City Council - Regular Meeting

Call the meeting to order, roll call.

Mayor Reece.

Here.

Council Member Osk.

Here.

Nelson. Here. Gilbertson.

Here.

Gardner.

Here.

Fagerle. Here. Davis. Here. Enschuldis. Here. Council Member Butterfield is excused. So eight present, one excused.

Please stand for the pledge.

Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make a motion for an amended agenda and remove item nine E. Second.

We got a motion and a second to remove nine E. Discussion? Roll call.

I'll just briefly clarify, my intention in my motion was to move the full agenda minus nine E. Is that? Yes.

So to clarify, you're approving the agenda with the exception of 9E?

That's correct.

Thank you. Council Member Osk?

Aye.

Gilbertson?

Aye.

Davis? Aye. Baggerly?

Aye.

Schuldes?

Aye.

Nelson?

Aye.

And Gardner?

Aye.

Seven ayes, zero noes.

I'm sorry. Motion carries. Next is the consent items. Vernet?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Council members, tonight for your approval, I have the city council minutes of July 6th, 2026, the Wilmer municipal utilities commission minutes of July 13th, 2026 as a draft, the planning commission minutes of June 17th, 2026, and the accounts payable report of July 2nd, 2026 to July 15th, 2026. And for your information, I have the director's report, the finance report through June 30th of 2026, and the Wilmer Municipal Financial Report of May 2026.

I'd offer a motion to approve the consent agenda. Second.

We got a motion and a second. Discussion?

We didn't get the accounts payable report in our packet.

Mr. Mayor, if I may. Yes. Director Odins, would that be something that we can table until the next meeting and consider it after we can review it?

Thank you for the question. I would prefer not to, just so we can keep the timeliness of the payments to our vendors if possible. I can get these to you emailed right now if you'd like to table them for a moment and come back to them. Or do you need some time to review them?

I'd suggest we table them and come back to it maybe later on the agenda.

You wanna do that? Yes, okay, we'll do that. We'll come back to it before we close.

And I have a motion. So do we need to pull that then from there?

Yeah.

I make a motion to approve the consent agenda with the exception of section F. No, section D. The exception of D. If Council Member Gardner is already pulling that, then I think.

Oh, is that what you did? Yeah, because there's a motion and a second on the table already. That's a good question.

So Council Member Osk, would you like to amend your motion?

Yes. With the exception of D, we'll approve the consent agenda with the exception of D. And Council Member Schildes, do you concur?

Okay. So the amended motion is to accept the consent agenda or approve the consent agenda with the exception of line item D, which will be tabled for a later discussion.

We have a motion on that. All right, roll call.

Council Member Oss.

Aye.

Nelson. Aye. Davis. Aye. Gilbertson.

Aye.

Baggerly. Aye. Gardner. Aye. Enscheldis.

Aye.

Seven ayes, zero noes.

Motion carries. Next is approve the consent agenda items.

We just did that.

We just did that. Items removed from consent agenda. None. Open forum. Did we have anybody?

No one.

Okay. Regular business. Kandahar County Economic Development. KEC Director Sherry Wagner. Hi, Sherry.

Hello, thank you so much for giving me the time, Mr. Mayor and council members. I just wanted to give an update on what KCED has been doing regarding the Uptown Mall investigation process. So a couple of weeks ago, we asked our joint powers board to give us permission to investigate options for the Uptown Mall, to give us permission to apply for a grant and to give us permission to speak with and potentially negotiate a possible price of the mall with the owner of the mall. And our joint powers board did that. So in these last couple of weeks, we have been doing due diligence, speaking with Soil and Water from Kandiyohi County, Minnesota Deed Brownfield Grant, as well as an additional grant for re-urbanization of property. We met with the fire department. We met with the city planning. We met with city administration. We've met with the county members. We opened up four days for community comment on it. We've talked to investors. We've talked to other people that were interested in coming into the mall. We've talked to agencies that were interested in what possibilities could come from the mall. And we talked to somebody who was interested in just buying the mall outright on their own. So lots of conversation has happened over the last, oh, 45 days. So I did this very old school for you because we were hoping to have hard numbers tonight. However, what we're doing at the mall is just a very big process. And so we asked for bids for the replacement of the parking lot, for the roof, for HVAC, and for mechanicals. And as you can imagine, that is a very extensive bid process, so they were not able to get it completed in time for these numbers tonight. So in lieu of having that, I provided you with a document. And to give you some orientation, if you put the pink towards the top and all these towards the bottom, you'll be looking at it with first street to your left and fifth to your right. And I'm just going to walk you through this map a little bit. The black line around the perimeter is the actual property of the mall. There seems to be some people who don't understand what part is actually owned. And so that very top section is privately owned. That is attached to the mall and it has been sectioned off. They do have a small section of the parking lot to the right of their building and then the parking lot all the way to the left of their property line. And then coming down through the mall, it stagnates and it does the entries from First Street. And then coming down, going around individual properties. So everything that's in the pink is privately owned. The different properties that you see are the squares that are in purple are suggested possibles for sectioning off, parceling these differently and being able to sell those properties. Right away, early in the conversation we met with planning here in the city, because we understood that initially they didn't want to break off parcels and it was because they didn't want to just break it off without a comprehensive plan. So we talked to them about all the different pieces that we were looking at here and they said that with a comprehensive plan they would definitely entertain the conversations about parceling part of this property down. And so that's what's represented here. None of this is confirmed. If you look at the JC Penney's block, you'll see that that's highlighted in purple as well. That would be a potential request for sectioning that off and allowing that to be privately owned, as well as the bottom, referred to as the Kmart box, is another section that could be the way that it's constructed, parceled off and individually owned. As you're looking at this coming off of First Street, you'll see some little green dots. Here's the vision that we have with soil and water. Currently, you can drive across that parking lot in any direction that you want. And part of the reason that it's so peppered with potholes is because parking lots are made with a smaller, thinner base than we're Actual travel is supposed to happen and because they drive across the parking lot it continues to vibrate There's no foundation under there. It's a swamp underneath and there's no solid foundation. So that constant moving is what's creating the potholes so one of the main priorities was to control the tram the way that people travel across that parking lot and So if you look at coming in off of First Street, we have three different areas that have green lines. So if you come across and you're turning in, can you imagine pulling into a boulevard of trees versus just a big wide expanse of asphalt? This will allow the control of the traffic flow. It'll be a beautification coming into the mall. And using the rainwater that's collected off of the roofs before it hits the asphalt, which picks up the oils and salts, those would be utilized through the design of soil and water to keep all of those growing. Then you'll notice some little orange dots all along the blue line. Those would be natural grass barriers rather than concrete barriers to also help control where parking is and keeping a flow of traffic. And then let's talk about the blue line that borders the whole building. That is the required fire lane from the fire department. And so we worked with them to determine exactly which entrances would require to be maintained and how close to the building they needed to be for the fire lane. The biggest change in this is, again, if you look to the left side of the building, by the white roof, you'll see a little square. And on this rendering, it's hard to tell, but it's a cistern. And that's where all the roof water would be collected. And from that cistern, then it would be sent out underground to the trees and to the water. And if there was additional waters available, then they would be time released all the way up to the top right corner where the water goes out now and goes into the river or the creek. One of the problems that we have right now is when there's rainwater coming off of the mall, there's also rainwater coming all over Wellmer. And that's where we start getting that back up of the flooding. And by being able to control the water here that has no place to go, we put it in the cistern and we would timely let it out so it would keep the water flowing down and not backing back up and creating more flooding issues in Wellmer. My favorite part of this is if we switch over to the right side, which is the Fifth Avenue side, you'll see green squares. The idea here is to remove a considerable amount of the asphalt and put that into green space. And that green space could be pet park, an adult park, a kid's park, a community garden, a community orchard. And all of this would also help retain the water and not having it just do a runoff. That part of the parking lot is about a 4% drop from the building and so the water naturally goes that direction currently. We would want to make sure that we're being very mindful of the vendors that are in the mall. Construction is difficult when you're trying to run a business, and currently that mall is about 55% unoccupied. So if KCED were to move forward on this, we would want to make sure that we were being very mindful of the businesses that are in place, and doing everything that we could do to make sure that they maintain and stay in business during this time. And the time frame that we're looking at is about two years. We think that the two-year soil and water and the two-year brownfield grants, we would be able to work with the agencies, so we would need to purchase the property, work with the agencies, make the adjustments needed to beautify the entire building, but do the structural changes such as the HVAC, the parking lot, the roof, and the mechanicals. And then our intent would be to sell that back to local investors, and so it would keep it in the city. The other thing that we want to do is not do this on the taxpayer's back. So we are not asking for tax abatement. We are not asking for any additional taxation to make this happen. We've met with a bonding council to look what our options are there. If any part of this building was sold off to a nonprofit or to a government agency, we would be able to use tax exempt bonding for that portion and then regular taxed bonding for the balance of that. We would also try to do a two-track bond, which means half of it would be interest only with a balloon payment at the end, and the other half would be interest in principle during the life of the bond. What that does is allows us to mitigate any additional expenses that we weren't incurring, or if somebody of one of the tenants wanted to leave the building because their lease ended, we wouldn't be cash flowing in a loss because we would only be doing part of it in interest and the balloon at the end when the building is sold. So again, being mindful of how we would financially control this unknown scenario. We have met with many of the tenants that came to our open house. We have not reached out to them per being respectful of the owners of the mall and addressed their concerns. They wanted to make sure that their leases weren't going to go up, that we weren't going to close down the mall, what we would do to support them. And so we had those conversations. I feel like everybody left much more comfortable and knew that there were additional options and supports that would be provided to them. million-dollar question on this is does it cash flow and we were able to get the confidential information from the broker and so we've been going through that information and then in addition to that he did finally give us permission to get four local vendors to go up and give us the bids that we're waiting for so as soon as we have that information we'll be able to see if this idea is actually a cash flow situation that makes sense. The concern we have is if this doesn't fit for KCE to do this, there's a couple of scenarios. The owner maintains the property and continues to not invest in it, and the property will continue to deteriorate, in which case the city will have to make a decision on if there's an enforcement that you want to make on it. One of the comments was, well, if they did an enforcement, would he just quit paying his property taxes? And that's a possibility. Nobody knows if he would do that or not, but it is $207,000 that's in the annual budget for his property taxes. he could walk away from it, and then it would default to the bank, in which case it would probably come back and be an issue with the city, and again we would lose the $270,000 in the property taxes. We don't have a hard bid on it, but we've had conversation. If that mall needed to be taken down and all the asphalt removed, We're talking about very high double digit million dollars to make that happen. And so there's not a really good answer here. KCED has not owned property in the past. It was never our intention. We don't want to be landlords. We don't want to own a mall. But what we do want to do is we want to take an asset in our community and we want to bring it back to a place that we can start doing some economic development again. Because right now we don't feel like we could attract any businesses into that property. And if the renters continue to decline, that property is not going to stay something that that owner is going to want to keep because it's not going to cash flow for them either. So we're just doing a lot of investigation. No commitments have been made anywhere. And all we're trying to do is look at all the possible options and meet with all the different players to get the best possible scenario and outcome for Wellmer. What questions can I answer?

Thank you for the explanation. That was very, very important. My concern is it's not just our uptown mall. It's malls everywhere that are struggling and failing. What assurances, I can't give assurances, but how will you make this work out? How are you going to attract business into the mall when malls everywhere are struggling?

So we wouldn't necessarily be looking at this as coming back as a retail mall. We'd be looking at this as commercial space. And we have been doing research of the revamping of other malls and what they've done with them. Some of them have successfully brought them back to retail. Others have completely changed the purpose of the space, anywhere from memory loss centers, housing facilities, just industrial space. So there's no right answer for this. There is no assurances. But our intent would not be to try to preserve this as a retail mall, because you're right, that is something that's a dying phase. Justin?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Two questions. First of all, I had seen an allegation on social media, and everything we see on social media is always true. But the allegation was that the current owners owe about $100,000 in back taxes. Do you know if that's accurate or not?

To the best of my knowledge, they are current. That's what I thought as well.

Okay. Next question, then. My understanding is this is something that KCED does not look to own and operate in the future as landlords. So five years from now, your vision for this would be that this has been sold off to local investors. You've already talked about that it shouldn't cost taxpayers any money. Yes. Thank you.

We would need to hire a manager to make sure that the vendors that are in there are taken care of. We would also want to encourage the community into the space as much as possible by providing meeting space, possibly incubator space for smaller businesses to support those that are already in there.

Steve. Mr. Mayor, thanks for coming, Cherie. I had the pleasure to sit on one of your information sessions over at KCED, and you made two points during that session that I was hoping you could say again tonight. One was, HOW DOES THE MATCHING FUNDS FOR ANY POTENTIAL GRANTS WORK? I THOUGHT THAT POINT WAS VERY INTERESTING. AND THEN MY SECOND POINT WAS, AND I LOST IT BECAUSE I ASKED THE FIRST ONE. ANSWER THAT. I'LL ANSWER THIS ONE FIRST. I'LL COME BACK WITH THE SECOND ONE.

So these grants that we're looking at do have matching funds to them. Soil and water is 10%. The brownfield is 50%. And the way that we would handle that is we've been talking to local investors. And as we're moving forward on this, we would want to know that we have investors in place to purchase the small when we have it revitalized. And so we would be asking them, and they have had part of this discussion, to invest now into the matching funds portion. so that they already have cash and skin in the game before we even get to the point of them buying them all. And so that gives us some assurances, if there are any, that they are committed to the project.

My second point, I remembered it, senior moment. Somebody kept saying that if this was such a good deal, Why isn't private equity doing it?

Because it's not a good deal.

Thank you.

This is not a good deal for anybody. This is a bad situation that we are trying to find a solution for. It's a decaying property. It was built on a marsh. It's got millions of dollars of repairs that need to be done. We're in malls that are failing. This is not a good deal. What we are trying to do is look at the best of the worst. So if you try to tear it down and rehab the space, it's multi, multi, multi millions of dollars. If the owner maintained it and let it degrade, at some point in time, the city will have to take over. If KCDE is able to successfully come in with this plan, we'll be able to make the investment at a lower rate Move it on and one of the beauties on this system is if in fact we are able to sell off these purple properties It makes the maintenance of these properties More tangible in the future because one person isn't trying to cover that entire parking lot or that entire roof anymore So by breaking it up it makes it so that it can be maintained much easier Thank you

THANK YOU, MAYOR. THANK YOU FOR PRESENTING THIS. THIS IS ONE OF THE MAJOR MOST COMMENTED ITEMS THAT COMES BEFORE US, WHICH WE TYPICALLY SAY WE HAVE NO POWER TO CHANGE. I'M CURIOUS WHAT THE AVERAGE LENGTH OF TERM FOR THE CURRENT 45% OF THE TENANTS THAT ARE OCCUPYING THAT BUILDING. SURE. ARE THEY 10-YEAR LEASES, 20-YEAR LEASES? WHAT ARE THEY?

THEY ARE NOT. OVER 50% OF THEM EXPIRE THIS YEAR. And that's where we would have to be able to speak with the tenants and get commitments and get new leases. But over 50% of them are expiring in 2026. Okay.

And are those, I guess, are those the main major anchor tank? Have they been year-to-year leases, I guess, is my question.

No, they've been multi-year leases. Okay. They're just in a rotation of their expiration.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. No questions, but I did just want to say thank you for coming to us with a proactive solution to what I think, as Councilmember Gilbertson just said, like we all recognize and throughout the community we recognize as a problem. It's right in the heart of downtown. I appreciate you admitting that there's no good situation. It's just the best of the worst, but rather than waiting for the worst to happen and Early on in your time as director, you've tackled a pretty big challenge and you've been proactive about thinking about how we can make the best opportunity out of this and I just wanna say that I deeply appreciate your leadership at KCED and thank you for bringing this to us.

I appreciate it and I appreciate you taking the time to hear what we're up to. Again, no commitments at this point at all. We're just doing our exploration. We cannot use the word due diligence because in the real estate world, that means something else.

Okay, well, thank you, Cherie.

Thank you for your time.

Next is a consideration of awarding sale of general obligation tax abatement utility bonds. I'm going to call on Chris Hogan from Baker Tilly and Tom.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor and members of the council. This evening, for your consideration, would be an award of bids for our 2026B bonds, and that would be to finance our 2026 street projects, our Lakeland bike path, as well as our wastewater treatment plant, CIP, and their portion of the street projects. This morning, we did receive bids, had a good showing at 1030. very favorable for the city. And with me tonight is Chris Hogan, director from Baker Tilly, to go through in more detail the bond sale. And just a point of clarification, included in your packet is a resolution. There will be or there is a clean version of the resolution following the bond sale that took place this morning. So when it comes time to sign it, there's a clean copy for you to sign later. Thanks, Tom.

Thank you, Mayor and members of the council. I'm Chris Hogan. I'm a director of Baker Tilly. I serve the city as their municipal advisor. Like Tom said, the city sold bonds this morning at 10.30. They sold their general obligation improvement, abatement, and utility bonds series 2026B.

Chris, Chris, would you use the microphone, please?

Oh, sure. Okay. Do you want me to start over? So the purpose of those bonds are the proceeds of the bonds, like Tom said, is to finance improvement of various street improvement projects, the Lakeland bike path project and various wastewater utility improvements and to the cost of issuance. The repayment of the terms were set up by a, by the payment by the projects. They had the improvement bonds that are paid over 15 years. Those are paid with assessments and tax levy dollars. The utility revenue bonds that are financing the wastewater utility improvements are paid over 15 years. And the abatement bonds are structured and paid over 10 years. And again, the bonds are gonna be repaid. They're a general obligation, the full faith and credit of the city, and they're paid to special assessments, filed against benefited properties, tax abatement revenue, and waste treatment plant fund revenues and tax levies. And then they are set up to have optional call in 10 years, so meaning in 10 years, if the interest rate environment is favorable, you can refinance those bonds and get them at a lower rate. or perhaps you could call them at that time if you had available funds. So it's a good option to have. For as far as the market, when we kind of started this process structuring the bonds, in early June we had estimated that the true interest cost was gonna be at 4.0736. Last week, we always update our pricing estimate close to the bond sales. So Thursday and Friday of last week, we looked at the current market rate environment, and our estimate was 3.6596, which was pretty close to the actual true interest cost today. The winning bid had a 3.6818. And again, the bonds are awarded based on the true interest cost. So this is the results of the bond sale. There are six bidders, and these are from the lowest true interest cost to the highest. For a competitive market sale like this, you can see the benefit and how close these, the benefit of a competitive sale is you can see that when you look at all these bids, they're very competitive. You can see how close they are. They're very close, even from the lowest to the highest is only nine basis points. This is just a snapshot of the bond pricing. Coupons, the way bonds have been pricing for a number of years, is the coupons are higher than the yields, so that generates the premium. Premium is bond proceeds, so you can use that to finance the projects, which thereby reduces the bond issue size, and we did reduce the bond issue by $250,000-ish. With the 503819 was the premium. This is just a snapshot of a bond buyer index. This is the indices that we frequently look at when we're looking at bond pricing. This is a five-year. The one to pay attention to is the black, although they kind of go hand in hand. That is representative of a AA general obligation index. So you can see, it's kind of hard to see, but on the far right, since we started this process, really interest rates have not moved much at all in the last two months. So kind of where we started with this process is kind of where we ended. With any competitive market bond sale, you get the bonds rated, and the reason is, you know, that you do that, it measures the city's financial strength and the ability to repay the bonds. It serves as an independent third-party assessment. It supplements investors' due diligence, and of course, the stronger the rating, the lower the interest cost. The bonds did receive a rating of AA3. Because the city was in the market not that long ago, we didn't actually have to go through a full rating process this time, so we didn't have to do that. We just had some updated questions that Tom and the finance group answered, and then we had the rating and affirmed the AA3 rating on the city's existing general obligation debt. So given the bids today, I would recommend that the city approve the resolution awarding the $7,525,000 to Navigation Improvement, Abatement, and Utility Bonds Series 2026B to TD Financial Products with a true interest cost of 3.6818. And with that, I'm happy to take any questions.

Questions from the council.

Motion?

So moved.

Second.

We got a motion and a second. Any further discussion? If not, roll call.

Council Member Davis.

Aye.

Baggerly.

Aye.

Gardner.

Aye.

Gilbertson.

Aye.

Schuldes.

Aye.

Nelson. Aye. And Osk.

Aye.

Seven ayes, zero noes.

Thank you, Chris.

Thank you so much.

That motion passes. Next, call for the 2026 assessment hearing and a call on Jared Volke, our city engineer.

Evening, Mayor and Council. This item is related to the 2020 20s I'm gonna make sure I get the right 2026 assessment hearing This would be the final assessment hearing for the improvements that are being constructed this summer Now we've identified a date of August 17th at 6.30 p.m. for that final assessment hearing. There is a resolution in your packet this evening calling for that hearing, and then the appropriate notices per Minnesota State Statute, Chapter 429 will be distributed to all the affected properties. So with that, Mayor and Council, I'll answer any questions that you might have.

Questions or motion?

I'll make that motion, Mr. Mayor.

Second. A motion and a second. Discussion? Justin.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Vogue, every year when we come up with this, I think we're always finding ways that we can better communicate with residents and make sure that they're getting the necessary information. Can you walk us through maybe what's already been done for residents that will be applicable for this hearing and what will be done before August? Yeah, so

what's been done is last year we had the improvement hearing at that time Council asked us to send preliminary estimated assessments over to all the property owners so they've had that information for 12 plus months because that was one of the comments that Council heard was that the residents and property owners didn't have adequate time to prepare for that so they have their estimated assessments What will be done moving forward is there's a specific, very specific language with a form that needs to be sent out indicating that there will be a public hearing where they would have an opportunity to come and voice their concerns related specifically to the assessments. So that is what would occur on the 17th.

Thank you. Any other questions? Hearing none, roll call.

Council Member Childers.

Aye.

Baggerly.

Aye.

Gardner.

Aye.

Osk. Aye. Gilbertson.

Aye.

Davis. Aye. And Nelson.

Aye.

Seven ayes, zero noes.

That motion carries. Next is the preliminary engineering report 2027. I'll call on Jared.

Yeah, good evening, Mary Council. As authorized, the preliminary engineering report for the 2027 improvements projects has been completed. The next step in that process is to hold the improvement hearing associated with those improvements. There is a resolution in your packet this evening, a draft notice of public hearing. I do have a presentation that I will go through to give council an idea of what all the projects are that are being discussed for the 2027 improvements. I'll do that now and then I'd be happy to answer any questions prior to adoption of that resolution. Really, we have three project types next year. It is reconstruction, which is planned for 16th Street. We have some mill and overlay improvements, which we'll get into the map that will better illustrate these, but ultimately it's Chott Avenue from Julie to Lakeland Drive, 22nd Street from 19th Avenue Southwest to Wilmer Avenue, and then 15th Avenue Southwest from 22nd to 15th. And then finally, the last type of project that we'll have are 2027 stormwater capital improvement projects. There's two project areas that have been identified for that. That is Voss Park and some hydrodynamic separators at the intersection of Ella and Business 71. And I'll get into a few more details of those as we go through the presentation. This map ultimately illustrates the areas of town, the blue being the mill and overlay areas, the green being stormwater ponds, and then the purple being the street reconstruction that is contemplated for 2027. So some of the project considerations as we evaluate whether or not a street is a reconstruct, a mill or an overlay, things of that nature, the sanitary sewer, definitely pipe materials, the existence of root intrusions, infiltration through manhole structures, which is relatively common with these older sections of our sanitary sewer, Water main cast iron I will note that 16th Street has been identified as a priority by Wilmer municipal utilities for a number of years And if you recall it was on it was in a previous report a few years ago, but it's been delayed as a result of Needing to do so as it relates to financing so storm sewer similar to the sanitary sewer, but also again clay pipe materials blocking mortar manholes and then the streets Once the streets have passed a certain level of service, mill and overlay is no longer feasible because simply the potholes will continue to come back, cracks will reflect through, and it won't provide a very long, useful life. So difference between reconstruction and overlay areas, just wanted to call attention to that. Total reconstruction or reconstructions would be a total reconstruction on the pavement and the utilities beneath them, along with concrete, curb and gutter. As part of this project, sidewalk is currently proposed to be replaced where it exists right now. So no new sidewalks, no new trails are being discussed at this time along that corridor. Overlay areas, basically it's just a removal of the top two to three inches of pavement that gets ground out. There are some concrete repairs that would be completed if there are areas where structurally deficient concrete exists, and then repairs that would be curb and gutter or sidewalk, and then the material is replaced from where it was milled. 16th Street, I just wanted to call a council's attention. I know over the last couple of years there's been discussions related to street wits and Sometimes that that yields a lot of discussion but what I wanted to point out here is the The picture on the left identifies the existing street widths of 16th Street. So the north end is currently 32 feet wide, the south end is 40 feet wide. What's being proposed is 36 feet in width, which means that the south end would become a little bit more narrow, the north end would be a little wider. That would be a consistent roadway section through the entire corridor, which will allow parking on both sides of the street. North side of the improvement, as it exists currently, only accommodates one side parking. South side accommodates two. That becomes confusing for drivers as they travel through the corridor, and this will provide consistency. Okay, ask a quick question.

Yeah. Do you take it from both sides, or do you take it from Minnegasco Park?

Both sides ideally what we try to do is Center the streets in the right-of-way and you may recall from a previous council meeting the reason we do that is we try to preserve as many trees as possible as part of this and typically a Little bit on both ends will help us accommodate that Drainage and utility improvements New sanitary sewer pipes, sewer services and water services will be extended from the street out to the property lines. Water main within this project area ranges in size from eight to 12 inches. There'll be new hydrants, valves, I mentioned the water services, and then storm sewer would be new pipes, precast concrete manholes, and then new curb and gutter for the storm sewer. Pond improvements, we've discussed these in the past, however, the Voss Park pond improvements, that's an improvement that's been identified on the city's stormwater capital improvement plan for a number of years. As part, you'll see the orange lines that extend from that orange dot, if you will, over to Gorton Avenue as part of the Gorton Avenue improvement project. This project, since it was on the CIP, was anticipated, and the pipes within Gorton Avenue have been set up to accommodate that improvement. So those are in place, and no additional disturbance to Gorton Avenue will be needed as a result of that. The other pond, part of the 16th stream project will be completed as part of the same construction documents, is the Minnegasco Park Pond. Staff has had conversations with Centerpoint Energy regarding that property, and they're currently in process of developing an agreement for us to review as it relates to that improvement. They have verbally given the City of Willmar the go-ahead to move forward with that improvement, indicating that they're confident that an agreement can be reached for that. And then the final stormwater improvement this evening that I'll touch on are the hydrodynamic separators, also known as grit chambers, that are proposed at the intersection of Ella and First Street. Ultimately, and you can probably see it in that aerial photo there, where the Pipe discharges both on the north side of Ella and the east side of business 71 what happens is all the sediment that's collected from that intersection enters the catch basins, flows out the flared end section, and is deposited into the grass. That makes maintenance or the removal of that sediment extremely difficult for staff. So these will significantly improve the efficiency and the water quality along the lake because staff will be able to remove that sediment with... by vacuuming rather than trying to get equipment on those steep slopes along that area. So they'll be able to access it from the traveled roadway, which will definitely be efficient and improve the water quality in that area. Overlay improvements, we've seen the overall map, but this is basically just focused in on the overlays improved for this year. Again, Industrial Drive, 22nd, 15th, and then Trot. typical section for a mill and overlay and this again alludes to the fact that two to three inches of pavement will be removed how do we decide which which streets get two inches which streets get three inches the higher volume routes are the ones that will have three inches removed and The other, the only street that will have two inches meld is 15th Avenue Southwest. All the remaining will have three inches based on our observations on the field as part of this report. Project costs. These are simply broken down by the project. You'll note that 16th Street projects approximately 3.2 million, 27 million overlay improvements approximately 2.35, and then the stormwater improvements just shy of a million dollars. This table further breaks down based on category of the cost, whether it be street reconstruction, storm sewer, sanitary sewer, water main, the overlay, and then again the stormwater improvements. This chart basically breaks them down by each project. And first project there being 16th Street, the second one being the mill and overlay improvements, and then the final column there, Project C, the stormwater improvements. So the funding source is very similar to other projects that have been created over or have been completed over the years. We're anticipating assessments, state aid participation, Willmar Municipal Utilities participation, wastewater funds, local options, sales tax, and then city funding. This is ultimately a breakdown of those anticipated funding sources. You'll see the city costs, the assessments, state aid participation, utilities commission, and then wastewater as well as lost. Assessments, this is just a range, and this range will be provided to the... The property owners, when they attend the open house and both the public hearing, street reconstruction typically ranges, we're estimating it will range from $70 to $74 a foot. Sanitary sewer, 18 to 21. Sanitary sewer services, $950 to $1,100 per each. Water main, between $22 and $25 a foot. The water services, $1,200 to $1,300. Storm sewer, $15 to $18. And then finally, the overlays are assessed on a per lot basis based on the classification of small, medium, and large. Small lots, approximately $3,700. Large lots, $7,500. Total anticipated assessments associated with the 2027 improvements is $1.656 million. Preliminary project schedule. You can see we're here this evening presenting the report. We're planning to hold an open house on September 3rd, 2026. What the resolution in your packet this evening asks you to do is call for a public hearing for the improvement hearing on September 8th. And that would allow plans and specifications to be approved and advertisement to occur in February, which would allow us to open bids in March, award a contract in April, and begin construction in May. Very similar to the project schedule that we have this year. However, this is accelerated because that project schedule for 2026 was delayed. And with that, Mayor and Council, I'd be happy to entertain any questions that you might have. And as I mentioned, there is a resolution in your packet this evening for consideration, ultimately calling the improvement hearing for the September 8th, 2026 Council meeting.

Any questions?

Tom. A couple of questions. For the Voss Park, the map here shows a fairly significant area for this holding area. Is the park no longer in use where that orange area is or where they'll still be baseball fields there?

It is anticipated that a majority of that area will be used for stormwater retention Hasn't been obviously the final design hasn't been done which would identify that area specifically but based on the the preliminary stormwater CIP and the modeling that had done pre been done previously majority of that area will be encompassed by a pond and

It won't be stormwater retention. It's a stormwater detention pond.

I can confidently say that 16th Street will definitely be a detention pond. The Voss Park Pond may have water in it occasionally, similar to the way it does right now when it rains. The elevations... Elevations are difficult to get that to drain all the way from Voss Park into the outlet. So there may be water in that area.

Why is it hard to get it out of there?

Everything's so flat from the elevation of Voss Park right now all the way to the outlet.

Just south of the lake there, south and west, I guess.

Carl?

Just to kind of follow up on that, it's very rare that they can even get in there to mow it, let alone make it usable.

25 years ago, it was a baseball field and used all the time, and they didn't have any troubles with training. So I'm just curious why that's changed over the years. AND THEY CAN'T MOW IT ANY LONGER. AND SO SOMETHING HAS CHANGED, AND IT'S PROBABLY WITH ALL THE HOUSES THAT HAVE BUILT AND IT'S ALL FUNNELING TO THAT ONE SPOT IS MY GUESS, BUT IT DOES SEEM ODD TO ME THAT IT'S CHANGED OVER THE LAST 30 YEARS. I'M STARTING TO DATE MYSELF. AND I USED TO PLAY BASEBALL OUT THERE. BUT YEAH. IF THERE WAS ANOTHER, JUST LOOKING AT THE AMOUNT OF DOLLARS THAT ARE GOING TO BE GOING INTO THIS, IF THERE WAS ANOTHER STREET TO BE ADDED TO THIS THAT FIT WITHIN OUR BUDGETS, IS THERE ANOTHER ONE ON THE SLATE THAT WE WOULD BE ADDING TO IT OR NO? IF YOU WANTED TO GET A LITTLE BIT MORE AGGRESSIVE ON FIXING OUR ROADS HERE IN TOWN.

At this point, I'm not anticipating any additional capacity for that, but yes, the short answer to your question, there are a significant number of streets that definitely could be added to the improvement.

Anyone in particular?

We've looked at all kinds of them. It ultimately depends on the cost, right? I'm fitting within a targeted budget.

Any other questions? Steve.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Volge, does the retention pond at the park, at the 16th Street Park, does that do anything to help the property on the north side of Trot?

Yes, it will reduce the two 10 and 50-year flood elevations, because as you're well aware, that intersection floods consistently, even during small events. This will actually provide an opportunity for some of that water to be detained until it can drain throughout the system. Thank you. It won't eliminate it, but it'll improve it.

Justin and then Vicki.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Vogue and maybe Director Odins as well. I have yet to run into people who get excited about street assessments. But there's clearly a need to take care of our streets. And so when it comes to paying for them, I know the council over the years has looked at many things and we've yet to come up with anything better. But there was conversation at the council table not long ago about a wheelage tax. My understanding is that the state law is very clear that counties can do that and the state law might allow it for cities, but it's an outdated part of state law. Is that accurate? And do you guys remember those conversations in the past and where things might stand currently, if that would be something we'd want to look into?

So I'll take the first thing at that. I do recall those conversations, and I would definitely have to dust off those notes. I believe that we did hit a dead end with that wheelage tax as part of a municipality's ability to levy. But we can dust that off for council, and staff is consistently looking at ways to reduce those assessments and potentially other... other means of financing them because as costs continue to go higher, assessments continue to go higher. Yeah, it's a very difficult thing for all the property owners.

Right, and I think that's the real concern that we have as a council as well. But yeah, if there could be just maybe a report that could come to us from staff reminding us, because I vaguely have memories of this conversation, and I remember there being an investigation, and I just can't recall tonight where that ended.

The staff did check with the Department of Public Safety and the Department of Revenue. It was a dead-end conversation, I guess, at the end of the day. There is no good way to implement it. Both, more or less, were telling us to ask the other agency for implementation. So as of now, we can follow up with council with a more detailed report, but as of now, it would be, there is no implementation of that wheelage tax. First. Vicki.

I JUST NOTICED, SORRY, IN YOUR PRESENTATION, YOU WERE SAYING SEPTEMBER 8th, BUT OUR INFORMATION IN THE PACKET SAYS THE 7th, SEPTEMBER 7th.

YEAH, THAT WAS AN ERROR ON MY PART. SEPTEMBER 7th IS LABOR DAY, AND I'M CONFIDENT WE WON'T BE HERE, SO SEPTEMBER 8th IS THE NEXT REGULARLY SCHEDULED MEETING, AND YES, THANK YOU.

ANYONE ELSE? Mayor, following up on that wheelage tax conversation, I did investigate that fairly heavily with our city administrator, Leslie Bell, and she was, we can charge a wheelage tax, we just can't collect it. So, didn't make a lot of sense. So that was the issue that we were running into is how you'd transfer it from the Department of Safety back to the city.

Anything else? Otherwise, I'm looking for a motion.

It's all moved.

Second. We got a motion and a second. Discussion. Roll call.

Council Member Gilbertson.

Aye.

Davis. Aye. Gardner.

Aye.

Nelson. Aye. Baggerly.

Aye.

Osk.

Aye.

Enschildes.

Aye.

Seven ayes, zero noes.

Motion carries.

Thanks, council.

Next is F. He was told F is accepting in-kind donation of exterior painting on a city-owned building. Shane, you want to tell us about this? Yeah. I thought it was pretty interesting.

It was. Good evening, Mayor and members of the Council. So on Monday, July 6th, city staff became aware that a private contractor had accidentally painted the backside of Rack 8, which is our radio station building, and we immediately got in contact, staff immediately got in contact with the private contractor and they realized that they had made an error. They were instructed to paint the entirety of the alley. There was a miscommunication between the prime and the subcontractor on which buildings were included in that entirety of the alley. So the back of our building got a nice prime coat. And after it was primed, it was determined by staff that it would do more harm than good to remove that prime coat. So it was recommended that we move forward with finishing the paint job. And so the contractor graciously recommended perform the rest of the work at no cost to the city. And so I just was hoping to get a resolution that we accept that as a donation for in-kind work of the exterior painting of the back of the Rackgate building. Do I have a motion?

So moved. Second. Motion and a second. Discussion? Roll call.

ALSO MEMBER NELSON.

AYE. OSK. AYE.

GARDENER.

AYE.

GILBERTSON.

AYE.

SHOLDERS.

AYE.

DAVIS. AYE. AND FAGERLY.

AYE.

SEVEN AYES, ZERO NOES.

MOTION CARRIES. THANK YOU, CHAIR. THANK YOU. NEXT IS OUR CITY ADMINISTRATOR HIRING PROCESS. I'LL CALL ON HUMAN RESOURCES DIRECTOR, MELISSA GAMBRO.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. The first item I have before you tonight is a resolution to accept an amended version of the city administrator hiring process. You guys had approved this back on May 18th. In collaboration with the ad hoc team, we just needed to make some minor amendments to this. On page two under the recruitment timeline, there had been a fairly ambitious weekly timeline laid out there that just doesn't work with the city council schedule. So that's just been adjusted to steps as determined by you guys in terms of timing. And then under roles and responsibilities for the council, we just clarified the language a little bit on the decision making process that you guys have related to deciding on interviews and then making a final hiring determination. So I'm just looking for a resolution to approve this amended hiring process.

So moved. Second. Motion and a second to approve. Any discussion? Roll call.

Council Member Fagerly.

Aye.

Davis.

Aye.

Gilbertson.

Aye.

Soldes.

Aye.

Nelson. Aye.

Osk.

Aye. N. Gardner.

Aye.

Seven ayes, zero noes.

Motion carries. Next is a review of applicants for city administrator position. And once again, I'll call on Human Resources Director Alyssa Gamble.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So the city council received the 12 applicants that applied for the city administrator position for review. And what I am looking for tonight is some discussion regarding which candidates you would like to move forward for interview. And I will just remind the council, you received this already, but because of Minnesota data privacy laws, The candidate information is not public. So during this discussion, you guys will just refer to them by numbers and refrain from any identifying information such as their current place of employment, things like that until finalists have been determined.

Okay. So do we have a motion?

The motion would need to be which candidates you want to propose.

Yes, Tom.

MAYOR, AFTER REVIEWING THE APPLICANT SCORING, THERE WAS A CANDIDATE THAT LOOKED LIKE THEY SCORED QUITE WELL. BUT LOOKING, WHEN YOU CONSIDER THOSE FOLKS WHO SOMETIMES PULL OUT OF THE RACE THERE AT THE END, AND I WOULD SUGGEST THAT I'D LIKE TO MAKE A MOTION TO SELECT AT LEAST TWO CANDIDATES. NUMBER 10 AND NUMBER 1 TO BE INTERVIEWED BY THE CITY COUNCIL FOR THE CITY ADMINISTRATOR POSITION WITH THE HUMAN RESOURCES DIRECTOR TO MAKE ANY APPROPRIATE ARRANGEMENTS.

NEW SPEAKER WE GOT A MOTION. DO WE HAVE A SECOND? DO WE HAVE A SECOND?

NEW SPEAKER SECOND.

NEW SPEAKER OKAY. WE HAVE A SECOND. DISCUSSION. CARL?

NEW SPEAKER GIVEN THE WAY THE SCORING BREAKDOWN, DO WE NEED TO INTERVIEW SOMEBODY BESIDES APPLICANT 10?

IS THAT A QUESTION FOR ME?

YEAH, WELL, YES.

THIS IS MY PROFESSIONAL RECOMMENDATION. If there are other candidates that you're genuinely interested in, then I think you guys have an obligation to fully explore those and interview those. However, if you feel like you're just checking boxes and you're not genuinely interested in them, then it's not fair to put the candidates through that public process. So I would say the answer to that is whether or not you truly want to consider them and hear from them in an interview as part of your decision making or whether you've already made up your mind.

Steve.

Thanks, Mr. Mayor. I would amend Councilman Gilbertson's amendment to get to three applicants. I'd go applicants one, six, and ten. I am genuinely interested. I wanna know what applicants one, six, and 10 have to say. I would like us to do our due diligence in this process, and to me, that involves interviewing at least three of the 12 applicants.

I'll accept that as a friendly motion.

I'm okay with it. Second.

So we have the motion. for one, six, and 10. Any further discussion? Roll call.

Council Member Davis.

Aye.

Nelson.

Aye.

Gilbertson.

Aye.

Childers.

Aye.

Osk.

Aye.

Gardner. Aye. And Paggerly.

Aye.

Seven ayes, zero noes.

That motion carries. Thank you, Alyssa. Next is the accounts payable report.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the council. I believe that all of you should have received the accounts payable listing during the meeting. I would be Happy to stand for any questions regarding that, should there be any. Otherwise, I would seek approval for the accounts payable listing from July 2 through July 15, 2026.

Any questions?

Steve.

Maybe this isn't the right place to ask this question, but another place to ask it. At one point, we approved a change order for Hometown Fiber to be the advisor for WilmerConnect Phase 1 and their payments not to exceed $50,000 per month. and then not to exceed $400,000. That's correct, right? Who's monitoring that $50,000? Because by my math, if we approve this accounts payable, we're gonna pay them more than $50,000 in the month of May. They billed us for in excess of $50,000.

Thank you, Mr. Gardner, for the question. I do believe that has changed once the start of the construction. Mr. Box and our IT director, Mr. Johnson, have been following those invoices from Hometown Fiber throughout the construction process. We can get back to you on those specific, if you'd like me to pull those in the meantime, we sure can.

Oh, I would. Thank you very much.

Okay.

I don't know if the public's aware, but since it's in here, we're paying Hometown Fiber anywhere from $10,000 to $13,000 a week to be consultants for this Connect Fiber project. So I just want the public to be aware of that. And if we are going to pay them more than $50,000 a month, I want to know why. Because the project was approved, the change order was approved in March last year. And they're starting to bill us in May. They bill us over 50 grand.

Thomas, let me ask a question. Is that a moving target?

Mr. Mayor, I'd like to give... I'd like to... provide a better response tomorrow on this particular question so we don't mislead anybody or put any wrong information out there. I would like to follow up in writing from staff. Sure.

All right. We go on to announcements.

We had a motion to approve that finance report.

Oh, that's right. The accounts payable report. Oh, Audrey, I'm sorry.

That's all right. I couldn't open the Excel that you sent, so I'm okay for tonight, but is it possible that you can get that sent out to us earlier so that we can review it before we come to the meeting?

Yes, that is my goal. I apologize that it did not appear in your board packet tonight, and we will avoid that.

Okay, thank you.

Do we have a motion? No? We need a motion for the accounts payable report.

I will move to approve the accounts payable report.

Second.

Okay, we got a motion and a second. Discussion?

Can I offer an amendment to pull from the accounts payable report that we are approving the payments to Hometown Fiber? or are not, I am proposing in my amendment that we would not approve the expenses to Hometown Fiber until we get answers to your questions, Council Member Gardner.

Do I have a second?

I'll second that if that's what you're asking.

What's that?

Yeah. I'll second it. He's offering to amend Tom's, or excuse me, Carl's resolution. Is it my place to say I second that? If it is, I do second that.

Okay. Discussion? Audrey?

I'd just like to ask Mr. Owens what that does to... the normal arrangements with them.

Thank you. That will just delay the payment and they will be presented after the follow-up from staff. They'll be presented at the next council meeting for payment to Hometown Fiber.

Don't perceive that a problem with them?

I can't say. You don't care. I can't say.

Yeah, but I... Can I say something, Mr. Mayor? They clearly don't care. These bills go all the way back to May. So I don't have a problem waiting for two more weeks. If they can't bill on time, I'm more than okay with it.

Roll call.

Council Member Osk.

Aye.

Gardner.

Aye.

Nelson.

Aye.

Gilbertson.

Aye.

Childers.

Aye.

Davis.

Aye.

And Fagerle.

Aye.

Seven ayes, zero noes.

That motion carries. Next is announcements. Anybody?

I think we have to vote on the motion to approve the accounts payable report now. That was just an amendment that we passed.

I thought that was what we just did.

Just my amendment. Removing homeland, hometown. Thank you.

All right. So roll call on the motion itself.

Council Member Fagerle. Aye. Schuldes.

Aye.

Gilbertson.

Aye.

Gardner.

Aye.

Davis. Aye. Osk.

Aye.

And Nelson.

Aye.

Seven ayes, zero nos.

Motion carries. Now I can see announcements, right? Okay. I've been trying to get there.

All right, Justin. I have a little one for you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just want to say, Council Member Butterfield and I have been talking with staff and have expressed our concerns over flock cameras being used within the community. And Chief Holm, if you could maybe just address that a little bit and kind of give an update to the council of when that might come before us for a conversation at the council table.

I reached out to flock and want to see if I can get a representative to come out. And I haven't heard back. I just put that out the end of last week. So looking, maybe I can get them on the third or the 17th. So a little time just to get them to answer some of the questions that you might have.

Okay. Thank you. And thank you for being responsive to the questions and the concerns as well.

All right. Are we done? Motion to adjourn?

Move.

Second. We have a motion and a second. We're adjourned.