City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to the regular City Council meeting for the City of St. Peter. It is Monday, June 8, 2026. At 7.05 p.m. we are called to order. Would all please rise for the pledge. All of you should have received a copy of the agenda. We do have one revision to the consent agenda. There's a memo and a revised resolution. Considering that, is there a motion to approve the agenda?

So moved.

All those in favor of approval, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The agenda is approved. Next up, approval of the minutes. The minutes are printed on pages four through six of the packet. Are there any revisions or corrections to the minutes? Hearing none, is there a motion to approve? So moved. All those in favor of approval say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The minutes are approved. We have a public hearing on the agenda for this evening and the instructions for a public hearing are printed on page seven of the packet. The public hearing will be conducted First with the staff presentation. This evening there's no applicant, but there's also a time for public comment. So we will start with the staff presentation, and Pete and Jeff are here to talk to us about that.

Madam Mayor and City Council, just a little bit of background about this project. This project is a two-block stretch that starts at Chatham Street on North 4th and goes down to Scarrow Street. Jeff will talk a little bit about the improvements, but the timing of this project would be in August. And as you guys know, you've already taken action to authorize the contractor to move forward. Here is the process now related to the assessments. Thank you, Pete.

Yes, the City Council initiated the project in the fall of 2025 for the improvements in North 4th Street between Chatham and Scarrow. The improvements include the replacement of old VCP sanitary sewer, electrified clay pipe, as we all know, is... very vulnerable to infiltration and treating groundwater unnecessarily. We're also replacing water main as proposed. It's old cast iron water main pipe there, four inches in diameter. We're proposing, I believe it's an eight inch pipe now. Also some storm sewer, some curb and gutter improvements, sidewalk improvements, and a new roadway. So essentially everything will look brand new when complete. The improvement hearing was held. We are assessing some of the project costs, proposing to assess a portion of the project costs via the 429 assessment process. So the improvement hearing was held. Flat rates, assessments are based on flat rates that are established by the city, 2250 for a sanitary sewer. Assessment another 2250 for water and then eighty three hundred dollars for roadway improvements As Pete noted bids are received Property owners are notified of tonight's meeting the assessment hearing allows them an opportunity to address the City Council regarding proposed Assessments or anything else they had on the project with that may be happy to answer any questions

Any questions for Pete or Jeff? We will take this up as an action item later on the agenda. There's a memo and resolution on pages 12 through 15 of the packet, but hearing no questions, we do have time for public comment. Is there a member of the public who'd like to address the council on this matter? Hearing none, we will move on to visitors comments. We always have time on our agenda for visitors who'd like to make a comments either on agenda items or to make general visitor comments. Seeing none, we will move on to the approval of the consent agenda. As already noted, we did have one additional memo and a revised resolution. The resolution includes the following employee appointments, Isla Gassman and Paige Olinger for lifeguard and headguard at the wages listed within the packet. We have temporary gambling license and temporary liquor license for the organizations listed within the packet. Addresses and dates are included, as well as the schedule of disbursements for May 22nd through June 4th, 2026. Is there any discussion of any item that's on the consent agenda tonight? Hearing none, is there a motion to approve the resolution? We have a motion and a second. Call the roll, please.

Mayor Nowell? Aye. Councilmember Johnson? Aye. Councilmember Pettis? Aye. Councilmember Ram?

Aye.

Councilmember Weisenfeld? Aye. Councilmember Sharstrom? Aye.

Councilmember DeVos?

Aye.

The resolution is approved. We have no items of unfinished business this evening, so we will move on to our first item of new business, which is North 4th Street Improvement from Chatham-Descaro Assessment Approval. That is the public hearing that we just had.

Just one thing I would like to add, Madam Mayor and City Council, is should you approve the resolution on page 14 and 15, which sets the terms and the amounts, by adopting the final assessment amounts, $427,650 will be assessed to property owners, that includes the City of St. Peter, as we are a large property owner through there, and $499,570 will be the responsibility of the City of St. Peter, the remaining balance.

Thanks for that additional information. Any questions for Pete or any discussion? Carrie.

There's two line items for the City of St. Peter. Can you talk about?

You're talking on page 14? Assessment roll. Yep, assessment roll. The one area is the pool. And the other area I am not positive on, but it is for a water and a sewer assessment. Jeffrey, do you know what that one's for?

Yeah, there's two assessments for the City of St. Peter parcel, the large property that's owned by the City of St. Peter. Those two numbers represent the roadway improvements and water main improvements associated with that parcel. Also to meet the minimum 20% required by bonding. The whole block, in other words, Jeff, right? Yes.

And after this project is complete, there's still another section that is not done with 4th Street, or how many more sections will we have planned for the future?

I don't know the priority as far as 4th Street goes. This will help significantly with the water main work there, but we do have at least one or two more blocks to complete there.

Okay, thank you. Yep.

Additional questions? We've discussed this a few times at other workshops, and so we're all highly familiar with the project. And also, just timeline-wise, want to note that this will happen after the pool is closed for this season.

In August, we should be able to get going and still have enough time to get it completed yet this fall.

Yes. All right, hearing no further discussion, the resolution adopting assessments for the 2026 North 4th Street improvements from Chatham to Scarrow Street appears on pages 14 through 15 of the packet. Is there a motion to approve?

So moved.

Second. We have a motion then to second. Call the roll, please.

Councilmember Johnson? Aye. Councilmember Pettis? Aye. Councilmember Ram? Aye. Councilmember Weisenfeld? Aye. Councilmember Sjostrom? Aye. Councilmember DeVos? Aye.

Mayor Noel? Aye. The resolution is approved. Thank you. Moving on, our next item of new business is City Assistance Request for the Minnesota Original Music Festival.

Mayor members, this starts in your packet on page 16. I believe this is the fifth year of this event and is hosted by organizers for the event. They're looking for use of Minnesota Square Park from the 16th to the 20th. That includes take up event and take down, use of city electricity, all the normal things that you've seen for the four previous years We recommend approval based on a couple of contingencies Well, it's more than a couple but a few bullet points that you see there on page 16 within your packet And of course, they're required to have the appropriate level of liability insurance as a part of this resolution is included in your packet and certainly we're excited to continue to have this event this is not only an event that is fun but there's a lot of instruction and workshops and those things associated with it too for musicians and lyricists and others so it's a lot of fun the resolutions included in your packet madam mayor remembers that resolution starts on page 21 Any questions for Todd or any discussion?

All right, hearing none, the resolution approving the request for city assistance for the Minnesota Original Music Festival event is on pages 21 and 22 of the packet. Is there a motion to approve? So moved.

Second. We have a motion and a second. Call the roll, please. Council Member Pettis? Aye. Council Member Rampt?

Aye.

Council Member Weisenfeld?

Aye.

Council Member Sharstrom? Aye. Council Member DeVos? Aye.

Mayor Noel? Aye. Council Member Johnson? Aye. The resolution is approved. We have a second city assistance request for a different event, the Experience St. Peter Market Street, or Street Market.

Mayor members, this has gone on in the past, and my recollection is it's kinda had a couple of different names, but this is where vendors sell their wares on Minnesota Avenue in front of participating businesses. Generally, that is on the north half of 169, north of Nassau, generally. The goal for this year is to have, on Thursdays, Main event hours from four to seven, and those will be Thursdays, July, August, and September. We require that they have this since that's a public sidewalk. We wanna make sure they have the appropriate insurance and making sure that those vendors with their tents and tables and other things are leaving enough space for accessibility on the sidewalk. I'm happy to answer any questions that you have. And again, if I didn't mention it before, this is one of the ways that we help ensure that they are insured appropriately for this kind of event. Again, the resolution is in your packet and that resolution starts on page 30 if I remember right. No, I'm sorry.

It's not it's page 27 Hearing none that resolution Approving requests for city assistance for a street market event as Todd mentioned is on page 27. Is there a motion to approve?

so moved

We have a motion and a second. Call the roll, please.

Council Member Ram.

Aye.

Council Member Weisenfeld. Aye. Council Member Sharstrom. Aye. Council Member DeVos. Aye. Mayor Nowell. Aye. Council Member Johnson. Aye. Council Member Pettis. Aye.

The resolution is approved.

Madam Mayor, when you said that out loud, it made me wonder. I hadn't thought about it this way. But just to be clear, this is utilization of sidewalks. Even though it says street market, it is only utilization of sidewalks. Just wanted to make that clear. When you said it out loud, I thought, oh, I hadn't thought about it that way.

No, that is good to know because, you know, side streets. Yes, we have. We probably would not shut down 169.

We would not shut it down to the hospital.

All right. Our last item of new business tonight is a peddler license.

Madam Mayor, members, we have peddler's license and a low-potency hemp edible license that's included. The information is in your packet. As you can see, that information starts on page 28 with the resolution on page 30. All of the folks that are involved here have met the requirements as per your ordinance with the appropriate background checks. And so the recommendation is to provide approval of the resolution, again, which is included in your packet.

questions or discussion Oh Josh As in the last two meetings in which we approved peddlers licenses I will plan on voting no as I do not believe the city should be issuing peddlers licenses to anyone thank you Thank you that's helpful to know any additional questions or discussion All right, hearing none, the resolution approving new licenses appears on page 29 of the packet. Is there a motion to approve?

So moved.

Second.

All right, we have a motion and a second. Call the roll, please. Councilmember Weisenfeld? No. Councilmember Sharstrum? Aye. Councilmember DeVos? No. Mayor Noel? Aye. Councilmember Johnson? Aye. Councilmember Pettis? Aye.

Councilmember Rand?

Aye.

The resolution is approved. We have no more business before us this evening. We will move on to reports. I have nothing to report this evening. Are there any councilmembers who'd like to make reports? Daryl?

Since was that part of that?

That was on the consent agenda. Yep.

I was going to add to that one. Thank you.

Good question. I don't see any raised hands. We'll move on to report from our city administrator.

Just wanted to thank the rec team, library team for all the hard work for this evening and all the other departments and other folks that participate in this summer kickoff. um nice event to have indoors tonight a little bit steamy and hot outside so for those folks that were there we hope they had a great time and for those that were participants or tabled or did those things thanks for being with us it's a great opportunity for the community to get to know things and to remind folks that there's great information in the hot sheet on our facebook page and on our website about events that aren't the same as this but have lots of other opportunities similar to this going on throughout the summer, so check it out. I think the mayor said if you board in the summer in St. Peter, you haven't been trying very hard to find something to do because there's lots of action going on in St. Peter.

There is indeed.

Madam Mayor, that's all I have for tonight.

All right. With no more business before us, is there a motion to adjourn? So moved. Second. All those in favor of adjournment say aye. Aye. Any opposed? We are adjourned.