City Council - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. It is now 5:30 and I will call this regular meeting of the Burnsville City Council to order. It is our tradition to stand for a moment of silence followed by the Pledge of Allegiance and we invite you to join us. 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. If the clerk will note that Council Member Kealey is absent this evening, please. And welcome to everyone who has joined us in person. Members of the public are welcome to also choose to watch us and watch this meeting at burnsvillemn.gov/meetings or Comcast Channel 16 or 859. The public can also participate through Zoom by joining us at zoom.us/join. More information is available in our meetings webpage and in the Council agenda packet. The first item on the agenda is announcements and proclamations and we have also uh a celebration this evening. But first, our announcements have to do with all of our upcoming meetings. Our regular Council meetings are

scheduled for Tuesday, May 19th at 5:30 p.m. and Tuesday, June 2nd at 5:30 p.m. We have a work session that's scheduled for uh Tuesday, May 12th at 4:00 p.m. We must, according to law, end the meeting at 6:00 p.m. on May 21st. The reason for that is because School District 194 has a special election and we cannot have meetings during an election. So, the meeting will start at 4:00 and we need to be adjourned with that meeting at 6:00 p.m. We also have a special work session that's scheduled for Tuesday, May 26th and uh that is to interview applicants for our advisory commissions. And then this evening, uh we have a recognition um for Mr. Terry Ritchie, our Assistant Fire Chief, and Chief B.J. Jungmann will present. Good evening, Madam Mayor, members of the Council. Uh tonight, we are here to recognize Assistant uh Chief of Operations Terry Ritchie and I'll invite Terry to come on up here. Uh Assistant Chief Ritchie has dedicated more than 22 years to the City of Burnsville and over 38 years to the fire service. And we have a couple of things to present to Assistant Chief Ritchie tonight. First, we would like to present Assistant Chief Ritchie with his plaque that uh recognizes his 20 years of dedicated service to the City of Burnsville. So, I will present him with that.

[laughter]

All right. Um Assistant Chief Richie has given more dedication and leadership beyond the average employee. He has exhibited leadership in building the foundation of the fire department that will last for decades to come. The foundation is based on a high level of service to the community, a high level of support for our staff, and a high level of both compassion and competence in providing that service to the community. Assistant Chief Richie has been instrumental in innovating many changes in the departments, including fire equipment such as the protective equipment our firefighters wear, staffing improvements to meet the community demand for service, county-wide station alerting, dispatch process enhancements that include sending the closest available unit, regardless of agency, to critical incidents. Technological improvements, such as making our department the first in the state to include Axon fleet cameras in all of our vehicles, enhancing our fire apparatus functionality and reliability, setting the standard for fire station design. Many agencies have copied the layout of fire station one due to that design. And he's also mentored our up-and-coming leaders in the organization to ensure there is continuity in leadership and culture. Assistant Chief Richie has left an indelible mark on our organization and influenced many others. His ability to lead has set a high standard for all of us. Beyond achievements, dedication, and character, Assistant Chief Richie has mentored a generation of professionals to follow in his footsteps. It's not just the projects that Assistant Chief Richie completed during his tenure, but the positive culture that he has helped create in this organization.

We did not have the means to accomplish this with our current recognition policy. And we want to make sure he's appropriately recognized, uh, his career and accomplishments. Therefore, we've created a new recognition, uh, that will be awarded only to those who have made a positive impact on the entire department's culture. And that will be the Lifetime Achievement Award. So, Assistant Chief Richie will be the inaugural recipient of the Burnsville Fire Department Lifetime Achievement Award. And so, please help me congratulate Assistant Chief Richie and thank him for his many years of dedicated service and leadership to the community.

[applause] [applause] [applause]

Why don't we, uh, take that picture with

[laughter] I'm not fired, all right.

[applause]

This evening we have four proclamations. So, what I'm going to do is to read the proclamation, present them, and then we'll have everyone wait for the pictures afterwards, and then we'll have each department come with everybody to take the picture uh with the for the proclamation. So, the first proclamation is for for Emergency Medical Service Week. Whereas Emergency Medical Service are a vital public service. The members of the Burnsville Fire Department are ready to provide life-saving care to those in need 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And whereas access to quality emergency care dramatically improves the survival and recovery rate of those who experience sudden illness or injury. And whereas the Emergency Medical Service System consists of emergency physicians, emergency nurses, emergency medical technicians, paramedics, firefighters, first responders, educators, administrators, and others. The members of the Burnsville Fire engages in specialized training and continuing education to enhance to enhance their life-saving skills. And whereas the 52 52nd anniversary of EMS Week theme is improving outcomes together. And it is appropriate to recognize the value and the accomplishments of our emergency medical provider, Burnsville Fire, by designating and celebrating Emergency Medical Service Week. And now, therefore, I, Elizabeth Kautz, Mayor of the the City of Burnsville, on behalf of the City Council, do hereby proclaim in Burnsville the week of May 17th through

the 23rd, 2026, as Medical Emergency Service Week. Proclaimed this 5th day of May, 2026. And receiving the proclamation is Chief Janman.

[applause] [applause] Don't anybody leave. [laughter]

The next one is National Police Week. Whereas, there are approximately 1 million law enforcement officers serving in communities across the United States, including the dedicated members of the Burnsville Police Department. Whereas, it is well known and accepted that law enforcement is an intercol, dangerous, and demanding profession in which dedicated professionals knowingly place their lives in harm's way to protect others who can who are unable to protect themselves. And whereas, the dedicated members of the Burnsville Police Department play an essential role in safeguarding the rights and freedoms of the citizens of Burnsville. And whereas, nearly 70 79,000 assaults against law enforcement officers are reported each year, resulting in approximately 27,000 injuries within the United States. And whereas, since the first recorded death in 1786, more than 27,346 law enforcement officers in the United States have made the ultimate sacrifice and been killed in the line of duty. Whereas, it is imperative that all citizens understand the challenges, duties, responsibilities, and sacrifices of their police department, and that members of our police department recognize their duty to serve the people by safeguarding life and property, by protecting citizens against violence and disorder, and by protecting the innocent against deception, and the weak against oppression. Whereas, the City Council of the City of

Burnsville wishes to honor all law enforcement officers who, through their courageous deeds, have lost their lives, have become disabled in the performance of their duties. We honor our Burnsville police officers, Matthew Ruge, and Paul Elmstrand, for their ultimate sacrifice given on February 18th, 2024. Now, therefore, be it resolved that I, Elizabeth Kautz, Mayor of the City of Burnsville, on behalf of the City Council, formally recognizes the Burnsville Police Department for their faithful and loyal devotion to their responsibilities and their dedication to our community, and hereby proclaim May 10th through May 16th, 2026, as National Police Week. Proclaimed this 5th day of May, 2026. Police Chief Tanya Schwartz will receive the proclamation. Chief, this is your last proclamation. You're all going to make me cry now. I know. We just have to get through this, right? Bless you. Thank you. Yeah, thank you.

[applause] [snorts] Um [snorts]

National Public Works Week. Whereas Burnsville is committed to responsible stewardship of assets to allow our community to thrive. And whereas Burnsville is committed to innovation and support the environment, human and financial vitality about community and future generations. And whereas public works service provided in our community are an integral part of our citizens' everyday life. Whereas the support of an understanding and informed citizenry is vital to the efficient operation of public works function including engineering, water production and distribution, sanitary sewer collection, storm water management, transportation system,

[snorts]

public buildings, fleet service, and parks and natural resources. And whereas the public works professional activity work to assess infrastructure vulnerabilities, mitigate risk, and respond to emergency situations in support of community resiliency. And whereas the quality and effectiveness of these assets is vitally dependent upon the efforts and skill of public works professionals. Now therefore, I Elizabeth Kautzman, of the city of Burnsville, on behalf of the city council, hereby proclaim May 17th through May 23rd, 2026 as National Public Works Week, and urge my fellow citizens to observe this period by acquainting themselves with the issues involved in providing our public works and recognizing the contributions which city staff make every day to our health, safety, comfort, and quality of life. Residents are invited to meet with staff, enjoy kid-friendly activities, and view equipment used in our operations at the Public Works Open House. It is scheduled for Thursday, May 21st from 3:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at the Public Works facility located at 13713 Frontier Road. Proclaimed this 5th day of May, 2026. And receiving the proclamation is our director of Public Works, Mark Ray. And I brought Charlie Gerke as well here. Yes. Okay.

[applause]

And the last proclamation is for Kids to Parks Day. Whereas May 16th, 2026 is the 16th Kids to Parks Day organized and launched by the National Park Trust, held annually on the third Saturday of May. Whereas Kids to Parks Day empowers kids and encourages family to get outdoors, visit America's parks, and whereas it is important to introduce a new generation to our nation's parks. We should encourage children to lead a more active lifestyle to [snorts] combat the issues of childhood obesity, diabetes, and hypertension. And whereas Kids to Parks Day is open to all children and adults across the country to encourage a large and diverse group of participants. And whereas Kids to Parks Day will broaden children's appreciation for nature and the outdoors. And now therefore, I Elizabeth Kouts, mayor of the city of Burnsville, on behalf of the city council, do hereby proclaim May 16th, 2026 and the entire month of May to as Kids to Parks Day and urge residents of Burnsville to make time to take the children in their lives to to a neighborhood, state, or national park. On Saturday, May 16th, Burnsville Recreation is partnering with Burnsville Fire and Police to offer a safety camp program at North River Hills Park from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Activities will include ambulances, first aid education, and animal safety, a hot dog lunch provided by the Noon Rotary Club, a fire department smoke house, and a police department open house with interactive activities and

opportunities to explore police vehicles. Safety Camp gives kids the opportunity to learn important safety skills in a fun, interactive environment while meeting the communities helpers who keep Burnsville safe. Participants should dress comfortably for the outdoors and hands-on activity. Proclaimed this 5th day of May, 2026. And receiving the proclamation is Mr. Dave Erdall.

[applause]

Okay, so Chief gentlemen and our fire

[laughter] [laughter] [applause]

We have two Chiefs. [laughter] Okay. Oh, it's a training day. I have all four in front of the ship. Okay. Keep going. Keep going. Omar. Omar. Mary Omar. All right. Okay. Okay. Okay.

All right. That's it. [applause]

Okay. All right. [applause]

The next item on the agenda is citizen's comments. This is the opportunity for anyone in the audience or online to address the council on an item that is not on the printed agenda and not an application form that will be coming before us at a future date. Is there anyone in the audience who wishes to address the council on an item that is not on the printed agenda and not an application form that is coming before us at a future date. Is there anyone? Mrs. Collins. No one online, Mayor. Okay, thank you. We will move on. The next is additions to the final agenda and this is for emergency items only. City [snorts] Manager Lindburg, are there any emergency items to come before the body? Nothing from staff. Members of the council. Okay, we will move on to the consent agenda. The consent agenda is a group of items that's considered to be routine and will be enacted by one motion. However, an item on the consent agenda can be removed for a separate discussion and vote. Is there [snorts] anyone in the audience who wishes an item on the consent agenda to be removed for a separate discussion and vote. Anyone? City Clerk Collins, is there anyone online? No one online has asked to have anything removed. Okay. Um members of the council, if not, I would like a motion to adopt the consent agenda. So moved. Second. There is a motion and a second. All in favor, please say I. I. I. Opposed, say nay, and the motion carries. Thank you. We will now move on to the regular agenda, and the first item on the regular agenda is a public hearing. This is to approve the on-sale intoxicating liquor and Sunday license for Miss K'er Ethiopian Restaurant at

2917 Cliff Road. Our City Clerk, Mrs. Michelle Collins, is presenting. Mrs. Collins. Thank you, Madam Mayor and City Council. We did receive an application from Miss K'er Ethiopian Restaurant for an on-sale liquor license. The Burnsville Police Department has conducted a background investigation on the principals involved. Nothing was found to deny the application. The licensee has submitted all required documents and paid all required fees. Um I stand for any This the uh the um city code requires a public hearing for all new liquor license applications. I stand for any questions. Okay. Any questions for City Clerk Collins? Okay, there are no questions from the council. Uh this is a public hearing. I will now open the public hearing. Is there anyone who wishes to speak to this item? Anyone who wishes to speak to this item? Mrs. Collins, anyone online? No one online has asked to speak, Madam Mayor. Okay. Um members of the council, your pleasure. Close the public hearing. Oh. It is a I will close the public hearing. Move to approve. Second.

There is a motion and a second. All in favor, please say I. I.

I. Opposed, say nay. And the motion carries. Okay. Thank you for the reminder. The next one is also a public hearing. And this is a resolution adopting neighborhood service assessments. And presenting this evening is our deputy community development director, Mr. Travis Bistodeau. Mr. Bistodeau, the floor is yours. Thank you, Madam Mayor, council members. Uh as you're aware, Burnsville city policy calls for the biannual assessment of unpaid property maintenance fees that have accumulated over the course of a year based on the work [snorts] that our neighborhood services division does. Uh the item before you is an effort to recover those cost uh of those fees. Uh despite neighborhood services best efforts to resolve uh those complaints voluntarily, every year there are a few cases uh where fees go unpaid and therefore uh eligible therefore they are eligible to be assessed to property taxes. Uh as a reminder, council adopted a resolution on April 7th calling for this public hearing uh to address those outstanding fees for the second half of 2025. Final notices uh for the current list of outstanding fees went out to property owners on April 10th. An open house was held for folks to come in and resolve those fees on April 22nd. The public hearing tonight serves as the final option for residents to dispute any of those charges. Uh the council packet reflects the total amount to be assessed at 6,090 6,092 dollars, which includes all of our unreimbursed charges for the second half of last year. However, um staff did update those numbers

[clears throat]

Excuse me, earlier today and the actual number has been reduced to uh 5,900 as folks have paid uh as early as uh this morning. So, uh we are recommending the council hold the public hearing uh tonight, take any additional feedback from the community regarding those fees, and adopt the resolution to approve the outstanding assessments. And with that, I'm happy to stand for questions. Questions for Mr. Bestida. Okay. This is a public hearing. Is there anyone who wishes to speak to this item? Anyone who wishes to speak to this item? City Clerk Collins, anyone online? No one online has asked to speak, Mayor. Okay. No one online, no one wishes to speak to the item. I will close the public hearing. Members of the council, your pleasure. Uh move to approve. Second. There's a motion and a second. All in favor, please say aye. Aye.

Aye. Oppose, say nay. And the motion carries. The next item is 5C, and this too is a public hearing. And this is [snorts] a resolution adopting the 2026 miscellaneous assessments. Mr. Charlie Gerk, our assistant uh city engineer, is presenting. Mr. Gerk, the floor is yours. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Council members, I'll be presenting the miscellaneous assessments here for this public hearing. Uh this year, our miscellaneous assessments only account for false alarms. We've had 11 properties that had had multiple false alarms. As you may recall in our city code and uh properties that have an abnormal amount of false alarms, we do assess for that. We do charge for it. [snorts]

These are the properties that are still unpaid as of this week. Total cost of that is $3,695. We have received no objections to date for these assessments. Staff recommends a resolution approving all miscellaneous assessments and I'll stand for questions. Any questions for Mr. Gurke? Okay, with that I will open the public hearing. Is there anyone who wishes to speak to this item? Anyone who wishes to speak to this item? City Clerk Hollins, anyone online? Madam Mayor, no one online has requested to speak. Okay, very good. Um With no one online and no one wishing to wishing to speak to this item, I will close the public hearing. Uh members of the council, your pleasure. Move to approve. Second. There's a motion and a second. All in favor, please say I. I. I. Opposed, say nay. And the motion carries. Thank you. And now we are at um 5D and 5D is um also a public hearing and this is a resolution to adopt the 2026 HOC streetscape special assessment. And Mr. Charlie Gurke, our assistant city engineer, is presenting. Mr. Gurke. Thank you again, Madam Mayor.

Sorry. Thank you again, Madam Mayor, council members. Uh as the council may be aware and recalls that the HOC has separate and special streetscape that requires additional operation and maintenance. Colored sidewalks and trails, street lighting, banners, snowflakes, uh Christmas lighting, boulevard and median maintenance is at a higher level through this area, trees, shrubs, hanging baskets, and other plantings throughout the neighborhood. Because of that higher need and higher wants in the neighborhood, there are assessments associated with that. There's basically three types of assessments that apply to the district. There's the street frontage, which is a tier one. That's the higher level. That's where we have lights and baskets and more plantings. If we look at the map here, you can see the tier one is in purple. We have tier two areas, which get a little bit less, but they have a little bit more than the area's a whole. And then we have areas that are adjacent to the HOC. That's all the yellow. They're assessed by square footage. So, some properties get both a tier one and a yellow or the square footage. Some properties get a tier two and the yellow and some properties just get a square footage assessment. The city also has properties in this district that we assess for ourselves and we're part of the assessment. The city also takes on half the cost. It's not a 100% assessment to these residents and businesses. The total cost for 2025 is approximately $425,000. The city's portion of that is $237,000, which you'll notice more than half. That's the city's 50% that we contribute and then on top of that $24,000 for those properties in the heart of the city district. Remaining is $186,000 approximately assessed across numerous properties and it ranges from $26 to a couple hundred dollars for some properties. And for that, uh This is a public hearing. Objections

must be in writing prior to the public hearing. We did receive one objection. I think that will be contradicted on my next slide here prior to the start of this meeting. Those objecting parties have 30 days to appeal the assessment once adopted. Recommendation is to hold the public hearing and staff recommends adopting a resolution approving all HOC streetscape assessments. And for that, I'll stand. Okay. Any questions for Mr. Kirk? Okay. This is a public hear- uh okay. Yes, council member uh Shurts. So, you said there was a a written objection and you have contacted them and you're working with them on that or We just received the objection prior to the meeting here and they're in attendance. I suspect they'll want to speak. Yep. Okay. They signed up to speak.

Okay. With that, I will open the public hearing and uh Mr. Bruce Henry uh wishes to speak on this item. Mr. [clears throat] Henry. Thank you. Good evening. How you doing? City Council and mayor. I currently serve Real Life of Burnsville as their board president and uh [snorts]

I'm here to speak to this uh This is called a special assessment. Uh I happened to uh look up the word assessment in the dictionary and it it talks basically it's it's basically a tax. And uh we are uh assessed and we've been assessed for many years. And I don't know why prior boards did not come and appeal on this assessment cuz uh we're assessed for indirect benefits for the property as one of the 119 property owners uh I've seen no indirect or direct benefits from the streets gave and uh as a matter of fact, I was here last October and I invited all the council members to come. And you know how many of them came? Zero. To look at our property and tell us how we benefit from this. And I don't know about you, but I grew up in a in a in a home where if someone invited you into their home you graciously came if you were invited. And I uh I find that very disturbing as a citizen of Burnsville. Uh One of the reasons for this increasing cost is the surrounding properties. We were told numerous times in communication that our assessment would go down and it's not. It continues to go up. And I know all about inflation and all those things and we we go through that all the time and we've had to I I I just don't understand why uh you know we're coming up on the 250th anniversary of uh 1776

and being a history major in in high school, I remember they they talked about something called the Boston Tea Party. [snorts]

And that was taxation without representation. I perceive this assessment as taxation without benefit. That's how I see it and I don't know whether or not anybody else sees that. Now, we're obviously not going to have a tea party cuz we have a government that listens to us as citizens and that's why I'm here to speak for them. I could probably have 150 people show up. We had two of our property owners here. And I really really think that that this is something that uh we tried it we have a very tight budget. And um most of our people that live there are 62 some of them are 90 and we really try to but and this is one of the things and one of the reasons why I know I've been on the board for almost almost 4 years and we waited till after you we got the our trail built. And before we decided to appeal this. And in that regards, this is our side thing. Part of that uh trail maintenance, we just got billed $16 for maintenance of the trail. It's your trail. Why are we getting billed for the maintenance of the trail? We were told in negotiation we would not have to pay for that. So, this really makes me distrustful of this body. So, I hope you do the right thing. Not the popular thing, but the right thing and accept our appeal. Thank you. Yeah, thank you Mr. Henry for coming before us this evening and to voice your opinion. We appreciate that and our city manager Greg Lind Lindberg will be talking with you and so you can understand what what this is all about. I live in the

heart of the city, so I understand the assessments and um the benefits that it brings to that particular area. So, I thank you so much for sharing your your thoughts and I have been out to Real Life many, many times and have spoken before all of you many times as well. So, thank you for coming to the a council meeting and also um inviting us again and I will make sure to stop by, but perhaps some of the times that I've stopped by you weren't available, but I have had the pleasure of having coffee, having tea and speaking to the residents of Real Life. So, thank you so much Mr. Lindberg. You have the information for Mr. Henry and then you will have that discussion. And thank you so much. Um Mayor Finney Yes. So, I have a question. I'm I'm unclear on the What is the thing about the $16? He said he's being charged $16

For the trail. for maintenance Um It's on our water bill. Yeah, so um I have I have a copy of the bill right here. Mr. Ray, I think Mr. Ray can help clarify all of that. Correct. Yeah, so properties that are adjacent to sidewalks or trails that we maintain in the winter do you get a charge? So, with the new construction, the new trail, they now are a benefiting property for that. Okay. Okay. I was confused on that, so thank you for the clarity on that. Okay. Are there any other anyone else who wishes to speak to this item? City Clerk Collins, anyone online? Madam Mayor, no one online has asked to speak. Okay. Any other questions for Mr. Gerke? Uh with that, I will close the public hearing. Members of the council, your pleasure. Move to approve. Second. There's a motion and a second. All in favor, please say I. I.

I. Opposed, say nay, and the motion carries. The next item is uh 5E, and that is also a public hearing, and it's a resolution to adopt the 2026 street improvement assessments. Uh and uh Mr. Charlie Gerke, our assistant city engineer, is presenting. Mr. uh Gerke, the floor is yours. Thank you, Madam Mayor, council members, members of the public that have come here tonight uh learn about street assessments. This is a public hearing. My name again is Charlie Gerke. I'm our assistant city engineer, and I'm responsible for our street improvement program. Looking back at some of the previous council actions for this project, about a year ago, we were we asked for permission to begin a preliminary report. The council ordered that. In December, we delivered the preliminary report to the city council. February 2nd, we had we held a public hearing in this council chambers, where plans and specifications were approved. And then April 7th, the contract for construction was approved to McNamara Contracting Inc. for all the project areas. As council may recall, in 2024, the city completed a pavement management plan, and in 2025, the city completed a horizontal infrastructure plan. The 2026 street improvements do are consistent with those plans. Looking at the map here in the project areas, we have projects ranging from the north to the south of the city. We have two reconstruction areas, two reclamation areas, and four rehabilitation areas. Excuse me. One of the conditions that triggers a street improvement is pavement condition. Not all terrible pavement or good kit pavement is treated equal. Uh if we look at the map here, we'll notice that there's areas that have low PCIs that are in red. So, River Hills and Aldridge have red areas. PCI is the pavement condition index.

It's a score that we give the road on a from a zero [cough] to 100, where a zero is a gravel road and 100 is a brand new road. Roads that are in red or critical condition are a low PCI. Those are in the need of immediate repair or improvement. The orange and yellows kind of can get moved around, but we really want to get after them sooner than later, so we're not having to do a full reconstruction in those project areas. Looking at our improvement strategies, we have reconstruction with a which is basically wholesaling the whole street. We're removing the pavement, we're removing the water main, we're doing uh sanitary sewer lining and pretty significant sanitary repairs if we find problems. We're looking very in-depthly at the storm sewer, we're looking at the model for the storm sewer to to see if we need to do any substantial improvements. And then we're typically replacing the water main. A lot of our community has old cast iron [snorts] pipe water main. That water main, when it reaches the end of its life, it's not a very flat linear rate of failure. It's a very fast failure rate. So, once we start reaching end of life for that pipe, we really want to replace it, so we don't have to constantly chase repairs in those neighborhoods. And it happens to typically align with need for pavement being replaced. We also do look at other things in the neighborhoods. We're looking for multimodal improvements that can be done. We're looking at our complete streets policy. We're doing ADA improvements. We're looking at at trees that may need to be removed that are diseased. And we're also re-evaluating any of the streetlights in the neighborhood if they're in need of improvement as well through a separate contract. With the reclamation areas, we're looking at just the wholesale of the street section itself. So, we're going to keep the curb and gutter where it's good. We'll replace the bad curb and gutter. We're going to replace all the pavement, typically done through reclamation, which is the grinding up of that pavement surface with the base material below it. That's a great way to save some money and actually reuse a better product for base material because it's got asphalt content, so it binds up better, gives a better base to the new roadway. We also look at some sanitary repairs and storm sewer repairs in those

neighborhoods, but very rarely do we would do water main replacement. We'll go after hydrants and gate valves, but we won't replace the water main. With an asterisk on that because we are doing one reclamation project this year with water main replacement. And then rehabilitation is our final choice for maintenance. This is more of our preventive preventive maintenance. We like to do rehabilitations, which is a mill and overlay the top 1 and 1/2 2 in of the road earlier in its life cycle before it starts to fall apart. We want to go in, take off those top 2 in, and give it a nice new layer of asphalt to prevent prevent water from getting in and destroying the road below and the base below. We'll do some sanitary sewer repairs and some nominal storm sewer and water main replacement as well. Looking at this project's timeline, again, it started about a year ago. Through last summer and spring, we did a bunch of investigations internally. We went and reviewed the infrastructure in the neighborhoods. We had soil borings done. We had our public works crew go out and find all the sanitary sewer lines. We found all the water mains. We found the gate valves, curb stops. The One of the most important lines for any home is being able to turn your water on and off. Our public works crews go out and find all those at this time to make sure that they're accessible. Once we have that scope kind defined in November, we started working on the preliminary report. We delivered that report in December. In between that, we did hold two open houses, one at North River Hills Park and one here to talk about the street improvement projects with the neighborhoods. Moving on to this year, we held another public hearing on February 2nd for Council to approve the plans and specs. We finalized [snorts] bidding, went out for bid in March, and awarded those contracts in April, and construction started yesterday with real construction starting next week on Raleigh area and River Hills water main will start uh start having some work done on it. We'll complete construction by October, and then in November we'll send out a post-construction survey to see how we did.

Thinking of some of the project uh public engagements that we do, we always start the project off with a public mailing. It's a postcard says, "Hey, we're going to come and do some investigation in your neighborhood." Sometimes we don't end up doing the work that we thought we were going to. So, we let people know we're going to be in the yards, they're going to see survey crews, they're going to see companies digging in the road for soil borings. We then hold open houses to talk about what we found and what we're thinking we're going to do for the project neighborhood of the project in the neighborhood. We take a lot of emails and phone calls during this process, hundreds if not thousands in some project areas. We meet with residents one-on-one personally whenever they request. And then, we really strongly emphasize at the start of construction and through those public engagements, please, if you're here and you're in one of these project areas, please sign up for our construction email list. That's how we communicate the week-to-week updates for the projects. Uh this year we have signs in the neighborhoods, we're going to have door hangers, one of our project inspectors is making it a goal to meet every resident and to get them to sign up for the email list. That's how we communicate. We also communicate through door hangers and flyers for impact that will be directly affecting individual properties. So, when we do temp water, you're going to get a flyer in your front door. When we're removing the concrete and pouring new concrete in your front of your driveway and you have to park on the street, you're going to get a flyer with notifications about where to park and how long you need to park on the street. Uh again, I can't emphasize enough to please sign up for our construction email list. And on the back table, there's a QR code with uh one of the signs, and then there's a flyer out there as well. Looking at our funding sources for these projects, they're funded through taxes, the infrastructure trust fund. They're funded through municipal state aid, which is money that the state gives us to help maintain our roads that have higher traffic volumes. There's a catch to that, though. Those roads require us to get approval from the state for the construction that we're doing, and it tends to have higher requirements for material thickness, and a higher

standard for meeting MnDOT's design requirements for those roads. We fund them through special assessments, and then the utility funds fund their independent work. So, the water funds, sewer fund, storm sewer fund, and street lighting funds fund their own work. Breaking out this project and looking at the funding, we can see that ITF, which is at $2 million, and water main, which is at $2.8 million, is over half the project's cost. Special assessments account for $748,000, which is about 23% of the project's street cost as a whole. Storm sewer utility fund is $639,000, and the sanitary sewer fund is $117,000. Looking at this uh special assessment methodology, we When we do our assessments, for single family is what we'll talk about here the most. For single family, we assign basically a unit price per home. That unit price is calculated through taking all the measurable street frontage, measured 30 ft back. So, if we look at the image here, 30 ft back from the edge of the property line, we take the street frontage of all the single-family homes, and we add that up. Once we add all those single-family frontages up in a neighborhood, we then multiply it by a number that is based off of the last 3 years average of our actual street costs for these projects. So, we basically calculate a linear footage cost that is adopted by City Council that's based off of a 3-year rolling average, and then we multiply it by the number of by the total street frontage that's assessable. That includes city parcels. So, if there's a city parcel in the project neighborhood, we include that in that number. We divide [snorts] that then by the total number of properties in the neighborhood that are being assessed, and then we times that by 0.4 or 40%.

So, assessments should account for 40% of street costs. There's an asterisk to all this, which will be on the next slide here. What we don't assess for are utilities. We don't assess for more than 60% of the street work, and we don't assess for any of the other work. So, if there are abnormal things in the neighborhood, the city will eat those costs. Okay, here's the asterisks. So, this neighborhood, for example, River Hills this year is a state-aid route, and it's 44 ft from face of curb to face of curb. So, it's a really wide road. So, we normalize those wider roads down to 30 ft for these assessment purposes. So, you're not paying If someone lives in River Hills, they're not paying for a 44-ft wide road because that's what's required from MnDOT for us to have a state-aid route. We normalize it down to 30 ft. And then we do the same thing for multi-family residential areas, we normalize those down to 36 ft. And then all other uses, commercial, industrial, uh institutional uses, we normalize those to 44 ft wide. If the actual road width is less than the standard that we normalize to, we take the smaller of the two numbers. So, Crystal Lake, for example, has a frontage road along Grand Avenue that's being reconstructed this year and it's only 24-ft wide. So, they get a lower assessment because we're not building a 30-ft wide road there. Again, the rates are based on the past 3 years average cost. And the rates are set annually at a linear foot dollar cost by the city council in the fee schedule. And then after all that,

[laughter] we go out for bid, we get the actual bids back, we verify that those costs don't exceed the 40% that it was based off of. And so, this year we had costs ranging from 9% of the street cost to one neighborhood did exceed the 40% and that's Eileen Circle, which is a uh rehabilitation. So, we reduced that to the 40% cost. So, Eileen Circle went from $2,400 to $2,100. And as I stated earlier, as a whole of the street costs, residents assessments and business assessments are accounting for 23%. So, well below that 40% number. [snorts]

This is a table of all the assessment costs for the projects this year. I won't stay here too long. One note of highlight is Crystal Lake Road. Again, it's dramatically cheaper than or dramatically less than Raleigh Drive because it's a 24-ft wide road, not a 30-ft wide road. And Eileen Circle started out as a reclamation this year. Based on soil borings and some investigatory work, we changed it to a rehabilitation because that's that's the more meaningful work to do on that road that's cost-effective. Looking at some of the other cities, Burnsville traditionally falls in the middle to lower end. There are some communities that do not do assessments. I would ask you to drive through their city and look at their streets. I suspect you'll see worse quality street streets. Burnsville does have a higher PCI as a whole. We're somewhere between 78 and 80, which is pretty darn good. So, we take good care of our streets. The streets that are in need of repair, though, are in need of repair. So, Prior Lake's at 1,600 for rehabilitation, we're at 2,100 to 2,400, Eagan's at 2,200 to 2,700, right in the pack there. On the reclamation side, we're pretty low. Our neighboring communities uh Mendota Heights and Prior Lake are at 5,500, we're at 2,600 to 2,700. In our reconstruction, there's not a lot of communities that are doing accessible reconstruction this year. Uh when I reached out to my peers, Edina was the only one that was doing a reconstruction that was assessed. And they're at 9,700 to 19,000 this year, and we're at 3,800 to 5,000. So,

[snorts]

we fall right in line with the pack, typically on the lower end, and it's uh a pretty fair approach, I feel. Wow. When it comes to the special assessments, they need to be paid in full by November 15th, 2026. If they are not paid in full, they'll roll on to the taxes, and they'll be paid back according to the schedule below. Most of these projects are over All the projects are over $2,000, so there will be a 15-year payback window at an interest rate of 5 and 1/2%. And anytime in that 15 years, the assessment can be paid off in whole. There are some special circumstances. Uh there's a disabled veteran homestead value exclusion in Minnesota that excludes a certain value of the home from property taxes. This exclusion does not apply to assessments. Assessments are particularly allowed, according to the state statute, to be assessed even to those that are disabled veterans. There is also a hardship assessment deferral. Uh residents that meet certain income thresholds are able to defer their assessment until they leave the property or they no longer meet the requirements for the deferral. Interest does occur that accrue during that whole period though. So, if if you move out in 10 years, or the home is sold in 10 years, that's typically when they're paid off. We did receive two objections, both right before this meeting again, one verbally, one in writing.

[snorts]

Uh staff made contact with at least one of the residents. This other one I'm unaware of, but we'll reach out to them after the meeting tonight. Our recommendation is to hold the public hearing and to approve the resolution adopting assessments on the 2026 street improvement projects. And if I'll stand here for any questions. Any questions for Mr. Gerk? Okay, seeing none. This is a public hearing is I know that there is one person who signed up to speak to this item and that's Mr. Michael Falkner? Falk. Yeah, Falk. Please. Um Madam Mayor and City Council, thanks for having me. Good evening. I may not look I'm going to read off my phone. I wrote a little something. So Thank you for giving me time to speak about this topic. My name is Michael Falks. I live on Garrison Court in Burnsville where the street street improvement project is set to start this summer. I'm here to formally I guess object or speak on the proposed special assessments in the amount of 2273 and 6 cents related to the improvement project. At this time, I respectfully [clears throat] request and would like to see a detailed breakdown on how this assessment amount was calculated including and you may have covered in some of your slides, the methodology used to allocate the cost to my property, the engineering assessments and final project costs, whether multiple contractor bids were obtained and considered. If so, is this public information and can we see them? Um

[clears throat]

the the specific justification for determining that my property directly benefits from this Excuse me, sorry. Yeah, uh Sorry, apologize. Um the justification for determining that my property directly benefits from this project as noted in in Minnesota statute 429.051 it states quote the cost of any improvement or any part thereof may be assessed upon property benefited by the improvement based upon its benefits received. Unquote. I fail to see any benefits my property gains from the street project or any increase in value to my property due to this project. Um I'm going to talk on another subject this gentleman talked about. Um on my water bill from Burnsville, you know, we're being charged for snow plowing, the sidewalk, street maintenance. The last 5 years living in this home, I've never seen anybody snow plow these sidewalks or take care of any of the grass on the side. You know, the children that go to school, they have to walk through 2-3 feet of snow. So, I'm out there shoveling the snow every morning before I go to school. I've I sent in requests on Burnsville portal where you can put a complaint, no one's ever come. I've never seen anyone plow the sidewalks and it's frustrating. And the sidewalks go you know, on the side of my house, our cul-de-sac has no sidewalks. Um again, you know, I fail to see how we're paying this and it's not being done. For the last 5 years I've owned this house.

[clears throat]

I'm also being charged for a quote, it's called PP sidewalk and trail maintenance. No one from the city has ever managed the foliage on Alder Chase Avenue. I've always taken care of it. I've even let it go for months at a time to see maybe they'll come do something about it. Never. Never done anything about it. On the side of my home, on the behind it, there's these weeds and out crazy foliage growing. No one ever takes care of it. It's it's sad. Um shouldn't these additional fees or any road work um for all these road works and maintenance go towards the assessment since we're paying for it and none of it's being uh done in my my opinion what I've observed? Um I'd like to know on the pavement condition index that you we spoke about, how do you get the metrics for determining the score? Like what what evaluation do you do to get these metrics? Um I'd like to know that. Um based on my understanding, the improvements being made do not provide a direct or measurable benefit to my property. I do not believe that the assessments meet the standard of specific benefit required to justify imposing the cost on my parcel. Additionally, I'd like to note that I am currently recovering from recent surgery and under a limited work restrictions, which creates a financial hardship on me. While this is not this is not form the basis of my objection, I respectfully that it be considered in my objection. For these reasons, I'd like to ask the city to reconsider or remove this assessment that applies to my property. At a minimum, I request a formal review and explanation explanation prior to any final determination. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Falk. And thank you for coming in and sharing your thoughts with us and your objection. I will have uh our city manager, Mr. Greg Lambert, and our staff to sit down and talk with you and to move through and answer all of your questions. Thank you. Thank you so much. And if somebody can give him a card. Yep, we're ready with the contact information. Okay, very good. Thank you

so much. Uh is there anyone else who wishes to speak to this item? Yes, please come and and give us your name and address for the record. Here all of ours, 15012 Eileen Circle. Uh thank you, Mayor, council members, for allowing me to speak for a moment. I have lived in this street for a few years and the only work I've seen in the street are when you folks have been doing new construc- uh construction cutting or looking for how to get to your house water main or whatever that they're digging for. That's when they've been digging up streets. Strangely enough, those are the areas that are in problems. My concern is that you're hiring these individual companies to do the work, but have really not followed up from what I've seen on their workmanship. They they put tar on wherever it needs to be, and within months or year it starts to crack. That to me is telling me that they didn't do a valid job. Now, my understanding too, I might be wrong on this, that you're also intending to do some uh work on the uh sewer system and replacing some areas. I'm assuming that that's going to happen prior to this because you're going to have to dig up the street again. So, going under that assumption is telling me that you're piggybacking on our cost to sort of pay for that work to be done. That doesn't make sense to me. That's not right. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Uh and actually

[clears throat]

as I mentioned to this gentleman earlier, a lot of cars, a lot of trucks go by our neighborhood. Very fast. And I actually like the fact that they did a poor job of cementing or concreting in the road that has these cracks on it. The cracks are minimal and where it and you can see it, where it is is where they have already done the work before to dig up or to look for uh I think fiber optic lines or whatever it is. They've been doing a lot of work in the last few years here and there. But every time they go there, they fill up the street. They don't do that great of a job. Mhm. I want to know as well uh like the gentleman before me asked, how many bids went out there? Different bidders did you get? Mhm. Uh because I

[snorts]

I do some uh in the construction field. When they do gravel uh and uh cement work they that work lasts. And from what I've seen, this work is not lasting. This is little pieces, they cover it up so it looks okay. In a few months, it doesn't doesn't hold. Thank you for your time. Yeah, thank you so much for sharing your experience with us. Our staff will talk with you. I know that we have some utility companies that are out there and uh that's the work that they do. We try to help manage that through our staff, but uh utility works are for private companies who are bringing service to your homes. So, that is something different, but we'll have our staff work with you and answer your questions. Uh our city manager, Greg Lindberg, and our staff will uh address those items with you and help you to understand what's going on on all of the different issues that uh you articulated so well this evening. Thank you. Um and I think, Mr. Gerk, you have already spoken to the gentleman. We spoke prior to the meeting, but

[clears throat]

happy to follow up with his more detailed questions and answers. Yes, I think that would be great to have him understand um what our responsibility with the utilities that are all doing work and there's a lot of them. It's going to be highly competitive uh with the internet system that people are putting in all that fiber uh throughout. So, that's a private company. Mr. Ray, you had an Just one quick thing, Mayor. I just one of the questions we heard about was questions on the public bidding process and how many contracts were were were were bidding on this and I know Charlie does have that information so cuz this body has actually already seen the bid results and approved them. They are on the public the minutes from that council meeting which I could quick just do you remember how many bidders we had on that? There's multiple projects. There's two projects. I believe we had six and five respectively to 101 and 102. [snorts] Uh 101 was a little bit more competitive on how tight it was. Yep, sorry. Uh 101 was a little bit more competitive on how tight it was. It was the typical contractors you would expect to do this type of work in Burnsville. And I think the on a four and a half million dollar job it was $60,000 separated the low bid from the next bidder. Yeah. 101 I think had five bids and that separation on a two million dollar project had about a 10% gap which is a little bit bigger but it was the same contractor that had won the 101 project which is Mack Amer Contracting Inc. Who has worked in Burnsville for number of years and traditionally does good work. Yeah. Very good. So, maybe uh just having them see the bids because we see it but maybe if the they can see the bids and see how we make that um make those choices. Okay. Um is there anyone else who wishes to speak to that side and please come forward and give us your name and address for the

record, please. Hello, my name is Yavi Sayin from 13112 Aldrich Avenue South. So, um hello Madam Mayor and city of council. So, I apologize in advance. I'm not familiar with the former proceedings. But I have a question that hopefully uh would help me better understand the 2026 street improvement project. Um and hopefully provides further context for a bigger concern I have later on that I'll ask. So, for now if possible could you go back to the presentation slide showing the map of roads included in the project and the affected construction area? I have two maps of one that shows the paving [clears throat] condition and [snorts] one that just shows the project areas. Either one work? Yep. Yep, this one's fine right here. Perfect, yeah. We'll stick with that one. Actually, could you go back to the one before that? Yep. Thank you, yeah. So, my first question is just could you explain me or the process of how you determine which houses would be affected by the suspen- assessment? So, like just the coverage of homes that are that would have to pay into the assessment, could you explain me on that? Yep. So, Madam Mayor

Yes. Mr. Gerk, please. So, the city has an adopted formal assessment policy that formal adopted assessment policy dictates who and who is and is not eligible for assessment. Typically, [clears throat] it lines based off of where your driveway access or your address stop off. There are numerous nuances there. So, for example, there's streets that come down Alder Drive and they attach parallel or perpendicular. Those corner lots, they'll pay when the street in front of their home is reconstructed or has another type of project. Typically, it's based off of driveway access. There are some small nuances there. So, on Alder Drive here, I'm assuming you guys live in the bubble or the little cul-de-sac. Yep, the the cul-de-sac. So, that that whole project area is going to include in the bubble is going to see rehabilitation type project. So, that's why the home was included in this assessment. Got you. And I think it would be better if you went to the other map as well. So, my question is um would homes such as in Leisure Lane or Knob Hill Road, would those homes be hit with this assessment as well? They would not be hit at this time. They will be hit with a future assessment when we reconstruct or do a street improvement on the road that's directly in front of their home. Meaning it would be a completely separate project.

Correct. Got you. Okay, so yeah, so that's the concern I want to talk about today and it that is I believe that the Aldridge Avenue provides a much bigger benefit for the entire neighborhood block is apologize for the entire neighborhood block because it provides the fastest route to 35 South and North as well. Um And yeah, and and I think just because the improvement appears to provide substantial general neighborhood benefit and transportation benefits as well beyond the special assessment neighborhood you've marked down. So, which is why I mentioned the house homes as in homes such as in Legion Lane, um Fremont Avenue Nokomis you know, just to name a few, but that entire block I believe uses Aldridge Avenue to get to the to get to 35 W the fastest. Um you can agree or disagree with me on that, but to me that's I believe that the at least you know, if the entire if the city is not going to weigh in a a bit more heavier, then I would at least want you know, much more of the neighborhood to be affected by this. Vladimir That's not a nice thing to say that's not a nice thing to say for the neighborhood. I'm sorry. But so yeah, I just believe that that little stretch of road of on Aldridge Avenue would provide much more impact to the entire neighborhood just cuz it's so close to 35 W. Mr. Gerk Uh so I would argue that this assessment policy accounts for that if [snorts] we move forward to this slide. So that's that normalization I was talking about. We definitely understand that there's some roads in the community have more than just their local traffic on it. Aldridge Avenue is a state aid route. So it has to be built to a little bit higher standard. It's a little bit wider than 30 ft in some areas. And because of that we normalize that the assessment to that 30 ft. And so if it's a 45-ft wide road, that extra 15-ft of pavement the city's taking that cost either

through the ITF fund, which is which is our infrastructure trust fund, or through municipal state aid funding MSA funding. So, everyone in the community when roads are redone pays for it partially through taxes and then when there is a particular benefit to each property we take a nominal amount of that cost and assess it. And so those homes on Leisure Lane or Knob Hill when we redo their streets which sometimes the neighborhood on Aldrich may take to go get somewhere in the community they'll be assessed for their portion of of their road then. Yeah. So, the the thing is you'll be only assessed 40%. The rest of the community is paying the 60% for your portion of the road. So, all of us are paying. Gotcha. Okay.

Yeah. Yeah, we're all paying. It is about the vitality and the vibrancy of our community and it has a direct value to your home. But at but we all pay in. You live in an an Aldrich, but the rest of us pay the 60%. You pay 40. The people on Aldrich pays 40. We all of us residents of Burnsville pay 60. I understand. That's why I think I asked my first question just to better understand the situation. Yeah.

Um gotcha. And could you tell us a little bit a little bit about that? You said it'll be they'll be hit later on. Could you So, what does that really mean? So, like for for example, uh Leisure Lane like right down the block they would not be hit with the assessment assessment because of Madam Mayor. Yes, Mr. Kirk, please. Uh the context there is when we work on the street on Leisure Lane, which is in a good condition right now. We've probably already done this on Leisure Lane. It predates me, so I'm not 100% sure when it was last reconstructed, but based on it being green and over a 70 PCI means we probably did work on it at some point. They've already paid this portion of the assessment for their local street. And that's kind of what the mayor was alluding to here is the the point of the assessment is to not charge you for the whole road. We try and normalize it so everyone's paying pretty much an equal portion or fair share when it happens to their be their street that's being reconstructed or has an improvement done on it. And I'll point out here that on the mayor kindly pointed out that you're paying 40%. Alder Chappell is only paying 13%. Uh-huh.

So, that's what the the assessment verification came out to was about 13%. And that's based off of normalizing those rates again and rolling a 3-year average for construction costs. Okay. So, you're paying 13% and the rest of us is paying the bulk of it. [snorts] Got you. Okay. Okay, yeah. I think that under this explains the situation a little bit better. So, okay. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Gerken. else, Mr. Gerken and members of our staff happy to to talk with you. Of course. Thank you. Thank you. [snorts]

Is there anyone else who wishes to speak to this item? Anyone else who wishes to speak to this item? City Clerk Collins, is there anyone online? No. Madam Mayor, no one has requested to speak to this item. Okay. Thank you. Uh with that, I will close the public hearing, members of the council, your pleasure. Move to approve. Second. There's a motion and a second. All in favor, please say I. I. Opposed, say nay. And the motion carries. Thank you very much, Mr. Gerken. Thank you, Madam

a good evening. Yeah. And the next item is on the agenda is the Aims Center annual report. And presenting this evening is Mr. Brian Luther, our executive director of the Ames Center. Mr. Luther, the floor is yours. Thank you, Madam Mayor. City Council members, it's a privilege to be here tonight and run through our 2025 annual report. As we've done in years past, I'm just going to go through our slide deck and [snorts] then can open it up for questions or feel free along the way if you have any questions you have. I've also provided a supplemental annual report to for you guys tonight in hard copy as part of the agenda packet. So, we will get started. Overall, 2025 was another good year. Mr. Luther, it's Thank you for bringing the staff along. You know what, I am. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I'm so sorry. I have three of my members of the leadership team here tonight. I have Neil Siegel, our director of business operations, Brittany Weinrich, our director of administration and ticketing, and Kelsey Kovar, our director of sales and events. So, they are here tonight as well, too. They do a lot of great work along with all of our team at the at the Ames Center. So, jumping back in 2025, we we did see a unique trend. Industry-wise, we saw sales down, sales attendance down anywhere between 15 to 25% for various events throughout. And this is kind of an ongoing trend within our industry post-COVID. We were very lucky. We were about a year, two years behind this trend compared to some of our other colleagues, but we saw it happen last year. And you know, I think just related to a lot of other small business operations and the challenges, which I will not go into. We all know that has

been a little bit challenged with various components. But, that said, we also did have good facility use demand. And you know, we focused on our revenue or our expense reduction. We saw some lower revenues coming in. We made changes in real time, and the staff did a great job with that. And so, we're able to realign expenses and continue efficient operations, and that's where we saw the benefit. Uh so, we had just over 130,000 people through the building, 147 events, 70 ticketed, 42 banquets and meetings, and 35 non-ticketed. So, it's really similar to prior year operation um with those numbers. Just again, we saw a little bit lower uh revenues, and I'll go through. Um we had a we had a budget of $2.4 million for revenues. We came in around 2.3. Uh good news is our expenses were able to lower from uh budgeted 2.5 down to 2.3. So, we saw a tremendous amount of savings there. Um we ended up having a um a budget our our overall savings on our budget was 70,000 or 560. So, we still were able to do better outperform our bottom line budget number and ended up with a $23,000 loss. But again, 70,000 higher than our expected. So, uh we're very proud of that. And that was a lot of work from the team and staff to uh to to make that happen.

[snorts]

Uh some of the highlights, debuted the new digital playbill format. So, when you come into the Aim Center, you're going to see QR codes in the lobby that you can scan on your phone, and you get a digital playbill uh with that. And so, it'll show upcoming events that are taking place. Uh it's a lot easier than doing a print version as we had done in the past. So, obviously, we have some cost savings with that. We still have uh sponsorship opportunities, which have been selling very nicely. And we can make real-time adjustments as needed to meet uh the needs of the event. So, if there's one event that's on sale, and we might have had a a current show description on it, and we used a past one, we can change that in real time, so everyone has a the chance to see that. Uh we had some good sold-out shows, too. Tonic Sol-fa made their return uh for uh for holiday show and also a spring concert. I've did four concerts with them. Uh Shawn Cassidy, Postmodern Jukebox, Folsom Prison Experience, Menopause the Musical 2, Toad the Wet Sprocket, and Dude Dad all had sellouts, so we're very proud of that. Uh busy year. Also on the CIP budget, we replaced all of our chiller fans. We got a new fire and security module panel uh installed. New time clock, wireless microphones, and replaced uh restroom faucets. So, it was a busy year for us to uh keep track of uh or go through all the projects.

[snorts]

So, as we sit right now for 2026, um the financials and the numbers are doing very well. We're very pleased to see that we are actually outperforming our budget expectations, and we're doing much better than we were in quarter one of 2025. So, we've seen a good turnaround, and we're very happy to see the the sales are coming back into more of what we've seen. Uh dance competitions have have had very strong attendance. Uh looking back actually is today we're looking at some of the comparisons of our last two dance competitions, and both of uh the last two weekends of Masquerade Dance, we uh broke records for food and beverage sales. So, we're very pleased to see the the food and beverage sales are doing very well. Attendance is doing well. We're seeing a lot of people at the heart of the city. Uh we want to thank uh Public Works uh Director Mark Ray for assisting us getting some no parking signs in a cul-de-sac and getting some communication uh with with those. So, uh thank you for the team uh the collaboration. So, uh very excited in April and through uh the second quarter here is looking very strong. I think we're very safe to say we're going to meet or exceed our budget expectations in 2026. So, uh you know, our hope is we had just a little bit of a down year and granted 2025 was still a very good year. But, you know, looking at where we're going to be this year, we're, you know, barring any unforeseen circumstances, we're seeing good sales on shows that are coming out of the gate strong. Um, we've got a lot of CIP projects. Uh, thank you city council members for uh, supporting. We've got the PA replacement. Uh, that's going to go in first part of September. We have a boiler stack replacement. We just bought two-way radios and we're launching a new website. Uh, some point past the halfway time of the year, we're in the process right now of that. So, uh, look for probably a late summertime launch for that. Uh, maybe sooner, but this very exciting and seeing some of the preliminary design that uh, uh, that's been worked on is very exciting. So, a lot in the works. Um, we're very proud of 2025 and we're we're

doing we're enjoying 2026 as we're seeing good numbers and to [snorts] that, I will open up any questions um, from council members. Any questions or comments? Council member Gustafson. I just have a quick question. Um, I have some people have talked me about this and I think I mentioned it to you. Uh, I think it was 2009 or 2010 we created the Angel Fund, I think, where we loaned the theater like 50,000 out of the EDA and that was paid back to us. Mhm. And the purpose of that fund as I thought was to for us to be able to purchase shows and bring them in and eventually grow that fund.

Mhm. And can you kind of speak to how we use that fund and maybe finance can tell us what kind of balance we might have in that fund today? Because as far as I knew it was to be used just for entertainment type purposes so we could buy that. So.

And that And you're And you're correct with that. The fund and when it was set up uh, back in 2010, was really uh, an essential fund and what I've just called the best tool we have in our toolbox to go out and purchase shows and and do concerts that we concerts artistic performances that we know are going to be well attended, that we have a good audience for, uh that have proven track records that we can take that opportunity to self-promote those shows. And so, we buy the shows, we self-promote them. Uh with that, we take 100% of the risk, but as we've seen, it really does pay off for us to be able to uh to be able to take that risk and to be able to see the revenues from that. And we do probably work between, you know, 10 to 15 shows annually. Uh when I mentioned Menopause 2: The Musical, that was one that we bought ourselves. So, you know, we're we're always looking for new content uh to put in. We have some that comes back year after year. Um that that works really well, but we're also looking at other opportunities. And we just went on sale Menopause 1. It did so well for Menopause 2, so that's currently on sale. So, we have a good handful of shows now. And so, absolutely, that does give us a chance to go out and self-promote um those shows. And shows that might not be brought by promoters. Uh and that was one of the challenges when when the facility opened is it was a four-wall rental, and that was it. Yeah. Um you know, it's not set up for us just to go make big investments on very risky opportunities. We have to really evaluate that. So, I put financials together, review them with city finance um and we look at those numbers and and come together. And so, I I don't have an answer on what that fund balance is as we sit today. I mean, I know it's a very strong amount.

Okay. So, but it's um one that we still look at, you know, the shows that we're buying, they go to our bottom line, win or loss. So, if we do end up uh seeing promoter profit, you know, that does go to our bottom line. If we take a loss, that goes to our bottom line, too. So, That that part I don't get. I I just think it'd be good for the public to know that with this fund, we're we are doing things to promote ourselves. We're not dependent on just rental. And hopefully, that fund is growing, and maybe getting a number on that would be appropriate for us for the public to know about. Yeah, and I'm happy to work with city finance on that. And we And And to that point, too, or just the the separate one, we um you know, the collaboration we have with with the city staff is just, you know, just great. We meet with city finance on a monthly basis and go through all the CIP projects, talk through our monthly financials. Uh right now we're talking budget process and schedules cuz that's going to be a big project for us this month along with the quarterly meetings I have with city manager Ellenberg. And also with the the maintenance in the uh department and the team that comes out and helps us with the mechanicals or we talk through. So, you know, that's something we'll put on the agenda for our finance meeting and, you know, be able to get that information back to you. It's a very good question Thank you. Yeah, I think it's is important for the public to know that we're out there trying to buy, you know, as many shows as we can that make sense, that financially are going to be uh good for us so that we can continue to grow audiences and continue to generate revenue where we can. Thank you. All right, appreciate it. You're welcome. Yeah, thank you, Councilmember. [clears throat] Um I have uh just a question and a comment. [clears throat] Oh, did Did you Okay, I didn't Yeah. Uh Deputy City Manager Roddy. Uh just a quick Just a quick update to Councilmember Gustafson's question. We do have just under $400,000 in that Angel Fund. So, much better than the 50,000 we

originally Wow, okay. That is amazing. Yeah. That Very good job, you guys. Thank you.

Yes. We've grown that fund. It's been very very good. I sense the best tool we have in our toolbox and brings people through the you know, bringing audiences in and that's very important. So, first I'll I'll ask a question and then but I think importantly I I to just comment on the wonderful work that's being done. When I look at the dance competition and read about the background, we have a niche. And also, the feedback from people about the facility and coming to the Ames Center. So, I remember when we started and how it was like 3 months. Now, it's February to June. And I can tell you that the heart of the city always buzzes on weekends. And it's an economic driver as we knew that it would be because not only do those families come to Burnsville to see their um daughters, uh grandchildren, and uh perform, but they're also eating in our restaurants, going to our retail stores, and and just creating a lot of activity and vibrancy. So, thank you for that. You're welcome. One of the things that I think in 2025 we didn't have because I've had a couple of people ask me. There's a comedian from Wisconsin that's always sold out. Charlie Berens. Yeah. So, I understand that we haven't had him back last year. And I have had people ask to bring him back. I can say we miss Charlie. My husband would be one of them

asking. Yeah. We miss Charlie a lot. So, what is going on with Charlie? He's playing all these now. I I know he's huge now. Also, it's hard to get him. But, I have had people come I know. I know. and and said there is this comedian from Wisconsin and he's so good and I would take my children because his [snorts]

act is funny and clean. Yes. I agree. I agree. And I I wish we could we had 2 years in a row where where Charlie performed and and just he's great talent to work with. Just one of the nicest people you could be around. Um just his engagement with the audience and with the staff and we pulled every trick out of our hat to make it happen because even when he performed for us for those 2 years in a row it was a little bit of a an underplay for him. I mean he easily could have sold more sh- I mean he could have done less shows in a larger capacity building and that was uh his promoter at the time and very good colleague of mine and friend for many years who who's working with Charlie and still does in some capacities. We figured out how we could do two shows from us you know from a a Thursday, Friday, Saturday night and you know he he did a great job pulling that off. I mean any artist that's going to be able to work at that schedule and be able to continue to stay um you know I hate to say just like fit and in it and and be able to to bring the same show every night and just a tremendous amount of energy. So ultimately it's it's we want him back and the doors open and if Charlie's watching we want you back Charlie. So come back. The staff wants all of us do. We also understand too that you know sometimes our capacity can be a bit limiting. Well and I know that we had two to three shows when he came in. Six. Six. Yeah. Two shows a night, six shows total, 2 years in a row. So 12 12 sellouts. And that was I don't know how we're ever going to top that. I I hope we do but that was one of those instances it was just amazing to be able to line that up and Well. Charlie come back to Burnsville to the Ames Center. Yeah. Yeah, we we hope so. I I said you were

coming in and I said I will I will ask Mr. Luther if we can what happened to Charlie. Yes, the door is wide open and we hope he does come back and that's you know it's a great story. But yeah, so thank you for everything and then it's um you're doing a great job. Maybe you could get his bestie Miles to come. Yes, [clears throat] that is there have been some He he you know he has done stand up and then he's backed off of it and he's done it again but I think he's getting ready to tour again so. Oh. You want us to help you with his schedule this year? Yeah, that that Yeah, we can put in our wish request. Yeah.

Yeah, most more post-mortem modern jukebox. Yes. Yeah. Yes. Yeah, okay. Yeah, that's a great show. And then we're going to see them come back at some point too. Yeah, they they enjoyed their time in Ames so. Deputy City Manager CFO Roddy. Do you have your wish list? Oh, wow. [laughter] Since we're putting in our request. Did you think about that? [laughter] When it is. Oh, okay. I saw that you had pressed your button. Oh, no that was from before. Oh, okay.

from before, sorry. Yeah. Are there any other comments? Any audience requests? We have some audience left. Who would you Who's your preference to see at Ames Center? [laughter]

Anything that sells. Yeah, yeah. Yes. Yeah, maybe from the Fabulous Armadillos. Oh. Okay. Yeah, Fabulous Armadillos. Wonderful. We've got a lot coming up so Yeah, stay tuned and on meeting. Yeah, yes. And do note too, we have some easy links on the on the annual report so you can check in on the digital guide, sign up for emails and our website. So Well, thank you so much for coming in and uh delivering that report to the community, to us and to the community. It's It's our pleasure. Yeah, thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you, Madam Mayor and City Council. Um members of the council, there are no other items to come before us this evening. [clears throat] [laughter] There's a motion. And a second. All in favor, please say I. All opposed, say nay. And the motion carries. Good night and thank you for being with us. evening.