a couple of them do. Sarah, that's really nice packet in here. You put her a pair at that, right?
Oh, there's nothing. No, it's not terrible. It's serviceable.
All right, we can call this meeting to order at 7 p.m. Please stand for the pledge.
I pledge to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands,
one nation, one hundred God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.
Approval of tonight's agenda. Any additions or corrections? I don't have any additions.
Motion to approve the agenda. All in favor? All right. Consent agenda. Okay, a
tap share of the minutes from August 10th, and you have your payables and a couple sets of
payables and the receivables. Really, all the expenses are pretty routine. You'll just see a
couple related to the August primary election. You know, some costs for that.
Do you have a question, Clinton? We spent 7th, some page 5, 49, 200, 300, professional.
I guess that number, what's that professional entail? Why are we 23 in the hole? That was,
I think I was an asset. Same question. That's where the rent for the nursing home. That's mine.
Okay, I just wanted to make sure. Yep. Every once in a while you got back up.
The event for you to report. Yeah. Public safety aid under the revenue of get showing that we
receive some, I guess this is the only transaction we've had in there just inquiring what it's
about. Well, that was that the state gave city's money a couple, three years ago, maybe for a public
safety related, and we spent most of it the first. So it was $172, it wasn't a major amount, right?
This is funny, it just shows up now.
Motion to approve the consent agenda. Second. All in favor? Okay.
Public forum. Do we have anybody here that would like to speak through public forum?
Going once. We're here to expect the request that the city of approved the
resolution of the western half of section.
Yep. That's actually an action item that we have coming up. All right. I'm sorry. Nope. No problem at all.
So we'll catch that one here in a minute. Moving on from public forum notices and communications.
I have none for you. Admin report.
Okay. So attached in this packet would be the cash balance from last Friday, August 21, in every
report. We're going to have five interviews for police chief. The last, I just got the last final
confirmation earlier here today. So we'll be interviewing in a couple of weeks.
It'll be here in this room.
Andy Arnold Park. Remember, he renamed that park on North Street a couple meetings ago.
Sarah put together this design for this sign.
Take it up here for you.
And Joe is working with a local sign maker.
So we'll get that installed.
So I did talk to Joe about this. I don't know. Probably a month and a half ago.
And with the North Street construction project next year, we feel that if we do install it now,
I think we should take it down in the spring. I don't want him to have to work around it.
I don't want it to get damaged. We can wait until that's all restored.
Put it back in, get it seated around and have it kind of, I just hate to see, you know,
with the reconstruct them have to work around it and things just happen.
So we can talk about that when they get the sign and go from there about that.
The only other couple items here I have in the report, just want to report to you that the primary
items went very, very well. We had an 18% turnout.
And I kind of go on to say here and there's some articles that I found online,
but Minnesota traditionally has a very high turnout.
It's been that way for a very, very long time.
Presidential elections, Minnesota average was a 75% turnout.
And the national average was like 64%.
So just proves that Minnesotans care about who's sitting in the chairs.
So that's good to see.
The week of Labor Day, the Wednesday before Labor Day, I will be out of town.
Then we are back and open on Tuesday, September 8th.
Then the last item, the coalition has their weekly brief.
And there's some more information in their vote turnout in the elections and things like that.
So I have tonight.
Motion to approve.
All in favor?
Okay.
Department heads.
We have community development here.
Do you guys have to question you about for those who don't know me?
Caitlin, I'm a community development director.
I have a couple items that I'm going to talk about today.
We're going to be in just kind of an overview of the work that has taken place.
There's a community development department here.
So I'm going to start with the EEA business challenge.
This is a challenge launch.
In January, the EEA committed $1 to the awards and another $10,000 coming from the EEA.
The EEA's
program is provided by the two years 50 different hurts to the owner, which are going to be designed in
the business by the superintendent at Peterson.
During the first phase, the EEA received five applications for applicants to advance the second phase
based on points awarded for their business ideas.
Three finalists that have moved forward based on the four applicants to advance the second phase,
and then three applicants moved forward based on the quality of their business plan,
although one also may be the year before the final presentation,
but we have two final presentations.
Of those two, the EEA was one of the winners.
The decision was based on the quality of the submitted materials throughout the entire VISTA challenge,
as well as just the sustainability of the VISTA staff in general.
I think that is the biggest discussion in the program,
so that it won't resolve any new business in the community.
But beyond that immediate result, I think it is also a great way for the EEA to show that you want to
support entrepreneurs and encourage people to invest in your community.
But we also would implement just a short time to enhance the program.
Again, to learn to last year, the EEA pushed the $20,000 for the award.
We have 53 letters to eligible businesses in the mid-town.
These letters included information from the program, an application and a program policy.
Of those 63 letters, we received four applications.
Three were fully funded while one was partially funded, so in total, the EEA awarded,
which was over $12,000 towards more than $52,000 in projects cost.
So we didn't see an increase in the evaluation compared to 2025 from year to night.
And I think that this is kind of expected because the EEA didn't invest
the new eligibility requirements this year, so businesses that were being funded within the past three years
were not eligible to apply it again.
So the good news is that 10 more businesses are going to be eligible in 2027,
so you might see a bit more participation as one of those are eligible again.
Another area focused was the farmer's market.
I think last year was pretty successful, so the EEA decided to continue this event in 2026.
And one of the goals that the EEA had was to kind of promote the visibility of the event.
So to achieve this, they applied to the Comphere Financial Farmers Market Organization
grant in the spring and were awarded $1,000 for market promotion,
so they were able to purchase newspaper advertisements in Jeansville,
Mankato, Wasica, New Richland, along with the signs and banners that you will see around town.
And I think that promotion has made quite a bit of a difference.
We went from 14 vendors in 2025.
In the report, I put that there are 22 vendors in 2026,
but we actually have 20s for now because I received a couple within the past week.
So because of this increase in vendors, we've also seen more variety in products being offered.
So at the end of the season, we'll send out a survey similar to last year
to kind of better understand how they heard about the market,
what they enjoyed about it, what they think we can improve,
and how the market impacted their sales.
And I think that information will help guide planning for next year's see if there's any changes we want to make.
And then finally for the Economic Development Authority,
we have the revolving loan fund.
So as of August 1st, the balance of this account was a little over $200,000.
We have space for about two more accounts because the maximum that you can have alone for is $80,000.
It receives about $3,500 a month through loan payments,
and so far this year, the EDA has approved one new application,
while three accounts have been paid off.
So as of August 17th, there were eight active accounts.
I think one thing that the EDA could look into is promotion for the revolving loan fund
to kind of bring that number back up after all the ones that were paid off this year.
And then in planning and zoning, the Planning Commission has received two variants requests this year.
One was for West 1st Street, where the property owner requested to construct an accessory structure
within the side and rear setbacks.
And then the second was for a property behind the hardware store,
where the property owner requested to construct a structure within the front setback.
And both of these were recommended for approval by the Planning Commission
and ultimately approved by the City Council, which I'm sure you remember.
And then in terms of building permits, using the first six months of each of the last three years for comparison,
we are kind of in line with the number of permits.
It's slightly below the 51 permits issued at this point last year, but above the 40 issued in 2024.
You'll see quite a bit of a decrease in all the other numbers between in comparison to the past couple of years.
This is probably due to the fact that we have not issued a new home permit yet this year.
But we have been in contact with several people who are interested in building homes in the near future.
So you'll see that number reflected in the next few months.
And that's all I have for that.
So I'm happy to answer any questions if anyone has any.
Has there been any, any word of any development opportunities or outside of a lot from last year?
There is always some talk, nothing that is for sure at the moment.
I know most contracting, they're continuing to develop that little subdivision that they have.
That's the only thing that's for sure at the moment.
Is the shock division coming into portion or are they just sitting on it?
Still kind of working on some details of the developers agreement.
And if anything with that has like, it's decided that that moves forward.
We kind of have to go through the entire process again because it has been two years.
There's a timeframe that you have to move forward with it within after it's been approved.
So we have to go through the whole process again.
Does the city's utility project east of town?
Are they required to have any building permits or anything like that?
It also has a city limit, so it would be all coming.
Anything else for Caitlin?
Okay.
And then I just have one more thing.
I have a memo for you about potential funding for improvements to the public library.
The branch supervisor provided me with a list of improvements that the library needs that is included in there.
But there was also something that was brought to my attention by Jason Gertz, that there's a whole new rust that will need repairs as well.
So based on the severity and cost of several of these items, I recommend submitting an application to the Minnesota Historical Society's Capital Grants and Aid Program
for the more immediate and costly issues such as the windows, rust, furnace, and water damage repairs in the basement.
So it's unlikely that this grant will fully fund all of this, but previous conversations have identified the windows and the furnace as the highest priority.
This grant does require a one-to-one match, so additional funding would have to be secured if the application is successful.
So I'd like to pursue this grant opportunity, so the next steps would include contacting contractors to obtain quotes for proposed contracts.
Once those quotes have been received, they will be presented to the Council for review and approval before moving forward with the grant application.
The grant pre-applicationists do on January 22nd of next year, so with approval, I'd like to begin gathering quotes and preparing pre-application materials.
I think the hole in the rope guidance to be addressed very soon, versus later.
Yeah, that was one item, I think, was important to include in an application for grants.
Right.
If we get this in, when do we find out if we get the grant?
I am not entirely sure. I can't remember the entire timeline.
I mean, is there a difference if we put it in now versus if we wait until January to put it in?
That is when it's due, we can't. I mean, if we submit it now, we throw a difference between now and January.
Nope, it's not a rolling grant.
We just had the inside of the library painted, should at least patch the rope sooner rather than later.
I know that Jason did put some sheet metal over it for now, but I think a more long-term solution would be best for that.
For sure.
Another question I had is some place here in the last six months, the library received a grant from the Carnegie Foundation.
Any library that has started as a Carnegie library and is still a Carnegie library, I don't remember the amount, but it was substantial.
Where did that money go?
So they have their own city that probably went straight to the library.
I don't know exactly what they used that for. My guess is programming.
It would be nice to know if we went to the regional system or if we went for books just for this.
I can reach out to Kelly and ask you back.
It certainly didn't go for maintenance on the building. Our responsibility.
Thank you.
Yeah, great.
You've been doing an amazing job, Gary. A lot of work for the short time you've been here.
Thank you.
So do we need action on this too?
I guess we can look more into all of, I can gather some quotes, maybe come back and bring it up and we can talk about maybe what that funding was used for, what it was able to be used for, because it might not have been able to.
Right.
And just kind of talk about it further at that point.
Very good.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Does it do this job?
Yeah.
Almost to have reports.
We just talked about that.
Election judges for general election.
Yes.
So this is a similar resolution.
What you approved for the primaries last August earlier this month.
The resolution number 27 names the election judges for the general election on November 3rd.
I'll make a motion.
We accept resolution 2026, 27.
Second.
One favor.
All right.
Sarah.
Second.
Yep.
I'm in the data practice policy and policy.
Yeah.
So for the past several years, we have what's called the data practice policy and procedures.
When a person comes in to make a request for information, there's a certain set of paperwork that they need to fill out and things like that.
We were supposed to look at our data procedure and policies each year in August.
So thanks to Sarah Joel.
She was looking at it.
We did add a couple of things.
It would be in yellow for you right now.
And these changes actually, they come from the state recommendations from the state.
So attached is the resolution.
Amending.
The policy and procedures.
And then also attached is a resolution adjusting the fee schedule for when a person does make a request.
We are allowed to charge so much for all.
So if that's what tonight's two resolutions do and just keep in mind each August, you'll be looking at it.
Do we need separate motions or can they go together?
Let's do separate.
Just be safe.
Motion to approve resolution 2026.
Second.
All in favor.
All in favor.
All in favor.
All in favor.
All in favor.
All.
All in favor.
All in favor.
All in favor.
All dismissed.
All in favor.
All in favor.
All right.
All right.
All right.
All in favor.
All in favor.
All in favor are all in favor.
All right.
All right.
Great.
I'm looking at these fees here.
We're not in the rental business and these fees are extremely overwhelmed with most of this stuff.
extremely well on most of this stuff. It also requires that a city employee run
the equipment however we don't state the rate for that city employee. I think it's
on the actually the next page. This fee schedule looks like 10 pages long so I
just included page 8 that deals with the data requests. If you want to come in
tomorrow we can we can look at the schedule. We're not we're not voting
on the master fee schedule. Just the one improvement. Correct. Okay. I still
contest that because $16 an hour our office staff receives way more than that.
We can't be doing this stuff for for nothing so. What do you want it? It was
11 so we've bumped it up five dollars. Even at 25 we're not covering our
expenses. But you got to remember somebody's going to come in and they're
not going to pay for that then. They'll go somewhere else and buy that do that
then. Well if it's data that the city has they have to get it from here. If it's data
that can be purchased somewhere else they'll find it somewhere else. I mean if if I'm
standing alone and I'll just vote no again.
And you can. What's that? And you can. Because I can't. Yeah I've done it before.
Yeah I can. I look at this as high split in the bedroom. Just go again and come in and work
for paying for each fee. I hope somewhere else the fair said. But we're getting some
out of here. Yeah. Oh wait a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye aye aye. Opposed? Four
ARI.
Right you want to? Okay, I will reach township as provided a proposed
proposed amendment to the agreement,
which will increase,
which will add the western half of section 12.
They provide a map here.
I also went to Blue Earth County beacon,
just to show you that the four parcels
that we would add are all till the Lakers.
Okay, so there's no residential.
We do west half of section 12 there.
One thing to discuss too is what we should do
for charging for the fee in 2027,
because in 2027 is a final year
of our three year township contract.
So beginning in 28, this would go with the same formula
that we do with all of our townships.
Presently speaking, right now we charge 633 per township.
So do you want to charge half that,
or I was going to ask Mike per section or per section?
I was going to ask Mike,
we were talking about the Swit Thursday, Friday.
It is possible that Blue Earth County may charge
some fees to us because we'd have to add that
onto our system.
The packing system,
but I don't want to know that.
I don't know what the cost of it is.
Yeah.
So we just do the, like, 600 bucks or whatever.
Plus the fees.
Plus the fees.
If there's a,
if there may not be fees.
If there's none, then send that to their favor.
We have any discussion on that?
Yeah, do you want to see if, see if they have,
if there are townships, if there are a whole total of terms.
And then in the amendment to the contract,
we did leave the effective date open on there.
We would like to insert 1231.6 as the effective date
for it to go in the way.
And then it would run through the end of 20.7 when we do it.
You don't want it to carry out the rest of this year.
We certainly can.
That area is covered under the mass length
by the contract until it has the counter here.
If it makes it easier for the, for the chief
or for the county to enact it immediately,
we'll work on more of that as well.
We'll reflect a little bit.
I think it'd be easier to have a January one
to make sure that our system is,
has the right stuff into it.
Okay.
Let me show you.
Yeah.
Sure.
Any other discussion on that matter?
So, um, were you a legal counsel fix system or?
I'm sorry.
Would you repeat that?
Is the township attorney going to fix this or?
I don't see anything for him to fix.
We love the blank where we can just write it in.
Okay.
And, uh, and if the mayor and you would sign that
and date that today, we do have a special meeting
at the township level on the 31st
and we'll present it at that meeting
and have it duly taken care of.
Okay.
So we'll do the flat rate of 600
for providing services, right?
Yes.
You want to add in there.
Plus any fees associated with their attorney
by the board of counties that are changing with that?
Is there anything else you want me to do with that?
Yeah.
So the blank date on top is one, one 27.
1231 26.
1231.
Can you give me a stick?
Handy.
26.
And then the open slot down below is $600 plus fees.
Yep.
Yep.
Thank you.
And that's acceptable.
You're a plus fees from that's 600 to say plus fees.
I'm not sure if we'll be able to do that by the way.
It's better to say, sorry, I mean, you know,
this is our request to benefit us.
We don't want you to grab a bird without a bird or a dog.
Very good.
Thank you.
Yep.
And Mike, you're agreeable to this?
Yeah, there's no residence there realistically
I didn't mean to get into the call.
If it is the ad for us and current you're agreeable,
I would move that we approve this contract amendment.
One second.
All in favor?
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Thank you, Chris.
Thank you.
You're not opposed.
You're abstaining.
Oh, we have a new one.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Thanks, guys.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Turn on the fire, deeper.
Aye.
Yeah.
We told them all three times.
I'll start back.
Do you worship the general fund?
Okay, so tonight we're looking at public safety.
Mike is here for the fire department and I can go over the police.
It just doesn't matter if a couple minutes here.
There is with the proposed fire budget, there is a decrease, actually, of about $6,000
in the budget.
Anybody have any questions?
It's kind of...
Aye.
I do.
Yep.
Maybe I don't understand.
What's on grocery that we're paying electricity and natural gas and furniture?
Okay, that's the police department.
It's the police department.
That's the old city show.
Yeah.
Yep.
Okay.
That'll go down?
That's where they have this one, Chris.
Humvee is down there.
Yeah.
I don't...
Mike, do you want to add anything?
It's...
No, we decreased the fuel.
We had less security in the whole two budget and on Chris they're going up, but we're going
to come both good, so I wanted to talk closer to what we did.
We decreased that.
And two of the things that we had...
We had all our budget on, so we also had to plug in four of your projects, but that's
one of those same numbers in there.
Obviously, the insurance side of the 10% there, we don't know if you're sure it's kind of
a play.
Right.
So...
As with all your departments.
Mm-hmm.
The...
If you look at 6.01, 6.02 there.
One, 6.11.
Those are done in, I think, one more year of payments on all of this.
And that falls off the...
That's $60,000 roughly.
Yep.
That falls off after this next budget.
And it won't be great on it.
$12,000 for turnout here.
Anybody else want two and a half sets right now?
Okay.
We just put two and no people on.
Two.
We did put two people on last month.
Yep.
Some of them are partially trained, so that helps them out there.
Are you giving them on it?
Otherwise, I have a lot of change in here.
I'd like to take a full-on call to the fair hall if I could.
We don't answer it up there, and it will be their answer.
When it rings, it scares you, because it never rings.
I don't think it will bring figures up or not.
I've never seen it before.
I've answered it twice.
Yeah.
In the 26 years I've been on, I've answered it twice.
Well, is the fair hall open that somebody could go in there in case of ending emergency?
No.
No.
Okay.
If we get it for a storm shelter, some of that, we can catch somebody pretty quick.
Right.
But nobody could go in to grab an extinguisher or to use the phone if that was the answer.
Do we need the phone for facts?
You use the facts ever.
We don't need it for a copy or for any reason.
We used to use it when we would have to call this badge for all times.
Yeah.
But we don't have to put it on.
Right.
No, we could use our phone.
No, it's all.
On the radio.
It's four hours a year, and it's not a huge of a dollar item,
but it's a program using that way you get it.
Yeah.
Any other questions for Mike on this budget?
I did want you guys to know that the part of our main conjunction with the school is putting
on the EMR class.
When you're in this year, we'd like you to medical scientists to know that we're required
for part of our members.
The community seniors can take that as a monthly class, security.
They have, I think there's 16 people in the class.
I know this class starting the first day of the year.
So do you know that we're doing that?
We're starting with our volunteering time.
Mostly meeting with them.
I'm trying to get other people on because I can do it on purpose.
So what is our total exposure as far as the budget on that?
There's none.
There's none to us.
No dollar.
No expenses.
Oh, during that.
This one we'll have to know what's happening.
Yup.
Thank you.
It's a good program.
Yeah.
It's very good.
We had nine last year that went through it.
They all passed.
And we have 16 of you.
I think that's what they said.
Nice.
All of them are two.
Yeah, there is an increase due to personnel costs, of course, and insurance.
So that top part of the budget would be all the HR items.
Other than that, when Steve put the 2026 budget together, he did a very good job with keeping
the line items at a minimum, and Mark has done the same thing this year.
So honestly speaking, the 4% increase is coming through human resource expenses.
Anybody have any questions?
Kyle, you had a question on Grove Street.
You got that answered, right?
Yeah.
Okay.
I just thought we were weird, but please, I think all that building was there.
So our next meeting, we'll look at streets and parks.
And then at the end of September, we have our preliminary tax levy that we have to submit
to the county.
And if you ever have any questions on something, you can always come in and ask.
Anything else on public safety budget?
That's all I have.
Thank you, Mike, for being here.
Before we move on to the golf course, we've got to go back to console reports because
I forgot that.
Okay.
I saw that.
Does anybody have any console reports you'd like to share with us this evening?
No.
No.
James Brothers is going to fix the water pipe that's nursing home.
Seeing they did that.
For the day fix it already.
I've not been gone.
Yeah.
They've installed it.
We're still waiting for something part for the plumbering.
We talked a little bit about Arnold Park and the sign and part of that.
We talked a little bit about what we talked about.
We talked a little bit about what we talked about.
We talked about what we talked about.
We talked about what we talked about.
We talked about what we talked about.
We talked about what we talked about.
We talked about what we talked about.
We talked about what we talked about.
We talked about what we talked about.
a number of similar improvements to Arnold Park.
What's going on here with me?
Um, I didn't have Bob's shadow.
We're going to be doing interviews.
So the chief job as far as personnel can be goals.
And I think we meet utility board like me.
Next week then.
Gonna be gone.
Uh, that's it.
I believe for constant reports.
And I'll let we get that squared away.
Uh, folks, for the ball picker.
Oh, the driving range.
Yes, the ball picker that,
surprise, surprise, picks up the balls at the driving range.
Is in need of repair.
I think it's a...
It's the original to the course I do believe.
So Jacob did get a couple quotes.
Uh, whoops.
The quotes are the same.
Same dollar amount.
He says he believes that the...
Thrasher golf had better customer services
visiting on the phone and things like that.
So Jacob recommends that we purchase the unit from Thrasher.
The picker is completely down.
Yes.
So the driving range is closed.
No one can use the driving range.
All right.
Let's get on to something.
It's taking up for him the other day.
Mm-hmm.
Was that a motion, Kyle?
I'm motioned by the...
Go with...
Thrasher.
Second.
I'll get this later.
All in favor?
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
What's the EPA on that if he orders it right away?
If you know?
It's one to two weeks I thought on the bottom of it.
Oh, did I just not even look at it?
Pretty much.
One to two weeks.
Oh.
So you should be able to get it here or just summary it.
And that's just an attachment that goes on in front of that.
Just pick the bulb out.
It's not a self-propelled machine.
It's an attachment though.
Okay.
It's not seats to hold little kids so they can pick them up as it goes by.
Well, they just have the moment to come up, right?
Uh, does anybody have anything else to add?
Nope.
This is pretty quickly.
Any other motions?
I'll make a motion to adjourn.
Second.
All in favor?
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Thank you, Caitlin.
That was very well done.
Was very good.
What time did you say 741?
Thank you.
441.