to see what we're studying. Um here's the table with the results is live information of the locations we collected the speed and this is all in the report but um some of the takeaways here uh so here's the the St. Paul

Luther and Jefferson Elementary and New Middle. Uh we've got a lot of speed information. Um average and 85th percentile speeds. 85th percentile background has been the traditional if MDOT was to complete a speed study, that's the speed that they would look at for how they would set speed limit on a roadway. Um there's been a little bit of a change here. um as cities have been able to go towards city center speed limits. Average vehicle speed has become a bigger trend of where we might want to look at for speeds. Um but the takeaways here um you know on Pain Street we can see speeds are kind of under that 30 mph threshold but pretty close to it. And then uh on Garden Street we're just a little bit over it for the 85th percentile. Um but we did see a little bit reduction um in one segment of Garden Street between the fall and summer. Um but seeing those for the percentile speeds all near 30 mph tells us there's there could be some improvement here um with potential school zones. Um looking now here at the Catholic schools um Fifth Street in particular, this one kind of jumped out. The speeds went up um in the fall compared to the summer. We don't know if that's just a blip, you know, just so happens we took data on two days and and maybe we got a little bit slower speeds in the summer than than typical. Um they're not outrageous. They're kind of in line with the with the speed limit that's posted out there. But um the observed speeds data did go up a little bit. It's a little just kind of interesting, but uh along Washington near the schools there speeds actually went down quite a bit. So um just could be kind of a nuance of the data we collected, but something to note. Uh Washington Learning Center, we did observe those speeds um being under 20 m hour both for average and for the percentile. So that's something to note. Um, and then near the high school, the speed stayed pretty much the same between the summer and fall. Um, 85th percentile, over 35 miles per hour there. Um, I don't think too big of a surprise based on talking with the

safety commission. That would be a little bit out of town, wider roadways, not much not as much around the school's kind of set back from the roadway. Um, vehicle speeds are up a little bit. The last one here is a riverbed learning center. Uh, this is the one that we didn't initially collect data at. um that got added after the fact um Joe Krug some information here um from Street Light that had some speed information. Uh this is from the spring and fall of 2022. Um along Minnesota stream here um showing the average 85th percentile speeds all relatively close in line here with the 30 mph speed limit. Uh but just wanted to know that that one came from the fall of 2022. So the next bit of data that we took a look at was crash data. Um, you know, we took a look at everything around the schools. There's been no fatal or suspected serious injury crashes, which is good. Um, there are three suspected minor injury crashes and four possible injury crashes surrounding the schools. And I believe this was in the last 5 years of data. Um, nine of the 15 crashes near the New High School happened at the roundabout connecting to the school. Um, you know, not uncommon for a lot of property damage type crashes to occur near a roundabout or at a roundabout. Um, but they do minimize the severe injury crashes. So, that's kind of the trade-off with the roundabout there. Um, we will note there's one pedestrian crash um related pedestrian related crash in your uh Washington Learning Center involve pedestrian longboarding, but this occurred outside of the school hours in July of 2024 in the summer. So, um not necessarily school related, but just adjacent to a school at the time. Lastly, the last thing we did here was we took a look um at we went out to most of the schools um except for the New High School, the learning centers um and did some observations outside the schools just to see um how's the how's it functioning? Um are there cues that are on the roadways? um is there

constantly a line of vehicles or um blocked accesses that are um potentially you know if we put a schools on speed limit it doesn't even matter because there's always a line of cars there anyway so it doesn't really it wouldn't really affect anything we want to get those baseline observations just to understand you know the potential effectiveness of these schools on speed limits so I know that the graphic on the right there's a ton of information on there you don't need to um try to see it there's a lot This is all of our observation data that we collected. Um it's in the report. Um but it's just kind of summarizing everything we saw out there. You know, so for the the three schools kind of on the south end of town here. Um noting which roadways were used for picked up and drop off. Um the key things that we wanted to see here is are there staff people out there? Are the crossing guards out there? Um so there were staff members out helping kids facil, you know, facilitate kids crossing the street. Um we didn't see any major queueing on the local streets. A lot of it occurred within parking lots. Um but that's one of those things we're looking for is you know if we put us with a speed zone um out there and there's a bunch of vehicles queued on there, it's not going to necessarily be very effective. Um and the one other thing we wanted to know is just in are people disobeying crosswalks um are people speeding through crosswalks while kids are trying to cross. Um, you know, what we noticed was many of the crossings were occurring at at the crossings and vehicles were generally observed to be obeying the crossing signs. Um, but I know sometimes you guys will hear information um otherwise to that. I'm sure Joe hears that from from people or the principles here from from parents that, you know, these cars blew through the crossse. Um, so we know that definitely does occur. It just so happens the day that we collected data that did not occur. Um up next for the new old Catholic schools, um similar type graphic here. Um there were students helping, they were in safety vests, kind of helping to facilitate the crossings. Once again, we

didn't observe any um queuing on the local streets. So with that information, then we moved forward into the midnight guidance. Um so there's a midnight put out some guidance in June of 2023 on establishing schools on speed limits. Um using a lot of the data that we just took a look at here. Um the goal is to overall improve safety for students walking biking rolling to school. Um really just improve the the safety outcomes there. Um if necessary, we could perform an engineering study and that's the basis of a lot of the data that we collected. Um otherwise we follow the the flowchart that'll be coming up here to take a look at what kind of um what kind of enhancements and what kind of schools on speed limit would be appropriate for uh the this area. So we took a look at what the um this flowchart here from Minat. So across the top is existing road speed limit and then if you wanted to go to um certain speed zone limits you follow this um kind of down the left side of the chart. So if we have in general we have 30 mph roadways and uh our recommendation um is to go to 20 mph speed school zone speed limits and that that sweet spot we see is that 5 to 10 mph reduction. Um and that's kind of the the the standard rate that we see in a lot of these neighborhood type streets. Um so that represents condition one. Um we don't necessarily have to do an engineering investigation on these um and we because we don't have any crash data. Um, and this is where we're kind of aiming here, but you know, the thing that the last piece at the bottom of the condition one is additional counter measures should be considered um if pedestrian safety is a justification. So, that's really what we're looking for. So, the additional counter measures we'll we'll discuss here in a second. The one thing, the one school that didn't fit into this perfectly was the

um was the high school. Um because that one we were looking at uh the speeds that were out there wouldn't necessarily fall into condition one. Um but we thought it made a lot more sense for that one to fall into here. I can get into that here in a second. Um so here's the recommended speed limits um that we uh saw from the from the chart and from our experience. Um so the speed limits right now on all these roads are 30 30 mph. The schools and speed limits are recommending um in general are 20 except for the new high school. Um that one being posted at 30, but we observe speeds of 35. Um it's unlikely that we would probably get a 15 mph speed reduction. Um so we're recommending that one be posted at 25. Uh we also know that when people go through the roundabout, they're generally going through it at about 20 mph. So we're kind of aiming for that 20 to 25 mph um travel speed through the area instead of 35, which would represent that 10 m per hour reduction, which is probably the most realistic. Um the one thing to note, the Washington Learning Center, we're not recommending schools on a speed limit near that one. Um just based on the fact the data out there um was showing travel speeds during school of already being under 20 mph. So there wouldn't necessarily need to be a a reasonable booking out there. Um so to the enhancements that I talked about um you know so to get the best possible compliance with this our recommendation is typically to install the school zone speed limit when flashing. Um so you put the flashers above the school zone speed limit signs out there. Um these flashing beacons can be programmed by either the city or by the school districts or you can work jointly. Um, so they're flashing, you know, for 15 to 30 minute windows before and after school only on school days. So they're not flashing over the weekend. Um, they're not flashing during the middle of the summer so you can have them programmed. Um, for those specific time frames really helps grab the

driver's attention. Um, and it won't be flashing all day where it becomes kind of just ingrained in drivers. If it's always out there, they tend to start to ignore it. Um, if we have these um, short windows, it becomes a lot more effective. Um, and then lastly, the speed feedback signs are another option that you could put out there. Um, these kind of help give drivers a perception of, okay, the school zone speed limit is 20. Um, and the feedback sign shoots up that you're going 25 mph. And that will give drivers the awareness, okay, slow down a little bit more. Um, obviously there's a cost to all these things. So, that's ultimately a consideration. uh the flashing beacons uh per beacon here you're looking at about $2 to $3,000 um with the speed feedback signs an additional $6 to $7,000 per per sign zone in general schools on speed limits going to have two of these signs up for each direction. Um and so you could be looking you know anywhere from 8 to $10,000 um and double that for each school zone. And so here's just a quick signing example of what you could uh look at out here. Um I don't need you I don't need you to go too in depth with this. There's a lot of um language on here from the manual of uniform traffic control devices on which types of signs. This is more for Joe. But um this is the type of uh signing plan that we would look to uh get implemented showing locations of where these signs should be located um to best get the speed compliance in the area where uh kids are crossing. So uh with that open for any questions. Um I can stop sharing quick but uh thank you for your time and happy to answer anything you have. And I know I went through really fast there. So something that that came up, just let me know.

I have one question for our city engineer. I get the high-end cost. I mean, uh, tonight is just accepting it, let you pursue grants and whatnot. You think you could get half of this paid for or

um, Mr. vice chair and city councilors. Uh with safe routes to school funding, active transportation funding, it is possible. Um grants are out there that could fund upwards of 100% of this. Um is it a guarantee we'll receive that? No. But there are numerous grant opportunities available. The other option would be to budget for the funds. So, if you want to imple have us implement in 27 um while continuing to pursue grant opportunities, that would be an option as well. Or the direction could be just pursue grants until we get a grant to implement it as well. Um just kind of looking for that direction from council is really how soon do you want this if you want to move forward with this, how soon do you want it implemented?

Well, I'm all for the program and thank you for the excellent documentation. Very helpful. Uh we just we all just know though come budget time that 85,000 is almost 1% levy right off the bat. I know it's a onetime deal but Mhm. Joe, does this get presented to the school board or would the school board be willing to contribute towards something like that? I highly doubt the school would be part wanting to participate in this financially. Um we have not uh presented it to the school board. um you know, they weren't really a partner in in this. Um you know, it's more than just um the public school systems benefits all all the different school systems we have within our community as well.

Um uh when it comes to like safe routes to schools, how long would they need to apply for the grant? I mean, is are we missed cycles or anything like that if this is something that we do start to pursue now?

Uh Tom, you might have a better idea when those grant opportunities come about. I don't know if they've passed already for this application cycle, but generally there's an application cycle, you know, in the spring and fall. So, generally there's something open in the fall that would be applicable for 27 construction. The RFBs that we have around town, that was a active transportation grant that funded 100% of those signs and that was a fall application um for the following season's construction. So,

that makes sense. I believe that's my understanding too is either active transportation or or uh transportation alternatives grants generally in the fall. Um there should be opportunities almost every year I think with some sort of a program to to chase the funding and given the the relatively low cost um comparatively to other projects and I would say probably has a pretty good chance. Um but they say it's up to the ask and up to the other um projects that get you know uh requested that year to determine how the likelihood.

So Joel, would you come back to us? You know, one of the was North Highland there up by the high school to reduce the speed. That'd be a fairly simple one, right? Just signage would that be for something of that happen?

Well, it would would still need the flashing beacons for alerting when when the school zone's in effect. Um, so you know, we're still looking at depending, you know, I feel the systems are probably more effective with the speed feedback signage as well. So you're still looking at that 10 grand per sign um for the implementation. So up there you're looking at 20,000 for the implementation up there. Um, yeah, I I I do agree with Tom that I I feel like any application we put in would be competitive uh for this funding. And the other option I could explore with our mindot district state aid engineer as well is could this be a state aid eligible project um because a number of these routes are on our state aid system as well. So that might be an avenue where I can fund it as well.

So I I just have have further discussion with him over at uh the mano office and I am glad that that uh Riverbend was added to this from safe routes to schools. there's always a representative saying we kind of leave them out of this or don't think about them. But Minnesota Street is a welltraveled street right behind them and and clearly people are going too fast. So yeah, if there's no other comments, I mean I'm going to receive an order file the school zone speed limit study and authorize staff to pursue implementation strategies for 2027. Second. Well, we do have a motion in a second. Is there any further discussion? Uh those in favor signal by saying I. I. I. That motion does carry. Uh, thank you again, Tom. Thanks for your time.

Yes. Thank you, council. Have a good night. Um, moving on to old business. Number 5.1, snow removal appeal request Elwood, vice chairs and councelor Elwood Zabo, building official. Um we went back you uh direct us to go back and find out more information. There was no more information to to gather on that. Um so we just forego the the cost of that snow removal. Sent the sent the owner a letter stating that.

Okay. Vice President and Counselors, I'd like to offer the motion um to order received and filed for Andrew Mau's appeal request for snow removal at 1326 South Pain Street. Second. We do have that motion in a second. Is there any further discussion?

The only comment I'm going to make cuz I'm a snow advocate. I hope we don't see dozens of these come to council with unique stories and whatnot. I did have a our contractor did call me with his verbal abuse on this topic. I'm going to leave it at that. But I just hope that the precedence isn't set where here's another unique, here's another unique, and we start forgiving all these snow things cuz myself, I'd like to see the rules even stricter after this last snowfall. We still have dozens of you cannot go down the sidewalk. It's

true. For instance, I mean, I spoke with one of the building officials and he said that they had homeowners that said they didn't realize that they had to do snow, but I mean, we've sented out notice in the utility bill and things of that nature, you know, so I don't want to, you know, there's no excuses. Yep. Well, we do have a motion in a second. Is there any further discussion? Well, those in favor signal by saying I. I. That motion does carry. Thank you guys. Uh, moving on to new business. Item 6.1, attendance at drug recognition expert training.

Good evening, uh, vice president, members of the council. Name is Dave Borer, chief of police with the city of New. In front of you, there's a a request to, um, send one of our officers, Officer Greg Miller, to a drug recognition expert training in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, um, May 31st to June 6th. And just for some background on that, our um since the legalization of marijuana, obviously you still can't drive under the influence of marijuana or any other substance, legal or or illegal on the street. And um when they legalized it, they the legislative body recognized that there's going to be, you know, likely more activity or at least there was more concern with um driving under the influence enforcement. So what they did is they had some dedicated funding regarding training for this and they're strongly encouraging law enforcement. at some point they'd they'd realistically like all of law enforcement to have that. So, I think in the future you're going to see these drug recognition expert courses probably built in the curriculum um for for new officers, but we're not at that point right now. We're and we're still basically trying to catch up. So, they're looking for regional support. Um there's drug recognition experts in the in the area, but we need more of them. And an agency our size, we we feel that, you know, we have the responsibility to at least have right now we don't have anyone that's trained on it. So we'd like to um start with Officer Greg Miller and then build from there. Um you know, basically continue that. Well,

absolutely like like my um form indicated, everything is paid for as far as the the classes, um the airflight to Philadelphia, all of that. The only thing that we'd be responsible for is the officer's wages and then um PDMs and transport from the location to the airport and then once you land from the airport to wherever the hotel is that's the only thing we'd be responsible for. So it's a very good course very intense and as you see there part of it is in Minnesota and then the other part is in Philadelphia. We have no options on that. That's where they offer it basically nationwide. So, um, basically that's that's the background. We'd like to continue on that. And the reason this is coming in front of the council as well because I you certainly have a training budget for it, but simply because it's out of state training and that that requires council approval.

So, if I'm available for any questions or concerns that you have. Just one question. So, we're only allowed to send one. Is that the right now? Well, that's all that's a very good question, uh, Counselor Christian. Right now, that's all the schedule would provide. We're kind of short on officers. Sure. And we we do plan on sending more. It's just we can really only afford to let one go at a time.

And um, Officer Greg Miller, he's very active with uh, traffic enforcement. He's he's part of our TZD toward zero death. He's our representative for that. So, it's a it's a very good fit. The curriculum is is pretty demanding and, you know, we're confident that, you know, not everybody makes it through, but um Officer Greg Miller would certainly have the knowledge, skills, and abilities to to be competitive in that process. All right. Thank you. Is it your thought that he would help train other officers or, you know, to be like the resource, you know, if they have questions on how to act on certain situ situations as they come up? That

that's a that's a good question as well, councelor Mack. So, the answer is yes, there would be basically responsibility and how how I see it is that he'll be providing training for other officers. He can't certify anybody as far as the drug recognition expert process, but he can he'll certainly he's already got, you know, um basically an agenda um that he's he's following, you know, kind of like his wish list, what he plans on providing for for officers throughout the summer, like when he returns and you know, as far as training and even like, you know, when do you call the DR, you know, when don't you? cuz again our our training right now we've all been trained like I've been trained on on alcohol detection. So I know the field sobriety tests that are required for that. So are all the other licensed officers but drugs behave differently. So, this just gives us, you know, further skills and and he'll certainly, Officer Greg Miller will be helping and training officers as far as what to look for, but he would be the only one that would be able to make that determination if he receives a certification. And that's court admissible. And that was my my question was is this right now, excuse my ignorance, is is it just visual impairment that that an officer is trained on seeing or is there any form of like a breathalyzer like for alcohol? There's nothing at this point. Um, councelor Wormka,

I anticipate we're going to have something, you know, in fact, I'm relatively confident within the next couple of years, but that's not today. Okay. And you know that we can certainly visualize impairment but we you know we don't have this helps build probable cause and probable cause is what's required as far as making a lawful arrest. So again this is actually certification that you know a certified standardized course. No makes good sense. Thank you. Thank you vice president and counselors. Uh I support this uh action here. So, I'm happy to make the motion to approve Officer Greg Miller to attend drug recognition expert training in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the week of May 31st to June 6, 2026. Second.

Well, we do have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? Those in favor signal by saying I. I. That motion does carry. Thank you. Thank you, Chief. Moves us on to 6.2, New Alm Trap Range Building Project Proposal. Lwood again,

vice chairs and counselors, the proposal in front of you is for administrative assistance and writing bid specs and um bid packages and um putting that out for for publication and then doing um contracting with uh this firm to do construction management. Um the main reason is because of the grant that um Park and Recreck received there's prevailing wages and we don't have a way to track that. Um so this is um a way to take care of that and getting bids um and specs drawn up for this project.

Vice President and counselors, uh I also support this project. I think it's a wonderful project and we appreciate the grant funding involved. Um so I'm happy to make the motion uh to approve RW Carlstrom to provide professional services for the new trap range building project um which a total cost of estimated $235,000. Second. We do have a motion in a second. Is there any further discussion? Just one question for Mr. Zabel. I assume that you know they're going to prepare and distribute the bid packages per our protocol. City of News. Correct. Yes. That's why we've got to go out for public bids because of the cost of the project. All right. So, we'll be public, not just them.

Correct. Yep. And then we'll have a public opening here. All right. Thank you. Y Well, those in favor signal by saying I. I. I. That motion does carry. Thanks again, Elwood. uh moves us on to 6.3 a memorandum of understanding between city and less.

All right. Thank you, Vice President Mora and counselors. So, um currently under the ALS collective agreement, we um an employee that is assigned to the BLRR drug task force receives investigator pay. Um Mitch Mullenbach um has now been assigned the supervisor of the drug task force effective May 1st or March 1st, excuse me. Um because he will be supervising um individuals now, we are requesting that his pay be increased to the senior investigator rate which is a 6% increase. This is reimbursed by the drug task force so it won't cost the city any extra money.

Well, with a deal like that, I don't know. been refused but I'll motion to approve the memorandum on understanding the city of New and Law Enforcement Labor Services Incorporated local union number 150. Second. We do have a motion in a second. Is there any further discussion? Those in favor signal by saying I.

I. That motion does carry. Thank you, Shauna. Um, moving us on to 6.4, four, the big one of the day, acquisition of the field maintenance shop and armory from the state of Minnesota. Elwood again. I'm back. Um so, um looking at both, um buildings, it's my understanding that we don't have to take both at the same time. It can be one or the other um for that cost. Um, in your packet is some information regarding um some items that uh came up. We were the fire department had a drill there last Wednesday night. I tagged along with them and had a structural engineer come in and take a look at stuff and found one spot on the second street side just at the bottom of the ramp where the brick is starting to bubble out there in that area. um met with a mason today and have got a rough ballpark figure of 85 to 150,000 to to fix that area. Um, we didn't address the parapits. Look like they need some um tuck pointing here and there. And there's some um stuckle and stuff that's uh over coat on the the poured concrete sections on the bottom that need some some um loving care there. Also, um the armory itself is cut up into a lot of little rooms in there. I mean, we've got the big drill floor area, but then there's a lot of little offices and rooms in front and back of it and in the basement. Um, structurally, the bones look strong with it. Um, there's probably, again, depending on how long we have it, there'd be some windows that would probably be need some replacing here and there. um structural

wise other than that brick that's bulging out in that area. That's really the the one spot that's that's of a concern there. Um we do have the Armory or the Guard did supply us of utilities for both properties from uh 2019 through um 2025. Uh the highest cost for the army was 2025 was 27,549 for the year. Uh but back in 23 it was only $10,661. And there was a couple of them in there, four of them in the 1918 and $16,000 range. And the ma the major driver there was the steam heat was the cost big cost on that one. and utilities out at the um maintenance shop. They ranged from about 5,000 up to there was a couple month or a couple years that it was into the low nines in that same time period. And that structurally we just went through the fire chief and I just went walked through there this afternoon. Um structurally looking on that one that looks solid as also like the army that one's pretty decent also. So,

entertain any questions or Thank you for the info. Yes. Thank you.

Uh, I'll start it off with a comment. Normally, I don't change my mind on something. You know, originally I wanted nothing to do with the armory. It's a money pit as Mr. Zaval just showed us and it'll continue. Uh, we are under I talked to the city manager this afternoon who's not with us. We're under a time constraint. We were actually supposed to have this done the end of February. We let the state of Minnesota know, do we want one or both buildings? Uh, couple of changes, phone calls from people, whatnot. Uh, my understanding is legalitywise, we could in turn sell the army for a dollar to someone cannot make a profit from it. Uh, I won't say who, when, where, why, or what, but I do know there is other interest that's going on over at the armory. So, I'm all in favor of we do both this evening. take both of them. City council can hold a workshop. What route do we want to go? Definitely the maintenance bay, but normally I don't change my tune, but I'm going to change it on the armory. And if we get a motion for it, I'll vote for it.

Dave, is there you just said that we can't make a profit. But say if we did some maintenance and we had to put some windows or something in, can we recoup our cost? An attorney question. I just know that, you know, if we would just turn around do an RFP because we were both and sell it for a dollar. That one I don't have the answer for. Recouping costs. I Yeah, that one I don't know. Uh Mr. Scott is on online. Would you have any comment on that?

I am I don't have a definitive answer. I think generally the city would be able uh in most circumstances to recoup investments it makes in the property. So if you acquire it for a dollar and spend like a number to uh rehabilitate the property, I would think that would be eligible to be uh recovered through a purchase price. But I will uh provide a definitive opinion as staff. Okay.

Thank you, Vice President, counselors. Um and Mr. Zabel, my question would be when would a potential closing date be on this project? Um, I don't know what that entails. Talking with the city manager, sound like there was some paperwork and stuff that would have to get started just like with a regular purchase with property and stuff. So, there might be some time period there, but as Mr. Christian stated that, we were supposed to have an answer back to them end of February. We've extended it now to get

to get they sent down some more information and stuff. Um, they had appraisal done on it. Um they had um some timelines of stuff that they had abated le in the armory um asbestous um some other jobs. They've done some tuck pointing and elevator was installed, sprinkler system put in that kind of stuff. Um was very it was very it was pretty vague. It just stated what was what was done on it. There was no dates or anything that came along with that or because I presume the closing date would be when we assume utility expenses. Correct.

Um and then uh I'm also under the understanding is that the state the national guard has not been paying property taxes to the city o over the years or I don't think so. Yeah. Okay. So there's no real change in property tax situation. Um, well, I would like to make a motion um to approve um our interest in purchasing the field maintenance shop from the state of Minnesota for a purchase price of $1 and also um approving uh the interest in acquiring the armory from the state of Minnesota for a purchase price of a dollar also. Second.

Well, we do have a motion and a second on uh on both there. Is any further discussion? And I've had nothing but but positive comments, too. I've had half a dozen people reach out and say that this is something that we should do to make sure it doesn't fall into the wrong hands and can hopefully get redeveloped and turned into something better. And like we said, maybe be a part of the tax base. Uh with no other further discussion, uh those in favor signal by saying I. I. Motion does carry. Thanks again, Mr. Dabble. Uh with no further business uh this meeting is adjourned. Happy St.