City Council Agendas & Packets

APPROVED MINUTES OF THE WORK SESSION CITY OF EAST GRAND FORKS TUESDAY, JUNE 10, 2025 – 5:00 PM CALL TO ORDER: The Work Session of the East Grand Forks City Council for Tuesday, June 10, 2025 was called to order by Council President Larson at 5:00 P.M. CALL OF ROLL: On a Call of Roll the following members of the East Grand Forks City Council were present: Mayor Mark Olstad, Council President Brian Larson, Council Vice-President Tim Riopelle, Council members Tami Schumacher, Dale Helms, Donald Casmey, and Karen Peterson. Staff Present: Karla Anderson, Finance Director; Jeff Boushee, Fire Chief; Maggie Brockling, Economic Development Director; Nancy Ellis, City Planner; Steve Emery, City Engineer; Ron Galstad, City Attorney; Michael Hedlund, Police Chief, Charlotte Helgeson, Library Director; Reid Huttunen, City Administrator; Jeremy King, Parks and Recreation Superintendent; Megan Nelson, City Clerk; and Jason Stordahl, Public Works Director. DETERMINATION OF A QUORUM: The Council President Determined a Quorum was present. 1. Safe Streets for All Safety Action Plan – Blue Weber, Cody Christianson, & Stephanie Halford Ms. Halford informed the Council that she had submitted her resignation and would be starting on the process of how the position would be filled. She added she would possibly be in the position until September. Council President Larson said it was great working with her and to let the City know if there was anything that it could help with. Mr. Blue Weber reminded the Council that Bolton and Menk were working on the Safe Streets for All action plan, they were working on the final draft report, he stated this process had taken about 18 months, and in this process the communities had worked together. He added they would need to have a higher level of adoption from both communities and how they were proposing a joint council meeting on July 8th. He reviewed the next steps, listed the elements of the safety action plan, how they looked at community makeup and demographics, current plans were used and incorporated into the safety plan, peer communities’ information was reviewed, and the public input was gathered at different events from 750 people. He continued with crash data, implementation strategies, and the project list that was put together by scoring process. He stated the Bygland Road corridor was a high scoring area along with the River Road and 17th Street intersection and the Louie Murray Bridge. Mr. Weber stated the last area was about transparency and how they would be collecting public input starting next week, they were going to be at the Cruz Forks night on June 26th to colprocess,blic input, and Work Session June 10, 2025 reminded everyone that this was a plan for both cities and was not just for the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) because they were able to get a $400,000 grant to complete this process which was more than what Fargo had received. He told the Council the biggest thing was safety for all users, so formal adoption of the plan was very important. Council President Larson asked if there was going to be any visual guidelines during the joint meeting. Mr. Weber said there would be, this was a very high-level overview of the plan, and they would be able to use this plan when applying for implementation grants and both cities could apply together in a joint application. There were no questions. This item will be brought back to a future meeting. 2. Request to Prepare Plans & Specifications for 17th Avenue SE Sidewalk Extension – Steve Emery Mr. Emery reminded the Council how they had received requests to add a sidewalk connection from 17 th Avenue SE to Bygland Road. He stated that Mr. Huttunen had received the easement agreements which were needed for this process and were planning to have this project completed before school started back up in the fall. He said there was $40,218.00 available in Minnesota Department of Transportation (MNDOT) Transportation Advancement Funds to fund the project and the remainder could come from the State Aid maintenance fund. Council President Larson said there needed to be a well-defined crossing on 13th Street with all the kids that would be utilizing it. Ms. Ellis said it would require striping and there were other areas that were well striped closer to the school. Council President Larson said the corner of 13th Street and 17th Avenue would need to be striped for the crosswalk. This item will be referred to a City Council meeting for action. 3. Consider Geotechnical Proposal for Point Bridge Project – Steve Emery Mr. Emery stated the Point Bridge was going through a rehabilitation process in 2026 and they were looking at options to minimize the issue with the approach to the bridge. He commented how they have completed a mill and overlay on the approach every four to five years but the dip continues to come back. He said this proposed process could help find options to eliminate or reduce issues. He explained there would be three borings that would be done, and the roadway would be monitored over the summer to see if there was additional movement of the bank. He asked for approval to start the process and how the bridge would be closed for a day, but that Public Works would also be completing some maintenance on the bridge at the same time. He added the report would be brought forward to see if the issue could be addressed and if they would need to find an additional funding source for the repair. Council member Helms asked if they would be driving in pilings because they knew it was moving. Mr. Emery said they would need more information and how deep they would need to go. Council member Casmey asked if this process had been done before because they had the same issues the last time he was on the council. Mr. Emery said there was a report from 2005 that referenced information from 1998 but there were no borings that had been completed so there were no good recommendations that came from that report. Council member Casmey said the bank had not solidified and he did not want to throw good money after bad. Mr. Emery said they were trying to see if they could stop or at least slow down the settlement, the recommendation from the previous report was to extend the bridge which would cost millions, and was not feasible. There were no further questions. This item will be referred to a City Council Meeting for action. 2|Page Work Session June 10, 2025 4. Consider 2026 Minnesota Department of Transportation Transit Operating Applications – Nancy Ellis Ms. Ellis said there were two allocation models but one did not make it into the packet. She began reviewing the cost allocation model, how expenses were assigned, what was included in operating expenses, and how unit costs were determined to come up with the fixed route and dial-a-ride costs. She explained this was reported to MNDOT and it included a portion of her salary. She said they would be requesting $528,000, how they were able to make a change for the use of federal dollars from a 50/50 split to 75/25 with 75% being spent on operations. She added State funds were an 85/15 split with the City so the local share is estimated to be at $108,000 which is what she would budget. She told the Council the State audits were a few years behind so some years if there were additional revenues and the State could request funds back which get paid out of the current year so it could be difficult to budget for and how the applications were due at the end of June. Council member Helms asked what the annual income was. Ms. Ellis said it was very limited for what was collected in the farebox and was around $5,000 but they also received funds from Northland Community and Technical College. She reminded the Council how they recently raised fares but so far have not seen a decline in ridership and how they also receive money from advertisements that were on the buses. Council member Helms asked what would happen if the funding for transit was cut. Ms. Ellis said there was not a back-up plan but the State currently had funding committed through 2027 with funds did come from tabs and licensing. She added this a part of economics because people needed to get to work. Council member Helms said they seemed to be pushing the light rail system and didn’t know if funds would be diverted to that. Ms. Ellis told the Council she did not expect funding to be cut, this was an urban service, rural bus services were not cheap and heavily subsidized, and again they were funds committed for the next three or four years. Mayor Olstad informed the Council the light rail project got pulled back so that would not be an issue at this time. There were no more questions. This item will be referred to a City Council Meeting for action. 5. Consider Fire Station #2 Renovation Design & Specifications – Jeff Boushee Chief Boushee commented on how the Council was aware that Station No. 2 needed to be renovated. He explained how it was built in 1977, had some repairs done after the flood of 1997, and was the oldest building that had not had any renovations. He stated how the facility assessment was completed in 2023, funding was an issue, but this project has moved up in priority in 2025. He asked the Council to approve the design agreement and the cost for this process had been included in the 2025 budget. Mayor Olstad asked what the shelf life was for the plans. Chief Boushee said changes would be minimal and would be for code changes. Council President Larson asked to also include a hazardous survey so they know what was there and it would help plan for additional costs. There were no further questions. This item will be referred to a City Council Meeting for action. 6. & 7. Request to Start a Hiring Process for a Police Officer & Police Lieutenant – Michael Hedlund Chief Hedlund informed the Council that Lieutenant Hajicek was going to be retiring after 35 years and that would create an opening for police officer. He explained they would start with the lieutenant process first but wanted to start advertising for both. There were no questions. 3|Page Work Session June 10, 2025 These items will be referred to a City Council Meeting for action. 8. Proposed Amendments to Cannabis Ordinance No. 43, 4th Series – Reid Huttunen Mr. Huttunen stated the Legislative Session ended and changes were made to the cannabis law and the order of events when it came to when local governments now being allowed to issue a registration with a preliminary approval of a business. He explained there have been several calls so it is believed there will be a high demand for the two spots available in the city limits. He added the original ordinance was vague on accepting registrations and due to the higher demand, there should be a more formal process in place. He stated how the process could list when applicants could submit a registration and two would be selected from a lottery process for the two areas that are available for and two alternates in the case the first two businesses were not able to open in the allowed time frame. He told the Council this would add time and effort from staff to review and suggested including a nominal fee to help offset staff time on reviewing the information. He added that the tax bill was approved, it increased the cannabis sales tax amount, and removed the 20% local aid that would have been given back to communities so that was no longer going to come back to the community and all the compliance would be the City’s expense. There were no questions. This item will be referred to a City Council Meeting for action. 9. Discussion on Residential Refuse Rates – Jason Stordahl Mr. Stordahl stated that there were two areas for refuse, commercial refuse would be brought forward at a later date, and this discussion would be about residential refuse. He explained the last rate change was in 2015, landfill fees had increased by 22% since then, and contracted services increased 61% which was depleting the enterprise fund so a raise in rates was needed. He listed how expenses for this fund include salaries, costs for the green site, and the costs for the clean up events from 2024. He added there were proposed rates but that they could be done incrementally and in this process, incorporate green site fees into the refuse rates. Mayor Olstad commented this should have been looked at when the contract for residential services was renewed and suggested moving forward with incremental increases instead of one large increase. He added it would take time to build the reserves back up in this fund, a lot of people had commented to him about the green site fee because it was always open, and they should have a better plan going forward but things would take time. Council member Casmey thanked staff for doing the work on this and asked if the current service would be taken over if the current owner retired. He also added how the City might want to consider taking back residential services. Mayor Olstad commented on how the rates could be less if the service was done by the City so it was something to think about. Council President Larson stated reviewing this information annually and incremental increases would be the best way to approach this going forward and listed how his cost would increase with the proposed rate increases from about $16 to $20 in July, up to $24 in January, and then to $28 in July of next year. He said again this should be reviewed yearly along with the contracted rates and it would be difficult to build the reserves back. There were no further questions. This item will be referred to a City Council Meeting for action. 4|Page Work Session June 10, 2025 ADJOURN: A MOTION WAS MADE BY COUNCIL MEMBER HELMS, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER CASMEY, TO ADJOURN THE JUNE 10, 2025 WORK SESSION OF THE EAST GRAND FORKS, MINNESOTA CITY COUNCIL AT 6:06 P.M. Voting Aye: Peterson, Schumacher, Riopelle, Helms, Casmey, and Larson. Voting Nay: None. Absent: Pokrzywinski _______________________________________________ Megan Nelson, City Clerk 5|Page