City Council - Regular Meeting

I would call the Wilmer City Council meeting to order. Roll call.

Mayor Reese.

Here.

Council Member Osk.

Here.

Nelson.

Here.

Gilbertson. Here. Gardner.

Here.

Baggerly. Here. Davis. Here. And Childers. Here. Council Member Butterfield is excused, so eight present, one excused.

Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. No, no. Any proposed additions or deletions? Move to approve the agenda.

Second.

We got a motion and a second discussion. Roll call.

Council Member Gilbertson.

Aye.

Baggerly.

Aye.

Gardner.

Aye.

Osk.

Aye.

Nelson.

Aye.

Childers.

Aye.

And Davis. Aye. Seven ayes, zero noes.

That passes. we're coming up on uh... welcome week and i've got a proclamation for welcome week whereas this september the city of wilmer community will come together to find common ground in our neighbors with our neighbors seek similarities without our within our different cultures and perspectives and deepen our commitment to building a stronger and more resilient wilmer And whereas we are stronger when we embrace both our similarities and our differences and our community members will do just that by sharing food, music, art, conversation and more throughout the week. And whereas regardless of whether we were born or what we look like, We are neighbors and residents united in our efforts to build a stronger community by recognizing the contributions we all make to create a vibrant culture and growing economy. We make our community more prosperous and more inclusive for all who call it home. And whereas while this week provides an opportunity to pause, reflect, and plan for the next phase of welcoming work in Willmar. Our community prioritizes a spirit of welcoming year round. Welcoming is a core part of who we are and who we have always been. And Willmar will continue to choose connection, courage, and community. Now therefore, I, Douglas Reese, Mayor of the City of Willmar, do hereby proclaim September 12th, 2026 as Willmar Welcoming Week Day in the City of Willmar and call upon all residents to join me in building stronger, more welcoming communities across Minnesota and beyond. Next is, you're gonna do the consent agenda, okay? Go ahead.

Thank you Mr. Mayor and Council Members. Tonight for your approval I have the City Council Minutes of August 17th, 2026. The City Council Work Session Minutes of August 31st, 2026. The Wilmer Municipal Utilities Commission Minutes of August 24th, 2026 as a draft. The Planning Commission Minutes of July 8th, 2026. The Planning Commission Minutes of August 19th, 2026 as a draft. the Diamond Edge Figure Skating Club Lawful Gambling Application, another Diamond Edge Figure Skating Lawful Gambling Application, the Buffalo Lake Lions Club Conduct Offsite Lawful Gambling Application, the Knights of Columbus Lawful Gambling Application, Consideration for Approval of Retail Registration Renewal Application for the Cannabis Microbusiness Cloud 9 Farms, currently doing business as Hemponics Holdings, LLC. Consideration for approval of the renewal of application for the medical cannabis combination business license, Leafline Labs LLC doing business as Rise Wilmer. Plat approval for City of Wilmer Road right of way plat number one through five. Authorize staff to release agricultural land bid packet. Airport Runway 331 Reject Bid and Authorized Rebid. Accept and Final Project Number 2503-B Street Improvement Project West. Accept and Final Project Number 2501-A 20th Street Southeast Reconstruction. The Accounts Payable Report of 8-13-2026 through 9-2-2026. And for your information, the monthly building permit report from August 2026 and the Wilmer Municipal Utilities Commission application.

Move to approve the consent agenda.

Second.

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

Council Member Nelson.

Aye. Here.

Gilbertson.

Aye.

Gardner.

Aye.

Davis. Aye. Childers.

Aye.

Baggerly.

Aye.

And Osk. Aye. 7 ayes, 0 noes.

Motion carries. Next we have the open forum and we have 3 minutes for each of you. Just make sure you state your name and your address before starting. So I have I don't know how to pronounce your name.

Ian Berg.

Ian? Oh, it's Ian. Okay. Ian Berg.

Thank you, Council. Over the past four meetings, you all have heard me speak and others about these ALPR cameras and that are currently in Wilmer and the nation. I imagine you've probably had your ears talked off about them and I'm not here to beat that drum anymore. Today I want to talk to you about public trust and how your actions or your inactions are being interpreted by myself and others in the community. So from conversations that I've had with members here and your own remarks during these meetings, it appears that far too often concerns of the citizens are being dismissed as disinformation or simply overhyped, which may be true to some extent. But when these comments are coupled with or appear to be coupled with little to no research of your own on the issues that are of concern to the Wilmer citizens, that shows that you feel that the citizens of Wilmer are incapable of judging for themselves what is good in their lives. Now, I grew up in a small town, smaller than this. The cultures are very similar. If there is one thing that people in rural communities know well, it's when government is infringing on their rights. So, make a motion tonight, add it to the agenda, Listen to the people. Listen to the concerns of the people. That is the first step in moving Wilmer forwards in regaining the trust of the community and their confidence in our local authorities, you, the police departments, et cetera. Thank you. Ian Berg, Fifth Avenue.

Thank you, Ian. Next, we have Mark Boshun.

Good evening. I might beat that drum a little bit that he just talked about. My name is Mark Boshun. I live at 909 Irene Avenue. A few weeks ago, I stood not here, which is kind of feels like home base here, but out of the county building, and asked you to carefully think about flock cameras and the privacy of Wilmer residents. I'm here again tonight mostly for one reason, to remind you that the decision is still yours. I'm also patiently waiting for the FLOC access, sharing, and audit records I requested about five weeks ago. I look forward to reviewing them when they're available, but in the meantime, the larger conversation around FLOC has continued to move very quickly. Since I first spoke to you, more communities have turned cameras off, ended contracts, or decided not to move forward. Here in Minnesota, St. Paul, Duluth, St. Louis County, Columbia Heights, Dayton, and others have ended, suspended, or moved away from flock. But one of the most interesting examples happened just last week right next door in Wisconsin. Every law enforcement agency using flock in Fond du Lac County, including the Sheriff's Office and police departments in Ripon, Fond du Lac, Waupon, and North Fond du Lac, discontinued use immediately. And what matters is why. They were not accusing their own officers of misusing FLOC. Their concern was losing control of their information once it left their agencies. They learned that FLOC search data, including information connected to active investigations, had been released by law enforcement agencies in other states responding to open records requests. they concluded they could no longer guarantee how their investigative information would be handled once it was shared with outside their agency. Ripon had voted to renew its Flock contract just a month earlier, yet its police department still joined the shutdown. Fort Wayne, Indiana is another example. Its police chief continued to believe Flock was a useful investigative tool. But after the city council rejected the contract, he shut the system down because he believed continuing it could damage trust between the police department and the community. 36 cameras were turned off. At the state level, Florida has ordered automated license plate readers off of state highways amid the privacy misuse and surveillance concerns. Texas has paused state funding for flock cameras. These are not simply anti-police decisions. Law enforcement agencies themselves are saying that a tool can be useful and still create risks that are too great without stronger safeguards. Supporting our police does not require accepting every surveillance technology that becomes available. We can support effective law enforcement and still decide that some technology crosses a privacy line. You still have a choice and I am asking you to choose privacy and take the cameras down. Thank you.

Alright, next is a 2027 improvement hearing. And I'll call on city engineer Jared Vogue. and i will open the public hearing at the same time

Good evening, Mayor and Council. As the Mayor indicated, this is the 2027 Improvement Hearing for the 2027 construction projects. I do have a short presentation that I'll go through. There are five actions requested this evening, a variety of resolutions for your consideration. And then, of course, the public will have an opportunity to ask any questions that they might have regarding the improvements. So the project areas are noted there on the screen. We have three different types of projects identified for 2027. One reconstruction on 16th Street Southwest. Overlay projects in a variety of areas and I'll move to a map here that shows them a little more clearly. And then finally some storm sewer capital improvement projects. Project areas are noted there. The mill and overlay improvements are in the light blue. The reconstruction area is in the pink color on your screen. And then the stormwater improvement areas are identified there in green. Stormwater improvement near Voss Park. We have a stormwater improvement at the intersection of Business 71 or First Street and Ella Avenue. And then The 16th Street Improvement Project in pink also includes some stormwater improvement on the north end of that project. And then you can see the streets planned for mill and overlay there, Trot on the East, Industrial Drive as we move to the west. So in terms of the reconstruction area, the items that we review as part of that include the sanitary sewer, water main, storm sewer, and streets. In the cases where the sanitary sewer is a clay pipe, which is very susceptible to inflow and infiltration through that piping. And then we also take a look at the manholes. Majority of the manholes within the project area that we're discussing this evening are black and brick and definitely showing signs of their age. Water main, cast iron pipe, susceptible to breaks, storm sewer, again, similar to sanitary with the pipe material, clay, both clay and concrete pipes, along with those brick and mortar manholes I mentioned. And then the streets in the project area, Or the street, excuse me, 16th. As you drive down it, you can see the block cracking, alligator cracking, potholes, all things of that nature. So I want to differentiate a little bit between reconstruction areas and overlay areas. Reconstruction areas are essentially redoing everything associated with that corridor from the curb and gutter to the pavement to the utilities beneath it. Overlay areas are simply removing the top two to three inches of bituminous There'll be spot curb repairs where the structural integrity of that curb and gutter has been compromised, but it's not the full replacement of curb and gutter along those project areas. So reconstruction, much more invasive. Overlays, relatively quick projects. 16th Street, I wanted to point out currently there are two street widths along that corridor and what we're showing on the screen here is that the overall corridor, you'll note that the south side is approximately 40 feet in width, the north side is 32 feet in width, 32 feet is the minimum roadway width to accommodate one side of parking. What's being proposed here is that we would expand the, or we would have one consistent street width of 36 feet, which will allow for parking on both sides of the street. So what do the improvements entail? The sanitary sewer will be a new PVC sanitary sewer piping. Four inch services for the sanitary sewer will be extended from the main in the street up to the right of way. New manholes will also be included along that route. Water main along this corridor, what we're identifying as eight to 12 inches in diameter. There'll be new hydrants, valves, and again, the water service, similar to the sanitary sewer service, will be extended from the main and the street up to the right-of-way of the individual properties. And then the storm sewer, new reinforced concrete pipe, curbing gutter, and then catch basin structures to collect the water from the street. Ponding or stormwater improvements are identified there for you. The Voss Park Pond area was identified in a previous report that was completed and identified the need for that stormwater collection in that area. Also as part of the Gorton Avenue improvements project, the infrastructure within Gorton was set up to accommodate the future this future improvement. Draw your attention to the right side of the screen. That is the 16th Street Southwest Stormwater Pond. This pond is also identified to take care of some flooding that occurs in that intersection. Centerpoint Energy, Minnegasco, we've been in, city staff has been in discussions with them as it relates to their Underlying ownership of the property we did receive an update last week that they were having an internal meeting Relatively quickly and they anticipated getting back to us All indications indicate that there should be no issues from their perspective with that And then the other stormwater improvement that I wanted to call your attention to are the hydrodynamic separator improvements. This is an area, First Street and Ella Avenue, where Public Works staff has difficulty collecting the sediment that washes off the streets. Right now it washes down onto the green space. There's not a hard surface to scoop up that sand. On the east side, it runs over the trail. On the west side, we all know what the big water body on the north side of that intersection is, and do our best to keep that from going in there. But what's being proposed are hydrodynamic separators, which will allow access from the road to our public works staff to vacuum those out rather than try to chase it. So... Significant water quality improvement associated with these devices. Overlay areas are noted there. This is just to blow up the map that we saw earlier. Cross-section of the overlay, as I noted previously, two to three inches will be removed depending on the street. Of course, Trott Avenue and Industrial Drive, 22nd Street, carry larger truck volumes, so that's why that'll be three inches versus the two inches on the other areas. Project costs are broken down by the project type there. 16th Street improvement project just over three point one not one three point one eight million dollars the 2027 is estimated at two point three along with the stormwater capital improvement projects of approximately nine hundred and eighty seven thousand dollars Cost summary this just breaks it down based on street storm sanitary sewer water overlay and storm sewer And again, this is a chart that shows these project costs broken down. This is important when it comes to the funding sources, which we'll come to here in a couple slides. Anticipated funding sources, we've identified similar to past projects, assessments, state aid participation, Wilmer Municipal Utilities, city wastewater funds, the local option sales tax associated with those water quality improvements and stormwater improvements, and then of course city funding. So this just gives you a breakdown of the anticipated funding sources. Assessments for anticipated would be approximately 1.6 million, state aid of 2.3, MUC of about 500,000, wastewater about 450, local option sales tax approximately 1.1, and then city funding of about 400,000. Street reconstruction assessment rates, we have a range here that's based on project costs from previous years as well as the anticipation that inflation will continue. So I think this is a comfortable range to give people an idea of where their assessment might be. Based on street, between 70 and $74 a foot. Sanitary sewer, 18 to 21. Sanitary sewer services, just in that neighborhood of $1,000 each. Water main reconstruction, 22 to 25, and then water services between that $1,200 and $1,300 range. Storm sewer being $15 to $18 a foot. Overlay, based on lot sizes, you can see the range there, very similar to the ranges that have been identified for small, medium, and large lots on previous projects. Project schedule, the preliminary engineering report was presented on July 20th. We did hold an open house last week on September 3rd for anybody that had any questions associated with the project to come in and view exactly what the proposed improvements. Tonight we're at the public hearing stage as you all know and you'll have the opportunity to consider whether or not to order the plans and specifications. Assuming that does occur, we'd anticipate that we'd bring those back before you for your approval in February, which would provide an opportunity for a bid opening in March. awarding the contracts in April and then being ready to hit the ground running with these projects early in the construction season in 2027, anticipating a completion date of October. So with that, Mayor and Council, I'd be happy to answer any questions that you have, otherwise it is a public hearing and I'd be happy to respond to any questions that the public might have as well.

Thank you, Jared. Anybody in the public want to speak? Give your name and address when you come up, please.

My name is Roger Coles at 909 5th Street Southwest. Last fall, I got two letters from the city regarding street improvements from properties of mine, one on Montegalia Avenue and one on 4th Street Southwest. Apparently the one on Montegalia Avenue has been pushed back to 27. I never got a letter about that, but I've heard that from other people. And I called them because the address to the Montegalia house is on Montegalia Avenue, not on the 16th Street side. So I didn't know why I was being assessed for another street improvement. And what I was told is on that property, my water and sewer line come out on 16th Street. And so that's why I was being assessed for it. So much as I didn't like it, I accepted it. So now I got to pay assessments on two sides. Well, a few weeks ago, I was over there. A cable company was over there digging, and I was over there and talking to one of my neighbors and explaining the situation to him. And he said, your water line and sewer line don't come out here. They come out on Montegalia Avenue. And he says, look at down here, look at all the flags. And he says, red, white, yellow, there's no blue flags on your property. He says, I've got a blue flag and I've got blue on my curb. He says, let's go to the front of your house. And sure enough, that's where the blue flag was and that's where the curb and gutter was painted blue. And it said water line and sewer line. So... I called somebody again and spoke to them. All excited that I wasn't going to have to pay this assessment. And he said, well, yeah, but things have changed now. And now if you're on a corner lot, we assess both sides, both streets. So I guess I'm here to find out when that rule took effect. And if that's true, if I got to pay assessments on two streets, um, I went for one property because I've got a corner lot.

Who would address this?

Kyle? Sure. Mr. Bogey.

Oh, okay.

Mayor, Council, as it relates to the corner lot policy, properties... that are on a corner lot are subject to an assessment on two separate sides. So if you recall, the corner lot policy says that the property is assessed for the full length of the short side for street and storm sewer. And then on the long side, they're assessed 30% of the long side. So that's the credit for the long side, 30% of that length for the street and storm sewer. In the case of utilities, that being sewer and water, the property owners assess the frontage along the street where the sewer and water is located. I'll be sure to... We'll look into this. I do recall during the... Final assessment hearing that we had a couple months ago. There were some properties that were identified on there as part of the preliminary role that were noticed about their assessments. They were subsequently removed because of additional information. I'm not sure if Mr. Cole's property is one of those specifically, but I'd be happy to look into that and meet with them individually to clear that up. But Short answer to the question is yes. Corner lots, RSS for both sides of the street.

Okay. Roger, he'll meet with you. He'll be in touch with you.

It's going to be testing my memory a little bit, but I believe it was like 2022. uh he said the resident said that he had a corner property in another location that was not assessed on both sides and i'm anticipating that would be because it was assessed prior to 2022. okay so roger they'll be contacting you i assume

Anybody else? Yes. Please come up and address that.

I couldn't make the last meeting. I'm Dwayne Bonoma, and I've got the lot between where Bonoma Surveys used to be and the Wellmer Pool. there's a lot there and I cut a I called the city one day asked if I could cut the back of the curb off we're doing some work in that lot and they said go ahead and it's just a small request but I'm hoping that the they could put a driveway in there instead when they come through just up to the sidewalk is that in

Thank you, Joanne.

Mayor, Council, driveway requests as part of reconstruction projects are not uncommon. We'll collaborate with the city planning department to make sure that we're not violating any zoning issues. And certainly if it meets all zoning requirements, that's something that can be accommodated. We just wanna make sure that we're not, Putting driveways within setbacks and over lot lines and things of that nature So it'll take a little bit of an investigation, but be happy to entertain that So again, you'll be in touch with doing Yes. Yeah, there'll be many more meetings with this project brought up and we've made note of it now So we'll review that during the design process assuming that moves forward as well.

All right Anybody else? Yes

Hi, I'm Renee Nolting. I'm the director of West Central Industries, and I'm not sure how construction projects work. I just want to point out on Southwest 22nd Street is where our facility is. I'm not sure if streets will be closed, but I work with people with mobility issues, so walking from a corner, I think, really isn't a possibility. So I just want to ask for consideration of keeping part of the road open during the process if that could happen.

Okay. You just add a little clarity to the question regarding access. Excuse me, all the property owners will receive notices regarding the construction, typically in a mill and overlay project. The inconvenience is minimal compared to a reconstruction, so I do recommend and just Give a shameless plug out here the city of Wilmer's website does have project updates on on the city's website and so the Residents property owners business owners do have an opportunity to sign up for project updates. Those can be either email or text message So I would highly encourage that But certainly nearly all projects that we run into recently have some special accommodation requests and we definitely Will be respectful of that and try to accommodate as best we can Okay with that Renee, okay Anybody else wishing to speak?

Otherwise, I'm gonna close the hearing All right, I'll close the hearing We need a motion.

Make a motion to adopt the resolution ordering the 2027 Street and other improvements and approve preparation of the plans and specifications.

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

Thanks, Mr. Mayor. So on 16th Street, there's no right-of-way that we have to buy?

So currently and that's a great question currently as part of the fiber project there is Well, the right-of-way plat that was approved this evening simply identifying where the Right-of-way is believed to exist the 16th Street project with the street reconstruction itself If you recall that figure the area On the south end we're narrowing the street and so we will not be encroaching any further beyond The existing curb and gutter so the short answer to your question is no And then the pond on 16th Street.

Is that gonna be deep or just three four feet or

I don't have that cross-section with me exactly but I believe is between four and six feet but however I do want to draw attention that that pond will be it's intended to be a detention pond and dry after the storm passes so It allows an outlet for the storm sewer in the intersection water. It allows a place for it to go rather than people's backyards and front steps. And then once the storm sewer system is able to Clear if you will or drain that pond will then drain into the storm system and the pond is intended to be dry So it's not intended to hold water Permanently like some of the other ponds that you're familiar with and Wilmer So we'll keep an eye on it just in case because it's a park and kids are playing soccer We don't want to see their soccer balls going down there That's correct.

Yes, and then the north one is Can't remember the development.

Boss Park. Boss Park.

That's really flat, isn't it? So that's not going to be very deep and that'll be a detention?

Yeah, so based on the outlet elevation of the creek crossing Gorton Avenue, those final profiles haven't been identified yet, but we don't have an extreme amount of cover to get that water into. So I'm going to have to follow up with the design to bring back to you guys to identify exactly how deep that is. but I'm not anticipating it to be overly significant. However, not like the pond on 16th. There will be water in it.

Okay.

Thanks. Tom, just a minute. I'll close the hearing, but now I'll call you new, Tom.

How many properties will be affected by the assessments? Has that been identified? Okay.

I can give you an approximate number. It's close enough for me. A couple of minutes.

Yeah.

Approximately 81.

All right, that's all I need. Anybody else? Robert?

Thank you, Mayor, members of the council. Before the council votes on the resolution that's been moved, I wanted the council to understand that under statute, this is subject to a supermajority vote of four-fifths of all council members, which means seven council members must vote in favor of it for it to pass.

Okay, of which we have here tonight. Correct. Okay. Any questions?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Vogue, I know that the park, as Councilmember Fagerle previously alluded, is still used for recreational purposes. How have engineering, how have you adapted plans to accommodate for that? What restrictions might they see in future use?

Yeah, so as I indicated, we are meeting with Centerpoint Energy. The final, we've proposed the pond footprint to them. It's my understanding they're going to develop some type of an agreement that staff and council will be able to review. But probably more importantly to your question, Pablo and I have talked about once the Centerpoint scenario or the agreement or everything is finalized, a little more solidified about meeting out there. We're going to stake out that pond boundary and identify locations for that recreation activity because it is heavily utilized at some points during the year about where that recreational activity can be relocated within the existing park itself. Okay.

Thank you. Steve. Thanks, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Volga, I do have one question, and maybe this isn't the appropriate time to ask it, but 16th Street along that stretch goes for four blocks without a cross street and Ms. Nolting brought up an issue about accessibility and it seems like sometimes the road gets shut down for considerable distances and people are gonna have to lug their groceries perhaps up to two to three blocks. Are we gonna do something when this project kicks off to make sure the contractors are keeping that street open to some level of accessibility? So people aren't, I mean, they're going to have to park, like I said, in some cases, blocks away from their homes.

Yeah, so that'll definitely be part of the project phasing associated with the improvements. That is a unique corridor with the lack of cross streets. And that is a significant distance to expect people to cross. Walk, so I'm anticipating that the Project staging or project phasing Will not allow that entire Stretch to be completed at at one time We do have to look at the utilities and make sure we know exactly how they're flowing and all that stuff based on a constructability standpoint but I don't think it's reasonable to expect that entire stretch to be closed down at the same time.

Thank you Going back to the last part do you know are you where will they have to close County five when they're doing any of that?

work Hug as it's currently contemplated No

That's that's the only artery for a lot of those people out there so no Anybody else Roll call Councilmember Davis aye Gardner aye shoulders Asked all right Gilbertson. All right, Nelson aye and faggerly aye seven eyes zero nose Mr. Mayor, I would like to point out that Mr. Vogue has five motions that aren't noted on your agendas, but he does have five motions, or five items for approval from you today.

I make a motion to adopt the resolution approving the preliminary budget for the 16th Street Reconstructive Project in the amount of $3,200,500. Second. We got a motion and a second. Discussion?

Audrey.

Mayor Reese, thank you. Is that the right amount or is, I think on the screen it was reduced to $3,189,300. I will double check for you, one second.

The appropriate amount is $3,200,500. Okay, thank you. Thank you.

That's it for this motion.

What's that?

That's it for this. You have to vote on this motion first before you move to the next.

Okay. We got a motion and a second. Roll call.

Council Member Nelson.

Aye.

Davis. Aye. Osk.

Aye.

Gardner.

Aye.

Gilbertson.

Aye.

Childers.

Aye.

And Baggerly.

Aye.

Seven ayes, zero noes.

Motion carries.

I make a motion to adopt the resolution approving the preliminary budget for the 2027 mill and overlay project in the amount of $2,356,800. Second. We have a motion and a second. Discussion? Roll call.

Councilmember Gardner.

Aye.

Nelson.

Aye.

Osk.

Aye.

Davis. Aye. Gilbertson.

Aye.

Baggerly.

Aye.

Enscheldes.

Aye.

Seven ayes, zero noes.

And motion carries. Make a motion to adopt our resolution approving the preliminary budget for the stormwater capital improvements project in the amount of $987,300. Second. We are on motion to second. Discussion?

Roll call.

Council Member Fagerly.

Aye.

Childers.

Aye.

Davis. Aye. Gilbertson.

Aye.

Gardner.

Aye.

Osk.

Aye.

Nelson.

Aye.

Seven ayes, zero noes.

Is that completed?

Make a motion to adopt the resolution of intent to reimburse for all the costs incurred of the 2027 street and other improvement projects.

Second.

We got a motion and a second discussion. Roll call.

Council Member Davis. Aye. Osk.

Aye.

Childers.

Aye.

Gardner.

Aye.

Nelson.

Aye.

Gilbertson.

Aye.

And Fagerle. Aye. Seven ayes, zero noes.

Motion carries. Thanks, Council. Thank you.

Well, we're going to be looking at the budget and good evening to everybody who's listening. And as required by the Wilmer City Charter, the mayor presents the annual budget for the upcoming fiscal year to the city council. And tonight I'm presenting the city's preliminary 2027 budget for consideration and continued discussion. The budget is one of the most important policy documents considered by the city council each year. It establishes how the city will provide services to our residents, maintain our infrastructure and facilities, invest in our community, support our employees, meet our financial obligations, and balance those needs with the impact of the budget. the least amount of impact on taxpayers. The development of the 2027 budget has been underway for several months. The process has included a staff review of capital improvement program requests, a CIP tour, with staff and city council, budget submissions from each department director, individual meetings with departments to review their requests and additional review by city administration and finance. Before discussing the property tax levy, it's important to understand that the city's overall budget consists of several different types of funds. The general fund supports the city's primary day-to-day governmental operations and services. This includes areas such as police, fire, public works, parks and recreation, administration, finance, planning and development, and other core municipal services. The city also maintains several special revenue funds, which are used for revenues and expenditures dedicated to particular purposes. These include funds supporting the Industrial Park Airport and Community Investment Fund, among others, Those funds allow the city to account separately for projects and activities that have specific funding sources or purposes. The city also operates as an enterprise fund. That enterprise fund is for the wastewater treatment facility. And unlike the general fund, the wastewater fund is primarily supported by user charges rather than property taxes. Those revenues support the operation of the wastewater system and capital improvements, equipment, infrastructure, and related debt obligations. Tonight's budget discussion will primarily focus on the portion of the city's budget supported by the property tax levy. There are four major components that make up that levy. The first is the operating levy which supports the personnel and non-personnel expenses necessary to provide the city's ongoing services. The second is the capital improvement program which provides funding for vehicle, and equipment replacements, improvements to city facilities, infrastructure needs, and other planned capital investments. The third is the City Hall Debt Service Levy, which provides the resources needed to meet the city's debt obligations for future City Hall projects. And finally, the street debt service levy supports debt associated with the city's ongoing investment in streets and infrastructure. Together, these components provide a more complete picture of the city's property tax needs than looking at operating expenses alone. For 2027, the city's preliminary general fund expenditures expenditures are provided to increase approximately one point three one percent compared to twenty twenty six this is an important point while costs continue to increase in areas such as personnel contractual services equipment materials insurance and other operating needs staff has worked throughout the budget process to limit the growth of the city's underlying operating budget. When the operating levy capital improvement program, city hall debt service, street department service are combined and the current preliminary budget results in an estimated 5.92% increase in the city's property tax levy over 2026. However, a 5.92% increase does not mean that the city's tax rate increases by the same amount. Because the city's overall taxable property base is also projected to grow, the current preliminary budget is estimated to result in approximately a 1.67% increase in the city's tax rate. The distinction between the levy and the tax rate is important. The levy represents the total amount of property tax revenue the city collects, while the tax rate reflects that levy relative to the total taxable value of property within the community. During its recent budget work session, city administration also discussed what would be necessary to achieve an approximately flat city tax rate for 2027. Based on current projections, reaching that level would require approximately $350,000 in additional reductions to the preliminary levy. Staff has identified a number of areas that could be considered if the City Council wishes to pursue additional reductions. However, it is important to recognize that many of the straightforward operating efficiencies have already been considered during development of this budget. As reductions become more significant, The discussion increasingly shifts from simply finding efficiencies to find choices about services, programs, capital investments, staffing levels, and organizational capacity. That does not mean additional reductions cannot be made. It means that those reductions have impacts that should be understood and considered as part of the City Council's policy discussion. This is consistent with the approach outlined earlier in the budget process through our be the solution discussion. Developing a sustainable city budget is a shared responsibility. City administration and department directors are responsible for elevating operations, evaluating, I'm sorry, evaluating operations Finding deficiencies, identifying alternatives, and providing city council with the best information available regarding the financial and service impacts of those choices. The city council is responsible for determining the appropriate policy balance between the level of services provided to the community, investment in our infrastructure and organization, and the financial impact on taxpayers. The preliminary budget presented tonight is therefore not the end of the process. It represents work completed to date and establishes the framework for the council's continued budget discussions. As we move forward with adoption of the final 2027 budget this December, we will continue to evaluate the primary preliminary levy, available reductions, service levels, priorities, staffing and organizational needs, and long-term financial sustainability of the city. The goal should not simply be to reach a particular levy percentage. The goal should be to adopt a responsible and sustainable budget that allows the city of Wilmert to continue providing the services our community relies on while remaining mindful of the financial impact on our residents and business. I want to thank the city council, city administration, finance department, department directors, and employees throughout the organization for the work that has gone on gone into developing the preliminary 2027 budget. With that, I respectfully present the 2027 preliminary budget to the Wilmer City Council for its consideration and continued discussion. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the City Council, Tom Odens, Finance Director for the City. This evening for your consideration will be to adopt the preliminary 2027 budget and tax levy. Just to give you a little bit of a overview of our budget calendar, it started back in February of 2026 where the council adopted the budget calendar for the year. In April we held a capital improvement tour where the Council and staff was able to go and view capital improvement requests. Departments were able to show the requests that they're asking for. In May the Council held a CIP work session where we were able to nail narrow down the CIP plans for the 2027 year and then the departments began to work on their 2027 operating budgets. Throughout July and August, the departments were able to compile and refine the 2027 budget. Many hours were spent with staff and administration finance to really narrow down those budgets as much as they could on their operating side. And then last week, we had a budget work session with the city council. Tonight is the mayor's proposed budget and tax levy. We must certify by the end of the month to the county for the truth and taxation notices to go out on time. Throughout October and November, we'll continue to refine our 2027 budget and tax levy. And then December 7th is the request for your consideration tonight is to hold the truth and taxation hearing and then we must certify by the end of the year to the county for the tax levy. So as Mr. Mayor mentioned, our budget and tax levy is divided into four major pillars or parts. The first being the operations or general fund. For 2027, it's requested to be $9.4 million. This would include all of the day-to-day operations from our departments, from city hall, the public works, police and fire, parks and recreation. This is every expense from staff salaries, insurance, utilities, supplies, fuel. This illustration shows a breakdown of where your money goes. So 39 cents of every dollar goes towards public safety. That's the police and fire. 22 cents goes to general government. Think of the city hall departments, clerk, administration, finance, planning and development. 23 cents goes to public works and transportation. That's our public works, engineering, airport, stormwater. And then 16 cents goes to culture and recreation. The second piece is the capital improvement program. This is as we went over on our tour. This is our bigger ticket items, primarily vehicles. We've also done a lot of work in the last couple years. This number has decreased 73,500 since May, and we did cover that at our work session last week. The next piece is our street debt service for next year's $1.67 million. This is to pay off our obligations for our bonds that we've, to borrow for our roads for our road improvement projects and our paths. This chart just shows our annual street levy from 2022 through projected 2027. And then this next slide shows the breakdown of what makes up the $1.675 million and our bond issues associated with those. And the last piece or the pillar of our tax levy is our city hall debt service. Back in 22, it was a 3% of our tax rate was going to be attributed to the city hall debt service and that number would grow as our tax base or our tax capacity increases. This chart shows that trend line from 2022 through 2025. During the budget season in 2026, or for taxes payable in 2026, it was a decision made to reduce the city hall levy to $500,000. And for the preliminary budget, the request as of now is $634,542, which reflects the 3% of the city tax rate again. If this were to be adopted after the 2027 tax levy, it would be $3.2 million levied for a future city hall. And this just shows a history of our tax capacity, the blue vertical bars, and then the tax rate, which would be the orange line above it. So this is everything put into a table. And just for this table's sake, the general fund includes the capital improvement plan also. So you'll see the general fund increase was $211,302. $202,000 of that is our capital improvement plan. The street debt primarily, our bond debt service varies slightly, but it's $369,000. That's the addition of the 2026b bonds. The city hall debt, as I just mentioned, went from 500 to 634, so an increase of $134,542 for a total increase of $715,661. or 5.92% increase. The lower half of the table is a proposed tax rate. We are still working off of estimated tax base numbers. The general fund and the capital improvement plan is set to slightly decrease by just about a half percent. The street levy or the street debt is about 1.5% increase and the city hall is about a half percent increase for a total tax rate increase of 1.669 or 1.67%. And this this is our residential city example. This is for a taxable value of a $200,000 home within the city for 2026 that city taxes. Oh, just the city portion would be 1177 all else equal the same house. Same value for 2027 would be 1211 or $34 of an increase. Mr. Mayor, that is the conclusion of the presentation tonight. For your consideration, there is a resolution in your packet to adopt the preliminary levy of $12,802,964 and also to schedule the public hearing for December 7, 2026 on or after 6.30 p.m. I'll stand for questions. Questions? Questions?

Steve. Thanks, Mr. Mayor. Director Owens, I can't believe I haven't asked this question by now, but can you go back to the slide where it shows you had the bar graph and the line graph on the same slide? So if the budget grows as fast as the tax capacity, will the citizens ever see relief? Because we've always say build your tax capacity and your taxes will go down, right? Because we'll spread it around. But if the budget continues to grow as fast as the tax capacity grows, will anybody ever see relief?

If that, if by that example, it would, it would continue to grow. Correct. So, and it also is the relationship of the home value or the tax capacity. So we have, we are estimating in tax increase of 3% tax base increase. So with that is the valuation changes as the assessors and sales happen throughout the city. So short answer is it will grow with that.

So the short answer is no? Yeah. Okay. I'm not trying to sharpshoot you. I've been in as many of these budget discussions as anybody else in this room, probably besides you and Kyle. So I just can't believe that question hadn't occurred to me prior to tonight after seeing that graph.

All else equal, if the houses never fluctuate in value based on valuation changes, they would potentially see relief. But as we know, the housing market is constantly moving. Thank you. Yep.

Discussion or motion?

I'll make a motion to receive the mayor's 2027 proposed budget. Adopt a resolution to set the preliminary levy for property taxes payable 2027 and to set the truth in taxation hearing on December 7th, 2026 on or after 6.30 p.m.

We have a motion. Do we have a second?

Second.

We have a second. Discussion? Justin.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I stated from the beginning of this that I would not be able to support an increase in the tax rate. I do want to state that I deeply support and am I'm happy with the work that the staff has done. Director Odins and Mr. Box, the entire team, thank you guys for being the solution and bringing us a preliminary budget. It is a preliminary budget. There's more work to be done, but this is far better than I think what we've seen in previous years. We're much closer to that flat... that we've talked about. And so I look forward to the future council conversations so that we can arrive at a sustainable budget with no increase to the tax rate. Time for everyone on council to be the solution.

Anybody else? Any further discussion? Roll call.

Council Member Fagerle. Aye. Davis. Aye. Osk.

No.

Gardner.

Aye.

Nelson.

Aye.

Gilbertson.

Aye.

And Childers.

Aye.

Six ayes, one no.

Motion carries. Thank you, Tom. Sheree. get the proposed budget for the KCED.

Thank you so much, Council and Mayor. I appreciate the opportunity. Does it show up on the screen? Do you have it? It was pre-sent and I just want to make sure that we're looking at the same document.

The material is in their packets.

Thank you. I do want to just echo what the mayor said in his presentation about the budget, that KCED also agrees with a responsible working budget that is sustainable. The budget that you're seeing in front of you looks considerably different than what's been presented to you previously. We handled the preparation of the budget very differently this year. We went with general accepted accounting system. We've moved to a different QuickBooks within KCED, and we've outlined the budget based on actual spending. So we took all of 2025's actual costs and the first half of 2026 to determine what it actually costs to run the KCED. I don't think this has been done previously for the last few years. I think it was an existing budget that just had the percentage added to it. So this reflects what it actually costs to run KCED. The first column you'll see is out of budget by $62,000. That means KCED has some work to do during 2027 to become sustainable within our operation budget. And we will be doing that. We've already reduce that amount by $30,000. We have anticipation of an additional sustainable reduction of $25,000. But to make it a balanced budget for 2027, we have found the cuts that we need to do temporarily to get us through 2027 while we find the bigger solutions. So to make this budget a balanced budget, the first item you'll see is innovative income. We have a lot of land that we're trying to sell that's over by Ridgewater College. So that's a one-time solution. We can only sell it once. But by selling it during the 2027 year, that'll be a $50,000 reduction off of our $62,000 out of budget. We found simple ways to reduce our utilities, our general office expenses by $2,000, office subscription, just eliminating one of our newspaper subscriptions for $45. Our professional fees by $5,000, and that is by not hiring a facilitator for our strategic plan right now. We're working on some board alignment and feel like it would be better figured in 2028. And just our board expense, reducing the cost of president and chair plaques. Continuing down, removing committee travel and community events. Though we feel like we need to be supporting our community, this is an area that we can reduce to get our balanced budget. Our marketing program, reducing that significantly. We no longer have a marketing person on staff, and we're doing most of the work and design work in staff, so we're not having that additional fee. And again, attending community events, vendors, and activities, we will still show up. We're just not doing it on KCED's dime. And then finally, reducing some contracts within the community. We're finding ways to work with our partners differently, but this was $1,000 of sponsorship to community activities. Though we support them, we can find different ways to support them and just let them know that during 2027, we won't be able to write a sponsorship check. With those small adjustments for 2027, we were able to get ourselves a budget with a positive $48.86. This is with a 4% overall tax levy increase, so it'd be 2% to the city, 2% to the county. Again, it is our intention to put the work in during 2027 to formulate how our office is operating to maintain and stabilize. Councilman Gartner brought up a good question when we were presenting this to our joint powers of the biggest part of our budget is our staff, and that will increase with wages and benefits each year. So that is something that we'll be looking at of how we put that into a stability of our budget. But I thought about your question, and you're right, it's our programs. But our programs are run by our staff, and we have very little hard cost on that. So our staff cost is our biggest cost, but our staff cost is our biggest asset, and our staff is what is doing the work. So I feel like that was a good comment to bring, and it made me think about it. And I think we're okay with that one. What questions do you have?

The innovative income, the selling of the property, I know you can't say too much. Is that going to happen?

Yes, we're going to bring it to our joint powers for approval to just hire a broker and get this taken care of.

Any other questions or motion? Justin.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. You mentioned, so I see on your income side, you've got the tax levy listed there as the largest source of income, of course. But then you also mentioned that that is increasing for next year. Is that accurate?

That has the increase in it.

That has the increase in it. That's already been voted. That comes from the Joint Powers Board, not this body, correct?

Correct. And we will be working in 2027 to look at a non-tax levy revenue stream because we don't feel like our office should be running solely on the tax levy.

Any other questions or motion?

I move to adopt the proposed 2027 budget for the Kandiyohi County and City of Willmar Economic Development Commissions.

Your motion, do we have a second? Second. We got a second. Discussion?

I just have a comment.

Yes.

I just want to thank you for all the hard work you've done for this, for the KCED. You've done great work. Thank you. And I know you're going to continue to do great work. I appreciate that. Thank you.

Any other? Roll call.

Council Member Osk.

Aye.

Davis. Aye. Baggerly.

Aye.

Nelson.

Aye.

Gilbertson.

Aye.

Childers.

Aye.

And Gardner.

Aye.

Seven ayes, zero noes. Thank you.

Motion carries. Thank you, Cherie. Next is Public Works Garage Roof Project Change Order Number 1. Call on Shane. Shane.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. The public works garage re-roof is complete. During the construction, they discovered that the substrate beneath the existing roof was not adequate to secure the new membrane roof. So there was a change order for $9,875. This was to build a new 12-inch parapet wall around the perimeter of the upper garage roof. This allowed us to get the proper clearance for the water level to the fasteners. There's a minimum distance that they like to see so you don't have any roof leaks because the water is getting in through the fasteners. So that was a good example of best practices and giving us a longer life and a better product. With that, the quantities have been reviewed. There has been a final walkthrough with the contractor and staff. And we give recommendation that council adopts a resolution approving change order number one in the amount of $9,875.00. and the final payment of $148,386.25. I guess I should add, I'm sorry, that this change order will be funded by the sale of the Rice Home Medical Building and or operating budget as needed from Public Works.

I got a motion from Rick. Do we have a second? Second. We've got a second discussion.

Justin. I'm curious as to what will make the determination between where those funds are coming from because that will change my vote considerably.

Oh, well, after discussing with Mr. Odens, there was some questions, or I had some questions about what was left over in the Redwood Falls. And there is some money left over from the DOAC insurance payment. And so we were looking at that. But if that did not go through, I was going, we were willing to absorb it in our public works operating fund from the maintenance and other improvements line item.

Okay. Maybe a question for Mr. Odens. Then the money from the Redwood Falls sale of the Rice Home Medical Building has been used for capital improvements. Is that correct?

Yes, the sale proceeds were identified for the Public Works shop roof, the Public Works block repair, the Dorothy Olsen Aquatic Center filters that were replaced, and the law enforcement heat pumps. The change order, in part, as well as the Public Works office roof were added on. All of that combined And then there was an insurance claim that helped us out. There's a little over $10,000 left of the rice home medical sale. So the change order fits within that. That's great.

Any other? Rick.

Thanks, Mr. Mayor. So that change order, who caught that? Was it our building official or was it the roofer?

It was, thank you, Mr. Fagerle. The contractor caught it once they uncovered the roof. They did not, during their initial investigations, they didn't peel back that portion of the roof. to see what the substrate was and they assumed that it was going to be typically if you look in the last page of this or the last attachment on this agenda item you can see how it's a kind of a triangle shape they were always typically that's not how it's laid out typically there is more of a Where it says the three-quarter inch perlite board, typically that's a more substantial, I guess, material that you can screw into. This one was stripping out with the fasteners. It was just rotted from all the years of the roof leaking.

Well, it's a good thing it was caught, yes. Did our officials look at it at all?

No. City staff, public works supervisor, and myself went on the roof and looked at the condition of the substrate and verified that it was indeed rotted and needed to be replaced.

I thought that's why we have building officials, because they go out and say what the public should do, but they don't look at our own building. I find that odd.

I'm going to have to get more information before I get back to you on that one. No, that's fine.

Any other questions? Roll call.

Council Member Nelson.

Aye.

Osk.

Aye.

Gilbertson.

Aye.

Gardner.

Aye.

Davis. Aye. Baggerly.

Aye.

And Childers.

Aye.

Seven ayes, zero noes.

Motion carries. Shane, you want to take us through Emerald Ash Border Management?

Yes, I would love to. So tonight I'm bringing forth a Emerald Ash Borer management plan. As you guys approved on the August 17th meeting, you allowed us, the Public Works Department, to pursue a grant for funding to help combat the Emerald Ash Borer that's in Willmar. Part of the grant evaluation is having a council adopted Emerald Ash Borer management plan. This plan would also help set us up for future grants, and it's good to have a plan for staff and council to refer back to when they're getting questioned by the citizens of Willmar. Yeah, and then so I think that the Emerald Dashboard Management Plan presented to you today is a good starting point. Definitely need some improvement along the way, but we are going to consistently work on that over the next couple years and get a nice polished plan for you. And with that, I would, like the council, I would encourage them to set a motion to adopt the Emerald Ash Borer Management Plan.

Move to approve. Second.

We have a motion. Second. Discussion? Roll call.

Council Member Osk.

Do we have any in town yet?

Yes. We do? It has been confirmed. Okay. Okay, I'm sorry roll call.

Councilmember Osk.

Aye.

Gilbertson.

Aye.

Nelson. Aye. Baggerly.

Aye.

Gardner.

Aye.

Childers. Aye. Davis. Aye. Seven ayes, zero noes.

Motion carries. Next is a downtown I&I study.

Good evening, Mayor, Council. And closing your packet this evening is the downtown I&I study that was completed. By way of reference, this was a grant through the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency for investigation of I&I within the downtown area. So ultimately what occurred is a contractor came in, did closed circuit televising of both the mains and the laterals within the downtown area. Those results were logged. They were transferred to a map, which is one of the exhibits in the back half of the report. In addition to that, wastewater staff assisted in the smoke testing of a variety of areas downtown to identify other potential cross connections or sources of inflow and infiltration. Ultimately what you see before you this evening is a compilation of all of those investigations and ultimately a document which will help plan future capital improvement projects within the downtown area. What's being requested of council this evening is passing a motion to accept the downtown sanitary sewer inflow and infiltration assessment report. And with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions that council might have.

Questions or motion?

Tom? Can you walk me through the map, the grade levels of zero through five? I guess looking for just a little bit more information. Is this things that we need to do yesterday or are these things that we need to do 10 years from now? Just curious when we're planning our budgets and our capital improvements.

Sure. So I don't have the specific map that you're referring to and grades, however, up on the screen is essentially the results of what was discovered, taking into account the grades, right? So we've identified Couple areas within downtown that could definitely be candidates for improvement the west area there identified in red the yellow area on the east and then those based on the deficiencies within the system are identified as a reconstruction project the light blue colored streets those pipes are in have a better grade than the others. And as a result, at least through this study preliminarily, we believe that those pipes could be rehabilitated with trenchless methods such as sanitary sewer lining and those types of treatments. The area in green near 4th Street there. That area has been identified as sufficient. The televising in that area, there's a lot of PVC pipe, which is the pipe material that we're installing in all these reconstruction projects that we're doing, and that's in really good shape. Light blue. Red on the west side, reconstruct. Yellow on the right side, reconstruct. And then green in the middle.

Good to go.

Yeah, Steve. Thanks, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Volge, reading through this report was interesting, to say the least. Is there a plan for the one sewer that dumps into the storm system to be corrected? yeah so i appreciate you bringing that up um that was a discovery uh through some smoke testing efforts and that has been completed that has been okay that has been taken care of and my second question is uh this is not an insignificant amount of money to to do this um for those of you that aren't seeing this omit is just over five million dollars total to do all three of these projects projected costs Do you know if there's grant money available to help us with this or is this something we're just gonna have to rotate into the CIP street repair plan?

So public works and wastewater staff, we've discussed this. This is actually the first step associated with pursuing some funding for these types of improvements. Ultimately the study before you clearly illustrates that there's inflow and infiltration going on in downtown. What we've discussed is installing some flow meters to really quantify how many gallons are we talking about so that we can explain that to the MPCA, and as their funding programs become available, apply for that with that actual data. The study itself is a leg up on most applicants for those types of funds. The flow metering data Dry weather which during the winter before the rains come that'll really help quantify it based on those rain events So really long answer to the fact that yes We're anticipating applying for future grant funding associated with these improvements in addition particularly in the areas where the reconstruction occurs, that needs to be carefully coordinated with any other potential improvements being discussed downtown. So, yes. All right, thank you.

Justin. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Vogue, I believe Councilmember Gilbertson was asking for a bit of a timeline as well, like any recommendations for when these projects need to be completed.

Million dollar question. Okay. So currently, I mean, it's no secret that the areas in red and yellow are deficient. They've probably been that way for a number of years, and I don't think there's any imminent threat currently based on the observations and investigations that were completed. However, I will point out that the downtown area in the... In the five-year CIP that was presented and adopted last year did not incorporate any of these areas in there either so what wastewater and public work staff and I have discussed is taking a look at that as part of that next CIP annual CIP street and utility CIP update. certainly open to any council feedback as it relates to priorities because as you're well aware there's a lot of them and there's a limited number of resources.

And to that point if is there any reason to believe that that the situation is worse in this location? I mean we only looked at this depth at one small part of town like for instance you know Fifth Street, Sixth Street, those two red streets we stopped testing at Trott and If we kept moving further, what are we likely to find outside of this tested area?

In the older original area of town, I would say you'd find similar items now. As funds have allowed in the past, staff has been working on lining things. That's why you see that area in green there. this is it's similar reflection to the older areas in town that we see with these clay pipes i mean it's it's system-wide so there's no reason to believe that this is somehow worse than the rest of town as long as it was like similar ages of construction it's definitely an older area of town um which I'd be speculating if I said it's worse than others, but I'm expecting it to be very similar to similarly aged utilities, as you indicated. Sure. Thank you.

Carl and Rick.

Mr. Bogey, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Bogey, the sinkhole that appeared on, was that 4th Street, 5th Street, downtown? Where was it, 3rd Street? I can't remember where it was. Is that related to any of this? Can we... fear that something like this might happen downtown again?

The short answer to that question is there were some pipe conflicts that were Pipes that were in conflict with one another, storm sewer and sanitary specifically, that is what we believe to be the reason for the sinkhole. It's very likely that there could be some potential other locations that this occurs. It's just based on the construction back in those days using shovels versus equipment, right? I mean, these utilities are... They're old, they were installed with different methods than are currently acceptable today. So there's certainly not a reason to fear that. The smoke testing definitely helps with that. But this study in no way, shape, or form should be misconstrued to be considered the ultimate, final, finite detail associated with the utilities downtown. Rick.

Thanks, Mr. Mayor. So were these pipes put in in the 80s when they did the downtown heating, or they're older than that?

It's been interesting. I don't have the specific dates on these right now, but the red areas and the yellow areas are significantly older. We did find some information that potentially when the heat lines were put in, the water main was replaced, but the sanitary for whatever reason was not. I don't have all that history, but we definitely have ran into similar situations in other areas of town and through collaboration with WMU That has since ceased or at least since 2022 Anybody else All right, we need a motion in a second I

To accept it.

To accept it, yes.

So moved. Second.

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

Council Member Childers.

Aye.

Vaggerly.

Aye.

Nelson. Aye. Davis. Aye. Gilbertson. Aye. Gardner. Aye. And Osk.

Aye.

Seven ayes, zero noes.

The motion carries. Jared, you're on again. Resolution approving land acquisition agreement.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor, Council. Two items associated with this. The first one being the land acquisition agreement with MnDOT, and then the second being the cooperative construction agreement. The project area has been identified in your packet, but ultimately it's along the west side of town, west of the Wilmer Bypass along County Road 55. MnDOT is currently in the process of obtaining bids to install a 12-inch tile line from the area just east of the Wilmer Y that's been inundated with some stormwater to a degree larger than it existed prior to the construction of the Wilmer Y and now we're letting it into Hawk Creek. So ultimately what the, two asks here from MnDOT, one is the cooperative construction agreement, they indicate that they are gonna fund the improvements However, they would like the city to assume maintenance responsibilities of it. And the second one, where the pipe is planned to be outlet is city property, and that's why the land acquisition agreement is before you this evening, being the first requested item for action. The cost associated, or the compensation, if you will, ASSOCIATED WITH THAT HAS BEEN IDENTIFIED AS $500. IT'S APPROXIMATELY .11 ACRES. I FORGET THE SQUARE FEET OFF THE TOP OF MY HEAD, BUT RELATIVELY SMALL AREA, 100 FEET BY... IT WAS IN THE PACKET, I'VE FORGOT. BUT ULTIMATELY, VERY SMALL AREA. THEY'RE JUST SEEKING PERMISSION. and compensation from the city of Willmar to move forward with their improvements. So with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions about that agreement or the cooperative construction agreement.

Robert, do you need to review this?

Mayor, members of the council, the motion is to approve pending my review, and the reason for that is I had made a recommendation about the form of the deed the city is to provide to MnDOT And MnDOT is pushing back on my recommendation. They did provide some information we need to review in order for us to be comfortable advising the city to sign the warranty deed that MnDOT is required. So this would be an approval as long as my review of the MnDOT documentation about the status of the title of this property checks out.

Okay. So we need a motion and a second. Okay.

Move to approve, subject to the city attorney approving it.

Do we have a second?

Second.

Got a motion and a second. Discussion?

Carl. I see approving the amount of $500, but further down it says the purchase price for the .11 acre parcel is $550.00.

Yeah, I apologize, Council. That's a typo. It's actually $500. It is $500.

Yes.

Roll call.

Council Member Davis. Aye. Gilbertson.

Aye.

Osk.

Aye.

Gardner.

Aye.

Schultes.

Aye.

Fagerle. Aye. And Nelson. Aye. Seven ayes, zero noes.

That motion carries. You're on for the next one too.

Yeah, so the next item before Council this evening is the approval adopting the resolution approving the cooperative construction agreement for the grading and drainage improvements.

Do we have a motion? So moved. Got a motion, I will have a second.

Second.

We have a second. Discussion? Justin?

Do you have any anticipation of what the cost to ongoing maintenance will be, an annual number to attach to that?

I don't have an annual number for you, but in terms of level of effort, as part of the improvement, there is an outlet control structure that's being installed that will need to be reviewed annually, so approximately an hour of staff time. and the other components should see at least 50 year life. The outfall to the creek should be investigated per the city's MS4 inspection schedule, which is each outlet needs to be inspected once every five years. So if I had to break that down, I'd say an hour and 15 minutes annually.

Discussion? Is this an activity the MnDOT won't do?

So discussions with MnDOT and the reason or their ask for the city's maintenance or city being responsible for the maintenance, ultimately it is very close to city limits. They're anticipating that at some point it will be with entirely within the city limits. Typically when that happens, improvements are then transferred to the local jurisdiction at the time. They are proposing to spend, I don't know exactly what these project costs are, but it's a significant amount of money on this pipe and the outlet structure and the outlet into the creek and what they're, They're asking is that the city accept those improvements and agree to maintain it moving forward. So It was a it was a question that was asked of them at some very initial meetings and I believe the short answer to your question is not for this particular pipe Any other discussion

Roll call.

Council Member Nelson. Aye. Baggerly. Aye. Childers.

Aye.

Gilbertson.

Aye.

Davis. Aye. Osk.

Aye.

And Gardner.

Aye.

Seven ayes and zero noes.

The motion carries. Thanks, Council.

Thank you, Chair.

Next is 2027 improvement project design and construction engineering services. Calling Shane Stefani.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Tonight I am presenting the 2027 improvement projects design and construction engineering services project. for Bolton and Mink. This total service for all of the projects for the 2027 improvements role is $780,660. And staff has reviewed and recommends a motion to adopt the resolution awarding 2027 improvement project design and construction engineering services to Bolton and Mink.

motion or discussion Motion to approve Second your motion a second discussion Roll call on some member Davis Baggerly I ask I Gilbertson I Gardner I showed his I and Nelson I seven eyes and zero nose I

Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. Next, I have consideration approval of an updated and reclassified job description and additional position.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. I'm a lot shorter than everyone else, I guess. Before you tonight, you have two job descriptions. We are proposing to make some updates to the current environmental specialist position. um turning that into an environmental compliance manager position and then adding an environmental compliance technician position to the wastewater department some background on this some of the tasks that are in these job descriptions used to be covered by the city's engineering department which was eliminated several years ago The combination of that and increased state and federal regulations has left the wastewater department in a position that they can't keep up with the work that's required for those different permits and regulations. So they're currently contracting with Bolton and Mink for a number of services related to site inspections, sampling, MS4 permitting requirements, and things like that. So what we are proposing is that we bring those services back in-house Adding the staff capacity to do those in-house instead of contracting those out Which also allows us some flexibility with that in-house staff to do public education To coordinate better internally with our departments things like that With that I will take any questions that you guys have motion or discussion Carl

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Approximately $80,000, how does that compare to what we pay Bolton and McKinney for doing those services now?

Yeah, for example, last month we paid them $9,147. Is that typical for a month? We anticipate that that will be representative of the needs going forward.

Okay, so close to $100,000 each. Yes, yep. Audrey?

Is this kind of restructuring with the change of employees out there?

This has, the conversation about this has been in the works for about a year and a half and the job descriptions already existed. It sped up the implementation by probably a couple of months.

Okay. All right, so that other position will stay the same?

The current environmental specialist position?

No, Sarah left to go to the county.

Yeah, that's the environmental specialist position. Okay, thank you. So that's the one that would be tweaked into that environmental compliance manager position. Okay, all right. And then bringing on the technician position. Okay, thank you.

Steve. Thanks, Mr. Mayor. Director Gamble, what does this do to the long-term sustainability of the wastewater enterprise fund?

YES, GOOD QUESTION. SO IT FITS WITHIN THAT FUND RIGHT NOW. SO AS OF RIGHT NOW, THIS WOULD NOT IMPACT THE TAX LEVY, IT WOULD NOT IMPACT RATES, AND IT WOULD NOT IMPACT THE LOCAL OPTION SALES TAX. I'M GOING TO DEFER TO DIRECTOR ODIN'S IF YOUR QUESTIONS GET SUPER DETAILED. But my understanding is that that rate study does have to be periodically redone. So it's hard for us to predict too far out into the future, but within the current however many years we have left on that rate study and the payments that we have to make on that debt service through 2029, this fits within the available revenue.

Okay, I just want to make sure because the 2023 state legislature did all kinds of things with all kinds of excess money that left us with long-term structural problems. I want to make sure we're not making that same mistake here with our enterprise fund.

Yeah, noted.

Justin. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'm going to piggyback off Councilmember Gardner's question because I had similar questions and concerns. I don't know if, I guess my question is, is there an urgency to this or could this be delayed while we got further information and could look at what this additional cost and this additional position does to that fund?

You can certainly delay it as long as you want. We are required to meet the permitting requirements. So to some extent you're gonna pay for it one way or another because we will have to contract it out to the engineering firm to continue to meet those permitting requirements in lieu of bringing it in-house. So

I'm just talking about at our next council meeting, after we've had enough time to review what the impact on those funds would be, would that have

So the only short-term impact I would say is that we are waiting to post an open position until a decision is made on this because we didn't want to post a position that was going to change two months from now. So we will be probably delaying filling that position, which that work then falls on Director Stefanik and Superintendent Lindahl, I guess, in the short term. they would be better equipped to answer what impact that would have on their department over the next several weeks.

I think it's hard to vote on this without really seeing the financial impact, at least for me.

Perhaps we could do this, because we have to replace Ms. Sietsema, right? So can we split this into two motions, approve revising her job description, get that posted, get her replaced, because that fits generally within our budget, right? And then adding the position, perhaps take a deeper look into what the long-term ramification of that is to the wastewater fund.

Again, it's an option. My concern with not doing them as a package deal is that we've taken some things out of that job description and added them into the technician position. So we would be hiring based on one job description, but if we never did add that technician position, then we would need that person to start picking up jobs that were not in the job that they applied for. Does that make sense? So we'd be hiring this level of person, and then we would end up saying, but we need you to do this level of work, and we're going to contract out this level of work instead if we didn't do the technician.

When the private sector, that's called other duties as assigned by your supervisor.

Yeah, within reason, but you're also paying this level of person then to do this work.

Audrey?

So what was the amount of money you thought, or you mentioned that we could save by doing this position as a staff member versus paying Bolton that makes,

It's gonna be approximately a wash. We spent $9,147 last month. So if you use that as a projection going forward, you're looking at about 100,000 a year. We're estimating 80,000 to bring on that technician in the first year. Okay, thank you.

Any other discussion? I have a motion.

make a motion to table until our next meeting.

Do I have a second? Do I have a second? You don't need a second.

It fails. No. It failed. You need a second. I'll second.

You're going to second it? Okay. All right. We've got a motion and a second to delay until the next meeting.

Isn't that debatable? I don't believe. Just right to a roll call. What's that? Mr. Mayor, since the motion was to table the agenda item, there's no discussion. We can move right to a roll call vote. All right, roll call.

Council Member Gardner.

No.

Davis. No. Paggerly.

No.

Nelson.

Yes.

Gilbertson.

Nope.

Childers.

No.

And Osk.

Aye.

Two ayes, five noes.

Motion fails.

Motion before us. Mayor? The motion before us. Was that moved and seconded or no? No. I'll make a motion to adopt the resolution awarding, or excuse me, I'll... It's the one before. I'll make a motion to approve the updates and reclassification of the environmental compliance manager job description in addition of an environmental compliance technician position in the public works wastewater department. Second.

We got a motion, a second. Discussion? Roll call.

Council Member Osk.

No.

Baggerly.

Aye.

Gilbertson.

Aye.

Nelson.

Aye.

Schuldes.

Aye.

Gardner.

Aye.

And Davis. Aye. Six ayes, one no.

Motion carries.

Thank you.

Next is consideration of the Roaring Twenties LLC on sale and Sunday liquor licenses. Vernet. Aye.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Council. Tonight, for your approval, I have a new liquor license for the Roaring Twenties LLC. They are looking for a full-on sale that will run through the fiscal year of April 25th, 2027, and their Sunday liquor license ending in December 31st of 2026. This is pending police department approval, but this particular establishment is the same location as Jimmy P's. Jimmy P's closed their doors and the owner of that property is now seeking a liquor license to reopen under the new name of the Roaring 20s LLC.

Where is this located?

It's over off of Lakeland Drive where the Jimmy P's restaurant was. It's the same location.

Okay. Okay.

Make a motion to approve pending police investigation.

We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. We have a second. Discussion? Roll call.

Council Member Gilbertson.

Aye.

Childers.

Aye.

Osk.

Aye.

Gardner.

Aye.

Paggerly.

Aye.

Nelson. Aye. And Davis. Aye. Seven ayes, zero noes.

Motion carries. Next, a call on Vernie Larson for setting special assistance hearing for unpaid weeds and grass mowing.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Council. Tonight, I'm requesting that you set a public hearing for October 5th, 2026 to hear any people from the audience or residents that would special assessment hearing for the unpaid weeds and grass mowing removal charges. We have two properties that... The first one is parcel 958200410. Located on 7th Street Northwest, they owe $371.09. parcel nine five eight three five zero five two zero located on third Street Northwest was two hundred and ninety one dollars and fifty two cents as part of our municipal code chapter nine SEC article three non-compliance from grass and or weeds City goes in and does the performs the job of removing those from the property and then bills the property owner in the case where the property owner does not pay the assessed or the imposed fees. We ask that it be assessed to their property taxes through this assessment hearing. So I'm requesting that that hearing be scheduled.

So moved. Second. We got a motion and a second. Discussion? Roll call.

Councilmember Nelson.

Aye.

Gardner.

Aye.

Gilbertson. Aye. Schuldes.

Aye.

Davis. Aye. Beggerly. Aye. And Osk.

Aye.

Seven ayes, zero noes.

Motion carries. Next is setting a special assessment hearing for unpaid fire alarm and system charges. Renee. Renee.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Council. Again, I'm asking for a public hearing to be set for October 5th, 2026 for the assessment hearing of unpaid fire alarm system charges. Property 95870010, located at 500 Industrial Drive Southwest, was incurred a fee of $500 when the fire department was supposed to false alarm. They did not... comply with getting that resolved in a timely manner, did not pay the fee, and now we're asking for that to be assessed to their property tax through the special hearing on October 5th.

Second. We've got a motion and a second. Discussion? Roll call.

Councilmember Gardner.

Aye.

Baggerly.

Aye.

Gilbertson. Aye. Childers. Aye. Osk. Aye. Nelson. Aye. And Davis. Aye. Seven ayes, zero noes.

Motion carries. Next is special assessment hearing for unpaid snow or ice removal charges. Once again, Vernie Larson, City Clerk.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Once again, I'm asking for a public hearing to be set for October 5th, 2026 to hear the special assessment hearing for the unpaid snow and ice removal charges to properties incurred fees over the winter of 2025 to 2026. They are 95250-0040, located on 5th Street Southeast. They owe $150. And property 95220-1780 on Ann Street Southeast owes $275. We'd like those to be assessed to their property tax through that special hearing. Second.

We've got a motion and a second. Discussion? Roll call.

Council Member Osk.

Aye.

Shulders.

Aye.

Nelson.

Aye.

Fagerly.

Aye.

Gardner. Aye. Gilbertson. Aye. And Davis. Aye. Seven ayes, zero noes.

That motion carries. Next is approve out of class pay, Human Resources Director, Melissa.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Council, before you, you have a motion to approve out-of-class pay for operations director Kyle Box for the time period in which he was acting city administrator. The designees recommend paying that time period equivalent to step six of city administrator pay grade RS which is a difference of $5.05 per hour for the time period under review. That amount is $10,504 annually, but that would be prorated to the actual time period that he was acting city administrator. To put an actual number to that, from May 19th when he began that duty through today, that total amount would be $3,272.40.

We need a motion. Move to approve.

Second.

We got a motion and a second. Discussion?

Steve. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Ms. Gamble, I assume we don't make Director Box file a time card since he's probably a salaried employee. So is this based on an eight hour a day?

Yes, 40 hours a week.

Okay. Yes. Thank you.

So that's 16 weeks plus one day.

Should we make him file a time card? Would that be better?

You might not want to see how many hours he puts in.

Any further discussion? Roll call.

Council Member Osk.

Aye.

Nelson.

Aye.

Gardner.

Aye.

Gilbertson.

Aye.

Schuldes.

Aye.

Baggerly. Aye. And Davis. Aye. Seven ayes and zero noes.

That motion carries. Next is City Administrator Appointment and Employment Agreement. Melissa.

Yes. So you have before you the employment agreement that your team of designees negotiated with Kyle Box for the city administrator position. So we are looking for a motion to approve that city administrator contract beginning on September 9th, 2026, which would be tomorrow. So moved.

Second. Motion and a second. Discussion?

Steve. Thanks, Mr. Mayor. I have two questions. First, the one motion we just approved was based on step six, but his new contract is equivalent to step seven.

Yep.

Can you explain the discrepancy there?

I do not because I did not negotiate those. So I don't know if anybody who did negotiate those in this group would like to comment. This is what I was given by the lawyers.

Sounds like a non-answer.

I don't know the answer.

I mean, to be fair, I just saw this during the course of this meeting, which in theory we probably shouldn't be checking our email during the course of the meeting, but PDF reader, I guess, doesn't install on our iPads or something. I don't know. But I do have a question regarding, and Kyle, please don't take any of what I'm about to say the wrong way, but under the if we ever ask Mr. Box to resign, there seems to be a fairly decent parachute in there that I would guess your average person doesn't get. If somebody could explain that, I would appreciate it.

I can give you a very top line answer to that, and then again, I wasn't part of the negotiating group, so I would ask any of those council members to weigh in as well. Correct, your average employee does not get such a thing, but it is quite common at a city administrator level, and I would argue that fairly common at that top leadership level of any larger organization. So while I certainly don't have that, CEOs of a lot of companies would get severance pay and it is common within city administrator positions.

I don't argue that that is incorrect. I would argue that private companies are subject to their shareholders. We're subject to the taxpayers who we take money from, not people invest in companies, so I guess I just question that particular clause within the agreement.

And that's a valid question. I don't know if any of the designees that worked on negotiating this item want to weigh in on that, where you guys landed on that item?

For the record, I hope we never have to use it.

I do too.

I don't know what to say. Audrey?

Thank you, Mayor Reese. Just to clarify, step seven of the pay grade, so did it go a step up from where we were with the previous administrator, or is this the level that the city administrator was at?

Yes. So I think what Councilman Burt Gardner was referring to is the back pay was set at step six. The new contract is set at step seven. The previous administrator left at step 12. So this is some taxpayer savings.

Thank you.

Well, I don't know what the answer to your question. Is there a motion? Yes, Robert.

Mayor, Council, as the members of the Council who are working on this know, I was not the lawyer who engaged in the negotiations of these terms, but what I would say is It is a common practice for the chief administrative officer in a city or other public employers to have some severance package on termination in their employment agreements. This is the one position in the city organization that would have an employment agreement with the city. And I do understand there was quite a bit of attention paid to that issue in the negotiations. It was a request by the employee. It was discussed with, I think, each member of the negotiating team. And the compromise, I think, that was reached was a four-month severance package for termination on certain limited circumstances. And that's within the range that we see in these types of agreements, which is typically two to six-month severance. So if that answers the question or at least provides more context, that's my understanding.

Thank you for rescuing us. Anybody else? All right, roll call.

Council Member Gardner.

Aye.

Childers.

Aye.