City Council Agendas, Packets and Minutes - Regular Meeting

6 o'clock on August 17th will come to order. May I have a roll call, please?

Chisholm. Here. Gilbertson. Here. Hellwick. Here. Genawine. Here. Lieber. Here. Lias. Here. Mura. Here. Tolar. Here. Major Kelly.

Here. Will you please join me 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.

Thank you very much. So we've all received the minutes for the three meetings we've had since the last time we met. Has anybody had a chance to read them? Is there any comments, corrections, revisions to the minutes of the last three meetings, including the orientation meeting? Move approval.

Move approval. I have a motion to approve. Do I have a second?

Second.

All in favor of accepting these minutes, indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. Minutes are adopted. The adoption of the agenda. We've all had a chance to see the agenda. Does anybody have any additions, revisions, or corrections to our current agenda? If not, I would entertain a motion to approve the agenda as written.

Second.

Very good, thank you. I got it, you got it. Okay, thank you very much. All in favor of approving the agenda as written, you can keep on saying aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. The agenda's adopted. So do we have any visitors to be heard on items not on the agenda? Members of the public may speak on any topic and remarks are limited to five minutes and no decision will be made at this time by the City Council. Public testimony on items on the agenda, there'll be an opportunity for those as we go through the agenda. Okay. Are there any visitors to be heard on any items not on the agenda? Okay, very good. We will move on to our public hearings. There we go. So the first one is the resolution authorizing application for financial assistance for the Cotton Park parking lot. Jim.

Good evening, members of the council. Background here, the Cotton Park parking lot was built in around 1980 and was held up well over the years through multiple water or flood events. However, the flood events in June of 24... caused significant damage to both the pavement and underlying base, resulting in buckling, crumbling, and rapid deterioration of the parking lot. At the same time, the Cotton Park parking lot has been getting heavily used with the new addition of the courts down there, the disc golf course, the new shelter that we have in there, and still stands as kind of the parking lot main area for the Hike Bike Path area. The item that you have before you tonight is a required public hearing associated with the USDA Rural Development Grant application. This hearing gives residents the opportunity to learn about the project, ask questions, and provide feedback. before the city submits its application. The project was identified in the city's 2026 CIP with an estimated cost of $450,000. Based on the discussions with the USDA Rural Development, grant funding could possibly cover half the construction costs with the city's anticipated share coming from the second penny. The parking lot details, just a quick overview. We're going to keep the parking lot within the same size or footprint that it is at now. Replace the existing asphalt with concrete just for longevity and a better surface to resist flooding or other possible future flood events. Parking capacity of about 63 stalls. and widening the entrance from 20 feet to 36 feet. At this time, the only cost is associated with this is the publication of the required public hearing notice. The grant application will be submitted this fall and if funding is awarded, construction would begin in early 2027. Staff is recommending approval of the resolution so the city can move forward with the USDA rule development grant application process. Tonight I have Clinton Christensen, who was helped from CCOG, which has helped write this grant for the city, and we'd be open to entertain any questions that the council or the public may have.

Thank you very much. Are there any members of the public wish to comment on this matter? How about members of the council? Gary. Oh, sorry. Go ahead. You go, Gary, first, then Jay.

So Jim, when I read this this afternoon, you're going to be putting concrete down instead of asphalt. I get that, but I also know concrete cracks too. Is this going to be some kind of a special concrete to help withstand the virtues of that river or what's the plan there?

That's a great question. And to help me answer that question, I have an assistant with me tonight who also can kind of give you a little bit more details on that.

So we're going to be using concrete. The concrete's going to be jointed, so hopefully that's going to take care of most of the cracking that you typically might see if it's not jointed. In addition to that, the base of it is going to be reinforced. We're going to be using some, oh my gosh, it's escaping. Sorry, we're going to be reinforcing the base regardless of that, and then we're also going to be adding some fabric to make sure that all the fines and all the gravel stays underneath the concrete road. So all of these items put together will be hopefully prohibiting the concrete to fail the same way that the asphalt did.

Thanks. Jake? Maybe you don't know. Jose, you might know this as much as anybody, so don't go anywhere. Does the county still plan on wrapping that river down there somewhere?

We did speak with the county, I'm going to say about a month, month and a half ago, regarding that. I believe that they are still planning on that. Their project hasn't gone out to bid at this point. They are aware that we have this project coming up early next year, more than likely, and that they're going to be working... At that point, they're going to be working around our schedule. So they have been made aware of it. I think right now they're trying to maybe have their site for equipment and so forth on the east side of the river. So they're outside of the parking lot. And the closure of the parking lot, if it's necessary or will be necessary, hopefully coincides when they're working. So then we can minimize the impact to the public as much as we can.

Al? Just a concern, and I'm sure if you've got somebody planning this whole thing, you've done it, but there's a lot of river water bottom on that land and are we doing soil testing to make sure we're getting down deep enough to stabilize the ground before we start putting all the concrete in there?

So that it was we did actually did I think two borings, two soil borings on the parking lot itself. The geotech already did the design for the for the sub base and we're going to be using that as far as the base.

So they've given you statistics what to use on the base then?

Yep yeah that was required for the grant application as well.

Why are we widening the driveway from 20 to 36 feet?

So right now, there are some issues. Whenever you have two cars there and they're turning, you tend to have a little bit of vehicles getting stuck. Not stuck, but they just take their time. So we don't want to have cars stopping on Dakota Street waiting for somebody to turn in out of the parking lot. 36 feet will allow, hopefully, for two vehicles to get out, whether they're going north or south, and space for a car to come in at the same time.

Thank you. I go to Cotton Park pretty regularly, and I was glad to see that, that you're widening that, because it is an issue sometimes you have to stop and you're in the way. May I ask how you come up with the number of parking spots you want? I rarely see more than two or three cars there at one time. Why do we need 66 or whatever parking spots?

So the parking layout, as Jim mentioned, we are using the same footprint. We just went ahead and put as many as we could that met our standard of nine by 18, and 63 was what we came with. There isn't, in this instance, we didn't actually have a formula to go through. We just tried to at least have the same amount that we had prior, which I think was 55, 58. And then we just put as many as we could, but we tried to not go below that number.

I get that. That was clear in the memo. But there's, I mean, I don't think I've, even for parties, I bet I've seen 10 there maybe. Somebody had a birthday party down there.

I can say that when I personally have gone to play pickleball, I have probably seen about maybe half to three quarters of that parking lot full. And it's not with just people that play pickleball. We also have people that go and maybe are using the shelter or taking their kids over to the playground equipment or playing frisbee golf. So a lot of these things tend to come at the same time.

I'm with you. It's probably rare, but we want to have the capacity for the.

Yeah, because otherwise they don't have a place to park, right? Where are they going to park? We don't allow parking on Dakota Street. Very good.

And if I may, I think you're only going to see Cotton Park being expanded on there. There's a new playground going to go down there hopefully within the next couple of years. Once the pickleball courts really get used and found out about it, I think you're going to see heavier, heavier traffic down there. So we want to prepare for that as well.

Fair enough. Any further questions or comments from the city? Nope. The staff recommends adoption of this resolution. There's no financial consideration. Do I have a motion to adopt this or to approve this resolution?

Second.

All in favor indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed nay. Passes. Thank you very much, Jim and Jose. Don't go there. There you go. Don't go too far away. First reading of the Blue Stem Trail Edition rezoning for the co-housing project.

Yep.

Jose.

Thank you. So the city has been working with the owner of this property since 2024. This property is located on the east side of Crawford Road. Where is it? There it is. All right, so this property is located on the east side of North Crawford Road and about 400 feet north of East Main. It's about 15 acres in size. As you can see, some of this property is within the R2 residential district, which is this pink area, and then also within the NRC area. natural resource conservation district. The R3 district does touch or is adjoining the property in question by this little strip right here. This property was annexed into the city in March 2026. As such, the property owner has a process to follow for rezoning. And this process, the fact that some of it was already within city limits and another portion was actually annexed at a later time makes that process a little bit different than typical. For anything that's already within city limits, like this R2 area, for that to be resold, the property owner would actually be required to acquire signatures or petitions from property owners within 250 feet of that area. But then the area that was recently annexed, so essentially this area, shaded area or the NRC area well he's not required to do that so what staff did was to essentially remove the requirement to to file an application and to pay the rezoning fee but still was required to to acquire all the signatures as far as the petitions and all the notices and all the letters all of that was still sent to the property owners Based on that, the owner's plan is to develop the area for residential uses. The intent is to have, the intent is to actually have, let me, sorry. The intent is to actually have some town homes on the north side and on the west side, and then this large area here would be the co-housing area. That co-housing area, looking at it right here, would then be actually composed of several, I think it's 26 units, and then a larger house i guess if you want to call it that where they would be able to have more shared meals and a space to share maybe have some get-togethers and so forth along with some green spaces all of these shared uses would be available to the to the residents of this co-housing project this this staff After talking with the owner, we proposed that this area should actually be resumed to the R3 district rather than the R2. The reasons for that is that a lot of the items that would actually be considered essential for the co-housing, some of the driveways, private roads, the lack of frontages for each of these individual properties, would make it difficult to be in the R2. So again, the R3. In addition to that, then you also have the size of the development. The R2 sets a max of 16 bedrooms. This development would have somewhere between 52 and 54. So again, that's a larger number that would have actually been allowed in the R2. So all of these items put together then would benefit or would point to this area being rezoned to the R3 district if possible. This item was considered by the Planning and Zoning Commission on August 10th. At that meeting, one individual did talk in favor of the proposed project and recommended or said that the item should be approved by the city council. After a brief discussion, the Commission recommended unanimously 8-0 for the City Council to approve the rezoning, the rezone as proposed by staff. Administration and the Planning Commission recommend that the City Council advance the ordinance to a second reading on September 8th. Thank you very much.

Are there any members of the public who have a comment about this proposed ordinance? No? How about members of the City Council? Any comments or suggestions? Lindsay beat you, Gary.

Lindsay? I'm a little confused by some of the roads that are notated on these maps. Should we take that to heart? For example, Clark Street. Is that going to be Clark Street?

So Clark Street right now is, there's a cutout for Clark on this side, right? I don't know if you can see that little I don't want to say trust me, but trust me, Clark Street is right there right now. The remainder of that would be platted. If Clark Street would be continued west of that point, it would connect to the Clark Street at Norbeck. So the proposal is to extend that further east, and then on this development here, then that would turn north and follow the 16th line at that point.

Is it at least close enough so we won't be able to link them and connect the other side?

No, it's right across it. There's no angle. Gary, did you have a comment?

Yeah. Am I to assume that I read this in here, but a lot of the communal housing in there is going to be for seniors?

My understanding is that all of it is going to be for seniors. All of it's going to be for seniors. And we're talking about this area here, the area that's the co-housing portion of it. But not the townhomes. No, the townhomes, anybody can move there is my understanding again.

I'm certainly happy to hear that. I think one of the things that of course we've been discussing is that need for senior housing.

Anybody have any questions? I have a question. I don't remember the parking rules by heart, the formulas, but how about the R3 off-street parking? formula, does this meet that, the requirements of zoning? There is one, right? I'm sorry? There is one, there is a formula.

Yeah, there is. We haven't looked at that at this point as much, just because we're just talking about rezoning, but through conversations with the developer and the owner, my our understanding is that all these units is going to have they're going to have enough space within the driveway to account for their parking they're also going to have a one-stop garage so the ordinance also allows for the one-stop garage to account for that and then they're also going to be having parking spaces in front of the the larger house as well so that also accounts can be used for that formula i understand that question might be premature at this point yeah

All right, so any other comments or questions for Jose? Well, I would entertain a motion to advance this to a second reading on September 8th, if anybody was so willing to move that.

Is there a second?

All in favor of moving this Planning and Zoning Advanceing Ordinance 1573 to a second reading on September 8th, please indicate by saying aye. Opposed, nay. Thank you. Thank you. One question, no comments yet from our very good. Okay, item seven, consent agenda. Any item listed on the consent agenda may, by the request of any single council member, be considered a separate item under the new business section of the agenda. If a member of the public would like to discuss any consent agenda item, please notify me during the public comment period to have it considered a separate item. Does anybody have any questions or comments on anything removed from the consent agenda? I don't know if you were standing up to come forward. You're good? Okay. Anybody on the City Council have any items they want removed from the consent agenda to move to new business? If not, I would entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda items. Is there a second? All in favor of approving the consent agenda items indicate by saying aye. Opposed, nay. Consent agenda passes. Okay, old business, we have done. No old business. Moving on to new business, MidAmerican. Please come forward. This is my first year meeting you, so if you could remind me of your name.

Great. Sam Wagner, business and community development manager with MidAmerican Energy. So, Mayor, good to meet you from the other side of the room, practically. So, hey, members of the council, John, it's good to see you again. As part of our franchise agreement with the city of Vermillion, you're blessed on an annual basis to have me come and tell you about all the great things MidAmerican is doing here in Vermillion. You know, honestly, last year was kind of a light year in terms of new projects, new services within the city. It was sort of, I don't have the exact figures, but in terms of like the number of projects, it was down a little bit this year. But we've had some residential services that we've run, a couple of new services over at the, I see you everywhere these days. I don't know if that's a good thing or not. A couple of projects, a couple of new services at the University of South Dakota that were wrapped up. And then in terms of coverage, the staff coverage that we have for the city of Vermillion to cover these things, primarily our engineering staff is based out of Sioux Falls. So we have our lead tech for Vermillion, Tim Forsh, who has actually done this presentation on occasion in the past. Tim continues to chase down projects and deliver on those designs for new services, commercial and residential. And industrial when they come up. So he continues to cover Vermilion. We have a couple of field guys that are based here in Vermilion. That has not changed. And all of that is backed up by operational teams out of Sioux Falls and Sioux City. And if we need to, we'll go tap the few guys up in Yankton as well to come down if there's any kind of emergency. So Vermilion really does kind of sit in kind of a sweet spot in terms of available resources from the engineering design and operational standpoint. Had them run some on that operational side leaks, you know, gas leaks on occasion. So we had, within the last 12 months, we've had 167 reported leaks within Vermillion. Usually that's just like, you know, within homes and residences and small businesses. Nothing major, nothing super dangerous, but it's something that we hop on very, very quickly. So out of that 167, number 165 of those leaks were addressed and dealt with within 60 minutes. The remaining two went over that 60-minute mark primarily because of weather. So mainly, oh, and the other thing I want to point out is in recent years, we've gotten onto a kind of a annual rotation to meet with John and his staff to review upcoming projects. That meeting is coming up. We need to schedule that. But we do that at least on an annual basis. Looking forward to doing that again. Next time, I think we should have that meeting before I address your council. It would give me better material. But with that, I'll take any questions you might have.

Thank you. Thank you very much, Sam. Does any member of the public have any questions for the American?

Okay, Al? Well, just when you said 167 leaks, I went, that may not be much to you, but to me it sounds like a lot. Sure. Would the majority of those be things like pilot light went out and they just had to relight it? I mean, or gas leak going into the house? How would you paraphrase?

Yeah, it's a lot of pilot light stuff. Yeah, it's a lot of pilot light. We've had no major leaks in Vermillion during that time. So yeah, that number I think can be a little... a little alarming when you see it. But that's part of what we do when managing our system is if we have a molecule of gas that's leaking out that we're made aware of, we jump on it. And each one of these systems in homes of varying ages and conditions and so on does present a lot of opportunities for that. And so we chase those down as quickly as we can. So nothing major.

I think Jay was first. I can help you a little bit with that, Al. I did have to call you guys this last year. Something simple is I got a new gas range, and the coupler that came with it to attach the old gas pipe, there was like a coupler head versus a flat head or something. Whatever it was, I had the wrong one, and it was just slightly leaking. But the guy who came was very helpful and very friendly, and he pulled out his little scanner deal and So yeah, there's a slight leak back there and told me exactly the one to get and got it and fix it up. So it's just simple stuff like that. It was like a 10, 15 minute fix.

Lindsey, was your hand out? I'm sorry, too late.

Well, I guess it's a little unfair if you haven't met with John yet, but I just want to see with our new expansions and developments, especially as we are not just building new homes or apartments, but sort of expanding outside of previous limits. Do you all feel properly informed and prepared for such expansions?

Yeah, yeah, we do. Yeah, we're well familiar with the growth patterns and some of the annexation plans that the city of Vermilion has. And so part of that coordination is just allowing us to kind of see what's coming so that we can. Half the phone is keeping up with you guys. So, yeah, I think we're in a pretty good spot there. There's nothing, even the proposed development that was described earlier, that's not a particular concern of ours. And we've also had a number over the last couple of years, several infill projects that has kind of allowed us to kind of reconfigure our system and take advantage of those infill projects to prepare for future growth and understanding where the annexation patterns are headed are incredibly important to us. And so coordinating with John and his team has been very helpful.

Any other questions for Sam? I have a question. A couple of weeks ago, we had a burst water pipe. I mean, these things happen. How are your pipes? Are they maintained? Do you have a replacement schedule? What kind of shape are they in? Are they 20 years more life? How do you manage your pipes?

Yeah, so we go through. In fact, we just wrapped one up, I think, a couple of years ago. We'll focus on the town and do a full... full review of the pipes underground. And I want to say, I'm kind of going off of memory here, but I want to say we did something for Vermilion a couple of years ago. So that's sort of proactive maintenance, if you will, as part of our overall maintenance plan for our system. We can't do everything all at one time. That's an awful lot of pipes. So we do concentrate on certain areas. and then come back to them in a rotation. And then as problems come up, as they, like your burst water pipe, for example, sometimes nature has other plans for us. We'll respond accordingly, but we do have a proactive maintenance plan all across our entire system.

Thank you. That's comforting. I appreciate that. Are there any other questions for Sam? In that case, thank you very much, and we'll see you next year after you meet with John.

Yep, that's true. Oh, and we have a franchise coming up. So the franchise agreement for the City of Vermillion comes up in, I believe, the end of February, I want to say. So yet more opportunities to work with the City of Vermillion and put that agreement in place for the future. Okay.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Where are we at? So item B, request to close down the road for a fraternity sorority party. Is that you, Alex?

Thank you. So we have a request from the USD Sorority and Fraternity Life. We have some representatives here from them as well. They would like to close East Cedar Street from North Pine Street to North Plum Street on September 17, 2026 from 5 PM to 9 PM for a block party. The actual event itself will be from 6 to 8 PM. That additional time from 5 to 6 and from 7 to 8 or... eight to nine will be for setup and taketown of the event. For the event itself, there will be three food trucks there. And as the applicants have told me, it will be a dry event. Additionally, they will have a team of five individuals who will clean up the streets after the event and in front of their respective houses if those were to get dirty. Everything is included in the packet. Our street police, fire, EMS departments did not have any issues with this closure. Administration recommends that the City Council approve the request to close East Cedar Street from North Pine Street to North Plum Street on Thursday, September 17, 2026 from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. for the USD Sorority and Fraternity Life Block Party.

Thank you. Are there any members of the public who'd like to talk about this subject? I'm on... No? Okay, so I'm glad you told me it was a dry event because we don't start driving the bus until 10 o'clock. All right, all right, okay. And so, enough said about that. Yes, Julia.

First of all, I am super excited that you all are celebrating Constitution Day so well. But then I'm just wondering if there will be an associated, you call that, noise exemption plan for this as well, or if you're not anticipating exceeding noise levels.

I can also assist with that question as well with the new noise ordinance that we passed. With September, it would need to start at 8, but since they're cleaning up from 8 to 9, we didn't believe that they needed a noise permit for it.

Hi, I'm Emma. I'm one of the representatives from Sorority and Fraternity Life. We don't plan on using anything bigger than a normal standard-sized speaker, so we don't anticipate it getting super loud, and we'll be cleaned up hopefully by 8.30 at the latest.

Thank you. Why don't you hang out for a minute, Emma, in case you have further questions. Okay. Anybody have any questions for Emma? Okay. So I would entertain a motion to approve this request to close East Cedar Street from Alpha Phi to Phi Phi on September 17th. It has been moved. Do I have a second? Second. All in favor of allowing the street closure indicate by saying aye. Opposed nay. Motion passes. We'll see you at 10 o'clock. Thank you. All right. So the first reading of Ordinance 1564 about our cable franchise agreement with Midco. John?

Sure. Thank you, Mayor. In 2016, the City Council entered into a 10-year franchise agreement with Midco or Midcontinent Communications. As you might do the math, that is coming to an end here in the coming month. Actually, it expires in October. We did receive a proposal from Midco to extend the existing terms and conditions for an additional 10 years. The only two changes that they are noting is instead of having a rate card that they would provide to the city to have on file each time a rate changes, they would maintain a website that continually has the rates available. The second one really has to do with FCC Order 621. It really has changed how, quote, free cable has worked. The last ordinance, 1345, was adopted in 2016. There were a list of buildings that would receive free cable service as part of the franchise agreement. This FCC order basically eliminated the requirement for cable companies to do that. And instead, what free cable means is that they don't bill us for the cable, they take it out of the franchise fee payments that we would receive. So Midco and I had a little discussion as to what really free cable was if you're charging us for it. So that is what free cable means now. Instead of literally being free, it comes out of our franchise fees they would otherwise receive. And there are three buildings that we have that receive this anymore. This order went into effect about two years ago. There was a lot of different buildings in the community, our schools, senior center, a lot of different places that did receive it. And those pretty much all were eliminated from being eligible for free cable. And now we have three city buildings that continue to receive this city hall here building. service center and the fire EMS. The golf course is handled separately because that is more of a public viewing than what the other buildings do. So they literally receive the same bill as somebody would at home. I would note that the 5% franchise fee that's paid on eligible services, last year in 2025 that amounted to $56,112. So that is revenue that comes to the city from that. Administration recommend that ordinance 1564 to extend the cable franchise agreement with Midco for an additional 10 years be advanced to a second reading on September 8th.

Thank you. Are there any visitors to be heard on this subject? Members of the council? Well, I have a few questions. Is this 5% normal among cities? This is a normal rate that people pay?

Yes, the 5% is the highest that is allowed by the FCC, and it's pretty typical with most cities.

Very good. And my other question was of the establishments that used to get free cable. That ended two years ago?

I believe it was two years ago that there yes it seemed like not the intern last summer the intern the year before put all those letters together and we notified those entities and I think it probably ended around September or so when it actually took effect.

well my question is should those continue to have free cable i mean they're charging it's not free anymore right they're they're charging us so you subtract it are there should we the city be subsidizing some of these places for their quote-unquote free cable or do we have that conversation two years ago

I don't know that it came before the council. I think we viewed it as is it city's cost to provide those and so that's why we pulled that back and eliminated. We eliminated several city buildings that had, there was, I know it was in 2024 because they had sites listed that were no longer active such as Jolly School. Austin School were listed on there. So I know it was in 2024. So part of it was cleaning up their list. But we, yeah. There were some that we approached that were on the list that said we didn't even know we had it and we were never hooked up to it. Or they were using it for the internet piece.

I'm just thinking about the school and the Main Street Center and some of those that are

public good they're paying out of their own pocket for cable I assume they all have cable obviously yeah that I don't know we haven't followed up to see if they still have cable or not I know Damon Albee and I had a conversation about it because I think some of our school buildings had more interest in it than others any questions for John about yes go ahead please John there's no other companies that

want this business other than Midco?

Good question. It is not exclusive. So Blue Peak, their predecessor, but now Blue Peak, you can receive television services through Blue Peak that qualify as cable. So if another cable company comes along and wants to provide television services, it's a non-exclusive franchise. And so that's why we're one of the few that has two of these. In Blue Peak, we've scheduled them for their annual report, just like Sam just did with MidAmerican. I think that's in October they're coming, but they'll come before the city council to do their update. And I should say Midco's, I believe Midco will be here at our next meeting to present their annual report.

Thank you, thank you for clarifying that. Any other questions for John about this franchise? I would entertain a motion to advance ordinance 1564 to a second reading on September 8th. Move. Seconded. All in favor of advancing the second reading indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. Motion passes. historical preservation commission appointments we have two reappointments uh when we had no further no additional applications so i would recommend with your consent that we approve susan keith gray reappoint susan keith gray and carson murkwanda their posts on the historic preservation commission Oh, sorry. Thank you. Thank you. Any members of the public have a comment on these reappointments? Thank you very much. I'll get it. I'll get it. Members of the council have comments?

Second.

All in favor of reappointing Susan Keith-Gray and Carson Murquant as historic preservation commission appointment, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. Appointments are done. Very good. What about this? Do we discuss this? You certainly can.

So if you want me to start off. Yeah, please go ahead. So at the last city council meeting, there's a question about broadcaster press and how best to handle that. And what we had suggested at that point in time is that we would list it as an open account claim. So the next agenda item says open account claim broadcaster press for $2,323.34. Periodically, once to maybe both meetings each month due to the legal notices we place, other ads, and those respect to publications, the broadcast, or plain talk, we receive a bill at least once a month. And so there's a question with Mr. Lias. Had worked full time for a broadcaster press organization. whether or not that was a conflict. And so the proposal was that we would just list it as an open account claim rather than under invoices payable. So it would be easier for Mr. Elias to abstain from voting on that versus not being able to vote on all of the other other bills and invoices payable. So we list it under invoices payable and it's noted that it's under new business and then we list the respective account claim here. And I would suggest that if we have, and we do from time to time, city council member travels on behalf of the city, there's reimbursement for those items, that those would be listed in a similar manner. The city attorney did provide guidance after we kind of set up the system, and I'll let Mr. Hines, if he wanted to explain it from a more legal manner, that as I understand it, that it wouldn't necessarily need to be handled this way. It may be a matter of...

The message that the City Council wants to communicate or the transparency that you want to communicate with how you handle this great So generally speaking a direct financial interest would be someone who is an owner Of a specific entity if someone were merely an employee of that entity we wouldn't consider that necessarily a direct interest that being said it is a responsibility of every individual member to determine a if they have a conflict where they would want to abstain from voting. In this particular instance, I don't think it's critical, but the member could always decide to abstain from the appearance of having any sort of direct or indirect interest.

Thank you. Council Member Elias did abstain from voting on this item.

Very good. So uh we discussed this at our new meeting I don't have any further questions anybody else have any further questions regarding this issue? Well I would entertain a motion to pay the broadcaster 23-23-34. So moved. Second. All in favor of paying paying our bill say aye. Opposed nay. Thank you very much and thank you David for being uh so considerate. The next item is the bid opening for our electrical transformers.

Thank you. So Light and Power Department requested bids on electric transformers to both replenish our inventory and to stock up and get ready for specific projects in the future. This year we requested bids on a total of 16 transformers varying in seven different sizes. Bid documents were sent out to 17 potential bidders. Out of those 17 suppliers that we sent those out to, we received six bids. However, only five of those bids included proper bid security. And then two of those five actually included bids on transformers that were on the acceptable manufacturer's list. So those two were the only two that we evaluated. For the transformers, the evaluation process that we look at is we look at the operating losses over the life cycle of the transformer. So on the bid tab, you'll see the total base price, which is the initial cost of the transformers up front. And then you'll see the total evaluated cost, which is the cost of the transformers through their entire life cycle. Using this process, Resco out of Moorhead, Minnesota was the lowest bid with a base price of $146,959. and the evaluated price of $210,405.20. These transformers have an estimated delivery of 12 to 13 weeks, which would put the delivery here in 2026. Excuse me. This purchase was not fully budgeted for, so a revision will be necessary to cover the cost of these. However, we do have sufficient funds in the reserve account for the Light and Power Department. With that, administration recommends awarding the bid to RESCO with an initial purchase price of $146,959 and a total evaluated price of $210,405.20. Thank you, Shane. Do any members of the public have any comments about this bid? Just to explain, what's the...

The evaluated price, what's that mean?

So when a transformer is operating and the electricity is doing its job, there's going to be some losses, right? It's not 100% efficient. So when they supply their bids to us, they give us a couple numbers that we plug into an equation that tells us this is how much electricity is going to be lost through this thing's lifetime while it's operating out in the system. And so the more efficient... the cheaper it is over the next 30 years, right? And so we evaluate that when we're looking at these. And so we don't look at just what does it cost us up front. We look at what is this really going to cost us once it's out in the system for 30 years.

So we want to lower outside rent. Okay. Thank you. Yes, Jay.

So this looks like about 25% different from the total base to that evaluated cost. We don't have a 25% loss in energy at that point, do we? No. That's a big loss.

You're getting pretty deep into the weeds when you start getting into that equation. And so I can't speak to the guts of it. I can just kind of tell you where I take the numbers. You know, that's electrical engineers kind of give us those numbers and we go with them. But no, we do not get a 25% loss on our transformers.

As I understand it, what that means is they expect, say, $65,000 worth of electricity is going to get lost in the form of heat over the lifetime of these transformers. Yeah, 30-plus years. And what is the life of these transformers?

So most of them, I think, are around that 30-year mark, kind of averaging right in there.

How many do we have? In the whole system?

Yeah. So you've got to put me on the spot. I want to say that we have like 800 transformers out in the system. Don't quote me on that. I will get that number for you.

This is my first year, but is this a normal thing, $150,000 a year for transformers every year? Say that one more time. Is this a normal thing then? Yeah, absolutely.

So it's been a year or two since we've got this. This is a little bit larger bid package, but yeah, every year we usually buy some.

How do you know which ones need to be replaced, Shane?

So we have our AMI system and our smart health map. It actually can tell us loads and stuff. And so now everything's so smart, we can really kind of pull up a map and it can show us which transformers are overloaded, which ones are underloaded. They're running all kinds of tests all the time to just look for efficiency. If there's anything that's out of whack, we can go in and look at it. Over the last couple years since we got our AMI system up and going, I think that's made life a lot easier on our electric department on really pinpointing those issues before they become a big issue where we got outages and things like that.

Older transformers have lower efficiency. We'll lose more electricity and maybe overheat. Right. Okay.

And I'd just add, correct me if I'm wrong, Shane, this is also for growth too. Absolutely.

This is for potential growth. So like that blue stem that's out there, this is transformers to build that. This is looking at different things like the Munger property out there is getting that out there developed and having transformers out there. And then also just kind of restocking some of our supplies in case things do go bad. Some of these larger ones can have larger lead times sometimes. Like this one's 12 to 13 weeks. We've seen lead times in the past that were years. And so having them on stock is important in case something goes down. We can get it fixed right now instead of having to wait. Very good. Yes, Kerry.

Shane, how many are we getting?

There's 16 of them.

Any other electricity guys here? Did you have a question, Mike?

I was glad to see the 12 to 13 weeks, because since I've been on the council, starting in 2022, it's gone down from two years or more.

I think the last time I was in front of you, we were at like 84 weeks. It has gotten supplies have come back around.

Yes, I'm very glad to see that.

Any other questions for Shane regarding these transformers? I would entertain a motion to award the bid to Resco for $146,959. So moved. Is there a second? Second. All in favor of awarding this bid, indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. That is approved. Thank you. Thank you, Shane. You're leaving before the city manager's report? Okay, very good. It's over to you, John.

Thanks, Shane, for your support. Just a couple of different items for mayor and council here. The next meeting is on Tuesday, September 8th, with the way that August is structured in the Labor Day holiday on Monday, September 7th. The city office is closed on Labor Day. The next meeting is on Tuesday, September 8th. Before that meeting, our Planning and Zoning Commission meets on Monday, August 31st at 5.30 p.m. They have two basic items on their agenda. One is a conditional use permit for 426 East Cherry Street. That's the former Stewart Oil property. over there in East Cherry. And then they will be continuing their discussion on the ordinances related to data centers. So those are the items that we know of right now for the Planning and Zoning Commission on Monday, August 31st. And then our Human Relations Commission is set to meet at 5.15 p.m. on Thursday, September 3rd. That's in the Paul Conference Room here at City Hall. A couple reminders on street closures. This coming Friday is USD's move-in day. So Rose Street from Kyle Village North to Dakota Dome, that one closes at 5 a.m. and that lasts until 4 p.m. on Friday, August 21st. And then North Plum Street from East Cherry Street to Highway 50, that closure is from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. to help facilitate the traffic related to move into the north complex. So watch for some additional traffic in the community this coming Friday the 21st. Just a reminder, the last two Thursdays on the plats are coming up. We didn't have it last week with the fair. So August 20th and 27th. The street closure is from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. to allow for the setup and the teardown. And it is Main Street as it abuts the Platts east through the Prospect Street intersection. Prospect Street south, excuse me, Prospect Street for one half block north of West Main and then Market Street as it abuts the Platts. So those two sections. for the balance of this year coming up. We do have several open board or commission seats. One, I'll go through the list here, Human Relations Commission. That is a one year term for our post-secondary student. So that term began in May and would go until next May. We have not had any applicants for that. But you do need to be a post-secondary student to fill that slot. Business Improvement District number one, that is the board that works with the $2 per night per occupied hotel fee. We do have a three-year term available on that board. That seat is for either an owner or manager of a lodging property within the district here in the community. That one's been a little bit tougher to fill. And then the Vermilion Housing Authority, they do have one five-year term that remains available. There are no requirements on that other than you do need to live, I believe, just within Clay County. I think you can definitely within, you know what, you have to live within the city to serve in that role. So we do have one five-year term on the Vermilion Housing Authority available. For any board or commission openings, there's an expression of interest form that we ask applicants to fill out that goes to city council to help make that appointment. So those are available on the city's website. You can get them here at City Hall and submit those to City Hall for the city council to consider. Then coming up in September and October, we are going to have regular seats on bid number one, the hotel one. Bid number two, which is our downtown district, and then also the tree board. So there will be more opportunities to serve. And just a reminder, the mausoleums at the Bluff Hughes Cemetery, they've been nominated for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places. The State Historical Society Board of Trustees will be considering this nomination on Friday, September 11th, at their meeting in Sioux Falls. If anybody has any comments, please submit those to the city through this Friday the 21st so we can forward those on to the state. The nomination is available through the city's website. And then finally included in the city council packet was one raffle notification. The Vermilion Rotary Club is selling their Monday night football books. Basically the final digits in the score of each team. I won't say anything about Vikings Packers playing and what that score might be, but hypothetically... Whatever the last digit in the score of any game on a Monday night, that's used to determine the winning book number for that week. The cost of the book is $25 for the season. The winner each week receives $50. The money which doesn't go to the winners goes to Rotary to help with their charitable work in the community. That's all I have, Mayor.

Thank you. Any questions on any of those items for John? I did have one question. So how do we find the grad student to be on the Human Relations Commission? How do we find them?

Is it posted or do we reach out to the grad school office? It's worked different ways. Over the years, the commission was created in 2018. Sometimes it has been maybe the student who's going off suggested to some friends of theirs to apply. We can certainly reach out maybe to the Student Government Association and see if they might be able to help get the word out.

The grad students come in and they're not necessarily plugged in. Oh, sorry, Gary.

I have a suggestion. They teach human relations courses in the School of Education. We could contact the School of Education, have them make a recommendation through their professors.

Thank you. Yeah, that makes sense. Thank you. Just wanted to help out. All right. Any other items for the good of the order? If not, I would entertain a motion to adjourn. Second. All in favor of adjourning? Indicate. All opposed? Nay.

Sorry about that. Although we just found out we don't need...