City Council - Regular Meeting

I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. Uh first thing is to approve uh the regular agenda as presented. So move second. Okay. I got a motion by Rick Ser, second by Sean Ryan um on approving the regular agenda as presented. If anyone has any other questions, issues? If not, all in favor say I. I. I. Any opposition? Okay. Passes 5-0. Next is the consent agenda. Uh, does anyone have any questions or issues on the consent agenda? I have a number of questions. So, if we want to treat it, ask them at this time or if you want to treat them separately. No, we're going to uh that'd be up to you whether you want to pull them off to address them separately or if you just have questions, we can go through that. I think we'll just address them as on the consent agenda and then we can approve it after the questions. Go ahead, Bruce. You got some questions. I have some general questions. I'd like to have a better understanding just how we're going to be using electronic document storage uh consent agenda number E. Uh just generally if you could speak to what are we hoping to gain out of it? How is it going to work? Is going to change our operation? Is there going to be a policy as far as retainage things like that? Um so our plan of what we'll use it for is um things like personnel files, documents that need to be retained per the um document retainage store uh policy from the state. Um so right now we house our um documents within city hall and it's it takes up quite a bit of paper space. Um, so what laser fish

would do is um keep up with that retention schedule and um file things away. They'd still be accessible, but put them um in like a different file area once they've reached their retention date that they're no longer needed. Um so there's ease of if we had like a data request, we can go straight to laserfish and email documents directly from there instead of needing to go to paper storage. um here like dig through boxes, dig through files. And it's just as easy if um we had an document emailed to us that we wanted to store um we can just put send to laserfish and it would directly go from our email to a laserfish file. And are these going to be cloud storage or server storage? Cloud storage. And so are we going to have an agreement for uh cloud? Yes. Um is that in addition to or is that part of this? It's part of this. Um, so it's one terabyte of data. How do long do we feel that a terabyte is going to last for us? Um, I I guess I don't have a time frame of how long that would last us based on how much we're putting in there. Um, right now I know that um the comparing company was only um 50 gigabytes of data. So the terabyte we felt would get us farther. So I could follow up with CTS, but um I don't know how much is on our server like in I just don't have an understanding how this is going to change our operation or if it's going to change. Are we thinking it's going to save us anything in the future? So I I think one of the a lot one of the big savings not only for [clears throat] physical space across the city is the uh time it takes to search for stuff. um when we're searching for stuff within the last year or so, it's not terrible because we all kind of have a general memory of it. The nice thing about a program like laser fish that your general search features don't have is

you can search within documents while you're searching for stuff. So, if you know if we've scanned all this stuff in and we know that the EDA made an agreement with the community center, for example, but you don't, you know, it happens sometime in the [clears throat] 90s. We're not sure when. You can just type in ED like your keywords and it'll search those documents for you and pull it out. right now you're basically pulling at titles and hoping that they're saved in a format that makes sense to us now when they were saved 30 40 years ago. Um, the other thing she mentioned with the retention is just huge because right now retention involves us having one or two employees kind of keep track of that schedule and then have to periodically go up the stairs and act as the retention person and start uh removing stuff that no longer should be retained or filing other stuff away. And so laser fish in a way will will basically do that for us. And so [clears throat] I know uh whether it's laser fish or that docuare, it seems like more and more cities especially are going to these various document storage things because they just cut back on time that staff spends having to go through things for records requests and looking up other documents when they're looking them up for elected officials and that sort of thing. And how is it going to be indexed? Are you going to be able to go is it you just put it all on and then you search it by by keywords as you said [clears throat] or are we going to have a Yep. So that's where I'm we're going to basically build out a policy of how stuff gets saved on there to help us index. And so going forward there's this system of how it's going forward. And then um like I said even if 40 years from now if if we're still using laser fech and they're indexing in a different way it'll allow them to search by keyword within the document instead of just looking at the title to try to find stuff that they're looking for. So there's different search mechanisms. you know, you could search like who created it or keywords um or dates. And the more that you use the program, it starts to understand like your work

you're doing. So, if you're saving things, if you're continually saving like personnel files, it's going to start to memorize like, do you want to save this here? just for that time sake of starting to know this looks like a personnel document and giving you suggestions of where it's going to save or right now, you know, we're going to the server and picking different folders and fold folders within there and nested um that way. So, and then it' be user restricted access. So, um things that Josh saves can be determined on like who can view that um or if it's a public document. My my belief I think is we have a separate email server where we're keeping our email history and then delete them according to state law to make sure we don't keep them for subpoena reasons and things like that. But are we dovetailing emails then into this program? Are we going to be [clears throat] It certainly could be. Yeah. So like right now our our emails it's a manual system of um I don't think at least I have not figured out a capable way in Outlook of sorting through all that where laser fish would do a lot of that for you. You could set it up to send as she said automatically send stuff to laser fish is needed. We know that it should be kept. So you could choose to if you wanted to save the email the body of an email and an attachment or just the body of an email you could send a laser fish that way. Or if you just wanted an attachment, example, an agreement, then you could just send the agreement to the laser fish file folder. So, will there be I'm sorry, Bruce. Yeah, go ahead. I'm just rattling on here, but yeah. Are we going to have a a line in the sand where we're going to use this from this day forward or are we going to do historical retention and try to have a program or Yep. to [clears throat] download them? Look looking back to my days when I was a city planner for the city of Brighton,

Colorado. I was the new guy on staff for a while and it was my job to scan in old files. So some a lot of companies and I think even these guys offered to do some work for us to do scanning stuff in. Um I believe we talked internally that it was far more efficient for staff in their spare time to do it because otherwise they're scanning it in and then coming and asking you well where where do you want this saved at? so we can build out our own policies and we will start working backwards. Theoretically, we would have everything within city hall saved. Um, so we wouldn't need to necessarily keep all the paper on staff. So, yes, we would be able to work backwards with it. And if we had to pull minutes from a city council meeting in 1947, we'd be able to do that. Well, I encourage you to just consider a plan of action because you might want to prioritize certain things going back much further and some more recent and and if you're going to spend the time and effort, overhead, salary costs to do it. [snorts] Prioritize what you feel is the most important. Correct. I I would guess that we'd probably start with things we tend to get the most records requests for, which are things like permits and whatnot um that are saved way on back, but then as you um like I said, dig into city council minutes or other things that we may search for staff internally just to kind of cut back on that time as well. that would anything legal or real estate related or anything personnel would be well there there'll be certain file formats that laser fish will accept or your basic PDF doc uh e excel um I'm just a little concerned that if laser fish uh goes out of business or we choose a different vendor that all of that information will be portable um to that new vendor. Yeah. So, they've been around for um I think over 40 years. But to your point, I mean, if they would if we would want to switch a vendor or if they would go out of business, those electronic documents just like right now how we use

Muna Code for our city council minutes and um we'd be able to transfer all. Okay. So, it's not a proprietary file system. Okay. Y what about security measures um at their end? I I'd have to look at their agreement to speak to it. Yeah. I didn't really see anything addressing security in the agreement. So, I was just wondering if you there was a conversation or some other separate document that would outline um who has access to this information um the confidentiality uh requirements. Um so, yeah, we've had a lot of communication with them over the last year, I'd say. Um so, we can certainly reach back out bringing it to the meeting tonight. um they're implementing a new plan, a pricing plan January 1. Um, so we're hoping to get approval tonight um to save potentially tens of thousands of dollars because the plan that we would go on would no longer be available January one. And I can certainly appreciate that, but um I would maybe like to caveat approval based on what we understand of their security measures and you know if their employees have access to our files in some way. you know, um the industry that I used to work in, on occasion there would be uh file issues and an employee would actually have to open that file to determine um why it didn't upload, why it didn't transfer. And so I would have some concerns that there is a certain set of eyes that shouldn't be seeing certain information. Um so internally or at the laser fish? At laser fish. Okay. I think we're pretty good internally what we have access to. Yeah. And I think if it would make you feel any better um while we haven't discussed it internally, I would guess most of the information that we'd put in here would ultimately be public

information um that we're holding on to. Uh and including personnel files. I mean, like I said, obviously there's stuff in said most of the information that we put in here public information. Um we can certainly check on that if it makes you feel any better. I know that laser fish is one of the bigger companies in the whole game and cities across America are using them. I think I was just looking up something on Burnsville's website [clears throat] today and they must use laser fish because all their city council packets went to a laser fish website when I went to grab them. But the industry that I came from, we gave those same asurances to many of our customers. But when there is a technical issue, uh sometimes eyes have to take a look at that document. So we just need to make sure that um you know they have protocol in place that that only certain eyes are looking at it for certain reasons. So um looking on their website they have 12 categories under security everything from single sign on password um vulnerability scanning firewalls um each with detail under those headers. Um but at quick glance here it's fine grained access control um and it pertains to administrators for accessing rights and limiting [clears throat] control access um for documents and objects. So they have security tags on items. Um and then they have a repository audit log that has details of user actions, viewing, modifying, creating and deleting documents. Um, so just to very broadly try to answer your question from I and I appreciate that. Again, I just didn't see anything in the contract and um, you know, that's kind of where we're signing off on their services and just want to make sure that it is addressed. Uh, I don't anticipate anything happening, but then we've all had security breaches of our information. So,

it does happen and the access is only internal. So that's it's there will never we won't ever use this as a p way to the public to gain access to information. Correct. It it certainly has that feature if we would want it to. I don't know if we have had t those talks internally that we would use it that way yet. Like I said there may come a day where we would but at this point that is not the intent of it. Well, that just so we all understand that we're not approving that at this point in time because that does create a lot of sec or different security issues once we get outside our uh security framework here and this is a third party provider. Then when we start to go with the cloud, do we have anything on the cloud now? Uh we do I know have a backup of our whole system. So like our whole system is backed up through CIT though through CTS backed up on site in Mano and in the cloud. Um but in terms of uh cloud data I guess I would have to go through certain programs we have as to whether we're keeping them on site or or not. I don't have any I don't have it off top of my head if there are any uh like the permit provider. I think Kenneth because that's all on site right? Uh we also have some of that in Amazon Web Service um servers on on the cloud in the cloud as well. So this is a five-year plan. Is that correct? Or that we're trying to get in. Correct. Correct. And then how do we let's say we find that Laser Fish isn't the company we want to go with or their cost spike after those five year 5% increases. Um, obviously the information is ours, but how easy is there a penalty to get out of it at that time? And I mean, I would assume it like at that point your contract is up, so I don't know if there's a penalty or get out. If we we just kind of end our services, we would basically just download all of our information back to internal servers.

We're on our way at that point. Okay. There's not a penalty. It would just be whether or not we're we're renewing. Okay. It seems like we had this up once before when Mike was here. Um, that's my question is the same ones that Maggie's going with. Where do the security for like personnel and all that go? Well, and I don't see an out clause in the contract either. So that in the event um we are not completely satisfied with their services or something unfortunately would go ary that there is not a way to get out of the contract. I how about under number 4 D says cancellation of subscription requires a 90-day notice. Would that constitute? But it doesn't say for cause or or not. Okay. So doesn't really give me an idea of is this for we can just back out at any time or does it have to be for cause. but it's prior to the renewal date. So, we give them a 90-day notice prior to the renewal date. So, we're locked in for that five-year plan. And so, I don't see an out if we were to terminate early. You mean prior to the five years? Prior to the five years. Yeah. [clears throat]

So I I don't know if there is because in 3A it mentions early termination will result in the entire remaining balance of the original contract coming due. I see it. So, the term of the agreement is for one year and shall renew for a one-year term unless terminated by either party with or without cause. And that's the language I was looking for is with or without cause. Is that in three? Uh, yes. Okay. But it does say 3A. If you're a five-year pricing, if a five-year pricing guarantee has been chosen, your term is a fiveyear term. Yeah. So, we're basically getting into a fiveyear contract. Yeah. at this price. I know when they talked to us before um there certainly were options for shorter ones, but there was no guarantee on what those prices would look like if we stayed in for 5 years. Yeah. And it [snorts] says early ter termination will will result in the entire remaining balance to be due and payable. So that gives me a little pause because if something goes wrong, we're not happy. Um we're locked in and we have to pay it the full five years. Like I said, we were given a shorter contract um option and but there was no guarantee on any sort of increases one way or the other on that. So that's why um knowing what we wanted to use it for, that was staff's recommendation to do the full five years. Yeah. if and and I know the time is it's we're two weeks away before this offer goes off the table, but I would be a lot more comfortable if there was language in here um you know that we would be able to terminate even with cause, you know, so we don't have to terminate without cause, but if there's something that we're not happy with that goes wrong, I don't see why we should be locked in for a five-year term that we would be able to terminate early with cause and I think yeah per this they're just saying we can we're able to guarantee pricing if you're able to stick with us for five years.

Yeah. But but but Josh what if something goes wrong data is leaked something I mean we I I'm just being hypothetical. I'm being the devil's advocate here that something goes wrong in year three and we're still on the hook for the last two years of the contract. we're paying for something that we're not going to use because we have we've run into a problem. So, I would be a lot more comfortable if there was a term in 3A that unless you know we'll be locked in for five years, but if we need to terminate for cause and yeah, we can certainly take that back. Obviously, I can't promise that they'll be willing to put something in the agreement like that because this Yeah, but we have to protect us. Nope, I get that. I get that. I'm just ju just just stating I can't guarantee that they'll be willing to put that. There are no guarantees anywhere. So, I get it. But again, this is kind of my area of of uh interest and expertise and um there should always be uh a termination um that you could back out uh in the event that something goes wrong. So, do you want to pull letter E out of the consent agenda? Um, at this point that would be my my recommendation until we can get some asurances one way or the other that maybe we can get some language in there for termination for cause so we're not locked into the five years and have to pay e in the event that something goes wrong. Okay. So, I'd say Chuck just says point of order then to pull something would just require two. So, herself in a second to pull something off the consent. Right. But let's we have questions on F2. So, if there's issues that we might have to pull that off, you know, I'm going to wait till we're done with the questions on F and then we'll make a motion to Okay. pull out uh letter E. Okay. For discussion later. Okay. Did who? Bruce, did you have questions on letter F also?

Yes. Thank you. [clears throat] Want to get to it. So, I think it's pretty straightforward what what what this is and what's happening here, but I'm Just wondering um is there any operational wise how this is going to how this works? I met are we having um existing sta uh staff then and just one person being trained in as a pilot then or are we going to multiple people? Is there ongoing expense for getting the pilot license renewed? I'm just not that familiar with it. So there is initial licensing that is about $100 a person and then there's one license that can be utilized by the city for FAA. Um I think the licenses are good for five years and then you have to reertify. So, there is a licensing um fee and then the other fee and in talking with Ken, there was some money budgeted for planning for um the purchase of a drone for them that we were going to potentially utilize for some of that licensing. Um on the police department side, we would we would utilize uh a few licenses to have officers trained. We operate two teams of officers. So when one team is working, the other team is off. So we would have coverage with both teams. And our idea with this is that they they

would travel in the squad cars with us and be deployed immediately upon upon the need. So is this the same level? I'm my my I don't understand in detail anyway, but certain height height dictates the degree of pilots's license that you need. Correct. Are we at the minimum or up? Are we the same as the fire department or say it would be the same same license? Yep. So that's not the the lowest level but the second level correct maybe. Okay. And um then the policy that's you referred to is that uh a statutory policy that's in place already. there there are statutory laws that that are that govern the use of them and then your operating policy kind of mirrors the state [clears throat] for what you can and can't use them for. So we do have a a draft a policy that has been drafted um along with our other policies through Lexiple. Uh Lexiple continues to update their um policies and procedures when laws change and things get updated. So they have attorneys that review all these policies and they're very similar to the other agencies in our area that have the same pro or the same the same drones in place. So will we be adopting the city council this policy? It's a police policy. So it's just a policy that we enact similar to like when um I'll say like our use of force policy or domestic abuse policy or and the other policies that are part of our our policy manual. So, as a city, no, it's a police department policy, part of our operating and policies and procedures. I guess I'll leave that discussion for another day, but I'm I'm thinking there's certain policies that should be approved by the city council. And maybe here we haven't approved city police department policies in the past, but um

so it's kind of a procedure that's going to correct how how they be utilized. Yep. So any regular officer will have the ability to take this out of the trunk and fly it or does he need supervisor approval or your approval? Yeah, part of the part of the uh the the the policy says that it will be approved each deployment will be approved by the ple chief of police or the designate which would be a supervisor if that came down to it. Um, our our policy says that because no, we can't just put it up for no reason, right? State law says that we can't just fly them around and fly it into your backyard. We have to have a reason. There has to be a a reason and um if we're going to fly it into someone's backyard into an area that would be private, we would need a warrant for that minus any obviously life or death situations. And there's a few instances where that's that applies, but um not any officer could just grab it and put it up. They would have to be licensed to do that and operate it. Okay. Well, I'm all for it, but I I just like to I mean I think it's I think people have concerns about how it's going to be used, if there's any guidelines or restrictions on it and how it is. And um the first time I saw the fire department one, I was I was wondering what the heck it was and why is it going over the the tennis courts and and that type of thing. I didn't know. Um, so once we start using it, I think we're going to get more questions. So it' be nice to have a discussion sometime, you know, what the procedures dictate and the limitations of it. And then are there maintenance agreements with these? Is there an ongoing expense [clears throat] with this? Uh, there is not really any any ongoing expense. They do have a very good warranty. And this company that we um we're are looking to purchase them from is out of out of Plymouth. And one of the one of the owners lives in Shakipi.

And we talked to I think nine different agencies. And there's a there's a list of all the drone uh programs within the state of Minnesota. And all but one agency has this company. Um I we've talked to the owner and he say if you have a problem we're we're right here. We we stock everything. We'll fix it right away. So they've been super easy to deal with and super accommodating to us and have assured us that anything that happens they're going to take care of us. Why? [clears throat] Why? Excuse me. Why too, Tim? I mean if [clears throat] we have one that the fire department a kid goes missing in a corn field, whatever. Y um I mean how many do we need at $12,000 a piece? I mean Yep. totally totally understand that. Um part of what what we've realized is that there's there's things that civilians can see and there's things that only law enforcement should see when we're doing things. So there are things that the fire department can do to support a criminal investigation and there are things that nonsworn people shouldn't ever see because that information could be it's not public information. Understood. No. So if that if that does that does that answer your question? Absolutely it does. Yeah. It makes total sense. And and some of the things that the two [clears throat] is again along the same lines is we can keep one up and if we need to keep eyes [clears throat] on we can swap them out and do that. So okay. Any other questions regarding uh [clears throat] the drones? I would just like uh sometime in the future a discussion about how the policy and how they're being used and what's what's going to have the guidelines so we don't have any anyone going rogue and using them. Yes, absolutely. We we have like I said we have the policy drafted and I wasn't going to present that until we had

approval to purchase them first. So I'm we can share that tomorrow if you'd want to see that. So yeah, the first question I'm sure I'm going to get is what's going to stop someone looking in my backyard? Yep. And what are the of conditions and we are required statutoily to report every use to the state and that is made available to the public at the end of the year every year. So, thank you. You guys all done? Okay. Any other questions on the consent agenda? I'll make the motion to approve it minus um the E line. Okay. So, we have a motion by Rick to approve the consent agenda removing letter E from uh consent agenda. I'll second. I got a second by Maggie Bass. Any other questions? All in favor say I. I. Any opposition? Okay. Passes 5-0. Are we just having E go to be 10H then? Moving that to the end. What's that? Is are we is that just becoming 10H then for anyone following along of when we're going to discuss that next? Or are we just dropping it? [clears throat] We're not. I I would say it shouldn't just be dropped, but it should certainly be discussed like what's going to happen with it. Yeah, let's we can move it to that general business. Okay. Make that part of my motion. Okay. Next on the agenda is public is invited to be heard on matters not on the agenda. And uh Brian, I think I got you. The only one. Well, no, there's a Brad Wagner, but I don't know. Brad, are you wanting to speak on the road? Yes. Okay. Okay. I'll put you on the other sheet then. All right. Uh Brian [clears throat] Paulson, 2064 Street Southwest. Uh I was actually going to talk about the drone, but I'm just gonna off the cuff kind of switch here. So, uh, because that was already

approved it looks like. But, um, I do have some kind of professional uses for this file storage that you guys were discussing. Um, I just want to note that, uh, when they scan in these files, uh, especially you look at the documents that the city has on the website for the old files, the text is very poor. Uh so when you scan in those that uses OCR uh optical character recognition and they're really bad at especially like zeros and ones and I's L's um it mixes those all up. So then you think you have all the data scanned in and the images are there but then when you actually search for it you search for a name or something and it'll say that it's not there because the I's or L's or it it's really poor at actually converting that stuff. Um, but I I even had that when I was looking at uh for the police station, I was looking at fire station documents and I was using I don't know if it's built into yours or if I was using I have Adobe Pro. Um, but I would have to manually go through and read those because it just the find wasn't working very well. Um, and then just to note that later in the presentation in the meeting today, uh, you'll be discussing a vysio virtual uh, chief information security officer I think. Um, and then this is like right up their alley as far as um what controls you need to have for the data and the company that you're using and what controls that they have. Um, so that's that's actually something that they you might sign a contract for that and then hire this VISO and they say that that's doesn't meet the standards. Um, so a lot of companies will use NIST uh NIST standards. Um, so they have a baseline and maybe that if Burnsville is using it, I assume it's probably okay. Um, but just to kind of keep that in in your um in your head. So, that's all I have. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Anyone else would like to speak uh

address the uh council on items not on the agenda? Okay. If not, we'll go to the next one, which is the public hearing. Um Josh, do you want us to open the public hearing and then do the little presentation? Uh, either one works, I guess, like. Okay. Well, I'll make a motion to uh open the public hearing. Second. We got a second by Rick. All in favor say I. I. I. Okay. The public hearing is open on the 2026 [clears throat] street improvement project. Chris, I think you want to lead the way and then after that we'll let the public have any comments. Absolutely. Thank you very much. So, uh, at the council meeting two weeks ago, I presented, uh, provided a copy of the feasibility report for the 2026 street improvement project. Um, after, uh, that meeting, a, uh, public hearing was called for, and that's what we're here for tonight. So, uh, the public hearing is an opportunity for, um, the public and residents on the project to, uh, review the project and, and let us know about any questions or comments they might have. So, uh, the 2026 street improvement project, uh, is located on 10th Avenue Southeast from, uh, Lassur County 29 on the south end all the way up to First Street Southeast on the north end. Um, there's also a small portion of Third Street Southeast from 10th Avenue, um, to the west entrance of Horizon Drive, uh, southeast. um shown on a map. Uh this is uh just under a mile of roadway overall on 10th Avenue. Um the small portion [snorts] of Third Street is included for um for some improvements that are proposed at the intersection. Uh so 10th Avenue Southeast was constructed as um part of developer projects from between about 2000 and uh 2007. Uh so that's all when the original construction occurred. uh we are now at the period of looking at

uh more rehabilitation or maintenance of this roadway now that's hit the uh 20 to 25 year um lifespan of the pavement. So um going through the proposed improvements on this project uh we are looking at um generally two different areas and I'm just going to split them at Third Street uh southeast. Um, so on the north end from Third Street uh southeast to Main Street, u, actually it's gonna be First Street Southeast. Uh, we are proposing a uh a mini roundabout to be constructed at the Third Street Southeast intersection. Um, this includes um, full replacement of the pavement um, in that uh, intersection area with the installation of curbon gutter medians and a center island. Um, this would be similar to the two roundabouts on Main Street and the downtown area uh, along with the two mini roundabouts that are on Columbus Avenue. Um on the north side uh um 10th Avenue uh southeast uh north of the intersection of uh third street we are looking at mostly just a um a mill and overlay type improvement. So uh milling the edges so just removing the edges u milling them down and then placing a bumis overlay over the entire portion of roadway. Um north of third street we're also looking at uh essentially leaving the existing configuration. So besides replacing the pavement, uh it'd be remarked and put back to its existing condition, which is uh a northbound um drive lane, a southbound drive lane, and then a center turn lane. Um Third Street Southeast is proposed, uh to be mil and overlaid from the intersection at 10th Avenue to the just west of the uh west axis of Horizon Drive Southeast. Um, and this is just uh pavement condition that's similar to 10th Avenue, similar type of construction. So, we've included that in the in the project. Um, and then also the um replacement of the trail surfacing on the west side of 10th Avenue Southeast. Um, though not noted

here, we are also looking at replacement of the lighting in this area. So, um, that'd be completed by the utility. Uh, so showing this on a map. Um, again, this just the north portion of the project. uh the mini roundabout uh proposed for construction at Third Street. Um along with the three lanes north of uh that area all the way up to First Street. Uh this is kind of the more commercial um little little denser residential area uh as well. Um and uh um this improvement is proposed um without any alternate options. So my next uh area that I want to discuss is going to be south of this area which we are looking at different options. So regardless of which of these three options I talk about next um this is the proposed improvement um from third street southeast towards the north. So uh moving on um the second portion of the project I'd like to talk about is the uh the southern portion of the project. Uh this is from Cassad 29 uh all the way up to 3rd Street uh southeast. Um there are three options being considered. All three include a mill and overlay the pavement. So more or less the same pavement improvement is proposed for all three of them. Um the differences between them is how uh they are um finished. So with option one is to be restoring essentially to the existing condition. Um which which is three lanes. Um option two which is to uh replace a portion of the center median with a landscape median. Um and then option three, which is to reconfigure the roadway to a two-lane configuration plus parking on either side. Uh common to all three options, um would be the replacement of trail surfacing on the west side of the roadway. Um and also, uh the installation of enhanced crosswalks at Fifth Street, Southeast, 9th Street Southeast, and 12th Street Southeast. And that'd be the installation of an

RFB, uh which is the flashing beacon. um and also uh new crosswalk striping. So, moving into option one in typical section view. So, this would be maintaining the center turn lane um and then also the the drive lanes on either side. Um and then replacing the pavement on the west side of the roadway. And this would go from uh the south side at uh SA 29, which is also known as 28th Street. um all the way up to Third Street. This is essentially going to be putting it back to it where it is existing. So, not much of a change um besides the uh crosswalk improvements that are proposed at Fifth Street, 9th Street, and 12th Street Southeast. Um so, this is kind of just the the leave it as it is option. Uh moving forward, we are also presenting option two uh which is the installation of a partial um landscaped median um through the center of the roadway. Um this would be doing the edge mill and overlay uh edge milling on this each side of the road. um overlaying the drive lanes and then in the center it'd be removing the pavement and installing a curb and gutter um which would be uh used for uh the median and in the center of that median having a mulched or vegetated area that trees could later be planted planted in. So um I did provide a picture of a of a similar type of setup. This is actually located in Mano. Um this is a center median with uh uh trees uh shrubs and a mulched area down the middle just to kind of give an idea of what what is is being considered with this option. There are other options with uh more elevated um center medians um with more of a a structural wall or something like that that would uh be used to retain soils and then um be vegetated down the middle. But uh this

is kind of an option with an RFP actually shown in this picture too uh for something that would be similar to what we're we're looking at with option two. Um moving into this uh figures on here look very similar to the first one. The exception being the blue um areas down the middle. Those would be areas that are proposed for uh a center median. Um these are generally the areas of uh of 10th Avenue Southeast that are not used for for traffic. So, these are areas that are currently just uh diagonally hatched and they're kind of just uh uh pavement that's not used by by vehicles. Um moving through there, we'd be looking at uh um installation of these medians in a little more extended form as you get up to the the roundabout. Um the reason why we're looking at this this option for the for the medians is that uh believe that'll help slow traffic down [clears throat] having narrower lanes. So instead of having a 44 foot roadway with a drive line either side and a 14 foot uh um open pavement down the middle, the landscape uh median or the median as a whole would just kind of narrow up the area. Um the landscaping is more of an enhancement um to the area visually. Um although having trees or some taller vegetation might also assist with slowing traffic. Um the center media would also provide a uh refuge for for res for pedestrians as they cross the roadway. So instead of crossing a 40 foot road, they cross one lane at a time with a center area um for refuge when making the crossing there. So uh it's like crossing two 14t roads at a time with a center area for that refuge. So um it would be an elevated median. So it would not be traversible until you get close to the the roundabout that's proposed at Third Street. Uh at that roundabout, the the center medians would have to be traversible. So those would be paved. um with any of the options,

but those be uh would be mountable while the rest of this area and the blue areas would not. Um third option that's being reviewed is the uh reconfiguration of the roadway from a three lane to a two uh two driving lane plus uh shoulders or parking lanes on either side. So two traffic lanes and then uh parking in each side of the roadway. Um, with the 44 foot roadway, you'd have 12 foot driving lane each side and a 10- foot uh parking area. So, this would be a change from where is it is now. There's no parking allowed on on 10th Avenue Southeast. Um, so this would introduce that new element um [clears throat] by uh by changing lane configuration. Um, as you move into the into the figures on here, uh, one change on this from the first two options is that, uh, going to a two-lane configuration in the parking lanes would allow the installation of curb bumpouts at, uh, each of the crosswalks. So, uh, we are proposing to do, um, curb bumpouts at, uh, 9th Street and 12th Street, um, southeast. Um, these would narrow the roadway from 44 feet to about probably about 32 feet is what we'd likely look at. Um, this would uh u improve visibility for for uh both vehicles and pedestrians on the roadway. Um, and uh uh also help to slow traffic down along with the change to a two-lane configuration without having as much free space, I guess, uh to work with out there. Um, the hope is that this would help slow traffic down as well. Um the uh the the bumpouts would require some um reconfiguration of storm sewer uh just to kind of move catch basins into the new curb line locations, but otherwise uh would leave most of that in place. Um and then again with the other options, replacement of the trail surfacing on the west side of the road.

Um we're also showing the um the curb bumpouts at Fifth Street um [clears throat] southeast here. So, I didn't mention that one before. Um, as it comes into the intersection at Third Street Southeast, the two-lane configuration would uh start to to split off on the south side of that roundabout and then change into a three-lane configuration at the roundabout, which is where it carry from that point further north. Uh, so three options have been presented. Um, option one being the three-lane configuration. Uh, project cost is uh just under $1.2 $2 million. Uh the project cost includes the construction cost, 10% contingency, and 20% project related, which is all the um engineering, testing, and just kind of associated cost with doing a project. Um option two, which is a three lane with with median, um $1.482 million. Uh it's about $280,000 more, which would go towards installation of the landscape median. Um this is just preparation of the landscape median. This does not include any planting. So, um using stated funding, you're you only can use a small percentage of the project cost to go towards landscape and that would essentially just pay for the mulch um and then some some amount of preparation. So, uh there would still be future costs for u any kind of plantings on top of that. Uh option three, which is the two-lane with bumpouts about $1.26 [clears throat] million. Um most of that uh about $65,000 increase in cost is just due to the um installation of the curb bumpouts. That's the biggest change from uh from option one as far as costs go. Um so the curb bumpouts and then just um extra sidewalk and other things that would be associated with that and some storm sewer. Uh as far as project funding, um that

would come from a assortment of sources. um general levy, which is just general city project uh property taxes and and just kind of your general fund. Um user fees, sewer utility fund, water utility fund, storm water utility fund, not really applicable to this project because uh with the exception of some storm sewer potentially with option three. Um we are not planning any improvements to the san sewer or water uh or storm sewer systems. Um there would also be assessments to benefiting properties which I'll get into a little bit more next couple slides. Um usage of municipal state aid system funding. Uh 10th Avenue Southeast is on your MSA route system. Um so you are able to use uh municipal state aid funding which is um largely coming from the the gas tax that uh the city does receive funding for on an annual basis. Um and then there's also an LRIP funding application which um was just submitted out of last week. So um results of that funding application won't be known until likely April next year. So this project does include uh the uh following the public improvement process uh with Minnesota statute 429. Uh similar to other street improvement projects that have been completed by the city, uh we are proposing to uh fund a small portion of the project using um assessments to the benefiting properties. Um this is a mechanism that uh is afforded to the city and uh uh for public improvements and uh uh largely is just to offset the the benefit that is received by these properties that are on the project. Um there is a 20% rule for bonding. So however much 20% of the bonded cost for the project um is required to come through assessments if if you do follow that process with assessments

as far as the uh methodology for determining the assessments. Um they're basically uh uh what what the city has used is a fixed base rate method. Um, so this is where we're establishing a rate at the u feasibility stage of the project um versus bidding the project out, figuring out the total costes and just aortioning a percentage of it to each of the property owners. Um, this is especially beneficial on smaller projects like this one where um you may not uh benefit from the large scale projects like you have done in the past, still million-dollar projects. So, it's not a small project necessarily, but uh comparatively to the $4 million projects maybe that have been completed in the past. Uh so, the the the rates that uh um I'll be reviewing a little bit later here are kind of the top end. They will not be exceeded that by uh any amount um that they could come down potentially. [snorts] Uh it's also determined on a um a unit method. So we look at properties, residential properties specifically as being a unit of one uh with commercial properties being treated um a little bit differently by a per footed type of basis. Uh with the residential single family assessment policy, uh we look at um how the how the uh properties um abut the project. on a project uh like this one. Um there aren't any residential properties that directly front 10th Avenue Southeast. There are a handful that have corner properties where maybe one side of the property is on 10th Avenue Southeast and may receive uh an assessment of half a unit because of that. U so on a corner property, we look at each side um and each side is uh treated as a half a unit. Um most of the residential properties that are on 10th Avenue Southeast um have rear frontages or rear uh are rear facing on 10th Avenue Southeast um when the um rear

portion of a property is on the project it is not assessed per policy. So it's only if the side or front of the property is on the improvement. So um the typical one unit isn't going to apply to many or really any residential properties. Um although there will be some half units um and uh as noted here number of three-sided properties are only assessed on two sides. So um that is kind of unusual for this project because there aren't really any direct access points for for the residential properties in [clears throat] this project. Uh commercial and industrial and institutional properties are treated by uh a per foot cost. So what we would do is use the rate that's determined for a residential unit divided by 75 and um determine that to be a um a cost per foot um and then a 1.3 multiplier is um used on that. So basically a 30% increase on that rate um is used to determine a per foot um cost for commercial industrial institutional properties. So um on this project specifically this would apply to um Praa Village and I located on the north side and these would be uh those are also corner properties. So a credit of 37 and a half ft which is basically similar to that half unit um credit is also provided um for for those commercial properties. Um and then uh another portion another way that some properties may be assessed is based on um the town home apartment building type of a um assessment which is where we look at where a property a town home property or apartment building accesses um a roadway or public roadway. So if uh for instance a group of town homes [snorts] has a private road, that private road exits onto 10th Avenue Southeast, um each of the town homes inside would be uh could be assessed for

half a unit um of a of in this case a milllay improvement. Um if their access comes off a different road other than 10th Avenue Southeast or a road that's not being proposed for improvement in our in our project, um then they would not be assessed under this project. Uh proposed assessment rates for this project. Uh they're really just two. So mill overlay $2550 per property. Um and uh uh that is on an each basis. So those are for residential properties. And then uh for mill and overlay for commercial institutional properties uh the rate is 4420. Again, that's using the um known over the a residential rate divide by 75, then adding that 30% um multiplier on top of that. Um under this policy, um $180,000 of assessment is uh potential with this project. Um I will note that the bulk of that assessment is based on city properties that are on the project. Uh so we do include them in the assessment role. Um although in most cases, well in really all cases, those don't actually follow through with the assessment. So those are used most mostly for determination of our 20% uh um bonding requirement. Um so with that said, about $58,000 of non city properties are proposed for assessment. [clears throat] Um and uh one more caveat to that might just be that some of these project some of these parcels may have to be looked at as far as are they going to receive benefit. There are some properties on here under the um non- city properties that are um non-buildable. [clears throat] So, it'd be likely to have a a deferred assessment um or uh or not assessed at all. So, with that said, the assessment process uh that we would follow. So, tonight's kind of the

beginning here of the public hearing. Um the project does uh is ordered um and follows through to construction. Uh assessment hearing would be uh completed in the fall 2026. Um typically in uh September of every year I bring in the the final assessment role. Um and then the uh the hearing is called for in October. Um and at that point uh the assessment hearing is held and uh Sam moves forward. um uh assessments would be payable within 30 days without interest. Um and if those assessments are not paid um they would be levied to Lisser County and payable with property taxes. Um normally it's 15 years. I did put in here 10 to 15 years with this being a smaller project. Um on a screen utility project you might have a $15,000 assessment. On a project like this it's 2550 is the most that a residential property have and I think most are actually half of that because they're half units. So, the except exception of a couple of uh commercial properties, um the assessments are quite a bit lower. So, a smaller [snorts] um 10-year um uh period of time might be might be warranted in this case. Um the interest rate would be to be would be to be determined. Um and uh there are options for deferred assessments which um would be referred to more in the assessment hearing. Excuse me. So the schedule we have for you here [snorts] um so the feasibility report was presented two weeks ago. Um tonight being the public hearing. Um I do have with your packet here after the public hearing consideration of a resolution to um authorize preparation of plans and specifications. Um now I do note that I added I provided three options for improvements with you um here tonight. Um, if you do authorize preparation of plans and specifications,

uh, and you did not make a choice between those three options tonight, um, it' just be something we'd need to determine before we move into a design period. So, a lot of times I'd have the resolution, then our proposal for actually starting the design. I don't have that proposal until I know which option is is pursued. So, um, our design services look quite a bit different between options one, two, and three, especially with option two versus the other two options. um with [clears throat] our schedule uh we do have a presentation of final plans and specifications at the uh April 6 meeting um in uh in next year. Now um again one more thing I'll add to that um this is made with the assumption that we're following a strictly state aid process for submittals. If you do receive funding from the local road improvement program grant, um that may uh affect that schedule if we uh do um use that funding towards the mini roundabout, which is what's proposed. Um if that mini roundabout does fall through and uses the local road improvement program funding, we would have to complete a traffic study, uh which would take about two months to complete. So that traffic study had to be finished and approved prior to letting the project. So that could shift some of these dates for construction back a little bit. So can you do that in the winter? Could be completed in the winter. Yeah. Yeah. So the only reason we don't have it in here is if you don't receive the LRIP funding, you'd be using local funding towards third street improvements, which would not require the traffic study. Um but if you use state aid funding, then it would require the traffic study. Uh under the schedule we do opening bids in May about one month after presentation May 8th 2026 um with uh award of the project on May 18th. Um we usually have a neighborhood meeting within a couple weeks of award of the project u once we know the contractor's going to be on the project. Um with construction taking about two

months with a open period between June and September uh to complete the work. Um if this schedule shifted back to allow the completion of that report um it would still be under a very similar tail end of the schedule. We would be starting in June and be more like a um late July to maybe at the worst beginning of October type of schedule. Uh with the project uh we would then hold the assessment hearing and adopt the assessments uh in October of next year with uh assessments levy to the county the following month. So now I'm at the questions portion of my presentation here. Thank you for bringing that picture of Mano. I mean I think it helps all of us visualize what that center median would look like. And um that would be my we don't have to choose tonight but that would be the option that I would go with. And is that option two? Just and I like that too. It would really slow the traffic down there. Slow the traffic. I like the the I I know because I live in that area that a lot of dog walkers, a lot of uh kids cross that on their way to the park to Memorial Park from there. So, I like the fact that it has that little rest bit that if they can't make the entire length, they can stop in the middle there. Um but uh that would be my option that I would choose. Were you looking for a ch I mean it sounded like we don't have a proposal because we don't have a choice yet. And so at some point whenever the council decides to choose like that'll be when we move forward. So to your point Sean, we certainly can make a choice tonight and if we want to continue kind of moving this project forward. Well, I got a second and it sounds like so I'll make a a motion that we approve option two. I think we need to uh order uh finish the public hearing. Okay. Correct. And have a discussion regarding the public hearing and details.

Yeah, we're still just at the question phase. Okay. Any other questions? I just have a question for Matt. Matt, you know, with the area where the obviously the cars have gone into the fencing and that stuff, does uh an an option in favor to slow to help, you know, if you if you went to the four lane with the parking lane, would that maybe So, that did have we did have that issue for many years in a row. uh probably about 10 years ago. We have not had any issues since then after we made some uh corrections around that curve uh signage. Um we did slow the speeds down around the curve. Uh so that has corrected that issue. Um yes, I do think two of the options would even enhance that by slowing traffic down and that would be option two or three. um option one of like I said two weeks ago of putting the street back to the way it is and putting a couple enhanced cross crossings I don't think does enough um I'll give you my short spiel that I gave two weeks ago since we have some new people here but we go into these projects me and Chris and staff of one how do we improve these streets um from pedestrian crossing and also vehicle traffic we do have a major concern with tent 10th Avenue. We've heard over the years of pedestrian crossing in uh speeds. Those are the two biggest issues of 10th Avenue. And um we have made some corrections and when we do a street project like this, this is the time to do a larger correction. So um like I stated, option one is in my mind is not really an option to be honest with you. I just don't think it does nearly enough to correct all the concerns we've had over the last 15 to 20 years of the street. Um,

I'll state it again. Option two with medians is a major concern for the public works. Um, it's a two-lane, you're turning into a two-lane road where when we do any kind of maintenance on that street, you are eliminating one tra lane of traffic. So, you are eliminating pretty much a southbound lane for hours at end or a northbound lane at hours at end. Uh, 10th Avenue is a main artery for our sanitary sewer. um that has to be jetted once every four years or periodically whenever we have concerns. Um it also is a major storm water collector with all the ponds around there. So we are um doing general maintenance out there more often than a residential street, you know, a um a housing street, third street, something like that. We are out there quite a bit doing maintenance. So, with that said, yeah, there are some major concerns on the public works side of closing streets down, doing maintenance on that street safely. Um, signage, we will have to buy more signage for that 10th Avenue when you completely crow a street off and put detour signs up. And then the cost, there is continuous cost on medians. Um, wood chipping about every two years, we wood chip everything uh in town. So, we have uh you know, city buildings, Main Street. Main Street gets done yearly. Um you're looking at uh 10th Avenue, you're looking at about $6,000 just in wood chips every two years. That's just wood chips. That's not plants. That's nothing. Uh like we said in this plan, there is no plants involved in this plan. So, you can go very elaborate and put trees and shrubs and you're talking$100, $200,000 in shrubs and plants. Um that's a perfect example. main street. If [clears throat] you go that elaborate, you're talking some major expenses on plants. Uh and that the installing the plants is the easy part. It's maintaining those plants. Now, um any tree we plant now, we plant about 40 trees a year. So, if

you're talking about trees, that's three years of maintenance that tree takes to keep the root base solid root base where you don't have to do any maintenance to it. Um, so I'm just putting all the information out there that mediums are a massive undertaking for maintenance. Um, I've talked to many cities that do have medians. Uh, they have all told me that if you have a four-lane median, two lanes going one way, two lanes going the other way. They don't have any concerns taking care of medians because you can actually eliminate one lane of traffic and still not eliminate complete southbound northbound lanes. But they all said the exactly the same thing. I've repeated over and over that they are an absolute nightmare when it comes to single lane medians. Um option three I will tell you is that is my professional opinion is the best option and also public works. Um one because it gets a bump outs. Uh you get the traffic you get the pedestrians crossing an additional 5t on each side so the vehicles can see that pedestrian crossing. Um, and it also slows traffic down when you put uh two two vehic lanes next to each other. It is it will slow traffic down because you don't have that large medium we have right now and people can make the curve and they just cut over the curve like it's nothing. Well, you can't do that when you have uh traffic running alongside each other. Um, like I said, again, an optional I don't think is an option. I I have two younger kids. I shouldn't even say young now that I'm getting old. I guess I got a 14-year-old and a 11year-old. Neither of them are allowed to cross 10th Avenue by themselves. It's not safe the way it is. So that's why I tell you option one I don't think is an option. Um I also don't believe the comment that was made. I don't think it's a great option to tell your a kid to cross the street and just stop in the middle of the road. I don't think that's a great option either. I think if you start crossing a street, you should be crossing all the way. Um so that's why I like the fact that you're pushing out

with a bump out. pushing the um pedestrians out five to six feet on each side. So then you have 12 feet roughly less to cross that street. So I told you I'm going to give you the short version. I guess like it went a little longer than I uh did. Obviously I'm pretty passionate when it comes to these projects. I mean that's I think any director would be. Um but yeah, we spent a lot of time looking in what what we believe is the best option and that's my professional opinion is option three. Hopefully I answered your question, Chuck, in about a 10-minute. Yeah. When you wanted a 30 second comment back. Sorry. Or you're still talking. Yeah, exactly. We don't pay overtime. Yeah. Question also, Tim. I mean, there's a speed limit of 35, you know, on both the north and south of Main Street. Is that something that could ever be changed? It could with a study. Um I know that it Ken could probably speak more to the speed limit change. Yeah, generally speaking, they're going to uh we have to follow Mindot um guidelines for setting a local road speed limit, and you're going to set it to the 85th percentile. Right now, with the way the road is, 85th percentile is actually closer to 40 miles per hour, which indicates a speeding problem. So to Matt's point that I would concur with that option one is really not an option because of that um and other reasons. But um I think it'd be very difficult to see that speed drop. That could happen after we make improvements and we do a study to kind of follow up depending on the roadway width and design that we go with. I guess we could see, but it would be determined, you know, after we have the improvements done and can actually determine what that 85th percentile of uh cars are actually traveling to what we could set it to. Okay. Any other questions?

Just the public. Yeah. No, I was going to No, just anywhere. Chris, I guess right now I guess I'm going to open it to for public comments right now. I got just one person who signed in and that's uh Brad Wagner. What is it? 1093rd Street Southeast. Okay. So, I'm [clears throat] right on the corner of this proposed roundabout. Um, what is in the works to protect my property? Can you please speak into the microphone so we can hear you? What is in the proposal to protect protect my property? First of all, that would be put in 10th Avenue, Third Street. Uh it really does fit in the exact street that it is right now. It's not really getting any wider. Um that roundabout would be just like we've said, the one you see right on Main Street. So yes, we might uh adjust some curb, but for the most part, that curb line is staying exactly where it's at. So it's not getting bigger um where it' be encroaching more road. What was that? I'm sorry. But but you're moving you're moving the walking path. Uh the walking path is still on the west side, but we'll make some adjustments. Um we'll move it a the crossing a little farther down um south north uh just for the crossing parts, but for the most part, the uh walking path will be put pretty close to where it's at. Okay. And then everybody's concerned about speed. I mean, I get it. Um, if you really want to control that street, then you'd really have to put a roundabout in every intersection. I mean, this median stuff, all you hear, dollar signs, dollar signs, dollar signs, and assessments, and I don't think anybody wants that. Has anybody even thought about making it a no truck road? That's not an option on a state aid route. Yeah, it's a state aid road and is a designed a truck route. So how it is

designed a state aid road it has to be a truck road. Okay. But what what purpose are there for any trucks? There's nothing past H high. It is all residential all the way down. Yeah. By statute they cannot if the roads receiving funding from the NSA system they cannot not allow trucks. So there are there are more residential streets in town that are truck routs because of that reason. Okay. because all the trucks that need to get anywhere down by me can come right off a 19 whether it's to the Legion or whatever. That's why I was asked. Um the other thing is when we do all this milling and overlay, are we going to fix all the manhole covers? Yeah. So all the castings, gate bells, all get raised to the new surface level. Okay, good. Uh what else is on my agenda? [sighs] Um so then with that you said moving the the walking path to bend bend around my corner. So obviously we're in association. We got sprinkler lines. We got all kinds of stuff running in there. You got all the boxes and all the electrical cable, all that stuff on that corner plus a fire hydrant. What's is any of that moving? Yeah, I can just comment maybe up here um so people can hear me a little better maybe. Um Ken, could you maybe pull up that image? It shows the mini roundabout. Will that work? One for the north side. I think there's one a little more zoomed in. Maybe um was up near the very beginning. Maybe right in the front page actually show. Yeah, that's good there. So, um just to kind of explain this many roundabouts. I kind of glossed over it a little bit. So, um the the mini roundabout that's proposed at the intersection of Third Street and 10th

Avenue Southeast um would be uh retaining the existing curb. So, the curb radi that go around each of the four corners um would be left in place. Um the only curb that be removed would be uh removal of the existing crosswalks. Um so on a standard standard installation um uh like it is now, the crosswalks are pretty close to the corners around the round portion of the intersections. with a roundabout. Those get moved about 20 feet back. So, um that allows room for one vehicle to queue waiting to enter the roundabout. Um and then the crosswalk is behind that front vehicle. So, the crosswalks get moved about 20 ft back from where they are today. Um and uh when that is done, um the sidewalks get rerouted um with a a little bit of a curve shown there. Um this is to improve the crosswalk um for pedestrians. Um all the work that is being proposed here is within uh rightway. So uh we are not planning to do any work outside of rightway uh on this project. So um even with the reconfiguration is still on uh essentially city property. Um if there is anything that's in the right ofway u whether it's u irrigation systems um or other privatelyowned things like pet containment systems um if they are encountered in the project uh we try to work around them but uh we don't we don't restore them if they get damaged so they do not belong in the public right away um and uh you know if we do run into them we uh notify the property owners or in this case an HOA likely um that they would need to be repaid afterward, but that would not be completed by the city project. Uh, as far as anything, um, related to other utilities, um, if we have a relocation, uh, we work with those private utilities. Um, but, uh, as far as I know, we're working around the the large utility boxes that are the great utilities at the northwest corner there.

We're working around those, um, for the electrical side. Um, and I'm not aware of anything else that's really in the way. So if we have a hydra needs to be moved or extended, we can do that with the project. But uh just like any other street project, we accommodate and move if we have to. All right. And then lastly on this, since it does directly affect and cars are going to be coming around, is there anything in the works for a privacy fence for me or any of us there? Because it's headlights all night long that are coming around. We have not had a discussion though. Okay. Please consider it though. Okay. Thank you. Anyone else like to speak on the street uh improvement project? Okay. I guess uh I'll make a motion to close the public hearing. Second. Second. Second by Rick Siler. If there's no other comments, all in favor say I. I. I. Any opposition passes 5. [snorts] So now we have to uh look at the resolution and uh yes so the resolution your packet would be to um uh basically to order the project at this point. Um I do I did note that uh you know we've provided three options. uh I don't have a contract in front of you to you know necessarily pursue one of those three options because [clears throat] I think that's maybe one of the period one of the items we need to to kind of go through. Um options one and three are quite a bit different than option two as far as far as the engineering involved. So um the resolution in front of you here tonight it would be just to order the project. Um and uh if you wanted to make a decision on which option you pursue um you can do that after the resolution do it before. That's your choice. Uh we won't be starting any of that work until our contract goes through for approval. Can

I just get clarification on the titling of this or Yes. Thank you, Bruce. I'm sorry. Okay. This uh uh our hearing was on a 2026 street improvement and the resolution is titled 2025. Okay. Our admin likely we don't necessarily produce everything from scratch. It's probably a copy and paste from last year's project. So it is a 2026 street improvement project. Okay. So yeah, thank you for bringing that up. Okay, any other comments, questions? I know um I my opinion is I think we should at a later date, maybe the first meeting in January or something, decide which option to go through. Um you know, it kind of give us a little bit more time to discuss. I know we have a lot of things on the calendar today that we want to try to get through. Um but I think if we can kind of put that on the agenda on the first one in January um then we you know our timeline still should be be able to be met and yeah so as what I'll provide is just a I'm assuming option one is not really an option. Um so they likely bring a proposal for both option two and option three. Um it is worth noting there could be somewhere in between option one and option two. So I mean if it's just to improve pedestrian crossings, you can do islands at just the intersections. So as you kind of think about that, just understand that we're presenting um basically the maximum option with option two as far as what is the most you can put an island in. Um understand that you could find somewhere in between. So that picture we provided to you for location in KO [clears throat] at an intersection goes I think about 200 feet one direction then goes back to a three-lane configuration with a center turn lane. So, um it's not a mile of road or in this case we'd be talking about maybe I think the longest one maybe like 800 feet or somewhere in that range. So, just as you think about that um

consideration um there could be somewhere in between for for at least uh option one and a half or whatever you might want to call it. So, okay. Uh so, just just something to think about. Just to uh clarify my mind, if you go down to option um two, I think, or even three, is there parking allowed on the streets? Option one or two would not have any parking allowance. Option three would three does allow there's two lanes and you could allow a lane for parking. Yes. Yes. Yes. But number two allow there would be no parking. Correct. Yep. And what what is the traffic count on this? Uh I want to say the latest counter is about 3,400 vehicles somewhere in that range. 3,500 vehicles. The count previous to that was over 4,000. Um that was a 2020 or 2021 count and a lot of our COVID counts are kind of off. So those are kind of hard to go by, but um assume about 30, you know, 3500 to 4,000 vehicles per day would be about what I'd estimate this area of of note right now, Bruce, we don't allow parking on 10th Avenue Southeast. Okay. Right now. Yeah. Okay. And that's just because of uh there's just no room for it because the the drive lines are against the curb. What do we foresee parking on that street anyways? The one side is a drainage ditch essentially. There's nothing over there for that people would want to park for. It's not like Main Street. Correct. Yeah, it is. [clears throat] And if they're at going if it going to a holiday celebration or something, I'm assuming they're going to park in the front. They're going to go off of Third Street or Ninth Street and park at the house. I wouldn't expect it to get a lot of on street parking. Um, it' probably just be people holding events, garage sales, those kinds of things to be honest. Uh, it's not going to be probably regular amount of people. Um, but even a garage sale, most of those houses face this the back. They'd have to still walk all the way around. Yes. Yeah. I got to say unlike the north half with seventh where there's houses that fronted. You are right in that there's no houses that front.

Yeah. I just don't There's probably not a high demand for parking per se. Right. Exactly. Yeah. I'd say the parking would probably I mean even though there's a trail on one side and sidewalk on the other, it might be cyclist or something else using that, but probably not a lot of lot of parking. Okay. Okay. I'll make a motion to approve resolution 25121501 with the correction of the title from 2025 street and utility improvement project ordering improvement and preparation of plans to 2026 street and utility improvement project ordering improvement and preparations of plans with with the idea of this would we then be also bringing back discussion of which option at the next meeting correct Okay. Second. Yeah. You got a motion by Maggie Bass, second by Bruce Wolf. Any other comments? If not, all in favor say I. I. Any opposition? [clears throat and cough] It passes. [snorts] 5-0. Thanks, Chris. The next item is mine here, too. Well, you're going to just say everything is hunky dory, right? That's Yeah. So, I guess my I do my product. Do you have to make a motion to um end the um public hearing? We already did. We did that. We did. Okay. Cool. I do have my [clears throat] updates uh letter with you in the packet today. Um the last one I I'll mention there is in your general business, I do have my proposal for uh municipal state aid services. So that's just certification and just general services that are needed for your maintenance of your MSA system. So um I wasn't planning to stick around for the end of the meeting here. So if there are questions for me, please let me know. Otherwise, it's the same same amount and same services we've offered for the last three years, I think, at this point. So, but okay, that's the only thing I'll I'll kind of add on as far as it's in that update, unless there's questions, but otherwise, see you another time. All right, thanks. Thank you.

Merry Christmas to you. Yeah. Right. Item number seven, and there's no ordinances for introduction. Eight, there's no ordinances for adoption. So, we're at number nine, resolutions. Uh, first one is adopting the 2026 city budget. Uh yes, enclosed for your review is the city's proposed 2026 total budget um totaling 27,649,894 across all departments. Um you guys have seen all of these before. Um this budget includes summaries of the general fund, the EDA, the enterprise funds, special revenues, capital projects, and the debt service funds. Um, of note, we had our truth and taxation here at our last meeting on December 1st. Um, and following that, I guess staff does recommend approval of the 2026 total budget um, via resolution 2512152. Any comments, questions? Have some question. A question. Um what is the percent that this is uh larger than last year's percent? Oh uh the total levy I'm assuming you're talking. Yes. Yes. Yes. So the levy will be coming up here. Oh the city budget is really what I want. Oh the levy% of the budget over last year's. Yes. Mean the total budget. The total budget. Yes. That's 27 million is talking about right. The 27 What was it last year? Yep. Give me two seconds here. or just the percentage is what I'm looking for.

Oh, it's lower. Last year we approved a budget of 31,550,234. So I can do that math for you here real quick. Um it's on um packet page three of 107 of the budget packet item. So let's see 10 107 you said. Yep. Page three of 107. Page three of 107 mean section three of the actual budget packet um page three and four of the 107 page packet. Gotcha. So the um difference oh page 54 I guess on the PDF I'm just in the actual budget packet link. So for the general fund it's 4.8%. Okay. Decline. So total budget had a decline about 7 and a half%. Okay. That general fund. Yeah. Yeah. That's total budget. Thank you. That was my only question. Okay. Any other questions?

Any other question? Make a motion to approve resolution 25-12-15-02 city of New Prague resolution adopting the city budget for 2026. I'll second that. So, I got a motion by Bruce uh Wolf and second by Chuck Nikolai to adopt the resolution number 25-12-15-02 adopting the 2026 city budget. There's no other comments, questions. All in favor say I. I. Any opposition? Okay. Passes 5-0. Sean, real quick, my uh board put another three in on there. It's actually 12% decrease over last year in the city budget. The city. Yeah. So yeah, last year's of 31 about 31.5 million took off almost 4 million which is about 12 12%. I think I found that 4.2 million I think we Does that sound right? 4 point or 4.3 28 from last year's. Yeah. Yeah. I I just needed the percentage. Yeah. So I'm going to get people that ask and I can say that we at least about 12%. Okay. Okay. Next is the official fee schedule. If uh anyone have any questions on the fee schedule? I know the changes are highlighted in yellow. Anyone have any questions on any of the highlighted areas of the fee schedule? Oh, I think we've seen those before. What's that? I think we've already seen them. Yeah, I'm just and we did uh tighten up some of the the subsequent fees on like blighted properties and whatnot. I know we had discussed that. Did we? We had actually done a lot of those um in the 2025 schedule. Okay. So, we're not proposing any new ones at this point. Okay. But we added teeth to it somehow though, right?

Yeah. We we had been ratcheting up our um per property, per mowing or per maintenance fee. Okay. Okay. If there's no questions, I guess I'll make a motion to approve resolution 25-12-15-03, the 2026 official fee schedule. I'll second. I got a second by Maggie Bass. If there's no other comments, questions, all in favor say I. I. Any opposition? Okay. Passes 5-0. Next we have the property tax levy. Uh yes, this property tax levy goes with the budget we just passed. Um as we've been discussing for the last few months, uh total levy would be 5,63,735. Um and so I guess I would recommend that with resolution 25121504 and the and that would be the 5.46% 5.4% last year. I'll make a motion to approve resolution 25121504 approving the 2025 property tax level levy payable in 2026. Second. We got a motion by Maggie Bass, second by Rick Syler. Any other questions, comments at this time? If not, all in favor say I. I. Any opposition? I. Okay. Passes 41. Next is a resolution regarding uh moving our election location in uh 2026 from the fitness center uh to the new police station uh garage. Is that correct? That's correct. So for a number of years

now we've used the um fitness center for elections and whatnot. uh generally working around them there are there are fees that we kind of incur cleaning fees and whatnot to be able to use that facility as well as a rental fee if I remember right [clears throat] Rod um so along those lines as we will have space now in our new garage I know talking to the chief it pretty easy for them to pull pull cars out on on election days and whatnot to be able to just kind of flow people right through the garage uh it would then also allow the fitness and aquatic center to continue operating uh without having to be overwhelmed by voters on that day. So, we are trying to you think of ways of using city facilities that uh would be easier administratively to handle and we thought this was one way of utilizing our new facility and allowing that facility hopefully to continue being open to the public. Are there any concerns with parking, adequate parking? Uh I I mean I you always have that concern. I believe our parking uh both in the parking lots and on street will be very similar to what is currently at the aquatic center right now. Um and so I guess I I'm not foreseeing any super major parking issues at this point. Um it would all depend on the election year too. I know the one Yeah. But the one thing that I think we are going to see a drastic change in at least we saw even this year with the school voting was the number of early and mailin vote voting. So your your on day turnout isn't quite as heavy as it used to be that situation. So I guess yeah we may have a little bit of note. I think Helina currently uses the fire station for the Helina Township voting. Um and that would be over on the fire station side where this would be on the police side. So this would involve all elections

except for school elections that are just school. Yeah. So all other um Yeah. And any elections that the city was involved in would be held there and until some future if we ever changed it to a different location again. When is the police station supposed to be done? uh estimated completion is in May right now. So I believe our first elections will be in August of next year. So few months after that. Any other questions? Well, I'll make a motion to approve resolution 2512150. um the city of New Prague designating a combined polling place for all precincts for the primary election and general election in 2026 and future elections until further notice. I'll second that. Any other questions? I got a motion by Maggie Bass, second by Chuck Nikolai uh for resolution 25-12-150. If there's no other comments or questions, all in favor say I. I. I. Any opposition? Okay. Passes 5-0. General business. First thing is approval of the 2026 20 to 2035 capital improvement plan. Uh that is correct. There are no changes kind of from what we've discussed throughout our budget process. So staff recommends approval of the 2026 to through 2035 capital improvement plan. Jess, I had just one quick question. I had thought that when we heard the fire department's report, I might have misunderstood that, but was there a comment that the fire truck purchase was going to be pushed back a

year? It was it was the conversations I've had with Chief Renda are that it could be pushed back, not necessarily that it will be, but that it could be as we look out over the next few years um to where the where the truck is at right now. um he believes that there certainly will be life on it if we want to push it back a couple years to try to help balance that levy as we go forward. Um but uh I would say there's there's nothing that is going to require us moving it from 28 to 29 or whatnot that we certainly need to do now. Um and I I would love to take another look at it next year and just make sure we don't jump that gun on it and push it back and then have to explain why we're pulling it back forward again. So, at this point in time, you want to keep it in the same year that it's on the in the CIP. Correct. Okay. Yeah. Just keep that in your back pocket that we may be discussing and moving it back. [laughter] No, not literally in your back pocket. Any other questions? [snorts] If not, I guess I'll make a motion to approve the 2026 through 2035 capital improvement plan. I'll second. We got a second by Maggie Bass. If there's no other comments, all in favor say I. I. Any opposition? Passes 5-0. Approvement of the 2026 to 2035 visioning visioning document. Yes. Along the same lines as the CIP. This has been the document that's kind of been shared going forward. Um, and so I certainly stand for any questions or any changes you may want to see at this point. But um otherwise I'd recommend approval of the 2026 through 2035 visioning document. I I had a comment uh regarding um the city center section which is I think just a page um I think the first page. Yeah. You want to see it?

Um I think we're just keeping the same wording uh from the original and we're kind of working through it. But um in the near future, I would I would encourage maybe some different wording to suggest a little more detail and for us to get a little more prioritized here because to me this is one of our higher priorities for next year is this and it does I don't really read that in this description and really to to get people to work together, the park board especially and other people to figure out what if we've decided to develop this property what what and we're going to sell part of it to make sure that next year we have on our plate that we're going to sell part of it and get the further development planned. So if we're going to have trees or park or if the city wants to have trees located and develop the tree plan or whatever that is and have that done early next year. So I just don't get that out of this wording here. No, that that's fair. A s to create a little bit more sense of urgency and and let the world know that, hey, this is a priority. We're doing this, you know, and we our intention is to market the property and develop the water retention or even describe that thing. So yep, I can certainly do along that lines. I know ju just for your guys' note, I try to update these quarterly. If you go out onto the share drive, you'll see the 2025 out there and it's got the quarterly notes for most of the items as we go through. So, um I will be doing an update here at the end of December. But yeah, I can look at kind of wording that a little bit differently. That's my take on how everyone else feels on it. But I I think the coun as a council, I think we it's it'd be good to have it in front of our face that hey, this is something that we need to do get done.

Any other comments? Okay, I guess I'll make a motion to approve the 2026 to 2035 visioning document with maybe adjustments to the city center uh area to highlight the and and I and I can certainly include that in like like the update future updates. Yes. As I do the updates, I can just update the Okay. And the future updates on the city center. Uh, second. I got a second by Rick. Any other comments? All in favor say I. I. I. Any opposition? Okay. Passes 5-0. Compensation play pay plan for 2026. Um, I think we've didn't we already approve that in previous meetings? You Yeah, you guys approved the compensation study that was done and that we kind of used to form the budget every single year. Um, as we've kind of discussed, whether it was uh colas in the past then or when we had studies at the end of the year, we formally approved the compensation pay plan um for the coming year. This is the pay plan that was taken out of that study that the council approved here back in October. So, there haven't been any changes to it. You will notice the police union uh matrix is in there and that's more just as an FYI as that is part of our union contract. Um, and we'll be discussing that here in the coming year. So, okay. Anyone have any questions, comments? [snorts] I will make a motion to approve the 2026 compensation pay plan. Okay. Second. I got a second by motion by Maggie Bass, second by Bruce Wolf. Any other questions, comments? If not, all in favor say I. Any opposition? Okay. Passes 5-0. 2026 golf course consultant agreement.

Um I think basically the only changes there were this is an annual contract that we do with um what's the name of his company? Uh Golf Professional Enterprises LLC. Correct. And yeah, this is the same contract that you all saw back in the middle of November. um and is just being brought forward for formal approval and just uh changed his rate of pay to what was agreed on at the golf board and also agreed on by the council or we're agreeing on it here now. Yes, this would be agreeing on the formal contract. Yeah, this is the the golf board has approved this uh new compensation for this contract, but I think everything else is pretty much the same. Correct. [clears throat and cough] So, if there's uh any other questions or not, I guess I'll make a motion to approve the uh 2026 golf course consultant agreement. I'll second. I got a second by Maggie Bass. There's not any other further comments. All in favor say I. I. I. Any opposition? Okay. Passes 50. [snorts] Municipal State Aid Road. Is that uh that grant? No, this is actually the uh proposal that uh Chris Kudson noted regarding our annual um state aid route um basically paperwork and uh everything that he has to do every year. He is proposing um services for 2026 that are not proposed to in increase at all. They would be $7,100 for the routine services for 2026, same as we had in 2025. And we do not expect any non-rine. Although if if there is that would be a $1,500 not to exceed, but we don't have anything proposed. We don't have any new roads that would bump us into having designating any new state [clears throat] aid route. So $700 is where we're going to be. So no change. Just looking to get that approved for uh the coming year. So moved. So I just got a question. Uh so I know

we only have what one county road left in the city limits. Uh technically two with counter road 15 uh up basically in front of the wastewater treatment plant in Scott County and then Oh, okay. Um County Road um 60 there um as it goes south of uh the Newark Times office. Yeah. Okay. Has there do you know has there been any conversation on that road being refurbished and given back to us? I don't know if Matt wants to comment on that further. Oh, it'd be nice to or Josh [laughter] even. We've had meetings with the county um um highway engineer uh between Josh, myself, and uh Matt and Chris Canudson. [clears throat and cough] That may be a 20207 project. So, we need to beat on Dennis Te when he comes here the next time. Is that what you're saying? Okay, [snorts] that was my only question. So, uh there was a motion by uh Rick and I guess I'll second that. Is there any other comments on the proposed fees and the uh municipal state aid engineering services? If not, all in favor say I. I. I. Any opposition? Okay. Passes 50. Now we're at this VIS school cyber whatever something like that. And I know way above my pay grade. I know that Brian used a fancy way to pronounce it and I'm just going to say the police department has been working with uh Minnesota Security Consortium kind of over the last year on its cyber security standards um that the BCA put out and I know we were kind of struggling to meet those. Um while CTS is an IT company, they aren't necessarily a cyber security company. Um and so uh Minnesota Security Consortium has actually been able to review the police department's practices and the needs and then communicate those to CTS um so that CTS is able to put those measures actually into place. So from a city perspective, uh as we were

talking uh with a representative uh from MSC, we'll just say um he did recommend uh he said there are many things that he could help the city also in place. U I think generally it is a much higher fee than say $6,000 for six months of services. But what he would basically be able to do um is kind of go through all of our security needs. I know there was a number of years ago actually now that we did a security assessment with true point was it true north was the name of them um who kind of said that this is where we were at with certain things but didn't really then give us direction uh speaking to CTS as I said they're not really a cyber security firm they gave us a bunch of templates for a bunch of policies that we could put into place but that was really all they had they didn't really have any expertise on the policies or recommendations on which order to go through um what Minnesota security consortium would do would help to put some policies into the correct policies that we probably need to put into place and really take a look at our um systems to uh give us recommendations then and to be able to tell CTS this is what they they need to do to stay up to date. Um, and I know, uh, like I said, our our police department, our police department and CTS were kind of running into a wall with the BCA just as to how do we get compliant with what the BCA wants to do. And these guys were very, very helpful with them. Um, and so it seems for a low cost of $6,000 over six months for them to kind of be able to do the same things for the city, um, seems like a I guess a good trial price along those lines. And I would recommend moving forward with that. Of note, while we didn't orig initially work these into the budget, they um this would be able to fit into our IT services budget for uh the coming year. So So they've already worked with our police station. This is talking about now utilizing them for citywide. Yeah, citywide. I know like utility data

or Yeah, we got a we have a lot of utility customer data, personal information that they would be able to help us make sure we're protecting it correctly. And I know Tim has probably worked much more intimately with I think his name is Demetrius um than I have. So he'd be able to hopefully answer any questions kind of about that. So and just to be clear then this is just in a a consultant role making recommendations but they would not communicate directly with CTS to instruct them to do. So yeah. Yeah. They would come to us and say we think you need these things. Would you like us to talk to CTS about this? Um and then yeah they'd be working as a consultant through us. Okay. So, would there be a a report at the end of this or what's the work product that we're is it just verbal dis thing or is there I would assume we get some kind of report. Um I guess Tim, how how detailed does that get with you guys with with the police department? We have a lot of standards that come down federally that then the state enforces locally for us. Um that has changed significantly in the last five years. Um the cyber security and the attacks that are happening and what a lot of cities are seeing are the police department and the city have the same vulnerabilities. we're just required to have a stricter set of [snorts] firewalls and protections and and things like that. So in the course of this um process with reviewing ours and updating our policies and procedures um I talked with Josh and Demetrius and what they do is they go through and find best standard and this is what we're doing and this is what cities are doing and this is why to show you here's your

vulnerability and this is how you can fix it and this is how CTS can do that. So when when CTS when you ask them a question about you know cyber security and and and things from the federal level they don't necessarily know the answer to that. They can implement things but they don't know what that standard is. So essentially this company will then guide us into what CTS's process needs to be for security through the city. But to Bruce's point, did you get some kind of a written document saying this is what we're recommending so that you know? Yes. Yes. We we go through that our whole policy and we with us we have a different we have a set of standards that we have to meet from the BCA. So it's a checkbox and did we do this, did we do this, did we do this and it'll create the same thing for the city. Mr. Mayor, may I uh Sure. Brian Paulson, 2064 Street Southwest. Um, so they usually have controls and like for me it's like 110 controls. So they'll give you a document and say there's 110 controls. It would be you know NIST 800 171 whatever the standard that they want to use. They'll give you the controls. Uh it's separate than vulnerabilities. Vulnerability scanning is like uh there's a bug with Windows Edge or something like that. So this is compliance. Uh so they'd be giving you these controls. Then they would help with your like IT team to implement those controls and then afterwards you can say we have a hundred out of 110 controls done. Uh like one example for that would be two-factor. So to log in username password well they might implement two factor where you have to have a token to log in. That might be one of the controls. So that kind of explains a little bit. All right. Well thank you for your input. Thank you Brian. [clears throat] Well, I think it's good that we have something so we can um monitor over time and make sure that these things are actually followed through with and

completed. Any other questions or comments on it? Okay. So, moved. Okay. I got a motion by Rick Siler and I guess I'll second it for the cyber security services. There's no other comments. All in favor say I. I. Any opposition? Passes 50. Ambulance agreement update. Uh yes. So I just kind of want figure we should start talking. Um we have our quarterly meetings with uh North Ambulance and have been for the last couple years. Usually it is uh the mayor, Chief Renda, Chief Applin, and myself that will meet with them. um just kind of go over what how operations have been, whether we have any concerns um over the last quarter or so and kind of how they see things going. But our current contract, which I have put in your packet, uh does uh expire here at the end of April. And so I know we initially entered into a three-year contract with them last time because we weren't quite sure, if you remember right, we went out to bid, ultimately chose to stay with North Memorial. Um I think the reasoning if I recollect at the time was that we didn't really have any complaints with them. Um I know at the public hearing we had people on both sides stand up and say hey like [clears throat] you should choose this or you should choose this but really we had no complaints with North Memorial. I think over the last three years continue to add to that. I know um Chief Renda couldn't be here tonight, but he had um he certainly expressed his desire that he would his recommendation would be to stay with North Memorial at that point. And I guess I I won't speak for Chief Allen along those lines knowing he also works with them. I know administratively I I have no complaints I guess at this point working with North Memorial. As we kind of look forward, I know that there are uh certain services,

especially as you look out into greater Minnesota, that are having to starting to have to subsidize their ambulances to some point. Um just because numbers aren't physically penciling out for the runs needed to to balance the costs and whatnot. Um initial conversations with them sound like that they're not going to request a subsidy. Um I guess their request at this point it sounds like would either be to maintain or slightly lower rent if if I'm remembering that because we kind of talked about it a little bit, Chuck. Yes. Um just that with where Medicaid and Medicare are currently paying um it just and those two being about 50% of their payers like they struggle to make uh their budgets meet every single month. So they certainly requested if they could that our next agreement be anywhere from 5 to 10 years. Um just so that way they know that they've got a little more of asurances as they make uh large financial capital purchases such as an ambulance that um they're going to actually be able to continue to use that going forward. So, we're [snorts] not making a decision tonight, but I kind of wanted to start the conversations um from you guys uh since the current contract does run out here in about 4 months uh or four and a half months or so. Um kind of where you guys are at with this. And I I guess personally, I wouldn't mind a slightly larger contract so we don't have to do do this every three years. And there are certainly outs in there. So, for some reason that we had something go wrong. I know last time we put an out in here um to be able to uh get us out any if obviously I don't know if that's going to be as fair as what you mean. You kind of passed over everything real fast. I mean, we opened that up. We had three ambulance services that that bidded on it. We had two. So, we we only had North Memorial and Mayo were the only ones

that wanted it. Um, and I I'll admit, Rick, I don't know if Mayo wants it anymore, and nobody's stepped up and or approached the city indicating that they wanted to. Okay. I I I know there have been times since then that Mayo has said, "If you guys are ever interested in actually turning over your license, they'd be interested." Um, but it to me since conversations since then, it didn't sound like there was a ton of interest in picking up a service license like this. Whereas North in fact in our last meeting recommended we hold on to our license and not give it up. Um, and they'd be willing to work through our license. So, yeah. Well, I just noticed that after we did that three-year um they kind of uh put younger people onto their crews and um they're a little slower and I had one ambulance go down a wrong road up up by the uh the city center there [clears throat] um and had to go all the way around and then come in. So, I was just it it just seemed like last time when we did it for three years, they kind of said, "Oh, we got this made now." And so I don't know. Well, I just kind of reiterate what Chief Renda said uh regarding when he goes to these chief meetings. He said that uh a lot of uh other chiefs and communities were stating that North is don't get rid of North. They have a lot of issues with Mayo and a lot of issues with the other alliance Alina Alina deals and they said you guys are very fortunate to have you know that's the comments he he got from these chief meetings that he goes to in the area. But again, we don't have to make a decision tonight. you know, uh, you know, I think one thing we have to look at is obviously they're not asking for any subsidies, but we also have to look

at we're kind of changing the space that they have at the new facility, you know, regarding rent or do we not allow charge rent or whatever because, you know, now they're just basically having what, a couple garages and so so at the moment they do still have, I think, uh, some a little bit of their sleeping facilities, but yeah, they're uh, Chief Renda didn't move some vehicles around to allow them space in the um in in the fire bays there so they can actually keep their rigs indoors. But um yeah, obviously this during the construction process they've had to move around a little bit. So So okay. All right. So that's something we can address, you know, first quarter. I'll Yeah, I'll certainly keep it on your radar. I know they were going to go back and talk to their higherups to see if they had any requests, but I their initial request at this point was to get to something 5 to 10 years. Yeah, they they said they're counting people [clears throat] like fives. I don't think we have a whole lot of time to waste. No. So, I do think we need to make sure we stay with a competitive rental agreement. I mean, it is a service that we're obviously providing a better service than we had before with what we're renting and um I I do remember painfully the process we went through last time. Yes. And um there was um advocates on both sides of it. And I can guarantee you that we can find people that would complain about one or the other. Yep. And depending on who you ask and who you what side you're on before, you can anny that up. But um the the previous financial statements we're getting at that time did did incorporate kind of administrative costs that were going to North Memorial home base kind of and it was never really understood how they did then they kind of worked through that and changed that now to this format which I I think is fine.

It's it's kind of hard always to follow through where the money is flowing and what what it is, but I guarantee you that there's there's a any business there's there's a value to it even if you're showing you're losing money on it, right? They don't do this for nothing. No, that's true. And Northmore Memorial, if you remember, is a very fine, very good um experience with them. But part of the benefit they express to us is that they have this whole certain area and and they work together and they save cost because I think it's favorable and I forgetable new there's some other ones so that it works for them. So obviously we wouldn't want to see somebody go, but I mean but but I don't think we should necessarily automatically reduce the rent or anything like that is my opinion. But we can discuss that when we get more into the agreement and uh deciding on what we want to move forward on that. So then I guess the next thing is the we're back to now we added H microfich where we the laser fish. Yeah laser fish. Yeah. So, so just to recap so I understand the service, there's going to be software sitting on our servers that will allow us to um communicate with laser fish and assuming that you know we're passing documents to them for them to store at in the cloud or data center. Okay. Correct. Right. Okay. I just wanted to make sure that yes I understood the whole so Okay. Okay, we have the software and the scanners that then shoots it up to laser fish. Okay, and those laser fish documents are then searchable far format than what we have.

I' I've used software similar software. Um, so my only concern was um being able to cancel the contract. If we're locked in for five years and there [clears throat] is a security breach, there is some other situation that causes uh angst for the city um that we are able to uh cancel that contract with cause. Okay. Okay. So, I guess I would say if and not knowing if they're going to be willing to do that, I'd say and if we want to try to lock in the reduced prices right now, um options could be either a going with the five-year if they'll allow us to put a four cause in there or B just having them offer up the short-term contract where this year's price is still the same, but they just don't guarantee anything going forward. um how how quickly would you be able to communicate with them to see if they would amend their agreement? It's ever it's a slight amendment. We're we would have to have some cause and there's there's language such as the parties will work in good faith to resolve any blah, you know, blah blah blah. um to put that in there. But if there's something that really is serious, then we shouldn't have to pay for a five-year contract. Yeah. I mean, I I can't guarantee they'll email back with the holiday season, but I know that Robin and her team have been in contact with them. So, I have to imagine we'd be able to reach out and get some information from them for some, you know, some asurances because right now they're they have no risk. There's even a limitation on Yep. on what they're responsible for and how how legally we can't we can only recoup the cost of the contract. We cannot recoup any more money in the event that something worse happens. So

that's a risk for the city. Yeah. See if they if they can change the verbiage and give us the pricing if we approved at the first meeting in January or do you need that? Is it time sensitive? I don't think they'll approve the pricing extended past January 1. Okay. Um they're pretty clear that we needed a signed agreement by December 31st. I think they'll be really responsive to contract language. They've been really responsive before. Like I mean I don't want to promise this but within an hour within a couple hours they've responded to us. Um, I can certainly ask about extending it to January 5th, but because they brought it forward to us with the sense of urgency for December 31st, I I don't see them. I I Maggie, can you make um can um we do like a um a motion and then it it doesn't go through until for sure she's got the information that we want so that that way they can do it. That's that's the in that's my intent, but I just I want to make sure the city is protected. I agree with you. I I guess along those lines, the council could authorize Chuck and myself because we would both have to be scient uh without the guarantee so that way we do have that easier out. Would you be good with that, Maggie? Are you comfortable with that? Do you want me to be part of that conversation? Yes. Okay. Yeah. So, I guess you'd authorize Yeah. yourselves, myself to to work through that with laser fish over the next few days. So, should we do that in a motion or Yeah. Yeah, we [snorts] can do that. So, move. Okay. How you need to? I'll second. Okay. We got a motion by Rick and second

by [clears throat] Sean on uh reaching out to Laser Fish. laser fish and uh see if we can get some addendums done to the contract and then if if it's approved if it's satisfies Maggie then unless you really want to go back to microf fish but I think that's like [laughter] well you know I'm just showing my age okay so if there's any other question find that for us on the micro would you [laughter] okay I got a a motion and a second if there's no other comments all in favor say Hi. Hi. Hi. Any opposition? Okay. Miscellaneous. Can I go first? Yes. Are you [snorts] done? Well, I'd like to hear that gentleman over there, um, the Cub Scout. Are you working on a badge there, bud? Yeah. What's your name? Trevor. Trevor. Wow. Welcome. You're on TV now. You got any questions, let us know. [laughter] So, is this what a community service uh merit badge or Oh, yeah. Okay. Good. I did ask him to lead us in the pledge of allegiance and he didn't want to show us up, so he he declined. So, you're okay. Welcome. Next time you should check with us. We'll give you a shorter meeting. [laughter] All right. Uh, of of note before you guys swing around the horn, I was going to say we do have the quarterly uh update from North Ambulance there in the packet for you guys to review sometime. Um, I guess nothing groundbreaking. You will note that it seems like the numbers are way off from last year. They in fact are way off from last year to be, but it's because they are accounting for their runs a little bit differently. It used to be that um they accounted for them by truck. So if the new Prague truck ended up down in Farbo and picked up two runs before

coming back, those would get counted to that truck. Um, now they're doing them actually in New Craig. So if for some reason a Farbo truck ended up up here, instead of those numbers going to Fairbo, they're going to come to New Prague. So the numbers are going to be be off kind of this year versus last year as they're trying to get a clearer picture of what's actually happening here in New Prague, not necessarily with the new Prague truck. Yes, they did mention that. Anything else, Rick? Nope. Bruce, nothing. Maggie? No, sir. Sean, just a quick question. Uh, something I'd like to add maybe to the next meeting. We don't have to discuss it right now, but um, something's been kind of sticking in my craw a little bit, and it's the our our policy of items not on the agenda and allowing people to talk. Um, I'd like to hear from them. I I I understand the need for maybe a time limit and we don't need to hear the same thing from 30 people, but if they want to talk on something on the agenda, um I'd like them be a to be able to make a statement and go on the record. Um I I don't know how we kind of got away from that. It always had used to be that way. And I know we can't always give them answers that it requires, but we can at least listen to them and hear them, acknowledge their question, their problem, their issue, whatever it is, and then direct city staff to get them the answer that they need and we can get it at a later date. Each and every subject that we're working on, if somebody wants to come up and talk about the snow plow or whatever, you know, um I don't care. No, I understand that. But if they want to talk on anything that is on the agenda, I want to make sure that we're giving them adequate time. So, a situation came up tonight where Brian wanted to comment on something that was on and he did. Yeah. On the agenda, but he during that segment technically he probably shouldn't have been able to. You allowed it to go on, but

So, so I guess I I'll do How about I do this, Sean? One, we do have that speaking policy. we can just bring it back to discuss the speaking policy just just in a larger context. Sure. And two, I wonder if even just rewarding number four from public invited to be heard on matters not on the agenda to public invited to be heard on matters that do not have a public hearing or something like that. Just just to open it up that if for some reason we are talking about the visioning document and that's not a public hearing. So Chuck is not going to open it up, but that does allow someone then if they want to to give their opinion at least right there. I just even a just a miscellaneous section for for the general public. Yeah. So, I agree and I Okay. I I didn't like the gotcha that sometimes where they put you guys on the spot and you couldn't answer them and I I I tend to not like that. So, I I agree. If anybody can give me questions beforehand, we can try to get them answered in the meeting. But, Right. Right. Right. Yeah. I was just trying to understand. And I mean an open mic and I like it when you they can come up and talk about whatever issue that we're working on, you know, and it but it the problem with that was my last city. um you would get that's why I think a time limit or something and I I don't know what the right answer is and maybe well I think that just the wording is I think that helps a lot and I don't know I've always been even you know before I always if someone was sitting in the crowd and they didn't talk I would reach out to them and say are you here for shits and giggles or you know want something to say want something to say most of them are no I'm just here so type of thing so yeah just maybe just the wording I I support that but I do support also so that we don't enter into answering questions. I Yeah, you don't. Otherwise, they pin you down. It gets to a gotcha moment. And also then we go into a rabbit hole. We're trying to Well, the flowers are on this side of my property line and that. Yeah. It's like, okay. But yeah, I can put that policy on just for in the near future just to discuss the overall policy on how we may want to do that.

Okay. Anything uh from anyone on the the panel? No. Mitch, you got anything? Patrick, you still with us? Okay. The only thing I have is um is there any update on the 250th celebration? Uh reach out to the chamber or anything? Not at this point. I am kind of pulling together a few staff members to kind kind of work. Um, just as a reminder on that, I'm going to see if we have we haven't really focused any city resources towards this, but I figure we could kind of use some connections to at least build a committee and then kind of pass off the item to the more community-led committee than actual city staff. So, because Paul Bush reached out to me and he's kind of head of the fireworks. Sounds like we just found the chair of our committee and well he would he would definitely want to be on the committee but he already signed the contract for the fireworks on the third you know and he says that they would they the fourth is out because they're booked okay out you know years in advance that was his concern because it it popped up in the paper about the conversation with Dennis D'vorak and and it was kind of brought up and I think I was uh the one who brought up well maybe we can move the fireworks to the fourth And he said, Paul didn't like that. Well, no, he just said, "I I already signed the contract for the, you know, to get the, you know, and he did say he's got extra money this year, so it's probably going to be the biggest show that we ever had." But he is willing to to serve on that committee. Um, you know, so I just was wondering where we stood on that. So, he does a great job. I like Yes. So, if there's nothing else for everyone, move to ajourn. Okay. I got a motion by Rick. I will second that. There's nothing else. I wish before we leave, I want to wish everyone a happy holiday season and uh we will see you guys next year. Thank you guys. All in favor? Yep. All in favor? I.

Any opposition? We're out of here. Thank you. [clears throat] I saw the ad in the paper bag. Oh, I got home and said please hot shower. I was just going to ask Tim if someone's leaving. They want to redo the And then I ripped the tenon out. [clears throat] Did you fall or something? Yeah. No, I was just kidding. I just I always like to keep Mitch on his house, too, because a lot of times you cried. It was that. Does it hurt now? Oh. Huh. Does it hurt now then? Um, only when I use it. [laughter] You know, I brought black pen now all the time so that way Oh, doesn't that had to be in black? Hey, Josh, was there any kind of overall uh computer update or anything? It was my uh