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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes 2022-09-21 CITY OF COTTAGE GROVE Equal Opportunity Employer 2897 -458-Fax 651 2800 -458-651  gov.mnwww.cottagegrove ve, Minnesota 55016Cottage Gro 12800 Ravine Parkway  MINUTES COTTAGE GROVE CITY COUNCIL September 21, 2022 COUNCIL CHAMBER 12800 RAVINE PARKWAY SOUTH REGULAR MEETING - 7:00 P.M COUNCIL CHAMBER 1. CALL TO ORDER The City Council of the City of Cottage Grove, Washington County, Minnesota, held a regular meeting on September 21, 2022, at Cottage Grove City Hall, 12800 Ravine Parkway. Mayor Pro Tem Dennis called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. 2. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE The audience, staff, and City Council Members stood and recited the Pledge of Allegiance. 3. ROLL CALL City Clerk Tammy Anderson called the roll: Mayor Bailey - Not Present; Council Member/Mayor Pro Tem Dennis - Here; Council Member Khambata - Here; Council Member Olsen - Here; Council Member Thiede - Here. Mayor Pro Tem Dennis mentioned that Mayor Bailey was in Washington, D.C. on City business, lobbying for some Federal funding for some road projects; he’s there with our Minnesota contingent, trying to get funding for our much-needed road improvements in Cottage Grove. Also present: Jennifer Levitt, City Administrator; Korine Land, City Attorney-LeVander, Gillen & Miller, PA; Tammy Anderson, City Clerk; Christine Costello, Director of Community Development; Brenda Malinowski, Finance Director; Greg Rinzel, Deputy Director of Public Safety/Captain, Rick Redenius, Fire Chief/Deputy Director of Public Safety, Eric Rigby, Communications Manager. 4. OPEN FORUM Mayor Pro Tem Dennis opened the Open Forum. As no one wished to address the Council, Mayor Pro Tem Dennis closed the Open Forum. 5. ADOPTION OF AGENDA Council Member Thiede made a motion to adopt the agenda; second by Council Member Khambata. Motion carried: 4-0. City Council Meeting Minutes September 21, 2022 Page 2 6. PRESENTATIONS - None. 7. CONSENT AGENDA A. Approve August 31, 2022, City Council Special Meeting minutes. B. Approve the Mobile Food Unit License for Zywiec’s Garden Center Haunting Experience. C. Authorize the issuance of a single-occasion gambling permit to Cottage Grove Strawberry Fest to conduct bingo at River Oaks Golf Course and Event Center, 11099 Highway 61 on November 20, 2022, from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. D. Authorize the issuance of a single-occasion gambling permit to the Cottage Grove Chamber of Commerce to hold a raffle on December 15, 2022, at 8617 West Point Douglas Road South. E. 1) Adopt Resolution 2022-124 declaring costs for hazardous property abatement. 2) Adopt Resolution 2022-125 to call a public hearing for October 19, 2022 for proposed hazardous property assessments. F. 1) Adopt Resolution 2022-126 declaring costs for tall weeds abatement. 2) Adopt Resolution 2022-127 to call public hearing for October 19, 2022 for proposed tall weed assessments. G. Adopt Resolution 2022-123 awarding the 2022 Tree Planting Contract to Willow River Company in the amount of $60,750, and authorize the service agreement between Willow River Company and the City of Cottage Grove for material and labor to install 166 boulevard trees. H. Adopt Resolution 2022-128 supporting the City’s Railroad Crossing Elimination Grant application for the County Road 19A/100th Street Realignment. I. Authorize service agreement with Becker Arena Products for the production and installation of the ice rink dasher board system at Glacial Valley Park for the amount of $130,526. J. Approve the Consent to Improvements with Xcel Energy for the 100th Street, 105th Street, and Ideal Avenue project. K. Approve the issuance of rental licenses to the properties listed in the attached table. L. Proclaim September 15-October 15, 2022, Hispanic Heritage Month in the City of Cottage Grove. Council Member Olsen wished to pull Item L, Proclamation Honoring Hispanic Heritage Month, for further comment and/or discussion. He stated it was an honor and privilege for him to read this proclamation declaring September 15-October 15, 2022 as Hispanic Heritage Month in the City of Cottage Grove; it runs congruently with National Hispanic Heritage Month. He stated as members of the Cottage Grove City Council, we’re all proud of our diverse population. We’ve seen an ongoing trend over the last 15-20 years in our community with an increased population of persons of color, which includes City Council Meeting Minutes September 21, 2022 Page 3 Hispanics, Latinos, Asians and Pacific Islanders, African Americans, and other people of color. Our Hispanic population has grown to almost 5% of our total population; so, to acknowledge and pay homage to our Hispanic and Latino population, he read aloud the City of Cottage Grove Proclamation, which will be signed by Mayor Bailey. Motion by Council Member Khambata to approve the Consent Agenda; second by Council Member Olsen. Motion carried: 4-0. 8. APPROVE DISBURSEMENTS A. Approve payments for the period of 9/2/2022-9/22/2022 in the amount of $1,746,577.63. Motion by Council Member Thiede to approve disbursements; second by Council Member Olsen. Motion carried: 4-0. 9. PUBLIC HEARINGS - None. 10. BID AWARDS - None. 11. REGULAR AGENDA - None. 12. COUNCIL COMMENTS AND REQUESTS Council Member Khambata stated there were a number of upcoming events in October and November related to activities at the Ice Arena and Zywiecs and the Haunted Hayride. He encouraged everyone to look at the Events Calendar on the City website. Council Member Thiede stated in the fall, Strawberry Fest manifests itself as the Halloween parade, Monster Bash, which will be on October 29. He stated it will start by the District 833 Service Center, 7362 East Point Douglas Road South, and it ends in the 8300 block of East Point Douglas Road South, near Applebee’s. We’re already receiving entries for the parade, and encouraged those who attend to wear their Halloween costumes. He stated it’s a bash, so make sure to mark this on your calendar and sign up for it. We’d love to get more people involved on the Strawberry Fest Committee, as we’re already starting to plan for next year. We need more help, so please contact Council Member Thiede for further information. Council Member Olsen stated Bill Zywiec just walked into the room; Council Member Olsen told him that they already approved the mobile food license for his Haunting Experience event, and we’re all looking forward to it. Mr. Zywiec stated that he was happy to hear that they were approved. Council Member Olsen told the public to make sure they attend the Zywiecs Haunting Experience for the fun, as it’s really great. Council Member Olsen stated there’s an election this year. To do your part, all you need to do is vote. To learn whether you’re actually registered to vote in the State of City Council Meeting Minutes September 21, 2022 Page 4 Minnesota, simply go to the League of Women Voters website, VOTE411.org. You’ll find that information, as well as the location of your polling place, can look at sample ballots, etc. Early voting starts on September 23 and ends on November 7; if you’re going to vote early here in Cottage Grove, go to the Washington County Service Center, 13000 Ravine Parkway South. You can also register to vote there. One advantage to voting early, other than not waiting in line on Election Day, is once you’ve voted, your name comes off all of the lists used by the candidates to send direct mailings; those mailings will cease. He encouraged everyone to cast a ballot, as that’s the most important thing we can do as citizens of this great nation is to exercise that right to vote. Council Member Olsen stated we recently had a candidate forum in the Cottage Grove City Council Chambers for the new Senate District 41; every 10 years when the census is done, lines get redrawn for representation by Senator and House candidates for the State of Minnesota. Cottage Grove has been divided into some new sections, based on the 2020 census; the Senate District is now District 41, the House District is now District 41A and District 41B. If you’d like to learn more about the six candidates running for these seats, the candidate forum is available on the web at SWCTC.org; it’s hosted by the League of Women Voters, two candidates are running for the Senate seat, two for 41A and two for 41B. Unfortunately, there were only three candidates who made it to this event, but you can see what questions were asked from the voters and how those candidates responded. He asked the public to watch when they’re able. Council Member Olsen stated this coming Friday it seems we start parade season, as the Park High School Homecoming parade is on September 23. He stated he, Mayor Bailey, Senator Karla Bigham, and many others will be in the Park High School parade, as we’re all Park graduates, so love to participate in that parade. We always bring plenty of candy, so he asked everyone to attend; the parade starts at 5:00 p.m. at Crossroads Church, and will go west on 80th Street up to Park High School. The football game starts there at 7:00 p.m. We’d love to see you on the parade route and in the stands to cheer on the Wolfpack. Council Member Olsen stated on Saturday, September 24, the annual Public Safety Golf Tournament will be held at River Oaks Golf Course, hosted by the Cottage Grove Public Safety Board. There will be many teams playing: Council Member Olsen and Council Member Thiede will be playing; Council Member Olsen will be representing Discover Cottage Grove as a hole sponsor. He asked that viewers put a team together to just play golf at River Oaks, or have some lunch and cheer us all on. It’s a huge fundraiser for our Public Safety Department. Our Cottage Grove Public Safety Board does very good things with the money raised: They buy breathing apparatus for our firefighters, and much-needed safety equipment for all of our Public Safety team. He hopes it will be a great fall weather day at River Oaks. Mayor Pro Tem Dennis stated his colleagues mentioned many upcoming community events. He stated we have our own Convention and Visitors Bureau, called Discover Cottage Grove. If you go to that website, discovercottagegrove.com, there’s an City Council Meeting Minutes September 21, 2022 Page 5 opportunity to select events and then sign up to receive information on them. You can also simply click on Events to see an entire calendar with all kinds of information, everything from community festivals, sales at some local businesses, apple picking sites, parades, etc. It’s a great resource so he encouraged everyone to utilize that. Mayor Pro Tem Dennis thanked a community member who’d brought something to his attention and that of a couple other Council Members. There was a concern raised over opportunities for some of our senior citizens, especially those in assisted living facilities, as they’re not necessarily having proper access to enough food. He stated he saw on the CBS Evening News tonight a report that, nationwide, food costs have increased over 14% this year, which is substantial. On top of that, many of the living facilities have had to increase their cost factors for people to be able to have their rent there per month, which has created an issue. He thanked Mayor Bailey for reaching out to Michelle Rageth, Director of the Friends in Need Food Shelf. We learned of a fantastic opportunity available in partnership through both Ramsey County and Washington County called Optage Senior Dining Choices. There’s a website for that, and it’s an opportunity for seniors to be able to have chef-prepared meals delivered to their facility, one meal per day. It was indicated that studies have shown that if people have one meal per day, that greatly helps them to be able to stay within their home, which is a very good and important thing to have happen. So, these are freshly prepared meals, very high quality, and they can either be served warm or they also have frozen meals available. This is a program that is funded, and it also gives people the opportunity to make a free will donation; if they can’t afford to do so, those meals are free of charge, which Council Member Dennis thought was fantastic. If anyone is interested in that, please take a look at that website. Our senior citizens are among some of the most vulnerable people that we have, especially those on fixed incomes, so this is very important. There are also other opportunities, Fare for All, our food shelf, and others that can be used to help. He wanted to make that information available, and asked if perhaps the City could get some information about it put onto our City website and our social media sites, including Facebook. Mayor Pro Tem Dennis stated we had a special visitor here tonight, Fire Chief Rick Redenius. He asked Chief Redenius to step to the podium, as there was something Chief Redenius wanted to talk about. Chief Redenius stated that last month, at Night to Unite, many Council Members went out with Public Safety personnel to visit the community; there were about 50 parties to attend. He’s sure everybody had a great time, and Council Member Khambata was present with us during one of those parties, as he’d been riding with our staff, and witnessed an apparatus failure. Chief Redenius stated we were fortunate that he was there, as it was our newest apparatus, and Council Member Khambata was able to quell the situation fairly quickly and got us back on the road. The Fire Department would like to acknowledge his resourcefulness, his quick action, and his knowledge; we had a plaque made for Council Member Khambata, which he’d like to read aloud. Mayor Pro Tem Dennis asked the entire Council to step in front of the dais. Chief Redenius read aloud the thank you award plaque for Council Member Khambata’s City Council Meeting Minutes September 21, 2022 Page 6 assistance on the night of August 2, 2022. Everyone applauded. Chief Redenius stated the front of the plaque depicts the hose line and coupling that Council Member Khambata procured from his house and that of his neighbor; he performed a quick splice repair that allowed us to get our ladder truck back to the station so we could get it repaired properly at Public Works the next day. We all thank you very much. Mayor Pro Tem Dennis asked Chief Redenius to estimate the cost, if we hadn’t had Council Member Khambata’s skill sets available to help with that 103-foot ladder truck, for a tow of it and a professional repair. Chief Redenius stated the tow bill alone would have been well over $500, and the repair bill to date is about $1,800. The ladder truck is actually getting its final repairs this week at Rosenbauer; it took that long for all the parts to come in. Mayor Pro Tem Dennis told Council Member Khambata that he earned about one- third of his pay for the whole year that night. He thanked him and told him it’s always a privilege to have him here. Council Member Khambata stated he’s floored with this award. He said he was just doing something that he was capable of doing, so he really appreciates this award. Council Member Thiede noted Council Member Khambata stated he got the tools needed from his home and from a neighbor; he asked if the neighbor knew that he borrowed something. Council Member Khambata replied the neighbor was an ex- pipefitter, so he had some of the fittings available; he noted that he personally had the tools at his residence. So, the two of them got it taken care of. Mayor Pro Tem Dennis thanked Council Member Khambata and Chief Redenius for recognizing Council Member Khambata’s efforts. Everyone applauded. 13. WORKSHOPS - OPEN TO PUBLIC - None. 14. WORKSHOPS – CLOSED TO PUBLIC - None. 15. ADJOURNMENT Motion by Council Member Thiede, second by Council Member Khambata, to adjourn the meeting at 7:35 p.m. Motion carried: 4-0. Minutes prepared by Judy Graf and reviewed by Tamara Anderson, City Clerk.