HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-06-05 City Council Regular Meeting Minutes
COTTAGE GROVE CITY COUNCIL June 5, 2024
12800 RAVINE PARKWAY SOUTH
COTTAGE GROVE, MN 55016
COUNCIL CHAMBER - 7:00 P.M
1. CALL TO ORDER
The City Council of the City of Cottage Grove, Washington County, Minnesota, held a regular meeting on June 5, 2024, at Cottage Grove City Hall, 12800 Ravine Parkway. Mayor Bailey 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-Here; Council Member Garza- Here; Council Member Khambata-Here; Council Member Olsen-Here; Council Member Thiede-Here.
Also present: Jennifer Levitt, City Administrator; Tammy Anderson, City Clerk; Ryan Burfeind, Public Works Director; Zac Dockter, Parks and Recreation Director; Joe Fischbach, HR Manager;
Conner Jakes, Associate Planner; Pete Koerner, Public Safety Director; Korine Land, City Attorney-LeVander, Gillen & Miller, PA; Gretchen Larson, Economic Development Director; Brenda
Malinowski, Finance Director; Amanda Meyer, City Engineer; Mike Mrosla, Senior Planner; Emily Schmitz, Community Development Director.
4. OPEN FORUM
Mayor Bailey opened the Open Forum.
Gene Smallidge, 10992 Point Douglas Drive, Cottage Grove, stated I’m here to tell you 3M has not been a good neighbor, this is in regards to weeds. For the last 40-to-50 years, there
have been six of us farmers in South Washington County that rented 1,400 acres from the 3M company. I believe we all kept it in good, aesthetically-looking shape. In 2022, we all got
notice saying 3M would no longer rent land to farmers, and this was worldwide, which encompassed a lot of acreage. In the meantime, 3M did little or nothing to keep the land in a weed-free
situation. I want to take you on a visual tour of some of the 3M land, as well as some neighboring land, and show you what can be done; he showed 10 slides and described them as follows:
#1: This is adjacent to Innovation Road, I rented this field for 33 years from 3M. When they approached me in 1989 to rent it, they said no wheat, no corn, no soybeans, this is the
gateway to our 3M facility, we want it green and growing and beautiful year round, and that’s how I left it. Last year, they got around to mowing it about the 1st of September when
it all went dormant and dead, and at that time was a serious fire hazard. When I operated it, I mowed it and baled it for hay twice a year. If there were any weeds, I sprayed it to
eliminate them. #2: This is on 100th Street, across from the Renewal by Andersen parking lot. I farmed this land for many years. Last year, at my begging, they mowed it when the weeds
were 7 feet tall, at the end of the summer, when the weeds have all gone to seed. This year, I made three calls to the City, two calls to the County, two calls to the State Department
of Agriculture, and I finally got them to start mowing. This is what their mowing job looked like; you can still see the flowers on the weeds there.
#3: This is where they’ve already mowed; in the center of the picture, that’s Canada Thistle, which is a noxious weed, designated by the State of Minnesota, that you must remove from
your property. #4: In the center there is Bull Thistle. In both cases after they’ve mowed, they haven’t even touched either of these species. #5: Here you see a ribbon of yellow where
they totally missed a strip. #6: I have an alfalfa field right next door to their property where I still farm. I don’t want contamination of my fields with their weeds. #7: After they
got done mowing, you see they left me ample flowers adjacent to my field; this is a weed called hawk’s-beard, it’s a biennial so it sleeps the first year, which it did last year, and
it explodes in year two. Those yellow flowers soon turn white, and they blow just like dandelions, for miles. #8: In the first call I made to Cottage Grove, the staff person that I
talked to said we’ve entered into an agreement with 3M, they said they’re going to plant their acreage that was previously farmed to native prairie grass so that they would have minimal
maintenance. This is the prairie grass that I planted many years ago, it’s right across from Renewal by Andersen, on the corner of 100th and Ideal Avenue. I want to tell you there’s
nothing minimal maintenance about having a clean prairie grass. Your Public Works Director and I toured some of these fields a week ago. At that time, I told Ryan I’m going to give
you a dollar for every weed you find in my prairie grass field. I think he had to use his own money for lunch that day. #9: We think NorthPoint Development Company has attempted to
do a good job, they rent land back to me, and west of Ideal Avenue, they offered this land to me; I referred them to another farmer, and he’s doing a good job with a rye crop that’s
totally weed free at this point. But that yellow flower will blow for miles and it will be in these fields in the future.
#10: This is what most of 3M’s fields looked like before they mowed. However, they mowed too late, most of the weeds had already advanced to the flower and seed stage so it does little
to control them. They’re going to have to get a mowing program where they mow almost like you mow your lawn in order to get ahead of this, or else use some serious herbicide applications.
They aren’t the only ones, there are developers who like the yellow flower also. Next time you drive down County 19, at the intersection of 90th Street, the housing developer there
has plenty of yellow flowers also. If we don’t already have it, I would hope we would get an ordinance with teeth in it that would require 3M, developers, farmers, everyone, to control
weeds on their property. Thank you so much for your attention.
Mayor Bailey stated thank you, Gene, and I know our staff was working with you, and I believe 3M and the State, so we will obviously respond back to you at that point. Thank you for
bringing it to our attention. I will just share with you it’s interesting that that yellow flower, if you will, is a weed because I would assume most of us look at that and go, oh,
that’s really pretty, but it’s not. Now, the thistle, I don’t even want to touch that stuff. So, thank you, Gene.
As no one else wished to address the Council, Mayor Bailey closed the Open Forum.
5. ADOPTION OF AGENDA
Motion by Council Member Thiede to approve the agenda; second by Council Member Khambata. Motion carried: 5-0.
6. PRESENTATIONS
Public Safety Board Scholarship Presentation
Staff Recommendation: Receive Public Safety Board Scholarship Presentation.
Mayor Bailey asked the Council Members to join him and the Public Safety Board in the front of the dais while Community Engagement Officer Ryan Pierre steps up to the podium.
Officer Pierre thanked the Mayor and Council Members, stated he and the Public Safety Board are here to do a quick overview and present awards for the Craig Woolery Scholarship.
The Cottage Grove Public Safety Board is made up of multiple citizen volunteers, members of our community of various backgrounds; the board is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization.
They have liaisons from the Police Department, Fire, and Emergency Medical Services (EMS). The Public Safety Board meets once per month and works together to promote the partnership
between citizens of Cottage Grove and the Public Safety Department, in support of a safe community. Mission: The mission of the Public Safety Board is to provide financial support for
equipment, training, and programs to enhance safety and to provide crime prevention and safety information to citizens. Community Engagement & Educational Opportunities: Include Strawberry
Festival and Parades, Night to Unite, Safety Camp, Police and Fire Open Houses, and other Community Events. Fundraising Efforts: Come from Grant Opportunities; Variety of Fundraising
Events, including hosting Bunco Events; K-9 Plushies and Challenge Coins; Cancer Awareness and Autism Awareness Patches; Citizens’ Donations. Ongoing Support: Most recently, they donated
$15,000 to purchase Fitness Equipment for the fitness room at the Cottage Grove Central Fire Station; the former equipment was donated from an exercise business and is at the end of
its life expectancy. The firefighters worked closely with the Public Safety Board to determine the needs and update the equipment, to include free weights and a squatting rack. They
have also donated Portable Speed Signs. They have been a large supporter of our K-9 program, including purchasing the dogs and equipment; Firefighter Particle Hoods; and the Craig Woolery
Scholarship.
The Cottage Grove Public Safety Board is pleased to offer the Craig Woolery Scholarship to residents of Cottage Grove pursuing postsecondary education in law enforcement, EMS, and
firefighting. The Cottage Grove Public Safety Board welcomes and supports diversity in the application and award process. The Scholarship Application is due on May 1 of each year; applicants
must complete the application, submit an essay and a letter of recommendation. It’s open to residents of Cottage Grove pursuing post-secondary education in Law Enforcement, EMS, or
Firefighting; there is more information on the City of Cottage Grove website. Officer Pierre stated he’d now turn this over to Julie Rice, President of the Public Safety Board.
Julie thanked the City Council, Director Koerner, family members and guests of our recipients. We want to thank Justin and Kim Olsen for asking the Board to present this scholarship
to the community and to raise funds for it. The Lions Club, several Board Members, and other citizens of the community have donated funds so that we can give this scholarship award.
This year we looked at our funds, and we were able to give four scholarships; each one of those awards is $1,500. All of the recipients are pursuing a career in Public Safety. We
have two high school students that started in an Explorer Program. The Cottage Grove Explorer Program is run by police officers Ryan Sisterman and Mackenzie Foster; they help train
young high school students between the ages of 14 and 20, who are interested in pursuing a career in law enforcement, EMS or paramedic school, whichever they want to attend. This year
the program entered a State competition, with about 100 other Explorer Programs throughout the State. Our program took 5th place in traffic crash, 3rd place in embedded social worker
and public safety model, 2nd place in street decisions, and 1st place in suspicious activity. Each one of these potential law enforcement officers meet every Sunday; that’s a big commitment
for high school students to come in every week to do their training. So, we’re very proud of our program. We help sponsor them, but they do their own fundraising as well.
Two of our award recipients are Avery Christopherson and Colin Schmit, she asked them to step forward. Julie noted they were given their awards at the Park High School awards ceremony
last week, but they didn’t find out they got the awards until that night. Now they’re getting an official scholarship presentation.
Julie stated our Explorers also help police the parade routes and help out at other events, so if you see them, give them a good hi and throw them some candy in the parade because
they do a great job. She thanked Avery and Colin for all of the training they’ve already gone through and that they’ll be doing next year to pursue their careers.
Julie stated our next recipient is Peyton Taylor and asked her to step forward. Peyton is a current Community Service Officer (C.S.O.) for the City of Cottage Grove. She helps out
on dog calls, sprinkler violation calls, so, calls that the police officers normally don’t take. She was recommended by Sergeant Nils Torning. She has a great, positive attitude for
her work; she makes an effort to meet with the public
and help them solve their problems. She thanked Peyton, and noted she’s continuing her education at 916.
Julie stated our fourth recipient, Chris Vierling, is already a member of the Public Safety Department as a parttime firefighter-EMT; she asked him to step forward. She thanked
Chris and said Chris is continuing his career, training, and schooling. You just don’t get a degree and go do your job; there are continued classes, continued training to keep up to
date with lifesaving efforts so that they can help the citizens of Cottage Grove. Chris has been with the Fire Department since 2016 as a firefighter-EMT. So, anybody who needs life
saving, he’s ready for you.
Julie stated we just want to thank all of our recipients, continue with your careers, make us proud to have you as citizens of Cottage Grove, and hopefully you can all return as
police officers for Cottage Grove. Thank you. Everyone applauded.
Mayor Bailey stated before we do the handshaking, etc., he wanted to thank the Public Safety Board for all of the tremendous support that you give our Public Safety Department as a whole:
Fire, EMS, and Police. He also personally wanted to thank Council Member Olsen, who kind of got the Craig Woolery Scholarship jumpstarted, and it’s just continued to grow and grow.
You get to see the work Council Member Olsen puts forth, getting the message out there, because it’s going to help these young individuals to be able to have a career in law enforcement
or Fire-EMS. He thanked Julie for coming here this evening and presenting the awards. He asked Council Member Olsen if he’d like to say a few words.
Council Member Olsen stated I’m so happy to see all of you standing here, and I’m so grateful to the Cottage Grove Public Safety Board for managing this scholarship program. When
my wife and I started this in honor of former Public Safety Director Craig Woolery, we did so with the intent to have young people from the community who were pursuing a career in Public
Safety get at least a leg up. I understand that school is every expensive, books are expensive, etc. Then you have P.O.S.T. training you have to do if you’re going into law enforcement;
you’re going to have continuing education training that you need to do to maintain your medic certificate, which Chris recently received, so congratulations on that. Hopefully, this
is just one small way for us to demonstrate that we believe in you, we’re grateful for the work that you do for the community today, and we look forward to the work you’re going to
do for the community moving forward. Hopefully, this is going to help you out a little bit. Thanks.
Mayor Bailey stated awesome, let’s give them one more round of applause. I’m going to start the handshaking, and all Council Members congratulated each scholarship recipient.
Mayor Bailey stated it’s always fun to do that; Council Member Olsen and I had the opportunity to be at the Park High School senior event to see all of the scholarships awarded
from different companies and groups.
B. Strawberry Festival Presentation
Staff Recommendation: Receive Strawberry Festival Presentation.
Mayor Bailey stated one of the key members of the Strawberry Fest is Willie Tennis, so he asked him to step forward and share with us all of the excitement of this year’s event.
Willie Tennis greeted everyone, said thanks for the opportunity to talk about the Strawberry Fest. I’ve been on the committee for 14-15 years, but this year is our 40-year celebration,
so we’re pretty proud of that. Thursday night events keep growing every year. We have a lot of events for kids, as you can see on the slide here.
On Friday, one of the big things is the Strawberry Marketplace for business expo and businesses to showcase their businesses. The lady we have in charge now is doing a fantastic
job: Three years ago, there were 93 businesses, last year she had like 105, and this year we have 119 vendors coming, which is phenomenal.
Bands will be performing, one of the lead-off bands is called Distilled, that happens to be some local people from Cottage Grove, which is pretty cool. Tim Sigler was here last
year, on Saturday night, but this
year he’s going to be performing on Friday night; they told me he’s a country band, I personally don’t like country, but he plays a variety, I really like the guy, he was great last
year.
Our ambassadors will be selling buttons, and this year with the buttons there are discounts from the food vendors, each one has different discounts but some of them have up to 20%
off. The ambassadors will be going around greeting people and doing what they do.
Food vendors: We have a new lady in charge of that. Last year, she had like 14, this year she has like 18 food vendors. So, everybody come hungry, there’s going to be a lot of varieties
of food.
Saturday: One of the big things, of course, is the Grande Day Parade. After that, we have something new, we have BMX bikes that are going to set up in the middle of a parking lot and
do all sorts of jumps and flips, and it’s really exciting. It’s going to be a really fun event. There will also be a car show, a pet show, the bands for Saturday night are Stone Daisy
and Them Pesky Kids. We’ll have the fireworks at 10:30 p.m. on Saturday night, as usual.
Council Member Thiede stated if you page down, it will show all of the bands, etc., so people can see all of that information.
Willie stated I apologize for some of the events I didn’t mention tonight, but there are so many. Also, make sure you come Thursday, because we have the St. Paul Park-Newport Lions
and the Cottage Grove Lions selling beer and other little drinks. Each year it keeps getting bigger and bigger, and it’s just a really fun event for the community. So, I hope everyone
has a chance to come out and enjoy it! So, thanks again, Dave; he’s my partner in crime there at the festival.
Council Member Thiede said good job, Willie! For those people who get the Cottage Grove Reports, inside there is also a flyer that tells you about some of the different things that
are happening at Strawberry Fest. Also, you can use the QR code to get more information, or go to the website address, cottagegrovestrawberryfest.com. With the QR code, you can just
put your camera on that and most phones will actually go to that website. So, that’s an easy way to get to that website. I’ve heard that we’re going to have fantastic weather again,
so we’ll see if that holds out; we’ve kind of got lucky the last couple of years. It’s going to be a fantastic time again. Thursday night, we’ve been getting things set up for that,
we’re even going to have some entertainment, actually some jazz music on Thursday night, besides the different events. Admission is free, so it’s a fantastic time. So, just round up
the kids and yourselves and get on out there and have a great time.
To remind people, for the last few years, Strawberry Fest has been on Father’s Day weekend; this year it’s the week after Father’s Day weekend. People can’t use the excuse that
they can’t come because they’re gone for the weekend because of Father’s Day. So, grab dad a week later, get out there, and have a great time.
Mayor Bailey thanked Willie and Council Member Thiede. It’s been amazing every year, it gets bigger, and there were so many people there last year, I specifically remember that there
were vendors that had to close early because they ran out of food due to the number of people there. So, that’s a really neat thing to have happen. Once again, the carnival is here,
so if you want to get some carnival ride tickets, presale tickets, I believe you can get those here at City Hall. Council Member Thiede added you can actually get them online, too,
if you go to the website.
Mayor Bailey stated the only other comment I’m going to make is about Willie and his business, Tennis Sanitation. I’m going to bring this up a little bit later when I talk about
the Fourth of July fireworks, but since he’s personally here, I want to thank you and your company because every year that I’ve asked for a $5K donation to put towards fireworks, Willie
and Tennis Sanitation donate just like that. So, all of the things that you’re doing and the financial pieces that you deal with, as you support Strawberry Fest, too, I just want to
thank you personally for your support, as well as the four other businesses that are stepping forward, too, a total of $25K towards the Fourth of July fireworks. So, it’s another big
show coming this year, so we’re very happy with that, so thank you, Willie.
Willie replied you’re welcome. We enjoy giving back to the community, that’s part of the reason I’m involved with Strawberry Fest. We’re just helping out the community, and I enjoy
working with Dave.
C. 2023 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report
Staff Recommendation: Accept Annual Comprehensive Financial Report for the year ended December
31, 2023.
Brenda Malinowski, Finance Director, stated tonight I have Rebecca Petersen here, a new face, and she’s with Redpath & Company, as we have a new audit firm this year. State Statutes
require us to have an annual audit each year, and so that has just wrapped up. So, she will be giving a review of that audit. At the end of her presentation, I do ask you to make a
motion to accept the report for 2023. With that, I will turn it over to Rebecca.
Mayor Bailey stated welcome, Rebecca.
Rebecca replied thank you, and thank you for having me here tonight. She stated I am going to go through a summary of the reports that we issue in conjunction with the audit, and then
some high-level financial summary information. We work closely with finance staff during the course of the audit, but we really do work for you as governance of the City. So, as I’m
speaking, if you have questions, please feel free to stop and ask me on point, or you can wait until the end, whatever works best for you.
There are four reports that we issued in conjunction with the audit this year. I just want to mention that some years there’s a fifth report that’s required to be issued; any time the
City expends more than $750K of Federal money in a given year, you’re subject to a Federal single audit or a Federal Compliance Audit of those expenditures. The City did not reach that
threshold for 2023, so there was no single audit this year.
Opinion on Financial Statements: This is really our primary purpose of the audit is to provide an opinion as to the fair presentation of the City’s financial statements. It would be
time and cost prohibitive for us to look at every single transaction that the City enters into during the course of the year, but we perform a variety of procedures to enable us to
provide an opinion that the City’s financial statements are fairly stated and provide a reasonable level of assurance. The result is here: The City received a clean, unmodified opinion
on the 2023 financial statements. It’s the highest level of assurance we’re able to provide; in summary, it’s the result you want.
I want to mention that on an annual basis, the City submits its financial statements to the GFOA. The GFOA has an award program, and the 2022 financial statements received a Certificate
of Excellence in Financial Reporting. We anticipate that the 2023 statements will qualify for the award as well.
Report on Internal Controls: We do not audit the City’s internal controls, but as part of our audit, we gain an understanding of the controls that are in place and the processes and
the procedures. We do test some of those controls to a limited amount, and if anything came to our attention that we thought you should know about or we identified any significant deficiencies
in internal control, we would report them to you in this letter. There is also one item that we are required to report as an internal control finding, and that is any time that during
the course of the audit we as auditors identify a material adjustment to the numbers within the financial statements. It’s extremely common in local governments, but we’re required
to include it in this report. This year there was one material audit adjustment related to project costs and the accumulation of those; there were no errors as far as vendor payments
or anything in that regard, it was simply tracking methodology and how expenses were recognized. So, one finding this year that’s been resolved.
Report on Minnesota Legal Compliance: The Office of the State Auditor has a series of requirements that they request us as auditors to look at in conjunction with our audit. We’re not
attorneys, we’re accountants, and so we look at this from an accounting perspective; we’re not providing a legal opinion, but if any instances of noncompliance came to our attention
during our audit, we would report it to you. This year there were no findings of noncompliance reported, which again is the result you would want.
4) Communication to Those Charged with Governance: This is a letter from us, as auditors, to you, as governance, with some key information about current year operations and just
required disclosure information. It is a highly technical template of letter, and so I called out just some of the key points here, really what you need to know within the length of
that letter:
The first item I have bulleted here is to let you know that the City had to implement a new accounting standard this year, GASBY 96 on SBITAs, which is an awkward acronym, but it stands
for Subscription Based IT Arrangements. What this new accounting standard does is it recognizes that local governments more and more are entering into long-term agreements for
software, maybe cloud-based software or other types of contracts. When you’ve committed to enter into one of those agreements for a long period of time, there really is a liability that
the City has that the GASBY, the standard ____ body, wants to see accumulated on the financial statements. So, the City had to go through a fairly time-intensive exercise this year
to look at the contracts that are in place and determine if they qualified for accrual. The result is that there was an agreement that was eligible to be reported on the financial statements;
the net impact is about $15K, so not significant to the City’s financial statements at all, but it’s good for you to know that there was a change.
The next item is accounting estimates in the financial statements. As a reminder that some numbers in the financial statements are firm and known amounts and other items are estimated.
Two of the most significant estimates are both actuarially determined numbers: The first one I have identified here is the net OPEB liability; OPEB stands for Other Post-Employment
Benefits. It’s really the impact of the City having retirees and the impact on the health insurance offerings. So, as I mentioned, it’s an actuarially-determined number, it’s really
paid over time; the City’s not going to have to pay $942K. The second item is the net pension liability, and this is the impact of City employees participating in the State pension
plan, PERA. On an annual basis, PERA obtains an actuarial study to determine what their net pension liability is, and then they allocate that liability out to all participating employers.
So, this $15M liability that the City’s reporting is really your share of PERA’s liability, and that fluctuates heavily over time, depending on what the investment market is doing and
what the actuarial assumptions are. But PERA’s not going to come looking for a $15M check; this is just really representative of the future liability of having participants in the plan,
and it’s paid on a payroll basis when you make your employer contributions to the plan.
The next required communication I have for you is difficulties encountered in performing the audit. If we had any difficulties, we’d be communicating them to you, but I’m happy to report
that we had none; staff was great to work with.
Next is any disagreements with management. If we had any significant disagreements with management during the course of the audit that we thought you should know about, we would also
be informing you.
Other Matters: If there were items that came to our attention that we thought were important for you as governance to know about that didn’t fit in any other category, we would be communicating
them here. There’s nothing communicated this year, but I want you to know that we would be sharing that information if we had anything.
Financial Highlights
These are for the General Fund and City overall:
The current property tax collection rate for 2023 was 99.64%, which is very high, so a healthy property tax collection rate.
Fund Balance Policy: Within your General Fund you want to be maintaining Fund Balance Reserves of 45%-55% of subsequent year’s expenditures. At the end of 2023, your unassigned Fund
Balance was equal to 50% of next year’s expenditures, which is right in the middle of your policy, a nice, healthy spot to be.
Here I have some Budget to Actual information for the General Fund. There’s a couple items I want to draw your attention to:
If you look at the Total Revenues line and go up to Investment Earnings, budgeted was about $125K and actual result was over $500K. So, nice, healthy investment results for the year,
and it really is impacting overall Fund Performance.
Looking at Expenditures, you’ll see Public Safety was over budget by about $200K; that really relates to some C.S.O. time and other charges within Public Safety. My understanding is
that the departments really worked hard to tow the line and not fill vacancies that didn’t need to be filled to help maintain the General Fund budget. If you look at the very bottom,
for actual results, you’ll see an increase in Fund Balance of about $2.1M for this year. There’s really two significant items impacting that: First, it is the investment earnings that
I mentioned; secondly, it’s the Public Safety Aid that the City received right at the end of 2023. The City received approximately $1.7M of
Public Safety Aid that was eligible to be recognized as revenue this year, but it’s really restricted for spending, you can’t spend it on whatever you want, it’s restricted for Public
Safety items, but it's impacting the results of the Fund. Here you can see the General Fund expenditures by function; that green bar is Public Safety and similar to prior years, it
is one of the most significant expenditures within the Fund.
This next graph looks at the trend for the General Fund: That blue bar is Total Expenditures within the General Fund, and that green line is Total Revenue for the Fund. So, you can really
see that your revenue is covering your expenditures and your operations for the year. The gray bar is Total Fund Balance; you can see Fund Balance is up a bit from last year, which
is really where you need to be with your Fund Balance Policy of 45%-55%. Costs aren’t decreasing, so in order to meet that policy, your Fund Balance really needs to increase incrementally
with inflation and the budget itself.
Streetlight Fund: I have a similar graphical representation for this fund; that blue bar is your Operating Expenses without depreciation, and then the gray portion on top is Depreciation
Expense. The green line is Operating Revenue. In your Enterprise Funds, you really want to see your Operating Revenue covering your Operating Expenses plus some; especially with the
Enterprise Funds, they’re capital intensive or they can be, and you need that gap between operations to help fund future capital. Here we have your Fund Balance or your Unrestricted
Net Position for the Streetlight Fund.
EMS Fund: Again, the blue bar is your Operating Expenses, and the gray portion is your Depreciation. The green line, Operating Revenue, you can see it fluctuates heavily over time. There’s
a couple different factors impacting this: One is the ability to collect on your receivables. The City changed ambulance billing providers within the past year or so, which is impacting
this, but also your ability to realize revenue here is really impacted by the market. There are some entities that are paying these ambulance bills that really tap out at certain levels,
and you can only realize so much. You’ll see that your Operating Revenue this past year was not covering your Operating Expenses or your Depreciation, and that’s really typical for
local government ambulance services. You need property tax revenue or other sources to help fund that capital difference because operations just don’t generate enough to do so. Here
we have a Fund Balance history of the EMS Fund: You can see it’s dropped over time, but it is still positive. I do want to mention that the Fund itself had positive cash flow this year;
some of the decrease in Fund Balance that you’re seeing really relates to non-cash transactions, such as depreciation. There was positive cash flow within the fund.
Water Fund: A similar structure with your Operating Expenses being your bar, and the green line being your revenue. You have a nice, healthy gap between Operating Expenses and your Operating
Revenue to help fund some of the capital items. Here’s your Fund Balance of your Water Fund.
Sewer Fund: This is different than the Water Fund. You will see that that green line, your Operating Revenue, is much closer to your Operating Expenses. My understanding is that there
is a rate study that might be looking at some of this, but it really is important; I want to emphasize you need to have a gap there to help fund that capital in the future.
Comparative Revenue per Capita
The Office of the State Auditor puts out some nice summary information over time. They did not have the 2022 actual numbers available yet when I prepared the presentation, so I used
Statewide budgeted amounts vs. actual. What this chart is looking at is revenue per capita. I’ll draw your attention to property taxes. You have a healthy property tax revenue per capita,
at least from a citizen’s perspective, probably.
As we go down, you’ll see the intergovernmental revenues is higher than both the City’s past revenue per capita and State amounts, and this is really heavily impacted by some of
the Settlement Funds that are being put towards the Water Treatment Facility and other intergovernmental revenues. Charges for Services as well is above Statewide budget and Statewide
actual amounts, and that’s really impacted by some of the recreational offerings you have that other cities don’t: The golf course, the Ice Arena, and some of your other Parks and Rec
offerings are playing into this number. So, it might not be an apples-to-apples comparison with other cities statewide.
Comparative Expenditures per Capita
I’ll call your attention again to this Capital Outlay and Construction number right here, about $1K per capita, which is significantly higher than prior years and State amounts. Again,
this is some of those significant capital endeavors that the City has undertaken this year: The Water Treatment Facility, I think
there was a golf course project, and other items that are playing into that number; so, it is a planned increase there from prior year.
Rebecca stated that’s all I have prepared ahead of time for you, but I’m happy to answer any questions you might have.
Mayor Bailey thanked Rebecca for her first presentation with us as the new person. He asked if Council had any questions:
Council Member Olsen stated thank you very much, it took a little getting used to; we had the other fellow for a long time, so you did a nice job, thank you. Two things that stood
out to me, and I’d like to just ask a couple of questions on those. First, you mentioned that from a Comparative Revenue per Capita perspective, we are at $492 vs. what I believe to
be the Statewide average of $557 for communities of our size; is that accurate?
Rebecca replied this $557 number was from 2021, so yes, that would be the comparable number.
Council Member Olsen stated okay, but if I look at the 2022 number, you used budgeted amounts, and we’re still below that $514. Rebecca replied that’s correct.
Council Member Olsen stated so, what that says to me, and this is where I need your help, that means in terms of what people are paying in property taxes, they’re paying less than
the average if they live in Cottage Grove. Rebecca replied correct, that is what this represents.
Council Member Olsen stated on your next slide, you had the expenditures. So, you had expenditures at the bottom, Total Debt Service, we’re at $108 vs. the $144 number that you
had for 2021; so, that’s saying that in terms of our Debt Service, or the debt that we issue, we’re issuing less than the average. Is that accurate? Rebecca replied that’s correct,
yes.
Council Member Olsen stated the reason I asked both of those questions is because one of the things we’re very proud of here, as I’m sure you heard a time or two, is our AAA Bond
Rating. That’s something that the staff here works very, very hard to maintain, and the bond houses tend to look at that sort of stability as one of the key components, whether or not
they’re going to help us maintain that. It doesn’t look to me like you found anything that was out of the ordinary that might put that AAA Bond Rating in any kind of jeopardy; in fact,
we’re still continuing to operate at lower than average expenses, and therefore, the property tax charge to the average property taxpayer is less here than it is for the rest of the
comparable cities.
The last thing I wanted to ask about is Fund Balance. So, our Fund Balance is currently at 50%, based on your audit. We have a policy that says 45%-55%. In your experience, is that
50% typical, atypical? What is it?
Rebecca replied it’s extremely typical. I would say that the average ranges of Fund Balance I see, per policy, is 40%-55%; that would be the range of policies. So, you were right
in line with generally what I see cities use for their Fund Balance Policy.
Council Member Olsen stated perfect. That Fund Balance, I guess you could call it the rainy day fund, right? If anything weird happens, like a global pandemic, you need to have
that Fund Balance in order to continue to operate and pay the bills. From what you just said, it seems like we’re right where we need to be. Rebecca replied yes, very much so.
Council Member Olsen stated perfect; well, thanks for all the good news. I like going through these reports because I think it just serves to underscore the fact that the team here
at City Hall and throughout the City does just an amazing job of watching their nickels and dimes while they still provide a tremendous amount of service to the residents of our community
at less of a cost than they would get in several other communities, if you just look at the averages. That’s our goal, we want to make sure that people find value here and these number
reflect that they do. So, I appreciate that very much and look forward to having another good one next year.
Council Member Thiede stated staying on this chart right here, I just want to go back to the Capital Outlay and Construction, and that’s a significant jump, but a lot of that actually
has to do with the water and our treatment plants. It’s actually money that’s not necessarily coming totally from the taxpayers, it’s coming from the Settlement Fund, like on the chart
before that you were showing. The revenue money’s coming from like the 3M Settlement and so forth is funding that jump that we see there, right?
Rebecca replied correct; there are external funding sources that are helping support this significant increase here.
Mayor Bailey stated I have two things, maybe they’re just more comments, and I don't know if these are really directed at you or it might be at our staff. So, the ambulance service;
we’ve been having numerous conversations. Obviously, your auditing back for 2023, we’re now in 2024, and we’re still trying to gather it. I’ll say, if you will, the concerning thing
I think for the Council has been, and I know our staff is the same, is as you acknowledged on the reporting, even though we had some cashflow, that number is very, very tight. We used
to have a better amount of money in there, and the goal of having that extra money in there over the years has been to be able to pay for the ambulances and such, right? We’re unfortunately
at that point now where because of Medicare, Medicaid, all of those different things out there, they’re having a negative effect on our budget, specifically for the ambulance service.
We’re probably now at that point where we’re going to have start using our general taxpayer dollars to support that fund.
Mayor Bailey stated the other thing I want to share with the general public, though, is that Cottage Grove does not just cover Cottage Grove in this ambulance service; we are required
by law to cover St. Paul Park, Newport, and Grey Cloud. Because of our requirements on that, they do not pay anything; their taxpayers do not pay anything into this fund, they’re not
required to. The only good news, what I’m hoping we’re going to see here, is our State Senator was able to get a bill through that might affect or help us, not just Cottage Grove but
as a State, especially those rural communities that have a very similar situation to us, with not being able to cover the costs, to be able to get some of that additional funding that
might be able to help us shore up some of that amount. So, I just wanted to let the citizens of Cottage Grove know that we don’t have the choice, unless we want to get rid of our ambulance
service, and we haven’t decided to do that, we’d prefer it being in house, but we’re required to cover other communities that do not pay us for the ambulance service.
Mayor Bailey stated the last thing, and I’m not sure where I’m going with this, on the sewer rate, I know the sewer is predominantly the Metropolitan Council, am I correct? So,
this is really pretty much whatever the bill is, so to speak, for using the sewer service, it’s just, no pun intended, flowing right through. So, the citizens, whatever they’re paying
to that fund, is paying for whatever the cost is that the Metropolitan Council is charging the City of Cottage Grove or any other city out there. I just thought I’d throw that out there
so there isn’t any fluff in that particular item, and that’s because that is pretty much a straight flow through in that case.
Mayor Bailey thanked Rebecca for her presentation.
Motion by Council Member Olsen to accept the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report for the year ended December 31, 2023; second by Council Member Garza. Motion carried: 5-0.
Mayor Bailey stated Brenda and team, thank you so much for another great year.
7. CONSENT AGENDA
A. Approve the May 1, 2024, City Council Special Meeting Minutes.
B. Approve the May 1, 2024, City Council Regular Meeting Minutes.
C. Approve the May 15, 2024, City Council Special Meeting Minutes.
D. Approve the May 15, 2024, Regular Meeting Minutes.
E. Accept and place on file the minutes from the April 22, 2024, Planning Commission Meeting.
F. Approve the March 18, 2024 Public Service Commission Regular Meeting Minutes.
G. Approve the March 11, 2024, Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources Commission Regular Meeting Minutes.
H. Approve the issuance of rental licenses to the properties in the attached table.
I. Adopt Ordinance No. 1083 amending City Code Title 3-15-10 to add language exempting property owners renting to a qualified family member, as defined by the existing ordinance, from
rental licensing requirements.
J. Approve the renewals of the Workers Compensation Policy and the Package Insurance Policy with the League of MN Cities Insurance Trust for the 2024-2025 policy period in the amount
of $1,344,317.00.
K. Adopt the Police Department’s 5-Year Strategic Plan and move forward with implementation of an assigned squad program.
L. Authorize the repairs to Engine 4 based on the provided quote in the amount of $28,457.79.
M. Authorize Public Works to advertise and sell brush truck and UTV pumps on auction site.
N. Approve reallocating the approved $140,000.00 in the police budget to purchase mobile squad radios and ballistic helmets.
O. The staff recommends approving the purchase of security camera licensing, hardware, and installation services from LVC in the amount of $23,922, as detailed in the attached quote.
P. 1) Authorize change order credit of $4,700 for turf restorative work completed by the City. 2) Authorize resolution 2024-085 approving final payment to Mid-America Golf & Landscape,
Inc., in the amount of $13,065.92 for the River Oaks Irrigation Project.
Q. Authorize execution of the Source Water Protection Grant Agreement with the Minnesota Department of Health.
R. Adopt Resolution 2024-086 providing preliminary approval to the issuance of revenue obligation bonds.
S. Adopt Resolution 2024-088 approving the plans and specifications and authorizing bidding for the Summers Landing 5th Addition Final Street Improvements Project.
T. Approve the easements and the Memorandum Of Understanding with Tyler and Heidi Biron and with Bailey Nurseries.
U. Approve Resolution 2024-090 to authorize funding transfer from the ED Trust Fund (286) to the CVB Fund (265) and the attached agreement with Chandler Thinks to engage their services
for the creation of a Strategic Plan for the Cottage Grove Convention and Visitors Bureau.
V. Adopt Resolution 2024-091 authorizing the City to apply to the Washington County Community Development Agency (CDA) Predevelopment Finance Fund for a grant for the creation of a Market
Analysis and Small Area Plan and authorize the City matching fund of $40,000 to come from the ED Trust Fund.
None of the Council Members wished to pull any items on the Consent Agenda for further discussion and/or approval.
Motion by Council Member Olsen to approve the Consent Agenda; second by Council Member Thiede.
Motion carried: 5-0.
8. APPROVE DISBURSEMENTS
Approve payments for the period of 5-09-2024 through 5-29-2024 in the amount of $5,441,768.46.
Motion by Council Member Khambata to approve disbursements; second by Council Member Garza.
Motion carried: 5-0.
9. PUBLIC HEARINGS - None.
10. BID AWARDS - None.
11. REGULAR AGENDA
Enterprise Energy Community Solar Garden
Staff Recommendation: Adopt Resolution 2024-087 approving the interim use permit for a five-megawatt (5 MW) Community Solar Garden to be constructed on approximately 35 acres of a 155-acre
site adjacent to 100th Street, Lehigh Road, and approximately three-quarter miles east of Kimbro Avenue, as shown on the development plans dated April 19, 2024.
Conner Jakes, Associate Planner, stated the application before you this evening is an interim use permit (IUP) for a proposed 5 MW Community Solar Garden. The subject site is located
in the eastern agricultural area of the City, adjacent to 100th Street South, as well as Lehigh Road South, and about three-quarters of a mile east of Kimbro Avenue South. Background:
The site has been utilized for agricultural purposes as far back as City files indicate. I’ll note on the screen there are currently two parcels, for a total site size of 155 acres.
A condition of approval will require these two lots be combined into one parcel in order to meet the required 300-foot setback from the property line to the solar panels.
Associate Planner Jakes stated before we get into the Site Plan and walk through the rest of the application, I thought it would be beneficial to talk through the ordinance regulations
and just walk through the history of our initial ordinance and our revisions. In 2015, a few of you may recall that we adopted a Solar Energy System Ordinance, which regulated Community
Solar Gardens; that ordinance was then revised in 2017, and there were two major differences that would apply to the application before you this evening. One of those differences was
the setback from the property line to the panels; so, in the 2015 ordinance, that setback was the principal structure setback, which in an agricultural district is generally about 75
feet. So, the revised ordinance in 2017, which is the current one, requires a 300-foot setback, so creating a larger buffer of the solar panels from the property line to negate any
adverse impacts. The second major difference was the requirement of a Vegetative Management Plan (VMP), which details the maintenance of plantings, the seed mix, and other various factors
relating to the growth of that seed mix, ensuring there’s no weed growth, and maintenance of that. So, those were the two major differences. The requirements for a Community Solar Garden
are on the screen before you; I would just point out, also, the site has to be located within the designated areas of Exhibit A; so, that map is shown on the screen. The red areas are
where a solar garden would be permitted or allowed with the interim use permit, and that area did not change from the 2015 ordinance to the current ordinance. Again, those areas were
designated based on the MUSA, and we don’t envision utilities being extended to those parcels within the near future, so allowing an interim use to operate there. Site: The site is
zoned AG-1, Agricultural, and guided as Agricultural in the 2040 Comprehensive Plan. The use is permitted with an IUP. The proposed length of the IUP before you this evening is 25 years,
and then a possible extension of up to 10 years after those 25 years. So, a condition of approval does note the length of 25 years and then that extension of up to 10 years, which would
be granted by the City Council. I would note that condition also adds within that extension period, that if a development application is received on an adjacent parcel, the solar use
would have to cease and be removed following the Decommissioning Plan and then restored to its current state of preconstruction. Site Plan: The Site Plan is on the screen before you;
however, before we jump in, I just want to note that the applicant held a Neighborhood Meeting on May 14. There were four residents in attendance, and I’ll kind of talk through the
concerns and how the applicant has worked to mitigate those as we move through the Site Plan. The proposal is for a 35-acre array area on the 155-acre site; note the array area is where
the panels are located. It does meet the 300-foot setback after the parcels are combined; that setback is indicated by the red dashed line on the Site Plan before you. The rows of panels
are proposed to run north and south and pivot on a single axis to follow the sun horizontally. The maximum height of the panels would be 10 feet at full tilt; this design is lower profile
than the kind of fixed panels we see within the community, so a lower profile is less visual impact to adjacent property owners and vehicles traveling down roadways where you might
see the project. The other thing I would note is that there’s no noise created from that pivoting motion; we actually have one solar farm within the community that has this kind of
pivoting motion, and we haven’t received any complaints related to noise or any other complaints on that site. The applicant is proposing five equipment pads, each is 200 square-feet
in size, and all of them are located within that secured array area. The array area
is proposed to be secured by a 6-foot-tall chain-link fence, that will be black coated. A concern at the Neighborhood Meeting was the color of the chain-link fence, so ensuring that
that fence blends into the environment and we keep that country feel within the area. So, the residents requested either a black- or green-coated fence, and the applicant has agreed
to provided that black-coated fence; a condition of approval also requires that fence be black coated. Just to note, that fence is proposed to just surround the array area, so the 35
acres, and not the whole site. Transportation/Site Access: Access is proposed off of Lehigh Road South and proposed to be a Class V that would run along that south boundary and then
up into the solar site to provide access. I would note a concern at the Neighborhood Meeting was related to construction traffic and the current condition of both Lehigh Road and 100th
Street South, ensuring that there’s no adverse impacts from the construction traffic. So, a condition of approval will require that the applicant enter into a Memorandum of Understanding
(MOU), which will detail the applicant’s responsibility to document the designated route, preconstruction traffic and postconstruction traffic, and then restoring that road to its preconstruction
traffic state. I would note that staff hasn’t designated or decided on a designated construction traffic route; whether that flows from Lehigh Road into the site or Kimbro, up to 100th
Street, will be determined as we work through the proposal and that MOU. The applicant would be responsible for those repairs and ensuring the road isn’t in worse condition after the
construction traffic. Traffic: The majority of that traffic will be construction traffic; after the site is constructed and completed, access to the site would be minimal. The engineer
of the site would access approximately two times per year, just to ensure it’s operating as intended, and to fix any panels along those lines. Weed Growth & Mitigation: A concern at
the Neighborhood Meeting was also related to weed growth and mitigating weeds. The applicant agreed that maintenance crews would access the site once per month to ensure that weed growth
is being managed, mitigated, and also that VMP is being followed. I mentioned that a requirement of the current ordinance is a VMP that details the seed mix, ensuring that meets State
requirements, and then just that restoration plan for the array area itself. The applicant submitted a detailed VMP that meets Code requirements, proposing a native pollinator-friendly
seed mix. They’ve also provided a detailed maintenance plan, both for the establishment phase, which is years 1 to 3, and then the maintenance phase, which is years 4+. So, we have
our consultant reviewing that, ensuring that meets our standards, and then providing an inspection protocol that we would follow to ensure weed growth is being mitigated and that seed
mix is really taking and being established as intended. Decommissioning Plan: City Code requires that a Decommissioning Plan be provided, which outlines the restoration of that land
to its preconstruction condition. The outline of that process is on the screen before you. The one thing I want to note is the application requires that we receive a Decommissioning
Letter of Credit, which is the amount of 125% of that decommissioning estimate. So, if at such time when that IUP would expire, we would then have the money on hand to remove and restore
the site if the applicant or owner at the time doesn’t do that. Neighborhood Meeting: As mentioned previously, the applicant held a Neighborhood Meeting with four residents in attendance.
The main concerns are listed on the screen before you. Just to talk through those: Construction traffic is being mitigated through that MOU. Proposed utility pole locations: So, the
applicant’s original proposal had those poles on the south of the access road; we then moved them to the north, to mitigate concerns with those poles located in the area between the
road and the property line, which is about 27.5 feet. A condition of approval will require that those lines be undergrounded; so, no poles would be allowed as we work through that process,
pursuant to City Code. Management of weed growth will be dealt with through the VMP, as mentioned. There is a concern related to water runoff to adjacent property, so the applicant
has to submit a detailed Stormwater Management Plan that will meet City Code requirements and would not allow for additional runoff to adjacent properties.
Assistant Planner Jakes said with that, I’ll leave the recommendation before you. Staff is available for any questions. The applicant is in attendance as well.
Mayor Bailey thanked Assistant Planner Jakes. He asked Council Members if there were any questions.
Council Member Garza stated thank you for the presentation, there was a lot of good information. Regarding the fencing, you said that it is going in black, but the residents asked
to possibly blend in; was there a reason why they couldn’t do green?
Associate Planner Jakes replied yes, as we worked through that at the Neighborhood Meeting, the residents and applicant kind of preferred that black fence to blend in more with
the darker color of that; so, they preferred the black over the green, from the residents’ point of view.
Council Member Garza stated then you also mentioned the weed mitigation; so, we just had the resident here describing his situation, so I’m just hoping that we won’t find ourselves
in that situation with this place that’s only being maintained, I think it said twice a month or once a month.
Associate Planner Jakes replied yes, Council Member Garza, so we at a minimum will require the maintenance to occur about once per month; however, we will be out ensuring that site
has minimal weed growth. If we receive complaints, we will obviously address those within a timely manner. But then we actually would have our consultant conducting regular inspections
of that site, ensuring the seed mix is taking and then the weeds are being mitigated. Part of that plan and what the inspector would do in that case is create a map that shows here’s
where the weed areas are, we need to mitigate those, and then work through that process.
Mayor Bailey said I have something to add. I was glad you brought up about the poles. I was reading through the packet from the Planning Commission, and I note there was some discussions
about the poles. Having overhead power lines is a pet peeve of mine, especially in any new development, and I’m glad you have it in there because we’ve required it with every other
solar array that we’ve done in Cottage Grove. So, I know there were some conversations going back and forth about that, back then, but I would not personally want to have poles above
ground when we’ve required all of the others to be below ground. So, I was glad to see that even though that was discussed a bit back and forth during the Planning Commission meeting,
I noticed that Condition #6 is basically stating to follow the City’s policy and the City Codes.
Mayor Bailey stated I don’t think we’ve had, just from a weed’s standpoint, I think the other solar arrays have been well received and that we haven’t had any complaints from farmers
or anything in those particular areas, correct?
Associate Planner Jakes replied I’ll just note so we currently have four solar gardens; there’s one to the southeast of this project that we have received complaints related to
weed growth. So, a letter was actually sent two weeks ago, after receiving that complaint, and they’re working through that process. So, we are aware of that one and working through
that process; but the rest of them, we haven’t received any complaints.
Mayor Bailey stated perfect. So, when somebody does reach out to us, like Jane did, we’re going to react to it.
Associate Planner replied yes, that’s correct.
Mayor Bailey asked if the applicant would like to speak at this point.
Evan Carlson, Enterprise Energy, 2925 Dean Parkway, Minneapolis, Minnesota, stated I am the owner and founder of the company. We’re a Minnesota company, we’re not going anywhere.
I’ve been developing in Minnesota for almost a decade, ventured out on my own more recently. The company’s about two years old, but these are still very early projects in the history
of our company, the they’re very important to us. Our reputation is very important to us, we want to do a good job, and we’ve done things that the people like to see, the Neighborhood
Meetings, and addressing certain concerns. Between the takeaway from the Neighborhood Meetings, one was the road; so, that was addressed by condition. The other big one was weeds, and
we actually amended our VMP between the Public Hearing and now to better address those concerns. So, what’s unique about this is the big setback; we’ve got 300-foot setbacks to all
property lines. In most areas, those are going to be farmed, so the landowner is in the agricultural business, and he intends to continue AG production on them. But there are certain
spots that we added to that VMP to make sure that you don’t have weed issues, particularly, the area between the access road and the parcel line, because the access road is a setback
from the line. So, we wanted to make sure that was addressed, we added that, and the area between the poles. So, you have all those interconnection poles if you have them above ground
or any equipment. The point is if it’s not getting farmed, it’s going to be planted, so that better addresses it. As far as color of the fence, I’m open to whatever people, there was
some preference for black, but it makes no difference to us.
Mayor Bailey stated I do appreciate you coming here tonight and sharing. It sounds like after you did the Neighborhood Meeting, from what I’m hearing from our staff, you went back and
addressed them. So, thank you for that, because that obviously helps those who are going to be living near there feel comfortable with you and your company.
Mr. Carlson said yes, thank you, I think it was a very productive meeting, yes.
Mayor Bailey asked if Council had any questions for the applicant, but none were asked. Mayor Bailey thanked Mr. Carlson.
Council Member Khambata made a motion to Adopt Resolution 2024-087 approving the interim use permit for a five-megawatt Community Solar Garden to be constructed on approximately 35 acres
of a 155-acre site adjacent to 100th Street, Lehigh Road, and approximately three-quarter miles east of Kimbro Avenue, as shown on the Development Plans dated April 19, 2024; second
by Council Member Thiede. Motion carried: 5-0.
12. COUNCIL COMMENTS AND REQUESTS
Council Member Khambata stated I would like to start by saying as we hear from constituents many times about why are taxes going up and how is that money being spent, I always like to
reassure them that we strive to be one of the lowest-priced cities in the County. We’re the second largest City in the County, and the City portion of the taxes is significantly lower
than our neighbors to the north. I think we offer great services for what we charge.
Additionally, I want to give a huge shout out to staff for again getting awarded on our accounting practices and continuing to do a great job there. That also helps to maintain
our AAA Bond Rating.
For anyone listening or watching that wants an opportunity to meet up with maybe the Mayor or a Council Member, Thursdays we have our Food Trucks here from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.;
tomorrow, we actually have the Eggroll Queen, which is my wife’s favorite, from 11:00 to 2:00, so I’ll be here tomorrow at City Hall. I’ll hang out and if anyone wants to stop by and
ask me any questions, I’ll be there.
Lastly, on June 8, which is this upcoming Saturday, we’re going to have a Community Night at the St. Paul Saints stadium. We get there a little early, but I think the kickoff is
at 6:07 p.m., so if anyone wants to come down and catch a baseball game, it’s a great opportunity to get your kids out, enjoy some snacks, and hang out with some of the City staff.
Council Member Olsen stated I’m looking forward to that Saints game. We’ve had a lot of fun as our Discover Cottage Grove team and the Convention and Visitors Bureau the last few years
that we’ve been there for Cottage Grove Community Night. I’m going to count on Dave to deliver the good weather. I know that our staff will be there with lots of goodie bags and handouts
for people to let them know about all that Cottage Grove has to offer and invite them to come enjoy Strawberry Fest this year.
I also wanted to take a moment here, mayor, to give thanks to all of the participants who helped out with this year’s Memorial Day event. We had a little bit of weather, so we had
to move the event indoors here at City Hall, in the Training Room, and it was full. We were really lucky to have a great speaker in Herb Reckinger. This year’s them was a Salute to
Vietnam Era Veterans, and Herb knows just so much about that era and has done tons of great work with the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. So, having him as our speaker this year I think
was really an asset. We had a lot of help from the Washington County Sheriff’s Department Honor Guard, we had a lot of help from the Cottage Grove Public Safety team, Cottage Grove
Administration, Cottage Grove Parks & Recreation team putting it all together. I think the event came off as well as it could, being indoors. Our Beyond the Yellow Ribbon team for the
Mississippi Valley sponsors that event each year, but we couldn’t do it without all that support. So, thank you.
I also wanted to congratulate the recipients of the Craig Woolery Scholarships this year through the Public Safety Board. It just so happens that on the evening that we awarded
those two scholarships to our high school friends, as the mayor mentioned, I was able to be there with our Cottage Grove Lions Club to hand out five $2,000 scholarships to Park High
School students: Tori Stepka, who also was the recipient of the Park High Hall of Fame Scholarship, Macey Kaufenberg, Abby Gerhardt, Riley Simacek, and Amelia Reckinger, who just happens
to be Herb Reckinger’s granddaughter. So, it was a really fun
night there, we were really pleased that we were able to hand out those $2,000 scholarships. It was fun seeing all of the community partners that were there to support our graduating
seniors this year.
I also wanted to take one second just to say thank you to our Public Safety Director, Pete Koerner. Today we had the opportunity to go to the City of Burnsville Police Department
to deliver a check on behalf of our Cottage Grove Lions Club and all of the other clubs in our district, District 5M-6. It was given to Captain Anselment of the Burnsville Police Department
in support of all that they’re doing to take care of the families of the three first responders that we lost in Burnsville a short time ago. Captain Anselment is also the brother of
Dan Anselment, our HERO Center Manager. Pete coordinated all of that, he made all the calls, he ensured that we had a nice representation from our Lions Club there, and it was a really
special moment. So, I’m grateful that Pete put that together, and I’m also grateful that Pete drove. So, thanks very much for that.
The last thing that I wanted to mention, mayor, is we lost another officer; last week, we lost Officer Jamal Mitchell of the Minneapolis Police Department. I know that I’ve talked
about this at the Council dais many times, but I think it’s worth noting that he was killed in the act of actually trying to provide aid to somebody, whom he identified as potentially
being the victim of a shooting. As soon as he arrived at the scene and he attempted to provide aid to this individual, that person pulled out a firearm and emptied it; unfortunately,
Officer Mitchell did not survive. This is yet another example of the reasons why it’s so important that we, as a community, stand behind our Public Safety personnel, whether it’s police,
fire, or EMS. These folks are the ones who come running when you hear that bump in the night and you’re not sure what to do about it, and they’re willing to put their lives on the line
to save others every single minute of every single shift that they work throughout the year. Officer Mitchell is just an example of another one of our Public Safety personnel who died
a hero. So, I anticipate that our Lions Club will be making a donation in his honor, as well, but I would encourage anybody watching this at home or listening to thank a police officer,
firefighter, a medic and EMS person whenever you see them. Because what they do is they run towards the danger when most people’s instinct is to run away, and sometimes it has deadly
consequences. With that, mayor, I’ll turn it back to you.
Council Member Thiede stated well, we already talked about Strawberry Fest, so again, it’s only two weeks away. Make sure you mark your calendars to get out there because it’s going
to be a great time.
Council Member Garza stated I will just mention that we have a lot of upcoming events happening here in Cottage Grove. The Cottage Grove Chamber of Commerce is actually having the Swing
for Scholarship Golf Tournament coming up, as well as the Bags Tournament. That’s on June 24, and that’s a lot of fun, I went last year. So, if you are into golf or even into bags,
I’d say to check that one out; it’s at River Oaks Golf Course, and it’ll be a lot of fun.
Mayor Bailey stated once again this year we are going to have Movies in the Park. The first movie is going to be Trolls on Friday, June 28, at 7:00 p.m. at Highlands Park, off of 70th
Street. I noticed in the pamphlet you can obviously bring your blankets and your chairs to enjoy that with your family. There’s a big screen, and I’ve been there a couple times now
for the last couple years. The event kind of kicks off at 7:00 p.m., but the movie actually starts at dusk. On July 19, at 7:00 p.m. is Migration; my grandkids have seen that and they
said that was an amazing movie. Looking forward, on August 16, is Wonka; I got to see that in the movie theater and it’s an amazing movie, so I wanted to mention that. There is popcorn
and events that happen in the park, kind of leading up to the movies. I also noticed on the flyer that was given to me that there will be some food trucks there; for the June 28 movie,
it will be the 328 Grill and Mik Mart; they are the ones that you see drive around the City a lot of times and have a little space down in St. Paul Park. If you have questions or want
to participate, there are some other opportunities out there, but please call 763-501-9278 for more information.
Council Member Garza stated yes, it’s free popcorn, free lemonade, and free glow sticks. There are food trucks that will be there, and there’s also usually anywhere between 10-to-15
vendors that are out there before the movies that are doing fun family free stuff. There’s always a lot of fun that’s happening at the Splash Pad park.
Mayor Bailey stated the next item I want to bring up is the Fourth of July fireworks. Mr. Willie Tennis is still in the audience here, and I am pleased to announce to the rest of the
Council (and Director Malinowski already knows this because we chatted) that once again my goal was to raise $25K for the Fourth of July fireworks show, which will once again be at
Kingston Park this year. All vendors that have previously put $5K towards that fireworks event are all back again this year. I want to once again thank Willie with Tennis Sanitation,
Renewal by Andersen, 3M, NorthPoint, which is the major developer in the Business Park, and the one I just heard of, officially, this week was Hy-Vee. So, all of them are donating $5K
to the community to make an amazing fireworks Fourth of July event. I want to thank all of them, and I know our staff will be working to get the information out to the press so we can
identify them. Willie’s in the audience here, but if you know anybody who works for these companies or you see somebody that is a part of that company, please stop them and say thank
you; they didn’t have to donate but they did. So, I wanted to throw that out there.
The last thing I wanted to bring up is Council Member Olsen did a fantastic job this year with the Memorial Day event, he and the team there. The guest speaker, Herb, is somebody
that I’ve spoken with a couple different times, he is the chair of our Committee on Historic Preservation. One thing I wanted to bring up, though, that Herb has also been very passionate
about, and I’m going to put a plug out right now because I’d love to see this happen in Cottage Grove, is he is involved with what’s called The Wall That Heals. The Wall That Heals
is a traveling three-quarter scale of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. There is a tour schedule that they set up every year; of course, the rest of this year is already
booked out, so they’re always a year in advance. If we wanted to host The Wall That Heals coming to Cottage Grove, we’d need a group of people that are passionate about it to get together
and we can be in queue for the summer of 2025. We would have to get in line, if you will, to make sure that that’s the case for 2025, so we’d have to get our application in by September
2024. If anybody out in the audience that’s listening or watching is interested in making this become a reality in the City of Cottage Grove, you’re welcome to reach out to me. Herb
said we can get a group together, he obviously would help spearhead it, as he is part of that group that has it travel around the country. If you have not been to Washington, D.C. and
walked along the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall, it is a very moving experience. I had the opportunity to see it last year. So, I encourage you if you want to see the replica of it,
it is pretty significant, I’ve seen pictures; you can go online and just look up The Wall That Heals and you can see the information and what cities that is currently going to. I just
wanted to throw that out there for anybody who’s interested at this point.
Mayor Bailey stated we have a workshop, open to the public, and we will be discussing the Parks and Recreation Project, which will be held in the Training Room. We do not have any workshops,
closed to the public, so we will not be adjourning this meeting here, in the Council Chambers, but we will be adjourning once we’re done in the Training Room. So, everybody have a great
evening, and we’ll see you soon.
13. WORKSHOPS - OPEN TO PUBLIC - TRAINING ROOM
Parks and Recreation Project Workshop
Staff Recommendation: Receive information and provide directions for the:
1) Preserve.Play.Prosper Communication Plan. 2) Kingston Park Building Replacement. 3) Mississippi Dunes Park Master Plan Updates and Building Concept Plan.
Preserve.Play.Prosper Communication Plan
Mayor Bailey called the Parks and Recreation Project Workshop to order and stated Parks and Recreation Director Zac Dockter will start us off.
Director Dockter stated thank you, Mayor and Council, for your time to touch base on three exciting Parks and Recreation projects. I brought our keynote professionals on all three
of these projects, both staff and consultants, to walk you through each project individually. So, we’ll start with the Local Option Sales Tax, then move to the Kingston Park building,
and then we’ll move to the Mississippi Dunes Park Master Plan and Concept Building Plan. My primary job tonight is just to take notes and answer any
questions that you might have from staff, as we have supporting staff from Parks and Recreation here as well. I want to make it clear that now is a great time to hear from you, whether
that means we tweak something, we pivot, we take some breaks, we hit the pause button, or whatever it might be; that’s kind of where we’re at with all three of these projects we’re
talking about tonight. Now is the time we want to hear from you if we’re heading in the wrong direction.
With that, I will turn the Local Option Sales Tax program, the Preserve.Play.Prosper, over to Todd Rapp, of Rapp Strategies, and he is here also with Kristen Duerr from ICS.
Todd stated thanks very much for having us. Just a reminder that Rapp Strategies works as a subcontractor for ICS, ICS is a firm whom you brought in to oversee the entire project. It’s
nice that Kristen is here with me and is able to answer any questions about the project.
I’ll talk specifically about the communications effort that we’re undertaking right now, in preparation for November. Real quickly, the objectives and some of the steps I’ll walk
through here, don’t worry, I’ll try to keep it to 10 slides or under. I’ll talk a little bit about the next steps. I see with the handout, you have a comprehensive plan in front of
you; that’s been put together by Jodi Boyne of my team, Eryn Sorensen, who works mostly with Kristen, and the remainder of the team. It’s comprehensive, however, it is flexible, it’s
not in stone, we’re certainly able to change things and adapt as things happen during the course of this campaign. At the end, I know you’re going to be addressing valid questions we
typically hear in the cities, so if you have any questions before that time, we’d be happy to answer them.
Just a quick reminder in terms of the goals here: This is an election coming up where, frankly, everybody’s going to vote. This is a very little chance that there’s a large group
of voters out there who would not turn out; especially when they hear that there’s three referendum questions on the ballot, then they’re going to show up. People are going to show
up because there’s a lot of things that are very important, high priorities for them, national elections, state elections, and so on. So, this really doesn’t need to be as much of a
calling out as during a special election. Instead what we need to do here is effectively inform people about that there is going to be a referendum on the ballot and use existing and
maybe some enhanced communication tools in order to do that. Then we make sure that everybody is well informed about the need, the plan, and the cost, the tax impact. I think from the
first time that we had talked together, one of the things I told you was that from the public information side, it’s critical that when you’re talking about the plan and the benefits,
you’re also talking about the cost. That’s the only way you’re being fair and impartial in terms of your communication externally, and we’ll be doing that.
This is accomplished by first of all, creating broad awareness in the referendum. If this was a special election, there may be a somewhat different strategy here; but now, as I
said, nearly every registered voter will turn out. I think you’re hopeful that every registered voter will have their opinions heard on these three questions. You want to make sure
residents have places to go to find the information they need to make an informed choice. The hub of that is the website, there are other places where people will be able to go, but
mostly what we want people to do is one of two things: Either go to the micro site that’s connected to the City of Cottage Grove’s site or to ask City officials their questions. If
they’re not turning to you asking questions, they’re going to be turning to other people in the community, who may or may not have the right answers; we know you will. Finally, we want
City leaders to engage the community and hear input and address questions.
I talked with you earlier about the idea of a 24-hour rule. Let’s get a response in the hands of people as quickly as possible, then they’ll keep coming back to you for questions.
If we don’t do that, we’re not indicating that we’re listening. By the way, the questions that people ask are one of the best ways of us getting real-time research as to what’s concerning
the community.
So, you’ve seen this slide before. You are governed by Minnesota Statute 297A.99; when it comes to a Sales Tax referendum, the law is very clear about the limitations of what you
can do. For example, if you have a community meeting, you need to offer the same amount of time for proponents and opponents if you decide to have that kind of format. We have tested
these nine areas with attorneys in the past, and we’re happy to have obviously your City Attorney look at them also. As long as we’re talking about these areas and whenever we talk
about the benefits, we’re also talking about the cost of the plan, the advice we’ve been given is that we are falling within the limits of the law. More importantly, these are the areas
where people have the most questions. So, if you communicate these well, you’re doing your
civic duty, your responsibility to your taxpayers, what you need to do is to provide any information when you’re proposing a tax increase.
Now, our work here began back in January, all building to a mid-March launch of the communications campaign; that, obviously, has already happened. Now, we’re going to continue
to communicate through the summer. It’s obviously a very good time to communicate with people about Parks and Recreation issues because they’re out there using your parks right now.
But don’t be fooled; it’s going to be after Labor Day that people really start to pay attention to this. You might even find yourself to be a little bit surprised how you’ll get closer
and closer to the first day of voting, September 20, and you’ll still have people who are saying, really? We have a referendum on sales tax. Believe it or not. So, what I try to say
to City officials is that you’re going to feel just a little bit like a tour guide. Sometimes your bus is going to have a lot of people who have never been on the ride before; other
times, you’ll have a group of people who have heard from you before, and they’re going to want a little bit more in-depth information, and a lot of times you’re going to have both in
the course of a day. You’re just going to have to be ready for that. Up until election day, new people are still going to be introduced to the referendum. That’s why things intensify,
we try to make sure by the time the first day of voting, 46 days before election day, that we are really informed, a fifth gear, when it comes to communicating.
So, these are the completed steps already: It’s a very nice, full-looking slide when you put it as bullets or checkmarks like this, but the truth is there’s a lot more ahead of
us right now. The main thing that we’ve been able to do is we put together the core messaging, kind of how we will provide the public information and the dedicated website. Everything
else we’re doing right now somewhat feeds off out of that. If we ever start answering a different set of questions, making sure we’re addressing some issues that we’re hearing about
the community, it begins with making sure the website has those easy answers, and then we incorporate it into different material. As I said earlier, you have the extended plan in front
of you that we’re working off of right now.
Analytics: We try to take a close look at why people are going to the website and how they’re getting there, again that’s a hub, that’s the library. So, we’ve had over 1,000 unique visitors
already; there have been two spikes on the use of the website, and both of those spikes happened around particular communication that the City had provided to its residents. So, you
will see that throughout the entire campaign where we’ll see certain days that will have more and more people going there because we reach people in an important way, and you’ll also
find that the spikes will start to get higher over time as we get closer to the election. The average time per page, the number one page is on the cost and the tax impact; that shouldn’t
surprise you at all. The second one, only eight seconds less on average, is what are the elements of the plan; that shouldn’t surprise you, either. The lowest amount of time spent right
now is on voting information, that’s months away, that’s not what people are interested in right now. Do you want to know how people are getting there? Over half have gotten there by
typing in the website name. So, they’ve seen something coming from the City and they put in the website name, typed it directly. About a quarter of the people have gotten it from a
social media link. I should point out the direct connection will also be through a QR code, a video that would happen. Referral from a different website, which is almost always the
City’s website, 13%, searching for it on a search engine, 3%. I love having search engine being single digits; it means that people are using our materials to make sure they get to
the website.
So, the next step we raise awareness; there’s still a lot more we have to do in that area, but certainly the people are becoming interested and trying to learn about the plan. Efforts
this summer will focus, first of all, on community outreach to educate residents about the plans. What do we mean when we say community outreach, besides normal communications? Well,
one of the things we mean is the fact that Council Members are going to see people, right? And it’s your opportunity to talk with them about the plans, explain the reasons why you put
it on the ballot, the reasons why you think this is an appropriate way to finance this. But other ways that will be happening is the City staff meetings, maybe to some extent also to
Council Members, is to go out and begin to meet with groups of people. Why do you do that? Well, when people gather in a group, even if it’s only six or eight people, maybe it’s a dozen,
maybe it’s 40 people at a time, they’re gathering together for a particular reason, their bond for a reason. If you go in front of them, and you begin to talk with them about this,
they will respond by talking to each other over time. The most trusted people in America right now are friends and neighbors, right? So, you want to get in the middle of those friends
and neighbor’s groups and get them to begin to talk about this. There’s
a strategy behind that also: The more people you’re out talking to this summer, the harder it's going to be if anyone wants to stand up and begin to oppose this plan, the harder it is
for them to build out a network of people to support them because you’re already been out and you’ve already been talking with people, giving them that information. You’ll probably
be getting those people to go, okay, well, I don't know for sure if I’m going to vote for this, or maybe they say, yeah, I am going to vote for it; but you’ve eliminated the intensity
because you’ve been out there sharing information with people.
The second important thing we’re going to do, though, in addition to the community outreach, is we’re going to try to get more and more of the City communication to be visual. Part
of the reason for that is because we’re just consuming more and more, often visually, particularly young people, and young people are the ones who are most likely to drop off for an
election such as this; drop off just means go vote for president, then don’t make it down the rest of the ballot. We want to eliminate drop off, we want to get as many people as possible
voting on this thing. Using more visual communication is one way we can do that. So, right now, we’re exploring, first of all, using videos. Secondly, hopefully from the City, fairly
colorful or at least well-designed materials that outline each of the three projects separately, and communicate those in a way that people cannot only read about them, but they can
feel them because they’re experiencing them based on the visualizations that we’re using.
Finally, the 24-hour rule has been talked about already. We need to hold to that because we want people to come back to us with questions.
Councilmen, in terms of talking about the referendum, people will start to ask you; the first question they want to get answered is why? So, I think there’s a four-step way of thinking
about this. Why? 1) We dedicated our time and especially our staff’s time to listen to residents’ hopes and concerns about Parks and Recreation investment. We listened to you. 2) We
prioritized those needs, based on support for expanding services and amenities. In other words, we looked at what we needed to invest in, and we picked some high priorities. 3) Looking
at the funding options, we believe a Sales Tax is the fairest way of funding these amenities that are being used by a regional audience. That makes sense: If people from Woodbury are
going to use this, they should spend a little bit of sales tax money down here on it. It’s also, by the way, true if you do research on it, I think I talked with you about this before:
The most popular way to raise money for local governments, if you ask the voters, is the sales tax; the least popular is a property tax. 4) Finally, the City is going to provide factual
information as directed by law, but voters will make the final decision on the future of this plan. One of the things I try to do with all the communication, particularly when we’re
asked from Council Members or Mayors to write a Letter to the Editor; will you write a letter for this, to explain what we’re doing here? We’d love to, but we’ll always end it by saying
the voters are going to make the decision as to whether this is the right plan or not. You know why, but it’s also the only way that you can demonstrate that you’re providing information
but not trying to go the one step further into the advocacy. We’re hopeful there’s going to be advocacy in the first year, but when you’re using City resources, that’s inappropriate.
And then if you have questions, of course, go to Preserve.Play.Prosper.
Todd stated with that, I’d be happy to answer any questions. If you have anything about the ballot questions you want to talk about, I’m here for that. If you have anything about the
broader project questions, Kristen is here for that.
Council Member Khambata asked how do those data analytics, how do those metrics stack up against what your expectations were?
Todd replied this is an early website launch here. Communications kind of began for real in March, and a lot of places where we work, there’s not a launch until May or June; so,
it’s a little bit under what you’d normally see in the first six-or-eight weeks, but it’s not substantially under. As I said, it’s going to be growing over time. I’ll get worried if
it doesn’t maintain or start increasing a little bit over the summer and then if we’re not starting to see spikes after Labor Day, then we are doing something wrong.
Council Member Olsen stated I just wanted to first, thank you for the nice synopsis there. I think everybody would agree that just like it’s always been, word of mouth is typically your
best advertising, and you want to make sure that the word of mouth that people are hearing is accurate. What is the game plan between your team and the City team to ensure that we have
a very obvious presence at all of the
various events that go on in the City through the summer? Because we have a ton of them, and it feels to me like we need to have people at every one of those events making sure that
there is information available to share; and that isn’t always easy to do because staff only has so much time and all the rest. So, clearly, you’re going to need to use us and anyone
else that we can trust to actually be present on hand and share information. So, have you guys coalesced around a game plan on that at this point?
Todd replied well, I should address this to Jennifer, maybe you want to jump in also. Our plan is that we can have materials available for every single event that happens in the
community; including what increasingly works is those little QR codes if you’re trying to figure out what’s going on, it’ll give people a quick way to go to the website. As much as
possible, we’d like to see Council Members, and a time there will be City staff be active at those events so you can be answering questions face to face; there’s a calming nature of
that, obviously, as well as being very informative for people. I’ll be honest, I don't know what the schedule is yet for how people are going to be asked to do that, but there’s no
question that the more you’re able to do that, the more you’re going to be able to build confidence of people.
I would also say, though, to just be clear, is you must prioritize your time; Labor Day through the end of October is as or more important than the summer months. As a result of
that, if suddenly some of the events start to slow down from the intensity of the summer, there’s less going on in the fall. So, we may be coming to you and asking do you mind spending
some time at a home football game or some things that are going on at the schools, for instance, which is where people tend to gather then. Because there’s just not going to be as many
chances to go to a big public event. Jennifer, what would you add to that?
Administrator Levitt replied well, Mayor and Council, you know we have a plan right now for Strawberry Fest, and there will be a booth set up there. Obviously, the Food Truck Festival
is another one with the Dowdle unveiling event. You know, you have a big event that happens in that timeframe that he said was critical for education, and that’s our Halloween Parade.
So, I think we have some strategies already in place for the larger events to still get that message out.
Council Member Olsen stated the reason I asked the question is one of your talking points was you want to make sure that you get accurate information out there to people early enough
where they’re not going to be misinformed; because misinformation runs rampant in today’s day and age, whether it’s social media or anything else, and there will be people who have
a mission to deliver misinformation. At least from my perspective, ideally you kind of want to get to them early, and then you want to get to them often. So, between Strawberry Fest
and Fourth of July, we talked about the Food Truck Festival, we have some really big softball tournaments that come to town, and we have other events of that nature. It just feels like
those are opportunities that we could potentially miss if we don’t put a schedule together. Now, I’m willing to be at as many events as I can. I think we all sort of do that anyway,
but wherever people are gathered, that’s an opportunity to answer questions.
Kristen stated Council Member, if I released to you a draft agenda of where to be and who would be the best bet between City staff if you do have extra events that you think would be
important for people to be at, if you could share that with either Jennifer or us.
Council Member Olsen stated I don’t know what you’re looking at now, but absolutely, I’m happy to do that because throughout the summer months there is going to be opportunity to
connect with folks. We all do our best to be everywhere we can possibly be, we can’t be everywhere all at once, but I think if we put together a calendar and kind of assigned duties
and that sort of thing, that might be helpful.
Kristen stated I realize misinformation can be a little scary, but I think what I’ve learned throughout this process with the Rapp Strategies team is that we are information sharers;
so, no matter what, we always have to show up and continue to share details about those plans and get that support behind us.
Todd said I want to offer three very quick pieces of advice because your comments are very well taken. 1) Focus on the events that have Cottage Grove residents. If guests are coming
in, it may not be the best investment of your time. 2) You will never stop the misinformation. What you can do is you’ve laid out a groundwork for where people get information that
it doesn’t have any impact. 3) Remember this: Everybody in the pool is a taxpayer who deserves an answer. Nobody deserves an argument, and some people just want to have an argument
and a very extended one. I don’t think that anybody could do that. Give an answer, thank them, and if they disagree with the referendum, that’s fine. I’ll tell you right now it’s not
going to be unanimous; it’s certain that there will be people who will vote against it.
Mayor Bailey stated I noticed as I was looking through some of this before that you’ve got meetings with community groups and things like that; I know that some of them are already aware,
but like the athletic associations, hockey associations. Hockey might go well, what’s in it for them. Years ago, we did things for them, but it’s getting that information out to them.
So, I’m assuming, Zac, are you going to be the one that’s going to kind of spearhead that? So, if one of us needs to go to one of their annual meetings or events or things like that,
is that kind of what you’re thinking? Director Dockter replied yes.
Mayor Bailey stated I don't know if you’re going into this or not, but I do think visuals, you mentioned visuals; you can tell what you’re going to do, go to a park, or what you’re
going to do here or there, but if you don’t show a picture or a visual to them to see what they’re buying into, if you will, I think that’s the most crucial thing of it all. I can tell
people we’re going to build an interpretive center down at the Mississippi Dunes Park, but if I don’t have a visual to show what that really means, everybody’s mind is from is it just
a pavilion or what is it, you know what I mean? So, I think the more that we can do to show the visual of what these proposals are I think is going to be really beneficial to the public.
Director Dockter stated if I may, in your Council report, with the referendum questions, because that’s time sensitive we need a resolution to approve those questions at the next Council
Meeting. He asked are there any concerns with the referendum questions?
Council Member Olsen asked did you have Attorney Kori Land look at them to make sure that they’re okay?
Director Dockter replied our attorneys did not fight as much as we expected. Yes, we had a very nice meeting together, it made my job easier.
Council Member Olsen stated well, because that’s always an issue, right? You want to make sure that what you’re asking is within the parameters of the law and it’s stated appropriately,
etc.
Director Dockter stated it’s very important, yes.
Attorney Land stated and we get paid by the word, so that’s why, and yes, we’re good.
Administrator Levitt stated Mayor and Council, there are some critical things: 1) Obviously, you know we have to ask three questions. So, we want to make sure you agree with the order
of the questions. That’s one of the critical items. 2) We have Kori here if you had any concerns with the specific wording, and yes, our bond attorney did review the language as well.
That’s where those attorneys have to work out their conflicts.
Mayor Bailey stated I think the 1, 2, 3, in that order I think to me is the right order. Council Member Olsen stated I think so, too. You have Hamlet Park first, you have the Dunes
second, and you have the improvements to River Oaks Event Center as third.
I actually like the wording of the River Oaks question because I think the biggest challenge I will say, and I know we haven’t had a chance to really talk one on one with the River
Oaks project, is just there’s this mindset that it’s just the golf course, if you will. And so, what you’re doing in the question is really saying it’s going to be more than golf course,
and here are the things that we’re trying to do to open it up to more people to use within the community. So, the wording on the rest of them was just fine, Hamlet and Mississippi Dunes,
but I was really happy to see that; I don’t think we referred to it as a golf course in that question.
Director Dockter stated it says golf course and event center.
Council Member Olsen stated we always said we wanted to be a year-round, very accessible facility, and that makes sense.
Director Dockter stated, and you’ll see that in the graphics; the graphics show all those new things and the movement of the investments.
Mayor Bailey stated to your point, I think showing people what; we’ve seen some earlier renderings of what that will look like, but once you get to something more visual, where
somebody can see what are we talking about. I’ll call it a virtual reality type game, that’s not specific to golf, in the building or what the extra pickleball courts would look like
down there. That’s the big thing right now, as we all know. I think the visuals, especially on that, are going to be crucial to the public.
Mayor Bailey asked Council if they had any other questions on the three referendum questions, any other thoughts on those and the order; are you good with the order?
Council Member Thiede stated we’ll see those at the next Council Meeting.
Council Member Olsen stated the order is correct, as long as Kori approved the verbiage, then it’s all good.
Mayor Bailey stated I like the verbiage, so you guys worked together well on that.
Todd stated thank you very much for your time.
2) Kingston Park Building Replacement
Director Dockter stated Andrew Cooper with Oertel Architects is here, you’ve met him before. He’s here to give us his update at 60% of design on the Kingston Park building project, so
I’ll turn it over to Andrew.
Andrew stated thank you, Zac, good to see you again, Mayor and Council. So, yes, we’ll give a quick update on where we’re at in the 60% design process on the project. I have a quick
agenda here on some of the work that we’ve been doing: Sustainable Design; Site Design; Building Engineering; Architecture; Material Selections; and then a Cost Analysis.
Sustainable Design: What we did and we kind of set this up with City staff to kind of prioritize some ideas, goals, needs, wants. We used the AI framework as kind of a vessel to facilitate
that discussion. So, there are ten components within the AI framework; the five that kind of rose to the front as being really relevant for staff and through the design process were:
1) Economy, working to maintain a budget. 2) Work on flexible space building plan, so that it is adaptable and usable for a multitude of events. 3) Cost neutral performance enhancements,
so anything that we do to the project, if we were spending money on the project, it had the ability to see a benefit long-term for the project, whether it’s material selections or whatnot.
4) Eco systems, really looking at native plantings where we are improving plantings, and building, mostly kind of celebrating the views of the park, using the building as a central
focal point, and it is engaging the rest of the park. But also being bird safe, we have a lot of glass, so we’re being sensitive to the ecology and the natural environment with the
facility. 5) Energy wise, we’ve been really working with our engineers to be efficient in terms of building selection, material selections, system selections, and the structure as well.
We’re engaging Envelope Commissioning Agents and Building System Commissioning Agents now as part of the process to look at the exact details on how the venue is being put together.
Resources: The key is to have durable materials when you’re spending money on a municipal structure, its got to last a long time, so we are looking at very durable materials, both inside
and out, but also being mindful of that cost impact. We’re also discussing with Kraus-Anderson and the rest of our design team partners, our engineers, on how we can minimize construction
waste during the process, too. So, we’re really looking at optimizing the building geometry and sizes so that we’re getting the most bang for our buck on the material selections. Wellbeing:
We talked about the views from the building, but also connecting the inside and the outside to nature and being able to see into the building and see out of the building; make sure
the interior space is actually comfortable for the people using it when it is being utilized. Site Improvements: There are not many because we’re basically replacing the existing hexagon
that’s there, but the building is much bigger, so there is some impact. Traffic Deterrence: There is not a curb out there; so, we’re looking at how to create that separation between
the vehicle environment and the pedestrian environment. So, placing something natural, like boulders, you see that around in your civic campus here, but then also where do we need to
improve the site pavement. We’ve talked about improving the asphalt and that’s turning into concrete, etc., something that makes sense for how people would use the park and would stand
up long term. Access: Finding how people can gain access, not just to the building, but to the picnic shelter and then the park as well. So, making this as accessible as possible for
people coming not just from the parking lot, but also from the surrounding area. Visibility is also part of this site design. Stormwater Capture: The design of the building is a mono-pitch
roof, it’s much bigger because we’re going to collect a lot of rain and it’s going to come shooting off that, to the sewer. We’re trying to figure that out right now with our Site Design
partners, which is actually mostly Zac and his staff, to help figure out plant selections and how we want to deal with that stormwater design. Trash Enclosures: Everybody generates
trash and recycling. We’re going to keep it so it will be out of sight, out of mind, but still accessible to the staff when they’re picking it up. Additional Site Improvements: We’re
really looking at the landscaping and what are some of those site features. Picnic tables and
benches, we talked about that in the Concept Design. We talked about with staff eight-foot long tables, six-foot long tables, how many can we get there, and trying to integrate that
within the building structure because things have moved around a little bit since the last time we met; to make sure that we’re still getting as many people as we can underneath that
canopy space. Placing benches and also trash/recycling receptacles around so they’re easy and convenient to people using the park. When those things are convenient, you don’t find garbage
in the playground if it’s actually accessible. We talked about the native plantings. Then that indoor-outdoor placemaking as part of a Site Design discussion where we have interior
space, but we have that interior-exterior space when we have the exterior space surrounding; so, how do our design decisions really impact some of those characteristics. Building Engineering:
Is a little less exciting, but that is critical to determining the scope of the full end project and ultimately the cost. For a structural system, we are looking at a full timber structure,
so that’s wood columns, laminated beams, and a cross-laminated wood deck. That warm material, that natural material, is very tactile, very welcoming, it’s something that people can
generally find very comfortable when they are in one of those interior large gathering spaces. Standard heating and cooling systems, as efficient as possible, but we are very standardized
in a traditional furnace and condensing unit type of heat and cooling. We do have energy recovery that’s reducing our energy demand, that’s code based, but we may need a little bit
more enhanced just because of the type of usage of the building; we want to try to recover some of that, both cooling and heating, as it is a year-round facility. Lighting and Power
Design: We’re starting to look at interior light quality, but also engaging with IT staff to talk about security and AV features at the park setting and integrating that into our engineering.
We’re coordinating with solar providers, we’ve had some really good discussions with some people that can bid it, but also do an after market, so we’re planning on how those pathways
are made in the building. Whether it happens at the onset of a construction project or a year down the road, it’s simply plug and play; there’s no building infrastructure that needs
to be augmented, it’s all planned at the concept. We are also discussing with Xcel some of the Small Building Energy Rebate Programs, and those discussions are starting and ongoing.
Architecture: We’re just kind of in “the devil is in the details phase” right now. We’re looking at how we’re insulating some of these things, how we’re making it an airtight building,
and that is making this as efficient as possible. When you have a facility that is not used day in, day out, when it is used, you have to make sure that it’s as comfortable as possible,
and you’re not just dumping a bunch of money into it with the heating and cooling. So, we’re really looking at how we’re insulating it, what are the thermal bridge requirements that
we’re creating with some of our design decisions and how we can mitigate those. We’re engaging the Envelope Commissioning Agent to talk about airtightness; that’s also a new energy
code basis, but there are a lot of little things, so anytime you put an opening into the building, there’s a lot of detailing that goes into that. So, we’re bringing them on now and
engaging them in the 60% to 90% design activities to further make sure that building is performing like it should. The overhanging canopies, the large canopy on the south and the overhangs
on the other three sides of the building are complicated, structurally. So, we’re really working with our structural engineer to understand the importance of dimensioning and optimizing
those structural things that are really kind of dictating some of the design decisions. Looking at the window systems, like I said, there are lots of openings within the facility, how
those are detailed and what those systems are, are really kind of driving some of the design decisions. Material Selections: Some of those design decisions are material selections,
both inside and out. I talked about the interior wood structure. The rest of the interior is basically drywall and polished-concrete floors; there’s really not a whole lot of other
interior finishes. On the exterior, I talked about your products; so, we’re looking at a stone and a heavy-duty composite wood siding. We are using a stone product, it is a cultured
stone, it’s not natural stone; natural stone is about three-to-five times heavier, which meant we needed more structure, so we made an economic decision there. It is not simply an adhere
stone, it is thin set into a mortar bed product, so it’s super durable, it’s there for the long haul. The upper half is Diamond Kote, it’s a brand name of a pre-finish for LP siding.
So, I love LP siding for the stone; it is a prefinished product, so you’re going to get a color fastness that has a 30-year warranty. We have some sheet metal accents, and we’re kind
of in the gray tones here, gray and black tones because we are looking at an exterior finish that also has wood. Wood changes over time, it ages; in some elevations it’s going to age
gracefully and in others we might need to treat it to make it age the way we want it to. This is a little vignette that just demonstrates that we understand that wood at the onset,
if we plan it to have that natural yellow, warm tone, over time it will start to gray out. So, in five years,
depending on the elevation, how the sun hits it, and the way the shading of the building structure protects the wood material, you’ll see the top half start to kind of fade a little
bit, and the lower half will fade a little bit more. This is a natural process, you can stop that process with some very rigorous maintenance activities and some very powerful material
selections for coatings, or you can just slow it down and then embrace it. So, one of the reasons why we’ve chosen in some of the material pallet colors for the exterior is that we
do understand that wood is going to change a little bit. We can slow it down, but even if you slow it down a little bit at the onset, maintenance has to be kept up. So, the rest of
the building has very low-maintenance materials, so maybe that’s the one bit of exterior maintenance that is something you can do; we understand that, we just want to bring it up to
your attention that we do know there’s natural wood and it does age and change color. Cost Analysis: Cost is always my favorite part of these presentations. In 2023, at the previous
Concept Design, the building construction only was roughly just over $3M. Our current design development estimate, at 60%, is just over $4M. Some of the increases that occurred are
the site work; specifically, utility connections. We didn’t understand a lot of that at the Concept Design, we didn’t have a great understanding of where all the utilities were; we
knew that maybe gas and electric were going to have to be run to the facility, but we didn’t know that it would have to come from a street several hundred feet away. We didn’t fully
know how water and sewer was going to be connected; we have much more clarity on those things, but that had a pretty significant cost impact. The structural system clarity, it’s not
just the wood, it’s also the exterior envelope and how we’re dealing with sheer and foundation designs, it’s gotten a little more robust and a little more expensive. Mechanical and
electrical clarity went up as well; the duct runs and pipe runs for water sourcing got a little more involved than we initially anticipated. The architectural envelope increased, some
of that is based almost solely; when we did this estimate, we knew the Energy Code was coming, but we didn’t know if it was going to be fully enforced at the onset or if there was going
to be a little bit of a delay. Some of these envelope increases are for our normal robust thermal and air barrier detailing, which are mandated now by Energy Codes. I don’t know if
you follow my math, but Zac caught a math error for me; I was $1,000 off.
Andrew stated so where we’re at currently is design and building construction costs, just over $4M. There are additional escalators and contingencies that Kraus-Anderson has put into
the project budget, but there’s design escalation, too, in a 2025 or 2026 construction timeline: Construction management fees and costs to just do the work, general conditions and whatnot;
soft costs for professional services, which includes our architectural and engineering design fees, but also inspections, and then additional purchases, such as AV equipment, security
equipment. That is not part of that construction because it’s owner provided, we’re just simply providing pathways for it. That leads to a total project budget of $5.8M.
Some things that we kick around are ideas to reduce the construction costs, that $4M:
Reduce some square footage of the building; taking out a couple two-foot swaths there doesn’t change the total occupancy of the building, but it does maybe reduce some of the toilet
fixtures that are in the facility. Right now, there are six fixtures in each restroom. Those aren’t mandated by Code for the size of the facility, those were convenience to park users
that determined the number of fixtures; so, that would be part of that space reduction.
Moving to steel columns vs. wood columns, $50K, which is a good chunk of money, but it’s not as much as I had thought; when I asked Kraus-Anderson, they gave me a price line on that.
I did some other scope fractions and adjustments, about $50K as well, that could be eliminated: Some ceiling finishes; taking signage out; reducing landscaping; reducing some of the
other site work, deterrence and whatnot.
Andrew stated this is the last slide of my presentation, so I’m happy to answer any questions about anything:
Council Member Thiede stated we know that Kingston Park is probably one of our main parks for events, festivals, etc. To what level have we taken this and said well, how is this
going to either enhance or hinder any of those activities that occur there?
Andrew replied we ran this through the Parks Commission and community groups that we invited, that are involved with Strawberry Fest, and you were part of that, too, there’s also
the Fourth of July that uses it; but it’s meant to enhance all of the events. The restrooms were critical, those site improvements, and in particular, the electrical additions on the
outside of the facility, and then just having that big open space
for gatherings and things like the serving kitchen. So, those were all meant to be event oriented; the primary focus is for events.
Council Member Khambata asked how does this adjustment to the estimated costs impact us in terms of the referendum question; I thought that was a fixed amount.
Mayor Bailey and Council Member Olsen stated this isn’t part of the referendum.
Director Dockter stated right now, this is actually an unfunded project.
Council Member Khambata stated I’m sorry, for some reason I was thinking that this was still somehow tied to getting funded.
Director Dockter stated it’s still unfunded and unscheduled, and that’s partly why we have the escalation built in there for potentially 2026, just to pick a date; that’s why we
estimate a lot of escalation in there.
Mayor Bailey asked Director Dockter what did we spend on Glacial Valley, do you remember?
Director Dockter replied Glacial Valley ended up being about $5.5M. Mayor Bailey stated so, that’s pretty close to what this is.
Council Member Thiede stated yes, but the other one started out at $3M, Glacial Valley, or something like that, so this is going to end up at $10M?
Director Dockter stated I think every time you wait a year, it’s hard to know, right? And that’s why we, again, that’s why we threw escalation in there to try to cover our bases.
Mayor Bailey stated I was trying to remember, we had the wood discussion with Glacial Valley, too; do you remember what we decided? Director Dockter replied that we did not do.
Mayor Bailey asked because of the fading, right? Director Dockter replied yes.
Mayor Bailey asked so, what material did we use, though? Director Dockter replied we went with more of an LP siding.
Andrew stated so, for siding, siding takes UV not very well, no matter what you coat it with; the heavy timber will take it much better. We do have siding on the project, so that will
need to be treated in order to delay that patina, but that’s really more of an accent material instead of the whole thing; that’s why we went with the Diamond Kote, the pre-finish LP,
everywhere else. Really what you see as natural wood on there is kind of an accent around the windows, just to kind of create that visual interest and that’s where it is limited, with
the humidity, too. So, it's not the whole building; that way, you don’t have a south elevation changing color while the north elevation is still pristine.
Director Dockter stated and that was, if you remember, Glacial Valley was a whole wall and we actually had visuals of how it was going to change over time. And I think the underside,
without the UV, that underside will actually retain its color. Andrew stated unless the sun starts shining up, somehow, yes, the wood of the soffit will maintain its color. So, really
we’re going to see those beams and those front windows is where it will start to fade.
Mayor Bailey asked the wood around the front windows, you’re talking about, and then the beams? Andrew replied and then the beams, yes.
Mayor Bailey asked did we do the normal beams at Glacial or didn’t we wrap them?
Director Dockter replied we didn’t have any outside beams at Glacial; if I recall correctly, part of the budget discussion with Kraus-Anderson, they did wrap the steel beams. So,
the wrapping if you go from a 10 x 10 to 12 x 12 heavy timber column to 1 x 6.
Mayor Bailey stated right, and I think our reason for doing that was the same reason, first off; that’s why I was trying to remember that, I thought we did it because we didn’t
want it to fade. I guess the only thing I’ll mention and then I’ll throw it to my peers here, Council Members. It would be nice to know, though, Zac, or any of the group here: Let’s
say five-or-ten years down the road, we have to go in and do the maintenance. What’s that maintenance cost?
Council Member Khambata stated I was just going to ask that, what’s the operation and maintenance costs with either one?
Mayor Bailey stated I get we’re going to have clean the bathrooms, that’s all kind of normal maintenance. My decision about what materials we want to use; I mean, if you come back
and say, at some point we do this, and it’s going to cost $10K to redo the finishing on all that, I’m not so sure. Or
we’re going to require, Public Works will have to do it on their own, which is obviously a whole other; I know they have a lot on their plates the way it is.
Andrew stated with this structure, Mayor, this feature is really kind of; there’s some other natural wood underneath the canopy, but this is really well sun angled in these renderings;
like, there’s not going to be a whole lot of direct sun, it’s kind of hidden in some elevation, where that canopy is 24 feet out from the base of the building. That’s not an eave, that’s
a whole other structure in front of it, creating so much shade. So, this area, is really going to kind of receive the brunt of that UV impact from that west sun, on the southern edge.
That amount of material is not very much material, so $10K, and I know you just threw that number out, but that would take care of your five-year maintenance plan, done every 10-to-15
years, probably.
Council Member Khambata asked isn’t the grain, isn’t it partially due to oxidation; so, that would affect all parts, whether or not it’s getting direct sunlight?
Andrew replied UV is going to be one of the biggest factors on wood patinating that fast, but also the species that you select, natural oils; it’s not necessarily oxidation as much
as the oils escaping from it and the wood drying out that allows it to dry faster. There is an oxidation process that happens with certain species, with cedar it’s mostly with it drying
out, and then just having the UV impact of that.
Council Member Olsen asked would you please go back to your slide where you had the initial estimate and then the upgraded estimate. I see the Concept Design cost estimate and then I
see Design Development cost estimate. So, those are two different numbers based on different factors, right? Andrew replied correct.
Council Member Olsen stated so one of your factors here is Structural System Clarity, which is, in essence, 10% of that new estimate; what does that mean?
Andrew stated so, when we thought we had just simple columns and beams, we ended up with columns and beams and hangers; so, a whole other structural level to be able to support
the geometry of the canopy. The canopy, once we brought the structural engineer in, some of the design to be able to span that out without any walls to help support it added considerable
amount to structural cost. It’s not just the wood, it’s also the way the wood is put together, the beam and the hangers. Kraus-Anderson has a good handle on what that actually costs
because of their recent work, not just with you folks, but also with Washington County on a very similar project; so, they had it down to the cent and the dollars for that.
Council Member Thiede stated so, it really means we’re getting too fancy if it’s so much cost?
Andrew replied we’d be happy to do the cost-reduction option if we were able to skew columns, both inside and out, as a way to reduce that fancy factor.
Council Member Olsen stated it’s an insignificant reduction, though, right? Andrew replied I thought it was going to be way more, to be honest.
Council Member Olsen stated so, on your next slide, where you talked about some of the ways to mitigate costs, you talk about the potential of reducing the footprint. I think you
mentioned that the challenge there could be as far as restroom capacity, that may need to be adjusted; is that an absolute, or could you still do what you’re saying?
Andrew replied we could still take 410 square-feet out of the gathering space; that’s just going to reduce the total occupant capacity. So, we’re trying to still meet how many people
can we hold in that to still make it a viable gathering space for the events that are going to be there, and the activities that they’re going to house during softball or soccer tournaments,
that would make it less comfortable for 50 people. It might only kind of be a 40-person space, so it’s that 10-person bounce.
Director Dockter stated if I may, just remember that those are just the construction costs that are reduced. Any time you reduce the construction costs, all those other costs up top
reduce by a percentage as well. So, the savings is larger because all of those other three soft costs are all based as a percentage of the construction costs.
Council Member Olsen stated it’s all based on square footage; so, if you reduce square footage, you reduce everything.
Director Dockter stated so it’s more savings than just those costs.
Andrew stated so if you were to take all $375K of this, that would come off the $4M, and then these would reduce as well, because they’re based on percentages of the construction
number.
Council Member Olsen stated for my own edification, I think it would be helpful to see what that might look like if we make some of those adjustments, in addition to the different
holes, etc. If we can still accommodate X number of restroom capacity, that kind of thing, without really taking a ton away from the overall capacity and usage of the building, and
identify then what those cost changes might look like, from a visual perspective, and I’m kind of a visual guy, I have to see a picture of it, that would be helpful for me. I have a
hard time envisioning things unless I can see the model, that’s just me, though.
Andrew stated I completely understand; 410 square-feet in a plan diagram, unless you’re looking at it with all the dimensions on there, it’s not going to look exactly like that.
Council Member Khambata stated on Council Member Thiede’s comment of are we getting too fancy, I’m sure you’re asked this question, but is there a way to amend the way that roof kind
of cantilevers over the building by adding additional pylons or something to make it so that the roof structure; I guess I don’t understand, I don’t understand where the additional
structure is, I’m not mentioning it, I don’t want to start being one today. But I’m sure when you have that discussion, like there is no alternative that’s going to save money, more
than what was presented. Is that accurate?
Andrew replied right, we’ve balanced that with the structural engineer and talking about what if we did add columns, and the price of adding a column to fit under the structure,
but that actually added more, because you still have the roof structure.
Council Member Olsen stated there’s no offset. Andrew stated, there’s not a lot of offset, no. Council Member Olsen stated okay, fair enough.
Council Member Khambata stated so, yeah, I was just kind of wanting to make sure that we’ve made sure we’ve covered that.
Council Member Garza stated so, there’s material on it, so I know we love the wood, but would there be any fading on a different type of material for these?
Andrew replied for the soffit? Yes, there is; wood is still going to be the cheapest version that would go on the soffit. You can do a wood-look metal or just straight up painted
metal because it’s such high overhead work, it’s really kind of a labor question at that point. We can save maybe a dollar or two on the material, but it’s still the same; it’s still
Zac and I out there with our hands over our heads, trying to put that material in, so there’s not a lot of construction dollars tied in, it’s more a labor event.
Council Member Thiede asked have we given any consideration on what we’re going to potentially, if we’re trying to offset costs of this, what we’d have to charge people to use it?
Director Dockter replied well, I don’t think we have enough rentals to pay for it if that’s what you’re getting at. I mean, we won’t cover our bond payments.
Council Member Thiede stated we’re having a hard time keeping the budget in check right now, right? Is there anything in our FMP?
Director Dockter said if I may, just a reminder, we’re designing the building; it doesn’t mean we’re building the building. So, it’s very important, though, before we get to that
60% we make some decisions, but there’s always the option of doing the design and putting it on file; it doesn’t mean you have to build it.
Andrew stated part of our current timeline is to get to the 90% design by August, so that Kraus-Anderson puts another set of eyes on the design set. It’s not a guaranteed maximum
price because you don’t have a project timeline tied to it, but it’s as close as you’re going to get to something like that until you put a timeline on it; so, it’s more of an in the
can design, it’s an in the can cost estimate, and then when you pull it back out of the can to build it in a couple years, you just added that 8% or 9% escalation to the cost.
Council Member Thiede asked so how many changes to the construction and things like that would there be in five years? If in five years we’re able to save for this, how much is
it going to cost to redesign and follow up on a design, not having spent how much on this design?
Andrew replied I wish I could quote that, but those are unknowns. Who would have known that four years ago we had to deal with an international pandemic, shortening materials and
supply lines?
Council Member Olsen asked Director Dockter is it reasonable to ask for that update with some of those cost-mitigating factors and to have that costed out after that update is done for
our August meeting, potentially? What do you think?
Director Dockter replied we could bring it back to the budget meetings.
Council Member Olsen asked does that make sense to at least try to sharpen the pencil a little bit and see? Because I know we’ve built a building or two in the City, but we always
get sort of that final at that 90% mark where everybody’s got a pretty good grasp of this is what we think we’re going to do, and this is what we think it’s going to cost to do it.
I mean, you offered some reasonable suggestions here, I think. Again, just for me, from a visual perspective, to see what those suggestions look like after they’ve been applied would
be helpful. But if you don’t think that’s a reasonable thing, I’d like to hear you say that.
Andrew replied I think it’s reasonable to get what those cost reductions are on a construction number, and kind of give you a full picture of what that means for the total contingencies
and everything that affects that $5.8M; it will probably pull it down into like, I don't know, $5.4. My only apprehension is like some of those are major, like the square-footage reduction
is a major design change that I would like to get in advance of the 90% set milestone in August, if that’s something that we’d do.
Council Member Olsen stated yes, that’s why I asked the question. I wasn’t sure how you wanted to approach revisiting maybe an update. You mentioned during budget, that’d be fine,
that’s in July.
Director Dockter stated, and I think we’ll just have to talk to Andrew about it, if there’s going to be a change in their schedule. Andrew stated just so we don’t have to bid it
by a certain time.
Council Member Olsen stated no, and I think we all know Kraus-Anderson, they’re professionals, this is what they do, and they’re good at it. So, I don’t have any argument with their;
I don’t think if we had Joe over here and Jim over here, they’d give us two different numbers, I think it’s going to be pretty much the same, but personally, I’d like to see what the
numbers look like after some of these adjustments are made.
Mayor Bailey asked Zac, what if you took off the canopy? What would the difference be? And the reason I’m asking is the village is beautiful, by the way, it’s a nice building. So, my
question is, and I don't know if you guys can figure this out, if you were to take off the canopy overhang portion, and we build a pavilion between the building and the park vs. having
the extension. Because what I’m hearing, what you’re saying, you can tell me if I’m wrong, is that because we upped the way the structure is, there’s a lot of cost going in because
you must bring those pillars out and it’s got to be a certain type of pillar to hold the roof, right? And I’m just saying if the building is the building, which we like, and you build
a pavilion, what’s the cost difference there? I mean, if you’re telling me that I’m going to get some significant cost savings by taking off the overhang, but I could still spend X
amount of money, significantly less, to build a pavilion for people to picnic next to this building, that’s a cost savings. And I live near that park, and it’s used, as you know, from
a Strawberry Fest standpoint and all these other things. The overhang for me wasn’t the oh, my, I must have the overhang. The bathrooms, the physical structure of the building itself,
the windows, etc. looks nice. If you did something different that’s cheaper, I’d be okay with that.
Andrew replied we didn’t break that price out in the estimate, so of the $4M, it’s conservatively, on the low end, I would call it $650K. There were some higher numbers there, but
I think you would realize the full number, by just chopping it off because there is stuff that’s already happening in the building that’s kind of incorporated into that, that would
still happen at the building, whether the canopy is attached or not. So, it’s probably a $600K premium for the canopy.
Director Dockter stated the cost for the shelter is $100K, so you’re probably about a $500K savings.
Council Member Thiede stated I like that idea now. What I would do is I think at a lower cost, you could put the pavilion in, and maybe have a section of it that’s part of a bigger design
that has bathrooms or something that you could do initially, with a plan that would phase that in. As the community grows and more money becomes available, then you can look at possibly
adding the actual building to that. Because I think of a pavilion, I mean, one of the things that people gather and everything else at the park; and having a pavilion for things that
happen underneath and so forth, would be used quite a bit, probably more than a building. The building will be used on weekends, primarily. Where we have our buildings, I’d like to
see the utilization of our park buildings and what it is.
Council Member Olsen replied well, when they do the childcare programs, etc., they’re used every day.
Council Member Thiede stated well, that’s what I’d like to see. I guess maybe I don’t see all that.
Mayor Bailey stated I still want the building, and the reason I was saying you’d want the building is because eventually, and I’m looking at Molly, who’s here, we don’t have any
programs in this area.
Molly replied at Kingston Park, currently we do not, no. I think the big part of adding a new building is to have that indoor space for our rentals to use; currently, that’s an
issue when people come in and there’s not a space for them for their headquarters and a building would be bigger. Our Family tournaments are coming, and there’s not a space to store
things, to save things, to have a First Aid space, to store their supplies. I know we talk a lot about power, and that’s their biggest request for Kingston, as there are horrible outlets
on the outside of it. We’re constantly having power problems there. So, the building is more than just a space, it addresses a lot of other things, like being able to have rentals,
bigger rentals at Kingston are requesting everything. I would say you take a week of old numbers, but off the top of my head, I would say rentals at Kingston are growing five times
more than they were last year, and we’re talking groups of 200+ people are happening every weekend at Kingston this summer; they are set up.
Council Member Thiede stated I see how we might be able to estimate that and how that might have fed this, paying this, if we will be able to get bonding here or something like
that.
Administrator Levitt stated we can look at a revenue projection.
Council Member Olsen stated, and we do have bonding capacity; I mean, that’s something that we know to be true. But I think it’s a question of, again, trying to just be as efficient
as possible; maybe you look at the updated information, and maybe we’ll like the first one better, but at least then you can compare.
Mayor Bailey stated like I said, I think it’s important to have an actual building there with real bathrooms, like sizeable enough for more than just one person or two to go in there.
I agree that it needs the power and all the pieces that go along with it. I’m looking at it where I do like the design of the building, don’t get me wrong; if you’re telling me we can
save $500K by building a pavilion next to it, with the building still being there. Frankly, it could be two rental places; you rent the building, you rent the pavilion, and not that
that’s going to generate that kind of money, you know that, but that’s what I personally would like to see.
Frankly, Zac, I don't know if you’re looking at it in this case, but as we look to the future for other parks, something down the road, the bigger parks and such like that, in my
opinion, it would be kind of nice if you had a template. So, we have consistency for what they need for programming, electrical, etc., and if we can create something like that, that’s
good; so, ten years from now, I’m just making this up, if we’re going to redo Woodridge Park or we’re going to redo Hamlet Park, does this building then become the template that we
use so we don’t have to go through all the design phase again, other than where it’s going to sit and the infrastructure.
Director Dockter stated we do kind of have that, I mean, Woodridge and Highlands are similar, and this one was kind of going to be similar; we’re going to use this one as a template
for Hamlet, so, we’re doing a lot, we’re trying to do a lot of that.
3) Mississippi Dunes Park Master Plan Updates and Building Concept Plan
Director Dockter stated Adam and Brett, the architecture team with ISG, are here for this presentation.
Brett Harris stated I’m a Landscape Architect with ISG, and Adam Voth stated I’m an Architect with ISG, thank you for having us. Brett stated, yes, we want to thank you for your
time.
Brett stated we’re excited to unveil our Master Plan for the Mississippi Dunes Park. It’s one of those rare opportunities where you get to have a cool space, and so we’re excited to
introduce it. Just as a matter of background, we’re still making some updates, but as you know, this is a former golf course, it was mass graded for that golf course. There’s a lot
of interesting topography, we have about 40 feet from where the building is currently sited, down to the river; so, there’s certainly a lot of topographical challenges there, as well
as just the new contacts with the neighborhood behind the park and how that’s going to feel. And then also balancing active and passive uses; we have Grey Cloud SNA really close by
for maybe those more passive uses of walking or sitting and enjoying nature.
We’re trying to build a program around the building to attract users, younger users, kids, youth, and also young families. A couple of ideas that we’ve been kicking around is increasing
a naturally-inspired
playground, along with placement of the elements that you’d typically see at a normal playground. Also using some of the topography, and leveraging that for some interesting embankment
play, some big slides, places for kids to clamber around. And all of that is to say that there’s also an element of sustainability with this design.
There are three distinct biomes that we have on the site: We have native plantings that have started to take over from where the golf course was left fallow; mature canopy trees,
that more woodland condition; and then also some big oaks that we would also like to preserve and maybe even repopulate as a buffer between that neighborhood and what will be the park.
There is a lot happening here, and I know that it is getting late, and so I’ll try to be brief and try to give everyone a quick overview of everything that we’ve got kind of programmed
through here.
Entering, exiting and egress of the site is all going to be on this access road here, up in that northwest corner. Just briefly on the layout, again, I mentioned that there’s a
lot of challenging topography here; so, one of those challenging accesses is getting from this point all the way down to the river access point, as there’s about 40 feet of grade change.
To sort of make that work, we have to really elongate the road, but one of the things that we were thinking of doing was how the sinuous nature of that road layout is to really reduce
speeds. We don’t want people just taking a straight shot, driving down really, fast. We want them to kind of curve around and really kind of must slow down with their boat and trailer
because there is going to be that conflict of pedestrians, joggers, users of the trails, users of the playground, as well as boaters.
The building is sited right here, very near to where the full clubhouse used to be. Trying to leverage what is existing, not really expanding any utility runs if we don’t have to,
using the kind of flat space that’s already up there with the topography. So, it just sort of makes sense to keep the building close, not necessarily exactly right on the same footprint,
but certainly close enough to make easy utility connections and then all that flat space that’s already graded out. We have a parking lot here, on the north side, everything is sort
of oriented towards the river to keep and preserve the river views. We really want people to kind of enter the park space, leave their car behind, and then sort of immerse themselves
in nature and really kind of focus on that natural beauty of the site itself.
Another set in here is what we’re proposing is a great lawn, just a flexible space for people to toss a little ball around, perhaps there’s some popup farmer’s markets, or even
in the wintertime it can be programmed as a Christmas market. But something that’s just flexible; the turf is nice and short, you can kind of beat it up a little bit to have those market-type
events. With that, we also have this little turnaround here, instead of having like a full-blown kitchen within the building, but that could be an area for food truck parking, as well
as just drop off for users of the park.
A quick eye to sustainability: There’s already an existing storm basin here to collect all the rainwater from the parking lot; then we would also propose another one down here,
to capture all this, there’s kind of a great divide here, so all of this would then run down and capture into that storm basin at the river.
A couple of other elements, just programatically, you see here we have two distinct playground areas: This one being a 5-to-12 playground, there’s some embankment slides here. This
one would have that platform, but also would have sort of natural elements, we call them logjams; it’s basically big tree trunks that are sort of tied together, but really trying to
lean into the natural beauty of the site but using that as like the inspiration for the material pallet as well.
Another piece to this is this is a sort of natural drainage way, it’s kind of a natural swale that was developed as part of the golf course. So, what we’re thinking is using it
as an activated river channel, as a thread for kids to play in, clamber around, get a little splashy wet, a little water element feels without necessarily the risks of really getting
down to the river and the heavy flows of the Mississippi. We’re trying to get kids really engaged with water in a different way.
There’s a couple of what I’ll call a prow in the grade, it’s just this nice open space where you really get views up and down the river, so we have a little overlook there. Where
the former 18th green was, I believe, there’s this nice embankment of topography that really lends itself nicely to what we’re calling river loungers, where people can just kind of
sit and relax and enjoy the natural beauty of everything.
So, now as we get to the little bit finer details, this is the site. With the biome we talked about a little bit earlier, there’s already a nice, mature canopy. One of the thoughts
that we had was to leverage that mature canopy by placing the boat launch over on this western side so that all those mature trees that we can preserve and save sort of screens off
any view of the parking lot. We want to make sure that river
views are focused to the river; so, we’re just kind of using what we have there with the existing woodland, and that’s where we kind of have located that parking lot. The basic palette
is sort of the native plantings, native prairie, keeping it sustainable, not really having a super heavy mowing regime, where you have to get mowers up there all the time. We’re really
letting the natural beauty kind of come up and provide that setting for everybody.
Lastly is just thinking about if we’re going to have a ton of back yards and people staring out their back windows out onto the park space, we kind of want to get a separation,
but we don’t necessarily want to totally obscure it; so, the thought is that we plant a lot of oak trees, to reclaim the oak savanna. So, over time, as those grow up, they start to
kind of obfuscate the windows and everything that’s up on the second and third stories of the new housing development but keeping that ground plain sort of free and clear. So, it’s
not a total screen, but certainly some of that obfuscates the views a little bit and we’re going to try to see to the neighborhood development, as well as users of the park.
Then I’ll just quickly highlight some of the sustainability ideas that we have going through here: Really using green infrastructure in our parking lot design, sending all the water
through there, so any of the contaminants or pollutants that come off any vehicles or streets all sort of get cleaned and washed into some green infrastructure, which is then dumped
into the basins. Also, on the building, covering it with a green roof, which helps with insulation and heating factors, as well as a solar array on top of the building, which Adam will
talk about in a minute, just to help obviously generate a little electricity offsetting any of that electricity cost. We’re really trying to lend an eye to the sustainability here.
Active and Passive Uses: Most of the passive uses are kind of centered around the building; you’re sitting, you’re enjoying the views, maybe it’s a food truck, or you’ve got something
from a farmer’s market that’s happening on the great lawn. Active uses would be the boat launch, the trails throughout, connecting to the Grey Cloud SNA side to the east.
Some of the design pieces that we’re thinking about are really just kind of leaning into that Dunes title; natural aesthetics are really a popular item within a playground, but how can
we put that in a playground but then also bring it throughout the site. We thought putting it over in the entrance, to kind of set the building at a nice, natural setting would be a
good move, really kind of set the tone for the landscape in the front entry. To continue on the back, we have a lot of grade change, so on the back side we have a little open space,
to continue some deck space as you’ll see in the rendering, but we also thought maybe a communal firepit out here for whoever’s renting the building.
That water trail that I alluded to, we’re introducing this little splash pad area for kids to engage with water, using limestone as sort of a weeping wall to start that activated
river channel, and then that river channel kind of leads through the play areas. So, it’s a distinctive element for kids to engage with a water type zone, as we don’t want everybody
swimming around in the river.
That overlook that we had here is to capture views, we’re thinking a limestone overlook, like you can see in this picture. But adding a sundial is a nice touch to help center people
around just the natural cycle of the year, the time, or this is a nice moment of contemplation.
An outdoor classroom for those youth programming elements for kids to learn about the environment and learn about all the natural things that are happening here. Then these river
loungers, just to the south of the great lawn, a place where you can just kind of sit, relax, and really just enjoy the river. Giving a nice focal point, reflecting kind of the river,
the sky, and everything, we’re thinking of a nice reflecting pool as a focus for those river loungers.
Those paths, as well as paved paths, we’re reusing all the existing paved paths that we can from the golf course is really kind of a setup of how we’ve laid out all of our paths.
However, a lot of them do need to be adjusted to make them ADA accessible and regraded. So, we’ve gone through and investigated where those are and have laid them out accordingly.
You can just kind of see the big destination kind of playground, using all that topography up there, and then a host of platform-type structures. And then that water channel element
that kind of weaves through boulders, kind of scattered about for interesting places for kids to climb and clamber around.
A little shade shelter here, just to provide a little respite for families if they want to have a birthday party or what have you, as well as a drinking fountain up here.
And then just an idea of signage, really kind of leaning into that Dunes motif and how we might be able to achieve that with some natural material; Zac has placed stone vertically,
using some corten elements that are weathering steel that sort of stand the test of time, providing little vignettes and informational
signage throughout the trails as informational pieces for everybody. Then that’s a quick materials palette and then we’ll get to the building.
Council Member Thiede said I have a features question. With all the stumps that are in that water, how big a boat could actually go; I mean, is there going to be very many people that
really could bring a boat and a motor and drop it in that area?
Director Dockter replied there is a channel just off the shore there that we’re anticipating can be used, but we just got the bathymetric report on it not too long ago, but still
it’s going to be just a few feet deep. So, I’m anticipating smaller fishing boats, pontoons, so they have probably 20 feet or less.
Council Member Thiede stated all right, but it’s still something that would be brought in by a trailer that you need to have a launch; Director Dockter replied yes, Jon boats or
whatever, but hopefully just as many kayaks and canoes.
Council Member Khambata said I have a question about vegetation. You described kind of replanting an oak savanna; what, if any, liability is there in having like one species of tree,
kind of like with the Emerald Ash Borer. Would you kind of like break it up a little bit, so if like something went through, you wouldn’t want the entire landscape to have a bunch of
dead trees. That’s a liability, but then it’s also something that we must pay to take down and remove and replant; so, do you have some kind of resiliency built into that landscape
plan, in terms of like disease prevention?
Brett replied yes.
Council Member Khambata asked or do we just have a treatment regiment for the oaks?
Brett replied sure. Oak savanna is typically classified as like having grassland below, and then a nice big canopy. Oaks don’t like to grow next to other trees, which is part of I’ll
call it their own built-in resilience. So, typically, when oaks have a nice natural habitat that you can think of just a big, beautiful oak and just like a prairie, and there’s not
really many trees around it, is kind of a quintessential picture of an oak. So, there’s a little bit of resilience there in that they don’t like to grow next to each other and they
kind of keep other trees out. Some of that has to do with fire and management, whether you’re mowing kind of the underbrush. We certainly could plant other trees to mix it up, if that’s
a concern. I mean, it’s sort of the idea of having this more open canopy and not a super-dense canopy to block those views of the development.
Council Member Olsen stated and that’s a natural oak savanna anyway; Brett stated yes, right. Council Member Olsen stated Zac’s been working on restoration down there for as long
as I can remember with his team, getting all the buckthorn out, replanting the prairie grasses, and those kinds of things.
Council Member Khambata stated yes, that’s fine, thank you.
Adam stated after all of this discussion, I’m happy to chat a little bit about the building, so bear with me. After kind of all of this discussion, certainly it’s not been with the building,
but we need to have elements working with Zac and see it’s all been on the same common road: Really understanding the unique nature and the unique characteristics of this site, where
it’s located, what the topography is like, in adjacency to the river.
So, certainly if we dove into these early Master Plans, understanding what the building opportunity and the need would be, that would result in kind of friends of mine understanding
that this building is really a node of activity that interconnects with all of the other programatic elements at this site for year-round and universal building use. And continually
turning to this site as we thought of site location, Brett mentioned the way in which utilities are brought, building orientation, understanding the need to maximize use. At the same
time, provide really a building that isn’t necessarily oozing or intrusive to the landscape, but something that could ultimately complement, while still stretching along the site to
maximize and optimize this really wonderful river and find its best use.
So, that is something that has been reflected in the building form, of having rather than some high-peaked roofs, some really soft, gradual, gentle roof slopes that 1) Are known
to the undulating landscape, but then 2) As Brett mentioned, from a sustainability standpoint, those roofs really allow themselves to be a vessel and/or canvas for some sustainable
strategy where we have green-roof components and the solar that you can start to see in some of our visuals. This site also was a topic of discussion for material
selections as we start to do a bit of some color and quality material traces; obviously, from a functional standpoint, durability was top of mind for things like metal, stone certainly
start to fold into the conversation. But if you think about different textures and profiles, we discussed some manipulations you make to a metal panel that has ribs so that you can
start to have a horizontal striving expression that not only lends itself to being emulative of the geology, but then also the rich layers of the history that is embedded within this
very special and unique site.
I can quickly walk through this floorplan here. We did a lot of programming exercises to understand just what a right size might be for a building, a facility like this, to serve
the park as a whole. The building program is organized into two wings: To the left, we have restroom facilities with a single-use that’s accessible from the outside, so you can really
think of that wing as a means to serve not only the building program itself, but then also the site as a whole. Then on the right wing, we have our rentable community event space. A
lot of conversations with Zac to really understand what the overall maximum seating capacity would be; its current seating is showing roughly 102 for a standard banquet style, as well
as what that would mean in terms of a serving kitchen, length, what kind of storage capacity might be, in order to support these year-round universal events that could take place. Some
elements within the community room to the west wall, on the right side, a west wall that would be planned east. It’s confusing, but we’re orienting and always mindful of the river,
it would be on display. We have some third-story windows that trend not only to the tree canopy that Brett mentioned, but then also the sunset. And then really optimizing the views
at the top, towards the river, which fall to the south. The element that starts to connect and unify those two wings would be that main commons; that really draws from the parking lot
to the bottom, towards the river, through the building. Having a clear sightline through the building would be incredibly important to again bring you to the action in terms of what
the natural site has to offer. There are also really great opportunities in that commons, not just think of it as a circulation space, but there will also be some built in interpretive
display opportunities; a fireplace, something that can be used year round to not only keep you sheltered, keep you warm, leading you to the restroom, but then also a learning opportunity
to display the significance of this site.
So, these are the digitals that we started with, and we kind of pieced together what all that language starts to mean from the building and site standpoint, the way in which the
Dunes kind of softly bounce along the front, and it starts to restore the building in a sense to integrate into the surroundings. But then, through that front façade, you will have
clearly designated warm entry sightlines all the way through the building. The strategies we’re starting to think about in Stage 2 really generate that exciting experience for users.
And then, again, this is a view coming off of that main and continue to the event space, through the commons, showing programmatic activities, beautiful views of sunsets to the west.
Director Dockter stated okay, just a quick reminder, it’s kind of a Master Plan and a Building Concept Plan working together, but we want the Concept Plan of the buildings, so if we
could Master Plan the park around it, make sure everything gets focused. As you head to the park, everything looks seamless, and everything focuses back to the details in the plan.
So, we’re looking for feedback.
Mayor Bailey asked if Council had any comments on what you saw.
Council Member Garza stated I’m excited. I think it seems like an awesome design, and I love it. I can’t wait to use it.
Director Dockter stated I should say, sorry, we did do a preliminary budget on the entire park, and it does match the referendum amount.
Mayor Bailey asked whatever the question is? Director Dockter replied yes.
Mayor Bailey asked, and that building is included? Director Dockter replied at this point, yes.
Council Member Olsen stated you mentioned like a gazing pool or something; where exactly would you place that on the site?
Brett replied overall, you have the building here, there’s some significant topography, and then towards, if you can imagine drawing a line, but basically this is where that reflecting
pool would be. And, so, it’s very near to the building, also.
Director Dockter stated so those lawn chairs are looking down towards the main channel, looking towards Hastings.
Mayor Bailey asked, and those lawn chairs are like permanent, right? They’re not something that’s going to roll away, or? Director Dockter replied no, you’re correct on that.
Brett replied yes, they’d be built into the extent of this hillside, so they’d kind of be here.
Council Member Khambata asked what’s the depth on that? Is it like a concrete like basin or vessel that’s just deep enough to retain water and kind of have a reflection?
Brett stated you want it as thin as possible to get that reflection; so, it’s really not something to be accessed.
Council Member Khambata stated I’m just imagining my kids playing in it.
Brett stated you can kind of make it how, but to get that reflection, you want it to be very thin, you want the bottom to be black. But we’re not proposing something that’s going
to be a drowning hazard or anything like that.
Council Member Khambata stated so, my first impression of the building is it reminds me a lot of the Oakdale Nature Center; if you’ve ever used that building, and it’s a pleasant
place to be. I’ve been there several times for meetings and like the ambience, that kind of lends itself with the common area; I think that one has several classrooms, but you kind
of walk in, you’ve got a common area, you’ve got a desk, you’ve got all your information and an interpretive center. So, I really think that’s a thoughtful way out and then again, orienting
the building so that as you’re walking from the parking lot, you’ve got a direct line of sight to the river; I think that’s, again, your kind of playing into what the space is to begin
with or the property is to begin with. I think that’s a real thoughtful design.
Mayor Bailey stated I know when we first started talking about this park down there, Zac, I thought I saw one of your schematics had like granite slabs that kind of stuck out into the
river, if you will, for kids to fish; is that still something, or are you looking at a dock, or?
Director Dockter replied maybe we’ll do a fishing pier.
Mayor Bailey stated that’s fine, I just want to make sure that there would be an option if somebody just wants to go stand out on a pier or whatever, that they could do that or
wanted to go fish.
Director Dockter stated I was just out with the DNR this morning on that; Mayor Bailey said perfect.
Mayor Bailey stated one last thing, as I think Council Member Thiede has a question. The other neat thing that would be cool, and I don't know if they still do this, but you know how
they’ve got those, they’re almost like binocular units where you can look. Because if you know, if you go down there and you look to the right, there is a massive eagle nest, it’s got
a bunch of babies in it, not so many babies anymore, but it’s been there forever. I mean, it would be kind of cool, either direction, if you could have that option to have something
like a permanent structure where if you just want to walk down there and you wanted to look to see closer views of some of the nature and the animals, etc., that’d be kind of cool.
Council Member Thiede asked are you looking at $5 for 30 seconds?
Council Member Olsen stated just like Mount Rushmore, yep.
Mayor Bailey stated well, actually, Zac, we’re going to have you climb up there. I talked about the eagle cameras; I watch the one out in California; it’s pretty cool.
Council Member Thiede stated so, when we took the one old house out, I know we found that some things crumbled and things like that. Were we able to get anything out of that? Because
we were talking about putting it, somehow creating a deal for the history of the Grey Cloud Island and some of that area and so forth.
Emily Schmitz, Community Development Director, stated Council Member Thiede, what we were able to obtain out of the house it makes the most sense to make maybe sort of a display
case, and I feel like that’s something that might come later. But that was the intent of collecting those items, and we were hopeful that we could put something together that made the
most sense, obviously.
Director Dockter stated and we’re not to the interior design of this facility yet, but when we do the interior design, the intent is the historical and cultural, that the interior
design should reflect on all those things.
Council Member Olsen stated it feels like this building design is appropriate for the area and the presumed use, so I appreciate the thoughtfulness that went into that; you guys clearly
did your homework.
Mayor Bailey stated I do also like your idea on the; I’m trying to envision the idea of like if this water could be trickling through where kids could play in the water. Is this going
to be a like an actual?
The Tamarack Nature Center, in Woodbury, is what most people are familiar with; you push a button and it runs for a little while. Mayor Bailey stated I’ll have to go check that
out.
Council Member Khambata stated it’s the same as the splash pad system, right? It’s more expensive to recirculate the water, so you’re basically just kind of flushing the water;
but yeah, it’s got like a button with a timer on it.
Director Dockter stated well, this will have a lot less water use.
Council Member Thiede stated I could see homemade paddleboat racers across there, where you put the rubber band in. Didn’t you ever make those when you were a kid?
Council Member Garza stated Battle Creek playground in St. Paul actually has a little mini creek that runs through the playground, and the kids play in it all the time, and it’s
muddy and dirty and all those things; but it’s really a cool feature for the kids, so this idea I think is really a good idea, too, you guys. Interact with the water without getting
down there.
Council Member Olsen stated the Site Plan is very respectful of the topography of the area as well, and I like the idea of going back to the oak savanna, which is what Grey Cloud has
historically been forever and ever. So, it seems like it’s just a real nice tip of the cap or nod to the natural beauty that has existed there for years. This is going to be very nice.
Mayor Bailey stated I also like your idea of the more natural park, if you will. I was going to ask you, did you guys design that type of a park in Ramsey?
Brett replied no.
Mayor Bailey stated because when Summers Landing was first looking, they had me go up to Ramsey and look at it, and they had a park that was made out of like timbers and natural,
and the kids loved it, they were playing all over it. So, when I’m seeing what you’re presenting, I’m going oh, on the one picture you had there.
Brett stated I actually worked with a landscape or a playground manufacturer, so that design you see there is the actual playground that would go here. Now, some of those other
elements, like the embankment slide and things like that, that came from this group; so, that was actually designed for our park.
Mayor Bailey stated it’s uniquely different than your typical equipment in a park, as you know. Council Member Olsen stated and we want it to stand out, we want it to be special.
Mayor Bailey asked if they got what they need, they said yes. Mayor Bailey stated I like it, thank you.
14. WORKSHOPS - CLOSED TO PUBLIC - None.
15. ADJOURNMENT
Motion by Council Member Olsen, second by Council Member Thiede, to adjourn the meeting at 10:16 p.m. Motion carried: 5-0.
Minutes prepared by Judy Graf and reviewed by Tamara Anderson, City Clerk.