City Council - Regular Meeting

Some of them had kitchens and they all you could technically live in there, but they don't allow that. But they had they had everything in there. It was just like and the vehicles of course were just out of this world. Thank you, Dunka. long day because you drove down and drove back, but

it was worth it. What? Yeah. Okay. All right. Good evening, everyone. It is April 27th, 2026. It's 5:31 p.m. I am Mayor Shelley Carlson. The Morehead City Council welcomes public input on issues listed on the agenda or of general community interest, time, and council permitting. Speakers are limited to three minutes each. If you would like to address the council during the meeting, you'll need to fill out a form provided by the city clerk and we will call you up during the citizens to address council item on the agenda. You'll need to state your name and if you are a Morhead resident. If comments were submitted to the clerk pri prior to the meeting via email or phone. Those comments will be entered into the record. For more information on participation, please visit the council meetings page on the city of Morhead website at moreheadmn.gov. We the Morhead City Council collectively with gratitude acknowledge the sacred land the city of Mort is built upon. We acknowledge the people who have resided here for generations and recognize that the spirit of the Dakota Ojiway Mati and all indigenous communities permeates this land. With that, could we get a roll call, please? Brian Nelson, Nicole Matson

here, Heather Nisser here, Emily Moore here, Deb White here, Lisa Borggan here, Sebastian McDougall here, Chuck Hendrickson here, Mayor Shelley Carlson here, and for those who are able, please stand for the pledge of allegiance. Right. And do we have any agenda amendments? Yes, mayor. We are amending the agenda to remove item 18 C.

Okay. Um, with that, uh, do I have a motion to approve the agenda with the, uh, amendment? So, move Nissa Meyer. Second. Motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, signify. Roll call vote, please. Sorry. Hendrickson, yes. McDougall, I. Borggan, yes. Moore, yes. White, yes. Nissa Meyer, yes. Matson, yes. All right. The agenda um carries. U Motion to approve the consent agenda. So move Na Meyer second. More motion and second for the consent agenda. Any discussion? Seeing none. All those in roll call vote please.

Nelson Moore. Yes. McDougall I. Borggan. Yes. White. Yes. Matson. Yes. Nissie Meyer. Yes. Hendrickson. Hi. All right. The that motion carries. Um we are going now on to recognitions and presentations on the agenda. The first one is a recognition from our Morehead Fire Department um on a promotion and credentiing. And I will turn this over to Chief Wallen.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council members. Uh it's my absolute honor and pleasure to be able to uh help with a couple recognitions tonight. Um, first of all, following in the wake of 30 years of dedicated service to the city by Chad Stangland, our former fire code official and emergency manager who spent 13 years in that role, um, we were able to bring Jamie Garvey on with the Morehead Fire Department, uh, in 2024 to, uh, work sidebyside with Chad and, uh, bring the experience that he brought from the city of Fargo over to the city of Morehead. and uh we are really excited about the enthusiasm that he brings to the job and perspective that he'll bring to community risk reduction services for the city of Morehead. So we wanted to introduce our new deputy chief of community risk reduction, Jamie Garvey. And then also while we had this moment, we thought we would uh take care of a little gap in our recognitions um with uh deputy chief of operations Dave Conrad. In late 2025, he earned his chief fire officer credentiing from the center for professional credentiing uh part of CYPI. Uh this is a process whereby the candidates are evaluated on seven aspects of performance in their field. um education experience, professional development, professional contributions and recognitions, professional membership and affiliations, technical competence, and community involvement. Um, on top of being recognized for all of those areas in which a person has been excelling in their professional development to help serve the citizens of the city of Morhead, uh, this credentiing lasts for a period of three years, during which time, um, you not only have to maintain the professional standards of the fire service, but you need to continue to excel in your professional development, in your service towards the community, and all those same seven factors. So, it's not a oneandone, but it's you've achieved this and over the the next

three years, how are you going to continue to grow professionally and grow in your service? So, with that, I'd like to recognize Chief Fire Officer David Conrad.

Thank you very much. Yes. And do either of you want to come in up to the podium and say a few words? I'm good.

Okay. Well, congratulations to both of you. I feel we are very fortunate to have people of such high level of professionalism and camaraderie and working together so seamlessly um in our community. And I also wanted to extend a congratulations to Chad Stan on his uh on his retirement. Um he scooted out of here without having a party, I heard. So I think if anybody approaches him, we should at least, you know, throw confetti at him or something like that. I've heard two things. One, he didn't really want to do a big hoopla. So, just being able to say something tonight was the most I could probably ek out. Um, but I've heard that his wife doesn't share his opinion about not having a retirement party. So, there should be something coming up in the next 30 days or so. We'll let you all know.

That is wonderful because she had to u put up with a lot of nights where he wasn't home. So, it's just as much of her retirement party as his. So, wonderful. Wonderful to know. Thanks.

Thank you. We'll steal you for a picture. Thank you. Congratulations again. We're very excited uh for these new promotions within our fire department. Um next is a recognition from our police department. Um and I will turn this over to Chief Helmick for a swearing in of a new officer and introduction of a new records manager. Good evening, Mayor, council members. Uh, tonight I have a couple things going on. Uh, first of all, I'm excited to update you on a recent promotion that occurred in our department. And, uh, as the mayor mentioned, we also will be swearing in a new police officer. Uh, first off, I'd like to introduce to you our new records manager, Laura Pilg. This is a new position that we recently created after reclassifying some of the other positions in our records department. And uh Laura's primary role is going to be overseeing the records

department and providing leadership to that group. Uh she has a long list of experience uh with our department which made her uniquely qualified for this position. So we were really excited about having her in that role. A little bit about Laura. Uh she began her career with the city of Morehead in January 2001 at the Morhead Police Department where she worked with the crimefree multi-housing coordinator and the school resource officers. In 2007, she transitioned into the records department where she supported the daily operations of police records management. Her responsibilities included processing police reports, conducting data entry and quality control, as well as ensuring compliance with state and federal records standards, coordinating public records requests, and assisting officers and investigators with timely and accurate access to case information. In May of 2015, Laura became the department's evidence technician. In that role, she managed the intake, storage, tracking, and disposition of evidence and property coordinate coordinated lab submissions and prepared evidence for court proceedings. Her work was essential in maintaining the integrity of investigations and supporting successful case outcomes. Laura is promoted to the records manager position on April 20th. She and her husband Jay have two children, Brody and Jaden, who are both 21. Outside of work, she enjoys riding motorcycles, spending summer days at the lake, reading, and pursuing a variety of craft projects. So, please help me congratulate Laura on her new position. All right. Next, we will have Officer AJ St. Clair come up. Right. AJ is one of our newest police officers who's returning to the Morhead Police Department after a short stint with the

M Minnesota State Patrol. Welcome back. Officer AJ Sinclair will be sworn in tonight for the second time. We're extremely excited to have him back with our team. Uh here's a little bit about him. Officer St. Clair was originally from Wobin, Minnesota, and graduated from the FondeLock uh tribal and community college. He spent eight years working as EMT and later served with both the White Earth Tri Tribal Police Department and the Minnesota State Patrol. He also previously worked with the Morhead Police Department from 2023 to 2024 and is excited to be rejoining the department and reconnecting with the Morhead community. His career has taken him to several uh northern Minnesota communities, giving him a broad experience and strong ties across the region. Outside of work, AJ enjoys spending time with his kids, especially playing board games or taking them to the park. He also plays the drums, works out regularly, and practice jiu-jitsu with his son. Additionally, AJ is working toward a bachelor's degree with a minor in Ojiway language teaching. Should also note that AJ accelerated in a uh or I'm sorry, he finished an accelerated version of his field training and tonight's going to be his first full solo shift. So, we're excited about that. Uh tonight AJ will be having his son Anthony who is also the sharpest dressed person here tonight. Uh Anthony will be pinned on AJ's badge. So we have him up here. So if you guys want to go ahead and pin the badge on All

right, with that, we'll have the mayor come up and issue the administer the oath of office. All right, I'll I'll go this way. There we go. Anthony, are you sure you don't want to come up? No. Okay, you did a great job. So, um, usually I have something I read, but I know that when we did that before when you were here, I read it all already. Um, I'm just I just want to express our excitement and joy that you're coming back to Morehead because you are an exceptional police officer and um we always heard such wonderful things about how you treated um everybody that you interacted with in the city. So, we're just thrilled um to have you back. So, you want to raise your right hand? Um I state your name. I

do solemnly swear that I will support and comp that I will support and comply with the Constitution of the United States of America, the Constitution and laws of the state of Minnesota, the charter laws and ordinances of the city of Morehead, the policies and procedures of the Morehead Police Department, and the law enforcement code of ethics and that I will faithfully discharge the duties as police officer to the best of my ability. I further pledge that on my honor I will never betray my badge, my integrity, my character or the public trust. I will always have the courage to hold myself and others accountable for our actions. I will always uphold my community and the agency I serve. Congratulations.

I think that uh Anthony was the best dressed badge pin on we've ever had. He's absolutely great. So um the next presentation is energy efficiency and sustainability partnership with Mckinstry. Um and I'm not sure who I'm turning this over to. Okay. Assistant uh city manager Mike Grez.

Uh thank you, mayor and councel. Yeah. Uh tonight I'm I'm here to to introduce uh uh Bob Long, Laura Mwitz, and John Neville from McKinstry. Uh they specialize in energy efficiency and sustainability projects. Uh we began our discussions with them uh sometime middle of last year um at uh I I think it was late summer, early fall. They brought their team up to Morehead uh went through all of our facilities um and uh came up with quite a list of projects. Um what they do is they they find projects that where you can do uh improvements to your buildings that allow the uh the savings on the utilities to actually finance those projects over over a period of years. Um and uh so what what we're we're going to do tonight, they've uh they're going to talk uh about their process with you. They're going to talk about the projects that they've identified here. Um, and then there's uh we we have an agenda item on the agenda here to uh actually authorize uh moving forward with uh with the process. So guess with that I'll uh turn it over to them.

Great. Thanks Mike for that introduction. Uh madame mayor, council members, my name is John Neville. I'm the regional director for Mckinstry. Been with the company five years, spent fi 10 years with Honeywell, five years with Johnson Control. So my entire career has been my passion energy efficiency and sustainability. Also like to introduce Laura Malwitz. Hi, my name is Laura Malitz. I do have been in this energy industry.

Thank you. Uh my name is Laura Malwitz. Um I've also been in this industry for quite some time. Um a little over 20 years. Um so also along with John having a very strong passion for sustainability, energy efficiency and cost savings uh projects across um mostly municipalities

and mayor members of the council. I'm Bob Long. I'm a consultant with Mckinry team, but I'm most proud and happy back in my favorite college town because I'm a former college concordia cover. So it's great to be back. Thanks. Okay. So, we have a short little presentation to talk a little bit about who is Mckinstry, what do we do, and then Laura's going to talk shortly about the project we've identified with the help of all the city staff and members. So, with that, I'm going to start. So, on the left of your screen, uh, McKinstry, we're a national company. We've been around since 1960. So, we've been uh in business quite a few years. We've got 26 offices across the country, 3,000 employees, and just this last year, we managed to pull in a billion dollars of avenue annual revenue. On the right side of your screen is more about the Midwest. So, we're part of the Midwest office, which is Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois, and Missouri. And jointly we've put together $350 million worth of projects. And we've got more than 45 solar projects in our portfolio. And we do a lot of what we call legacy customers where we do a project, they bring us back for a phase two, they bring us back for a phase three because we've overperformed on the prior projects. We have an office down in Minneapolis in the little suburb called St. Louis Park. And so our essence of what we do with buildings, we look at the total perspective of buildings. We look at your electric bills, we look at your gas bills, we look at your water bills and see how efficient the building is operating, how we can improve the building from equipment installations,

fine-tuning your energy management system, upgrading lighting, possibly solar applications. So we look at the entire building as part of our process which we have done with a lot of the staff here at the city. And then here's our perspective of what we bring to the table for a lot of our customers. So if you look on the far left, we bring taxpayer tax savings. So we look at cost reductions for the city from your budget and from your utility cost savings. We try to reduce those for your your the city and your occupants. In the middle, we also do the operation savings and benefits from your maintenance staff is reduced. We look at a lot of your staff time is reduced also. And a lot of the capital that you're outlaying for a lot of these projects are rolled into our project on an energy efficiency basis. And then finally on the far right for we we are pride ourselves on energy efficiency and sustainability. So a lot of times we bring in the solar and efficiency. You'll see a lot of our projects. We've done our award-winning projects here in Minnesota. And then we've worked with a lot of cities to bring them from various steps in the greenep city program all the way up to the top completion. Next, uh we these are just a few of the customers we worked with. A lot of cities, a lot of counties, universities, and even some notfor-profit uh building types uh throughout the entire state of Minnesota. And then just as a highlight of a couple of things on the left, number of cities we were working with right now in the red. I put Morehead on there, so hopefully things will go well this evening. Uh we're working with the city of Baiji, Fairbolt, city of Reine. We're in

construction there. You can see some of the other cities that we worked with. On the right hand side, a lot of the counties all in red right now. We're working with a lot of counties throughout the state. You can see a couple that are phase one, phase two, uh with a lot of those entities. And then, uh we're just right now working with the National Lon Center on a project there. and a couple of the other yeah we worked at the Minneapolis airport Guthrie Theater and in a number of universities around the state of Minnesota and with that I'm going to turn it over to Laura to talk in more detail about the project itself.

So what does this mean for the city of Morehead? Um well what we like to do is we like to start with understanding the city's energy profile. How much money do you spend on energy? So, mostly electricity, natural gas, water. And we look at that entire portfolio. And what we learned by collecting a lot of and almost all of the city's utility bills is in one year the city spends a little over a million dollars a year in energy costs. Um, the largest users of that to no surprise would be the wastewater treatment plant. And then also this building that we're standing in right now. We also like to understand each facility individually. So we toured each one of these buildings on this list. It's a long list. We don't have to go through each one of those. Um but it equals about 400,000 square feet of buildings that we spent a lot of time with your staff to understand from a facility condition perspective. In doing that and understanding not just the utility profile but also the condition of the city of Morhead's facilities, three main takeaways stood out to us. Number one, um your facilities um and energy staff are doing a fantastic job of maintaining and operating your facilities. Um Anthony and Dan and Ethan were a huge help to us over months and months of all of this data collection. We work with cities like John was saying across the state and some of this was the best data and experience one of the best we've had. So, thank you to your staff for that time. Um, but because buildings age and they get older, we did find many opportunities to find efficiencies, both cost savings and energy savings. So what our job was to do was to package all of

those up into a project that would self-fund through those savings. And then third, understanding that the city does have sustainability initiatives and goals. Um specifically looking at putting solar on the new library or the loop, um looking for solar opportunities in other places across the city. um being able to advance the city's uh presence with GreenStep cities as well as other initiatives as far as mostly in this environment capitalizing on incentives, right? We've got a lot of investment tax credits available to cities in the state of Minnesota right now and we are very well positioned for the city to maximize those as much as possible. So these is this is kind of what we in collaboration with your staff came up with. We looked at multiple different options, multiple different variations of a project, and we landed on what we're calling this base project. Um, you can see the buildings listed to the left that are included in that scope of work. I won't go through them individually today, but know that the efficiency measures and the technologies that we looked at span lighting, building envelope, some commissioning, solar, and also water efficiencies and some turbines. These are some renderings of the solar that we were looking at. We know that getting solar on the new library is important and doing so in an economically efficient manner. So that is a big priority of this project. Putting this solar on this roof would bring this building to near net zero standards and it would also accelerate all the lead certification that I know that your team has been working on for years already. We looked at other buildings across the city that we could take to near net zero. There's a small fire station that is a potential. Um, and there are some other areas that we

continue to look at, but knowing that that new library at the loop is is a main priority. And so what does this mean from an economic perspective? We like for our projects to be economically viable. Um, so for zero to maybe up to about $30,000 of city contribution, that is already going to be spent on these types of technologies. So, we would just kind of scoop that into our project thing that you were planning to pay for anyways. Um, for that very small contribution, we can complete a 4 to6 million project, which includes facility improvements and reduces utility cost. And over the life of the project, this equipment will last much longer than how long it costs to pay for this project. we would be able to squeeze another 2 million plus benefit out of this project. So looking at about 6 to8 million in total benefit to the city of Morhead. Um we get there by reducing utility costs by almost 23%. So, taking that $1 million annual utility spend, reducing it with this one project by that about 23% will be saving the city anywhere from 165 to $240,000 a year. That is, like I said, reducing your utility costs by 16 to 23%. And because we are looking at solar technologies, we can capitalize on those federal incentives that are available right now, anywhere from about $600,000 to 2 million. So it's quite significant. So for just that very small contribution of $34,000 that would be spent anyways, we could accomplish a lot for the city of Morehead in that self-funding manner. This is just an illustration of how we

do this across the state of Minnesota. This is a um statute for the state of Minnesota that many cities and counties and universities use to capitalize on these energy savings. You can see on the left is your baseline utility amount. So that would be your million dollars. We plan to drop that by about 23% and use those savings to fund your project over time. So it doesn't cost any out-of- pocket money for the city of Morhead to accomplish such a significant project. And so just to recap on some of the summary of the benefits of this project is we would be able to get a lot of work done for the city um improve your facility um condition across all your citywide facilities. Uh implement some energy efficiency savings measures which will save you, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars of years. Use that money to fund a project like this that will contribute towards your goals of maintaining and and really following in suit, which you already do, of great operations of your facilities, but also being able to fund some of those sustainability initiatives such as solar and reducing energy costs citywide. So, that's a summary of our project. We're welcome to take questions and comments for a project that we have been um it's been a joy to be able to collaborate with your staff with over these many months.

Great. Thank you so much. And um it's no surprise to me that the staff was so wellprepared and has such incredible data for you to utilize and that they were a joy to work with. Um we hear that over and over again and it makes us very proud and I couldn't uh agree with you more. Um that we have except exceptional staff here. Um thank you for the presentation. I'm going to open it up for council if you guys have questions or comments. Uh council member Borggan.

Thank you, Mayor. So, I love it. Especially the new library having the solar. I think that was always the vision when we were starting that project. I do question a little bit the fire station 2 since we have talked about that building really needing a lot of work and maybe I don't even know if it's viable for the next 20 years. So, I'm not sure that that would be the greatest investment, but I'm going to leave it up to you all to figure that out. But, I think that's something that is questionable in my mind. Um, so that's it. That's all I have. Thank you, Council Member Niss Mayor.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I have a slew of things. Um, if my crunchy granola doesn't come out enough here, just know that I am very appreciative. I am a fan of the Gold Leaf program and I love that you cite it. Not only doing green step cities, which we have done year after year and very well thanks to our staff. I am very excited to move a step further and really be focused on a variety of improvements. Um I too along with council member uh Borggan uh was curious if uh the age of buildings was considered because station two is not our shiniest. It's it's not our oldest. I'll give you that. Um but it may not be very viable. I also only saw two solar um opportunities. Were there others to consider or prioritize that you only selected the top two? Can you speak to that?

So, we looked uh citywide for solar opportunities. Things that really stick out to us are age of roof. If we're going to be putting um solar on a roof, um what the condition of that roof is, what the structure of that is, and then we also look for ground mount solar opportunities as well. So, anywhere that you have adjacent land to a big building that uses a lot of energy that they can kind of work together on. Um, and these two rose to the top from an economic perspective as our goal was to fit the project into a self-funding format. Um, there are some other potentials um for solar at some other uh sites. Um, the wastewater treatment being one of those. Um, however, we are going to work with your staff very closely on further identifying, you know, the viability of those. fire station number two would also come into that discussion. You know, I know the future plans of that building are, you know, are still being thought about and we come across that a lot. So, we will definitely be working with your staff closely here over the next couple months to determine really the feasibility of all of those. Thank you. Um, was geothermal at any part in your discussion or review as an option for the city of Morehead?

So, we always look at geothermal as an option. uh it it in this case we didn't see the quite the right opportunities and so we we'll we'll be investigating further in our further study if if it does become uh cost effective but right off the bat it it just didn't seem cost effective and I we know that the solar at the library was one of the main items so we wanted to make sure we could get that in.

Excellent. Um, the reason I mentioned geothermal is we are redoing our downtown. And the library is the first open building and the second is really going to be the new or up upgraded city hall. And so that potential just with the land around it for geothermal and really impacting a great deal of our downtown development at being really at the height and the forefront of something really outstanding and great for our community. Um I I know it's a little costly up upfront, but um I had the opportunity to tour the city of Rochester and talk about it several phases. I saw Rochester listed. I don't know if that was you or something else, but um it it uh made me see that a lot of things are possible. Um and the engineer for the city um was really excited and talked about how the time frame they had planned for was 10 to 15 years for it to pay for um and it was going to be like four and a half years. And so that uh impact possibility I see for our ecosystem, for our community, and for our businesses and residents, I think is just so outstanding that it would be a shame not to look at it. So I like that you are looking at it and know that I'm a supporter.

Um great, great comments there. And we did three projects with the city of Rochester, so we're pretty familiar with that process. Excellent. Um yeah, I uh I was taking all the sorts of pictures. I sent emails and photos. like I hadn't even left Rochester and I was like this is amazing.

Um I am curious if you just did building review or if you looked at other sorts of infrastructure of our municipal services, our equipment, those sorts of things, our facilities in being able to um encourage or utilize um electric vehicles or hybrid vehicles or a variety of sorts of things. We have a lot of equipment um and it costs a lot of money to maintain but also to to switch out. And I know our current um buildings and facilities don't allow that and it's still kind of costly, but I'm curious if that was part of your review or if you were strictly looking at I know it's not only you had like eight things on your spreadsheet like lighting and I don't know what a building envelope is, but I'm intrigued. Um, and so if if it included any of those sorts of parts of the services or the opportunities within the city of Morhead or if you just looked at our property and buildings.

Um, for this particular phase, we just looked at the built infrastructure, so facilities. Okay, thank you. Um, I and I did notice it said like base, right? So that makes me think of like gh all the places we can go. Um, was very exciting. I didn't see your slides in the packet. Would you send them to our city manager or our clerk um so they can get them to us? I really just want to be able to dig more into them. There was a lots of information on there and I really want to just appreciate the work and the project. I'm very excited for so many more opportunities than what was presented here tonight. Thank you. Thank you. We'll be glad to share that.

Council member Matson. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I have um a question and a comment. Um question about uh fire station 2 and the rooftop solar. Um if we put the um solar panels on the roof and then we decide to make changes or upgrades to the building, can we move the solar panels to a, you know, let's say we put a second story on or something like that? Are those movable or once they're in, they're in and and that's there for their lifespan? So they are movable. We're going to what's called ballast them. We're not going to actually attach them to the building. So they're just ballasted. They're weighted down. So in the future, you could move them. Uh it's typically costly. That's why we always look for a fairly new roof of which that building has been identified. Got the white roof on there. It's brand new. Perfect application for solar.

Okay. Thank you. So it would it's maybe like is not unfeasible to to put the panels there even though the building is not you know we do have to address the building itself but okay it could occur can happen. Okay. And then you talked about phase one and and and council member Nissa Meyer asked a little bit about um electric vehicles. Do you do anything with electric electric vehicle charging infrastructure? Absolutely. On a lot of our projects, we've installed EV charging stations around the city or the county. So, if that's of interest, we'd be glad to look at that in more consideration for this particular project. Yes, please.

Uh, yeah, I just bought an EV and I have learned very quickly that the charging infrastructure in this country is is maybe is not where we're going to need it to be in order to actually fully transition people over to electric vehicles. And so I think as we move forward in the project, that's something that I would like us to discuss further is public charging stations for EV users. I drive an EV myself, so I was looking for a place to charge up when I was here, but yeah, so we do that a lot. Most of our projects, most of our customers want to have EV charging stations within their environment. Thank you very much, Council Member uh Nelson.

Thank you, Mayor. Uh just a point of clarification. Um, I believe I know the answer to this, but I um just want to make sure just from the uh comments that I've been hearing. So, you talk about it being self-funding, and I totally I understand we're going to be saving the 160ome,000 to 200ome, thousand per year. You do the math, it it comes out ahead, but you talk about a 4 to6 million project, right? And so, um, and that project would get done over about a year's time, right? So I assume that the city's taken on that 4 to6 million as debt then or is that something you take on? Explain how that works because it's uh how does that 4 to6 million because there's an initial upfront cost to do all that work, right?

Yeah. So typically what we do is well so entities finance through various processes. Sometimes they we've had a few customers that have just paid for it out of their budget. We've had others that uh go out for their own financing or bond issue and then we typically bring what's called a tax exempt lease purchase to the table. We on your behalf we make no money on this. We go out for competitive rate financing with a number of the top 10 12 firms in the country Wells Fargo, Bank of America etc. So we we set that all up and make sure that all self funds over time and make sure that the payments match the energy savings over the time frame typically a 20-year firm time frame. So there's no dollars from the city to pay for the project over time and those are structured usually upon completion of the project. That answer the question?

Yes, it does. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Say mayor, do you mind if I interrupt? So, this is one way to get these projects done without raising the property tax or raising rates and trying to do more. Um, you know, we've been asked to get these projects done and we just, you know, we need this is this is another tool in the box to get get these facility projects done. And to answer the question too about what's possible in the future, uh, you had mentioned Rochester. You've done three projects down there. I mean, you know, this is where the beginnings of a relationship. This is what that looks like, right? Council member Borgan.

Yeah. I had one more question. Um, did you look into Morehead Public Service or what talk to them about any of these? And maybe that's a Mike Re's question. I mean, how does Morehead Public Service fit into this equation? Because I know we have some solar through Morehead Public Service. I'm just wondering where where we're at with that.

So, Couple things. So, we always talk to the utility. That's where we where Laura showed all the utility usage for all the buildings. So, we're always talking to the utility. And then, particularly for solar projects, we need to reach out to them. What specific standards might you have for this location, etc. So, we're all lined up already with the local utility. So, we've done our due diligence up front. Otherwise, we may we don't want any surprises over time. Thank you. Good question, though.

All right. Um well, uh council, um if we want to maybe jump to 18A, I would entertain a motion to approve 18A. Move to approve. Nissa Meyer. Have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? See none. Uh roll call vote, please. Moore, yes. White, yes. Borggan, yes. McDougall, I Hendrickson, hi. Nelson, yes. Matson, yes. Nissmeire, yes.

Right. And that motion passes. So, um, we're excited to start uh phase one with you and see where we can continue to find savings for the community and keeping within that resiliency focus that um has really been a focus of this council and the city. Thank you. Thanks for coming today. Thank you so much. Yes. Right. Um and I also wanted I think Laura left, but I forgot to congratulate her on her new position within the Morhead Police Department. Hopefully, she's just stepped out. Um moving on to the approval of the April 13th, 2026 meeting. Minister, I have a motion to approve. So moved. Second. Motion in a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, roll call vote, please. Nelson, I.

Moore, yes. McDougall, I. Borggan, yes. White, yes. Matson, yes. Nissie Meyer, yes. Hendrickson, I. Right, that motion uh carries. Um, we do not have any citizens to address the council uh tonight. So, moving on to public hearing. And with that, I will call uh Matt Lysath up. Madame Mayor, we do have the two citizens to address the council.

Oh, yes. Yes, we do. It was underneath my agenda. Sorry about that. All right. Um the first one is um Troy um Troy Don Dillion. Yes. I'm sorry. Um I just know it's Troy from the Dairy Queen. So, I will turn it over to you if you want to state your name and if you're a resident of Morehead. Uh, Troy Dillion and business owner of Morehead, resident of Fargo,

but strong supporter of Morehead. Um, I'm here tonight um to have you guys consider something that's a little unique to separate Morehead from other cities. Uh each of you have a little pamphlet and in there um where I'm originally from is Blue Earth, Minnesota. And in that town, the Jolly Green Giant uh is a big thing. It's 60 foot tall. It sits outside by the interstate. And in town to for the business owners to create a little interest, they had um 4 foot tall Little Sprouts, which is the Green Giant's little buddy, um set up around town and then different businesses painted them up um to make it unique. And then the city themselves went and made it a little scavenger hunt. Um, and to make it more fun for people visiting, um, another one in there is, uh, Redwing, Minnesota. My brother lives down there, and Redwing Boots, uh, are a big thing down there. And the city here had several of them made um and the business owners and different parts or different entities of the city uh had them um painted up to different uh create interest and bring more uh tourism to the town. And what I'm asking is for you guys to consider a little sputddy like this um three-dimensional. Uh this was just a sample and you guys already work with um the company, the people that built our 16 foot tall dilly bar is Fibertock out

of Buffalo, Minnesota. And you guys had them um create the little beavers down at the park. and probably have a little more pull than I do with them, but um I've been talking with them on different things and we came up with this idea and I had a proposal at the back page. Um dependent upon the size of the the three-dimensional um figure, the price would be approximately $6,500 for mold to $8,800. Um far less than the millions we were just talking about. Um, but what I'm asking is for you guys to consider investing in the mold and then us as business people would come and purchase um the the the figurine or figure and then we could have it painted up the way that we would want to and then we would put it on our property and I would be willing to buy the first one um if you you know once you guys decide what you would like to do. And I think it would be really cool, something different. Um, the recognition of the Sputty around the state of Minnesota is huge, especially now with the hockey team doing so great, which they always have, but now that they're winning the state championship makes a big difference. Um, but just to draw, if we get a lot of tourism in, and to draw more people to come around town and maybe do a little scavenger hunt, do something. They do they did start the um uh sculpture walk uh last year or two years ago to create some interest and this would just for me you know in businesses it would just create more interest to get people to come to Morehead um to separate us from other communities.

So I love that and I I apologize I didn't explain how the Citizens to Dress Council works. So um I I let you go a little bit over because I just keep looking at this buddy and it's really cool. Um, sorry about that. That's okay. We don't Um, so during citizens address council, it's just to give us the information. Um, and it's not really a Q&A back and forth. Um, but I'm going to uh direct the city manager to visit with you further and this might be something that could be brought up in front of our art and culture commission. Um, and I know other communities like you had mentioned do this and I know Detroit Lakes did it with the sailboats and um, businesses sponsored them all. And so, um, so I think this would be a really interesting and really fun idea.

Happy to. Yeah, Troy and Diane and I are friends and they're great Morehead supporters and we love having you here. So, I'll be reaching out tomorrow. Sounds great. I appreciate it. Thank you for your time. So, thank you so much for um for coming and um for all that you guys do at the Dairy Queen. You really really give back to the community a lot. Thank you. Um, and I think just the fact that you open up faithfully March 1st, no matter what the weather, is incredible. And I think that in and of itself makes a lot of new stories. So, thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it.

Um, um, the next person to speak is, uh, Jihan Brifky and Janna, if you want to come up to the podium. Um, and I will explain this now now that I've done this. So, there's three minutes. it'll be green button um for you to speak. When it's red, you'll need to wrap it up. Um and with that, if you want to state your name and your um state your name and if you're a resident of Morehead.

Uh my name is Jihad Briki and I am a Morehead resident. So, um I know I've been watching the news and everything that's going on in our community regarding ICE immigration. Um I work with a lot of the immigrant communities. I am from the immigrant community and I feel like um what's been happening like the immigrant community is not involved and I think that we need to have them more involved when it comes to uh the the conversation regarding ICE ordinance because I don't think that's going to fix anything. I feel like it's going to scare our community members more because then um they're going to think that they're going to be targeted more because of what happened in Minneapolis and the situation there. uh with the immigrant community. Most of the immigrants here are legal or US citizens, but a lot of them are scared to leave their homes now because there's so much conversation about ICE and what's happening even though we don't really have a ICE problem here in our community. And I'm so grateful we have such amazing city leaders and we're able to come to you guys with our issues, our problems. But it's important for us, you know, to um support the immigrant community, how important it is to vote, what their rights are, and how they can um connect with their city leaders or how they can communicate with the police department or if they were to interact with an ICE agent, how do you um you know, communicate with them and to be able to deal with them professionally so it doesn't escalate and they're able to come back home safe because just a few months ago when conversation started. I got so many phone calls, so many text messages from just the Kurdish community saying, "Oh, is it true that ISIS is here? What do we do?" Um, they were just

scared to leave their homes. Um, I I do a lot of social media posts. So, I made a video assuring everybody, hey, we grew up here. We're from Morehead. This is our home. You don't have to be scared. What you need to do is make sure you have your proper documents with you just in case you are stopped or if you do not speak English, I suggest you not to leave, you know, home without somebody that does speak English. So if you do run into an ICE agent, so you can make sure that you communicate with them properly. And um, you know, what we need to do, I think, is be more connected to the nonprofit organizations that are working with immigrants because it's going to help a lot. I mean, I work with the Latino um organization as well. She was talking to me about this woman that has her documentation, right? But she was afraid um you know that she wasn't doing it right. So, she ended up getting an immigration lawyer, paid him $10,000 and found out he was a hoax, scammer, scammed her $10,000 because she got the wrong information. So, I feel like if we have like the right resources for these immigrants on how to do their paperwork properly and just guide them and make sure that we let them know this is your city. You belong here. I'm not any different than you are. We are the same. And um you do not have to be afraid to go to work. you do not have to be afraid um you know to to to speak up and to be part of this community because I I should not be scared of ICE or not leave my house or you know not go to work because I think that ICE is going to stop me.

Right. Thank you. Thank you for coming tonight. Thank you guys. All right. With that, um we can move on to public hearings and I will turn it over to Matt Lysath. Um and as he's walking up here, I will entertain a motion to um open the public hearing regarding 9A. So move Nissa Meyer. Second. Moore. Motion in a second. Any discussion? Seeing none. Roll call vote, please. Matson, yes. Nissa Meyer, yes. Moore, yes. White, yes. Organ, yes. McDougall, I. Hendrickson, hi. Nelson, yes. Madson.

Did I say Matson? I got you. Right. We are in public hearing and I'll turn over to you, Mr. Life.

Yes. The first project uh in front of us today is the town homes at Prairie Parkway 2 LLC has plans to construct and operate four townhouse buildings, each containing four or five units on the parcels in the Prairie Parkway third edition. Uh plans for this project include slab on grade construction with standard wood framing, stone, vinyl siding, 9- foot ceilings, and tuck under garages. The ground floor level plan includes a kitchen with a center island and a walkin pantry, dining, living room, and half bath. The upper level includes three or four bedrooms, two full bathrooms, laundry, and a mechanical room. This parcel has been assessed at a land value of $158,900. Um, with uh it's current uh with the uh the city assessor has estimated the new assessed building value for the project will be approximately $3,78,100. The uh exemption term is for four years for a multif family residential project which includes structured parking in the form of tuck under garages. The total benefit to the applicant to this property is estimated at approximately $27,200 based on the 17 units over four years.

All right. Thank you. Um any members of the um public here to speak on this agenda item? Again, are there any members of the public who wish to speak on this item? Seeing none, um I will entertain a motion to close the public hearing. So moved. Second, Nissa Mayor. Motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, roll call vote, please. Nelson, yes. Matson, yes. Nissmire, yes. Moore, yes. White, yes. Borggan, yes. McDougall, I. Hendrickson, I. All right, that motion carries and we are now out of public hearing. Are there any questions for Mr. Lysa from the council? Council member Matson.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Mr. Lysath, just quick question. Um on the timeline bottom of page 12, um construction of the project, if approved, will begin in June 26 with an estimated completion of December 26th, etc., etc. Um if construction is only partially completed on January 2, 20, 2027, but has met the minimum value threshold, the project operator may choose to pay taxes for the partial year and begin the full exemption in 2029. That partial year clock starts at what point?

It it starts on January 2nd of So if if the project is not fully completed by the end of 2027, it but it was partially completed, it would be in that year that they would make that payment. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? And if not, I would entertain a motion to approve this agenda item. I'm still confused. I'm sorry, Madam Mayor. Um, Council Member Dismar, could you could you talk? I I I thought I knew it and now I'm more confused. So, could you like go through the whole kitten kaboodleoodle for us from the beginning?

So, for any project when it completes, if it completed on time and was finished by December 31st, 2027, it would be assessed in 2028 for property taxes paid in 2029. That's the it's always you're once you're assessed it's always taxes are paid the following year. So that partial year in between if it wasn't fully completed but they wanted to push the clock back to the next year they would pay the taxes for that 2027 year to make the clock start at 2028. Okay. Thank you very much. In no case uh whether it's

starts at the same time or or it's paused by a partial payment, the the total collection for the city does not change in total for the project. It's like you read my mind. It's like you read my mind. I I have one other um question about I I know these are just um temporary plans. They're drafts. Um, I have been uh very um excited about any multifamily uh dwellings, opportunities to own a home. Now, we can't say what's going to happen, right? Uh who's going to buy this property if they're going to keep it for themselves or rent it? Um do you know do they have any plans to keep the property and manage it themselves as rentals or put it up for sale?

I do not know that what their intentions are. I know some development companies in our metro area um build them and then maintain uh property rights and rent them. Um and so I was just curious uh about this new project about if the intent was to put these units uh for sale in a new developing neighborhood or to keep them and maintain them um as rental properties themselves. I don't know. It's not necessary to know. I was just um inquisitive and in my understanding the town homes are for sale for individuals to buy the units within it. So city manager Molly you'd kind of raise your hand. Yeah. My understand it's a build and hold. So perfect.

Then they'll decide for

for people who don't know what a build and hold is. Could you define that a little bit? Well, a lot of times, you know, the development strategy is you build it, you create the value, and then you put it out the market to see if it sell it or you build it and you hold it, and you decide as a as an entity what what you're going to do with it next. And so, yeah, the owner, my understanding is this is the ownership group. This is this is their decision ultimately, of course, but yeah, that this is a this is a build and hold. Um, also um a Morehead business res, you know, someone that grew up here in the community. I appreciate the followup and sort of the terminology. Um I know we are really excited for more development that we're bursting at the seams and we could really use more housing options. Um and so if people are looking and really eager, I just want them to be on the lookout for these opportunities. They might get gobbled up sooner than you know they had anticipated and maybe interested in putting in more plans for more uh multif family units. So I appreciate the um terminology and the discussion about this project. I know we don't know everything yet, like this is just just a little like sweetening of the deal and uh so they can get started, but I appreciate that additional information. Thank you.

I see no questions. I would entertain a motion to approve 9B. Motion to approve 9B. Second, Nissa Meyer. Motion approved or motion and a second. Uh any other discussion? Seeing none, roll call vote, please. Morgan, yes. McDougall, I. Hendrickson, hi. Nelson, yes. Matson, yes. Nissmeer, yes. Moore, yes. White, yes. All right, that motion carries. Um, moving on to the second public hearing. Do I have a motion to open the public hearing? So moved. Second, Nissa Mayer. Motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, roll call vote, please. Matson, yes. Nelson, yes. Moore, yes.

Nisser, yes. Borggan, yes. White, yes. McDougall, I Hendrickson. Right, that motion carries and we are in public hearing. Back to you.

Thank you. Um, our second project is uh from Scott Halpock on behalf of Red River Motorworks LLC. They propose to expand their company's operations with the construction of an 8100 foot commercial facility that will serve as a showroom, sales center, and detailing center. The new building will be constructed using standard wood framing with steel and glass exterior elements along with improved parking slabs surrounding the structure. Uh Red River Motorworks, uh which specializes in European automotive sales, opened in 2024 of October and has quickly outgrown its current location at 24152nd Avenue North. Uh the LEI Red River Motorworks LLC will retain two full-time employees and anticipates creating eight additional full-time positions. The application also includes the addition of part-time positions exceeding the minimum job creation and wage requirements necessary to qualify for this incentive. The parcel has an assessed land value uh of $344,800. The city assessors estimated uh that the new assessed building value will be approximately $970,000. The maximum total benefit for the applicant for this expansion project, it is estimated at approximately $46,560 um over the three-year uh period of the project.

All right. Thank you. Are there any members of the public who wish to speak to this item? Again, any members of the public who wish to speak to this item? See none, I would entertain a motion to close public hearing. So move Matson. Second. Nissa Meyer. Motion and a second. Any discussion? See none. Roll call vote, please. McDougall, I. Hendrickson, I. Nelson, yes. Matson, yes. Nissie Meyer, yes. Moore, yes. White, yes. Organ, yes. All right. Uh, are there any questions from council on this project? Otherwise, would be looking for a motion to approve. Move to approve. Nissa Meyer.

Second, Nelson. Oh, motion and a second. Any discussion? Right. See none. Roll call vote, please. Nelson, yes. Matson, yes. Denismire, yes. White, yes. Moore, yes. Borggan, yes. McDougall, I. Hendrickson, hi. All right, that motion carries. Thank you very much, Mayor.

Look forward to uh having you expand and thank you for doing business here in Morehead. Appreciate you coming tonight. Okay, we are at 17 um 17A on the agenda and I will turn this over to our public works director, Paul Fner. Good evening, madame mayor and council members. Uh, tonight what I have before you is a proposed resolution to appro approve the mosquito control policy. Um, the mosquito control program is managed by the public works department. The purpose of the program is to address mosquito-born diseases and also reduce nuisance mosquitoes within the community. The policy here outlines mosquito control services that are provided and also provides uh clarification on the decision-making process for spraying. The primary goal or one of the primary goals of developing the process was to create clear communication on how we make the decision to aerial spray and what are the criteria that are looked at for that decision. to provide you some history on the mosquito control program. In 2021, the city had put together a aerial application advisory committee. That committee was comprised of city staff and five public participants with different backgrounds in science and ecology. The committee met several times and they met to explore different options around aerial spraying. Through their work, they did develop a uh control mechanisms that were designed to protect pollinators within our community. You'll see that in the policy where it talks

about application rates and specific times on when we would spray. The city council did adopt the control mechanisms and also adopted a WestNile virus risk reduction matrix. That matrix is also shown in the policy and it outlines the decision-making process and the goal there is to include the presence of Westnile virus in our community and have that be part of the rationale of any aerial sprain. In recent workshops, staff has also met with city council last August and this March and discuss discussed the program. you'll see changes or additions to that policy around increasing public communication, defining decision points, incorporating natural predators, and looking into the efficacy of adulticide. So through the past work in from the aerial application advisory committee and recent work with the city council workshops, we've created a policy that not only looks at mosquito populations but also considers how to protect pollinators and take a look at disease within our community. And again, the primary one of the primary uh items in here is to provide very clear communication on how we make those decisions to spray and what's considered in that. Tonight on the agenda, you'll also see that not only do do we have the mosquito control policy, we also have applicable contracts with Cass County Vector Control who does the mosquito surveillance and larvide. And we also have Vector Disease Control International who is the aerial applicator. One thing I wanted to point out with all of these items is the city of Morehead is always the decision maker around aerial spraying. So we always retain that authority and we never give that to a different entity or organization. And

that's very important to understand that that we're always taking the the most information that we have available and making the right decision for the city. Um, yeah, that's what I have. Thank you. Right. Thank you, Mr. Fner. Um, Council Member Nair.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Uh, Mr. Fner, I want to uh thank you and your staff for the work um and uh collecting of feedback uh through this whole process. I know um you were shiny and new when uh things started going crazy about vector control. It was a gift that the city of Morehead gave you. Um, and so I um appreciate not only the clarification on what uh we previously had as regional, it is now very clearly defined in the policy, it also outlines a variety of different opportunities to appro uh improve our mosquito management process. And so um people may read this and not know what the difference is. And so I just wanted to highlight a couple of those things. I'm really interested to see staff work together with um uh local organizations like wild farm alliance, Dakota Aottabon and others to really address mosquito man management in a holistic ecosystem sort of way that really protects humans as well as all creatures throughout our community. um it is specifically highlighted like creatures and avens and so I'm not going to ask you for a scientific uh definition of that but um there is uh additional details about why we uh choose to include and have included in that matrix um the health of birds as well um and so the contract with the Cass County vector control um we had asked uh in the workshop for additional testing sites can you explain what sort of discussions were had and what the future potentially is for that expansion of trapping sites.

Yeah, one of the decisions or one of the things that was discussed in the workshop was to take a look at more more data in Morehead and what the mosquito traps look like. So, um as part of that discussion, I did follow up with Cass County Vector Control and here in 2026, we're looking to add um we'll have two more trap site locations. Uh so one would be in the southwest area of the town near Angela's Park and another one would be near the Horizon Shores community. Um so um just being able to that's one thing that just is resounding in the policy itself is using the best data we have available. So naturally more um traps will provide us better data and more current data when we make decisions.

Excellent. And so people were concerned that we would do away with anything. We have not done away with anything in this policy. Instead, we have added and become more robust in our approach and are using funds um that we collect for that particular fee to um add to some of that. Is that correct? Yes.

Perfect. Um the one other thing is uh the difference between um other uh residential metropolitan areas um and how we differ. And so I think in the policy it specifically talks about pounds per acre. Um which people may not realize that our pounds per acre. It is included in the full packet but for those who looked at the agenda it was just a line. And so I I wanted to make sure that people know that we are unique and different in that um our uh treatment level um has been uh utilized this way for many many years as you highlighted. Um it hasn't been changed and we will continue to be awesomely unique as well as effective. That is all. Madame Mayor,

thank you. Uh Council Member White.

Thank you, Mayor. Uh first, I wanted to me to just draw your attention to a handout that I had um distributed and I thought it would be a good thing to help frame our discussion. And so um and I wanted this to be on the public record. So this is from Cass County de ve vector control data um for the last six uh excuse me the last uh three years in which um six aerial spraying events have occurred in Fargo and West Fargo but not in Morehead. And so um what these data shows you is the change in mosquito count after spraying. And so one of the things that I've brought up before is that it's important if we are spending thousands of dollars on aerial spraying that we should be able to see that it's doing what we want it to do. Um otherwise, not only is it a waste of taxpayer money, but it also gives people a false sense of security. And so I think it's important that we are looking at this data. So again, this is coming from the data from Cass County Vector Control. And so I just wanted to walk folks through this information um just so that um we have a good sense of again what we're seeing from the data from the last um three years worth of spring. And so in this you can see the dates that on the left of when these events occurred the location and Cass County breaks it down into four different areas. It's North Fargo, South Fargo, West Fargo, and Morehead. And so that's what is indicated in the second column. The third column is percent change which shows um the change after spraying. So you know the uh whether if it's a positive number in some cases the mosquito count actually increased um and in some and if it's a negative number then the mosquito count decreased. And so um the last number I'll just take a minute to explain that is uh a zcore which is a standard score. And the

reason that I've used that in here is because if we want to be able to compare across different spraying events, it's important that we're comparing apples to apples and not apples to oranges. And so a zcore is a way of standardizing numbers. And the reason that's important in this case is because every spring event is unique to the weather conditions and other things on that particular night. So, you know, it would be um you couldn't necessarily compare one night to another because one night when they sprayed, it could have been when the wind was higher or the humidity level or they could have been something where there was a hatch that came out just afterwards. And so, by instead standardizing those numbers that it allows you to make those comparisons. It's like if we tried to compare pesos to dollars, we couldn't do it. But if we put them in a similar currency, then we were able to make those comparisons. So the numbers on the right then all that does is it takes the change and then it standardizes it. The basically the short formula is you you subtract the mean and divide by the standard deviation. So you're looking at what's typical. How is this change compared to what was average for that particular evening. The best way to illustrate that is to look at the very first one. This number on the right side is ranked based on most improvement to least improvement. And you'll notice that on that first number on se on on um July 11th, that one at the very top showing the most improvement, they actually had their mosquito count increase by 10%. However, the reason that it's at the top is if you look at the other dates, the other ones with that same date, they all increase even more. And so that was one where unfortunately it was just a you know a bad combination of things that night that they sprayed the mosquito count was high. There was a big hatch and it got even higher. But what we can see is that some places and in this case West Fargo

actually saw a much smaller increase compared to the other areas. So that just gives you an idea of what the zcores are. So on the left hand or on the far right hand side you can see it's ranked by most improved to least improved and then what I did is I just broke it into quartiles. So you can see the top 25% for most improved then this ne one below that then the one below that and then the ones that had the worst improvement okay uh are at the very bottom on the next side. All I've done is then put that into um groupings by area. So you can see how often was Morehead in the top 25, the most improved, how often were they in the one below that, the one below that, and how often were they in the worst area. And I did that for every group. So you can see in that second in table two where we fell over all of those spraying events. So for instance, with Morehead, we never were in the top. So we never saw the most improvement, but we were evenly distributed between the other three quartiles. Okay, so just a bit of an even distribution. Not too different from South Fargo, except for they did have two at the top. They and then two in the second one and two in the one below and they were never in the bottom. Uh North Fargo did the worst. They actually four out of six events they were in the bottom quartile. Okay, so of all the places, North Fargo seems to do the worst after a spray an aerial spraying event and then West Fargo seems to do the best. Four times they were in the top quartortile. After that, I took the zcores and I conducted an analysis of variance and a post hawk test and that allows us to measure whether these differences between these groups are statistically significant. If they're not, then we can

assume that the any difference we see is just a result of random error. Okay? And what I found is there are significant differences between those four regions, but not in what you would expect because the postto test actually shows that the biggest differences that um were observed were between North Fargo compared to South Fargo and compared to West Fargo. So, North Fargo again had significantly less improvement from the aerial spraying events when compared to South Fargo and West Fargo even though they got sprayed. And um Morehead only differed significantly by one group and that was West Fargo. So there was actually no significant difference between Morehead and their results after spraying and South Fargo and North Fargo, both of which received aerial spraying. The only place where we could see a significant a statistically significant difference was between us and West Fargo. The reason I point this out is because we need to make smart decisions. Again, we're entrusted with the taxpayers's money. We don't want to give people a false secure sense of security. I'm not here to suggest that we should never aerial spray. What I'm saying is we can't bury our sa our heads in the sand and pretend that this doesn't happen. Okay? And so I think in terms of framing the discussion tonight as we're looking at it, I would like us to be considering how we might use this information. What does this tell us that we might do some things? So, if we're not getting the results that we should see, should we be more cautious about aerial spraying? Um, are there other things that we could be doing uh other than aerial spraying that might help us keep that mosquito count

down? So, for instance, one of the things that and I am not a I'm not a vector control person, okay? But when I look at this, and it's perplexing to see that three areas were aerial sprayed, and two of them, particularly West Fargo and South Fargo, did significantly better than North Fargo. Okay. Now, if we think about it, what's different about North Fargo compared to those other two areas? Yeah. Okay. It's that they have a greater concentration of trees of older neighborhoods. And so one of the things that could be happening here is is now that we've controlled for other things like rain and humidity and stuff like that, we just have different geography. And so one of the things that I would suggest is as we're thinking about this is we there is data that shows that when you have a lot of tree canopy that aerial spraying doesn't work as well as um if you have more open areas. doesn't really, you know, take a genius to figure that out, right? Maybe we work that into our policy. So, for instance, one of the things that I would like to talk about is the use of truck mounted spraying. And so, we have in our policy on page 78, it says truck mounted uh spraying is performed in targeted areas that coincide with elevated trap counts. My concern is one, we um don't always have the traps that we need. So, as you pointed out, we now are looking at adding two more traps. But also, couldn't we be a little smarter about it and be proactive and say, "Okay, we know in some of those older neighborhoods with a lot of trees, even if we did aerial spring, it's not going to be as effective. Let's get out there sooner with the trucks in some of those neighborhoods." And that not only might that um get that the areas that aerial spraying is less effective, but it also might mean that that we wouldn't

have to aerial spray later on. So that's my first question is is that is could we look at adapting ours our policy a little bit and do things like we don't have to be you know like wait as long maybe for some of the aerial spring if we have an idea of where those hot spots are you know where we know that there's problems um there's a lot of trees and things like that. Why not? Could we just say we're going to we're just going to be a little more aggressive about those areas to try to keep the numbers down so we don't have to spray the entire community. So that's my first question and I and I I'll just leave it at there and then I'll ask others.

Yeah. So if I can speak to that a little bit. Uh with the current procedure and policy how it's written as far as truck mounted spraying, we do perform that. Uh the two triggers that we're looking for is that a recommendation to spray from Cass County vector control. Right? So they're they're taking a look at the trap data, the weather, um different metrics as far as what's going on in the community and the populations and recommending when it would make sense for us to spray. Um and then based on if there's Westnile virus or not is kind of what's going to dictate if that's a truck mounted spraying or an aerial spraying. So if we don't have disease in the community, we'll we'll utilize uh truck mounted spraying. And we do focus on the the hotspots, if you will, where we know that the mo the mosquito populations are high. Um the the big difference there between truck mounted spraying and aerial spraying is with aerial spraying. We're looking to coordinate that with Fargo, West Fargo, um and Morehead. So all of that's happening together at the same time. Excuse me. that provides a a better uh overall coverage of the area, if you will. So, we're taking a look at spraying the entire mosquito population for the metro area. Um, one thing to consider when we're taking a look at the data here is that mosquitoes do move and migrate um depending on the species and the different um conditions, they can move from 1 to 15 miles um in a in a day's period. So, um, when we do have a a disease that we're concerned about and and mitigating the risks around that, uh, the the aerial spraying gives us a better coverage to make sure that we're hitting everything. Um, an example of that is if you just focused on one area, the mosquitoes obviously could could migrate in from other areas. I do understand that but we do again we

know that they tend to be where there is a lot of things like shrubs and trees and thing you know and so I'm just saying rather than waiting it is even just like I'd rather see us doing more in those isolated areas than instead because we also I didn't put this in here but we know that there's huge variability in trap counts and that you have some areas in some cases that are not very far apart from each other but again one might not in a wooded area and it has a very low count and then you go down a few miles down the road and they have a very high count. And so, you know, looking at how we do this more in more of a pinpointed way, you know, um using a scalpel instead of a sledgehammer, you know, there's if we don't if we can do things like that, it might make it less um necessary to do aerial spraying. And again, if we're doing aerial spraying, you'll you're going to get it in areas that are more open that probably don't need it as much. And it doesn't seem from this that it may be as effective in some of those areas that do need it more.

Yeah. So, in in some of my research I did around uh aerial spraying, I did take a look at a case study that was done um in Sacramento County, California in 2005. There was a WestNile virus outbreak in the county and the vector control there did aerial spraying of adulticide and they later came back and took a look at the areas that were sprayed and the areas that were not sprayed and they correlated that data with the um the disease infection of humans and where they were reported and what happened. And ultimately what they came to find was that the areas that were not treated had a six times more likely odd odds to be infected with Westnile virus than than the areas that were treated. So they they did verify through that study that the the act of aerial spraying um was effective and and had an impact on a significant impact on reducing the the possibility of being infected.

And I'll say too I uh I appreciate that and I and I really would love it if we had more people looking at the data here because um I I've spent way too much time on it. say that but also again I think it's important that if we to try to get to the bottom of this so if it's not working why isn't it not why is it not working so one of the other things I wanted to um point out that you mentioned and but I think people should know this is that um Morehead is now taking steps to as you put in the P as we have in the policy it says look at the efficacy of adulticide and what that means is that we will start testing for insecticide resistance distance and um I appreciate all the work that you're doing on that. That's something that the CDC recommends happens regularly and what we learned is that hasn't been happening. And so we don't know yet if we have a a problem with resistance. Um uh but if we do, it's something that we need to be prepared to respond to and it's something that we should have been doing uh a while ago. And so can you give an update on the timeline of when we will have that information and then what we might do in response to that?

Yeah, so uh we did have a recent meeting on that on doing the resistance testing of peromethine. Peromethine is the the active ingredient in our adulticide. Um through that partnership, we're anticipating that in um it'll likely be July and August that we're able to test the the certain vectors of mosquitoes that we want to test. Um so basically towards the end of our mosquito season or the end of this summer, I think we'd have the results and and kind of summary on on what that data looks like. So that'll be great feedback to the program. Um definitely if we need to make any adjustments, we'll we'll utilize that data. Um, and I think just in general to say that you, you know, today we have a policy, but it's it's a living program. We're always open to to feedback and learning on what's what's the best technology out there, the best techniques out there. Uh, one thing that was brought up here with Council Member White is is the effectiveness of aerial spraying in in a treed area, right? So, that's something I'm definitely going to run with and do some research on. um just to educate myself on it and and see if there's a way that we can make adjustments as needed.

Thank you. And I think my last question because I know I have a couple of these have already been covered. Um maybe I have two. Well, it one is that um one of the things I brought up in the workshop is again looking at other things that we could be doing uh that could also be effective. And I know we talked about education, but one of the things is uh being more proactive in eliminating sources. And um I mentioned this last time that, you know, we have neighborhoods not only with a lot of trees, but also uh in some of the areas with a lot of rental units, lawns get overgrown and um aren't wellmaintained. And those are things that are breeding grounds as well. And so um I also I would like us to be doing more with that. And you know, one of the thoughts that I had that I've seen in some areas is having something that's it's kind of like when we have a a score for, you know, for um fire danger and then there are certain times a year you can't have a fire in your backyard. Why couldn't we have things where certain times a year we're going to be more aggressive about making sure that people get their lawns taken care of? That, you know, and I don't know if that means extra penalties. I uh or if it just means extra enforcement, but I think I I've brought this up before and I would like to see us doing something like that of in that time of year when we know this is peak breeding area, uh why don't we make sure that we're putting some more resources into our neighborhood services to have them get out there and find some of those areas and make sure that um we don't have standing water, we don't have overgrown grass and shrubs and things that might be those extra breeding ground. So, that's less a question to you and more of a I'm looking at our city manager of just, you know, I would really like to see us putting some resources into that. And again, my point is let's use our money in a smart way.

And if we can put things into that that make it less necessary to have to spend a lot of money on an aerial spray that has questionable efficacy, I'd rather have us be doing something like that. Uh the last and along those same lines too is if there's is there any indication because we know that larvaide is the best the most effective means of keeping the numbers down. Um is there anything that we could do that would be um helpful on that in that uh vein like putting more resources into larvaide having more staff. I know they're out there working really hard at it and that would be worth the investment to put more into getting larvide out there getting, you know, so that we can keep it from ever hatching.

Yeah. So, we currently do uh larvo control and that's through Cass County vector control. Um I would definitely have to reach out to them to see if there's any any uh areas they' want to shore up or anything like that, but I I do I do believe they do an excellent job on that. They're very professional in in what they do and their approach on how they handle that item. Um, another portion of that is is just public communication. Uh, really going to this year, uh, what we outlined in the policy is is to, uh, focus on public communication, uh, education so that people can drain any standing water in their backyard, but then also just being proactive on getting the word out, I think would have a an impact on that also. And I can't speak for the council, but again, I think I know looking at things that we hear from C County Vector Control, there are times those guys are those folks are working around the clock trying to do this. And so again, I think that would be a good investment um of because again uh getting out there ahead of it, the larvide is the most effective way of treating it. And larvaide is species specific. So it does not affect other insects. it only kills the mosquitoes, which is what we really want. And so I think um you know that should be our one of our number our even more so our number one priority. So I would say I'm not necessarily opposed to the things that we're talking about tonight, but I I just really would encourage my fellow council members to let's just be smarter about this. You know, it's not an eitheror. It's not no aerial spraying or only aerial spraying. It's how do we beef up the things that are really working and how do we make sure that if we are spending money on something that it is doing what it's supposed to be doing.

Okay. Um I'm not sure which one of you had your hand up first. So council member Madson and then council member Nissme. Thank you Madame Mayor. Um okay. So on page two of the policy and page uh 78 of the packet under the subheading aerial spraying um it says the aerial spray must be pro approved by the public works director, city manager and mayor. It is conducted based on a conditions recommendation to aerial spray and the presence of Westnile virus in the community. By community we mean Cass County and Clay County. Correct. Correct. And then when you go to the decision matrix, it will spell out exactly what those

So I just want to clear that up because we do say several times in the community, but what we mean by the community is Cass County and Klay County and we just heard that mosquitoes can fly up to 15 miles, Castleton's 20 m away. So if we are a aerial spraying based on a report of Westnile virus out of somewhere in Cass County because we don't know where, and that's not your fault. I'm just saying like that's the information we have available to us. So we could be spraying for mosquitoes that are nowhere near here and cannot get I mean a presence of Westnile virus that is not in our community in our city and cannot physically get here you know without additional vectors. And so I feel like we've had this conversation before but I would like to have it again. Um, we need to figure out how we can get the information for Morehead. What is happening in Morehead or closer within that 15 mile radius is fine, but um, and I know that's outside of our control, but at the same time, if it is outside of our control, we're using a pretty uh, heavy, you know, we like what did you say? Sledgehammer if and we might need a scalpel. And so, um, this that is part of what I find concerning about this policy and and there's no immediate resolution to it at this moment. It's not your fault. Um, but I would like us to try to figure out in the future, is there a way we can we can get a more precise um um understanding or insight into where the at Westnile virus actually is in Cass and Klay County. Oh, council member niece mayor and I I don't know um Mr. Fner if you wanted to address the reason why we aren't able to pinpoint those cases. It's a lot of it has to do with I believe the department of public health in both Minnesota and

North Dakota. Is that correct?

Yeah. So, some of it comes down to the reporting capabilities. Um and it has to do with personal information and just keeping things private. When we take a look at uh positive mosquitoes, we're talking about mosquito pools that are tested. Um when that happens, we are able to get the data on on where those mosquitoes came from. So basically what trap they came from. So when we talk about the decision matrix and what would trigger an aerial spray, we're looking for it would be a sustained transmission within the mosquitoes. So we're not talking about one or two traps testing positive. we're talking about a a very wellestablished pattern as far as that being sustained and and knowing that it's in the mosquito population. And in that situation, we would definitely know that if it's in uh what city limits it's in. When we take a look at human cases, that is reported at a county level. So, both the the state of North Dakota and the state of Minnesota will report that information on the county level. I have spoke with Minnesota Health Department and they're willing to work with me directly. So, if we do have a case that's in Klay County, um they would be able to provide me more information on on what level of concern we should have and and what action should be taken. So, some of it's just a matter of formal reporting and and that's kind of a limitation on what we can put in a policy, but then also we're naturally always going to be looking for the best data that we have available. Council member Nisser.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Um, as a followup, I appreciate you doing that work with the Department of Health for Minnesota. I know, um, although as a county, the majority of Klay County does live in Morehead, which makes it tricky. Um, just being able to know the limitation, the travel distance possibilities of mosquitoes and really getting the best data possible. So, I want to appreciate that. My question was um just because uh funding and monetary um elements have been brought up this evening in the uh vector disease control international aerial mosquito spraying agreement extension. Um it is addresses the financial considerations and it says uh the 2026 aerial application retainer is $36,000. 36 Yeah, I said that right. and will be applied to the first application. The resident fee includes this expense of the contract. Can you tell me is it like a retainer that we don't use? If we don't spray, we get that money back or is it something that they hold on to and just wait uh for uh the first spray and then subsequent subsequent sprays we would be charged. Can you detail that again just if people are curious about how their money is being used from that uh fee?

Correct. So, uh, the retainer is paid to the the vendor and that's for them to be ready to spray if needed. So, um, if if there is an aerial spray, that funding would go towards that spray. The $36,000 is approximately the price of one spray event. And with that, they're the vendor is um making sure that they have the product on hand, obviously, available within their um schedule and priority of of scheduling. And then they're also doing any permitting required to be to be able to perform that service in our airspace. Uh the retainer would not be returned to us if we don't utilize it. Thank you.

Right. Uh Council Member Borggan.

So Paul, thank you for updating the policy after our our workshop. I think that you've taken it real seriously about some of the um concerns of some of the council members. I think it all kind of boils down to whether we trust that you are going to continue to research and make the best decision for the city of Morehead, which I have full confidence in you that you will do. Um, I think also communication is huge. We have a great social media team. We could do a little more communicating on that. And then I think we also have to recognize that homeowners or whomever is in the community and wants to enjoy their outside, they can do things themselves as well. It's not just the city that's going to take care of your mosquitoes in your backyard. You can spray yourself if you want to. You can put the citroronella candles out. You can do lots of things. So, we can't expect the city to make our problem with mosquitoes go away because we live here and we've all lived here and we know that mosquitoes are part of summer. So, there's nothing we're going to do to get rid of them. And, uh, Council Member White, I appreciate the work that you've put into this. What I mean, I'm not a statistician, but clearly we aren't spraying as much as maybe people think we are. We have sprayed one time, aerial spray, I'm talking about one time in 2023, two times in 2024, and three times in 2025. So, it's not like we're spraying every week. We're not doing aerial spraying every week. I'm a gardener. I like flowers. I like my pollinators. So, I'm glad we're not spraying any more than that. And I think that, you know, this policy to me seems like it's the best that we can do. We can't write in every little thing in a policy. And with that, I guess I'm going to call the question. We're are we are supposed to are we supposed to approve this policy? Is that

what we're here to do tonight? There's three things to be approved. 17 A, B, and C. We can take them all together. We can take them separately. It really it doesn't matter. You just misspoke. We didn't spray. We didn't just so you know. Just so they know if you want to clarify that. Okay. Well, we didn't aerial spray in any of those times. Vector control area spray. Aerial sprayed morning. Not in more. No, that's the whole point of this. Well, I didn't understand your chart then. I thought these locations were the times that we sprayed. But no, we don't need to get into it anymore. I'm good. I don't need to hear anymore. No, the point point B and C. Please, let me just say the point is that we are the comparison group.

They sprayed and we didn't and there isn't a difference. That's the whole point of All right, we have a motion on the table. So, yes, thank you for clarifying that. And I don't I actually didn't hear you. Um, Council Member Nisser, can you repeat your motion? I uh proposed uh 17 A, B, and C be taken together as my motion. I'll second that. Okay. Okay. So, there is a motion and a second. Any further discussion? I'm sorry. Are we voting to take them together or voting to approve them all right now? Approve them. Um, yeah. Approving A, B, and C is how I understood Council Member Nissa Meyer's correct

motion. Uh, Council Member McDougall. Oh, okay. Sorry. I thought you were Okay. Sorry. Um, so any further discussion? Roll call vote, please. More. Yes. White, yes. Borggan, yes. McDougall, I. Hendrickson, hi. Nelson, yes. Matson, yes. Nissa Meyer, yes.

Okay. All three of those motions. Um, Carrie, thank you, Mr. Fner and thank you for uh the incredible amount of work that you've been doing to update this and work with NDSU, work with Concordia on other ways and I know it's just kind of something we're been continually working on over the last six years. Thank you. All right, moving on. Uh mayor and council reports. Do any council members have reports from um uh boards and commissions you were on? Uh council member White. Thank you. I do have some reports. or not about boards and commissions. Um, one is I wanted to mention my my absence last week. Um, I was traveling to Texas, uh, El Paso, Texas and Warez, Mexico with an ecumenical group. Um, looking at border issues, meeting with people who've been detained, um, some of the organizations that support them. Uh, attended uh, um, federal courts, met with Custom and Border Patrol. The reason this is a group that's been traveling from our area for quite some time. Um the reason I attended at this particular time is because I uh knew had heard from the woman who organizes it that the last time she was there at one of the shelters where um where people who been in ICE who've been detained by ICE are released that she met with three motans and we know that a lot of folks that have been detained in Minnesota sadly are being taken far away from home and then left there and so um I attended the trip uh it a lot of information um a lot of really difficult things to observe. But one of the things that um was most urgent was um while I was down there, I learned about a woman from Minnesota who um had been living legally in uh the state of Minnesota since she was a

teenager. She came with her mother from Guatemala um as a working through the process of re of uh seeking asylum, had a work permit, um and was having a medical crisis. She has a tennis ball- sized um ovarian cyst and was scheduled to have surgery to have it removed and to have a biopsy and um very sadly days before that she was taken by ICE. and this was in February and she's been held in detention ever since then. Um she's in a tremendous amount of pain. Um her health is deteriorating and um one positive thing was I when I was traveling we were with um three clergy and we were able to contact her lawyer and have two clergy go in and meet with her and provide some support. she's um very deeply involved with her faith community and has been separated from them and so that was something that was of comfort to her. Um but afterwards we were um deeply moved by it and um wanted to do what we could not just for her but for other folks who are facing these same kinds of difficulties. And so we had a press conference on Thursday at the Capitol last week and then Friday in Fargo to um to call attention to this and um request that she have um she be released for humanitarian parole so that she can receive the very urgent medical care that she needs. And we're also using this as a way of calling attention to the fact that um that there are these um in some cases uh violation of human rights that are occurring within within some of these ICE facilities. Even we know people from Morehead, a young man from my from our ward um that was detained for a month um who is here legally um hadn't done anything wrong,

never even had a speeding ticket, but was held first in the Grand Forks County Jail, then was held in an office in Bloomington in shackles for 3 days with no sleep, no pillow, no blanket, and then taken that to the Candyohigh County Jail before he was finally released. And so, um, so it's important to call attention to those things and, um, to make sure that nobody is is is, um, treated this way. And, um, and so I wanted to thank council members Matson and more for coming to the press conference that we had last week. Um, for me, it was particularly meaningful. It's something that I'll mention I for those of you who know me, I've something that is sort of part of what it has inspired me. Um, last Thursday was the anniversary of when my cousin Bill Moore was murdered, um, marching for civil rights in Alabama. And so, um, his life is something that I've seen as a touchstone and I think very often of the people who came before who did so much to fight for justice, to fight for people's rights. And so I was happy to be able to do what I can and I will continue to you um to do what I can to try to um to defend people and make sure that they are given the treatment that they deserve. Um lastly, I wanted to take a moment to just um recognize the terrible uh tragic death of my friend Liz Con. Um Liz and I worked together years a sorry years ago um when she was at the FM area foundation and then I was so happy when she became a faculty member at MSUM. Um my husband had a chance to work with her as an adjunct and then uh she went on and served in the North Dakota legislature and I'm um so sad for her to have been lost in such

a tragic way and my heart goes out to her family. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member White. Uh, Council Member Nair.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Um, I want to highlight some items that were in our consent agenda. They were for two projects to improve the um Florence Klingan Smith field. Uh, one project is for um updating the precision approach path indicators or PAPI. So, fantastic with the acronyms. We are, we are. Um the other project is for um updating our fuel tank and pump replacement system. Um what I love about Moreheads airport is that it is small and mighty and absolutely fantastic. We take a variety of uh collaborative efforts and put them forward just to make the um airport survive by itself on funding. It funds itself with minimal minimal um amounts coming from the city. I think it's none. and uh all of it coming with improvements from collaborations with the state and uh the federal governments and the programs that they have there. Um just a lot of work went in it but from staff. The airport committee uh reviewed that and put it forth a bit ago. Now we can see it and it was on our consent agenda so it will be able to move forward. The airport committee currently has a W 2 opening and so if you are drawn to the airport committee we meet quarterly. um you can reach out to council member Moore or myself if you'd like more in information, but we are currently looking for um folks to fill that opportunity. So, please get your name in, fill out the form for boards and commissions. I also have a report from the Klay County Solid Waste Advisory Committee, also known as SWACK. Um we met on Thursday, April 23rd, and were able to cover a great deal of fantastic things. Um, one, a, uh, MPCA or Minnesota Pollution Control Agency um, grant was submitted for $2.5 million um, to support um, organics composting

facility here in Klay County. It took a great deal of work of a combination of citizens as well as Klay County staff from the solid waste management department. And so I want to lift that up because that grant not only has to be matched uh a small amount by our county, but we have the uh ability to get some really great updated equipment to help um take upwards of 40% of our trash and keep it outside of our um landfill in Klay County, which is currently in Holly. The uh solid waste uh advisory group is also looking to expand and put um thermal cameras on the tipping floor. And so that um will help reduce the amount of fires that we have in our resource recovery um center as well as our landfill. Uh trash gets very hot particularly because of lithium batteries. And so as we think of uh preparation for cleanup week which starts here in Morhead May 8th. It is a two-eek program. Please check out more information on our city website. But keep in mind if you are looking to remove anything that has from your home um and dispose of it that has a lithium battery. Please remove the lithium battery and bring it in person to the resource recovery center or the landfill where they can safely dispose of them and reduce the amount of fires that we have this spring. There are fires that always happen and we would prefer if our volunteer Holly fire department didn't have to do that because we have cleanup week. Um, if you don't want to put your stuff out on a curb because it's rainy this week, you can bring your stuff to the resource recovery center starting this week um and bring it in free of charge. And so you can bring it in in your car, pull in, and um that can be uh disposed of with no charge as a benefit to the Klay County Solid Waste Management um uh facility and resource

recovery center and a collaboration with the city of Morhead on getting um unwanted items out of your homes and apartments. the uh organic composting um opportunity is only for large organizations and so keep that in mind if you are looking for bins um to be available for the city of Morhead. We're not there yet. Um uh the agreements came from all schools um in Klay County save for Holly um and a variety of um colleges uh elder homes as well as other large food service facilities. And so if you are interested in composting locally, um we do have a Red River composting company that uh locally does pickup for buckets for people who don't want to wait for us to get a grant. Um you can participate and help keep organic waste out of our Klay County landfill. Uh we are also looking at more opportunities to do outreach um through uh the Klay County solid waste management group. Um Mara, you may have seen her on the news last week, uh spent uh January through uh when we had our meeting um April 23rd, um doing outreach with um K12 students. There were almost 900 um that she had the opportunity to visit with and it's recycling, um composting, a variety of topics that she covers. And it's just really an opportunity to look at what we can recycle, what we can reuse, and the impact that it has on our earth. And so if you are interested in having uh Mara come out and visit or if you want to help clean up the resource recovery center or the landfill, you can reach out to her as well because she runs those programs. Uh if you can't find Mara, reach out to me and I will connect you both because there are wonderful opportunities for education for all ages and I encourage you and your group to take that up. Two more programs that we discussed at the SWAC meeting were the

wood recycling program which includes um like construction supplies, building wood, sheetrock, shingles, building supplies. You can bring those in to the resource recovery center any time and they will recycle them um as part of a recycling program. They have a grant that they've put out for it just to help expand it. Um but look for that. We are also participating in boat wrap recycling. And so for people who store their boats, I'm not a boat human, but there you wrap them in this magical stuff that keeps goo and weather and critters out. I'm not sure, but it is a a lot of waste. And so, um, Klay County solid waste announced at our, um, resource recovery meeting, our SWAC meeting at the resource recovery center that the resource recovery center and the landfill are now collecting April 1st through June um, boat wrap so we can recycle it and it can be bundled and uh, put to good use. And that is all for my appointment or report.

Thank you. Other council members have reports from boards or commissions. Council member McDougall. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Real quick, um, if anyone has any nominations for the Destiny Holiday Award, the deadline for that is May 11th, so it's right around the corner. Great. Thank you.

All right. Um, for um, my reports, um, I don't think I'm need to go into a lot of detail. I think there was a lot of press around our loop grand opening, which was held on the 18th of April. And um I also was able to participate in a press conference to get the word out about the importance of a bonding bill to be passed um in the state of Minnesota. Um attended three diversion meetings uh finance committee, the metro flood diversion authority and the Morhead Klay County Joint Powers um association group. Uh the probably the biggest uh takeaway from particularly the finance and the metr flood diversion authority is that they also approved the use of having the match funds from the the federal government to be utilized if we get any funding from the state of Minnesota to finish off the flood mitigation projects not just in the city of Morhead but also um in the rest of Klay County. And then last but not least just congratulations to Youth Works. They had a ribbon cutting and they are now open in the city of Morehead. So with that, I will turn it over to city manager Molly.

Thank you, mayor. Uh related to the library and the ribbon cutting. So in the first two weeks, there were over 700 new library users. Um which is and those are folks that had gotten cards, not even those that that came in. So it's really incredible. It's just wonderful time. Um so um one of Morehead's favorite times of the year, a local holiday really is almost here. uh Morehead cleanup days. And so that is May 4th to the 10th and May 11th to the 15th. Oakport is May 19th where single family residences can put the um uh materials that they would like to throw out on their curbs. Um just so everyone's aware too, the crews go out at 5:00 a.m. So that's that's early. So if it gets noisy, it's just that week. Um and so they do that. Um, Council Member McDougall mentioned the Destiny Holiday Community Champion Award and um, I just wanted I was going to mention it, but just wanted to mention that Destiny really was someone who made Morehead a better place. Um, she's a person who just took hardship and um, used it to to to create, to lift, to protect and cherish others um, all the way to success. She passed away in 2022 and the following year the human rights commission, Morehead human rights commission established the Destiny Holiday Community Champion Award. So she was a very special person and as it's written on our website, the award um is given annually to a Morehead resident whose contributions to the community exemplify the compassion, resilience, and commitment to others as exhibited by Destiny Holiday. So residents um go online and nominate a Destiny holiday community champion.

Thank you. Um we do not have an executive session or any new business tonight. So it is 7:30 and we are adjourned. Good night, Morehead.