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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-3-19 City Council Meeting Minutes COTTAGE GROVE CITY COUNCIL March 19, 2025 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 March 19, 2025, 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 Clausen-Here; Council Member Garza-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; Pete Koerner, Public Safety Director; Korine Land, City Attorney-LeVander, Gillen & Miller, PA; Gretchen Larson, Economic Development Director; Brenda Malinowski, Finance Director; Emily Schmitz, Community Development Director; Mike McCormick, Public Safety Sergeant; Scott Shaver, Public Safety Detective. 4. OPEN FORUM Mayor Bailey opened the Open Forum. Kelly Dawn, 7591 74th Street South, Cottage Grove, said I do have contact information for other homeowners in the Hidden Valley neighborhood as well, that also wanted to have their voices be heard as well, but I can give those in a second. I spoke very passionately last time I was here, and I am excited to see that the bid came in significantly lower than they had initially anticipated. However, the company that they chose, McNamara Contracting, I know that the City has used them before, but I don't know if the City’s aware of the absolutely horrific reviews they have as a company in general. I would like to know what is in their contract, that if they were to damage personal property as they have seemed to have done several different times on several different projects in several different cities; and I brought actually all of the reviews that I was able to get printed, so you guys can see those. What is in their contract to protect the homeowners, first and foremost? Secondly, I wanted to point out that the second company that was the second-lowest bid, they actually have pretty fantastic reviews; their bid came in at $57,906 over McNamara, which rounds out to be about $255 per homeowner, and I would strongly love to ask the City to possibly look at utilizing them instead. I think that as a homeowner, $255 for slight peace of mind, rather than a $500 or $1,000 homeowner’s insurance policy deductible, especially if one of the reviews, I couldn’t get it to print, but McNamara had ruptured a City water line that ended up backing up in their home. I don't know if you guys know, but if you don’t have homeowner’s insurance that covers flooding, oftentimes those types of things aren’t covered under some homeowner’s insurance because it’s outside water coming into the home; it depends specifically on each individual insurance company, but I think that that’s something that we really should look into because that could be a very costly event if that were to happen when they’re doing our project. The other thing that I wanted to talk about is the park addition. So, they are doing a covered pavilion with three picnic tables with a basketball hoop, and I wanted to actually take this back to the Park re-dos. So, many of the other neighborhoods that have gotten park re-dos had strong input from the neighborhoods; Hidden Valley was never given that opportunity. I bet you if you were to currently poll homeowners, I would say that roughly 90% of the neighborhood wishes our park was never redone; it was redone significantly with less of the standards in the old park. None of us even knew that the park was even being done, and that was admitted by Zac, in the City, as well, when I had originally emailed him; he said he swore that Hidden Valley was questioned about the park re-do, and he went back into his notes and he couldn’t find any information about it. And now here we have a large bill, and the park additions are, I think I did the math and it came in at about $78,000 for the addition that 50% of the neighborhood doesn’t want. We don’t want a basketball hoop; we have a basketball hoop with paths right within a five-minute, maybe seven-minute walking distance. How that area is in on top of the hill, that basketball hoop and swings are just going to echo all the way down into the rest of the neighborhood. So, I would really love to have that looked at as well. And then here’s the other homeowners, too. Mayor Bailey asked do you want to give those to me? Kelly replied yes. Mayor Bailey said I’ll take those, thank you. Kelly said so I just wrote the names, this is from a resident Kelli, and she really has the same sentiment as me, and then this is an actual letter from Kelli Ryman-Moore. And then this is all of the reviews, this is McNamara’s reviews, this is the next-lowest company’s star ratings, and then some of the most-concerning reviews for McNamara are attached as well. Mayor Bailey said okay, thank you. Mayor Bailey asked Kelly if she was going to stay for the bid award because they’ll answer some of your questions. Kelly replied, I don’t mind, I just got back from Mexico at 3:00 a.m., so I am very tired. Mayor Bailey said all right, sounds good, thank you for sharing. As no one else wished to address the Council, Mayor Bailey closed the Open Forum. 5. ADOPTION OF AGENDA Motion by Council Member Olsen to adopt the agenda; second by Council Member Clausen. Motion carried: 5-0. 6. PRESENTATIONS Introducing Riggs: Cottage Grove Public Safety’s Therapy Dog Staff Recommendation: Allow Case Management Detective Scott Shaver the opportunity to introduce Cottage Grove Public Safety’s Therapy Dog, Riggs. Mayor Bailey said next is introducing Riggs, which our Cottage Grove Public Safety Therapy Dog, and I believe Sergeant Mike McCormick is going to introduce Detective Scott Shaver. Mayor Bailey asked the Council Members to join him in front of the dais. Sergeant McCormick said Honorable Mayor, Council, thank you for this opportunity to introduce something that we’re really excited about; if anybody’s seen our Facebook page, for anything that’s got 1,000 likes or more, this guy is in every one of them. He’s been a really welcome addition. This kind of started with, as we continue to add to our Case Management Unit, Jen Stubblefield, our newest Social Worker, is also part of that new addition, and Riggs is the newest member of our department, the first therapy dog that we’ve had. So, right here, how he’s acting is how he is on a normal day; Scott was telling me Riggs is actually pretty worked up right now, it’s like he’s 12 weeks, so to be a puppy worked up like that, I’ll take that because I have one like this that’s not like that at all. Sergeant McCormick stated so, a couple things, we’ve already seen Riggs in action on some of our Case Management calls where he can go in and just be that voice or that calming presence for someone in crisis; so, that’s really what his role is going to be is to enhance mental health and therapy support. I can tell you that there are first responders who have had their days bettered, just because of Riggs being there. Initially, the whole idea was to bring Riggs out in the community to help with those in crisis, but then we see with our officers and our EMS staff that have bad days, and they go right to him, too; so, it’s really been a godsend having Riggs here. His role is to offer comfort during difficult moments, kind of like those I was just talking about, strengthen emotional wellbeing for those who serve and those we support. Again, it’s really a big step for our Case Management program, as we’ve been trying to get out in the community and trying to reduce stigma with the community what the role of police is in that. Now, we have this little guy right here, which makes it even better. So, what is he going to do? What are our expectations? Playing a vital role with our Public Safety team, providing emotional support, and strengthening community connections. Riggs is accompanied by Scott, so if Scott isn’t here, then Riggs isn’t out in the field. So, he’s just much like our K9 officers, he’s kind of a one dog owner kind of thing. Although Riggs can get along with just about anybody, and I don’t think anybody would want to be in the room by themselves with Scout, but I’d be okay with this one. Riggs is going to assist on calls where his presence can help foster trust and provide comfort during difficult situations. He’s training with Soldier’s 6, which is an amazing group; for those that don’t know, they specialize in helping people that are dealing with posttraumatic stress or other types of stressful or mental health issues. So, they know when they come in to train Riggs, they know exactly what they’re going to be doing with him, and Riggs is a natural with all this, so it helps. The other job that he exceeds at already is bringing smiles to everyone he meets while showcasing his playful, quirky puppy personality. Sergeant McCormick said we had a very generous $10,000 grant from the Minnesota Department of Public Safety for Law Enforcement and Fire for the Therapy Dog grant, and a lot of credit goes to Sergeant Patrick Young for doing all of the legwork with that. They handed me their program on a silver platter, so now I get to take credit, but really there are all sorts of things going on in the background for that. Again, Soldier’s 6 is providing the training for Riggs and with Scott. So, I was told to keep it very brief because everyone’s going to want to talk to the dog and be with the dog anyway, so I’m done. Mayor Bailey said all right, so, first of all, thank you and thanks obviously for going after the funding. You hear about therapy dogs, and I think our partners to the north, Woodbury, got one, and I saw pictures of it, and the Council Members all, too, just like us, they’re like oh, they’re so cute! And, so, having him here to obviously help with stressful situations that might be out in the community, I think is absolutely amazing. And I don't know, I hope I’m not spilling the beans, but I did hear that he’s going to be at the Minnesota Wild game on Saturday? That was confirmed. So, we’ll be showcasing him at the Minnesota Wild game, I guess, on Saturday, so that’s cool. Mayor Bailey said so the last thing I’m going to have you do is bring him up here because we want to see him. Detective Shaver brought Riggs forward to meet the Council Members. Detective Shaver had Riggs sit, lay, and roll over. Everyone enjoyed meeting Riggs, and a photo was taken of Riggs with the City Council members. Mayor Bailey said thank you for bringing him in, nice job. Obviously, the public is going to be loving him as time goes forward here. Council Member Olsen said mayor, if you don’t mind, I just want to take a second and put in a big plug for Soldier’s 6. Mayor Bailey said yes, go ahead. Council Member Olsen said it’s a great organization, run by a former South St. Paul police officer and his wife, and they provide therapy dogs to veterans and first responders dealing with PTSD. We do a lot of work with them through our Cottage Grove Lions Club and through our Mississippi River Valley Beyond the Yellow Ribbon because we do deal with a lot of veterans who are experiencing PTSD; and they are absolutely amazing, and the training that they do is second to none, so I’m so glad to hear that they’re involved with helping us out. It’s a great partnership for sure. 7. CONSENT AGENDA A. Approve the February 10, 2025, Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources Regular Meeting Minutes. B. Approve the January 27, 2025, Public Service Commission Regular Meeting Minutes. C. Approve the issuance of rental licenses to the properties listed in the attached table. D. Accept the Grant Award in the amount of $2,500 from the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Foundation Community Partnerships Grant Program. E. Authorize the Public Safety Department-Police Division to apply for the COPS Hiring, Law Enforcement Mental Health & Wellness, Pathway to Policing, Intensive Comprehensive Peace Officer Education & Training, and the Driving While Impaired/Traffic Safety Officer grants in 2025. F. 1) Adopt Resolution 2025-031, approving the City of Cottage Grove’s participation in the Minnesota Incident Command System (MNICS) Organization/Incident Management Team. 2) Approve the Intrastate Mutual Aid Cooperative Agreement between the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, Homeland Security and Emergency Management, and the City of Cottage Grove. G. Approve the School Resource Officer Services Agreement between the City of Cottage Grove and Independent School District No. 833. H. Approve the Eckberg Lammers Crisis Communications Proposal for $26,000, contingent upon an agreed-upon Professional Services Agreement between Eckberg Lammers and the City of Cottage Grove. I. Approve the purchase of the Active Net Connect App in the amount of $5,000 as reviewed by staff. J. Authorize the Public Safety Department-Police Division to apply for the Automobile Theft Prevention Grant through the State of Minnesota. K. Adopt Resolution 2025-030 approving the plans and specifications and authorize bidding for the Public Works Facility Mechanic Shop Remodel Project. L. Approve the Professional Services Agreement with Quality Counts LLC for the 2025 Traffic Counting Program. M. Approve the Facility Condition Assessment Proposal from Kraus-Anderson for City Hall/Public Safety and Central Fire Buildings in the amount of $13,500. N. Approve the Contractor Service Agreement with NOVA Fire Protection for the Utility and Engineering Building. O. Adopt Resolution 2025-032 approving the Conditional Use Permit allowing for the outdoor storage of materials incidental to the principal use at 7701 100th Street South. P. Adopt Resolution 2025-035 authorizing final payment in the amount of $125,248.00 to be made to Minnesota Paving and Materials for the 2023 Pavement Management Project. Q. Authorize issuance of a single-occasion gambling permit to Loriann Olsen on behalf of the Cottage Grove Strawberry Fest to conduct a raffle at Park High School, 8040 80th Street South, on June 12, 2025, at 6:00 p.m. None of the Council Members wished to pull any items on the Consent Agenda for further comment and/or discussion. Motion by Council Member Olsen to approve the Consent Agenda; second by Council Member Garza. Motion carried: 5-0. 8. APPROVE DISBURSEMENTS Approve disbursements for the period of 2-28-2025 through 3-13-2025 in the amount of $2,118,578.15. Motion by Council Member Garza to approve disbursements; second by Council Member Thiede. Motion carried: 5-0. 9. PUBLIC HEARINGS - None. 10. BID AWARDS 2025 Pavement Management Project Adopt Resolution 2025-034 awarding the bid for the 2025 Pavement Management Project to McNamara Contracting, Inc., in the total amount of $2,739,406.95. Mayor Bailey said our Public Works Director, Ryan Burfeind, is going to walk us through this, and I think in this process he’ll answer some of the questions asked at open forum. Director Burfeind said I’ll start with the typical information on the bid opening that we had and where we are at in the process. So, for the 2025 Pavement Management Project, we took bids not last Thursday, but the Thursday prior; we had four bid results, and as you can see, all four bids were a little bit under our Engineer’s Estimate, and that low bid was about 11% underneath the Engineer’s Estimate, so we were happy to see that. There’s a little bit of concern in the market these days with everything in the economy and tariffs and such, but luckily, with a project like this, paving and concrete are not really affected by that from what we’re seeing. So, in general, we are happy with the bid results and feel they are very competitive. In terms of the questions regarding McNamara Contracting, and also just the bid award process, so, this is a low-bid process, that is a State Statute. So, it is a requirement to award the project to the lowest responsive contractor; it’s not like a best value type process where you can select different contractors. Now, what I will say is you’ve probably seen these names, these names look very familiar; there’s only a certain number of these paving contractors in the metro, they all do an extremely large amount of work every single year, and all four of these contractors actually are ones we’re very familiar with and have done quite a bit of work in town. There were some questions about the reviews of McNamara Contracting, and some things we heard from the public as well was like a Better Business Bureau rating; you won’t find any of these contractors on the Better Business Bureau, they do low-bid projects for agencies, cities, counties, MnDOT. They’re not in a business where they would have that type of rating or try to get that kind of accreditation because it doesn’t provide any benefit to them. In terms of the reviews, I have looked up some of those as well. I was actually surprised that there were things like Yelp reviews or Google reviews on these contractors, as they are interacting with tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of people every single year on just an endless number of multimillion dollar projects. So, I think on Yelp there were four reviews, on Google reviews, there were maybe 24; they are reviews on this company, I mean anyone can go on those and provide a review of a contractor, but that’s more for like businesses that people would hire, right? Plumbers, contractors. Go into a restaurant and you see thousands of reviews. Certainly there were negative reviews on there about maybe my car was towed in a project; well, that was like the city that towed the car. Maybe some concerns about damage, maybe how late they were working, and it's just really things that we do see on our projects, but it’s just such a small sample size, right? There’s so much interaction with these contractors. What we really have to look at is our great experience we really have with all four of these; we would be comfortable with awarding the project to McNamara. Today, I quickly pulled the list, and I came up with nine projects they’ve worked on over the last six-or-seven years on City projects, maybe like a development project, that’s new City infrastructure, and always a great experience. They are a very reputable contractor in the metro area. So, from a staff perspective, from our experience, we have zero concern. Obviously, things can happen on a project. These are large projects, impacting hundreds, thousands of people, so certainly things can happen, and the things I saw on those reviews we’ve had happen on our projects; but I can tell you as staff, we’re very firm on how we work with our contractors, holding them accountable. And there was a question about the contract, that’s like a 300-page contract that we have with these contractors, dealing with all the legalese part of it and the warranties and such; and we’re very strict with that contract and also things like working hours and all the things that can impact our residents. We have an important project to complete, but we do hold the contractor accountable while we do that. So, from a staff perspective, we do not have concerns with this contractor or our experience with them, and we would recommend awarding the project to them. With that, I’ll stand for questions. Council Member Clausen said thank you, Ryan. Do we also have an independent project manager that works with the contractor, that works in the City’s best interests, I guess; is that true? Director Burfeind replied that’s correct, Council Member Clausen. So, there’s a City Engineering staff who’s on it, but then we also work with Bolton & Menk, as our hired design consultant and project manager. We’ve worked with them for many, many years on pavement management. They also have great familiarity with this contractor and their work. Council Member Olsen said as you know, I ask every time, have we worked with these people before and are they reputable? And, of course, the reason I ask those questions is because on occasion, we do have bad experiences; but from what I understand and correct me if I’m wrong, when we do have those bad experiences, two things happen: 1) We don’t pay for the job until it’s done correctly, so any damage or issues or whatever may be caused by the contractor will be resolved to our satisfaction by the contractor. We don’t just let them come by and do the silly thing twice before they get paid, and they know that. 2) I know that we’ve blacklisted contractors in the past where we’ve had such a negative experience with the work that they do or the way in which they interact with the City, that we just decide we’re not going to work with them anymore. But when you showed the list of the bids, I know we’ve worked with all four of those contractors and in general, have been very pleased; and I’m glad you mentioned that we are bound by Statute to work with the low bidder unless, of course, we have some findings of fact that that’s just not something that we’re going to be able to do. So, I’m confident, as are you, that when this project’s done, it’ll be done to our satisfaction; and as my colleague, Council Member Clausen, mentioned, one of the ways we ensure that happens is we have our people out there every day, watching, and making sure they’re sticking to the specs and all the rest of it. One thing that I did want to ask, however, is we mentioned the bid came in low, etc. What are you seeing in the price of asphalt right now? Is it starting to climb a little bit? It sounds like we bid this right at the right time. Director Burfeind replied yes, Council Member Olsen, that’s a good question. So, we did see favorable asphalt pricing, which is really what you saw in this price here, but already you can see like gas prices starting to creep back up as we go; and that’s all really tied to that same oil industry, so I think we did hit the market at a good time. We’ve got one more bid to do for paving with our Mill and Overlay shortly; hopefully, we’re still good on that one, but this March timeframe is always a good time to bid, and we’re happy with it. Council Member Olsen said and I know that you’re very strategic on kind of when you do things like that, and it’s funny, I was going to mention the Mill and Overlay, too. So, we might want to get that one on the books ASAP, but great job with this, and I think it’s going to be a nice project when it’s all done. Council Member Thiede asked so, did you actually count how many McNamara has done for us? What was it? Director Burfeind replied yep, so, Council Member Thiede, I could come up with nine quickly. Sometimes, because they’re a paving contractor, they might be the paving contractor and not the general, but I came up with nine, quickly, going back to 2015. Council Member Thiede asked and then with bituminous? Director Burfeind replied so, with the other contractors, I would say less, going back, bituminous would definitely be less, we’ve worked with them probably a handful of times. Northwest would be I would say similar, in that five-to-eight range, and then the Minnesota Paving & Materials, they used to be called Hardrives, so it’s probably a very familiar name, I would say at least ten in that same timeframe. Council Member Thiede said and we obviously keep track of the jobs that they do in the past and the issues that we came across, and again, like say we have blacklisted some of them before, and so, if there was any significant things that had happened in the past, we have them. I’ve got to admit that it might be a little bit better than Yelp, I guess I’ve never, but then I’ve never really used Yelp for looking at much of anything except maybe consumer stuff, right? So, I think even though I don’t like paying all that money to make a new road in front of my house, I think they’ll probably do a good job, and by gosh, I’ll be standing out there. Council Member Garza said thank you for the presentation, it was a lot of good information. And I think it was pretty much answered, my question was the same as far as how many jobs, which that was answered, nine or so; but also, do we have anything of significance that came from any of those projects with McNamara that we had to really address? Director Burfeind replied Council Member Garza, that is correct. Obviously, I’ve been here for all those projects, the City Administrator has as well, so we remember everything. Nothing major that they would have caused. I mean, actually to show that they do hold themselves accountable, they had a situation in 2015 pavement management completely out of their control; Mother Nature decided to drop five inches of rain in about two hours the day after they milled off the road, and it took out about 500 feet of curb that wasn’t going to be replaced on Hillside Trail. And they paid fully to replace that curb, and we did not pay for any of it; they didn’t do anything wrong, but it was Mother Nature deciding to be very difficult that morning, and it wasn’t a City cost and it was something that they bore without any challenges. So, I think that just shows their willingness to step up and fix issues, even when they didn’t actually cause that issue, there was no way to stop what happened. Obviously, anything can happen on any project, right? I can’t stand here and say there will be no issues on this project. They’re big projects, and we watch them very carefully, but the important part is we always work on those and we get those resolved. Mayor Bailey said all right, so just a couple quick questions, and one might be in the back corner there, for Zac. One is when we do these projects, we have in the past done the call, where you could call a number or whatever. Is that still the case in this project? Director Burfeind replied yep, that’s correct; it’s called a project hotline and email, Mr. Mayor. Mayor Bailey said okay, and the reason I’m bringing it up because I was noticing through some of the Yelp comments or the negative reviews, there was a conversation about no parking or signage; and I know we do it a little bit different where we kind of take sections of the areas and then we let those neighbors know in advance for these days, you can’t park in front of your house because they’re going to be doing work. I’m assuming that’s still going to be the same process. Director Burfeind replied yes, that is correct, Mr. Mayor, and really the communication we hold that really importantly, and we do all that work; so, us and our design consultant, inspector, we do all that communication with the residents. We don’t want to have to rely on the contractor to be doing that, so they will get to know our inspector very well. Mayor Bailey said okay, and I don't know if this is for you, Jennifer, or this might be for Kori, so, there was a reference about somebody hit a watermain or a water line, and the water line was damaged, and it flooded out a home. Wouldn’t they be responsible for that, the contractor? Attorney Land replied we actually had this exact thing happen in another city that I represented, and they didn’t flood just one home, they took out a whole block. So, the League of Minnesota Cities actually helped assist with recovery from the contractor; the contractor is 100% responsible, but because of the magnitude of that particular situation, it was multiple homes, the League, I call them the cavalry, stepped in and really helped those homeowners become whole. Mayor Bailey said not that we want any, because if a watermain gets busted or something, that’s a big deal, other than just for your neighborhood, for us, too; but I thought, so, I just want to make sure because I don’t know if it’s different in other cities or whatever. But I know in our particular case, the contractor would’ve been responsible and the homeowner would not, though obviously with this inconvenience, the homeowner would not be charged for that or have to pay a deductible or whatever. Mayor Bailey said and my last question maybe is for you, Zac. So, she was commenting a little bit about the park. I know in the past when we went in to do neighborhoods, we have done some surveying and such, and I don't know if we did or didn’t on this one; I guess that’s what I’m just looking for and what your thoughts are on that. Director Dockter replied, thank you, Mayor and Council, right, I thought we did. She was right, I thought we did, but there was a time where we never did neighborhood surveys and then we started probably a handful of years ago; this must have been the last playground we did where we didn’t actually do a neighborhood survey, but I will say the neighborhood survey is just one tool in the equation when we pick out playgrounds. So, everything’s the same except for now we do the survey; we get proposals from three professional playground designers and manufacturers, they give us their best proposal for the budget that we give them. So, they’re well designed, well thought out, and we take those three proposals. Now, we’ll go out and do a neighborhood survey with those proposals. But back then, what we would do is we would bring them to the Parks Commission where also moms and dads and grandparents and park professionals, they would review them, and then they would choose which playground. Maybe there’s some slight modifications in there, but they would choose the design that they felt was best for the park. So, the rest of that process is still the same, and as far as the survey, sometimes a survey doesn’t help us at all, because its split 50-50 or 30-30-30 or whatever it is. So, the survey is one tool, it is helpful, we do enjoy doing the surveys because sometimes it helps guide the decision a little bit, but it’s not always the answer. So, in terms of the playground that’s there, as a park professional, we manage over 30 playgrounds, I’m happy with it, it takes care of all the swinging, balancing, climbing, sliding, spinners, upper body strength, social connections, it just doesn’t maybe look like the old playground where it was a lot of stairs and platforms. This one has more ropes and bars and different tools like that, so, it just maybe looks a little more different, but I’m happy with what’s there. Mayor Bailey said the reason I wanted to ask is it’s funny because whether we did the survey, I do remember a neighborhood where my son where they did the neighborhood survey, and after it got done, at least my son and my two grandkids were like, “I don’t like this one.” You know how that goes, you deal with that all the time, but on that particular one, I remember that was somewhat of a majority, but it wasn’t like you said, it was real close; so, some people are going to like it, some aren’t. But I just wanted to check so that I kind of understood what’s going on with regards to the park. Council Member Olsen asked and how is that funded, Zac, when you do those park projects? Mayor Bailey said, oh, yeah, that was the other one, thank you. Director Dockter replied those are through the Park Improvement Fund; so, they’re on 20-year cycles for replacement, so that one was just on a 20-year replacement schedule. So, when that came up, we went through that process with the Park Improvement Fund, which has limited resources to make sure. Council Member Olsen asked is it part of the assessment for the road project? Director Dockter replied so, we’re not replacing the playground; the playground is only about five years old. So, there’s a little bit of confusion between the word park and playground, and this when we were emailing back and forth. A playground is within a park, the park is the park, right? So, we’re not replacing the playground, we’re just adding the other features around the playground, the park features, right. The playground stays as it is. Mayor Bailey said that’s what I was curious about when you were talking about it between the two, because I’m going if you’re talking about equipment or you’re talking about the park. But I think, real quick, though, what you were asking about is? Council Member Olsen said does it get layered into the assessment for the road project, or is it billed separately? Director Dockter replied well, it doesn’t get layered into the assessment, no. Council Member Olsen said so, the project happens at the same time because it’s convenient, which Director Dockter confirmed. Council Member Olsen said but in terms of the assessment, the park work is not part of the assessment, accurate? Administrator Levitt said Mayor, members of the Council, to be very clear, the residents do not pay any assessment related to the actual park improvement; so, you will never see park improvements in that column. When we go to do projects like this, we do bond for the $78,000, but it is not calculated in the assessment. Council Member Olsen said the City bears that cost. Mayor Bailey said that’s what I wanted to make sure. I know you may not like what some of this stuff is in that park, maybe, but the residents of Hidden Valley are not getting charged for it. Council Member Olsen said and we will take donations if people are interested, but we’re not going to mandate it. Council Member Thiede said Zac, refresh my memory; wasn’t there actually like a small pavilion type deal going into it? Director Dockter replied yes, Council Member Thiede and Council, so, one of the things I know when we built the playground there, there was a concern about shade out there. So, we actually went back and we added shade to the playground. So, then when we were talking about the redesign of this park, we just wanted to make sure we took into consideration the shade; because it is under the powerlines, there’s not a lot of room for planting trees, so this was our opportunity to get a little more shade out there. Council Member Thiede said okay. One of the things with Hidden Valley that we do have an advantage is that we do have a Homeowners Association, and I know that there’s a newsletter going out soon, which we could put some questions into that. I mean, you’ve got the Facebook page and so forth, but that doesn’t necessarily kind of hit everybody or query everybody, you know; so, we could probably put something into the newsletter just to get some feedback from people. Mayor Bailey said thank you to Director Dockter and thanked Kelly Dawn for staying to hear the answers she raised in Open Forum. Motion by Council Member Olsen to Adopt Resolution 2025-034 awarding the bid for the 2025 Pavement Management Project to McNamara Contracting, Inc., in the total amount of $2,739,406.95; second by Council Member Thiede. Motion carried: 5-0. 11. REGULAR AGENDA - None. 12. COUNCIL COMMENTS AND REQUESTS Council Member Thiede said I’ll make the standard mention of Strawberry Fest, and that we’re getting closer and closer to that time in June. So, obviously, we love having people participate in planning and everything else, and I believe our next meeting is the first Monday in April, April 7, so we’d love to have you come over to Carbone’s at 6 o'clock. Council Member Garza said well, I would like to invite everyone down to River Oaks, the Fish Fry is in full swing, and I hear it’s really good. They suggest making reservations, as Friday nights are getting packed, so if you want some fish, head on down to River Oaks. The 2025 Easter Egg Hunt will be coming up on April 12th, and that’s going to be at our Ice Arena, so you can get your tickets online at the website. It’s going to be a lot of fun, so hopefully your kids will make it down there and they’ll get some good eggs. Mayor Bailey said the only other item I was just going to bring up, and it’s more informational for the public. Up at the Capitol right now there are pieces of multiple Bills that are going through up there. Some are, by the way, I’ll just say depending on which Bill you’re looking at, I’m just going to say it, I think there’s upwards of six; and in all of these cases, just for the general public to be aware, it’s really to take away local control. So, for example, zoning, parking, materials on homes, homeowners associations is another one, and density. And the reason I wanted to bring it up for the public is I would just ask you to please keep informed. When you see something, whether it’s from us, from a City standpoint, we haven’t as a City been expressing our angst or our desire not to have some of this stuff, and I know we’re not the only ones around there. Just to give you a couple examples of things that are up at the Capitol right now: So, first of all, homeowners associations on one of the Bills would be basically obsolete, and if somebody, one of your next-door neighbors, decided they wanted to build a triplex or a duplex next to your single-family home, we can’t stop them from doing that; that’s actually a Bill that’s up there. If one of these were to pass, we would not be able to do “No Parking” on any City street because we can’t require homes or whatever is being built to have parking in the front of their home or triplex or duplex. One of the Bills, or parts of the Bill, was we can’t tell them that they have to use certain types of materials on a home, and you might wonder, well, what does that mean? It’s basically like they could say I’m going to use metal panels like on a pole barn, and they could build it, basically, a pole barn. I mean, those are just a few of them, and I don’t think I’m missing any that are crazier than those that I just shared with you, but one of those Bills did pass, not from the House or the Senate or the governor yet, but it passed through a committee. So, I know the League of Minnesota Cities, the METRO Cities, and I think just about every other city but maybe the two core cities, St. Paul and Minneapolis, all are vehemently opposed to these processes because they would literally, figuratively take our ability to zone away (single family, multifamily, commercial, whatever) literally anywhere in the City of Cottage Grove. So, I just want to throw it out there so if you see one of your legislative people, a Representative or Senator, or you happen to know somebody, ask them the question, where do they stand on these Bills that limit cities’ abilities to zone and create ordinances? That would obviously, maybe it works in one community, but it definitely doesn’t work in another. So, this is a one broad-brush approach; in the original Bill, last year, which did not pass, was called the Missing Middle. Now they have all these other little terms that they’re calling it that don’t make it sound so Missing Middle-ish, I guess is what I’d say. So, we’re going to keep abreast of it, I know Tammy, Jaime, some of our people in the City here are keeping us updated on where it’s at and what’s going on; I’ve also offered myself up to our legislative team, who, by the way, most of them are all against it, and Representative Johnson voted against it in committee. So, the fact of the matter is we’re moving in that direction, and our contingency is supporting our stance on it as well as the other cities around here that have that same stance. Please, ask questions if you go to a town hall or something, talk about these Bills because we certainly don’t believe that this is necessary, especially in Cottage Grove. Council Member Garza said I also want to interject, and you said it well, but also write your local government. If you are concerned about it, or if you don’t know anything about it, do your research, read about it, understand it because it really is affecting our community; but write our local representatives, email them, their information is out there for you to have these conversations, but it will help. So, at least go ahead and email them. Mayor Bailey said we do have a workshop, which is open to the public, this evening. We’re having a presentation by Yellow Tree, which is a proposed multifamily project and an abatement subsidy, which we’ll be doing in the Training Room. We won’t be in here, so we will not adjourn in here, so everyone have a great day and thank goodness we didn’t get the snow. We’ll adjourn outside, thank you. 13. WORKSHOPS - OPEN TO PUBLIC - TRAINING ROOM Yellow Tree Proposed Multifamily Project and Abatement Subsidy Staff Recommendation: Provide feedback and direction related to the proposed project, proposed materials, and requested tax abatement by Yellow Tree. Mayor Bailey said so, again, this is a workshop, which is obviously open to the public, regarding Yellow Tree, which is a proposal for a multifamily project here in Cottage Grove and obviously an abatement study; I know that Stacie’s here to kind of talk through that. I don’t know if you want, because I don't know who you guys are and maybe these guys don’t, so I’ll maybe start with Monique and go this way around and introduce yourself: I am Monique Garza, City Council; Dave Thiede, City Council, I’ve been here a long time; I’m obviously the mayor here in Cottage Grove, Myron Bailey; Council Member Olsen, I’ve been here just as long as the mayor and a little longer than Dave; I’m the other Dave, Dave Clausen, first term Council Member; Jennifer Levitt, City Administrator; Samantha Pierret, Senior Planner; I’m Gretchen, you all know me; Tammy Anderson, City Clerk; Ryan Burfeind, Public Works Director; Pete Koerner, Director of Public Safety. Mayor Bailey said and then if you guys want to introduce yourselves: I’m Vishal Dutt, I’m a partner with Yellow Tree, on the development side; Robb Lubenow, I’m one of the cofounders of Yellow Tree. Mayor Bailey said okay, and I think everyone knows you, but do you want to say it? Yes, I’m Stacie Kvilvang with Ehlers, I’m a municipal advisor for the City. Mayor Bailey said thank you. All right, who am I turning it over to, Emily? Emily Schmitz, Community Development Director, said Mayor, Council, we have obviously representatives of Yellow Tree, who are working on a project on Outlot A, Everwood Development, and if that means nothing to you, this is a parcel that is vacant, just behind Kohl’s. You can see their proposed Site Plan in your packet. I’m actually going to turn it over to these wonderful representatives to give you a good overview of the project that they’re proposing, and some of the challenges that they’re encountering on the site, which is why they’re here tonight to have a conversation with you about what it takes and their human hours in their evaluation for a potential subsidy for their project. So, with that, Robb and Vishal, I’ll turn it over to you to maybe provide some details and the challenges with the project. Robb Lubenow said thank you, Mayor and members of the Council. We certainly welcome this format to present a lot of our projects and certainly one that we’re requesting assistance for. The background with Yellow Tree is we’ve been around and we’re kind of a low-key developer where we have all the services inhouse. So, I am on the development side with a partnership with Vishal, that’s everything from land acquisition going through this plan proforma, design, and financing. We have inhouse construction, so we have the construction department that builds all of our projects, but also builds for third-party developers, and then we also have property management; so, the intent has always been to build and hold all of our assets, we’re not a merchant builder, typically. So, our intent is to build these like we own them for the long term, and a lot of that quality kind of goes into how we build. So, like was mentioned, there is a lot of complexity certainly on this site, but also just in our industry as a whole, in the multifamily sector, it’s extremely difficult, it’s fallen off the cliff the last couple of years. We’re truly trying to find a way to move projects forward, not only for the obligation of our employees, but also the need is certainly there, it’s just the markets are very difficult. This site, again, its a great site, it’s one that we identified that has a lot of potential. So, first and foremost, the community, a lot of the services, so there’s even walkable services, which is nice to see in this area of the metro. All the amenities access, jobs, and then certainly the key one is the vacancy, too. So, unlike a lot of other areas, this is low vacancy, and there is certainly the need for all housing, let alone multifamily. So, there have been some affordable projects and certainly some single-family developments, but I’d say this is a great spot for this project to be in your community. Site Constraints Certainly, we’re building into a hill. We deal with a lot of difficult sites, sites where there’s a close neighbor, short requirements, we’ve built into hills before. Recently, in St. Paul we’ve had one that’s very similar, so we’re aware of the complexities, but it’s also how can we get creative? Design a building that, one, doesn’t bust the budget, but also kind of complements a lot of this space. So, I think we have that, certainly, there will be tweaks to our plan; this is our initial proposal, but I don’t want to get ahead of the project being viable before we develop all these plans and present them before the request. So, we’re continuing to make progress, although a future milestone for our site is understanding is there a partnership with the City? That’s certainly needed to develop this type of project now, rather than whenever in the future, as market conditions can change, and we’ll kind of kick off the next development, get these elevations planned, and get our plans developed, and then submitted for your review to actually begin. So, we have an open format if there’s more questions. Mayor Bailey said well, at this point, is there, I guess from a Council’s perspective, is there any questions you have about the developer or the product that they’re proposing? Council Member Olsen asked you guys are relatively new? Robb replied yeah, so, Bryan and I, we’ve known each other since we were in diapers, so, we grew up together. We went to school together, and then we kind of started Yellow Tree. It has been 17 years, so, we’ve certainly grown, we started from the single family, multifamily investment, some commercial-industrial; but the last, it’s almost eight years now, has been solely focused on ground up, multifamily projects. Some of those projects have a Mixed Use component to them, where the first level could be retail shops and then housing up above. But that’s not worth it on this site, we have a multifamily focus in our business, so. Mayor Bailey said I saw that you’ve got some projects that are going to be starting. I’m familiar with Inver Grove Heights; where is your project going to be in Inver Grove Heights? Robb replied we’re just north of the Target, in the northwest area. So, that was a similar project, that certainly has some reduced fees, too. That one, we were in the same boat, we met with the attorney and Council for our approval; they elected to do a fee reduction as a tool to help that development. I’m bringing up, it is about $2.5 million of a fee reduction for that project as we’re requesting tax abatement for them also. That’s the route that they decided to go. That being said, it’s certainly helpful, but we haven’t started the project yet, too, it wasn’t enough to get us over the hurdle, but we are optimistic that one’s going to move forward. Our project in Farmington, the roof is going on this week, so that’s nice. We’re kind of set for that project, that was one where, again, working with the Council to move the project forward for housing development I think was certainly. Mayor Bailey said and the one that you got the award for; Robb replied, oh, there’s a bunch of those. The preservation one, the AIA? Mayor Bailey replied yeah, tell me about that one. Robb replied that was a good project. We actually ended up partnering with a developer that won an RFP with the State. They were struggling to make the project work, we came in, and kind of reenvisioned the project; so, that was right on Loring Park, it was an 1886 mansion that was gifted to a college and then was given back to the State, because its value was actually more to repair than, you know. So, the cost to do the restoration was free, and so, the State came up with an RFP that they would gift you the land immediately adjacent if you did the repairs. So, its an amazing mansion, we’re using it for all of our amenity spaces and three housing units; we have a parlor in there, a library, our workout area, a billiards room, a lot of great amenities. Our leasing office is there, rich woodwork, and we’re connected by a breezeway to campus. Mayor Bailey said yeah, so, normally where you’d have those amenities in a ground-up building, you did it in the site, right? Robb replied yep, we utilized that building and that has performed very well just because it is a unique asset; my background before actually starting Yellow Tree, in the early years was in commercial, and I did a lot of historic restoration throughout Minnesota, and that was really a fun project. Mayor Bailey asked Council Member Thiede if he had a question; Council Member Thiede replied no, go ahead, because I was going to talk money. Mayor Bailey asked Stacie if she would like to speak now. Stacie replied thank you, Mayor, Members of the Council, so in discussions with both Robb and Vishal, they stated its a challenging site. So, the big thing is the slope of that site, right? So, the shoring, the walls that have to go in to make that site viable, those costs are extra, and their costs are probably well over $800,000 into it, and I think with all the shoring that has to be done, it is pretty significant. So, at the end of the day, as you know, our process is the developers submit their application and they provide us their development proforma for review, and then we also determine if you need the assistance that you’re asking for, and is this abatement project actually viable. So, as we looked at and reviewed the numbers, we did determine that about $848,000 in tax abatement will make the project work and viable; it doesn’t quite get them to their return threshold, but it does not quite get them to where they need to be to move forward. So, the recommendation is 10 years of tax abatement, it is only the City’s portion of taxes; and the thing to note about it is we’re starting it out large, in the first 3 years, because we’re going to give 100% of that increased value, and then we’re slowly ratcheting it down to 75% by year 10. Now, you may ask, well, what if we just gave them 100% of it, how long would it take? Well, it would be about 8.5 years total, but we thought the desire was to get some of that increased revenue started coming back to the City sooner, rather than later. I think certainly we’re open to any discussions you have, if you have concerns about the amount or term or how we can make that actually work for the project; but, again, from our perspective in review, it is good. Mayor Bailey said okay, and asked Council Member Thiede if he had a question on that. Council Member Thiede replied yeah, so, and what you’re saying is that abatement schedule right now gets them to 6.5% percent? Stacie replied it just gets them to the 6.5% by year 10. Council Member Thiede asked and where is the 6.5%? Stacie replied so, the 6.5% is the yield on costs determined that they want. So, what we typically see and probably now I would say most developers are at 7% to maybe 7.25% for requesting; so, the 6.5% is below the norm, but it’s to get the project to actually move forward. So, that yield on cost is really your net operating income divided by your total development costs that you have to try and achieve that. Council Member Thiede said so, we’ve got quite a few other properties in Cottage Grove where we could put multifamily housing, and they could probably get the 6.5 or greater percentage, do you know? Stacie replied we don’t know. We don’t know if they’re all, each site is different, but each building’s different, right? So, it’s all the factors that go into it, right? The layout, then you have the amount of underground parking you may have, what you have for the exterior elements on it; so, again, we review so many developments and properties around the metro, they’re all just a little bit different in terms of assets that they may have. Council Member Thiede asked so, where are we at with, in terms of filling up space, the other apartments that are, what is The Aurilla apartments, the other? Mayor Bailey replied actually, it’s funny, because I think Council Member Clausen asked about one apartment building, and then I had Director Larson give us an overview for me, I wanted to see it after hearing about the one you asked about; do you want to share with them what they’re telling? Director Larson asked do you mean their occupancy rates? Mayor Bailey replied yeah. Director Larson said it was at 83%, so, they didn’t have very many units left. Council Member Thiede asked and the smaller one was full? Director Larson replied the smaller one is not quite full. Mayor Bailey asked but all of them, at this point, they’re above 80% occupancy? Director Larson replied yes, we visited every multifamily complex in the City, senior or not, and they all told us that they were basically full. They have some to rent, but not very many. Mayor Bailey said maybe I’ll ask you this, what is kind of the norm from an occupancy standpoint? Stacie replied well, everyone likes to underwrite to a 5% vacancy, but the reality in the Twin Cities metro is well under 3%. Some of them are, might be a little higher number just because there’s a big market and we have a need, so. Mayor Bailey said well, I mean, I think we’re seeing that. To be frank with you, as much as we built these apartment buildings, they filled up quicker than I thought they would, personally speaking, but I guess that means there’s definitely a demand out there. Council Member Olsen asked so, with the abatement proposal, does that give the City any guarantees of a certain percentage of affordable units as part of the project? If so, what percent of AMI are we looking at? I know in the past we’ve had other developers come in and that’s kind of been the bait, I guess, for us to maybe help with some financing, so I’m just curious if that would be any part of this. Stacie replied no, there’s not, it’s 100% market rate. Council Member Olsen said 100% market rate, okay. Council Member Thiede said given that location, I think it’s appropriate. Mayor Bailey replied well, yeah, it’s a tough spot. Council Member Thiede said well, it’s a tough spot, but it’s also a desirable spot in terms of the location and how the units facing and the view, and everything else, so. Mayor Bailey jokingly asked Council Member Thiede if he was selling down in Hidden Valley and moving into a new apartment. Council Member Thiede replied no, I’m not, but I could get a higher dollar for it; therefore, I’m a little stingier on the abatement, but. Administrator Levitt said Mayor, Members of the Council, two things to draw your attention to is you remember our Maxfield Research Study that talked about our needs; one of the needs that they were expressing were for one-bedroom units, and you can see that they are definitely geared more towards the one bedroom in the actual count. So, they’re really fitting the need that Maxfield Research found, a need within our market. And the other thing to draw your attention to is I know this is your main pet peeve and you’re always drawn to is the classifications of the exterior materials. The renderings that they did submit are not fully compliant with our Class I materials at 65%; so, there would have to be a revision on the exterior building materials, especially if we’re going to look at any subsidy whatsoever. Council Member Olsen said yeah, that’s really why I asked the question about the affordability component because if we’re going to be providing tax abatement in lieu of TIF, or whatever the case might be, there’s a little give and take there, and I’m just wondering how that’s going to work. Administrator Levitt replied my assumption is he would not make any deviation to the classification of the materials in his consideration because there is no affordability, he would just be looking at a tax abatement for that. Mayor Bailey replied yeah, and Council Member Thiede kind of alluded to it is it’s the views and such; I mean, views from mainly the apartments, but I’m also talking the visual, that whole corridor. I mean, we’ve been pretty tight on even the other apartment that’s going in around the corner by White Pine, about making sure that the materials are the right materials for our community and the visuals for that. I mean, for me, in this particular case, the abatement piece, I mean there is, you can tell from looking at that property, its definitely going to be a tough one; but maybe kind of unique, the way I was looking at kind of stair stepping and you said you’ve done some of that before, which makes me feel a little bit better than having somebody that’s never done something like that before try to build into a hill, if you will. So, I mean, from my point of view, I think that the abatement thing; when’s the last time we’ve actually used abatement? Council Member Olsen said it’s been a long time. Administrator Levitt said it’s been a long time, and just remember, the abatement is under the Council’s jurisdiction, not the EDA. Mayor Bailey said right, okay, that’s fine. Council Member Clausen asked and then it’s 10 years; Administrator Levitt said 10 years. Council Member Clausen said so it’s only 10 years, which Mayor Bailey confirmed. Mayor Bailey asked if Council had any other comments or thoughts, or are you good on giving them the feedback on moving forward with the abatement piece of it? Council Member Garza said it seems to be fair as long as the interior mediation is there, you know, too, plus the fact that I think it would be a good tradeoff. Robb replied yeah, I agree. I think, you know, this is the step where these are developed with every kind of checkbox what we need. We have no problem, you know, getting to those metrics as far as what the exterior cladding is; I think you have some confusion on just how these were labeled out, so I know there was an earlier comment about metal panel, but we actually have metal panel, that’s the wood-look metal panel. Regardless, I don’t see an issue with the exterior cladding, that will be met certainly. I’m not saying if there’s some other complexities on the siding that will be reviewed once we go to our design, but that’s the one that is not going to cause a problem. Council Member Olsen asked Administrator Levitt, out of curiosity with the 262 parking spaces, how many trips per day out on Hardwood are they going to project? You knew I was going to ask. Administrator Levitt replied I thought you were going to ask Ryan that question. Council Member Olsen said if he’s ready to answer, that would be fine. Director Burfeind said I think 164 units, is that the unit count? He was advised 160. Director Burfeind said so, when we do our traffic count for units, that’s 4 trips per unit; so, it’d be 640 per day. Council Member Olsen said added to what’s already a climbing number; Director Burfeind stated that is correct. Council Member Olsen asked is that roadway still equipped for that? Director Burfeind replied so, Hardwood Avenue, our main thing is the signal at Hardwood Court, which is kind of the next step in doing traffic control, which we are going to be installing this year. So, with that, we wouldn’t have any concerns because the road was at a volume of 8,600 vehicles per day, and that road would come to a total of like 11,000 or 12,000. Council Member Olsen said yeah, and just keep in mind, they’re not all going to turn right, a bunch of them will turn left, too, and go down to that signal on 70th. Council Member Clausen asked and those numbers are for full occupancy, too, correct? Director Burfeind replied that is correct. Mayor Bailey asked do you normally, when you designed this particular site, because I know Administrator Levitt said it really fits into the Maxfield Study that we did; do you normally do that many apartments with one bedroom, or is this somewhat unique for you? Robb replied this is pretty typical. We do look at our market studies, and I mean, the one bedroom, that’s pretty consistent in a lot of places; it’s that one bedroom that certainly has the need. We don’t do a lot of three bedrooms, we were considering a couple here, there’s not a lot in the market, but usually those have been stable out there. So, even though we don’t capture all that rent, you get a tenant for years and not a lot of turnover, but this is a good unit mix that we identified for this market, but this is tough because there was a need in all of housing. Mayor Bailey said yeah, and I do know housing, in general, we just talked about that, that there’s that need out there. And then just my last comment on this, specific to your project, is what are some of the amenities you guys put into your project for people that live there? Robb replied yeah, so this one is nice that we have the scale of this project, so we’ll have a fulltime maintenance, fulltime management on site for this amount of units, but it’ll also be able to support some water amenity, it’s probably not going to be a full pool just because it’s going to be on the north side of the building. But then we’ll have, certainly there will be some community space, gathering space, probably a couple little, we have the sky deck; Mayor Bailey said yeah, I saw that, that’s what kind of looked cool. Robb said so, that’ll be the one that will likely have a full kitchen; so, if you have friends over, you have the space that you can reserve to cook a meal or serve a meal, and then also be outside as well. Given the inset into the hill, there is a large deck that will be created on top of the central parking; so, certainly, we will utilize that and probably have increased space there for grill stations, a firepit, that sort of thing. Robb said everyone wants their dog walk, so we’ll have that. Mayor Bailey said okay, sounds good, and that does seem to be a thing right now. Council Member Olsen asked and what is the provision for lookback on this if we move forward? Stacie replied we always do a lookback in all of your agreements, so this one is going to be on their total development costs because we really try to get the yield on the final costs for them. So, we review that, and it’s a dollar-for-dollar reduction on those costs. Council Member Olsen said yeah, that protects us, that’s good. Mayor Bailey said well, I think it’s good. I think it’s great that we’ll also get some of these one bedrooms in the community here; Council Member Olsen said it’s a need, for sure, and Mayor Bailey said it’s definitely a need, so, I’d be in favor of it. Council Member Olsen said it looks like a good project, and Mayor Bailey agreed. Robb said thank you, and Mayor Bailey replied good luck, we’ll like to see you move forward. Mayor Bailey asked if there were any other questions for these guys at this point? None were asked. He told Robb I’m sure we’re going to see you in the future now. Robb replied yeah, that’s great. Mayor Bailey said I hope so, we’ll see. Robb said no, I appreciate that candid response, and it’s certainly helpful at this point to kick the project off and go from there. Mayor Bailey said thank you to Robb, and he thanked Stacie also. Council Member Olsen said we appreciate you being here tonight. 14. WORKSHOPS - CLOSED TO PUBLIC - None. 15. ADJOURNMENT Motion by Council Member Olsen, second by Council Member Clausen, to adjourn the meeting at 8:08 p.m. Motion carried: 5-0. Minutes prepared by Judy Graf and reviewed by Tamara Anderson, City Clerk.