City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, let's call the meeting order. Let's stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Oh, I didn't see you were at your chair or something. All right, roll call, please.

Council Member Nordby? Here. Council Member Woods? Here. Council Member McKenzie? Here. Council Member Schwer? Here. Mayor Monge?

Here. Thank you very much. May I have a motion to adopt the agenda, please? So moved. So moved. Council Member Schwer? Second. Second. Council Member Woods? All those in favor, say aye. Aye.

Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. On to the consent agenda. Item A, June 16th, 2026, regular meeting minutes. Item B, general claims of $2,078,604.37. Item C, general claims of $3,383,871.13. Item D, HRA claims of $71,348.51. Item E, HRA claims of $429,627.98. Item F, application for a temporary on-sale liquor license and charitable gambling permit for the Church of St. Peter's Fall Festival, September 19th and 20th, 2026. Item G, special event permit, Church of St. Peter's Fall Festival. Item H, special event permit for Ideal Credit Union Customer Appreciation Celebration. Item I, 2026 to 2028 Metropolitan Council Clean Water Water Efficiency Fund Grant. Item J, disposition of surplus equipment from Public Works. Item K, resolution accepting donations for June of 2026. And item L, building permits for June of 2026.

Thank you. Anybody like to pull any items at this time? If not, may I have a motion, please?

So moved.

So moved. Council Member Woods?

Second.

Second. Council Member Schwerer? All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Thank you very much. We'll go on to a meeting open to the public. John Schmall.

Mayor of Council, John Schmall, 2750 Chisholm Avenue. About three meetings ago, or the end of April meeting, I had asked the police officer present, because I started to get interested on this subject, and the subject is flock cameras. And I turned to the officer and said, got any flock cameras? And he went, hmm. And I said, how many? He went, hmm. I said, okay. So we go on from there to see, well, what should I do? I already found out from Maplewood they have 13. And we have, I didn't have time to do anything, but one day going to Cub, Ariel and 11th looked up at the pole.

Well, I'll be damned.

There's one right there. So I thought, well, I wonder when they're going to tell me when, or the residents, where the other one is. And nothing happened. Nothing happened. And I thought, how am I going to find out about this? Well, I came across the Minnesota BCA website. And on the BCA website, are the locations of plot cameras. The only thing is you go down the line, North St. Paul, N.A., nothing. So it must be a situation of like, who was it, Sergeant Schultz said, what did he say? He says, I know nothing. I know nothing. Thank you. and went through that and went down the line at NA, but did notice something about the sheriff and the locations that the sheriff has. And there it was, right up on the top, was the location on Ariel and 11th. Stated to be in, guess where? Maplewood. Real data. But next to it was 2683 McKnight. So where the heck is that? It's right across from the Quick Trip. And there is one of them on a pole this time, on the usual pole that they set them on. But that thing was broken off, and it was taking pictures of the grass. and probably not a lot of grass because the uh... solar panel was in the grass so uh... what's the secret what is the reason for all of this anyway just as a short note i know i'm running out southern uh... minnesota Municipal Power Association had a PSA on MPR Saturday, and it was nice, and they probably contributed to MPR in order to get that on. How about having the MMPA put a like item on that? Thank you.

Thanks, John.

Dean.

Good evening, everybody. Thanks for letting me speak. I do have a lot of issues, but I'm just going to touch on them real quickly here today. But back in September of last year, I sent a email to the chief of police about the traffic problems at 7th and McKnight. I've lived there 29 years. I've seen three people get killed in that intersection. These people are running their stoplights five seconds after the light is red. loud exhaust, so on and so forth. Unfortunately, I'm terminal ill, and that's why I waited so long. So then we jumped forward to the 16th of this, or 16th of last month. I was cutting my neighbor's grass. Some lady says that my lawnmower hit a rock, went through her window. So she started jumping on my back, you know, and I told her to call the police. She called the police. Three officers show up. They asked me what happened. They asked for my ID. And I told them what happened. And they asked if I needed a report. Yes, I do. They gave me a card. They said, so the next day, the 17th of June, I come to the city hall to get a copy of the police report. The lady tells me it's got to be done online. Okay, so I do it online. So I wait, I wait. She says it takes about 10 days. I still haven't gotten that report. I ask why. I've been back three or four times. I ask why. Well, we're real busy, and that's low priority. We're talking six weeks now, and I still don't have that. So I was going to come to the last meeting and talk about it, but it was canceled. So I came to City Hall. I wanted to talk to the city manager. They said he was in a meeting. Fine. They gave me his business card, said call him. He'll talk to you.

That was on...

the 13th of July, I'm still waiting for a phone call from the city manager. So I am just really disappointed on how this whole thing is going through. There's no way that it should take six weeks to get a report. Oh, and the other thing is, is I asked a gal downstairs, I said, here's the case number. I gave her the case number. She said, you're not mentioned in that report. What do you mean I'm not mentioned in that report? He asked for my ID, he took my ID. So she said to call the officer and he will call me back. I called the officer, I left a voicemail for him. Guess what? Never heard anything. You know, I don't know what a person's supposed to do. There's no reason it should take six weeks to get a report. Well, we'll definitely check into it. We got it written down.

We'll talk with the chief in the back there. He's the one responsible, too, and we'll get to it.

Okay. All right. And the email that I sent back in September of last year, I still never got a response from the chief either. Okay.

And you did not provide us your last name and your address. Can you please do that so we have that for the record? That way we can get a hold of you.

Oh, Dean Matheson, 2096 McKnight Road.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

Dan Fisher.

Dan Fisher the chair of Veterans Park and involved since 2010 when we started the project Until we opened it up in 2015 before I talked about what I came here for I'd like to mention that Don Schroeder a charter member of the Veterans Park committee who was stood up at this podium Has passed away on the 16th of July He worked for Terry Furlong for many, many years. Wish he was up here right now. Good man. And a proud Navy vet. What I'm here for is that we're getting old over there. Ten years doesn't sound old, but things start to break. Things start to malfunction. And when we developed our... our corporate book, we hammered out an agreement between the City of North St. Paul and the Veterans Park, which comes under the name Association. And we have that in our corporate book. And there is a copy up in the storage room up here. I think Brian found it up there. But what I'd like to do is say that this agreement hammered out and signed by the mayor and by myself should be used when you're determining who pays the cost of something that breaks. And we tried to do that way ahead of time. And it's worked well for us. Just recently we had some damage that was happened by somebody who came through with a vehicle. And so you have to find out who's gonna pay. That's a tough question. So I brought up a copy of the final, Several matter of fact, so if you ever want to know what we got to do and what you got to do, they're all right here and they're tabbed. And then we have our own copy. We've got a 10 year, 11 year running partnership with the city and it's been on the ups. Every event has been on the ups. City has been there to help us with materials, particularly Randy Miller and city crew. They love that place. It's the best grass in the whole Twin Cities. So we'd like to keep it going because it's the only place around that significantly honors the service and sacrifice of American veterans, and it's right here in North St. Paul. So if you could take this sometime, it's not long, it's three pages, it's got a background, and A, them, B, us, and you read through it, and you'll get an idea just when something happens, if we upgrade or if we're repairing damage, it's right there. So, but it's good to come up because all the faces up here are new faces from 2010 to 2015 and now. But thank you for listening and I think I made enough copies for everybody to take. I want to welcome Dave to the committee. Dave has been a barnstormer getting the, legal stuff out of the way. So thank you for that. Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Thank you for bringing it to our attention that that gentleman passed away. We are very sorry for the loss.

I'm sorry.

Thank you for bringing it to our attention of the gentleman that passed away. We're sorry for the loss.

Yes, we will do that.

Thank you for all that you're doing.

You bet.

Elaine? I can't quite read that.

Oh, there is one there.

Okay.

Am I saying it wrong? There you are. Come on up and state your name, please. Your last name, too. I'm sorry, I can't read it. Eileen, sorry. And last name?

Eileen Stever, 2387 South Avenue, North St. Paul. I am here because of the Boulevard situation on my house. I talked to Mr. Prandtl. I'm sorry I missed the last meeting of that month because I didn't know you met twice a month. I wasn't aware of it. I was told that you weren't gonna ask the Public Works Department to mow my lawn because it would start a precedent, is that right? When originally in 1996, when the, COUNCIL ASKED THE PUBLIC WORKS TO DO THAT BOULEVARD WAS BECAUSE OF SAFETY REASONS. AND DIDN'T SAFETY REASONS, IT IS THE PRECEDENT MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE SAFETY REASONS WHY IT'S BEING DONE? DID YOU JUST DISMISS THE SAFETY REASONS? I JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND THAT. AND IF IT'S A PRECEDENT, I WANTED TO KNOW, How many people have come forward to you in the last 30 years? You're not here 30 years, but in the last time that you're here, how many people have come forward and asked you to have their boulevard mowed because you're mowing mine? I don't understand this, if it's a precedent type of thing. But I think the safety reason is far more important. One day I was watching as the city was out mowing the boulevard, and a man on a riding mower was mowing along my fence line. When he got to the part where the alley is, that hill by the alley is the steepest part of the hill. And he turned, instead of turning to the right and going into the alley and turning around, he went and turned downwards. down the hill to turn around and go back. And as he turned, the wheels blocked and he skidded all the way down the hill. It took seconds. And over the curb and in the street, If there had been a car parked there or his, I don't know, whatever they used, the trucker, whatever they used to carry there, if that was parked down there, the city parks on that side of the street, if that had been down there, he'd have smashed right to them. My time is up.

Yes, ma'am.

So I can't tell you the rest of the story?

Sorry, time's up.

feel free to email it to us.

I have another one.

We already went through the last meeting too. Pardon me? We already went through this on the last meeting too, the last meeting you were here. So we have the information.

But there was another item that I wanted to just let you know about.

Sorry, that's three minutes. Can you email it to us?

Pardon me?

Can you email it to us?

Can I come in and tell you about it?

Can you email it to us?

No, I'd like to come in and tell you about it. Is that okay?

Yeah, that's fine. The public forum is the three minutes part of it.

Pardon me?

The public forum is three minutes if you want to make an appointment and talk to somebody that's different inside the city. Thank you. 2387. All right, next, Rachel Lucas. Welcome.

Hello.

Hello.

Hi, my name's Rachel Lucas. I'm on the Parks and Rec Board. I'm here today to talk to you guys about the public land on Third Avenue. I'd like to start off by saying I deeply respect the student build program we have. I think it's extremely valuable. I toured their build last year. Great quality, I think it's an excellent program. However, I don't believe that program should supersede public land and giving up public land that was previously denoted to become park land to privatize it for this program. Recent studies have shown that every $1 placed into parks and rec comes back to the community in $3 worth of value. Beyond building a sense of community, it enhances the quality of life for citizens physically, mentally and socially for all walks of life. It also contributes an economic boost by attracting visitors, increasing local property values, and then you also have the environmental component of reducing air and water pollution and lessening the suburban heat island effect so we can reduce the strain on our electric grid. I would like to quote the Trust for Public Lands article on the undeniable ROI of community parks and green spaces. Parks enable behaviors that improve public health and lower healthcare costs, create greater flood resilience, generate consumer value, spur economic development, and drive philanthropic activity and civic engagement. The economic benefit studies are among thousands that demonstrate that far-reaching collateral improvements a single local green space can bring to a community. I believe obviously we should maintain that land that was designated as park land to stay as parks. If the council decides that this public land should be privatized for future student builds rather than finding other land for it, I believe it would be fair for the city council to refund parks and rec board for the amount of money they put towards HGA to create the plan that you'll find in your That is all. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. I think that's everybody.

Thank you all.

All right, moving on to city business action items and recommendations. First item up is from the June 16th, 2026 closed session summary. So on June 16th, we did have a closed session for the discussion with city council to discuss the offer regarding a sale of city-owned property at 2300 North St. Paul Drive. as is required by Minnesota State Statute 13D.05, subsection 3C. And at its meeting, the city shall summarize its conclusion. The city council directed city manager and the city attorney to revise a signed letter of intent and submit it to the prospective buyers for approval. Upon approval, the formal purchase agreement would be prepared and presented at the later date. We are still working through that process. Next item up, item B, is July 16th, 2026, special HRA closed meeting summary. So at this meeting on July 16th, a special HRA meeting was closed. It was a closed session, discussed the possibility of purchase of a property located at 2119 Eldridge Avenue, as is required by Minnesota State Statute 13D.05, subsection 3C. At its next meeting, the City Council shall summarize its conclusions. The City Council established and authorized an offer range for the property and directed city manager to proceed with negotiations, and that is still in the process as well. SO ITEM C IS CITY OWNED PROPERTY DISCUSSION AT THE THIRD STREET PROPERTIES. WE HAVE KEN ROBERTS HERE, OUR COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR, TO DISCUSS. KEN?

THANK YOU, BRIAN, MEMBERS OF THE CITY COUNCIL, MAYOR. THE TOPIC FOR THIS EVENING IS HAVING A DISCUSSION WITH THE CITY COUNCIL ABOUT THE CITY OWNED PROPERTY ON THIRD STREET NORTH. What we're asking for from the city council is to provide city staff with some direction about the future use or uses of this city-owned property. It's on the east side of 3rd Street North, just north of 7th Avenue and South Avenue East. The property in question is here in the, it's currently one, two, I think about eight small lots here. It's just over an acre in size, owned by the city. Birdwall facilities are to the north. The most recent student built, which is just getting completed, is here on the corner of 7th and 3rd. This is an aerial photo, again, of the same area. And again, the site is fairly heavily treed. It has never been developed as far as we know. And again, these are the lots in question that the city currently owns. The city in 2024 did receive a report from HGA with concept plans showing potential designs for park facilities or uses on this property, and I'll put that up on the screen in a minute. They show walking paths, wood chip trails, benches, nature play areas. The estimated total construction cost of those improvements in 2024 was about a million dollars. And I'll jump to that. This is the study. I know it might be a little bit hard to read, but this was an analysis they did, the HGA, to help formulate their plan that they presented to the Parks Commission and to the city. This was the plan that was ultimately presented. Whoops, sorry. Jumped ahead.

Got too excited.

There we go. Again, showing the paths going through with some play areas and other seating within the site. The corner here is now where the student-built project is getting completed. That was included in this original study, but it will not be going forward. the again and so again a little bit of other history just about a year ago the city council approved changes to the future land use plan and the zoning for properties in this area and if the council recalls it was changing the zoning and land use designation for these properties just east of the site we're talking about tonight and across Seventh as well and then some properties down here They're all zoned right now and planned for mixed-use residential or mixed-use development excuse me and the city of change those designations to single and double dwelling residential. At that time, and it's still in place today, the city did not change the land use plan or the zoning of this site, again, that we're discussing this evening. So again as I indicated earlier, it's just over an acre in size 1.07 acres 429 feet of frontage on 3rd Street there is Some slope and contours through the site this shows it somewhat well it generally goes higher at the south end and generally drops to the northwest. There's about an eight to 12 foot tall embankment along this side. There's a predominant feature on the site. And again, I talked about the student-built home to the south and was indicated by one of the speakers that came up is A primary reason city staff is bringing this to the council is to have, again, a discussion about the future use of the property and the potential for having student-built housing on some or all of the property. At this time, the city does not have a site identified for the next student-built site. We have been investigating, the city manager has been investigating alternatives and looked at several options, but at this point in time, we do not have a site that the city owns right now for a student-built home of any type. So again, the goal for tonight is to review the situation with the city council, discuss options, interests, preferences with the city council, and ultimately we're asking for direction from the city council as to what direction or future uses the city council would like to see for the city-owned property, including the possibility of park or open space or residential land uses. And with that, I'll turn it back to the council for discussion.

So with that, the need to be rezoning, you said? If they decide to go for housing, it needs to be rezoning, right?

The rezoning and the comprehensive plan would have to be amended.

And that's a super majority?

For the comprehensive plan amendment, yes.

So to change it to get to that, you need to have four people that are in favor of changing the comp plan slash zoning, right? Yes. I just want to be up front with that because I don't think that was mentioned.

Correct.

I'd like to bring up a few things. This is, I sit and help and listen with the Parks and Rec Commission. I sit on there to support them as a council member. This is really disappointing as I received a call today saying this is what we're gonna discuss on this topic. A year ago, The Parks and Rec, not a year ago, more than a year ago, the Parks and Rec paid HGA to do a park study on where are areas that we can improve our community. A year ago, it was decided that in the area that HGA did a study without talking to Parks and Recreation first, we're gonna build a student-built house there. No communication to Parks and Recreation. Now, The same topic is being brought up again indicating that we're gonna exercise thought for student builds on the same land that HGA developed and create a plan for us with a potential park without talking to Parks and Rec again. M&I Homes originally had this area and purchased this area. They said due to the slope of that area, they could not develop housing there. They didn't feel comfortable. They didn't say they cannot. Excuse me. They weren't comfortable with building there because of sloping. why would we consider housing right there that a developer said, we don't feel comfortable putting housing here? Not to mention, The individuals that we are giving this incredible experience to, I will say I too am in favor of this, of student-built homes in our community. There isn't communities that are like ours that do this. But I don't believe that if a developer said that they didn't feel comfortable building housing right here, why would we put that on students to gain experience on building homes in an area that even a developer said that they weren't comfortable building there.

Do we have a staff, do we have some group go out and look at the property, correct, just to verify anything like that?

We have people that are experienced in building that work for the city that looked at it and looked at the possibility of it. The concern of the developer at the time was, potentially a rather extensive retaining wall that might have to be built on the backside of the properties to make it work. And it was just easier property across the street to continue over there with the M&I development. But that was their concern with that, the slope in the back of the properties.

As far as the property itself, was that owned by... somebody who, how do we acquire that property? And was it dedicated as a park to begin with, or did people just look around for property that was empty in the city to do a park study? How did that work?

It was my understanding that this was a feasibility study of a possibility of parks. So I don't know how, maybe we can ask you on the Parks Committee, how did they determine the different properties that they were choosing, like the one down on First or North St. Paul Drive and on Third? I mean, McKnight makes sense, clearly. It's already a park.

Like you said, it's a feasibility study. So they looked at the open areas and said these are areas that we see the ability for parks. Something that Parks and Rec paid for to say this is what we can do with these areas.

It wasn't dedicated park land.

We did not, no, there was no dedicated.

Not like it was set up for park, okay.

Correct.

What is the slope from the south down to the north, and is it a feasible area to provide safety for people with special needs and disabilities to be able to travel down that sidewalk if there's gonna be a park in there? Is it a one-way down? How are these folks gonna get back up in a wheelchair if it's that large of a... because I've got a special needs daughter, so I mean, I'm looking at it both ways. So I would have to study or have conversation with our city manager on that, how the degree of angle is for someone to go down the ramp or the slope to get back up to the south, to get back up to the on top of the hill at South and Seventh. I'm not opposed to this. I think we should have a little bit more study about this. And like you say, I'll come to your meeting tomorrow.

Yeah, I mean, tomorrow is our Parks and Rec meeting and I invite everybody on council to go to Parks and Rec tomorrow to discuss some of this. Yeah. All that said, no, it's not dedicated park land. There isn't any area of this city that's dedicated park land that was in this feasibility study. But the point I'm trying to make is, why are we not being transparent with the Parks and Recreation Committee that are volunteers that spend their time to enhance our city, then go ahead and say, we're going to do this. There's a reason why Rachel's here tonight, because she saw this on the agenda and was upset about it. And I think we owe it to Parks and Recreation. to go to their meetings to revisit this feasibility study and say, this is what we see with it. This is what we would like to propose. We appreciate the information that came back from HGA. However, Dave makes a very valid point too. And Dave, you are very transparent about your daughter being handicapped and special needs. All that said, when we build a park and a new park, it has to be ADA compliant.

Absolutely.

So all that too, like that would be in, if considered, that would be in the plan and or future plans of a park. And any work we do in a park, we actually have to go back and make it ADA compliant.

And I have one more question, and this may be in full with Morgan down the road here. Has anybody, I realize they say it's a million dollars in cost, but for the contractor to come in and provide a service like this, we need to know the cost of the amount of concrete needed to put this park in, to make it a feasible park on a grade going down, and if we were to take the study and take the money you're gonna put into this, to put it back into the McKnight Field project, in which I suggested to City Manager Frandl, when we're doing the boring out in those outfields out there for McKnight Fields,

And I hear you on that, and you make a valid point with that. And I think the council would also say up here that that could be something considered. What we're discussing is this piece of land right here, whether it's a park or not. We're talking about housing, a park. What should we do with that area? Staff is looking for direction. My personal opinion is we need to have more discussion with it, and we also need to bring it to Parks and Rec out of respect to them to let them know that this is the plan instead of presenting it tonight and in a packet for council.

I think where we're at right now is we have a good program going on with the Student Built House program. If we do not have properties that we can continue this program with, we are in danger of losing the program. Right.

That's the only thing I'm worried about.

And so we're exploring other opportunities right now, but this is a city-owned property that at this time, there was a feasibility study done to say, yes, we could put a park there. Other option is, could we use this for housing? I think we're... community development manager Ken is coming from is could do we want to pursue looking at this as a housing opportunity? Not necessarily we're going to start building houses on it, but do we want to explore this as an opportunity for these student built houses in the future? I guess from my perspective if we want to continue the student-built housing program knowing that we don't have any other properties in North st. Paul that the city owns that could be used for housing This is an opportunity that we have to at least explore period

Part of it too is just the amount of money that for parks that we have just as a general fund, just the study we had with what it's gonna take. We don't have enough money to fix up the parks we already have. So how do we keep adding parks when we can't even maintain the ones and we have so much work that needs to be done on them too? That was one thing I had a concern about.

My thought is somewhat different.

In my opinion, that's just my opinion, North St. Paul has a history of encroaching upon industry. There's an industry to the north.

Personally, I don't have any desire to put homes that close to industry.

So I would not be in favor of whether it be student built or professionally built or anywhere else. I don't really have interest in putting houses that close to the industry. Whether we leave it a nature area like it is or put a park there is a separate conversation in my mind, but I don't have interest in putting housing there from my opinion.

I don't know if there's much of a, it takes a majority, super majority to do anything for it, so I don't know where we could go with it.

I think we should do a workshop on it.

I would like to see... Some council members go to Parks and Recreation and say, we are interested in doing this. It's the lack of transparency is the point I'm making. We are interested in doing this. We would like your support with this. I would like to make that recommendation. I am neither here for or against it, but it's the lack of transparency.

I'm done.

As far as going forward, just to do a workshop or just to keep, as far as that? I'm just trying to get some ideas.

Yeah, again, I would like somebody to come and go to Parks and Recreation and say, this is our plans. This is what we would like to do. Not have Sarah, the city staff, come because she's aware of it. I want somebody from council besides myself to say this is what we're interested in. And beyond that, I'm happy to have the discussion. Let's talk about it. Let's revisit it. Next workshop, next meeting, whatever we need to talk about. But it's a lack of transparency.

You on table discussion at this point?

Yep, I think so. Okay, no problem.

All right, moving on. Discussion review of the Humong House Restaurant and Banquet Hall LLC liquor license. Jenny's the one who processes the liquor licenses, so are you gonna speak a little bit to the process of how we got here?

So the start of the process for the liquor licenses starts back in April. Four separate emails are sent to each business to their email address that they provide to renew their liquor license. Once we receive their application, it goes to background, city attorney reviews, and signs off on it, which we did have a number everybody had signed off on, and the process went through and the chief of police signed off as well. The Mung House did not have, start their renewal process, so early June I believe it was, I had reached out to them personally through email and a phone call and never got a response. So I feel like we did our due diligence trying to get them to renew with no contact back from them. And then their license then did expire June 30th. And Sue had come in the following Tuesday June, Wednesday, yes, to start his renewal process, and at that time I was not aware of what had happened previously, but that's the process that we go through, and so he has started his renewal process, and I have submitted all his paperwork.

I did go out there with the chief and myself. We administered a cease and desist letter to them for the serving of alcohol. They had gone in there the Tuesday before and found that they were still serving. We told them that they didn't have their license. They had thought that they did. They said that they turned in their information to the state, but that was just their ability to buy the alcohol, the buyer's card. He said that they had a... business partner that had handled that part of the liquor license the year before so they were unaware of that once we made them aware of that they did stop they came in the next day and talked with jenny to fill out the paperwork i said that the next step is they need to come to the council meeting and discuss with you guys it's up to you on how you want to proceed and move forward you have the option of revoking or fining or suspending or re-administering it at this point, being that they have been, almost the last two weeks, not been able to sell. But that choice is yours. We have Sue here this evening, if you'd like to come up and make a comment.

Yeah, please do.

GOOD EVENING. THANK YOU, MAYOR, CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS FOR ALLOWING US TO GIVE US THIS OPPORTUNITY TO SPEAK TODAY. FIRST, WE SINCERELY APOLOGIZE FOR ALLOWING OUR LEGAL LICENSE TO expired we understand the importance of following the city licensing requirements and we take full responsibility for making sure this never happens again We would like to explain how this happened. When our business was first established, our business partner handled the entire liquor license applications and renewal process. Renewal emails went to his email and phone calls, so it was sent directly to him, not to us. So we were never aware of that. We needed to renew the liquor license separately through the city. Our renewal we completed ourselves was the buyer's cart, which we renewed around in May. And we genuinely believed it was the same renewal required continuous selling alcohol. And on July 7th, the police officer came to our business and asked if we currently had our liquor's license. When we looked for it, we realized it was only our expired license. We went immediately to the city hall on July 8th, where where we learned for the first time our liquor license had expired and had not been renewed. That same day, we worked with Jenny to complete and submit our renewal application. Then on July 9th, We received the notice of instructing us to stop selling alcohol, so we immediately informed our employees to cease alcohol sales. We fully complied. For with every instructions given to us, we understand why the city has procedures in place and we are not asking to avoid responsibility. We are simply asking the council to consider that this was an honest mistake. Not an intentional violation. As soon as we became aware of the issue, we act immediately to correct it and have cooperated every step of the way. And the delay of renewing our license has already had a significant financial impact on our small business, our employees, and customers. We respectfully ask for our understanding and ask that our renewal be allowed to move forward. so we can continue serving our community as soon as possible. And thank you for your considerations. We appreciate the opportunity to explain our situation and answer any questions you guys may have. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Is this the first bar you've ran? Is this the first bar you've ran? Yes.

Any questions, Jason? You're our bar expert.

I mean, if he said, no, this was the third bar I've ran, I would be a lot more concerned. It's the first bar he ran. His partner set it up. In my mind, they've faced hardship by not being able to sell alcohol for two years. It doesn't sound like it was malicious. Two weeks, sorry. It doesn't sound like it was malicious. I would be in... I hesitate to find anyone without a set schedule of fines in front of us. In my mind, I will be voting or pushing just to go ahead with the re-administration process. From everything I've been told and from their story, I don't see any ill will. I don't see any intent to deceive. so I don't see any reason to suspend further fine or revoke.

I agree, that's why it was important for you to come, because we wanted to introduce to you and just understand the circumstances, so it was very important for you to come to see you're generally upset that it happened and moving forward. Of course, we have these things in place just because we had to wait till the next council meeting, so yes. I'm in agreements with Council Member Norby as far as We just move, we want you to be successful. You're a business in North St. Paul. We want you to, you know, we, the police, you know, we check and you guys are good. Nothing out of the ordinary from your bar to another one as far as your, there's a lot of calls, a lot of trouble. So you're being good citizens. So we want to make sure that, you know, we take that in consideration too. Because that really does help for our, you know, you're close by at a bunch of homes. So we appreciate that too on your part.

As long as we have good contact between our city staff and you guys down there, it's important that you guys are up on the notifications of all your liquor licenses. As long as you keep up with that, I'm fine with it too.

Council Member Schwerer?

Yeah, I said otherwise when I learned about it. I thought a fine or revocation, it's part of having a business, serving alcohol, maybe serving under minors. We don't know. However, after sitting on it and after I learned of it, I do believe in grace and that obviously I understand because I'm currently going through a situation where a predecessor of mine had made a lot of mistakes and I'm seeing them being cleaned up and they weren't, which when you hold accountability to somebody and they're not upholding it, you don't know. So you don't know what you didn't know and you did what was best that you thought. So I believe in grace in this manner and I will be... In favor with the remainder of the council as well Come over woods anything sir.

No, okay. I've got nothing to add on top of what everybody else said so okay?

And we did look into the background as well. I mean they haven't had any infractions of selling to minors. Yeah, okay?

I said they're being good neighbors, so we'll be good neighbors.

Thank you So okay to vote on it. I would propose that we just reinstate their license, okay? I'll make a motion.

Motion. Council Member Schwerer? I'll second. Second. Council Member McKenzie? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. We wish you the best.

Thank you for your time.

Good business. We'll be in touch.

Here comes money.

All right. Next up, Item E, 2024 Pavement Management Project, City Project 24-01. Accept project and approve final payment. We have City Engineer Morgan Daly here to discuss. Yes.

DAN HERE WITH THE LEVY AGAIN.

THANK YOU, BRIAN. MR. MAYOR, MEMBER OF THE COUNCIL. SO I'VE GOT THREE DIFFERENT ITEMS FOR YOU TONIGHT. THE FIRST ONE IS A BIT OF A HOUSEKEEPING EXERCISE, WRAPPING UP AND ACCEPTING FOR FINAL PAYMENT THE 2024 PAVEMENT MANAGEMENT PROJECT. as you recall on the eve even years within our capital improvement plan we generally have some uh project that is focused more on on pavements and roadways less so on utilities or underground work so in 2024 that project included several streets throughout the project or throughout the city and um There were quite a few punch list items that the contractor had to address that they did not get to last year in 2025. That would have probably been the typical timeframe where I'd be before you with this item to close a project out. So they didn't quite get to all of the punch list items last year. They wrapped up a couple remaining things earlier this year, and then there was some delay for them to get the required paperwork to us to review to officially close out the project. Now all of that has actually happened. I'm pleased to report to the council that the contract was completed if this final payment is approved here tonight. Just underneath the contract amount, about 3% under the contract amount of $1.5 million. So that's good news. We finished everything up with a little bit of cost savings there for the project. Everything's on file. And again, like I said, we probably would be closing out a 2024 project in 2025. This is a little bit of an anomaly, but it does happen sometimes. And we are beholden to the contractor's motivation to actually get things wrapped up. And if they drag their feet, I mean, it's kind of... It works against them, right? We're holding money, and we don't release it until they finish all the requirements. But we've gotten past that point, and we are recommending final payment and accepting the project into perpetual maintenance, I guess is a way you could call it. So there is a resolution in your packet. The recommendation is to adopt a resolution approving pay voucher number five and final payment. for Aztec Corp in the amount of $54,673.92 for the 2024 pavement management project. With that, I will stand for any questions the council might have before considering action on that resolution.

Any question? Seems so far ago. Yeah. Yeah.

Lifetime ago. I do have one question. I don't know if you're going to be able to answer it. Just because we had budget discussion earlier, is this, what budget would this be a part of?

So this would have been, the 2024 project would have been in the, I don't know, the ending year, because it's a 10-year capital improvement plan, but it would have been contemplated within the 24 to 34, presumably, or whatever the end date of that CIP is. That would have been adopted by council usually at the end of the year, like the final meeting in 2023. And so those funds that were dedicated within the 2024 year period, you know, some of those expenses get incurred ahead of time for like plan preparation. 2024 would have been the construction year. And then, you know, some of those funds allocated in 2024 are still being spent in 25. And obviously we have a release of the $50,000 approximately of retainage happening in 2026. But the dedication of those funds, uh, And they are pavement rehabilitation funds, if I remember the correct terminology. So they come from the levy. It's not from one of the enterprise funds or utility funds. So they're dedicated within the levy for capital improvements, mostly to pavement maintenance or pavement preservation. And that's what these projects are kind of focused on. But specific to 2024 budget, that would have been the dedicated year. And the funding source would have been pavement preservation funds. Thank you. Yep.

No other questions? Can I have a motion to pay the 2024 bill?

I'll make a motion.

Council Member Schwer? Second. Norby? All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Professional Services Amendment.

Thank you, Brian. Mr. Mayor, members of the council. So this next item before you, this doesn't happen very often. I don't think it's, I can't recall the last time I've done this. But this would be, this amendment consideration or amendment request would be professional services in terms of the arrangement between WSB and the City of North St. Paul to provide construction administration services, oversight, quality control, observation materials testing that all the things that go into making sure that the contractors that complete our Capital improvement projects that they're doing right by the city's standards and the city's expectations so as you recall when we get to certain points during the project I Staff brings forward I present There's a professional services proposal I can't make recommendations on that. Certainly that's handled by another member of staff or a department head. But for this particular project, for the 2025 project, We always have to, going into construction, after we've taken the bids, we have to assume a certain timeframe for the length of construction. And we're assuming we're gonna do kind of all the typical expected things on the front end. So there's some things that are out of our control. And on this particular project, you may recall that the pond construction was happening in the spring of this year. The original plan, as presented by the contractor, was to do it in the fall of 2025. There's also some date misrepresentations in the memo here. So 2025 was when the contract was let and awarded by the city council for the project and for the improvements. That was when we started this process. the change in schedule and the delay of the delay of the pond construction was one component that kind of expanded the number of weeks that it took to construct and certainly with full-time construction observation or all the things that go along with that there was a little bit more time for the WSB professional services to be occurring. I guess the other thing that maybe was a contributing factor or the more major contributing factor was that the contractor had proposed a switch from sewer lining to sewer open trench construction. Remember that I brought forward a change order that actually was a savings to the project to the tune of a little bit over $100,000, and that was an end product that Public Works was in favor of. They thought that that would give them a better product, and I think it was a good choice to make. We did have to do a little bit of extra engineering, if you will, to make that change. We had to re-prepare plan sheets to switch things around. And so at about April of 2026, we realized that we were not going to quite have enough authorized budget for us to finish the project. So we prepared kind of an estimated amendment to expand our not to exceed amount for our contract for this project in the amount of about $36,000, $518 is the proposed number. And so we put this together, put it on a council agenda to be able to consider authorizing that minor expansion of the overall budget. And I think that I provided in the packet just some illustrations here to show that even with the requested additional $36,000 with the WSB Professional Services Amendment, The project will still come in under budget with the available funds that were provided with the bond sale for the 2025 project. So even though we were under budget before with the change to the sanitary sewer, with the change order, even with this additional $36,000, we are still to the positive level. Pretty substantially, at least 10% is what the calculations show under the available bond funds amount. So it appears to be within budget. I guess I'll just leave it at that. Again, I can't make a recommendation on WSB's professional services, but I'll maybe refer to the city manager if he'd like to remind the council of a recommendation, right? But that's the facts. Happy to answer any questions that the council might have.

I would recommend that service recommendation action for them too.

Yeah, a little bit here, a little bit there. We're still under. We're good to go. All right, can I have a motion?

So moved.

So moved. Council Member McKenzie? Second. Second. Council Member Norby? All those in favor say aye. Aye.

All right, last one, 2027 Street Utility Improvement Project, City Project CP2701, Authorized Professional Services Proposal from WSB.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the council. So this is the next one. So this would be, I guess you could call it phase two in the Casey Lake neighborhood. So within the capital improvement plan, The 2027 Street and Utility Improvement Project, that would be next year for the construction year, is proposed to take place on Chisholm and Mesabi Avenue and the northern portions of Gerald Avenue. to finish out the rest of that neighborhood, which was started in the 2025 Street and Utility Improvement Project, which we just finished talking about. And a similar scope, so streets, curb and gutter, sidewalks, sanitary sewer, so we would move forward with the open cut process rather than lining because that was actually achieved on this last one and everything worked out because the soils were really good, probably the best soils in the entire city of North St. Paul. And we would start the design now. So that's why we wanted to bring this forward to get a jump on it. Again, hopefully finish plans and specs and get into a bidding scenario very, very early in 2027 to reserve kind of that opportunity. the contractor's spots, get competitive pricing with the bids for the project, and hopefully, similar to last time, come in under budget and hopefully be able to realize some cost savings overall in the project with some really good competitive bids. So WSB has put together professional services proposals for final design. So this is just to get us through bidding. There would be another action or consideration for further continuation of professional services if the project moved forward and a construction contract was awarded. So that would be probably something that would be coming before you in March or April of 2027, something like that. But if authorized for design for the 2027 project, we would get started on that right now. Again, probably... be in front of council in the fall with a report on updated estimates and Just to confirm the scope and that sort of thing. That's typically what we will do in front of the City Council before we move further But again getting started now just gives us a better opportunity to finish earlier and bid things on an early calendar when contractors have open schedules and are hungry to load that up by giving us competitive bids so With that, I'll stand for any questions. Again, I don't have the recommended action here, but City Manager Brian Frandle can reiterate that for you as necessary. I did include a snippet from the... 2026 to 2035 capital improvement plan that shows the planned year and the planned funding so 2027 is going to be a bonding year for this proposed project if it moves forward with funding categories with streets water wastewater and surface water as indicated in the capital improvement plan So with that, I'll stand for any questions the council might have. There's not significantly different type of scope items from the last project, very similar. And again, this is intended to get us from final design through to plans and specs and bidding to occur early 2027.

If there aren't any questions, I'd recommend approval of professional services proposed by WSP for final design for the 2027 Street and Utility Improvement Project.

No questions? I'll ask for a motion.

I'll make a motion.

Council Member Schwerer? Second. Second. Council Member McKenzie? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you.

All right, moving on to reports to the city manager and departments. Talked with the college. They are looking at the potential date of August 20th for the open house for the new student-built. That'll be from four to six p.m. Once we confirm that, we'll get invitations out. Electric Department's been busy with their underground projects this summer. They've had one in the Northwood area, and they've also had one in the Tower Park area. In the Northwood area, it's well over a mile of primary that they've put in the ground, 6,235 feet and almost 1,000 feet of secondary wire. Tower Park area, they've put in over 7,260 feet of primary 1-0 and 4,500 feet of three-phase primary. which is replacing old. It's creating loops out there, so any kind of power outages that could happen, you can get the power back on by feeding it from multi-directions. So they've been busy. Finance clearly has been busy with the budget, working on the general fund and the levy, and coming up next is the SIP and the enterprise funds after a bit here, so. uh pd is still working through a couple minor issues with the motorola with some i.t issues i believe they did nine interviews for the two positions they have open for police officers they got two of them that are being backgrounded right now and they also passed their post board audit so good job to them uh public works uh staying on top of the student built they're getting close painting was done today they're looking at Irrigation and potential lose sod if they're on top of that tomorrow, so hopefully with any luck Early August we'll have that finished and get it put on the market Casey Lake had the final lift on the road today is that correct and They've also been out in the parks putting wood chips out there for for the playground equipment Community Development's been busy with the comp plan and that update that is coming up in due. And that is all I have for you.

All right, thank you very much. Council Member Scherer, anything?

I don't have anything to report, but the meeting will be held tomorrow at Parks and Recreation, excuse me, will be held tomorrow at Hosey Park at 6.30.

Thank you very much. I have nothing to report.

I will just say that Arts and Culture had a representation at the Silver Lake Beach Party, so we had an event going on out there. We also had the new trailer down at the big truck night at the car show a couple weeks ago, and that went really well as well. Thank you.

There was no planning commission in the month of July for the month of August. The planning commission will be on Thursday, August 6th at 6.30 right here in the council chamber.

Thank you.

Any general business?

Not at this time.

Okay.

I approached the, I went to the Boy Scout Girl Scouts Museum and I gave them some information about our facade program and I told Ken and I see that they've reached out To see, one question they had asked is they'd like to know if the facade program would include a handicap accessible door in the front, which they do not have. And they also wanted to know, being that the setback from the sidewalk to the front of the building would be included in a new concrete sidewalk, part of that facade program also because that's where the capsule was laid for the last 50 years. So if those beings, we might be able to get the Boy Scout museum to go in on a facade program and they'd also like to put some new fresh lights up to brighten the whole corner up.

Very good. Thanks for going out and talking to them. Anything, sir?

I would just like to say with Chief Ray here and hearing the news about the officer that was injured in the line of duty in Maplewood, I just want to say my thoughts go out to them and all of our officers in the line of duty, you know, in active duty.

Thank you. Okay, good. That's good news. Anything?

There is no council meeting on August 4th, which would be the next normally scheduled because it is National Night Out. I encourage everyone to go out and meet your neighbors. And just also want to remind everyone that if they choose to want to run for a local office, they have one week to register.

Great. Yes, thank you for the reminder of that for the next meeting and the National Night Out. It's always a good time to get out and see people, be able to do that. Yes, sir. Well welcome Didn't keep you busy this today, sorry That's all right it will be out easy into it exactly All right, if there is nothing else from August 18th is our next meeting. I'll ask for adjournment So move so move councilmember woods Second, Council Member Swearer. All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

All right, thanks, everybody.

Thank you.