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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-12-03 City Council Meeting COTTAGE GROVE CITY COUNCIL December 3, 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 aregular meeting on December 3, 2025, at Cottage Grove City Hall, 12800 RavineParkway.Mayor Bailey called the meeting to order. He said this meeting is being recorded by TrueLens Community Media. You can view City meetings live and replay them on Cable Channel 799, and the meetings are also streamed live and archived on the City of Cottage Grove’s YouTube channel. 2.PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE The audience, staff, and City Council Members stood and recited the Pledge of Allegiance. 3.ROLL CALL Tammy Anderson, City Clerk, called the roll:Mayor Bailey-Here;Council Member Clausen-Here; Council Member Garza-Absent; Council Member Olsen-Here; Council Member Thiede-Here. Also present: Jennifer Levitt, City Administrator; Ryan Burfeind, Public Works Director; Zac Dockter, Parks and Recreation Director; Phil Jents, Communication Manager; Pete Koerner, Public Safety Director; Korine Land,City Attorney-LeVander, Gillen & Miller, PA; Brenda Malinowski, Finance Director; Emily Schmitz, Community Development Director; Nick Arrogoni, Deputy Fire Chief; Jon Pritchard, Fire Chief; Brad Petersen, Police Captain; Paul Sponholz, City Engineer. 4.OPEN FORUM Mayor Baileyopened the Open Forum. He noted there was a sign-up sheet in the hallway and someonehad signed up to speak. He asked that those speaking keep their comments to three minutes. He said the person who had signed up to speak was Peggy Nelson, and he welcomed her. My name is Peggy Moriarty Nelson, and I live at 7490 Hinton Park Avenue South, Cottage Grove, and I am here to talk about the Amendments that I would like to inform you about. They’re on this sheet right here that I have in my hand, and it says here, “I do not wish to speak with you, answer your questions, or sign or hand you any documents based on my Fifth Amendment Rights under the United States Constitution. I do not give you permission to enter my home, based on my Fourth Amendment Rights under the United States Constitution unless you have a warrant to enter, signed by a judge or a magistrate, with my name on it that you slide under the door. I do not give you permission to search any of my belongings, based on my Fourth Amendment Rights I choose to exercise, these are my Amendment Rights,” and this card is given to people by Legal Aid right here in Minnesota. So, my critical question to the Cottage Grove City Council and the Police Department is: Will the Cottage Grove City and Police Department going to uphold the Constitution and the laws for our citizens? We had an incident that happened in St. Paul on November the 25th, and there was supposed to be a warrant, but yet nothing was produced for being a warrant. And, so, there were people who came out in rapid response and there was about 300 people within the neighborhood that came out, too. They were non-violent, none of them had any violent tendencies, they didn’t have rocks, sticks, nothing. They were simply chanting their First Amendment Right was the right for freedom of speech, and yet the St. Paul Police Department took it upon themselves to fire them with lethal rubber bullets and also tear gas and sprayed them with pepper spray. These are all harmful things to citizens, and they didn’t have a warrant, as they so stated that they did. I would just like to say that while I’m standing here, asking you to abide by the Constitution, here in Cottage Grove, please consider that we, the citizens, would like you to do that. Mayor Bailey said thank you. Mayor Bailey checked one more time to see if anybody else wished to speak on Open Forum. As no oneelse wished to address the Council, Mayor Bailey closed Open Forum. 5. ADOPTION OF AGENDA Motion by Council MemberOlsento adopt the agenda; second by Council MemberThiede.Motion carried:4-0. 6.PRESENTATIONS Patriot Award Presentation Staff Recommendation: Allow a member of Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) to present Fire Chief Jon Pritchard the Patriot Award. Mayor Bailey said I’m going to first invite Everett Doolittle, the Assistant Ombudsman Director for the Guard and Reserve, and obviously, thank you for your service. After he speaks, our Deputy Fire Chief, Nick Arrigoni, is going to be speaking about this award. Mr. Doolittle said let me explain what this is about. ESGR is Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve. If you look back, we had a lottery, we had a draft, and then after the Vietnam War, which I served in the Vietnam War, we changed to call the Volunteer Army, but with that, they knew there was going to be a really big problem; because picture a three-legged stool: We’ve got the service member, we’ve got the family, and we’ve got the employer, and without all three of them working together, this don’t work. So, the ESGR was created as a branch or part of the Department of Defense with its role, one of the main ones is I’m an ombudsman, I’m a mediator, and I’m an Assistant Ombudsman Director for Minnesota. Our role is when a service member comes back, typically deployed or not, and he has a problem with his employer, he gets a hold of National, and National assigns one of us to contact them, and we try to mediate it. I don’t represent the service member, I want to be really clear, and I don’t represent the employer, I represent USERRA: Uniform Service Employment Reemployment Right Act, and I try to work together to mediate this within the law. And if I can’t mediate it, there’s another level they can go to that has a true investigative subpoena power and everything else. A lot of times, even before that, if a City or County or a private employer or service member has a problem, they can contact ESGR and we will just try to walk them through it informally. Well, then the fun part of my job is this today, it is called a Patriot Award, there is a series of awards where a service member can put in his supervisor; now there are awards above that for the organization, but for a supervisor he believes goes above and beyond in his support and help in him to serve his country, and that’s what this is today. A Patriot Award is from the National Guard and it’s actually from the Department of Defense, and its an award recognizing an individual, a supervisor, that goes beyond. But first I want to clarify something: I spent a good part of my life as a professor, you can’t shut me up, I’m sorry. I want to clarify I was here many, many years ago and did a Patriot Award, and it was for the Police Department. And when I did, they brought a whole bunch of different officers that are all serving in the Guard. It was one of my very first awards, and I was supposed to recognize all of them, and I forgot. So, I’m going to apologize for something from many, many years ago because Cottage Grove has a lot of people serving, and they’re serving and they’re getting unbelievable support. So, I know that from my contact, so I want to thank all of you for that support. But what I want to do now is this award is for you to give. Now, I’m going to put you up, you need to do a speech, and give him this. Deputy Fire Chief Nick Arrigoni said so thank you for having us tonight. I think this is an incredible opportunity to recognize my Fire Chief, Jon Pritchard. Simply put, he goes above and beyond for me, and I know he’d do that if we have other service members on the Fire Department as well, to take care of me as best he can when I’m gone. So, my role in the Army National Guard requires a lot of time away from home. With that, comes stress, and one thing I don’t have to worry about when I’m gone for military is work. We, most of us in this room are probably not very good at “turning it off” when we need to, and that includes myself. So, Jon, while he hasn’t served himself, he’s the son of a Vietnam veteran, and he just goes above and beyond to make sure that I’m taken care of, that my wife, Katie, is taken care of while I’m gone. He allows me to flex schedules and really just takes the stress off of me. So, this award is long overdue for him, but truth be told, this award could’ve gone to any of my supervisors throughout my time in the City, and I think that’s a testament to not only the culture that we have in the Fire Department that we’ll take care of each other, but also the City as a whole. So, before I present the award, I’ll let Chief Pritchard say a few things, and then we’ll do the award. Chief Pritchard said so the only person that might outtalk me is a former professor, so I’ll try to be brief, but I think this award represents the support the City gives to our veterans and to those folks that are actively serving. And really, to Nick, he has a very high-demand military position, and I think he really undersold it, but it’s so important, but I’m very proud of being a good supporter of these folks. And like I said, I have to answer to probably the worst person if I ever treat our service people badly, and that would be my father; he’s a Vietnam vet, and he would never let me live that down and he’d probably tell me to go back and do the right thing for folks. So, I truly am honored to receive this, not only for myself but for our Fire Department and for our City. So, thank you. Mr. Doolittle said I want to say a couple things for a second. The world has changed. When I got back from Vietnam, I was with 101st Airborne, in fact, I got shot up in Vietnam, and when I got back, we were treated very disrespectfully. The world has totally changed. Cities, counties, the employers as a whole, this country teaches vets and has more programs supporting them, their families, anything I ever thought, and it really speaks highly, the changes, and that’s what makes it fun. Now, what I’d like to do is bring this up front here, and I’d like to get a picture, because I’d like to just have all of you in it. Mayor Bailey said actually, I’ll bring the Council down in front. Mr. Doolittle said yeah, that would be great, and then you can present the award. Deputy Chief Arrigoni said on behalf of myself, Chief Pritchard, thank you very much. I’m very, very happy to present you with the Patriot Award, and thank you for all your support. Everyone applauded. Photographs were taken of Chief Pritchard, Deputy Chief Arrigoni, Mr. Doolittle, Mayor Bailey, and the City Council Members, who all congratulated and shook hands with Chief Pritchard. Mayor Bailey said and thanks again, Everett, for all that you’ve done for the country and what you’re doing for our servicemen now. 7.CONSENT AGENDAA. Approve the August 26, 2025 Regular Convention and Visitors Bureau Meeting Minutes. B. Approve the September 15, 2025 Regular Public Service Commission Meeting Minutes. C. Approve the August 12, 2025 Economic Development Authority Meeting Minutes. D. Accept and place on file the minutes from the October 27, 2025 Planning Commission Meeting. E. Authorize issuance of a Massage Therapist license to Daniel Luis Gramajo-Enzensperger to operate at the Healing Place, located at 8617 West Point Douglas Road South, Suite 140. F. Approve the Temporary Liquor License for Kaitlyn Mary Tobritzhofer on behalf of the Cottage Grove Lions Club for the Dust ‘Em Off Vintage Snowmobile Show (corner of 70th and Keats Avenue, 1025170th Street) on January 10, 2026, from 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. G.Approve Resolution 2025-177 approving the Business Licenses listed in Attachment A. H.Approve the issuance of rental licenses to the properties listed in the attached table. Appoint Samuel Larson to the Park, Recreation, and Natural Resources Commission. Adopt Resolution 2025-182 approving the Conditional Use Permit for a Lower Potency Hemp Edible Warehouse and Wholesale Operation at 7769 95th Street South. Adopt Resolution 2025-181 approving the Conditional Use Permit for a Lower Potency Hemp Edible Retailer at 7584 80th Street South, Suite #201. Adopt Resolution 2025-173 certifying delinquent utility bills to he property tax rolls, payable in 2026. Approve the 2026-2030 Capital Improvement Plan and Adopt Resolution 2025-179 amending the Comprehensive Plan 2040 to incorporate the CIP. Adopt Resolution 2025-180 approving the final 2025 East Ravine AUAR and Mitigation Plan Update and authorizing the publication of the notice of decision. Adopt Resolution 2025-171 approving the Feasibility Report, establishing a January 7, 2026 Public Hearing date, and authorizing preparation of Plans and Specifications for the 2026 Pavement Management Project. Adopt Resolution 2025-172 authorizing the preparation of a Feasibility Report for the 2027 Pavement Management Project for the indicated roadways. Accept the amendment to the 2024-2026 MCES Water Efficiency Grant to receive an additional award of $25,000 and expend $5,000 from the Water Utility Fund. The City Council is recommended to rescind the Business Subsidy Agreement with Bellagala Wedding and Events for the Cedarhurst Mansion property in the amount of $37,275.00 dated August 20, 2025. Authorize municipal lease-to-own agreement, subject to minor changes by City Attorney, with Yamaha for 80 golf carts and Yamatrack GPS systems with a trade-in of $75 golf carts for total lease payment of $123,907.62 per year for five years. Council Member Clausen wished to pull Item I, Appointment to Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources Commission, onthe Consent Agenda for further comment and/or discussion. Council Member Clausen said thank you, Mayor, Council, just a very quick note. As you know, I serve as a liaison on the Parks, Rec, and Natural Resources Commission, and today we’re going to recognize the appointment of Sam Larson to fill the youth seat. Sam is a senior, he’s an athlete, plays hockey, and I just think it’s so great that we get youth involved on our City Commissions and get their input. So, I gladly, hopefully, and wholeheartedly support his appointment tonight. Thank you. Motion by Council MemberThiede to approve the Consent Agenda; second by Council MemberClausen. Motion carried: 4-0. 8.A. APPROVE DISBURSEMENTS Staff Recommendation: Approve disbursements from 11-14-2025through 11-27-2025in the amount of $4,292,633.35. Motion by Council Member Olsento approve disbursements; second by Council MemberClausen. Motion carried: 4-0. 9.PUBLIC HEARINGS Property Tax Levy Payable in 2026 and Adoption of the 2026 Budget Staff Recommendation: 1) Hold the Public Hearing. 2) Adopt Resolution 2025-174, Adopting the 2025 Property Tax Levy, collectible in 2026. 3) Adopt Resolution 2025-175, Adopting the 2026 Budget. 4) Adopt Resolution 2025-176, Adopting the 2025 Housing and Redevelopment Authority Property Tax Levy, collectible in 2026. Mayor Bailey said Brenda Malinowski, our Finance Director, is going to walk us through this; it was a long road to get to this point. He welcomed Brenda. Director Malinowski said Mayor, Members of the Council, yes, you are correct, it has been a long road, and our first slide here is to just review that we started this process back in January with the Strategic Plan. It’s never an easy process to work on the budget and the Property Tax Levy each year. My thanks to City Council, our Department directors, their teams, as we’ve combed through every part of the budget, understood where the numbers come from, and the impacts on our Property Tax Levy and onto our taxpayers. So, thank you to everyone. Here we are, so we’ve been working throughout the year on different parts of the budget and the Property Tax Levy; so, here we are tonight where you will be holding the Public Hearing to get comments on the budget, and then you will be setting that final Property Tax Levy. Just a reminder to you and to our residents, these Property Tax bills were mailed by the County in November, and that Property Tax bill has many components. There are different taxing jurisdictions that are on there, one being the City of Cottage Grove, and that is what we are answering questions about tonight, and that’s what we’re discussing is that Property Tax Levy for the City of Cottage Grove. It did indicate on there that tonight would be where public comment would be made. On that proposed bill, the median home in Cottage Grove, that’s valued at $369,200, that bill for 2026 based on the proposed levies for the City of Cottage Grove and the other taxing jurisdictions is $4,684 for 2026. Cottage Grove is 30% of that Property Tax bill, and so that’s shown on the pie chart in green; the School District is just under 48%, the County is just under 19%, and the Met Council and other small taxing jurisdictions are the remainder of the tax bill. Budget Accomplishments Based on the Property Tax Levy in front of you and the budget that is available on our City website and was in our packet, there are several things that we’ve been able to accomplish: We continue to be able to provide those same exceptional levels of services to our citizens, so there are no service reductions, whether it’s Police services, Fire services, Streets, Public Works, Snowplowing, Parks and Recreation. So, those same level of services to our residents that they’ve enjoyed in the past. We’re showing that demonstration of Capital Assets: We operate under a ten-year Financial Management Plan. We look at that for the impact of property taxes in the future. When we look at future debt that is coming onto our tax rolls for Pavement Management or street projects, we look at Capital Replacement of our equipment. So, we are able to do that with this budget in front of you. We continue to be well positioned to respond to changes in the economy amid economic uncertainty that is occurring recently. We continue to be that Employer of Choice; so, as the City of Cottage Grove employer, to our employees, with this budget we’re fulfilling the obligations that are set out in those contracts with those different bargaining units in the City; whether that’s our police officers or our firefighters. We do have some growth in staffing in the positions, and I’ll outline those a little bit later. As we’ve done Pavement Management Projects, street projects, or built the Central Fire Station, we’ve issued debt for those projects. And, so, just like a mortgage, we have to pay that back each year, and there’s a principal and interest payment on that. So, in this budget in front of you, we are paying those Debt Service needs in 2026. We’re maintaining the Fund Balance target of the General Fund. A lot of people don’t understand that we’re setting the Property Tax Levy tonight, we’re sending it to the County, but the first time that we will get a check on this Property Tax Levy is in July. So, the City operates for six months writing checks, paying bills, before we get cash in the door, so we have to look to verify that we have those reserves on hand, and so we are able to do that with this budget. The Property Tax Levy is in front of you, on the screen. Last year, the City portion, the $25,990,600, is increasing to $29,885,000. The General Fund increase is just under 10% of that increase from year to year, but then I wanted to outline some of the other items on here: EMS Levy: We are levying for EMS services for the first time in recent history, the first time that I can remember. The cost of EMS services, the reimbursements from Medicare and Medicaid just are not keeping up with the cost of the service; so, for the first time, we are doing that. Equipment Levy: We need to replace about $2 million in equipment per year. When we look at our ten-year Financial Management Plan, we look at all our police vehicles, our fire vehicles, our plow trucks, all those different vehicles in our community, and we need to replace, on average, about $2 million per year. So, we’re starting to increase that Equipment Levy to be able to fund those with our property taxes. Municipal Building Levy: We are increasing by $150,000. We had done a study with an outside contractor earlier this year. They looked at this building, that was built in 2012, our Central Fire Station, that was built in 2017, and looked as these buildings are starting to age. Some of those Equipment Replacement needs, whether it’s a boiler or a water heater, those sorts of equipment, or repairing window seals, those things, and just looking so that when we get to replacing a roof in 15-to-20 years, that we have money so that we’re not having to put that entire balance onto the Property Tax Levy. The $150,000 for next year will address some security concerns at our front desk area. EDA Levy: That we have not been fully funding the operations there, so that’s increasing. Park Capital Levy: Was one thing as we did the ten-year Financial Management Plan that we had identified that needed to be funded for those Park capital or Equipment Replacement needs in our parks. Debt Levy: Our Debt Levy is increasing. When we had issued 2025 bonds for Pavement Management and for Equipment, that Debt Levy increase is to fund those principal and interest payments. HRA Levy: This is listed next, that’s a $5,000 increase, and the EDA did approve that HRA Levy last night, and you are reaffirming it tonight, as part of your action. Budget Highlights The new positions in the budget are listed here: So, the 49th officer is included in the Property Tax Levy. The next three positions are funded with revenues in the City: So, the Building Inspector, Engineering Technician, Recreational Seasonal Positions, those are offset, so Property Tax Levy neutral, but needed and funded with those revenue sources. The three six-month positions for Parks will be funded with property taxes. The Deputy Director of Public Works and Utilities, that is being funded with our Utility Fund revenue, so not in our property taxes. As employees of other employers, your employer has been sending you a notice in the last week talking about the Paid Family Medical Leave. The City of Cottage Grove also sent that notice to our employees because we will be needing to pay for that also. So, included in our budget is that .44% that we are required to pay, starting on January 1, 2026. In our union contracts, our employees will be picking up the second half, so they’ll be funding .44%. Commodities and Contractual Services: We kept that at 2.5% to keep the Property Tax Levy as low as we could; that is despite talks of tariffs and inflationary things and costs of supplies have just gone up, but our departments, our directors and their teams, they were able to really keep it at that 2.5% level, so my thanks to them. Then we even had some savings that we’re able to do, so especially here, snow removal savings: We had some savings in the 2025 budget, and so the Public Works team brought a proposal forward to you to buy equipment this year, $200,000 to equip the trucks, and we had a $100,000 grant, so the net effect to the City was $100,000. But now we’re able to put $50,000 in savings into the budget next year, and so that did have a positive decrease to our Property Tax Levy. We will be funding $2.37 million of Equipment Replacement in 2026, as we look at what needs to be replaced in the City, whether it is our squads, some equipment at Public Works, a garbage truck, those sorts of things are listed in the budget. Those were necessary replacements. Each year, each piece of equipment that needs to be replaced, we don’t just replace it because it’s at 10 years or 12 years, we have to have a justification that those pieces of equipment need to be replaced, that they can’t be put down the road one more year. We do have a police vehicle actually out in the lot that’s up for replacement for 2026 that hasn’t been able to be driven for a little bit because it is no longer able to be repaired. So, those pieces of equipment that we are funding are necessary. General Fund The General Fund is our Chief Operating Budget in the City, and I wanted to talk about that because it’s our largest budget, and it funds our Police services, our Fire services, Public Works, Parks and Recreation, and Administration Services. When we send a fire truck to a house, we’re not sending a bill; so, to generate that service for that member of our community, we need to pay for it, and we pay for it with property taxes. So, when we look at the General Fund, it is no surprise that the General Fund is supported by 76% in property taxes. However, we are a growing community, and so licenses and permits for new buildings and commercial buildings do fund 8% of our budget in the General Fund. Our Charges for Services, when we rent Park buildings or do some of our Recreational Services or Engineering Services, that generates 6% in the General Fund. Intergovernmental Revenue is about 5%, whether that is our Police Aid or Fire Aid that we receive from the State, or if we receive a grant to fund a position in the City, that is 5% of the General Fund. Enterprise Funds: Our Water Fund, our Sewer Fund, they send some money over to the General Fund for those services, whether it’s payroll services or Finance, Administration Services that we provide to those funds. Expenditures First, I wanted to point out that the Expenditure number was the same as the Revenue number; that’s because we balanced our budget. We’re not using Fund Reserves or any tricks to balance this budget. Because we’re in the people business, we provide Snowplowing services, Fire, or Police, 71% of our General Fund is personnel: Commodities are 5.22%, Contractual are 22%. Budget Contingencies are so that we can react to things that happen during the year that we had not anticipated, that is just over 1%. Budgets by Department Public Safety: Is 48.9% of the budget, we look at that every year, and it doesn’t change, and that’s our Police and Fire Services. Public Works: Is 19%, so those streets and snow removal services. General Government: Is 12%, providing services really to the other departments, whether it’s paying employees, cutting accounts payable checks, doing accounting services, or administration services, we support all those other parts of our City. Parks and Recreation: Is just under 12%. Community Development: Is at 7.85%. Median Home I had alluded to the median home before. Our median home in 2025 was $357,100, and City property taxes paid by that median home were $1,282. So, based on the Property Tax Levy in front of you, in 2026 they would pay $1,435. That median home increased in value by 3.39%. We operate under that ten-year Financial Management Plan, and this is the third year that we are doing a budget based on the Financial Management Plan; that Financial Management Plan had said that we needed a $110 increase on the median home the first year, $100 the second year, and thereafter. So, it’s good to see how we are comparing: We would be at $310 over that three-year period, and we’re at $309. There was an action that happened last night, however. At the EDA Meeting, there was a decertification of a TIF District, and so these Property Tax statements that arrived in the mail in November, they will actually decrease because of this decertification of this TIF District. When a TIF District decertifies, those taxes that are being captured for that development are then put back on the Property Tax Levy. Because of that action that happened last night, the property taxes will go down. So, what that means is on the median home that was going to pay annual taxes in 2026 of $1,435, they will pay $1,418, so a decrease of approximately $17. What it also did is the increase in City property taxes was about 11.93% before that decertification, and that increase in property taxes due to that decertification is now 10.61%, so a decrease of about 1.3%, and all homes and businesses will be afforded the same reduction. What a City Property Tax Bill Pays Instead of paying the Property Tax bill, whether you pay it once a year or twice a year instead, if you sent a payment to the City of Cottage Grove, you would send us $118 per month. So, we can compare that to a cable bill or an Xcel bill, those sorts of things. So, if you sent us $118 a month, we would turn around and send about: $54 to Public Safety to pay for Police and Fire Services $19 to Public Works to pay for Snowplowing, Streets, Clearing Pathways $12.85 to Parks and Recreation for Parks, Trails, and those Facilities $17.93 to Debt Service to pay the existing debt $12 to General Government $1.31 to Economic Development and HRA $2.07 to the Contingency Fund $ .06 to Community Development, because they do have that Building Permit revenue coming in to fund their department Cottage Grove’s Comparison to Other Cities in Washington County on the Median Home We also keep track of how we compare to other cities. We don’t want to be the highest taxed City in Washington County or when we look at growing communities. So, here on this screen is Cottage Grove compared to other cities in Washington County on the median home. Median homes in each community are a different value, so I’ve calculated City taxes based on their preliminary levy, based on their median home, and Cottage Grove is the third lowest in Washington County when we compare to other communities. When we compare ourselves to growing cities over 40,000, we are the fourth lowest; Shakopee, Blaine, Maple Grove are below us, and I just want to remind you, too, that $1,435 that’s shown on the screen is really $1,418. Property Tax Levy per Capita If we simply take Property Tax Levies and divide it by the population, as set by Met Council, we’re very favorable comparing there, too; when we look at other Washington County cities, St. Paul Park is below us, and everybody else is above us. Then when we look at growing cities over 40,000, Shakopee is the lowest. I just wanted to remind anybody that’s watching or anybody in the audience that the State does have some Property Tax Relief programs: First of all, there is a Regular Property Tax Credit Refund program where household income needs to be less than $139,330 in 2024 A Special Property Tax Refund Program if property taxes increase more than 12% and $100, the $100 can’t be because of an improvement Senior Citizen Property Deferral Program for income less than $96,000 The website is there on the screen, and the phone number is there on the screen. I am always happy to talk to residents if they have specific questions, I can help them navigate those websites and answer any questions. The last thing I wanted to note on these proposed property taxes, up in the corner, is the value of 2025 vs. 2026 of each individual home; we talked about that median home and that increase in that market value, and that was set back in March. So, the County Assessor sets that for Cottage Grove, and they send these statements out; when that comes in March, it does list Open Book Meetings. So, if you feel that your property is not valued correctly, or if you want to understand more of how your property is valued, you can call, there’s Open Book Meetings, and one of them is held here at the City of Cottage Grove each year; so, that is the time that somebody can get more questions answered or ask for that value to be reviewed. Director Malinowski said with that, I am happy to answer any questions, or else your recommendations are on the screen. Mayor Bailey said thank you, Brenda, and thank you for all the work that you and the team have done on putting this budget together, and we’re about 30 or so days away from starting the next one. Council Member Olsen said thanks, Brenda. First and foremost, as the mayor said, thank you very much. I know that you and your staff have put in a ridiculous amount of time over the course of the last 11 months, providing us with all kinds of data and information, etc. For the public at home, I want to mention, could you go back to that first slide where it shows by month, January, February, March, all that. So, I want to mention for the public at home that creating a budget and landing on a final budget is really a stepped process, and it’s important to understand that this is a joint effort amongst the staff and our City Council because we’re all one team. You know, you’re not on Team Council vs. Team Staff, we all work together. The only way we can make the decisions as a Council is when we get really good information from our team here in the City Hall building, and trust me, they do a ton. So, if you look at all these various meetings, we start with the Strategic Plan, based on the data that we have at the time, and usually that number is scary, I’ll just leave it at that, it freaks us out. And then what happens is as we go through the rest of the timeframe here that you see on your screen, we start kind of gradually dialing in because we get more data, more information, etc. We have to wait for County evaluations, we have to wait for the various department heads to come forward and say, you know, shoot, this piece of equipment is not working, I think earlier you mentioned we have a squad out there that’s inoperable, you can’t use it. Of course, our squad cars take a beating and they aren’t like your Toyota at home, they need to be replaced, and the last thing we want is to have somebody in an unsafe vehicle in a pursuit, whatever the case might be. And so all these pieces of information come together, and they lead us to tonight. Through the course of this timeframe, Council gives direction on an ongoing basis. We will get numbers, we’ll examine the numbers, we’ll have a budget meeting where everybody kind of is allowed to put forth their thoughts and their opinions, and things of that nature. And then once we land on a consensus, we start to move forward with okay, this is the plan, now how do we fund the plan? And one of the things I’m always grateful for is those interactive sessions really help surface a lot of different ideas and different things by the various Council Members, staff members, etc. This year we have a new Council Member to my right, Council Member Clausen, who comes with a whole bunch of really, really good information on the Public Safety side because he worked a career in Public Safety for a very long time. So, it was great to have his voice in the room, and when it was all said and done, we landed on 5-0, five votes for, no votes against, because we felt like we had a really good plan in place. And I’m gratified to see that we remain second lowest tax levy per capita, not just in Washington County, with St. Paul Park being below us as a recipient of roughly $802,000, so we’ll just round it down to say $800,000 a year, in Local Government Aid, where the City of Cottage Grove gets nothing. What that means is the State sends a check to St. Paul Park for $800,000 and says, here you go, this will help your budget, and we don’t get that. We also have other communities, like Oakdale gets Local Government Aid of $466,000 a year, Newport gets Local Government Aid of $452,000 a year. And, oh, by the way, Oakdale also passed a Local Option Sales Tax last year, so they’re getting additional revenue that way, too. The City of Cottage Grove does not get any of that. So, what that means is we’ve got to sharpen our stubby little pencils, and we’ve really got to work hard at figuring out what’s absolutely necessary. For example, this year with squad cars, correct me if I’m wrong, Brenda, but I think we started with either 6 or 8 that we were looking to replace? Director Malinowski replied 8 in total and then 2 Admins. Council Member Olsen said so 2 admins and 6 squads, which Director Malinowski confirmed. Council Member Olsen said and we landed on hey, we can only afford to do 2, and that’s what we did. So, the entire process is intended to be a funnel to get us to this point, and I really have a lot of admiration for the work that the staff does because we ask a million questions, and these poor folks have to go do the research and bring forward reports, and all that kind of stuff. Let’s not forget we’re in an era where tariffs are part of our economic future, so a lot of this equipment that we’re purchasing is costing more because of the tariff financial impact. In fact, I think we had about $6,000 in tariffs that we had to pay for some Public Works equipment, and nothing gets cheaper year over year, so equipment replacement is a really big deal. It’s a tightrope, it really is a tightrope, but what’s good for the taxpayer to know and something that I’m very grateful about because I, too, am a taxpayer, is that Cottage Grove delivers an amazing service to its residents. People pay $4 a day, roughly, for all this stuff, that’s what they pay for; so, Ambulance, Fire Department, Police Department, Snowplowing, Parks and Recreation that is absolutely phenomenal in this City, all the various programs for the kids, all the different things that we do to maintain our roads and our other infrastructure, $4 a day. That’s a pretty good deal if you ask me. And I’ve lived in Cottage Grove a long time, and I’m going to tell you, in my time in the City, as a resident, starting as a kid, I think we have the absolute best service level we’ve ever had if you’re a resident, and that’s why we’re growing so fast. People come here because they know it’s a good place to live. So, kudos to you, kudos to the team. You mentioned the Tax Increment Financing District that we took action on last night. Could you maybe just dial that in a little bit more for people so they understand, because I get it, we did it last night, but I think the person watching this at home would be very curious because it does have a positive impact on their tax statement. Director Malinowski replied this particular TIF District, so the State lets us know what kind of TIF Districts we can have, this was an Economic Development TIF District, and its got a nine-year lifecycle. There are certain criteria that have to happen; if the criteria aren’t matched, then it is decertified, and this decertified early. For the life of a TIF District what happens is we have to show that but for Tax Increment, this development could not happen, and so that was done when it was created. When that but for test is met, and the Tax Increment District is established, the taxes that are on that parcel on the day that it was created, they’re captured, okay? Those taxes are going to still sit and go to the School District, the County, and the City, but as the development occurs and the Tax Capacity or the property value increases, it is being captured. So, you take that increased value, less that original value, and that is held in that TIF District to pay for those improvements, those but for improvements. When a TIF District decertifies, that increased market value, that taxable value, that is released back on the tax rolls, and so that is what happened with the action last night. The TIF District was decertified early, and so that taxable market value is now added onto the tax rolls at the City, the County, and the School District. While we are just talking tonight about the implications of the City taxes, that Tax District decertifying has that $17 impact on that median home, and there will be similar things happening to those other taxing jurisdictions. So, when it decertifies, it goes back on the tax rolls. Council Member Olsen said so not only is it going to decrease the Property Tax Levy for residents here in Cottage Grove from the City, but it will also decrease what they’re paying to the School District and what they’re paying to the County. Director Malinowski replied correct. Council Member Olsen said okay, so that’s a big win. And then the last thing that I wanted to mention, which you didn’t mention in your presentation, is I believe 2026 is a contract year for us, right, for some of our working groups, is that correct? Director Malinowski replied, well, the contracts expire at the end of 2026. Council Member Olsen said okay, so, we’ll be negotiating in 2026 for a new contract that will start in 2027, and it’s always important that we have enough financial flexibility to be where we need to be as an employer within the market at that particular time, and that’s always a tough one to pin down on. So, in your view, does this budget give us that flexibility to negotiate in good faith and be receptive to what the market’s going to ask of us? Director Malinowski replied, yep, and one of the things that’s included in the budget is to go out and have some services done to see where we are in the market, to see that we are that employer; sometimes when we look at surrounding communities, they have a hard time recruiting for certain things, so maybe they’re down 15 or so positions, vacancies in their Police Department. We don’t have that situation here in Cottage Grove because of the positive feedback to our police as an employer and as the City Council. Council Member Olsen said right, and we did this Polco Survey just several months back, and what we heard loud and clear as a Council was people have a very favorable outlook on our Public Safety team, which is the largest part of our budget, we all know that; but there’s also a lot of positive feedback on Public Works and some other things. As we considered the budget for 2026, we kind of leaned into that; look, people want to feel like their community is safe, they want to feel like their community is clean, they want to feel like the community has beautiful parks and trails and things. And, so, the decisions that we made took all of that into account, and again, I very much appreciate all of the time and effort and energy that everybody put in. This calendar in front of me here doesn’t lie, it’s a lot, and the fun part is once we vote tonight and move forward, we get to start it all over again in January, so that’ll be super fun. But thanks again, appreciate it, I know this is always a heavy lift, but you guys did a phenomenal job and full credit to the team. Council Member Clausen said thank you, mayor, and thank you, Brenda. This is my first year of going through the budget process, and it was quite overwhelming, I must say. I thought it would just be easy, we’ll just get a budget and move on, but there’s a lot of work involved. I just want to highlight a couple things. Justin may have brought them up, but I retired in 2020, and I came back in 2025, on the Council, and I’m looking around at equipment; that’s a very big part of our budget, there’s a lot of money in equipment, and I came back and looked around and I’m like we still have some of the stuff we had when I left, five, six years ago. I just want to make a couple comments: We’re potentially going to replace our road grader that we purchased in 1991, so it’s 35 years old, and we bought it used, I believe, so it’s even older than that, and that stuff doesn’t last forever. One other item I made note of is we’re replacing a fire truck in 2026, which is 30 years old, and that truck actually started on fire a year or two ago, the firemen put it out, maybe the insurance would have been better but I don't know; and it was out of service for two, three months because we couldn’t get parts for it. So, we have an ambulance coming, I think end of this year or first part of next year, we have to figure out how we’re going to pay for it. We have a dump truck that’s 15 years old that we’re replacing. So, equipment’s a big dollar amount, but it doesn’t last forever. And with me looking through the budget, I’m just seeing that we’re keeping the lights on and we’re repairing and fixing or replacing old things. As far as staff, I think you mentioned one police officer, but that position might even be partially grant funded? Maybe I’m wrong on that. Director Malinowski replied the 49th officer is not grant funded. Council Member Clausen replied okay, but we’re not adding a lot of staff, every department is staying the same. In fact, we’re filling some summer positions with actually parttime people instead of hiring fulltime people, which Director Malinowski confirmed. Council Member Clausen said we don’t have a lot of programs that we fund, we don’t pay NGOs (non-governmental organizations) to do housing programs for us. So, it’s a lot of money in this budget, and I’ve also looked at that much of the budget increase, a lot of it is inflation, it just costs that much more to do business, everything’s more expensive. So, is it the best budget that I would have liked personally? I would have liked to see it a little less, but I’m just looking at all the numbers and all the things we need, and we kind of hashed it out in our meetings, and we arm wrestled over things, and this is where we arrived. So, I’m going to support the budget the way it is right now. Thank you, mayor. Mayor Bailey opened the Public Hearing. He said if somebody wants to speak on this topic, they’re welcome to do so. Just go up to the podium, state your name and address for the record, and you do have up to three minutes to come share any information. I know our staff will take notes, and then maybe they’ll answer it at the end, if you will, or we’ll take notes up here and we can answer it at the end. Well, if I get red in the face, I think it’s because I’ve never really done this before. Mayor Bailey said you’re okay. Thank you, Brenda, for explaining the budget and for giving a phone number for senior citizens to call about taxation. I didn’t see that in any of the other stuff, so thank you so much, much appreciated. And thank you, Mayor Myron, for letting the other cities in our area know about AMS and that our City is like supporting them, and we would appreciate some of their help. Well, as you can tell, I’m an elderly citizen, here living in Cottage Grove, 8052 Ivywood Avenue South, if I need to get that on the record, and I’ve lived here maybe 20 years, before I lived in St. Paul Park. So, what’s happening as a senior citizen, is what I’m seeing is that people are struggling with decisions to be made with living here or moving out of state. That’s just a thing with Minnesota, in general, but what also comes in is that I’ve seen senior citizens do, when you turn your property back to the bank, reverse mortgage, so that all they have to pay then is their taxes and their insurance, but this causes more stress on the family also. So, these are just struggles that I see as a senior citizen in our community. I do know that our community is growing, and then with that growth, that also will add money to the coffers, and it doesn’t look like you’re hiring a whole lot of staff with all the houses that are coming in. So, I do know there’s added revenue coming in, just because it just makes sense. I just appreciate being heard, I just wanted to let myself be known, and that I do love living in Cottage Grove. Thank you. Council Member Olsen said can we get your name, too, please? Your name for the record. She said, oh, I’m sorry, didn’t I say? I’m sorry, Sheila Grittner. Council Member Olsen said okay, thank you, Sheila. Mayor Bailey said thank you. As no one else wished to speak, Mayor Bailey closed the Public Hearing. Mayor Bailey said we’ll have some conversations for the Council, and I know Brenda will put the motions back up on the table. Mayor Bailey said one thing I would mention to you, it was interesting when you talk about the growth. One of the things that we know on the Council and our staff knows from the growth standpoint, so all these new homes are coming because I do hear that, right? Oh, we’ve got all these new homes, it should generate all the taxes. They do provide taxes, but not for the first year because the first year, and originally, when I bought my first house here in Cottage Grove, the taxes on year one are for your property only, the land, not the building. So, then I’ve seen a couple comments on social media about my taxes went up 100% or whatever. When I see that, I’m going okay, that has to be a new home; the first year they got there, the property tax was really low because they were just paying for the lot, where the following year obviously they got their, I’ll call it sticker shock, because it went up so high to capture now what’s the value of the home. So, thank you for bringing that up because I thought that might be something that the general public might need to know, okay? Council Member Thiede said okay, so, first of all, I will say that staff does an excellent job and the budget can be a stressful thing to work with; I’ve been involved in a lot of them over my career in management, mostly in public companies and so forth, not in municipal and things like that. But I guess this year I wasn’t too happy with necessarily how things worked out. Originally, we get together in the summer and staff actually I believe did an excellent job coming in with a budget that they said would work that was under 10% increase in the levy. Then, as things were discussed, somehow it, not necessarily from staff, there was about $1.5 million added to the levy, taking it all the way up to about the 15% that we have now. At the time, I said okay to it because I knew we’d have another chance to look at it, up until this point tonight. There were certain things that did happen that we really didn’t know were going to happen, we had a longest-ever government shutdown, which affected a lot of people. You watch the news on TV and the food pantries and so forth are handing out more and more food, and different customers that never had to use the food pantry before. Also, we saw, as you look at different things that we ended up with the highest percentage increase in pretty much the metro area, if you look at comparable cities. So, those two things were enough for me to kind of really step back and take a look at it, and you know I feel that we’re probably just asking too much from the citizens of the City to pony up more money. I think after talking to staff a little bit and revisiting the initial budget that was presented to us, there are some things that we might be able to do without this next year and put it into the year after. I know we’re up for reviewing the Financial Management Plan in our January Strategic Planning Meeting, since this $153, which actually the TIF is nice, that’ll bring it down, that’s good. And I have to admit that the prior years actually started out all over $100 and ultimately we found a way, well not we, but the staff found a way to actually decrease those in terms of the impact on the population. But I don’t think that Brenda has enough magic in her to reduce that $136 on what it would be after the TIF number is down to $100, but again, if we go into the Strategic Planning and we decide in that Financial Management Plan to really take a look at another method to look at what those increases are going to be; that all involves looking at population growth, looking at what kind of services and things of that nature that we need, and maybe that $100 a year increase is not reasonable. But trying to take a look at something that we can actually show that a plan, so that people know what to expect in terms of increases. We always do say that well, this is only a little increase, but you know when they get bombarded with about 10 or 15 little increases, all of a sudden it becomes a big increase. So, you know, I don’t like necessarily going against what’s presented to us here, but I’m afraid that I’m probably not going to be able to support this increase at this time. Mayor Bailey said okay, all right. So, just a couple general comments just for the public, and then I’ll look for motions from the Council at this point, to move forward. So, first of all, again, thank you to our staff for all the hard work over the many months of putting this together, trying to figure out what’s the number. I don't know that, and I know Council Member Thiede has mentioned, I don't know that anybody really liked this budget, nobody likes it when you’re into this double digit kind of situation. I believe it’s the first time in my 16 years as mayor that it’s been to this level, right? But to the point that has been made up here, there’s a couple things that we have to do, and one is we have to shore up our Equipment Replacement Fund. The amount of equipment that we need to operate and continue to do what we do in our community is by far one of the most important things, next to having people, right? All of our Public Safety personnel and so on. And what has happened in the past, just to put it out there, is on previous budgets, even in the last couple years to be honest with you, the goal on our Financial Management Plan was to kind of try to stick at that $100 range and to average it out there. Well, ironically, with the TIF Decertification if you look at so far as we went forward here, it will be under, I think you said $97. But what was interesting is we were planned to be at more for years one and two, but based on the discussions and the messages that we had in Council, we said no, let’s push it down, let’s be lower, let’s try to be lower. Even though the Financial Management Plan told us to be at this number, and to be frank with you, if we would have been at that number, we would not be at a 14.9% increase this year. I’m just going to say it. But every year we look at these budgets, and we go okay, we’re going to move the number around and try to figure things out. So, the reality is between Equipment Replacement, obviously the personnel, the increases and such to wages and inflation is really what’s driving this. The other one, and I do appreciate that you made a comment, you’ve seen my comment out on social media with regards to the EMS Service. We’re going to continue to work on that, just to be quite honest with you; as a matter of fact, that is one of the topics that our Council is going to discuss the future on with regards to EMS, and should we or will we continue to do services to the communities that are outside of Cottage Grove? There’s a variety of options that are available to us, but I’m also hoping that our neighboring communities will work with us to come forward with some financial support to help, so that the citizens of Cottage Grove are not paying the entire brunt of all the costs of running an ambulance service. I know you see on that budget piece on here there’s about a $70,000 add, which is the first time we’ve ever had to do that, but that’s not, I know people will go, well, it’s only $70,000; well, it’s more than that, though, because our wages for those paramedics are also in the General Fund that the citizens of Cottage Grove are paying for. The ambulance which now is, I’m going to look, $300,000 or so for the ambulance, which we have to buy this year, and then secondly is all the equipment that goes in that ambulance, and I’ve seen the numbers that our Fire Chief Jon Pritchard has shared with us. We’re talking $50,000 for a stretcher, $50,000 for our heart monitor, I mean all these things add up, so with an ambulance costing $300,000, it really costs us over a half a million dollars. Again, that’s being borne by the citizens of Cottage Grove, and you know what? If it was just our community, I would say, okay. Then we have a decision as a Council to make if that’s something that we decide we want to do, if we want to spend the extra money or whatever to make sure you do that. So, I say thank you for bringing that up because we will still press this with our neighboring communities and talk to them about what we hope will be a successful outcome, and then we will look into the future to see what we want to do for a permanent solution that will help. The last thing I’ll say on that, though, because this is my chance to be on the soapbox for a moment on the budget piece and EMS, the biggest issue with EMS, just to be honest with you, is Medicare and Medicaid funding. The amount on average if it might take over $2,000 for an ambulance to go to your house or do what they need to do, with all the pieces that make that up, it’s about $2,000 or more depending on what you need, but the amount we get from Medicare, Medicaid is $300 to $500. So, if you think about the number of Medicare, Medicaid runs and this has nothing to do with all just seniors in Cottage Grove, it isn’t, it’s across the entire area, that’s really what’s driving the challenge here. So, we have the best, I will say that, we have the best paramedic system, the best police officers, firefighters, Public Works people, I really honestly believe that, and we want to continue to be the best going forward. So, I will support the budget that we’ve got before us at this point. Council Member Clausen said I just want to make one more comment, mayor. Council Member Thiede, you brought up when we were in our meetings, that we added $1.5 million in the equipment, and it was kind of a sticking point for you, and I recognize that. But one thing I noticed is that during the COVID years, we really kept the budget very low and pushed off a lot of equipment purchases, and good or bad, it happened. I respect the Council’s decision back at that time. However, I’m looking now and seeing all the things we’ve delayed, and this was kind of, we knew this day was coming, that we were going to have to spend a lot more money on capital expenses. I hear what you say, I understand it, but I wish it was better, too. Thanks. Motion by Council Member Clausen to Adopt Resolution 2025-174, Adopting the 2025 Property Tax Levy, collectible in 2026; second by Council Member Olsen. Motion carried: 3-1 (Nay vote by Council Member Thiede). Motion by Council Member Olsen to Adopt Resolution 2025-175, Adopting the 2026 Budget; second by Council Member Clausen. Motion carried: 3-1 (Nay vote by Council Member Thiede). Motion by Council Member Clausen to Adopt Resolution 2025-176, Adopting the 2025 Housing and Redevelopment Authority Property Tax Levy, collectible in 2026; second by Council Member Olsen. Motion carried: 4-0. Mayor Bailey said thank you again, Brenda and team, for everything you did there. 80th Street Rehabilitation Project - Public Hearing Staff Recommendation: 1) Conduct the Public Hearing for the 80th Street (TH61 to Ideal Avenue), East Point Douglas Road (80th Street South to Tee intersection), and TH61/80th Street Interchange Rehabilitation Project. 2) Adopt Resolution 2025-178, ordering the 80th Street (TH61 to Ideal Avenue), East Point Douglas Road (80th Street South to Tee intersection), and TH61/80th Interchange Rehabilitation Project. Mayor Bailey said Paul Sponholz, our City Engineer, is going to walk us through this, and I’ll be honest with you, other than the cost of it, it’s definitely needed, reconstruction of 80th Street. Engineer Sponholz said all right, Good Evening, Mayor, Council Members, Members of the Public, this evening I’ll be giving you information on the upcoming 80th Street and East Point Douglas Road Rehabilitation Project. The main purpose of this presentation tonight is to discuss the need for the improvements. We’ll discuss current conditions, proposed improvements, the construction staging plan, and our anticipated schedule. If the City Council decides to move forward with this, Final Assessments would be considered after the final costs are determined later in the fall of 2026. I’ll discuss the preliminary assessment roll, and we’ll discuss that assessment process. 80th Street and East Point Douglas Road are significant corridors through the City. The project on 80th Street was identified for improvement in our Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) for construction here in 2026; 80th Street is a four-lane, divided roadway, classified as a minor arterial road, and is part of the Municipal State Aid system that receives State Aid funding. Compared to collector roads or local roads, arterial roads’ primary purpose is to just move traffic with little or no direct access to properties, but 80th Street does provide some direct access to several businesses, schools, and multifamily residential properties. 80th Street is a critical route for the City with over 23,000 vehicles a day, the busiest street in the City. It connects residential neighborhoods, the Gateway North commercial district, Park High School, Crestview Elementary School, the Cottage Grove Ice Arena, and Highway 61. The City’s expecting additional development and redevelopment, so traffic is expected to increase in this corridor. Also, we are including work on East Point Douglas Road, south of 80th Street. The proposed construction is similar to the work that we’re doing on 80th Street, so it made a lot of sense combining the two projects. Doing the work jointly will combine traffic impacts and provide some economies of scale. Like 80th Street, East Point Douglas Road is a four-lane, divided road, a minor arterial route, and part of the Municipal State Aid system. While it provides significant traffic movement, carrying over 19,000 vehicles a day, it also provides direct access to the Gateway North commercial area. As we began looking into the 80th Street project several years ago, we learned of an upcoming MnDOT project; they wanted to reconstruct the ramps on the TH61-80th Street interchange. So, the City, MnDOT, and the County worked together to combine the projects into one project, again saving some efficiencies for construction, using economy of scale for those costs. We can incorporate the lane closures of our project and the ramp closures of their project, lessening the overall traffic impact, compared if we would try to do this in two separate projects, in two separate years. The 80th Street project has been in the City’s CIP since 2012, with work along the corridor starting on the east end, reconstructing 80th Street from Jamaica to Keats. We had a Pavement Rehabilitation Project between Ideal Avenue and Jamaica Avenue, just east of this segment, and then now we have this current segment scheduled for next year. This portion of 80th Street was originally constructed in 1982, along with the construction of the Trunk Highway 61 overpass. A Mill and Overlay was done in 1998, and later, turn lanes were lengthened and signal improvements were completed. East Point Douglas Road was originally constructed in 1975; it has had several widening and turn-lane improvements, along with Mill and Overlay projects and signal upgrades since then. With a lot of maintenance effort, as you can see in some of these pictures, we’ve got a lot of patching here. We’ve gotten some significant use well past the street’s design life. For arterial roads like these, we want to maintain a significant high level of service to accommodate those high traffic volumes. However, now we’re seeing a significant amount of deterioration with potholes and cracking, while we have maintained that with significant patching. As this pavement continues to age, we’ll see it deteriorate even faster, which will require more significant effort to maintain. Also, this pavement has developed rutting; it’s really hard to see in these pictures, but rutting is underneath the wheel paths, the pavement has deformed, has sunk into some grooves. Those grooves hold water and ice, and our plows are not able to clear the snow or ice efficiently, even with that uneven slope of the roadway. Also, that rutting holds water where vehicles can hydroplane, ice and water becomes a significant safety concern as vehicles aren’t able to maintain traction and then lose control. Over the years, we’ve made efforts to accommodate the ever-increasing traffic along the routes. At one point, we extended the left-turn lanes at the Hardwood intersection, making them a lot longer in 2016. However, it’s time for more work to accommodate the existing traffic volumes and even the future traffic volumes moving forward. Already we’ve got traffic delays that we know of at Hardwood Avenue and Hinton intersections. Signals throughout the corridor we’ve upgraded over the years, but there are additional updates we still need on many of them, particularly, at the Hyde Avenue intersection here that we show here at the bottom of the slide. We have basically a six-legged intersection with the frontage road, and with that signal, we’ve identified some deficiencies with that complex situation there, and we just need to upgrade that and replace those signals so we can improve the safety and operations of all these intersections here. Throughout the corridor, there are pedestrian concerns that should be addressed to improve their mobility and safety. While most of the sidewalk is in generally good condition, there are panels throughout needing replacements. There is no sidewalk between trunk Highway 61 and the Culver’s restaurant on the north side of 80th Street, leaving a significant gap in the sidewalk system. The entire corridor needs updates to pedestrian ramps and our signals to accommodate the current standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act, so we can improve the mobility for those pedestrians. Overall, the utilities under the corridor are in generally good condition. For a watermain, this project does span two of our water pressure zones, which are separated by pressure-reducing valves, and those valves need replacing. The storm sewer under the project also is in generally good condition. Since we are able to leave most of the curb and gutter in place, we can leave most of that storm sewer in place, but there are some miscellaneous manhole and catch basin structure repairs, and we do need to do them. For streetlighting, concrete poles are outdated and at the end of their useful life and need replacing. Engineer Sponholz said so, just to summarize the deficiencies and deterioration, we’ve got these proposed project improvements: We’re pretty much going to replace the pavement throughout the entire project, conduct a bunch of utility repairs, replacements, and other miscellaneous work as we described in the Feasibility Report, which Council approved several weeks ago. Note that we are doing a Rehabilitation Project, not a full-blown Reconstruction Project. So, we’re able to save some significant funding or money; for example, by leaving most of the base underneath the pavement, the base aggregate in place, most of the curb and gutter will be able to stay in place, and also the utilities are staying in place. So, it’s not a full-blown Reconstruction, just a Rehabilitation. The City, County, and State are working together to complete these improvements. In addition to replacing all the pavement, we’ll be adding dual left-turn lanes at Hardwood Avenue; this should allow the left-turning vehicles to clear those queues, lining up for that signal a lot faster, giving a lot more signal time for the other movements of that intersection to improve the operations and capacity of that intersection. At Hinton Avenue, we’re going to be extending the left-turn lane for the eastbound traffic. We’re going to make some changes at the median there, but basically extending it through the left-turn lane that also provides turns for the funeral home there, and kind of use both of those turn lanes as one large turn lane. Also, we’ll be improving turn lanes in front of the schools, as part of their reconstruction projects at those schools. Like I said, MnDOT is a partner here to replace the pavement on the interchange. As part of their work, they’re also replacing the signals at the intersections with the interchange. Like I said, we’ll be replacing the signal at Hyde Avenue and making minor upgrades to all of the other signals in the corridor. With all these improvements, the City will be able to provide better traffic control, better traffic flow, a safer corridor, and a new pavement that will hopefully last for decades. Project Staging and Scheduling Engineer Sponholz said I’d like to give a brief outline of the project staging and scheduling. We discussed this quite a bit at the previous City Council Workshops and with the Neighborhood and Business Meetings. We are planning another Public Open House sometime in the spring, where we can discuss this a lot more in detail, and let the public and community, especially the business owners and so forth, understand the impacts and how we’re going to get traffic moved around. If this project is approved, all of the schedule is preliminary; it really depends on the contractor’s operations. We would hopefully anticipate the contractor starting work as soon as possible in the spring, in April and May. Throughout the project, we’ll maintain some sort of access to all of the businesses at all times. We’ll maintain at least one lane of traffic in both directions for the west end of the project, west of Hardwood Avenue; but on the east end here, east of Hardwood, at times the traffic will only be allowed in the eastbound direction, with the rest of it detoured. So, starting in April and May, we’ll start setting up for major construction by doing some work at the medians, what’s highlighted in the blue here would be torn out and setting up for moving traffic over from one side of the road to the other. Then, in early summer, we’ll close the westbound lanes, move that traffic over, and close the southbound lanes, then we’ll close the north side ramps here with the construction shown in the areas in orange here. We’ll maintain the two-way traffic with a single lane only, from Hadley to Hardwood, as well as along this East Point Douglas Road, on the portions here in yellow. Then, from Hardwood to the east, we will just maintain that eastbound traffic. Up until June, with the school still in session, we’ll continue keeping both directions of traffic open in front of the schools and delaying the construction right in front of the school until school is out. Once school is out, we’ll close the westbound lanes in front of the schools and continue with the construction project in those lanes. Then we’ll kind of focus our efforts there in front of the schools, try to get that work done as quick as we can, so then we can move the traffic over to the other lanes here, and continue constructing the eastbound lanes, then, in front of the schools. While still working on the west end here, with the intent there then, as soon as we’re done with that, we can get everything back open again for the schools opening in September. By late summer and into the fall, the westbound and southbound lanes will be completed. The work that’s shown in the green here, everything in front of the schools will be open, then we’ll work on the construction on the eastbound and northbound lanes, shown in orange. We’ll also close the south side of the interchange for that work. Late fall, we anticipate restoring traffic into their normal lanes, and then continue to maintain at least one lane of traffic in each direction, as we complete all that median work and restore the crossovers. Assessments Like I said earlier, tonight’s meeting is mostly about the need of this project, but I do have some information on the assessments here. There will be another public meeting, if we move forward with this project, in the fall of 2026, specifically regarding those assessments. The project will be assessing property owners that are adjacent to the project, the parcels highlighted here in red and orange and green are proposed to be assessed. Red is the Commercial District area, Green is the Multifamily Residential, and Orange is the School District properties. On the south side of 80th Street, between Hemingway Avenue here and Ideal, there’s a City frontage road, so the costs along that portion of the project are assigned to the City. Project Costs Here’s an estimate of the Project Costs, breaking out the Total Costs vs. Just the Construction Costs. The combined portion between 80th and East Point Douglas Road, the construction cost comes to about $10 million. After we include all the Engineering, Construction, Inspection, and Testing, the Total Project Cost for the City’s portion comes to about $12 million, between those two parts of the project. MnDOT’s portion and the County’s portion of the project comes to just a little over $5 million, in total. With the interchange work that portion of the project is not part of our assessments, so the Total Project Cost comes in to just a little over $17 million. Assessments Assessments are proposed to contribute to the funding of the City’s portion of the project. Based on the City Assessment Policy that we have, we calculate assessments according to a calculation that we have, and those assessments, based on that calculation, would total $7.6 million. However, we do apply Special Benefit Appraisals, we brought in BRKW Appraisals to complete Special Benefit Appraisals on all the properties, and they determined that the total value of all those benefits would be $1.5 million; so, that’s the maximum we would be able to assess the properties here. We did send preliminary assessment values to all the property owners that are impacted, and we held a meeting with them a couple weeks ago. There are 37 different parcels, owned by 29 different property owners. The Special Benefit Appraisal valued those individual parcels, anything from $1,900 for a parcel to as much as $251,500 per parcel. There are a lot of different things that go into that, different access, size of the property, and so forth. Project Funding So, with the Total Project Costs coming in a little over $17 million, we have several ways we’re bringing some funds into this. We did secure a $5 million Federal grant, and then we have $1.8 million of TIF Funds that are contributing to this. MnDOT’s funding their work at $5.2 million, and the County’s contributing to part of that for their share of the intersection work on 80th Street, though the far end of the project is actually a County highway route. Sewer and Water Utility Funds are contributing $50,000. Like I said, the assessments are valued at about $1.5 million that will be contributing, and then the remainder of the project will be funded with Municipal State Aid Funds; with the State Aid routes here, the State contributes funding from the fuel taxes we pay when we buy gasoline and so forth, and we get about $2.5 million a year from that allotment. We’ll be requesting an advance of that funding from our 2027 allotment so we can move the project forward. Assessment Terms If the Council decides to move forward with the project, after we determine the Final Construction Costs next fall, we’ll hold the Assessment Public Hearing in the fall. If the City Council adopts those assessments, then property owners may pay that assessment within 30 days of the Council making that adoption to avoid interest charges. Otherwise, the assessment would be payable over 15 years with an interest rate of 1.5% above the bond rate. Partial payments are allowed before that 30 days is over. Once the project is ordered by the Council here, this pending assessment would show up on the property records. Deferrals are available if qualified, such as for disability, military, or age, but interest still accrues during those deferral periods. Work Already Completed So, here’s some of the work that we’ve already completed: We’ve already completed the Feasibility Report Plans and specs are in their final stages now, just about ready to be completed We held a meeting in November for the assessed properties, and we got to meet some of those property representatives; since them, I’ve also spoken to or had email correspondence with some others We provided Notice for the Public Hearing today, published in the newspaper, and we sent notices to property owners in the mail Next Steps If the project moves forward: We anticipate advertising for bids and awarding the bid in March Sometime in the spring we’ll hold another Open House meeting to discuss more details of those traffic impacts and how to get around the project, and so forth If all goes well, we’ll get construction going in April and hope they wrap it up by November Once Final Costs are determined in the fall, we’ll hold that Assessment Hearing We are working on more details on getting the message out and providing information to the public and navigating the construction chaos; construction is never easy, so we will be working to get all that out there via email updates, social media, and website We have just established a project website, it’ll be a click the link on the City webpage The City newsletter that’s coming out here in December, Cottage Grove Reports, will have a link to the project webpage; just verbally here, its 80thstreetcg.com, so check it out, as that will be constantly updated throughout the project and more information will be provided on that page soon Engineer Sponholz said so, that ends my presentation tonight. Staff brings these recommendations to the City Council for your consideration to conduct the Public Hearing on the need for the improvements, and to Adopt the Resolution to then order the project. I do want to remind the Council that the Resolution needs at least a 4/5 vote for the project, with Council Member Garza out tonight, that means we’d need all four of you to approve it tonight. With that, do you have any questions? Mayor Bailey said thank you, Paul. Council, do you have any questions? Council Member Olsen said thanks, Paul. I know you’ve had to put us through this presentation maybe now three-or-four times, so it gets better every time, just so you know. A few questions, and I’m just going to kind of put them in a lump sum here for you: The timing of the project, from start to finish. Weather can be a factor, and we dealt with something a couple years ago when the roundabout near Target was being constructed where we had just unseasonably wet weather that put our construction projects throughout the City kind of in a little bit of a tough spot. So, my question is this: Understanding that we have a tight timeline, it’s a big project, right, and we want to get it buttoned up in a year, should there be any weather impacts, is there some sort of provision in the bidding or the choice of who we would use to actually do the work that they would potentially work on weekends, if necessary, or later in the day, if necessary? Paul replied with most of our standard contracts with contractors, we do know that there are weather delays throughout the summer. We have kind of standard estimates of what is expected for normal times that the contractor would not be able to work, so that is included in their schedule, it’s included in our schedule, so we hope to make allowances for I guess what would be typical weather delays that are expected. We do mandate a deadline for the contractor with liquidated damages if the contractor fails to meet that deadline. With the amount of work that is scheduled for this, the contractor is going to be expected to understand that scope of work and the timeline. We don’t mandate their schedule, but if they’re falling behind, we’ll certainly say, hey, if you aren’t working weekends, it’s probably a good idea, because those liquidated damages are going to come. Those liquidated damages are not as a penalty on the contractor, it’s a recognition that there are damages to the City, to the public for the delays if they can’t get it done. Council Member Olsen said in particular, I was thinking about the businesses that’ll be impacted, so I appreciate you clarifying that because that certainly could get to be sticky if we didn’t address it up front. Then the last question I have for you is I know that when we do road projects like this, there’s often an opportunity to televise sewer lines, hydrojet, do different things to maintain some of the infrastructure that’s there. Do we have any plans to, as the project goes along, look at things like underground wiring for streetlights, or like I said, sewer lines or what have you? Since its going to be available, its right there, we don’t have to dig underground because we’ll already be digging. Paul replied yeah, good question, Council Member. I believe we did do all those video logs of the systems as part of that Feasibility Report. So, we’ve seen what those look like and determined they are in relatively, for the most part, good condition. We have identified a few things that need repairs that we will do as part of the project. Council Member Olsen said okay, well good enough. Sometimes when you dig in the ground you find stuff that you didn’t quite expect, so. Paul said well, there’s always that, but. Council Member Olsen said hopefully, that’ll give us an opportunity to address some of those things because it is such a busy roadway, you want to do it right the first time, right? So, okay, thank you. Mayor Bailey said I don’t think there are any other questions from the Council at this point, so, thank you, Paul. Mayor Bailey opened the Public Hearing. No one spoke. Mayor Bailey closed the Public Hearing. Motion by Council Member Thiede to Adopt Resolution 2025-178, ordering the 80th Street (TH61 to Ideal Avenue), East Point Douglas Road (80th Street South to Tee intersection), and TH61/80th Street Interchange Rehabilitation Project; second by Council Member Clausen. Motion carried: 4-0. 10.BID AWARDS- None. 11.REGULAR AGENDA- None. 12.COUNCIL COMMENTS AND REQUESTS Council Member Clausen said just one tonight, mayor. In January, we have our annual planning meeting, and I’m wondering if these assessments are not fun to talk about and people get sticker shocked by them. Back in 1996 or 1997, we had a Pavement Management Task Force that came up with the formula. Let’s just talk about it at our January meeting and see if we still have the right assessment dollar amount, are we comparable to other cities, just to make sure we’re fair to everybody, I guess. Thank you. Council Member Olsen said first of all, good idea, Council Member Clausen. We have done a few of those check-ins over the last I don't know, 20 years or so, but we haven’t really substantially looked at do we even maybe need to bring the Pavement Management team together; so, I think that’s a great suggestion, I look forward to that conversation. Mayor, all I want to mention tonight is there’s a million things going on for the holidays, and I know you’re going to cover most of it because you are Mayor Christmas, but as the president of the Cottage Grove Lions Club, I feel compelled to remind everybody that this coming Sunday, at the VFW, we have a Santa Breakfast for kids of all ages. This is going to be a ton of fun for people, a great meal, you get to sit on Santa’s lap. Yes, John, you can sit on Santa’s lap, you qualify. Sparkles the Elf will be there, we’ll have all kinds of giveaways that we’re going to give to the kids. So, it starts at 8:00 a.m. on Sunday at the VFW and it goes until Noon. It’s going to be just a ton of fun, $12 for Adults, $8 for Kids. Like I said, every kid that comes to the event gets a little ticket that they can drop in a bucket to potentially win some fabulous prizes. So, hopefully, we’ll see you all there. I’ll be running around cleaning tables, that’s what I signed up to do, along with my wife and my kids, who are all Lions Club members, but it’s more fun when more people come, so please plan for it. Sunday, December 7, VFW, 8:00 a.m. to Noon, the mayor’s always there, too, so come for no other reason, you’ll maybe get to sit on his lap, too. Okay, thanks. Council Member Thiede said I’ll defer to you. Mayor Bailey said all right, so a couple things. First of all, more of an official thing, I want to make sure I didn’t forget that, so at our last City Council meeting, we had a Closed Workshop session, and in this case, the Closed Workshop session was to give our yearly evaluation, a performance review, of our City Administrator, Jennifer Levitt. After that Closed Workshop session happens, I have to come back at the next meeting and just mention that we did it, and I can share with the public that we gave her a very good review. Council Members kind of do our own thing with the form, and then we kind of put it all together, and it’s like, oh, we’re all kind of about the same on everything. So, I just wanted to mention great job, Jennifer, on the past year. We also gave her a few goals and objectives for 2026, going forward, so we’ll continue to do check-ins throughout the next year to make sure that we’re on par to make those things happen. Mayor Bailey said as Council Member Olsen was mentioning, and I think it was deferred by Council Member Thiede, tomorrow evening, depending on when you’re watching this, on Thursday, December 4, we do have the Hometown Holiday Celebration, right here at City Hall. There’s going to be a lot of fun things going on here, and basically, the event officially starts at 5:00 p.m. and goes until about 7:00 or 8:00 p.m. I do know the weather has been, for Minnesota it’s a little bit cold out there, but be warm. We will have fire rings out there with fire going out there to keep it warm. We’ve got a tent that’s got heaters in it. The City Hall will be open, there will be movies, I believe, going on again inside City Hall here for kids for the holidays. There’s going to be reindeer here, blowups, Santa and Mrs. Claus, and I will be arriving. Obviously, we’re going to be having a good time. I believe the Park High School choir is going to be here. One thing I did want to mention is obviously the parking lot here, oh, and food trucks, I should mention the food trucks, but the parking lot here is going to be pretty much blocked off. So, you’re going to wonder how am I going to get here? So, I will tell you there will be wagon rides so you can stop at the HERO Center on the north side or you can go to the Washington County Service Center on the south side, and you can get on a wagon ride, which takes you right up here. You get to come in and kids can meet and sit on Santa’s lap. We’ve got a little chair and all that set up out here. So, I just wanted to mention we’ve had great success over the last few years of doing that here. Our City staff, Parks and Recreation staff, do a great job of putting it all together, so I encourage you to come and join me and assuming most of the Council at this event tomorrow night, and enjoy your community. The other item I want to mention is obviously we’re just over a week away, Saturday, December 13, at 5:15 p.m. is the arrival of the Canadian Pacific/Kansas City, CPKC, but they have their Holiday Train that’s going to be arriving here once again in Cottage Grove. It is down along West Point Douglas Road, near the Youth Service Bureau. Again, you can either walk from parking lots or there will again be wagons and such that’ll take you, whether from the Park and Ride, and there are some options to park down in that area. Again, the train should arrive around 5:15 p.m., but there is going to be stuff going on before and a little bit after. We’ll keep our fingers crossed that the weather will be decent, but there is music. And, of course, the purpose of this, to be right out there in the front, is to support our local area food shelf. So, whether you can bring cash or nonperishable food items, they’re already in the fundraising piece; I haven’t heard the latest update, Pete, any update? Director Koerner replied our goal is $125,000, and we’re getting close. Mayor Bailey said all right, so, our goal is $125,000, and it sounds like we’re getting close already, which is great news, and we really want to thank the CPKC Rail because they’re the ones who put this event on, but they also present the Friends in Need Food Shelf with a decent-sized check. Of course, they do this around the country, and I always love to plug this, Cottage Grove is their biggest stop, it’s the stop with the most money raised in the U.S.; when I say the biggest stop, it’s the biggest in the sense that the number of people that show up to actually be part of the celebration. So, again, another opportunity to give back to your community, but also have a good time for the holidays. Mayor Bailey said lastly, if you saw my social media post like two days ago, I took a picture and I made a comment that a very large Nutcracker showed up in my front yard. For those who know me, I know he made a comment next door here, Council Member Olsen, that I’m like Mayor Christmas. My house is completely decorated, and there’s kind of a joke, and I kind of know who I think put this in there, but we have this big, tall Nutcracker now in my front yard, along with all the other lights and stuff that I have in here. And it’s a hockey thing, Zac, I’m just telling you it’s a hockey thing, hockey parents that did that. It just showed up out in our yard. So, that’s been kind of the joke in the hockey community and also in the neighborhood, but the reason I bring that up is because Cottage Grove does have a Holiday Lights Tour going on right now. So, if you want to see my house or others that are amazing around our community, go onto the City’s website, and you can download the map; the map will actually guide you along what’s the best route to get to all of these different locations in Cottage Grove. Let’s say you go by a house or you are a house but you didn’t put your house on the map, you can still do that, all the way up to December 15, and the map will just automatically update itself. So, I encourage you to do that, get out there and see some of the great lights, now that we actually have some snow, and then again have a good time and enjoy your community of Cottage Grove. 13.WORKSHOPS - OPEN TO PUBLIC- None. 14.WORKSHOPS-CLOSED TO PUBLIC- None. 15.ADJOURNMENT Motion by Council Member Olsen,second by Council MemberThiede,to adjourn the meeting at8:48p.m. Motion carried:4-0. Minutes prepared by Judy Graf and reviewed by Tamara Anderson, City Clerk.