City Council - Regular Meeting

Are you in charge of all the traffic? They're more so underlying the capacity, not necessarily visually, as of right now. Right, yeah, and I'm kind of keeping up to date with what we've been doing recently.

All right 6 o'clock. Let's start this meeting call this meeting order. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you all for attending this evening with the city clerk, please take attendance all council members are present mr. Mayor all right Entertain a motion to approve the agenda so moved second Move and second. Is there any comments on the agenda from the public? Council have any comments? Questions? Please call the roll.

Avery, Doran, Hager, Niemeyer, Specker, Tilton-Byrne, Wendell.

All right, open forum. In order to provide equal access to all, during the open forum and public comment portions of the meeting, each individual offering comments shall not exceed the allotted three-minute period. The podium light turns green and then went to yellow. There is one minute remaining. Your time for comment has expired when the podium light turns red. Is there any member of the public who wishes to address the council on an item not listed on tonight's agenda? Good evening. Please state your name and address, sir.

Al Ostrom, 928 70 Lane. I think it was the last meeting I read in the register that a gentleman came up and discussed the unaffordability of mobile home parks. And I can relate to that. A lot of experience with that. I actually departed a group because I didn't agree with the philosophy they were going after as to how we ended up in where we are. And I guess I would just like to say that we need to take a look back at Where we came from, how we got here, what can be done going forward, because it's a vital part of our community as far as workforce housing. We're at a point as an employer and a citizen, we're at a point where we're not going to be able to attract workforce to Brookings because people can't live here. I mean, it's just too expensive. unless we raise our wages tremendously. But if we do that, then we're, you know, that just makes everything cost more. I mean, it's a vicious circle, and I wish I could tell you the answer to it, but I just wanted to say that I think I was reading about it in the article, and something was said about having internal discussions. And I would just like to say that I think those discussions should go outside of internal, and there should be people from the public that have experience and knowledge in, like I say, where we've been, where we're going, and look at this. And I'm not saying it's a city problem either. Brookings County is not any better. I own a mobile home park that's outside the city limits of Volga. I wanted to put two dozen brand new mobile homes in there. I can't because it's against the zoning, even though it's already established. nobody will even listen. You just walk in and the answer is no. I just think that there needs to be some open-minded thinking and take a look at, you know, where we're at with our housing needs and going at, because not everybody can afford apartments and stuff like that. And like I say, we're going to run out of workforce here real fast. My other comment, you can change subjects real quick here. Later on the agenda, your Edgebrook Golf Course, I saw that number. That blew me away. My wife and I own an acreage. We have a well that pumps water from 220 feet down. That pump does seven gallons a minute, so not much. I have two holding ponds. I irrigate 10 acres with that. and Trust me. I don't have anywhere near that invested in it. I just I mean 1.8 million. I mean, that's just That's just to get water. I mean you gotta pay for the water. You gotta pay for the irrigation system everything I mean, I realize you're kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place with the drought conditions we have right now, but Long term it seems like a lot of money For what you're gonna get out of it in my opinion. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. I Is there anyone else that would like to address council? All right, we will move on to the consent agenda. Action on the consent agenda. And I would like to make a motion to amend the consent agenda by adding action to approve a special event temporary alcohol beverage application from an existing license holder. This is from Sodexo for their SDSU license. They have an event on June 2nd. the Frank Kurtenbach Memorial Service at the Frank Kurtenbach Wrestling Center at SDSU. Do I have a second?

Second.

Any discussion on this? Please call the roll on the amendment.

Doran? Aye. Hager? Aye. Niemeyer?

Aye.

Specker? Aye. Tiltonburn? Aye. Wendell?

Aye.

Avery?

Aye. So is there any public comment on the new motion that is amended for the consent agenda. Council have any questions, comments? Please call the roll on the motion as amended.

We need a motion and a second on the amendment.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? So moved.

Second.

Now is there any discussion? All right, please call the roll.

Hager. Aye. Niemeyer.

Aye.

Specker. Aye. Tiltonburn. Aye. Wendell.

Aye.

Avery.

Aye.

Doran. Aye.

All right. On to presentation reports. Item 6A, we have a presentation, Brookings Area Transportation Plan. Our city engineer, Charlie Richter, along with John Thompson, public works director, and Thomas Cook from HDR will present this item.

Good evening, council. As your city engineer, I'm here tonight with Tom Cook from HDR to discuss the Brookings area transportation plan. To provide some background, the city received a grant from DOT in 2024 to update our area transportation plan that was previously done in 2011. DOT recommends that these plans be updated every ten years for growing communities such as ours to properly identify areas for transportation improvement. As you will see, this plan included extensive traffic counting, traffic forecasting, identification of existing and future transportation issues, and potential projects to help alleviate these problems. Through this two year process, the study advisory group met several times. The city and DOT hosted two open houses, including stakeholder meetings, and performed several travel surveys to ensure the plan incorporated public input into this important document. I'll hand things over to Tom, who'll go over an overview of this plan, and we'll go from there.

All right. Thank you, Charlie, for that introduction. Good evening, Mayor, City Council. Like Charlie said, my name is Tom Cook. I'm a traffic engineer with HDR Engineering in Sioux Falls, and I was the consultant project manager for the Brookings Area Transportation Plan. Let's see, there we go. Okay, I'll just start with a brief overview of the Brookings Area Transportation Plan, or BATP for short. So essentially what it is, it's a long range multi-modal transportation plan for the Brookings Area Transportation Network. Essentially looking out to year 2050 or roughly 25 years out The intent with this document is to guide transportation decisions and investments for bicyclists pedestrians transit users and motorists So a variety of different users and I do want to emphasize that in this plan transportation safety and multimodal infrastructure is Heavily woven in the plan and I think you'll see that in some of my later slides Also want to emphasize that this was a collaborative effort, Charlie kind of hit on this already, between the City of Brookings, South Dakota Department of Transportation, partnering agencies on the study advisory team, study stakeholders, as well as the public. Just briefly, I want to just show the extents of what we looked at kind of for a study area. And so our study area had a pretty wide swath. It included the city limits for Brookings as well as Aurora and the wider Brookings Joint jurisdictional area. So some of the growth areas in Brookings County and in the city of Brookings. To the north, that meant looking towards 208th Street. To the south, South Dakota Highway 324. To the east, Broadway Avenue in Aurora. And then to the west, Brookings County Highway 7. So considerable extent. This also involved looking at a lot of different traffic counts like Charlie mentioned. I think we analyzed about 40 different intersections within the city. So pretty extensive analysis when you start looking at the nuts and bolts of the plan. Just a brief note on the study advisory team. So again, like I mentioned, City of Brookings staff were on it, obviously. South Dakota Department of Transportation staff, representatives from BMU, SDSU, the City of Aurora, and Brookings County were invited as well. Just before we get into some of the analysis items, I do want to talk about the engagement components of this plan. So I just want to say as a project manager on this kind of study, it's been a privilege to do this in the Brookings community. They've been very thoroughly engaged with it, and it really set a strong baseline for the plan going forward when we started this. So during this plan, we had two rounds of public engagement, one in February 2025. This was our transportation issues and needs meeting. So Essentially showing some of our baseline conditions analyses, you know showing forecasted traffic volumes issues where we might see capacity concerns Looking at crash data Showcasing some of the safety issues we saw those kind of things and basically opened it up for stakeholders in the public to Fill in the gaps for us tell us where there are some other issues that they're seeing maybe some safety near misses those kind of things so For our open house, we had two sets of afternoon stakeholder meetings for community groups, business groups, and the like. And then we had an evening public open house. With that public open house, we had about 44 attendees, which is pretty good for an area-wide meeting such as that. In addition, we also had an SDSU Institute of Transportation Engineers or ITE student group open house, which essentially showed the same content to traffic and future traffic and civil engineers at the SDSU campus. It gave the BATB kind of an additional component of review. So students got to offer their input as to what they see as issues and needs in the community and around campus. So really critical review there. We had about 50 students at our first meeting. In addition, Charlie referenced the travel survey. Got to say, as a part of these type of projects frequently, this is probably the most responses I've seen on this travel survey. We had about 470 travel survey responses. So there again, it offered a strong baseline to what projects and solutions we recommended. In addition, if you're curious about some of this initial content, there is a meeting summary report on the study website, BrookingsATP.com, and it will be included in the final report appendix. In addition, we had a second public open house that covered our preliminary recommendations. This was held more recently in February, 2026. Again, we had a similar format, two stakeholder open houses in the afternoon, followed by an evening open house. We actually had the same number of attendees that signed in for that. And then we had IT open house again with about 40 students in attendance. So again, pretty consistent attendance and feedback on this meeting. This meeting focused on preliminary study recommendations, including some illustrative corridor concepts, which I'll discuss later, regarding road diets and downtown complete streets corridors. So we gained a lot of really good feedback for those, which we'll hopefully carry forward after this study. Just backing up a little bit to a higher level on the BATP report and how it's structured. So the first main section is the understanding section, covers the public engagement piece that I just discussed, some historical community profile information for Brookings, our baseline conditions analysis, looking at forecasted traffic volumes, any traffic operational issues that we noticed, our safety analysis, those kind of things, as well as a summary of the issues and needs that we found through that analysis and the public engagement. From there we move into the standards and project development phase and so I'll talk more about those key items tonight So I won't touch on those much now and then finally it concludes with the implementation plan this includes a brief funding analysis Note some grant funding opportunities and then it culminates in the prioritized project recommendations section so that's again culminating all the efforts in the section 1 and section 2 and So getting into the section two of project development and standards type items, we start with the major roads plan. And so essentially the major roads plan is a map that provides a long range vision for all Brookings area public streets. It establishes local area roadway classification and route prioritization. So on there you'll see that it's color coded for different street functions, obviously 6th Street and 22nd Avenue are arterials focused on mobility, whereas local streets are lower speed, greater focus on access. And so that sets the tone for standards and items that will get incorporated into city engineering design standards later on. In addition, the intent with this is to guide future development and transportation projects. You'll notice that there are a few dashed lines on this as well, and that's representative of the latest I think indicated in the last resolution on In addition, the major roads plan has another component. It's the candidate roadways for future jurisdictional transfer map. Basically what this map does, it identifies potential future growth area roadways for jurisdictional transfer to the city of Brookings. I just want to say it's a generalized road map. There's nothing binding about this. It's just anticipating growth area development trends indicating hopefully setting the city up for planning efforts to acquire those streets if needed as development occurs. Again, implementation of this requires a detailed agreement between the agencies involved, whether it's the city and county, city and township, and so forth. Now getting into the design guidelines, this is kind of what builds off the major roads plan. So again, it supports that plan, and then it supports and updates city design standards. Some of the examples that this section includes are typical street sections, which I'll show here in a minute. Traffic impact study requirements, kind of updates those, gives a more clearer sense of what would trigger such a study. There are standards and guidance on traffic calming, complete streets, road diets, access spacing and management, as well as guidance related to the jurisdictional roadway transfers that I just mentioned. So here on this figure, there are a variety of typical street sections. These cover the arterial and collector-type streets, ranging from a four-lane or five-lane arterial road with curb and gutter, sidewalk on one side, shared use path on another, and then we have a couple rural arterial sections for growth area roadways as well. Key design features, again, include the shared use path on one side for the urban sections and then 11-foot lanes for all the urban sections. And then we also have our collector and local streets, a little bit smaller in nature, of course. Key features with these, 10 to 11 foot lanes, depending on the facility, an option for buffered on-street bike lanes for the bottom left option. And then we have some variations, including a shared use path in one. We have some that include on-street parking on one or both sides, just to give some options for those more local streets. Another key big item in the BATP is the bicycle and pedestrian plan. Just talking about the framework of this plan, essentially what it does is it updates the 2017 Brookings Bicycle Master Plan to incorporate new priorities from the city. So number one being the 20th Street south interchange and the shared use path that was continued east. IN ADDITION, IT ALSO BRINGS FORWARD NEW SHARED USE PATH OPPORTUNITIES THAT ARE PLANNED WITH FUTURE DOT PROJECTS IN THE AREA SUCH AS THE HIGHWAY 14 BYPASS AND THE EXIT 133 INTERCHANGE. THERE'S A SHARED USE PATH THAT'S GOING TO BE BROUGHT ALONG WITH In addition and probably most critically it also includes public feedback that we got on the bicycle and pedestrian plan that was probably one of the most commented on topics and so the recommendations you see in that plan really reflect the community's feedback on that. In addition, this plan identifies specific bicycle and pedestrian facility improvements. You can see that in the thick colored lines on the graphic there. Pedestrian crossing improvement locations, those locations with the light blue boxes. Community connectivity opportunities to either Aurora to the east or Volga to the west. And then some illustrative downtown complete streets concepts. And so I'll talk on that right now. uh... so again i mentioned when we started the presentation that safety was a big focus early on was a discussion in a lot of our uh... study team meetings and so one of our safety focal areas was downtown brookings uh... especially given some recent crash history with some injuries and and one fatality uh... so we're looking for opportunities to improve safety especially with vulnerable road users in mind and so we looked at doing a complete streets corridor for third avenue main avenue and fifth avenue uh... between third street and sixth street do you want to stress that these are just illustrative concepts we wanted to kind of put some things uh... to visuals and get some feedback from the public uh... there's no defined projects from these but Essentially, with these, we wanted to look to provide traffic calming, an element of speed management, narrow travel lanes, potentially add on-street bike lanes where applicable, narrow pedestrian crossing distances, those kind of things to improve safety for those kind of users. So as I mentioned, we presented this for public feedback back in February. These graphics are the results of those boards. People could actually vote on which concept they liked the best. They left us sticky notes on things they'd like to see differently, things they liked and didn't like. So it was very valuable, and I think that will carry forward beyond the project and serve those potential projects well. I won't get into too many details with each of these, but just want to note that with the Main Avenue concept, there were three options developed. There was a conventional bike lane option, basically working with the existing street section. It put a bike lane between the travel lane and the parking lanes. And then option B and C are effectively variations on a separated bike lane between the edge of the curb and sidewalk and the parking lane. And then for 3rd and 5th Avenue we had one main option basically looking at a conversion from three lanes to two lanes This included narrowed travel lanes Retained the on street parallel parking and then added on street separated bike lanes. So again options to improve vulnerable road user safety downtown Okay, another big component, if not maybe the biggest component of the plan, is the Safety Action Plan. And so this is a comprehensive plan within the BATP to reduce and eliminate fatal and serious injury crashes by 2050. Again, I want to emphasize we did a really robust safety analysis with this project. We looked at about five and a half years of data from 2019 through halfway. I think it was about June 2024 when this project started with a focus on fatal and injury crashes and the locations in which they occurred. Bicycle and pedestrian safety and then safety downtown explicitly. One of the other important things about this subplan to the BATP is it aligns with the Safe Streets and Roads for All or SS4A grant program criteria, which is a newer USDOT program. I'm talking a little bit about the need for a safety action plan. Again, it's really to reduce and eliminate fatal and serious injury crashes in the Brookings area or otherwise improve safety. Through the plan, it establishes long-range visionary safety goals through the safety action plan adoption resolution. This will be part of, I believe, the June 9th council meeting. Critically, it positions the city of Brookings to be eligible for SS4A implementation grant funding, which is really important. It allows you to design and construct safety projects. So it's probably the bigger pot of money or grant funding opportunities in that program. So with this, this checks all the boxes and makes the city eligible. In addition, this is structured as a BATP appendix item, as well as an individual report. So with this project, you're essentially getting two reports. And with this one, you're clearly showing that you've checked all the boxes if you choose to apply for a future grant. Again, with the Safety Action Plan, it culminates in a project map called the Safety Priority Network. These are prioritized locations for potential future safety improvement projects. They're based, again, on extensive crash history and safety analysis, as well as through public and stakeholder feedback, and prioritized through our study advisory team. So the segments and intersections you see are color coded based on that prioritization scheme. The next item, just briefly, are the build conditions and supplemental scenarios. So essentially, these are an analysis of the traffic operations of proposed intersection and corridor concepts. Most importantly, these include a review of the downtown streets, the complete street corridors that I mentioned, as well as the illustrative road diet corridors. I'll touch on this here. For the illustrative road diet corridors, on the onset of the study, it was included to look at four specific corridors in the Brookings area for a potential road diet. Essentially, that would be to reconfigure a street to improve traffic and safety, and potentially reallocate space for other modes like bikes and pedestrians. Namely, the four corridors we looked at are Main Avenue South from 8th Street South to 20th Street South, Summit Pass from 16th Avenue South to Western Avenue, 15th Street South, Medary Avenue to 17th Avenue South, and then Medary Avenue from 8th Street to 6th Street. We looked at a variety of options. We looked at future traffic trends, capacity from a planning level perspective, and we did determine that it's generally feasible for each of those locations to do that. And so for Main Avenue and Maderi Avenue specifically, we looked at converting those roadways to a three-lane facility. And so again, I won't go through every concept that we developed, but similar to the downtown complete streets concepts, we showed similar boards during our public open house for the road diets. And so we showed four different concepts generally for each corridor. And so these concepts illustrate a few different things. Generally, they include narrow travel lanes for that traffic calming, speed management effect, shortened pedestrian crossing distances, and then adding facilities like shared use paths and on-street separated bike lanes. So for example, I have up here the board we use for Maderi Avenue. There's a general option to simply do a road diet, have three lanes and the existing sidewalk. Option B expands on that, adds a shared use path on one or both sides. And then options C and D are variations of a separated on-street bike lane. And then finally, like I mentioned, the implementation plan is sort of the culmination of the report. It's the roadmap to implement the recommendations we have within it. Again, there's a brief funding analysis going through historical transportation funding and revenue for the city of Brookings and identifies grant funding opportunities. Also really highlights that Safe Streets for All program and the opportunity the city has through the safety action plan being complete to apply for the implementation grant funding if it so chooses. Through that, you'll see that projects are prioritized in short, midterm, and long range project ranges, as well as those select few that are more illustrative, require more discussion following the project. So there's really three main maps with this plan. There's an intersection and corridor projects map, which again prioritizes intersection and corridor projects. Usually these are to do with capacity needs, intersection control updates, as well as some key safety updates as well. And that's through year 2050, so the end of that 25 year planning horizon. Similar again to that bike and ped plan map I showed. We have the facility projects in the lines shown on there as well as the crossing improvements in the light blue boxes. And then we have that safety action plan projects as well. So just briefly, I know that's a lot of information, so I just want to cover a few long-range steps, next steps, following the adoption of the BATP and the Safety Action Plan. So number one is to further prioritize and identify potential projects for potential future SS4A implementation grant application. Again, the Safety Action Plan plays a critical role in this as it establishes the eligibility for this potential funding. I think basically from this, we're just looking to simplify the projects and really determine what's the highest priority for the community if the city were to apply for this grant opportunity. In addition, throughout the lifespan of this project, it's recommended to follow the BATP implementation plan for all the project maps that I just showed. In addition, focus on key safety and bike ped projects in high priority areas like 6th Street, the downtown area, 20th Street South, and growing development areas like that. In addition, taking the standards that I mentioned before and updating the city of Brookings engineering design standards accordingly. And then finally, develop a safe routes to school plan to refine bike and ped as well as safety improvement projects identified in the BATP and formalize school route plans for kids that walk and bike to school. So again, I know that was a lot of information to throw out there. I'm happy to take any questions that you have.

ALL RIGHT. THANK YOU, THOMAS. ANY QUESTIONS, COMMENTS FROM COUNCIL? COUNCIL MEMBER DURIN.

THANK YOU, MAYOR. THANK YOU FOR THIS PRESENTATION. I ALSO APPRECIATE THE OPPORTUNITY TO ATTEND SEVERAL OF THE PUBLIC HOUSES. I THINK THEY WERE REALLY WELL ATTENDED AND ENGAGED. A question that I have received is for members of the public who maybe aren't as familiar with road diets, do these changes of narrowing the lanes or allocating the space differently ever affect any city services like emergency response times, snow removal, trash, anything like that?

Generally, no.

Thank you for that clarification. And then the second question I have, this is above and beyond, so I'm not sure if this was considered. As I'm looking at the safety action plan, I think of just pedestrian safety and bicycle safety, especially of best practices. I don't know if we as a city are maybe leveraging those community partners that we worked with would ever consider like programming or marketing campaign for those demographics to understand how they can be safe with these changes too beyond just our infrastructure changes that we have control over. I don't know if any city has ever taken those models.

so some cities have talked about doing that and i know the safe streets for all program they do have some demonstration type funding you can go for as well for um you're talking more behavioral strategies right yeah promotional campaigns so yeah there's certainly a chance to do that and i think that's another benefit of having the safety action plan being kind of an out front separate report too is that you can use that and information within it to promote Safety on your roads and biking and so forth You know through a message campaign that the city would do too. So yeah, there's lots of opportunities to do that Okay.

Thank you Councilmember Hager Yeah, thank you for this presentation. You definitely threw a lot of material at us So I do have a few questions that I think will help me have a better understanding of everything But also hopefully help the public as well so You were talking a lot about different types of projects that could take place. So a lot of them did seem to circle back to issues relating to safety, especially for bicyclists and pedestrians. So were there a specific way in which the needs of motorists, bicyclists, and pedestrians were balanced during the report?

Generally, yes. I think that was through our prioritization process with our study team. So, I mean, you couldn't simply just add one comment for a bike lane and expect it to be on the plan. It's reviewing it in terms of what the city and DOT who have facilities in this area think makes sense. It's based on best practices, which we note in the plan as well. We have a variety of guidelines of what traffic levels it's appropriate to have on street bike lanes on, for example. So we verified all of those with our forecast and things like that. So yeah, there was a significant cross check with all the items that we had in the plan.

Okay. Yeah, and we balanced the needs of every user into the plan. We don't just focus in on pedestrian safety, we focus in on complete safety for bicyclists and for motorists as well.

relatively equal it sounds like in terms of the balance because one of the things that struck me is of course bicyclists and pedestrians are important but at the same time a lot of that can't take place during the year because of the weather that we have here in South Dakota so I was just like curious about the approach that is taken when you do a report like this So I know you had some sorts of like illustrative examples of what different changes could look like. I know at least for me personally looking through the presentation I was a little surprised by some of the road diets that were proposed given that I travel quite a few of those and there's a lot of traffic. So when I saw that there would possibly be a reduction in lanes I wondered how That would work and then of course during your presentation you mentioned the possibility for more public engagement moving forward for some of those types of plans. So could you talk through what that public engagement would look like if there was the possibility of a road diet to take place or some of those other types of changes to downtown?

I think generally, Charlie and I have talked about what potential future steps could look like. I think it's potentially another open house, kind of gauging feedback further, potential refinement of concepts based on the feedback we got. Again, they were always intended to just be illustrative to get a sense of what the community thought about these based on some other issues. some of the road that quarters were selected based on you know proximity to campus where multimodal needs may need to be adjusted safety records those kind of things so there's a reason we looked at it I think you know perhaps another open house or things like that a survey are things that we would look at but I'd let Charlie expand yeah we wouldn't lightly do a road diet without any public input

So like Tom said, we would probably do an open house or some type of survey to get everyone's opinion on it. It is a big change. Some of those road diets that were proposed, especially like on Main Avenue, that wouldn't be something that we would take lightly, and we would want to get everyone's input before we enacted something like that.

Wonderful.

I would add to that, there's also a number of nationally recognized videos created for public education on road diets that talk about how you could actually move quicker on a road diet versus potentially a five lane road, including making it safer for both the pedestrian and the vehicular traffic as well. So there are so many different options available, not just public meetings, but also communication of how they actually work, much like when you think about roundabouts and other safety features that would be improving public safety. Right.

There's a level of education that we all need to learn about road diets and how that balances out with each user. And it also depends on the street.

For sure. Yeah, no, that would be really helpful to see exactly how some of those changes could actually improve the flow of traffic possibly. So my last question is just relating to the implementation plan. So you did have the slide where there were different approaches to implementation. And what I was just wondering is how would you describe that to an average member of the public? Like what should they be expecting to see as far as changes because i saw all these different maps and instantly i was like this is great but like what's the elevator pitch so to speak

So generally, again, we have to work and operate on planning time frames based on traffic projections, and we try to do the best that we can with what we have. So they're rough time frames for when you may need to do some of these improvements is maybe the short version of that. I will say, I mean, it's really specific when you get to the intersection and corridor project list. The bike and pedestrian and safety action plan type items aren't maybe necessarily as important that's why it's more high priority versus short term needs that kind of thing.

And I think a lot of its opportunity, right? If we are doing major utility work on a road, we need to look at these things as we go ahead and rebuild the street. or if there's a development that occurs in those areas that will lend itself to incorporating these projects that's something that we need to look at uh... what i also like to stress is that s s for a grant that is a great funding opportunity for the city in many communities for implementing these projects. So if there's specific projects that the city was immediately interested in, that's something that we could explore.

And maybe more simply, it's effectively just a planning tool for the city to plan for these issues if they were to come up. That's probably the most straightforward way I could describe it.

Yeah, because it definitely seemed that there would be some potential for different changes with the intersections and then safety for bicycle and pedestrians. But I didn't know if there was anything that people would see sooner rather than later. So perfect. All right. That's it. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Wendell.

Thank you, Mayor. Tom, I had a couple of questions on a couple of slides that you shared. I don't want to overemphasize our conversation on road diets, but slide 21 in particular identified maybe two areas where a recommendation might include a road diet. And I was sort of curious in particular if we would be looking at one of the benefits being adding like a shared use path or a bicycle path in each of those areas. Was there consideration given to whether or not those areas then pour out to connect to another shared use path? Or was there thought about investing in a bicycle path that essentially is not really connected to a safe bicycle corridor when you get to the end of one of these zones?

yes and that's that's generally where the bicycle and pedestrian plan takes over this is kind of a very specific analysis just with individual corridors and the concept of applying a road diet to them so anything you know potentially considered in this and certainly connecting those facilities is in the bicycle and pedestrian plan

It's sort of about layering them together so that there's connect. I just think a lot of the feedback we might get from cyclists when we invest in bicycle infrastructure is that right now we're in a stage where that infrastructure is not all connected. And so even if a bike lane is really safe and really accessible for several blocks, it sort of runs out at a certain point that is not really connected to a neighborhood or a destination yet, so.

Yeah. Yeah. And like I say, that's where the bicycle and pedestrian comes in and shows the long range vision that, you know, say, like Charlie mentioned, you get an SS for a grant to build a shared use path or on street bike lanes. You know, that might come sooner than anticipated. And so you're building out opportunistically. Okay. But that's that's the long range vision with how everything's connected in that way. Okay.

So these four zones are not necessarily connected to one another and may not be connected to existing bicycle infrastructure, but would be layered in with the bicycle plan that's been laid out here.

Yeah, I would say that these areas were just chosen just to provide ideas of what could be done. Some of these areas suffer from high speed, high vehicular speed that would be benefit from a road diet. Some of these areas suffer from pedestrian connectivity. Some of these would help. These are just strictly ideas and maybe something that we could develop further on. And with the open house and the votes that we received on which option the public wanted, we are better able to gauge where we want to go with these things. But again, these are more like ideas. Very, very high level looks at it. And then we would definitely want to see how it would connect with our shared use paths before we went forward.

That's helpful to understand how the four zones were sort of determined, and that makes good sense. The other question I have was on slide 25, you identified crossing improvements. And I know feedback I get from folks in particular around vehicle traffic and pedestrian safety is a long sixth street. And it's difficult either on a bike or as a pedestrian to cross 6th Street at certain points. And so I was sort of curious how you would define crossing improvements at the locations that are identified. Obviously, folks don't really want more stoplights and more stopping of traffic. But how do you address safe pedestrian crossing on a road like that?

So in general, when you get to that number of lanes, you're looking at four or five lanes that pedestrians have to cross. That's a long distance without any refuge. So, I mean, one of the things that we've identified throughout Sixth Street are potential locations where maybe you could have a raised median or at least a brief stretch where you have a protected refuge island so people can cross maybe two lanes and then cross the remainder. There's also what's called a pedestrian hybrid beacon. This is more of a pedestrian signal, similar to the Hillcrest one that could be refined based on more current pedestrian movements and done at key locations on 6th Street. So that's typically the kind of controlled crossing that we tend to work with when we get to that size of facility. So those are the kind of recommendations for that. But I echo your comments because we heard that a lot in both open houses that 6th Street pedestrian connectivity and crossing it was a difficulty. It's tough.

Thanks for defining kind of what crossing improvement could look like the only other question I have which is perhaps perhaps a more staff question is just I Understand that the council will be taking action potentially on this plan in June Will the full plan be publicly accessible after we approve it?

Yes, there is a stage where we have to make it more ad a compliant and then we can provide that on our website Okay, great. Thank you.

Thank you all right councilmember Specker

My question had to do a lot with what Nick said with the availability of the report. And do you know when you anticipate the council getting the final version of the report?

Essentially, I think the non-accessible version could likely be provided prior to the next council meeting. Again, as Charlie mentioned, there's some accessibility for online that requires that reports be fully finalized. with the safety action plan, there's a specific city council resolution that's in the report, and so it can't be finalized until that meeting's held. So we can get you finalized drafts, because essentially the content is there. It's just that it needs to be fully finalized to be accessible, if that makes sense.

Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, we can provide a draft, though, to council. Thanks.

Council Member Tilton-Byrd.

Thank you, Mayor. My question maybe is for Charlie or Paul. It's more just procedural in helping maybe the council and the public understand what our process will be for this. Obviously, at our meeting, I believe on the 9th, we will have this plan in front of us to vote on. When we vote on that, we're not necessarily saying that everything that is in this plan will be implemented, correct? Correct.

That is correct. It would be a process over many, many years and when grants are available as well. And it would include discussions when we bring the capital payment plan to you as part of the budgeting process. So you're exactly right. It doesn't mean that everything's going to be implemented and not everything's going to be implemented immediately. There's still a lot of public discussions that would have to take place for any one of these projects.

I think for those of us on council, we're pretty familiar with other master plans that we operate under, knowing that not everything that's in those plans gets implemented. Sometimes we amend those plans. As time goes on, they really become kind of living documents, but that help guide our decision-making process. And so I just wanted to make that really clear for the public that just in the event that we do pass the plan as written doesn't mean that everything as it's presented in the plan will actually occur.

Yeah, and I'd also like to point out it's a 25-year plan, and this only provides us with a bucket of projects. It is not conceivable to do all the projects within this plan.

Council Member Avery, you have questions, comments at all?

I think I've heard all I need to hear.

All right. All right, Paul.

A lot of times across the nation, cities are constantly adding more and more lanes because people assume it's safer, better to go to places quicker, adding wider lanes as well. For my friends that maybe own an F-350, can you help us understand how narrowing the road makes it actually safer?

So in terms of road diet safety, again, when we think about it from a multimodal standpoint, pedestrians, you're looking at reducing a lane, so reducing the crossing distance. A pedestrian has to cross to the other side. It limits their exposure to a vehicle collision. It also gets them across the street faster. In general, sometimes You know, with a five-lane facility, vehicles tend to spread out, so it consolidates traffic flow a bit more, helps control left-turn conflicts, especially on roadways like Maderi, where it's an undivided four-lane, there's no left-turn lane. So it's a lot of consolidation with that, control speeds, again, with that traffic consolidation amongst vehicle users, those kind of things.

Appreciate that. One of the things I'll be asking staff is as we go through a development review team looking at new neighborhoods coming into the community, that we're considering some of these design standards that you brought forward to ensure we're creating safe neighborhoods within the street system. So thank you. Perfect.

So the term roundabout didn't come up. Are there any thoughts of roundabouts in any locations in Brookings?

There are roundabouts identified in the plan. Some are more potential based on safety issues. I know that we actually amended this project to take a look at 6th Street and Western Avenue in terms of a traffic signal as well as a reconfigured roundabout. And so we have recommendations for that consideration to go forward. That's probably the most high profile location.

That corner is a consistent complaint item. I get that comment to me at least once a week.

And again, amongst the, you know, the 6th Street crossing connectivity, I think second was the 6th and Western crossing and traffic operations there.

So in one of your diagrams for the streets with bicycle paths on either side or one side, I remember going to Nashville for National League of Cities and they had. a bike path along one side with pylons and the whole thing in it, I'm more of a fan of mixed-use sidewalks than I would be of bike paths. Just because in the wintertime those pylons are going to obviously have to come out for snow removal. Having three seasons of winter and one season of construction, it's kind of difficult to justify pylons for safety reasons for the bike paths. If it is in side streets and stuff, I could see that work.

In generally speaking, I think the main facility recommendation on arterioles and even collectors is shared use path, and I think amongst the feedback we received, we generally found that folks are more comfortable with the shared use path.

A long time ago, before we even had the state approach us for changing what 6th Street looks like now, I suggested that we... took, say, 7th and made it a one-way from McDonald's all the way down to Main Street going westbound with a parking lane, a bike lane, and a one-way lane, and then taking 5th Street all the way from Main, all the way to the swimming pool and having that a one-way going west, or going east, I'm sorry, with the same idea with a bike path and parking on one side. I had one other council member that thought it was a pretty good idea, but otherwise the rest of it got poo-pooed. But I thought that maybe there's something we might want to consider too. I think that's a, I don't like the idea of bike paths on 6th Street. I know my daughter said that she could do that, but I'd rather, I didn't see kids on bicycles on 6th Street. So, thus the shared use path that we got, so.

Yep, understood.

Any other comments, questions? Thank you very much, Tom and Charlie.

Thank you.

Okay, item seven on Contracts and Change Orders 7A, Action on Resolution 26-024, a resolution to award Burns & McDonnell Engineering a sole source contract for permitting of the future landfill site at the Brookings Regional Landfill. Charlie Coon, our Solid Waste Manager.

I'm Charlie coon I'm with public works item 7 a is proposing a resolution that will award the permitting of the future landfill site at the Brookings regional landfill. As part of the 2023 solid waste master plan. The city's regional landfill will be permitted in the future landfill space north of the current footprint. Currently, the Brookings Regional Landfill owns 310 acres of land, with 210 acres already permitted by the state of South Dakota for solid waste disposal. The 2025 Landfill Capacity Enclosure Report forecasts the existing 210-acre permitted footprint will reach capacity by approximately 2063. While this indicates that the landfill has several decades of remaining capacity, it is prudent to begin the expansion and permitting process now. The Solid Waste Division is requesting to award the landfill expansion permitting to Burns and McDonnell Engineering, B&M, via a sole source contract in the amount of $398,000. B&M has been the Brookings Regional Landfill's engineer of record since the original siting, planning, and design of the facility in the early 1990s. Through this long-standing role, B&M has developed a comprehensive understanding of the landfill's design, operational history, regulatory context, and prior permitting actions. This institutional knowledge is critical to the success of the proposed northern expansion, particularly in preparing a permit application which is consistent with existing design assumptions, environmental controls, and regulatory comments. Staff recommends approval, and that concludes my presentation.

Thank you, Charlie. I entertain a motion to approve. So moved. Second. Is there any public comment on this item? Council, any questions, comments? Council Member Tilton-Byrne.

Thank you, Mayor. I just want to say thank you for the foresight to get the process moving on this. Obviously, this isn't something that's immediately needed, and that's a good thing. And so thank you to you and the rest of the team for having the foresight to get the ball rolling.

All right. Councilmember during Thank You mayor.

I just have a few questions one is Charlie could you explain is this a typical timeline for a landfill to fill up or where do we fit in expected like lifetimes of this type of area Yes. To clarify my question, how we would reach capacity by 2063. Looking at the overall lifetime of this piece of land, are we within an average range of a lifespan for these many acres?

So there's an address. Your lifespan is predicated by how much waste comes in, how much compaction, which is how much garbage we can fit into our designated space. And our landfill right now, we are at kind of the national average of... of the volume coming in relative to how much we're compacting it to keep it into that space. So we are in that national average and that 2063 number is what we have permitted right now. Once we do this, if we do this northern expansion, we're out another 100 plus years beyond that.

Sure. And then my follow up question to that is, I was wondering if there were any considerations for, are we at risk of any potential for jumps in growth where that 2063 date could be significantly shortened at all?

significantly. I don't know, I don't foresee what could like really bring in that much, that much tonnage that we would see that number. Our goal is to actually add, I mean we're always striving to like push that further and we have even over the last couple years added three, four, five years on to the end of the life of the landfill. So If anything, we should probably extend in that timeframe of how long we have just because of better operational practices, better technology, better equipment and stuff like that.

Sure. That was my final question actually. So if you'd like to add anything of, I really appreciate all the efforts that are consistently presented to us of trying to elongate the lifespan of this landfill. I didn't know with any of our recent efforts around even recycling or just like what you had said of, um, more efficient operations, kind of overviewing briefly for the public, what steps you've taken in recent years to extend the timeline of our landfill?

Yeah, so we have we've gone through kind of a complete overhaul on our kind of how we operate the landfill over the last couple years we've had outside consultants come in and do kind of a training with our whole landfill staff on kind of what is the standard procedure for how to run a landfill and those practices have really shown that they have, you can see the results of it. But yeah, our practices, our compaction rate has gone up and that has to do with those operational practices. We just recently got technology that goes in the equipment that allows operators in real time to see what their compaction rate is, how much fill we have left in the site, like in real time right there on their screen. So there are things that we can do and there'll be things we can continue to do.

Thank you for answering those questions. And just like what Council Member Tilton-Byrne said, thank you for your foresight on this project.

Council Member Hager.

So my questions bounce off of what Council Member Doran asked. So with the current landfill expected to reach capacity at 2063 or possibly later, based on all of your efforts, I know it is important to start this process soon. So could you walk us through in a little bit more detail, like what's the length of time with all of these different steps? I guess like the question I'm asking is, will the future landfill be pretty much built and just ready to go and waiting for a few years before it needs to be used? Or does this process really take all the way up until 2063?

No. So this total process won't take up to 2063. This is just getting a lot of the A lot of the stuff done with the same thing taken care of before we even get close to that time. And the reason we're kind of doing this now, a big part is budgetary reasons. Like this process is only going to get more expensive as the longer we wait. And the regulations to do it are only going to get more strict and more stringent extending that timeline. So we're really just doing it now to kind of just be ready. Will anything be constructed? No like nothing will be constructed until we are Almost full with the site. We are at now before we start doing any kind of groundbreaking on this land. It'll just be permitted as solid waste acceptable Wonderful thanks for that clarification Any other questions counsel?

Is there any public comment or questions on this item? Please call the roll

Nehemiah?

Aye.

Specker? Aye. Tiltonburn? Aye. Wendell?

Aye.

Avery?

Aye.

Doran? Aye. Hager? Aye.

All right. Action on Resolution 26-034, a resolution awarding bids for the 2026 Brookings Trails Project. Christian Zimmerman, our Park and Rec Forestry Director, will present this item.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council. Tonight, staff is recommending approval of Resolution 26- 034 awarding the 2026 trails projects to timmons construction in the amount of a hundred and fifty seven thousand nine hundred and $93.12. This project supports implementation of the bicycle master plan that was referenced earlier today and includes both trail maintenance projects and new trail connections intended to improve accessibility, safety, and connectivity throughout our community. The proposed improvements were developed with input from the Bicycle Subcommittee and the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board. For 2026, Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department budgeted funding for trail maintenance and additions along with carry forward funding from 2025 to continue advancing community trail infrastructures. Bids were open on May 19th and five bids were received. Timmons Construction submitted the low bid. of the amount that I listed previously, which came in significantly below engineer's estimate and below the next lowest bid. Staff believes this bid reflects strong value in the city and allows us to continue improving Brookings' shared use trail system and in a fiscally responsible manner. I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Kristen. Entertain a motion to approve. So moved.

Second.

If we move and second, is there a public comment on this item? Council, questions, comments? Council Member Duren.

Thank you, Mayor. Kristen, I was wondering if you could just overview the timeline for the implementation of these construction projects.

Yeah, the one, the trail project that's next to Mickelson Middle School is on a shorter time frame because we want to ensure that that's done before school is even anywhere near being in session. So that takes a higher priority. Some of the other projects, so like the Outdoor Adventure Center that you can see on the slide above, That can happen at any point and then we are proposing a Doral Drive Connection to the Boys and Girls Club. So if you're familiar that with Frequented cattle path is what I will call it where the kids travel So offering a connection point again to neighborhoods to points of interest safe spaces is a priority for us that one will take a little bit longer time because we're we're working with the landowner and

SURE. THANK YOU SO MUCH.

Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to say thank you for bringing this forward. I think the proximity that a lot of these improvements are to areas that are frequently used by children is really amazing to see. Like you mentioned, the Boys and Girls Club, and especially with that new one, that's kind of a, I think you call it a cow path. The worn kind of natural paths that happen because people use them frequently, right? I think it's great to see kind of what those paths are, especially when it comes to kids using those paths. So I'm really excited about these improvements. Thanks.

All right, any other comments, questions? Please call the roll.

Specker? Aye. Tiltonburn? Aye. Wendell?

Aye.

Avery?

Aye.

Doran? Aye. Hager? Aye. Niemeyer?

Aye. Okay, item 7C, action on resolution 26-036, a resolution to award the Edgebrook Golf Course water sourcing rebid. Kristen Zimmerman will also present this item.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council. Tonight, staff is recommending the approval of contract award for the Edgebrook Golf Course Water Sourcing Project to LL and Sons Excavating, Inc. in the amount of $1,804,766.08, which includes the base bid and bid alternate number two. As council may recall, the city rebid this project after the original bids received in late 2025 came in significantly higher than anticipated. Since that time, Banner and Associates, Brookings Municipal Utilities, and the project team, which is mostly city staff, worked collaboratively to reevaluate the project scope, refine construction methods, and identify cost-saving opportunities while still maintaining the long-term intent and functionality of the project. This project is a critical, long-term, infrastructure investment for Edgebrook golf course the water sourcing connection to the Brookings municipal utilities raw water system will improve irrigation reliability reduce dependence on existing water sources and help support the long-term sustainability and operational vitality of the golf course. Bids were open on May 4th and 6 bids were received. LL & Sons submitted the lowest responsible bid with a base bid of just over $1.7 million and the bid total with the amount that I referenced above. Legal counsel reviewed the bid specs and did not identify any concerns with either the bid process or the proposed award. In addition, the final contract documents agreements associated with the project will continue to go under legal review. From a financial standpoint, this project is funded through the Edgebrook Golf Course Enterprise Fund. Staff recognizes that this exceeds the original engineers estimate and funds funds initially set aside in order to move the project forward staff is recommending utilizing reserves currently identified for other golf course capital improvements to rebuild the reserves and maintain the long term financial health for the golf course staff is also recommending the following. Raising golf course fees beginning in 2027 pausing strategic plan improvements in 2728. Delaying certain irrigation projects for approximately 3 additional years. Reducing proposed pump improvements and differing topsoil and concrete project repairs that we can do in house. Well, these are difficult decision staff police securing a long term irrigation water source is a foundational To the future operations and sustainability of the Edgebrook golf course all right.

Thank you Kristen entertain a motion to approve so moved second Moved second is there any public comment on this item? Counseling questions comments

Councilmember Avery? Comments. I know we've been working on this for quite some time and explored many different sources of water, of drilling wells, obtaining water from a nearby water source or not necessarily nearby. Every one of those reached some kind of a dead end or an impasse that we couldn't pursue that any longer. This proved to be the most reasonable source, I think, of permanent solution to our golf course problem, a watering problem. And it's more expensive than we had hoped, but we shouldn't have to deal with it in the future. In a drought situation, our source of water is not going to dry up. We don't have to maintain the equipment. Once it's done, it'll be the responsibility of the BMU. We won't have to have any city employees operating that part of this pumping system. There's a lot of benefits of this. I think it's just going to be an investment long term. I think we just have to move forward with it. Kristen, thank you for all your work. I know there's been a lot of interest in this. had a lot of people that were worried about how they were going to water the course and keep it nice. And the other part of it is that that course has had more use in the last couple years. At one point, we thought golfing was on the downhill trend, and now it's decidedly not that way. It's uphill, so it's good.

That's a good problem for us to have.

Council Member Duren?

Thank you, Mayor. First, I would reiterate Councilmember Avery's comments. I really do appreciate your persistence through this project of trying to figure out all of the ways that we could complete this. I know it's been in the public quite a few times, so I'm not sure beyond what Councilmember Avery said if there are any other concerns considerations that you would like to maybe remind the public of why this project did come in more than anticipated? I know we've said it a few times of different ways, but just as a reminder that this is why this project does cost what it does.

Yeah, there were a couple items that were much higher than we anticipated and Banner can probably go into a little bit more detail. So I will ask that Paul comes up here. But some of those were like the dewatering, which I know doesn't sound right, but dewatering for the pipeline and then also their mobilization. But Paul can go into more detail.

Thanks for having me, everybody. I think you were briefed on, there was a letter that I sent everybody, basically kind of looking after the bids and everything, kind of determining what are the items that were substantially higher than the original estimates. And basically three items came to fruition on that. A big one is mobilization, so that's basically kind of, Contractors lumping in them getting to the site plus incidentals plus, you know profit margin a lot of things like that Kind of overview of doing this here for now about 15 years. Typically mobilization is right around eight to ten percent of Your typical total for the contract for everything in this one We noticed that they would basically kind of remain the same from the original bid to this existing bid Keep in mind. This is kind of a one one-off project so there is you know, some specialty things that go into it, but I That was one of the things that ended up being substantially high. The other one was the dewatering on that. It was substantially lowered from what was originally planned from the original bid. But after talking to the dewatering company on the original bid, kind of seeing what their prices were, But now then also then reducing a substantial amount of the reservoir that we'd end up having for that stored water thinking that'd be pretty close to the numbers originally had. Turns out that now I guess for however the bids came in, those are also decently higher, about 60% higher than what we're anticipating for that bid item. And the last one is very much a specialty item. Due to some soil contaminations that are over on the west side of I-29, Solventum requested us to basically do an above-ground pipe. In doing so, there's a section of pipe over at a drainage crossing that is literally going to be elevated out of the ground about two feet. And to do that, we were requested to basically have some type of structure that holds this thing up. But keep in mind, too, that it is also a drainage way, so we thought that would allow water to go through that area. So to do the minimal amount of soil disturbance, we used a thing called the helical pile, which is just a fancy way of saying a corkscrew that has basically some type of structure to basically strap the pipe to the helical pile itself. After talking to some of the contractors prior to the bids and everything, as you can kind of see from what the bids were, they ranged very drastically from $3,000 each up over to $10,000 apiece. So that was some high variability that ended up happening in that particular bid item. There maybe is some opportunities, as I mentioned before, to do some cost savings. As we mentioned in the letter, there's about $97,000 that we talked with staff about that we could reduce out of that are basically contingency items on there. And some of those items we can do at later dates, and some of those are just in case items like that. So we're hopeful that at the end of the day, we can make sure that everything comes under budget and get this project to completion.

Thank you.

Council Member Hager.

In light of those possible $90,000 of cost savings, what types of projects that were going to be cut could potentially come back in? So this is probably a better question for Kristen, actually. Or like, how would you prioritize moving forward if there were cost savings?

We are thinking very optimistically. So we already took those into account. So those projects listed will still be deferred or cut.

Okay. Thanks for that clarification.

Council Member Wendell.

Thank you, Mayor. I have just a question and then a comment. I think my first question is just around timing. Each time we talk about this project, I think the public is curious about when will this work begin and when do we hope the water will be accessible for the course? Could you just give us a high-level look at what timeline we're looking at?

So as part of the original bid, we had a lot of basically timeline constraints for the contractor. And after talking to contractors the original time, because of that, we basically kind of opened this up for the rebid. Basically, a contractor can come in basically between June and November and complete it any time that they want on it. And as part of that on the city's end, we basically have plans put together how to reroute basically the golf course a little bit. I think it's three holes together to have people kind of work around that during construction. The project itself in Edgebrook should go fairly quickly. Basically, the dewatering is going to take a little bit of time, and then putting the liner in is going to take a little bit of time. But in total, for the entire project, probably two to three months to complete everything, but a lot of it is also going to be off of Edgebrook. I haven't talked with LL and Sons to see what their construction schedule is, but as I mentioned, basically sometime between June and November is when everything needs to get completed. The goal of that is basically, the contractor obviously doesn't want to deal with a lot of water in there. They're probably going to wait until It's nice and hot, so that way also if they need to dry some things out, they got some hot weather to work the soil and all that too. So it's going to be very much kind of weather dependent and contractor dependent. And again, that's why we kind of opened that up just to try to help with the costs for all the bids.

Thanks, Paul. I don't have another question, but I do have a comment, and it's maybe somewhat related to Council Member Hager's question about the deferred maintenance items and the other items that are being shelved. I appreciate that you've optimistically looked at the cost savings, and that is still the list, and I appreciate the frugality around that. If there is an opportunity to bring some of these items back to the table over the next couple of months, I hope we can do that. I know if we defer maintenance and we defer some of these necessary projects, They're going to add up on us. And so I'd hate to see us be overly frugal in a way that means we've got big deferred maintenance bills waiting for us after this project is done. And I know you'll approach that thoughtfully, but I wanted to just note that.

Yeah, I appreciate that sentiment from both council members. The one nice thing about being an enterprise fund is we have a little bit more flexibility if the funds allow to bring some of those projects in with council approval at that point. So that's a nice thing, but also a challenging thing too.

Thank you.

So Kristen, I just have a question.

With the last two days being hot and very parched. How are we doing for a water source for this summer while this project is being done?

Let's all hope for rain. Right, pray for rain. Yeah, but we'll be doing the best that we can. We have resources available to specifically keep the greens green. The fairways can go dormant a little bit, but just as long as we keep the greens green, we're in good shape.

All right. Any other comments, questions? Please call the roll.

Tilton Byrne, aye. Wendell, aye. Avery, aye. Doran, aye. Hager, aye. Niemeyer, aye. Specker, aye.

All right, move on. We do not have any first readings this evening. And our first second reading is second reading in action on ordinance 26-019, an ordinance authorizing budget amendment number three to the 2026 budget. Ashley Wrench, our finance director, will present this item.

Good evening, Mayor and members of the council. This is ordinance 26-019, amendment number three to the 2026 budget. As discussed at the first reading, this amendment includes a transfer of $10,000 from the 3B tax fund to the general fund to support temporary public information office intern staffing. Additional 3B funding in the amount of $30,000 for landscaping and beautification of medians along 6th Street. funding source adjustment shifting $50,000 from the for the Brookings Regional Growth Alliance contribution from the 3B fund to the pillow tax fund and an additional contribution of $100,000 to Brookings Regional Growth Alliance to support downtown public restroom improvements. No changes have been made since the first reading and staff recommends approval of this ordinance as presented. I'll stand by for questions. Thank you.

Thank you, Ashley. Entertain a motion to approve.

So moved.

Is there any public comment on this item? Council have any questions, comments? Please call the roll.

Wendell?

Aye.

Avery?

Aye.

Doran? Aye. Hager? Aye. Niemeyer? Aye. Specker? Aye. Tilton-Byrne? Aye.

All right, item 9B, public hearing and action on resolution 26-029, a resolution authorizing the city manager to enter into a 10-year on-sale wine operating agreement with Target Corporation for Target store T2952. Bonnie Foster, our city clerk, will present this item.

Mayor and council members, Target Corporation is seeking that wine license, so with that comes an operating agreement for their new store located here in Brookings. Operating agreements are issued for 10 years with an automatic five-year midterm renewal that will come in front of you. If council approves, this fine license will be forwarded to the South Dakota Department of Revenue for final review and license issuance. We do have a representative this evening from Target Corporation here. If you have any questions for them, staff recommends approval.

All right, entertain a motion to approve.

So moved.

Second.

Public hearing is open on this item. Is there any public comment? All right. Council have any questions, comments? Please call the roll.

Avery?

Aye.

Doran? Aye. Hager? Aye. Niemeyer?

Aye.

Specker? Aye. Tilton-Byrne?

Aye.

Wendell?

Aye. All right. Item 9C is kind of right down the same path. Public hearing in action on a request for an on-off sale malt license for Cargill Corporation for Target Store T-2952. Bonnie will also present this item.

Mayor and council members, this is for an on-off malt license for the new Target Store here in Brookings as well. If council approves this license, it too will be forwarded to the Department of Revenue and Peer for final review and license issuance. Staff recommends approval.

entertain a motion to approve. So moved. I open the public hearing on this item. Is there any public comment on this item? Close the public hearing. Does council have any questions, comments? Please call the roll.

Doran. Aye. Hager. Aye. Niemeyer.

Aye.

Specker. Aye. Chiltonburn. Aye. Wendell.

Aye.

Avery.

Aye. Okay, other business, we have item 10A, action on resolution 26-033, a resolution approving revised capital asset management policy. Ashley Rentsch, our finance director, will present this item.

Thank you, Mayor, members of the council. This is resolution 26-033, approving the revised capital asset management policy. The current policy was originally adopted in 2007 and amended in 2011. Staff completed a comprehensive review and update of the policy to modernize the city's capital asset management practices and align the policy with current governmental accounting standards and operational best practices. Key updates include incorporating GASB 87 lease accounting guidance related to right to use leased assets. Clarifying ownership control and custodial responsibility standards. Increasing the capitalization threshold from $5,000 to $10,000. Updating departmental HR risk management and finance department responsibilities related to inventory and asset tracking. Removing outdated forms and procedures that are no longer operationally necessary. And modernizing the policy language and administrative procedures throughout the document. The revisions are administrative in nature and intended to improve consistency, accountability, and compliance with current accounting and reporting standards. The policy update does not have any direct financial impact, but strengthens the city's internal controls and long-term asset management practices. Staff recommends approval of this resolution as presented. I'll stand by for questions. Thank you.

Thank you, Ashley. Entertain a motion to approve. So moved.

Second.

Is there any public comment on this item? Council have comments, questions? Please call the roll.

Hager? Aye. Niemeyer? Aye. Specker? Aye. Tiltonburn? Aye. Wendell?

Aye.

Avery?

Aye.

Doran? Aye.

All right, motion passes. Item 10B, action on a revised preliminary plat for lots one through eight in block one and lots one through three in block two of Prairie Sunset Edition. Mike Strzok, our community development director, will...

Present this item. Thank you, Mayor and members of the council. The preliminary plat before you tonight is for 11 residential lots in a R1A low density single family district located along West 20th Street South. They're proposing to extend Brighton Road from 20th Street South. They'll extend it southward down through the proposed subdivision on the west side. There'll be a significant area for drainage. the one cul-de-sac is yet to be named but will be named by the time final platting comes through they are providing a turnaround on the very south end and it is planned for a future extension should the property to the south of there be proposed for development there is one change that was brought to our attention just within the last week as The proposed subdivision name is now the Sunset Lake Estates addition that's been noted on the preliminary plat that will be signed if approved. This does come to you as a unanimous recommendation from the Planning Commission and we'd stand for any questions you may have.

All right, entertain a motion to approve. So moved. Second. Moved to second. Is there any public comment on this item?

Any questions comments councilmember Hager So I'm gonna preface my comments by the fact that back I don't probably 2020 or so when there was substantial work going on on West 20th Street South I lived in Valley View where my backyard was 20th Street South and at that time I We had to take various different detours out of our subdivision Most of which required us to go all the way west out of town on gravel come back around and then enter in on What is that 8th Street South over by the pheasant and I don't think anybody at that time realized that would be our detour because we had a no southern connection to I think it's Esther Heights which would be the next closest addition to Valley View so when I saw this my immediate question is is Brighton Road going to be connected to Rapid Valley Avenue to give those folks a southern outage in case there's additional work on 20th Street South because I'm assuming there will be with development continuing to move to the west

No, there is no feasible way to connect it. There's a detention pond there, and it's a different developer with private lots, some of which have been built on. So the extension is to the south. This 11-lot subdivision, it's a low-density, ranging anywhere from acre and a half lots to larger is not much different than a typical cul-de-sac in town where it may you know typically on a cul-de-sac you'll get anywhere from eight to ten lots this is 11. so um if construction does come through this area on west 20th street south they'll have to just coordinate with the contractor where they'll you know do up to a certain point maybe leave Half the road available for access there may be times where it's temporary construction It's commonly done throughout the community when we get into Reconstructing existing neighborhoods with streets is there's just a lot of coordination that needs to occur Any other comments from council councilmember Avery I

Well, I'd just like to say that we have seen different variations of this plan over a period of time, and it just looks like a good plan. I mean, it looks like it kind of fits a need that's not probably being met somewhere else. It kind of goes along with kind of that setting, the transition from the city to the countryside. And I really like that. And I think developers listened to the people in the area and just tried to develop something that makes sense for the actual site that we have there. So commend them for that.

All right. Any other comments, questions? I guess I got one other comment. And granted, we've tried to get away from cul-de-sacs. I understand why this one is here. Are you thinking, Mike, that there'll probably be three driveways just in that little cul-de-sac there? Or five, I should say four driveways? Or would they possibly have just the two pies that are in the back corner?

It really depends on how the individual homeowner wants to lay out their house. But yeah, there could be as many as four or as few as two.

I know it brings down the traffic and stuff, but I just kind of want the public to understand that how much of a pain this is to maintain that cul-de-sac. And if they put driveways in all four of those lots, there's no place to put the snow along that street in that area there. And I get it. I understand why they do this. But I just want the public to understand just how much trouble this is for us to do snow removal and maintain that street. Just a straight out public comment. So with that being said, please call the roll.

Nehmeyer.

Aye.

Specker. Aye. Tiltonburn. Aye. Wendell.

Aye.

Avery.

Aye.

Dorian. Aye. Hager. Aye.

All right. Item 10C, action on resolution 26-035, a resolution accepting ownership of detention basins located at the Arbor Hills subdivision. Charlie Richter, our city engineer, will present this item.

Good evening Council again as your City Engineer I'm here to present resolution 26035 for the acceptance of ownership of detention basins at Arbor Hill. The developer of Arbor Hills constructed two detention basins located on lot 25 of block 3 of the Arbor Hills addition and lot 10 of block 5 of the Arbor Hills addition in 2018. These two detention basins were designed, constructed, and maintained in accordance with the city's design standards and are now eligible for acceptance according to the city's detention base and acceptance policy. The detention basins capture and detain a significant amount of runoff from the city's right-of-way helping to mitigate downstream flooding impacts associated with the development. Due to their significance, it is in the city's best interest to accept ownership to ensure that they are properly maintained and continue to operate as designed. Once accepted, these basins will be maintained in accordance with standards with a focus on hydraulic performance, protection of downstream infrastructure, maintenance of water quality functions, prevention of nuisance conditions, and insurance of regulatory compliance. The proposed resolution authorizes the city manager to enter into agreement with City Properties LLC to accept ownership of the detention basins. Staff recommends approval.

Charlie entertain a motion to approve so move move All right, is there any public comment on this item? Questions from Council comments I've got one these seem to be relatively large Areas here is there any future thoughts of maybe having a recreational path going through past these I?

Currently, no. There might be opportunities in the future for it. A lot of these, the homeowners have already started maintaining up to the shoreline, which may preclude us from maybe doing that in the future, but something that we can entertain in the future. All right.

Councilmember Wendell Thank You mayor I don't have a question I just have a comment I think you know this detention basin acceptance policy that's attached to tonight's agenda would perhaps be insightful for folks that live in neighborhoods that have detention basins and have wondered does my developer own this does the city own this who maintains it this policy which was implemented last fall I think really lays out When a detention basis is applicable for the city to to accept under these terms and might just be of interest for folks that live in neighborhoods that have Detention basins we get occasional questions or comments about about those and so I think this policy would be insightful for those that might be interested Okay any other comments questions, please call the roll I

Specker, aye. Tiltonburn, aye. Wendell, aye. Avery, aye. Doran, aye. Hager, aye. Nehmeyer, aye.

Okay, item 11, progress report. Samantha Beckman, our assistant city manager, will give us a presentation.

Hello, everybody. This is the May 2026 progress report. Starting out, as always, you can always visit the city's construction webpage, which is posted on the screen up there to learn any more about any of these projects. But this month, our engineering team was able to wrap up the concrete maintenance project. We've got slurry ceiling that will be scheduled for completion in June along with the widening of the 22nd Avenue and 20 set 20th Street South intersection project along with the master transportation plan that you heard about tonight that will also be wrapping up in June as well and And then we'll continue to do our prescribed burns at the airport and other key locations around town as weather permits. And the engineering division also had the opportunity to go out and help the Big Sioux Water Festival again this year. So that's always kind of fun to get the staff out and with the kids. Also kept this slide in from last month as a friend really friendly reminder as we head into our hot Summer months here that we have reimbursements for native plants rain barrels and the trees Visit our website or call into our parks rec and forestry department or our Public Works Department to hear more about those The police department hosted another DEA drug take-back event last month and collected 32 pounds of unused or expired prescriptions. A few other community policing efforts they've been doing include job fairs, field trips to the police station. Coffee with the Cop was with the Peaceful Pines folks this time, and they were able to offer a special auction prize at the Bobcat Backers Gala, which was a VIP experience with one of the patrol officers. The city and county officers were also able to walk alongside the Special Olympics torch run, which is, again, very fun for our staff and those kids. And lastly, on here, the Brookings Optimist Club held its annual Respect for Law Enforcement Day Breakfast. During that event, Officer Seth Bonama was presented with the Law Enforcement Award, which recognizes his dedication to service and commitment to community law enforcement efforts. The library is getting a little bit of a facelift. They've got a roof replacement that's currently ongoing that should be wrapped up within the next couple of weeks here. Our summer reading program is also underway. And then I just wanted to add this one in here because I thought it was kind of fun. But they've got this ongoing game this summer where kids can walk up to a staff member and kind of play, I'm going to say, a quasi rock, paper, scissors game with them. And each of the staff members has their own dedicated dragon trading card. If you lose with that staff member that day, you can't play them again that day. So it's kind of a fun game to get kids hopefully into the library. Today is opening day of the Hillcrest Aquatic Center also, which marks a really fun transition into the summer season for that department. We have equipment that arrived for the new splash pad that will be installed this summer. Lots of seasonal staff were hired on with us, so also a very big shout out to our HR department with all those seasonal hirings, not just in the Parks Department. Parks crews are busy mowing, cleaning, prepping parks for the busy season. Forestry crews continue to do tree plantings and ash tree removals, and ball field crews have tournaments most every weekend all summer long. The activity center was busy with bingo, fitness classes, and educational opportunities this month for our residents 55 and older. And then one last reminder here before next month when it will have already passed, but the wall that heals will be in Brookings June 11th through the 14th. As a reminder, this is a three-fourths replica of the Vietnam Wall. Memorial wall that is in DC and travels around the country and we are the only City in the state to host that this year The landfill got new signage that was installed this month, just in time for the arrival of a South Dakota Solid Waste Management Association Conference that was hosted here in Brookings. These new signs were designed by our communications specialist and are intended to make it easier for Brookings residents and then other regional landfill users to know where they're going once they get to the landfill. And last but not least here, the Dakota Bank Center had 15 events over 19 event days in May, including the Brookings High School graduation that had about 3,000 attendees, the Brookings Regional Growth Alliance Economic Summit, and the CASA Fire and Ice Gala. A couple upcoming events include Max Carnival and the South Dakota Quarter Horse Show here. And if you have any questions, I would be glad to take them.

Thank You Samantha any questions from staff or staff come counsel I do have one question max said carnival that it was on the parking lot I think of the ice arena last year will it be in the same spot The Dakota Bank Center parking lot this year okay to the south of the building then yes all right Any other questions comments? Thank you Okay. We're done with our business this evening. Regular meeting, our next one is gonna be on the 9th of June. There's not a lot on it. Currently we have no first readings. Obviously having none tonight we won't have any second readings. We've got official reports. One operating renewal. Otherwise that's pretty much it. It could be a drive-by shooting on the next meeting. Any other comments or items that the council would like to bring forward and for the future discussion? Entertain a motion to adjourn so moved second All those in favor say aye Thank you