City Council - Regular Meeting

All right. It is 5.30 p.m. Sorry for everyone having to wait. We have to wait until 5.30 to start. So it is June 8th, 2026, 5.30 p.m. I am Mayor Shelly Carlson. The Moorhead 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 a council during the meeting, you'll need to fill out a form provided by our city clerk and we will call you up during the citizens to address a council item on the agenda. You'll need to state your name and if you are a Moorhead resident. If comments were submitted to the clerk prior to the meeting via email or phone, those comments will be entered into record. For more information on participation, please visit the council meetings page on the City of Moorhead website at moorhead.mn.gov. We, the Moorhead City Council, collectively and with gratitude, acknowledge this sacred land the city of Moorhead has built upon. We acknowledge the people who have resided here for generations and recognize that the spirit of the Dakota, Ojibwe, Métis, and all indigenous communities permeate this land. And with that, could I get a roll call, please? Brian Nelson.

Nicole Mattson. Heather Niesmeyer. Here. Emily Moore. Here. Deb White. Lisa Borgen. Here. Sebastian McDougal. Chuck Hendrickson.

Here.

Mayor Shelly Carlson.

Here. And for those who are able, please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. All right. And with that, City Manager Mulley, do we have any agenda amendments?

Yes, Mayor. We have two amendments tonight. Item 5A has been removed from the agenda due to a scheduling conflict. That will be back maybe on hopefully June 22nd. And then we have a request to remove Item 8A from the consent agenda.

Okay. All right. And with those amendments, do I have a motion to approve the agenda with those amendments?

So moved, Niesemeyer. Seconded, Moore.

Motion on second. Any discussion? Seeing none, roll call vote, please.

Niesemeyer? Yes. Moore? Yes. Borgen? Yes. White? Yes. Mattson? Yes. McDougall? Aye. Hendrickson?

Yes.

All right. And that motion carries. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? So moved.

Second. Niesemeyer?

Motion on second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in, roll call vote, please.

Faster than a computer.

Nelson?

Sorry, not here.

Moore?

Yes. McDougall? Aye. Borgen? Yes. White? Yes. Matson? Yes. Niesemeier? Yes. Hendrickson?

Aye. All right, that motion carries. So 5A has been removed, so we are going to go on to the swearing in and badge pinning for Moorhead police officers. I will turn this over to Chief Helmick.

Good evening, Mayor, council members. I'm here tonight again to, it's my honor to be able to introduce our three newest police officers who will be sworn into service in just a few moments. Before introducing them, I'd like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to each of them. Choosing a career in law enforcement is not a small decision. It demonstrates a commitment to serve, to stand up in difficult moments, to put oneself under scrutiny, and to place the needs of the community above those of the individual. It's also, excuse me, it's also a profession built on honor, integrity, and sacrifice, and we are deeply thankful to these officers for answering that call by joining the Morehead Police Department. To each of them, I'd like to say thank you on behalf of the city and the community for choosing this profession, and thank you for choosing Morehead. Your dedication, courage, and commitment to service will make our department and our city stronger. So first up, I want to introduce Officer R.J. Hawkinson. RJ is originally from Lakeville. Why don't you come over here here today? RJ is originally from Lakeville, Minnesota, and he's a graduate of Minnesota State University, Moorhead. RJ previously worked at the West Central Regional Juvenile Center and also served as a Moorhead Police Department cadet. RJ is bringing a strong communication de-escalation skills, along with his passion for community engagement, and he's looking forward to building community connections and his personal growth while serving in a law enforcement career with Moorhead PD. Tonight, RJ is going to have his dad, Rick, come up and pin on his badge. So, Rick, if you want to come up.

All right, you can just stand up here RJ.

All right, next up we have Officer Tanner Anderson. Tanner's originally from Inner Grove Heights and is a graduate of North Dakota State University. He previously served as a police officer with the Fargo Police Department where he developed valuable experience as a member of their community engagement team. Tanner's excited to share his experience while embracing new challenges and become a part of the team here in Moorhead. I also want to take a moment to recognize Tanner specifically because Tanner made the decision to leave the relative comfort of his previous position to join our team, essentially starting over in many ways. And that willingness to step into the unknown, to embrace the change for the opportunity to serve this community does not go unnoticed and is greatly appreciated. So tonight, Tanner's going to have his badge pinned on by his mom, Leanne. So Leanne can come up. No pressure. All right, next up we have Officer Logan Schauer. Logan is from Benson, Minnesota, and graduated from the Alexandria Technical and Community College. Previously worked at the Swift County Parks and Drainage Department and was also a hockey referee. He served as a Morehead PD cadet as well. His past experience has strengthened his decision-making and communication under pressure, and he brings enthusiasm, professionalism, and a strong dedication to serving the Morehead community. Tonight, Logan's going to have his mom, Jessica, pin on his badge. So Jessica, come up. Again, to these officers, I want to thank you for joining Team Moorhead. We are honored and excited to have you on board, and we are looking forward to seeing what the future brings for you here at Moorhead PD. So again, please join me, all of you, please join me in welcoming them to Team Moorhead. All right, well, now I'll have the mayor come up and swear them in. If officers, you could take your spots.

All right, well, I always have something that I say to all new officers that I swear in. I know the council's heard this many times, but I am sure your family has not heard this. But we have job qualifications for a police officer, not just in Warhead, but for all police officers. A police officer has to be able to run miles through alleys in the dark, scale walls, and enter homes a health inspector wouldn't go into, all while wearing 20-plus pounds of equipment. An officer must be able to sit in a car doing surveillance all day, cover a homicide scene that night, canvas a neighborhood for witnesses, and be able to show up in court the next day to testify about a year-old case, remembering all of the details with little or no sleep. A police officer must be in top physical condition on black coffee, Mountain Dew, or maybe energy drinks, and half-eaten meals frequently consumed in your squad car in less than five minutes. A police officer needs to have three pairs of eyes, one that sees through a bulge in a coat pocket before asking, may I see what's in there, already knowing what's in there and wishing they'd maybe taken that accounting job. A second pair of eyes on either side of their head to look out for his or her partner's safety. And a third pair of eyes in front to be able to look reassuring at a victim, bleeding victim, and say you're going to be okay even though they know it's not. A police officer must be able to talk a 250-pound intoxicated and competitive individual into a squad car without incident and raise a family on a civil service paycheck. The officer must be able to tell you all the elements of 100 different crimes, recite the Miranda warning in your sleep, detain, investigate, search, and arrest a criminal on the street in less time than it takes five judges to debate the legality of the arrest. and somehow keep a positive attitude and maintain a sense of humor. A police officer must also have phenomenal personal control. They must be able to deal with horrific graphic crime scenes, quotes confessions from pedophiles, comfort a sexual assault victim, know the names, numbers, and services of dozens of community resources, and respond to chance interactions with the public with friendliness and a ready smile at all times. You each are a member of an elite group of individuals who swear to honor, serve, and protect the citizens of Moorhead. For all of these attributes and for your willingness to step into this role, we thank you. The community thanks you. You're deeply appreciated and we are grateful for every single one of you. And RJ, I know that your dad was a police officer for over 20 years, so I'm sure that he understands all of these qualifications as well. So with that, I'd also like to say that was the second time I made it through without getting choked up. So if you want to raise your right hand and I state your name. Do solemnly swear 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 Moorhead, the policies and procedures of the Moorhead 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, 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 and welcome to Moorhead.

Thank you.

And to our friends and family, we'll be stepping next door into the other room here to take some photos. If you want to join us, you're certainly welcome to. So thank you.

And to all the friends and family, thank you so much for coming. It is a true honor and privilege to have your loved ones be part of our Police Department. Next up is a presentation about Moorhead cleanup days, and I will turn this over to Public Works Director Paul Feichner.

Good evening, Mayor and council members. Yeah, I just had a quick presentation to give the group here on cleanup days for 2026. An opportunity for me to break up the group a little bit and the hard work that we do in public works. As you are likely aware, cleanup days is an annual event in Moorhead in the community. And it's a two-week event where residents are able to place their bulky items on the boulevard. and city staff will come and pick up the items and dispose of them free of charge. So it's quite popular amongst the community. And we have a lot of dedicated staff that pull together to make this happen. There is definitely a lot of teamwork going on between our sanitation division, our street division, and we also work with Clay County and their staff at the Resource Recovery Center to make this happen. What I've put together here in this slide is a few stats on the different things that we collected throughout the two weeks. 624 tons of waste, 40 tons of metal that was recycled, and 320 different Freon appliances To accomplish this, we had 28 city staff, eight contracted support laborers, and 18 different pieces of equipment. So quite a bit going on in those two weeks, definitely. And like I said, it's just great to see everyone come together and pull through on that. One of the wild cards with cleanup week, with it being the first two weeks of May, is the weather. We lucked out with not a lot of rain events or something like that. That would definitely hamper kind of how everything goes. But you may recall the second week we had a lot of high winds. So that put a little wrench in our plan, but everyone pulled together and was able to still accomplish what was going on. Overall, we did see a slight reduction in tonnage, about a 5% reduction compared to 2025. And the Resource Recovery Center with Clay County, they did note that too, as far as the amount of residents that were coming in and the material that was dropped off, that it was a reduced amount compared to 2025. So in general, it was a light year, if you will. But as you can see from the numbers, there's still plenty of work for everyone to do out there. So I just wanted to highlight some of the stats we saw once we were able to pull together the numbers and just highlight the teamwork between the city and the county and really all city employees that are involved in it, even like our communication department who has to get the information out and make sure the residents are aware of what's going on.

All right, well, thank you so much. It's a lot of work. It's incredible and a lot of interesting things, I'm sure, that you guys pick up. And thankfully, we didn't have the rain, because I know that makes it really hard, especially with old carpet. It makes it really heavy and stuff. But anyone have any other comments or kudos to give to the public works department? Got it. Yeah. Thank you. I think a round of applause, maybe, is in order. Thank you. OK. On to the approval of the May 26, 2026 meeting minutes. Do I have a motion to approve the meeting minutes?

So moved.

Is there a second?

Second. Moore?

Motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, roll call vote, please.

Mattson? Yes. Niesmeyer? Moore? Yes. White? Yes. Oregon? Yes. McDougall?

Aye.

Hendrickson?

Aye.

Right, that motion carries. Do we have any citizens who wish to address the council at this time? Again, any citizens who wish to address the council at this time? All right, seeing none, moving on to 8A. And I will turn this over to City Manager Molle.

Thank you, Mayor. We have a request from Council Member White to remove this item from the agenda, or from the consent agenda tonight. Okay, Council Member White.

Thank you, Mayor. Thanks. I wanted to just share some concerns about the word for appointment that was on the agenda. Councilmember McDougal and I did talk in the hall about this and I was thinking maybe we could resolve it outside of the meeting, but it doesn't look like so, we're gonna talk about it tonight. I have some concerns because, as you know, several years ago we did, as a council, when we were working on our strategic priorities, we decided that we wanted to work to make sure that the folks that are appointed to our boards and commissions better represent the population of Moorhead. I think we all agree that it's important that all people in Moorhead feel like their voice matters, that they have a voice at the table or a seat at the table. And as elected officials, one of the important ways that we can do that is by being intentional about how we appoint people to boards and commissions. We know that our community is changing and it's important that our boards and commissions appointments also reflect those changes. So we also know over the last few years, our Human Rights Commission has asked us repeatedly to take this into consideration. We've talked about it at workshops. It shouldn't come as any surprise to any of you. I know I annoy the heck out of some of you, but it just means a lot to me that people feel that they matter, all people in Moorhead feel that they matter, feel that they have a voice. And one important way that we do that is by allowing people to have a seat at the table, to have representation in decision-making positions. And so we've talked about it a lot, but unfortunately what we've seen is that we've actually, our appointments to boards and commissions have actually become less representative of our citizenry than more representative. And so And I know that it is difficult sometimes to find people to appoint, but part of that is because this becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. If people don't see that their voice matters, if they don't feel like they will be considered, then they don't apply. And so I know that there's work that we need to do, and there's work that some of us have been doing to really do that outreach, to build relationships within marginalized communities so people know, hey, I can serve in that role. I matter too. Currently in Ward 4, almost 80% of all of the people that are appointed to boards and commissions are white men. That's nearly double the size of their percentage in the population of Moorhead. And I have nothing against white men, happy to have them serve but at twice the percentage of their percent in the population raises concerns that we also have no people of color serving in any of the appointed seats in any of the ward four spots on boards and commissions. And so I have concerns about it. And I know, again, I know this frustrates people when I talk about these things. And so I want to say, I think we should be talking about it. I think we need to do better at it. I'm happy to help. And so if folks are having difficulty having a more expansive pool of applicants, there are things that we could do to make a difference with that. The person who's been nominated that we're considering tonight already serves on the planning commission. So this would be their second appointment to another board and so um again i don't mean to disparage this person or any of the other people that have been appointed for the ward positions or for word four positions i'm just saying that i think other citizens deserve to have a seat at the table and so um i'm just respectfully encouraging my ward four colleagues to reconsider their appointment I'm happy to work with you. I'm sure other people would too. But just, I'm hoping that if you will reconsider this, or at least in the future, really look at providing opportunities for others to serve. Thank you.

Can I respond?

Council Member McDougall.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. First off, I think this is absolutely ridiculous. It should not matter one's race, color, creed, religion, gender, anything of that sort on who's gonna serve on any of our commissions. What matters is whether that person has a heart and a desire and a passion to serve the city and do what's best for the city. If it happens to be 80% white men, then so be it if they're the only ones that are even interested in doing so. This position has sat open for two years, and out of two years, we've had zero applicants. I myself have asked multiple people to see if they'd be willing to serve. Council Member Hendrickson has done the same thing, even to a point where he's like, I'll solely 100% focus a bunch of time on this. No one has even stepped up. It came to a point where we asked Mr. Siegel to do it. He was glad to do it. He's already our chair on our planning commission, so he serves well in that aspect and is great in that role. He's also, for our precinct and our ward for elections, he's also the head judge. So you cannot find a more better individual, in my opinion, that can serve and be completely doing what's right for the city of Moorhead. It's ridiculous to say that just because of someone's race, color, and creed is gonna make them a better situation or better applicant for a position is absolutely mind boggling in 2026. We're not back in the 1960s where that just matters. According to that own concept and way of thinking, I myself should be afraid to be here because I'm of Native American descent. I mean, that's ridiculous. I mean, how backwards thinking are we getting on this council when that's all we're concerned about? None of that should matter. Again, as long as someone wants to be there, they have a drive to do what's best for the entire city as a whole. Because every person I ever talk to about being put on a commission, that's the one thing I talk to them nonstop about it. I don't care if you are, say, in the hockey community or the basketball community or the arts and theater community. You should not just be focusing all your time and energy in those communities. You should be focusing your time and energy on what's best for the entire city. I've said that from day one. even going back to when I was appointed, and I went through that appointment process, and for those that don't know, you sit here and you interview with the council, and I had seven different members that I interviewed against. And council member White, sorry, didn't mean to put her name in there, was talking about how we need to have diversity and everything. I'll remind her that when I went and got approved, it was a six to one vote, and I was humbled by that. My one lone vote, was Council Member White. So how can she sit here and say that we are looking and need more representation, and she herself didn't even vote that way? It's ridiculous. It's ignorance. And I'm not gonna address it anymore. I pick the people and suggest to people, I work with Council Member Hendrickson about who's gonna do what's best for this council and for this city. No more, no less. Any of that other stuff does not matter. It is ridiculous. I yield the floor.

I WAS TOTALLY NEUTRAL ON THIS QUESTION UNTIL NOW, AND NOW I HAVE AN OPINION, WHICH IS I DON'T THINK IT'S IGNORANT OR RIDICULOUS TO WANT THE PEOPLE THAT MAKE THE DECISIONS TO REFLECT THE PEOPLE WHO RESIDE IN MOORHEAD. I just don't think it's a wild idea. I think it's why I'm sitting here, why one, two, three, four, five, six of us are sitting here right now. Well, let's make it seven, actually. Because someone a long time ago said, hey, it's not fair that it's only white men sitting in these places, right? And they said, hey, we should let Native people, we should let women have a chance to represent people. And I appreciate that people did that for me so that I can be here today. That is, I just don't think it's, I don't think it's, I think the word was used, ignorance. I don't think it's an ignorant thing to want the boards and commissions to reflect the population of the city. I just don't. Council Member McDougall.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Let me clarify. It's not that's, I'm saying that we should not be looking at individuals of different heritages, genders, or anything like that by no way, shape, or form. I'm completely open to that. But when you have nobody applying for anything, you're going to go through whoever has the desire and the want to be there and to do that. It has nothing to do with... Any of that. It's 100% who wants to serve the city. Whether you fall into these data guidelines, data doesn't make any sense. The data is worthless because statistics, to a certain degree, can be skewed and are nothing. Take me for a personal example. Single parent, grew up on AFDC, welfare, student lunch programs, Native American, families, drug, alcohol abuse, rampant. Statistically, I should not be here. I should be sitting up on the rez doing the same thing as everybody else. But people have a choice on whether they're going to keep that cycle going or whether they're going to, in this case, apply for commissions. You don't have to be afraid of any of it. We have multiple even minority leaders within our own community that we all have talked to that do that very thing because they want to do that. And if no one else is willing to step up to do that, That can't be just on us as who we're going to elect to a commission. They had to have the desire and the drive to want to do that. And if they don't, we can't force people to do that. A yield.

Council Member White. And thank you to my colleagues. And again, I appreciate the perspectives that are shared. I just think, you know, we as a community do better when we have more voices. So this is not just about the trying to, you know, say something about the folks that are appointed, but it's how we all benefit from that. You know, I I don't have the experiences of somebody who's indigenous. And so having you here, I learned from that. There are things that I will never directly understand because it's not part of my lived experience. And so just as there are things that I, as a cis woman from New York, that I bring to the table that are very different as well. And we have a community that has people with very different experiences, and we know that our community is really changing and becoming more diverse. And so not having that is detrimental to the city, detrimental to us overall. You know, I think about conversations that I've seen in places where we've had folks that could really represent a voice like, When we had folks within our Kurdish community that talked about putting in a new volleyball court because that was evidently a really big thing within the Kurdish community, that's not something that I knew. Or when we were talking about coming up with opportunities to increase home ownership and we were looking at low interest loans One of the members that was on a commission at that time said for folks within the Islamic faith that many folks believe that taking loans with interest is against their faith. That's not something that I knew about from my lived experience. And so we benefited from that because we can look for better solutions together that help our whole community do better. And so it's just a matter of being intentional about that. And again, to just reiterate the point that if we're not, and again, like if you're not seeing any folks apply from marginalized communities, that is also something that we should question and say why is it that people don't feel comfortable, that they don't feel like they'll get picked, that they don't feel that they matter. And we can work on that, and we're happy to work on that together. But to just say, well, we only had white guys apply, so all the positions should go to the white guys is kind of a cop-out, and it's not good for our community. And so, again, whatever happens with this, I know I have talked about this so many times, and the fact that it's gotten worse rather than better is really concerning. And so I hope we can do better.

Council Member Madsen. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I just, I know we have, oh, Council Member Hendrickson would like to go, and I've already talked, so.

You can go, and then Council Member Hendrickson.

Thank you. Just informationally, I was taking a graduate school class last semester. And as part of that, I had to write a paper on, I don't know. I don't even remember what the paper was about. I didn't even print the whole thing. I just printed the part with the table. I analyzed the racial makeup and gender breakdowns of all the boards and commissions in Moorhead. And if you include the... Human Rights Commission, we have approximately, white people make up about 81 and a half percent per the 2020 census, I think it was. 81 and a half percent of the city and the appointments to boards and commissions of white people added up to about 86% if you include the Human Rights Commission. But if you take off the Human Rights Commission, where it tends to be where we appoint people of color, taking that out of the calculation, then we get to 91.67% of the appointees are white people. And it's okay if that is not a thing that people think is you know, we can have a difference of opinion on what that number means and if it's a problem. But I just wanted to share that that that I did that analysis for a class and that's what I that's what I came up with.

Councilmember Hendrickson.

Thank you, Mayor Carlson. I totally agree with Councilmember McDougall's analyzation. It is just preposterous. Councilmember White, how do you know who we reached out to? Were you keeping track? I want to know. I mean, I reached out to a lot of people and a lot of people said no. And people of color, people of different heritages. And I mean, you're making it sound like we didn't reach out to anybody and we just reached out to white guys. That's just totally absurd. All this is, is a case for grandstanding with you and Mattson. And it ticks me off. I've been on this council a long time and I've always tried to look for people of color or people who are underrepresented. And it's just as a slap in the face. So that's all I have.

Council Member Neusmeier.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I agree with Council Member McDougall and Hendrickson in that they should appoint whomever they wish to appoint. And that is something that I have believed in and try not to mix. Should somebody I have a conversation with who is interested on serving on boards and commissions and they don't live in Ward 2, I will do a soft handoff to the other council member or council members in another ward just to keep that door open. And I think... I'M MAKING ASSUMPTIONS SO COUNCILMEMBER WHITE PLEASE CORRECT ME IF I'M WRONG BUT THE IDEA IS NOT TO CHALLENGE THIS APPOINTMENT OR PAST APPOINTMENTS BUT MOVING FORWARD AS COUNCILMEMBERS IF WE CONTINUE TO KEEP DOORS AND WINDOWS PERHAPS ROOFS EVERY PART OPEN OF OUR HOUSE OR BUILDING OF GOVERNMENT IN ORDER TO hopefully have better reflection. I know some council members and the mayor like to look to experience. Others like to look to their availability or work schedule. Others, it's willingness. And so I want to appreciate the work that we all do trying to um find folks to serve on boards and commissions and sometimes we can't find new folks and have to double up or find repeat folks and that service is not to be diminished but it is something that i would hope we all can as we serve years moving forward to have a reflection on all of our boards and commissions not just HRC, that is more reflective of our community, whatever that is. And I'm not going to label or put people in boxes or identities. I don't think that that necessarily serves Moorhead either. But I want to appreciate the topic being brought up and the work that we continue to do.

Thank you. Any other council members have anything to contribute? Otherwise, I guess it's up to you guys what you want to do here.

I'll make a motion that we accept the appointment of council members in the fourth ward for the Charter Commission of Robert Siegel, the only person that applied.

Second.

Motion and a second. Any further discussion? All right, seeing none. Oh, go ahead, Council Member Matson.

I'm going to vote for this because I agree that you guys have the right to appoint whoever you want. I just want to address the issue of grandstanding. I came in here with no opinion whatsoever except for my little notes from my class. And I'm not up for an election on any ballot, so I have no need to grandstand. So that's all I wanted to say. Thank you. All right.

Could we get a roll call vote, please?

White? Borgen? Yes. McDougal?

Aye.

Hendrickson?

Yes.

Mattson?

Yes.

Neesemeyer? Yes. Moore? Yes.

All right, that motion carries. Moving on to our engineering department, and I will turn this over to Clay Lexen.

Good evening, Mayor, members of council.

Are we waiting for the PowerPoint? Nope. Okay. There we go. And maybe we could have it shown on our monitors too. Thank you.

All right, thank you. This is the presentation for the 250201 project. This is Center Avenue reconstruction from 8th Street to 10th Street. Here's a map of the project area. This is Center Avenue. It's also trunk highway 10. So it's worth mentioning here that after completion of the underpass project, this area of Center Avenue will be fully turned over to the city. There will be a jurisdiction swap after the completion and this will be fully city right of way. So this is currently a five lane section. It's a, A two-minute pavement over a concrete pavement section. There are sidewalks on either side of the street. However, it does not currently have existing bike facilities or on street parking. For the utilities, there was a recent water main upgrade in 2016 in which the water main was upgraded to PVC. The sanitary sewer is in acceptable condition as is the storm sewer. The intention with this project was to continue some of the improvements that were made along Center Avenue toward the river. So this would be a continuation of the features from 4th Street to 8th Street. So now we'll do 8th to 10th and with that we would have a continuous street section or street segment from the river all the way to the 11th Street underpass. So what does this include? It includes, first and foremost, a lane reduction from five lanes to three lanes. Again, this matches Center Avenue to the west. This also includes one lane in either direction along with a center turn lane. Changing from five lanes to three lanes also provides room for new features, including a bike trail along the north side, which is shown on the map here as the dark gray line or almost black line. And then it also includes room for some parking, some on street parking along the south side in certain locations. We'll also be adding several landscaping or tree planting areas as well as all new ped lighting in both blocks or the entire segment. In an effort to complete construction more efficiently and in a short time period, We proposed closing the entire stretch of Center Avenue at one time instead of phasing it. However, doing that does create some challenges with access. So our response was to propose the use of the existing connected parking areas located mostly along the back sides of a lot of these businesses that front Center Avenue. This is something that we have done It was similarly done on Center Avenue a few years ago when we did 4th Street to 8th Street. So this is an area, again, in between the buildings and largely the railroad. So doing that, we would officially use that as a route for access. And earlier this spring, we asked the council to authorize us to obtain and then execute the necessary agreements to help facilitate that access. With that, we did obtain five temporary easements for property owners, and those are shown in the green on the map. In addition to the easements, we also obtained two permits from BNSF. Part of these existing connected parking areas are actually on BNSF property, so they're not on private property.

The BNSF parcels are shown in the orange.

As we worked through the temporary easements, there were a number of requests from businesses on Center Avenue to do something about the potholes or the poor pavement that were in these parking areas. Notably, the one area that came up the most was directly behind Napa. So here's a picture of that area on this slide. The city will be repairing the pavement on the private property, which is shown in the blue, so there aren't any potholes in this area. However, part of this gravel area you're seeing is on BNSF property. So we recently received tentative approval from BNSF to do temporary paving in this area as well. However, it may need to be removed after the completion of the project. We'll work through finalizing any necessary agreements with BNSF to formalize that approval. With the easements and permits from BNSF, we're able to create a couple formal connections from 8th Street back along the properties on either side of Center Avenue, as shown here on the map. To aid in access during construction, there will be signs placed on Center Avenue that are going to list all the businesses, highlighting the entrances to the shared access routes, and then there'll be additional signing farther along to help us guide the public back to where they need to get to go. It's not shown on this map, but we are also currently planning to maintain a temporary pedestrian access route about midway through the project area, so at about 9th Street. So it'll be a crossing from the north side to the south side of Center Avenue to help facilitate a little better connectivity for businesses during construction. Lastly, we had a request from the businesses to assist with overflow parking. So there have been conversations with Essentia and the owner of the American Square buildings to the west regarding the use of their parking lots for overflow. Nothing is finalized yet, but it appears that both properties are agreeable toward the topic of sharing their parking with these other businesses for the duration of the project. Regarding schedule, the contract allows up to 90 days to make the project substantially complete. We're anticipating that the contractor is going to want to get started toward the end of June or early July. There is a intermediate completion point to open the streets and sidewalks from 8th Street to 9th Street within 50 days. So it's approximately, as it's structured right now, it's about halfway through the project. We would open up two travel lanes and then sidewalks on either side to get access to 9th Street. So about halfway through the project, that would open up for public vehicles and pedestrians. There are also two early completion incentives on this project. One will be for every day that the contractor makes the project substantially complete ahead of the overall 90-day completion date, and that is capped at a certain amount. The other early completion incentive is for opening the segment from 8th Street to 9th Street ahead of the current 50-day timeline. At this time, we're also having additional conversations with the contractor about ways to expedite construction and finish this work more quickly. These conversations, which include potentially starting earlier than the contractor was originally anticipating and then striving to make it more substantially complete at the 60-day mark would likely result in additional cost and work for the contractor. This extra work and cost and overtime will likely result in a request for additional mobilization funding and perhaps a modification to the current incentives. We think having these conversations may be beneficial in pursuing the goal of opening the road as soon as we reasonably can. so that it's open before the underpass finishes, which would also help support reducing impacts to businesses during construction. If we are successful with these conversations and believe that we have a reasonable proposal, we will bring this back to this council as a change order for your consideration. For funding, notably, again, there's no special assessments on this project, so there's not a single property that will get an assessment along Center Avenue. This project will be funded with a combination of grant funds and the city's state aid maintenance funds, which are funds that are allocated to the city to help maintain the city's designated state aid routes. The total project cost is estimated at approximately 3.3 million. The city has access to $750,000 in LPP grant funds and 155,000 through the AT program. So that's the local partnership program and then the active transportation program. The remaining amount of approximately 2.4 million will be made up through state aid maintenance funds. During construction, we'll be holding weekly meetings for businesses and property owners to keep them updated and aware of what's happening on the project. A time and place will be determined in the next couple weeks before we start. I will also be the designated business liaison for this project, so I'll have a lot of direct contact and communication with business owners and property owners. Lastly, Downtown Moorhead Inc. and Greater MBA have been offering assistance to the businesses and myself. In fact, tonight there is a informational meeting with staff from Downtown Moorhead Inc. and Greater MBA hosted by Swing Barrel on the topic of construction on Center Avenue, the Tour de Cones is what they're calling it. Tonight, after this presentation, we're asking you to consider a few resolutions. One would be to award the bid, and then there are two resolutions to approve the funding agreements for the LPP and AT grants. And that concludes my presentation. I'm happy to answer any questions.

All right. Thank you, Clay. Council Member Niesmeyer.

Thank you. Clay, I saw the meeting for tonight that's going on right now. Did you say prior to that that there are additional informational and update meetings being held?

Yes.

Did I miss that information about where and when and if people who need that have that information?

So we sent out communication just this last week about an update that we were anticipating this construction was going to be happening. And in that letter there was mention of once we get started, once we know the contractor's schedule, we're gonna start to hold these regular meetings. So there's not a specific time or place at this moment, but the businesses and property owners along Center Avenue should be aware.

So they're aware, they're looking for it, and then you will send up a follow-up communique when the work has been approved, like tonight, and it gets scheduled and started.

Correct. After the project's been awarded, we're going to sit down with the contractor and finalize a schedule. At that point, we'll reach back out, update everybody on when we are anticipating when they're supposed to be starting, and then we'll set a time and date for those meetings as well. Perfect.

I heard TBD, and then I lost the context. So I appreciate you repeating that again for me and everybody else who's listening.

Not a problem. Thank you.

Council Member White.

Thank you, Mayor. I wanted to thank you and just the staff for the work that they did on securing access to the land there along what would be the alley behind the buildings. I know anytime you have to work with the railroad, that's complicated, but so important. And I can say as a bike rider, that area behind Napa is terrible. And so I can't imagine if it started to get more heavy use. for this, how treacherous that could be. And so I think that'll be a big assistance for the businesses there. We talked about this at our EDA meeting this week, and I'm glad you mentioned Tour de Cone. And one of the things we'll talk about later is we'd like to see if we can have Stacia from Greater MBA come in and talk about that too, so that council members can support that when it happens as well. And I also really appreciated the early completion incentives. And my only question was just if they don't finish on, so I would love it if they finish early. If they don't finish on time, is there any penalty?

So the original contract, as it's structured, has a substantial completion date. So if they don't hit that substantial completion date, we could apply liquidated damages based on that contract. That's standard on all of our contracts. So yes, if they don't meet the early completion incentive, no, there's no liquidated damages there.

Thank you.

All right, I don't see any other hands up. We are able to take 12 A, B, and C together if somebody wants to make a motion to approve all three. So moved, Mattson.

Second, Neeson-Meyer.

Okay, motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, roll call vote, please.

McDougall. Aye. Hendrickson. Hendrickson.

Sorry, sorry, aye.

Matson? Yes. Niesemeyer? Yes. Moore? Yes. White? Yes. Borgen?

Was that everyone? I wasn't counting. All right, thank you. That motion carries, passes. Thank you, Clay, for coming and providing that information. I agree. I know the staff has been working quite a while on all of this. It takes a long time to get those easements and everything figured out. So I also love whoever came up with the tour de cones. That's a funny little play on words. So we are now on to mayor and council reports. Do I have any council members have reports from boards and commissions? Council Member Neesmeyer.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. On May 26th, we held the Moorhead Public Housing Agency Advisory Committee at Field Crest Townhomes in their community room. We got an update on the Sharpview Plumbing Project. It is on schedule with the new completion update of December 2026. It was moved back from October of 2026 due to some new adventures that they discovered while digging around plumbing in the older and the newer parts of Sharpview. I think a two-month pushback is still reasonable and I know residents have really had fond or positive comments on the new units when they've been able to move in with updated plumbing and accessibility features in those living units within Sharpeview. We have no meetings scheduled in June, so please look for our meeting in July where we will discuss updates as well as board approvals and security updates from the high rise for May, June, and July. We were able to meet that week as well, May 28th, for SWAC. Our public works director, Mr. Feigner, was able to share with us all of the great things that happened. And so while I appreciate the applause, I am going to give verbal applause, appreciation for the collaboration of the City of Moorhead staff along with Clay County staff to make that possible. It is four weeks long between Oakport and extra collection weeks that they have at the Resource Recovery Center and I think it is a really great opportunity. that we have in our community. I believe city manager Molly calls it like the best holiday in the city of Moorhead or something we look to as a holiday.

Just a local holiday.

Just a local holiday of collecting waste.

I'm not quite ready to rank them all yet, like my children.

The Clay County Extension Committee is meeting this week. So if anybody is available and would like to come hang out with us, we will be at the Family Resource Center in room two starting this Wednesday, June 10th at 8.30 a.m. So we would love to see you there and engage with us on all of the wonders of extension within Clay County.

Thank you. Council Member Moore?

I was wondering if I should let Deb go first because we might have some of the same ones with EDA. I want to thank Siham Ahmadi for the wonderful job she did organizing and having the Minnesota Public Radio here at our new library on May 27th. Thank Mike Reitz for the early tour of City Hall. It's really coming along. There's actually furniture coming in July and we should have our council meeting in November there. So looking forward to moving into that space. There's so much light. It looks like a fantastic place for our city workers to be working from. We had the EDA meeting on June 1st. And speaking of the tour de cones, I actually have a name for the cones. They're calling him Kevin, Kevin the Cone. I thought it was really kind of fun to have a mascot. They're going to be scavenger hunts, and there's a lot of work going into connecting the businesses in that area, and they're all lifting each other up and promoting each other, and that is a requirement to participate in the events that are happening, is that they support each other, and then they're looking for us to support them. So look for that coming up, Kevin the Cone and the scavenger hunt that'll be coming during construction. June... Not 6th, June 2nd. I attended the community huddle with Justice North and we identified challenges that our immigrant neighbors are facing and tried to work towards some solutions with our community leaders. So, thank you.

Thank you, Council Member White.

Thank you, Mayor. On May 27th, I was with some of you on the Romke Park Tour, and it was fantastic, and I hope if you hadn't gotten a chance to get over there now that it's open, I hope you can get there soon. One of the things I wanted to highlight is just all of the intentionality in making this a space that is really accessible to everybody. Things like they showed us how... they made a larger pool deck to make sure that uh they can accommodate lots of child care facilities they keep the price down in the concessions so that you know for the all kiddos that they can get something to eat the waiting pool is wheelchair accessible so folks with mobility folks with um that are in a wheelchair can get into the waiting pool the locker room is gender neutral. And they talked about when you have childcare facilities, most of the staff are female. And so if you have boys that need to go in and go into the locker room, go into the bathroom, it's harder if you have to have them separated out by gender. And as a mom to a son, I would have loved to have had that kind of facility when he was a little one. On May 27th, I also attended the Greater Fargo-Moorhead Economic Development Corporation Workforce Development Work Group, and it's just a brand new work group that consists of local businesses, government, and higher education representatives. and they'll be looking at recruitment and outreach efforts regarding our workforce. I will say right now it is very Fargo focused, but I think we had a very good discussion and good input from Minnesota folks and hopefully then looking at some of the benefits that we bring on this side of the river things that we can work on promoting in terms of workforce, bringing in new folks to our workforce. May 28th, I attended CAP LP and just wanted to remind people that we partner with CAP LP on homeless outreach and prevention. And we got an update, but really every month they are serving hundreds of people and households who are folks that are either unhoused or at risk of losing their housing. They are connecting people with the resources, providing rental assistance, support services, connecting people with case managers. So really kind of a wraparound approach to try to help mitigate some of the ongoing needs that we have, but as we know with the great agencies that we have that are doing this work, there's never enough resources to meet the current needs, but at least we can see the important work that they are doing. I also attended on the 28th the Minnesota City's Climate Coalition meeting, and it was a really interesting meeting because they focused on EXTREME WEATHER PREPAREDNESS, EXTREME HEAT PREPAREDNESS. A COUPLE OF PIECES OF INFORMATION. THE LAST 11 YEARS HAVE BEEN THE WARMEST ON RECORD FOR THE STATE OF MINNESOTA AND NORTHERN MINNESOTA HAS SEEN THE BIGGEST CHANGE FOLLOWED BY CENTRAL MINNESOTA AND THE LEAST HAS BEEN IN SOUTHERN MINNESOTA. starting to see and we will continue to see more extreme weather events where we have things like heavy rain and then drought conditions. And so how do we respond to that? It was great to see some of the tools and I'll mention I can share this with our city manager. Things like there is a Minnesota extreme heat toolkit and it has information about how to to communicate with the public, to help keep people safe during some of these big heat events, kind of like what we've been having recently. And they noted things like the elderly. There's folks that are particularly vulnerable, and it's becoming compounded because you have folks that maybe physically are more vulnerable, but also as we see things like the cost of cooling, electricity, energy costs have been going up, those folks who tend to be on fixed income are less able to afford to cool their houses and so it puts them at additional risk and they also we got to learn about the Hennepin County heat resiliency plan and so that would just be another tool that we could look at as we're looking at how do we protect folks here in our community councilmember Moore mentioned our EDA meeting and I And again, I just think one good thing would be if we could get Stacia to come in here from Greater MBA just to talk about this, and I hope all of us will go out and enjoy the Tour de Cones. And I wanted to remind people of a couple upcoming events. On June 16th is the next Morehead Global Market, and it will coincide with an exhibit opening for the Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County. And June 19th is the Juneteenth celebration at MSUM. Thank you.

Council Member McDougall.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Real quick, we did have a quick workshop with the HRC last week. We have been asking for a lot of nominations for the Destiny Holiday Award. We received three out of three months for asking, so it kind of came to the conclusion that the HRC, we voted to eliminate that award, being it so focusedly paralleled the HRC award that we give away at the end of the year. One of the NOMINATIONS WAS ALREADY A PREVIOUS WINNER FOR THE DESTINY HOLIDAY AWARD, SO JUST WANT TO GIVE THAT A QUICK ANNOUNCEMENT. THANK YOU.

Any other council members? Okay. From a report, attended a number of meetings and presentations and things like that on behalf of the city as requested from a number of people. The first one was Kevin Fisher who is with an organization called Realtors on a Mission. There was about 40 people, myself, Lisa Bodie, and Mike Edinburgh from Magnify Financial go every year and provide information about the different TYPES OF BENEFITS OF LIVING IN THE CITY OF MOORHEAD AND THE STATE OF MINNESOTA. MIKE CAN TALK ABOUT THE DETAILS ABOUT THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF LENDING PROGRAMS THAT ARE ON THE MINNESOTA SIDE OF THE RIVER AND CAN DO KIND OF PROS AND CONS COMPARING THEM TO THE NORTH did a great job. He always has done a great job and just appreciate the staff that put together a slides for that presentation. Last couple weeks is always diversion meetings. So it's a finance committee, the Morehead Clay County Joint Powers Association and the Diversion Board meeting. I think the highlight from all those three meetings was talking about the $10 million. We were able to receive from the state of Minnesota this year through the bonding and THE BENEFIT OF HAVING THE $10 MILLION MATCH FROM THE DIVERSION PROJECT AND BEING ABLE TO FINALLY MAYBE GET ALL OF THESE PROJECTS DONE IN THE CITY OF MOREHEAD FOR FLOOD MITIGATION PROJECTS. Council Member Moore mentioned that NPR was at the Moorhead Public Library, The Loop. I had the honor and privilege of being able to be on that show and talk about and highlight all the great things happening in the city of Moorhead. Additionally, the community huddle, I was asked to talk about the specific things that are happening in the city of Moorhead to share with the groups of folks that were there different things that were happening. and last but not least i just wanted to give a shout out to sandy timian who was at the police department for over 30 years and she just retired and we just wish her well in her retirement and that is all i have and i'll turn it over to city manager molly

Thank you, Mayor. Moorhead's municipal pool opened after a year of closure and remodel. There were 648 visitors that came in on that opening day, and attendance has been absolutely rocking at capacities. The weather's helped, but there are lines. I've heard about it quite a bit. and how much people are really enjoying and appreciate it. And wading pools also underwent upgrades and opened last week too. So the neighborhood wading pools are going as well. So just wanted to say thank you to the recreations team, the aquatics team, parks, public works, you, the city council, for helping make this happen and all that were involved in getting the pool ready this summer. So that's been nice. CONSTRUCTION AND TRAFFIC UPDATES, SO IF THERE'S AN OPPOSITE OF A LOCAL HOLIDAY, IT'S THIS. THERE IS ONE STARTING TOMORROW THAT I JUST WANT TO LIFT UP TOMORROW, JUNE 9TH, PORTIONS OF 40TH AVENUE SOUTH. THAT PROJECT IS UNDERWAY. JUST WANTED TO MENTION THAT THERE'S A SEGMENT, TWO SEGMENTS BETWEEN 9th STREET AND 11th AND 16th AND 20th STREET. THAT THAT PHASE IS ANTICIPATED TO BE COMPLETE IN SIX WEEKS, WEATHER PERMITTING. SO WE'LL BE GOING THROUGH THAT AS WELL. WE HEARD ABOUT CENTER AVENUE AND 11th STREET AND DIFFERENT THINGS LIKE THAT. SO THAT'S STARTING TOMORROW. THAT'S GOING TO BE SOME DISRUPTION ALONG 40TH. THERE'S BEEN A LOT THERE. Ribbon cuttings, there's a couple ribbon cuttings coming up this month. I just want to mention Madsen Ball Field, the home opener is this Wednesday, June 10th. So the ribbon cutting and programs at 4.30 and then a first pitch at 5.30. So there'll be like a short program, 10 minutes or so, a ribbon cutting for a bunch of folks and then some refreshments when the ball game gets started. I can't remember the blues or the golds or which one it is, but I believe that they were the younger kids when the groundbreaking happening, and now they're the seniors this year, the older bunch. So that's kind of neat how that worked. The FM Kicks Band, I just wanted to mention just to thank you to them. They're hosting a free summer park concert series in Moorhead on June 11th at 7 at Gooseberry Mount Park, June 9th at 7 at Gooseberry, and then August 2nd from noon to 5, we're having a jazz festival at Gooseberry. So that's a lot of fun. And then on September 2nd at 3 during Greater Moorhead Days, the Kicks Band will be at Viking Ship Park. with others during that week. And lastly, just wanted to mention across the river, elections wrap up tomorrow. So there'll be new mayors, commission members, school board members, park board members. There's referendums, sales tax vote, the works. And so just wanted to say a thank you to all those who serve. Changes are coming and let's take it on. Thank you, mayor.

Right, thank you, and we do not have an executive session tonight or any new business, so it is 639, and I will adjourn the meeting. Good night, Moorhead.