City Council - Regular Meeting

Right. Good evening and welcome to the regular city council meeting for the city of St. Peter, Minnesota. It is Monday, March 9th, 2026. At 7 p.m. we are called to order. Would all please rise for the pledge. I pledge algiance 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.

Everyone should have received a copy of tonight's packet uh including the agenda. Are there any revisions or corrections to the agenda? Hearing none, is there a motion to approve the agenda as as distributed? So moved. Oh, I think that was a motion and a second. All those in favor of approval say I. I. Any opposed? The agenda is approved. Next up, approval of the minutes. The minutes appear on pages 5 through seven of the packet. Are there any revisions or corrections to the minutes? Hearing none, is there a motion to approve the minutes as distributed? So move. Second.

Wow. Uh, all those in favor of approval say I. I. Any opposed? The minutes are approved. We have time on our schedule for visitors. Uh at this time, is there any visitor who'd like to address the council on an agenda item? An item on the agenda. Uh I thought they were going to something about the new solar panels.

We will we have time for general visitor comments. So if uh you would like to hold your comments until that portion, we will have time for that as well. Uh, any visitor who'd like to address us on an agenda item? Hearing none, general visitor comments. And I know we have a couple visitors who'd like to address the council on uh general items. So, if you'd like to come forward and introduce yourself,

go ahead and have a seat and we'll give you a couple instructions. Uh we'll ask you to introduce yourself and provide your address and we'll give you five minutes to address the council. Okay. I should be less than that. Sure.

Okay. Uh my name is Bill Horton. Uh I'm a resident of St. Peter for over six years now. I live at 1513 Riverview Road. And um I'm here to I guess kind of lobby to try to mitigate some uh ugliness of the panels. Uh I don't know exactly what the layout's going to be. Um, but I was hoping that it wouldn't be large ugly panels on gravel pits. And um, and frankly, I'm a little disappointed that the city decided not to tell the neighbors what they were doing. I realize they legally they don't have to, but I think goodwill to your neighbors, and I'm definitely one of your neighbors. Um, I didn't find out about it until they cut down two very large, beautiful, probably 40 year old spruces that was a habitat to hundreds of birds. And those were literally swept away. And uh I'm hoping that we can come up with a plan to make the panels um more aesthetically pleasing. There are some existing panels at Nicollet and Jefferson and quite frankly they're really really

ugly. Um, but they're kind of sequestered with the woods and this is kind of out in the open and I'm hoping uh we can come up with some type of plan for prairie restoration around it or pollinators or perhaps a arbor head something like that. Um and um that's all I have to say. Thank you for your time. Thanks for coming. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

And for folks who are watching at home and maybe might not understand the context there are plans to put up uh is it 40 kilowatt solar array at the new city hall location. So um and I know we have additional speakers who'd like to address the council. Um, you might need a second chair or are two of you coming up? Oh, okay. Yeah, we need we can get two chairs. No problem. You sure you don't want to come up?

Thanks, Matt. Once again, if you can give your name and address and then you have uh time to address the council.

Uh, my name is Cody Wyberg. My address is 101 Cook Street here in St. Peter. Okay. Um I am of course a resident of St. Peter and I'm here representing groups and individuals who have an interest in environmental issues including the First Lutheran Church uh green committee and the Trinity Lutheran Church green team. As the city installs the new solar array, um we believe that uh there's an opportunity to enhance the project's environmental and community benefits at very little if any additional cost and its aesthetics. Uh we believe this can be done by planting native grasses and pollinator friendly wild flowers beneath and around the panels. Uh Minnesota law actually encourages sites to use native perennial vegetation uh that supports pollinators and wildlife and the state's habitat friendly solar program provides guidance on how to design and manage those plantings. Uh Minnesota statute section 216B642 allows solar projects to claim pollinator and wildlife habitat benefits when they follow vegetation standards developed by the board of water and soil resources. Although I will have to say that you are allowed to do that if you have a uh project an array that does 40 kilowatt hours or more. And I think this might be 39.9 but still still it's an indication I think that the legislature at one point uh really valued this sort of a project.

The maximum the re the maximum size per the grant was 40 kilowatt. So that's why you end up at 39.

Yeah. Um so solar sites are often planted with turf grass or surrounded by gravel. But across Minnesota and really much of the country, communities are increasingly using uh native pollinator plantings instead. These plantings provide habitat for bees, butterflies, other beneficial insects, and they're essential to agriculture and uh natural ecosystems. Native pollinator habitat requires, we think, less long-term maintenance than turf grass. Uh once established, these plants generally need only occasional mowing or spot management rather than frequent mowing, fertilizing, and watering. They can reduce long-term maintenance costs while creating a more resilient landscape. The main cost difference occurs during the first few years. Native seed mixes and plugs of pre-started native plants are more expensive than standard turf grass seed, and the plants do take time to establish. Typically, it takes two or three years for a native planting to become fully established. During that period, uh the site requires some weed control and monitoring. However, once the plant uh planting matures, maintenance needs drop significantly. Over the long term, many solar pollinator sites cost the same or less to maintain than traditional uh turf grass areas, and they're definitely more attractive and environmentally friendly than using gravel. Even on a small site like this one, the ecological value can be meaningful, uh, pollinator habitat functions best as a network of small spaces across community parks, yards, roadsides, and projects like this one. In short, incorporating native pollinator plantings would allow the city's solar project to generate clean energy while also supporting biodiversity and demonstrating environmentally responsible land management. But thank you for considering the approach. And just one little aside, I was watching the news

right before I headed up here and there's a bill before the Minnesota legislature in both the House and the Senate to rename the uh Minnesota Community Solar Garden Program, the Melissa Hortman Community Solar Garden Program because this was u an issue near and dear to her heart. And with that, I will turn it over to my friend here. I'll just be very quick in stating a couple of things. Um, so grateful already for what you've done in St. Peter with pollinator plants. Just a moment if you can introduce yourself and your name. Oh, I'm so sorry. And I don't hear well and honest. I'm losing some vision, too, so forgive me. No worries.

Um, Faith Wickland. I live at 814 Riverview Road. And what I want to say is um that um some of you maybe did receive this already, but it is a list of 72 sites in Minnesota, two of which are in Nicola County that have already incorporated this. So this is not a fringe idea. It's it's happening big time. Um, in fact, when you combine the 72 sites, and these are all accredited by the um water and soil board in Minnesota, um, you have 7,380 acres combined. So, um, it's a great thing to be adding those pollinators to our community, which of course we're dependent on those pollinators for our very food. Um, another thing I wanted to leave with you is also from Minnesota Soil and Water Resources and that is a toolbox that identifies programs and funding for this kind of a project. So, I'm not sure who to leave this with, but it is also something that you can download on the computer. All right, Todd, thank you.

Faith, all we'll do is make sure that I also want members get it. Can I please just give a shout out for Bill Horton. I don't know if you have seen his pocket garden. He truly is a supporter of pollinator plants and solar. I think it it is unfortunate in some ways that he was not a part of the decision to locate it kind of in his backyard, but um he has been a marvelous supporter of pollinators. So, thank you, Bill. Thanks very much. Thank you guys.

Yeah. And uh to everybody who came tonight, the the council, we just had an opportunity to discuss this at workshop and we are very supportive of um installing pollinator plantings at that site. I think that we um really value their opportunity to beautify and also support um our very important pollinator uh populations in St. Peter. Yes. My name is Harriet Mason. I live at 905 South. Can we bring a microphone to Harriet? We're going to bring a microphone to you, Harriet. We'll see if we have enough core to Harriet to get it to you. Well,

we want to make sure that you're able to be heard on the recording on YouTube. Oh, I can hear it there. We can we can bring it to you. We'll get close. Um, this whole thing is This whole thing of aging is new to me. Yeah. So, I'm trying to figure it out. Harriet, you're not alone. Yes.

Um, first of all, um, again, my name is Harriet Mason. I live um 905 South Fifth Corner of College of South Fifth. Um, I would like to point out that the college just uh finished a uh solar garden across Jefferson from the arboritum. Now, the arboritum has two prairies. Um, Bill has one. So, that's three in a very small area of land. So, if we add the college solar panels and the city's solar panels with um native vegetation, which I hope you do, that'll make five prairies. And the seed source for each of those comes from someplace different. Now the seed source for native vegetation is very important uh because um people think that a lot of the seed is set by temperature but it's not. It's mostly day length and our day length, our day periodicity, whether it's the length of the day or the earlier in the season, that's what helps the uh seed set. So, if you get seed from Nebraska, for example, it'll die out. And actually, that's been proven since they uh planted Swan Leaf with seed from Nebraska. and it eventually died um because the seed isn't set. So what I'm suggesting is that it would be advantageous I think if you worked with

the college uh and at least tried to get the same kind uh from from the same source. Now the source of seeds um we put in uh the small Uler prairie was what we could get at the time in 88. Uh the larger prairie um was from Olsen's uh down in Blue Earth. So that's locally seed. I think the seedbed for that was just out of Medelia. So, what I'm suggesting is it would be better if the city and the college could work together. Um, I actually wrote an email to Carrie Wallen, I think it is, and the immediate answer came back. It's on spring break, so I can't tell you any more about it. Uh, and I'm hoping she gets back to me when they when she has time. Uh, but since both of you are hopefully planting na native um grasses, it would be good if you could kind of get your seed source from the same place.

Yeah. Um, I think that would help a lot and then that would make five different prairies up in that small area. But the insects don't care. Uh, the insects are um developed along together with these native plants. So, if you buy stuff from Nebraska or Kansas, our local insects aren't going to be happy with it anyway because it's going to um it's going to bloom and set seed at the wrong time. So, anyway, that's my lecture.

Well, thank you. A a little education for us, Harriet. And uh I'm going to be meeting with Carrie on Thursday. So, if if uh I'll bring it up for sure when I see her. I I don't know. I It would just great to

Yeah. Any other comments at this time? Hearing nothing further, we're going to move on to our next agenda item, which is the approval of the consent agenda. The consent agenda uh begins with a memo on page eight and concludes with the resolution that is on page 17 of the packet. The resolution in includes the following purchases. Uh I will l I'll read the names of the vendors. The item price and funding sources are listed within the print packet. Uh vendors Herby Utilities of Burnsville, Minnesota, Ditch Witch of Shakape, Minnesota, Herby Utilities again of Burnsville, Minnesota. Another Herby Utilities of Burnsville. And JT Services of North Mano. Once again, the item price and funding sources listed within the packet. There are two employee appointments that will be approved, Lawrence Beck and Ryan Hughes at the position and wages listed within the packet. And the following item will be declared as surplus and staff is authorized to use or dispel or uh dispose of a 2013 ditch witch as well as the schedule of dispersements for February 19th through March 5th, 2026. Is there any discussion of any item that's on the consent agenda tonight? Hearing no discussion. Is there a motion to approve the resolution?

So moved. Second. We have a motion and a second. Call the role, please. Council member Sharstrom. I. Council member Devos. I. Mayor Noel. I. Council member Johnson. I. Council member Pettis. I. Council member Ramp. I. The resolution is approved. We have no items of unfinished business tonight. We will move on to new business. Our first item of new business is Gorman Park phase two Gorman Park phase 2 bid acceptance.

Mayor members, Pete is out of town today, so I'm covering this one as best I can. I think the information in the packet is well done and very self-explanatory. It's very clear that the council has been in a process to redevelop the Orman Park area for more than a couple of years prior to 2023, but it's also true in 2023 to authorize Damon Farber to provide the landscape architectural services for Glory Park. Um about that time, actually just a little bit later than that, it was determined to um build the park in two phases. The primary components of the park are the playground area which you see which you've bid and approved and has been built and is in just the punch list kind of things left to do. Um the second phase the primary uh issue there related to a splash pad and the council's asked to move forward and you allowed for solicitation bids to move forward with that second phase. Um the bids as you see here were from three separate com or four separate companies with the low bid being peen companies from Monomin Wisconsin. They have worked with Damon Farber on splash pads before. So they're familiar with this kind of construction and work and have received um good references as the references have been followed up on by Damon Farber. Um I do want to really focus if I can on the fiscal impact of this. As the council is aware, the first phase was primarily funded by ARP funds. You received ARP funds as a part of COVID and those funds were set aside for a capital improvement. As we've talked about many times, um one time many money for one-time use that covered most of um the first phase of your overall project. The second phase still does not have funding source. However, you have received both pledges and gifts of money in excess of a couple hundred,000 going forward. And so, we want you to be aware of that. Um, but this is not funded. You have also sought state bonding dollars and as you know, um, the state

legislature can be topsy turby and so we can't guarantee that funding will be a part of that. The council's discussion has been that should funding not be available either from private sources, gifts, donations, foundations, others, or through grant dollars which are established through the state bonding bill. You will issue debt for this. You have not issued debt for this yet. My point with this is that on approving and accepting the bids tonight, um we do need you to at least and the worst case scenario will be to issue debt for the remainder of this project and the couple dollars that you still need to cover the the remaining balance on phase one. The recommendation from staff is to approve the bid. It's slightly under the engineers estimate which we're grateful for. Um but we want to make sure that you understand all the risk that's involved with this. And um I know the council as is the community very excited to try and continue to move forward with this project. Madame Mayor I stand for any questions that you might have but the resolution is included in the packet on page 20.

Any questions for Todd or discussion? All right. Hearing nothing further, the resolution awarding the bid for the construction of Gorman Park splash pad improvements phase 2 to Peber companies of Monomony, Wisconsin appears on page 20 of the packet. Is there a motion to approve? So moved. Second. We have a motion and a second. Call the role, please. Council member Devos, I. Mayor Noel, I. Council member Johnson, I. Council member Pettis, I. Council member Ram, I. Council member Sharstrom, I. The resolution is approved. Next up, lead line replacement. And Curtis is here to talk to us about that.

Mayor, members of the council. So, as many of you are aware, we have been working through our leadline replacement program. Um, we were notified on January 30th that we were selected for funding for this project, which is very exciting news for the citizens of town that this affects. What that looks like now is we do have to have our plans and specs due to the um sorry, plans and specs submitted by the end of March here on March 31st. So, what I'm asking for tonight is that you approve. We reached out and got a proposal from our engineer to approve or to prepare those plans and specs and uh what we would look for is approval to award those uh award that those dollars to Bolton and Mink to prepare prepare the plans. And from uh the plans, we would look at bidding this project probably in the April to May time frame with hopefully construction probably the July to Septemberish would be the approximate time frame right now.

Uh Todd, any other question to add or so um Curtis, if I can, we have about 20ish. We have 25 of those. Uh 15 are full replacements, meaning from the water man into their house, complete lead line replacement. Seven of them would be from the curb stop or the water mane shut off out in their boulevard into their house. And three of them are from that curb stop to the water man. Um there lead and both lead and galvanized, which the galvanized is considered lead. So Curtis, the goal of this is that we'll have plans and specs and we'll have maybe one or maybe it ends up being two contractors that do the full scope of this work and they're all done well hopefully all done during this construction season. Is that correct?

Correct. Absolutely. The plan is most likely we'll put out for bid most likely get one one contractor to bid on. Well, we should hopefully get more than one contractor to bid. we would award it to one contractor with the goal of them, for lack of better terms, hopping around and completing plucking off the 25 as they go. And so the amount of money that we're receiving from the federal government is $575,000. And we believe that that will cover the entire cost for not only the engineering, but the work that's supposed to occur.

Correct. Yep. That 575 according to our estimates should cover all costs. Um everything will be covered for the homeowner. The only there might be small things outside of the scope if the own homeowner chooses to do if they have a poor sewer line for example and it's kind of close to the work that would we would offer that through kind of an assessment if we kind of through our normal process

through our normal process. Yes. If we have a contractor there doing work and they have a poor sewer line that they'd like the contractor to do while they're we could look at that have been accomplished through an assessment program for them. But otherwise the cost should be 100% covered for all homeowners. So Curtis, based on your discussion with your peers throughout this industry within southern Minnesota and other areas in the state of Minnesota, um my recollection is is we're pretty darn lucky. We have very few of these and we're very fortunate to be able to get these dollars.

Correct. Uh having 25 in a city of ours is extremely low. I mean there's other cities that are over 50% of their city is lead still. So I mean we are very fortunate to have this number and once we get this accomplished we can turn every year we still have to turn in our inventory and it will be a big accomplishment to turn that in saying we are lead free and the reason to get lead lines out of services because even though they aren't in our instance because we test they can be a health hazard. Absolutely they can be a health hazard. Um, ever since we put our new water treatment plant on, well, I should say new. It's 2011. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So, uh, ever since that went online, our numbers have actually improved. So, we It is not currently a health hazard, but yes, it can be. It's definitely beneficial to get it out of the This is the right thing to do and we've got some resources to do it now. Absolutely. It was, it was really exciting to get notified that we were funded for it and it will be a great thing to help out a lot of people that potentially would not be able to do it without this. It's a great opportunity and um speaking for myself, I appreciate the effort that staff have put into it. It's um going to be a great relief for homeowners. I'm a homeowner. The last thing I'd want to hear is the word lead related to any anything having to do with my home. So, I imagine people are excited.

Absolutely. Especially when they were looking at a potentially unforeseen cost of upwards of $20,000 to get it replaced on their own. So, yes, it's very fortunate for a lot of people. Any questions, Brad? Uh, so Curtis, are these are are these 25 homes are are they generally located in the same area or are they spread out across the across the city? Both. There's a lot of them located actually right in this general area of the community center here on both the west and the east side. There's a concentration of probably 11 within this eight block area.

And then there al are some outliers. You know, there's one on south end of town on 169. North end ones for the most part the central the older area of town. We got, you know, the fourth streets, fifth streets on the south end of town is where they're concentrated for the most part. Thank you. Yep. Additional questions. All right. Hearing no further discussion, the resolution authorizing Bolton and Mink to provide engineering services for the lead service line replacements appears on pages 23 through 24 of the packet. Yes. I actually have one more question. Do the home are the homeowners that you've liked, are they aware of this?

Absolutely. We've reached out to all the homeowners and actually in the last week and a half, we've actually reached out and gotten into all of the homes, well, all but two or three to get pictures for so we can get better bidding process kind of showing where their line comes in their basement and such. So, yep, all the homeowners are aware of this. The homeowners I've talked to personally are very excited. So homeowners who are watching tonight who haven't heard from the city don't have to worry about it. Correct. Correct. Correct. If you have not heard about it right now, you are not on our list. Okay. No news is good news. Correct. Correct. Yes. That's wonderful. Um All right. Once again, the resolution appears on pages 23 through 24 of the packet. Is there a motion to approve? So move. Second. We have a motion and a second. Call the role, please.

Mayor Noel, I. Council member Johnson, I. Council member Pettis. I. Council member Ram. Hi. Council member Weisenfeld. Hi. Council member Sharstrom. Hi. Council member Devos. Hi. The resolution is approved. Thank you, Curtis. Uh, next item of new business. Azure Sky CBD renovation accessibility enhancement loan. And for the rest of this meeting, when people hear CBD, they will know it is Central Business District. Which was in place a long time ago, which terminology used for a long time. just like to clarify that for people who may not be familiar. Uh, and Ben is here to talk to us about that.

Thank you, Madame Mayor, and members of the council. Um, not too long ago, the council set up a program to incentivize uh downtown building owners to keep up their buildings and uh have the downtown looking good. So, yeah, Azora Sky, which is also River Rock Coffee, um is looking to take advantage of this program. Um they have an 1890s building, so a pretty old building in the historic district, and they're uh needing to stabilize the building. There's some foundation issues. Um so they're working with a contractor, Goodrich Construction, that specializes in res restoring historic buildings. Um overall, they're looking to infuse $442,000 into this uh location. And um some of it is apartment rental which isn't part of this application but they are doing foundation framing, tuck pointing, window and brick work. There'll be all new bricks on the facade of 169. Um and their their funding sources look on there on on page 25 are uh they're getting a loan from a local bank and then they're asking for $25,000 which is the max for this loan program or 14% of the of the project um of the $185,000 project. Um they do have to put in at least 10% which they're way over on that. Um and then if you go to the second page you'll see that this isn't a a new loan that the council has considered. Um there is currently 10 projects out there or 10 businesses that have taken advantage of this. This is again is at 0% interest um over 10 years and then if they pay on time um the amount that they're supposed to uh when it gets down to $5,000 then the rest is forgiven. So the 0% interest and the 5% forgiveness is very uh a very nice loan. Um again we're not doing the whole loan. We act as a kind of a gap filler. Um but

uh a very nice program. This did go to the EDA loan review committee. They did not see any concerns with them honoring uh the ability to pay on the loan. It also was reviewed by the HPC and then uh on Thursday the 26th, the EDA recommended approval of this loan and uh Council Member Johnson and Weisenfeld were at that meeting as well. I was just going to ask if any members of the EDA had anything to add from those discussions.

Uh not really. We just like with the next um item on our new business, both uh applicants were there um to just talk a little bit more about um their investing in these buildings, which there was a lot of appreciation for. Um it's a part of our our main street. So um and and it is very expensive to uh keep these buildings up and so we just shared a lot of appreciation for um their investment in those buildings keeping them up for a long period of time and um this is what these programs are are here for. So um it is nice to see uh it being used for what it's intended to.

Anything to add Josh? No, I think they are kind of a tough situation with getting the renovations done. It seems like a big project and I'm I'm glad that we can support our small businesses in our community to make sure that these projects can actually go through and our buildings can get taken care of in the way that they should and our downtown can remain looking nice for many years to come. So, I'm I'm glad that these I'm glad they applied and I'm I'm hopeful that we're able to to help them out. Yeah, they are also still open despite their entire front being closed. So, the picture says,

"Yeah, go check them out. Go shop downtown, not just at River Rock and any one of our wonderful uh small businesses in our historic downtown." And I also share appreciation for the the caretakers of those buildings because St. Peter just wouldn't be the same without our without that uh beautiful historic downtown. So appreciate the care and the investment in those buildings. Anything any questions for Ben or anything further? All right. Hearing nothing further, the resolution approving a central business district renovation enhancement loan in the amount of $25,000 to Azure Sky uh River Rock Coffee to partially finance renovation improvements at 301 South Minnesota Avenue. appears on pages 28 and 29 of the packet. Is there a motion to approve?

So moved. Second. Uh we have a motion and a second. Call the role, please. Council member Johnson, I. Council member Pettis, I. Council member Ram, I. Council member Wisenfeld, I. Council member Charstrom, I. Council member Devos, I. Mayor Noel, I. The resolution is approved. as uh Council Member Johnson noted, we have a a second similar um for a different location downtown.

All right. Thanks, uh Mayor Noel and members of the council. Just moving one block south on 169 to 40143 South Minnesota Avenue. This is actually one parcel that's owned by Bushaw Properties. They purchased it in 2003. Um one side of it is the St. Peter thrift store. The other side is Aligned Wealth. Um so they are planning to do some significant improvements. They have done some already uh in both buildings and it'll be a multi-phase or year project. So the right now they're really looking at phase one and have done some of this as already. They have already done an ADA restroom um and added some electrical service. Um so they are also wanting to replace the windows on the front. Right now there's kind of some paneling or wood. They'll take that off and restore the original appearance of the historic building. It'll look very nice and they're going to redo the front door as well. Um they will add a um a uh residence in that building and the next phase on the aligned wealth building which is currently a singlestory building. They'll add another second story with a couple of uh residents as up there as well. And so that building back in the day actually was twotory. So that'll get um back to its original appearance as well. So, they're looking to infuse $100,000 in this phase one. Um, on page 31 there, you can see the cost of the electrical and window work, uh, the restrooms, which isn't a part of this, but they're also infusing that into the building. Um, this particular project, um, did take advantage of what's called the Main Street Economic Revitalization Program. I know uh Council Member Johnson and myself and a few others were um trying to advertise this over the last few years and we got up to eight businesses or eight or nine businesses to um get $500,000 um into the community. So, they're

taking advantage of that then along um with some loans and they're asking for $25,000 as well. Again, this would be at the 0% with the $5,000 forgiveness. So, this was reviewed by the EDA loan review committee and the HBC and the EDA and they all recommended approval. So, if you have any other questions, I'd be happy to answer those. Sure. Any questions or comments? All right. Hearing nothing. Oh my gosh. Josh,

similar to the previous conversation, I think they are doing a very significant undertaking to keep up um a very central part of our our downtown. And I want to extend the same warm regards to them for for undertaking this project and and the efficacy of this program for them as well. All right. Thank you, Josh. Uh, hearing nothing further, the resolution approving a central business district res renovation enhancement loan in the amount of $25,000 to Bush Properties to partially finance improvements at 401 and 40C3 South Minnesota Avenue is on pages 34 and 35 of the packet. Is there a motion to approve? So moved. Second.

We have a motion and a second. Call the role, please. Council member Pettis. I. Council member Ram. I. Council member Wisenfeld. I. Council member Sstrom. I. Council member Devos. I. Mayor Noel. I. Council member Johnson. I. The resolution is approved. Moving on. Southpoint Financial Credit Union addition preliminary plat.

All right. Thanks. Thank you, Mayor Noel and members of the council. Um, South Point Financial Credit Union, um, which is currently located on Third and Broadway, is looking to move, uh, locations. They recently purchased the Jake's Pizza Building and the Taco John's property. Um, if you remember, Taco John's building was um, demoed a few months ago in January. Um, so what they're looking to do is renovate the Jake's building that's currently existing. Um, it'll look completely different as you can see um, in some of those slides. And there'll be a new facade entrance along 169 and then a a canopy drive-thru on the north side uh similar to where Taco John's had their drive-thru. Um so the reason that they're doing this is this is actually on a couple lots um from the 1850s. It was platted as the original part of town and then the amended. Um but with that there's some utility lines that are crossing uh both both lots. the canopy will actually go over one of the lots. And so they're just looking to clean up the site. There was um a Centerpoint Energy parcel on the very uh northeast side there too um right there where the arrow is. So they're going to be kind combining three parcels and two lots together to um simplify the legal description and also take care of these um encroachments. Um it does meet the uses the uses are allowed in this particular district and all the development regulations. So both the plat and the project meet um that it has all the utilities and services for access that are needed per plat. Um so far this project has gone through the HPC. It's gone through city staff review um the city engineers surveyor public works community development the city attorney and it was at the planning commission here recently. Um they recommended approval of this preliminary

plant. Um the one note on this is that they did find on the very west side of the Jake building um there was a twoft gap. Um so ownership needs to be proven and they're what they're going to do is they're going to go through a quite title process over the next few weeks. Once they establish ownership of that then they can come in for a final plat um and get that uh get that done as well. So, um it is conditioned um that they do go through that process. Our final plaque can't go through until they get that resolution, but the preliminary plat is good for one year. So, they have plenty of time to get this resolved. Um and when you start digging into old plats, this is typically what's found. So,

this isn't one of those meetings where we do a preliminary plat and turn around. Right. Exactly. We like to do that, but this isn't going to happen this time. Yeah. because of two feet. At two feet. Um, any uh questions or discussion? Darl, can you go back to the picture, Todd? Sure. Can you zoom in on uh the number one there? Actually, the coming out onto right there. It says property line right there. That to me it looks like that's kind paving and things like that. They're not proposing a driveway right there, are they? No. No. that'll the the fencing and the ballards, those uh brick ballards that we have through the downtown will remain. It looks on the drawing there looks like that's a driveway coming in off of Broadway and that's way too close.

Yeah, it's just it's just a turnaround right now. Same concern when I first looked at it, too. Looks like a driveway coming in off there and there's go out onto the sidewalk, then there's no way to get onto the highway. This is concern. And right now where Todd's got the arrow pointed there, they're keep they're proposing the same type of configuration that's currently there. Um that still will have to get approved by MDOT because there's an alley right there. So we're not sure exactly what that'll look like. Um but it'll be similar to that. It may get narrowed a little bit. Thank you.

Additional questions or discussion? All righty. Hearing nothing further. The resolution approving South Point Financial Credit Union addition preliminary plat at 103 North Minnesota Avenue and 19 West Broadway appears on page 40 of the packet. Is there a motion to approve? So moved. Second. We have a motion and a second. Call the RO, please. Council member Ramp. I. Council member Weisenfeld. I. Council member Shorstrom. Hi. Council member DVOS. I. Mayor Noel. I. Council member Johnson. I. Council member Pettis. I.

The resolution is approved. And Ben, you're you're hanging around again for another item. ADA accessibility improvement grant program.

All right. Thank you, mayor, and members of the council. Um, this is a pretty popular program. I've already gotten phone calls on it. Um, are we doing this again this year? Um we've had cities um and even from different states that have reached out because this is uh word has spread about the popularity of this particular program. This is the program um that uh is for mostly automatic doors but is for ramps and any type of ADA accessibility to try to get people into our businesses. It did start out um the first couple years just in our central business district. Then it was expanded to all businesses within the community. Um and even further it's gone to um some churches or community centers and uh there was one uh multifamily uh residential project. So um there's a committee a great committee that meets there's about 10 people in that committee that reviews them every year. Um but the EDA uh looked at this at their last meeting and they recommended that we move forward with this program again. Um the one change to note um I believe it was last year instead of getting forgiven at 115th every year. Um they made it strictly a grant. Um so that's it's very nice for our bookkeeping side, but it's also nice for the recipients that they can put their improvement in. They still are obligated to uh sign a uh an agreement to keep it maintained, but they don't it doesn't get forgiven 115th every year. Um, you can see that there was over the years there's been $224,000 uh to 31 different businesses that have taken advantage of this. On page 42, it goes into some detail on all the different businesses that were awarded, how many applications were received, and how much was funded and budgeted for this year. The EDA's recommended funding at $50,000. So, the majority of this um fund comes from interest or interest earned from the revolving loan fund. That's how it's historically been

funded. So, with that, it would be the EDA's recommendation to approve this program uh authorized to move forward. Any questions for Ben? Brad.

Uh well, not really a question. Uh just a comment. I remember I was on the EDA, not on city council, but on the EDA uh when JohnWami first uh f first uh brought this idea forth. Um and just I remember his passion and he was actually speaking on behalf of Steven Grahams cuz Steven didn't feel comfortable himself advocating for it. Um I think it's a great program and I do think it sets us apart from other cities. Um, the fact that we're able to keep continuing with this going forward, I I think is I I think really is a testament to our our commitment to accessibility. And as Steve would say, we're all going to be disabled at some point. So, Dustin,

Steve Graham's family has actually directly reached out to me thanking us for our actions on this in hopes that we continue doing it indefinitely. And I and I hope we will, like um Brad mentioned, we will all be dis disabled at some point, more than likely, whether it's a long-term or temporary situation. I think of moms with strollers and and things like that. It is certainly a benefit, especially uh in our historic downtown where things were not built to ADA specifications. And so uh it's a terrific program and one that we are I'm happy that we continue to support. So, um, hearing no further discussion, the resolution approving a recommended commercial accessibility improvement grant program appears on pages 43 through 44 of the packet. Is there a motion to approve?

So moved. Second. We have a motion and a second. Call the role, please. Council member Weisenfeld, I. Council member Sarstrom, I. Council member Deboss, I. Mayor Noel, I. Council member Johnson, I. Council member Pettis, hi. Council member Ramp. Hi. The resolution is approved. Thank you, Ben. Thanks, Madam Ben. Thanks. Uh, moving on to Nicollet County Hazard Mitigation Plan.

Mayor, members, on a regular basis, Nicollet County spearheads an effort to review and update the Nicollet County hazard mitigation plan. Cities like um St. Peter and other cities within the county participate in this and provide feedback. Um, a resolution from all the local units of government are required as a part of the PEMA rules to be eligible for mitigation funding should there be a natural disaster, but other efforts um to not only repair after a natural disaster or provide funding for mitigation in advance hardening of facilities and infrastructure. Um, so what is here before you is a letter from FEMA articulating some of that information that's been provided through to Nicola County and then a resolution adopting the Nicola County hazard mitigation plan. Um, the plan technically was put forth in 2025 and so the information that we're doing now is to meet that plan that is technically set up by the county in 2025. Happy to answer any questions that the council might have.

Any questions for Todd or discussion? Hearing none. The resolution adopting the Nicollet County Hazard Mitigation Plan is on page 49 of the packet. Is there a motion to approve? So moved. Second. We have a motion and a second. Call the role, please. Council member Shen, I. Council member Devos, I. Mayor Noel, I. Council member Johnson, I. Council member Pettis, I. Council member Ram, I. Council member Weisenfeld, I. The resolution is approved. Last item of new business tonight. We made it all the way to a new license.

Mayor members, included in your packet on page 50 is a license for Logan Miller um of Dogs Dig, Cut, and Hall LLC. They applied for a treeworker license within the city. The period would be March 10th through April 30th. Um April 30th is kind of the regular timeline that all these licenses change over. background check was conducted and you see nothing that would prohibit dogs dig cut and haul from having a license. Any questions or discussion on this one, Brad? Well, not nearly as amusing as Alex the tree guy. The last I do appreciate the name of the new one.

All right. Hearing no further discussion, the resolution approving this new license is on page 51 of the packet. Is there a motion to approve? So moved. Second. We have a motion and a second. Call the role, please. Council member Devos, I. Mayor Noel, I. Council member Johnson, I. Council member Pettis, I. Council member Ram, I. Council member Weisenfeld, I. Council member Sharstrom, I.

The resolution is approved. Uh, moving on to reports. I I do have one proclamation this evening, and that is uh for women's history month. Whereas women of St. Peter of every race, class, and ethnic background have made historic contributions to the growth and strength of our city in countless recorded and unrecorded ways. And whereas women of St. Peter have played and continue to play a critical economic, cultural, and social role in every sphere of the life of the city by cons uh constituting a significant portion of the labor force working inside and outside the home. And whereas women of St. Peter have played a unique role throughout the history of the city by providing a large portion of the volunteer labor force. And whereas women of St. Peter are particularly important in the establishment of early charitable, philanthropic, and cultural institutions in our city. And whereas women of St. Peter of every race, class, and ethnic background have helped shape every major progressive social change movement. And whereas women of St. Peter have been leaders for the betterment of the city. Now therefore, I, Shannan A. Noel, mayor of the city of St. Peter, Minnesota, do hereby proclaim March 20 uh March 2026 as Women's History Month in the city and hereby call upon the citizens of St. Peter to participate in Women's History Month programs, ceremonies, and activities, including the March 4th, 24th, 2026 women celebrating women event. So, there you go. We will move on to reports of council members if council members have any reports. for Darl.

Um this afternoon, uh Curtis Thompson and I had the opportunity to attend the one watershed, one plan, um meeting here in St. Peter. Uh just to give you a heads up, uh probably sometime here end of March into April, there will be a not a joint powers agreement, but joint powers collaboration agreement coming before the council for discussion at a work session and then hopefully approval sometime in April or May. um goal is to get these all approved by June. So, there'll be some more information and some action that will be required on this this uh this process. That's all I have. All right. Thank you, Darl. Other reports, Dustin?

Yeah. Um we'll report back that Council Member Dvas, myself, and Pete Molton from the city attended the American Public Power Association conference in Legislative Action Day in Washington DC. Um other than the travel, which was kind of a nightmare, um we did get there. I made it to all of the meetings. Um we were able to meet with all of our lawmakers to talk about affordable electricity. FEMA supporting infrastructure costs and the importance of tax-free bonds. Um all three of our elected leaders were receptive to the meetings and gave us good feedback and support. We were able to also share experience using direct pay for our first solar field and our second solar field being funded by state and federal funding.

Anything to add, Brad? Yeah.

Um yeah, so uh uh uh Council Member Sharstrom uh did a great job explaining uh a lot of what we uh a lot of what we discussed with the elected officials. Um it was also a good opportunity to network with other uh not just Simpa members but members from across the state of Minnesota who have their own who have their own public utilities. Uh learning seeing seeing what's working for them and the struggles that they have. Um the other thing that was not energy related was I did have the opportunity to address to address Senator Clolobashar directly on immigration issues affecting St. Peter. I was re relayed relayed information to her that was sent to me by a resident uh just the day before. Uh she spent about 5 minutes after that expressing her concerns as to what was going on. How while the present seems to be uh dropping in in the metro area, she was well aware that it was still occurring outside outside in greater Minnesota. Um she so she very much was still very concerned about what was going on. uh so while we go for certain so while we go for certain activities such as energy sometimes we do get the opportunity to bring up other issues as well. So

yeah thank you um and thanks to both of you for taking time away from your families and your work to go out there and um speak on behalf of St. Peter. So thank you. Uh any other questions, discussion, reports before we turn it over to our city administrator? All right, Todd.

The next item that I have, Madam Mayor, is I'll have um Corey come up. As you know, Corey does our sustainability and communications work. And one of the major things that she's been working on has been your new website. And so, I'll let Corey talk a little bit about that. So, if you haven't been on our website over the last week or so, it's changed. And so, Corey, I'll let you talk about that and then kind of direct me to surf around this wherever you want me to go.

Wonderful. Uh, Mayor Noel, city council members, I'm very excited to officially, um, unveil our new website to you. Um, this was really done in part of, you know, Civic Plus is our web hosting partner and it was part of our contract that every few years we get it updated. That process got a little delayed just with staff turnover and different things that were happening internally. And so, um, I picked this up when I joined and I'm I'm very excited that it's now mostly complete. Um, as you can see, we have a new look to it. It's a little bit more modern. Um, matches our new city logo a little bit better than the previous design did. We have some updated um, uh, you know, icons as Todd's going along there for easy navigation. And that's probably the the biggest thing that I would highlight with this new, uh, website is that we did spend a lot of time going over the site map. And so that site map is generally how someone navigates the website going from the main menu at the top and then how they navigate through the pages. And so you will see that that is different than our previous site. Um and that was done very intentionally with our residents and businesses in mind of how do they think to find information? Where do they look? Um, and so we kind of went away from kind of this internal structure of who owns what, who who does this, and really thought, okay, where do most people think to pay a bill? What is their top needs? Um, how can we make it easier for people to find meeting minutes? How can we find, you know, um, easier ways to get to the permits and licenses? Um, and so we really kind of designed it with that in mind to make it as easy to navigate and as transparent as possible as well. And so Todd, if you scroll down, we also have our latest news section that we still have, you know, our top articles of, you know, information we want to get out to people. Um, we have a new blog highlight where we're really going to be focusing

on more educational pieces for our residents. Um, so that we can really share as much information as possible um, to make it relevant for them at the same time. Um, and then if you continue to scroll down, you'll get to our calendar. Um this right now has all of our events. So this would be any of our boards and commission meetings, any kind of um you know all these staff meetings, hours will be posted there. And then we do have a separate tab. Um if you scroll up just a touch, Todd, there's city council meetings. So if you click on that tab, that will just populate the city council meetings and workshops so people can easily find um what's coming up with the city. The other thing that I'll note is um you can kind of see it in the far corner. Um, one of the other updates that we did with this website is we added um, a tool called audio eye, which is an accessibility tool. So, in the far right hand corner, you'll see the little blue and white icon there. This was really done. So, if you click on that, Todd, um, it allows people to customize their display. So, if they need um you know, if they have to change the contrast or the size of the text or um if they need to have a reading guide in there, um it really allows them to customize their experience on our web page so that they can get the information in a manner that's more effective for them. Um also down there is the translate function that we have as well. Um you can select any of the languages there. It's not perfect. Um, we know Google Translate's not perfect. Um, but it does allow us to have um an option for people to make it a little easier for them to figure out who to contact, who to talk to, how to get information. Um, and so this has been a long process, but we're very excited for it.

There we go. Well, thanks for all your work on this. It's kind of exciting. I was uh surprised the first time I saw that the website had been updated and was uh actually delighted to see uh some of the enhancements that have been made. Were you scrambling to find an agenda like I was the last time? No, I have my pages I had it bookmarked so it was just as easy as going to the bookmark, but I could see that it looked looked a little nicer. It'll take a little bit for people to get retrained on some of it, but I think it'll work better. I just clicked on the cool agenda center button. Yeah, there you go. I I didn't look in the middle at that. I I was so concentrated I was so concentrated across the top that it was Yeah,

I I think um again, as um Corey mentioned, this will be much handier for your general public and finding things fewer clicks. It's much more intuitive than the previous system had been. And it does incorporate or integrate some of the social media and other things that you have going on much better um than your previous website did. And so those are all important things I think for communicating with the public. Carrie and Corey, you mentioned that this is a part of our contract every couple of years to update. So it's really not an added cost to do this.

Um generally not due to kind of the delay in the timeline and stuff. We did have a little bit of an additional cost to kind of restart um from ground zero to to really make it what we wanted. But yeah, every um I think it's every 3 years in general. Um it's built in to kind of do this design refresh. Um so yeah, going forward that will definitely be um the same kind of process. This is one of your primary communication tools. People look up lots of stuff. The number of hits that you get on some of the some of the areas you don't get lots of hits on, but on some of the areas here you get lots of hits. This is a a very important communication tool.

And we really did try to call out the spots that did get the most. um you know with the analytics I could see what people were typing in when they were searching and so we really tried to focus on how to make those pages easier for people to find since they were having to go to that search bar to find them in the first place and so we'll continue to fine-tune that to make it so that it's easier but I do think um this approach will work much better going forward to be able to get that information out to residents and business owners. Thanks again. Thank you Corey. Thank you very much. Thank you Corey. All right, back to you, Todd.

The last item that I have is reporting on um federal agency impact. This is something that the council's asked for and we'll continue to follow through on as we move forward. The information is included in your packet um on the last page. So, let me update that for you. As you'll see, the bullet points that are there have not changed. The reporting hasn't changed, but federal law enforcement cont local law enforcement contact with federal agents is now up to about 20. Utility assistance request has been static around that eight number. However, as I mentioned at your last meeting, we'll mention again at this meeting. If that's going to change, it's going to change in the next week or so. And so, that's what we would expect as utility bills become due. Um, so we'll certainly update this again for you. Um, economic development assistance program. Um Ben is here so if you'd like he can provide a little bit more update but we have had outreach um to a number of businesses and the EDA has discussed the makeup of this program. Um and so I would say that it's substantially similar to the COVID program that previous council approved. Um, but there's still a little bit of work and a little bit of tweaking to be done. And I would expect that probably next month that's something that if the EDA makes a recommendation to move forward that it would come to the council for final approval to assist um, businesses that have been impacted in that way. Um, Ben, I don't know if you have anything more to add. Maybe that's enough for now. Um, but um, please watch for that and we will continue to reach out for to businesses. I think we've had um good response so far and certainly a lot of the businesses that have been contacted even though they might not be interested in the program itself are grateful for the outreach and the thought that goes in behind this and reaching out to them which has been a difficult time for a number of the businesses that you have within St. Peter. Um, facility requests, we're still at zero collaboration with other units of government. As I mentioned before, I don't have a running total. Many of you are involved in many of those collaborative efforts with the school district and the county and others. And so, there's a lot of work

that's going on and continues to go on. I will mention that the program that we have thread that is a collaborative effort with the school district, with the county, um, with some of the other local units of government within our area has been on a hiatus. But right now it appears the tenative plan is that there will be a meeting of thread next month. At least that's the tenative plan so far. Data requests related to this effort has been zero so far. And then update on additional community communications. All of you have talked with a number of groups as as the police chief and I and other members of the leadership team have talked with a number of groups related to the opportunities that they have, things that we have going on and challenges that we're facing. So again, I think the communication pathways that we developed have been very strong and have been helpful. It's very difficult for me to get my arms on the exact number of all of these things. Um, but I would share that as I visit with my peer group, um, you guys have a lot going on in this area and so I think you have something that you can be proud of and certainly we hope that has been helpful to the community and will continue to be helpful into the future.

Madame Mayor, I'm happy to answer any questions that folks might have. Yeah, Brad. Uh, so I just have one question. the local law enforcement contact with federal agents. You said that's about 20. Is that like 20 since like is that a running total? That's a running total, Brad. And and would you say is that slowing down? Are you seeing fewer contacts or or is about the same? We've seen fewer contacts over the last week or two.

Um we saw from my perspective um that the most of those occurred in the range of 3 to 5 weeks ago. And so we've seen a reduction. I think it's important to note that we might not be called or know every time that ICE or Border Patrol or another federal agency is in town. We might not be called to that. So can that still be going on? Yes. Could we not be aware of it? Yes. But this is kind of those that we've been asked to um observe with um ensure the safety of citizens and others. And uh so again running toward Thank you for the clarification. Excuse me. Additional questions for Todd. All right. Hearing nothing further. Is there a motion to adjurnn?

So moved. Second. All of those in favor of adjournment say I. I. Any opposed? We are adjourned. Thanks everybody.