City Council Agendas & Packets

Work Session Minutes November 25, 2025 APPROVED MINUTES OF THE WORK SESSION CITY OF EAST GRAND FORKS TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2025 – 5:00 PM CALL TO ORDER: The Work Session of the East Grand Forks City Council for Tuesday, November 25, 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 Ben Pokrzywinski, Dale Helms, Donald Casmey, and Karen Peterson. Council Members Absent: Tami Schumacher 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; Keith Mykleseth, Water and Light General Manager; and Jason Stordahl, Public Works Director. DETERMINATION OF A QUORUM: The Council President Determined a Quorum was present. AGENDA 1. Review of Bids for Recreation Facility Improvements Bid Package #1 - Jeremy King, Parks & Recreation Superintendent and Tom McDonald, Construction Engineers Jeremy King, Parks & Recreation Superintendent shared the results of Bid Package #1, covering Ice Systems and Dasher Boards, at the Civic Center and VFW Arena. He then introduced Tom McDonald, Construction Engineers, to introduce and detail the bids received on the project. Mr. McDonald detailed the project costs for each of the projects as well as the proposed project schedule for each arena. The project received two bids for the ice plant and ice floors. The apparent low bidder being Commercial Refrigeration, Inc. and the 2nd bidder being St. Cloud Refrigeration. The projects received one bidder on the dasher board system from Rink Systems. Council President Larson asked about the low number of bidders and if there was a reason for the low turnout. Mr. McDonald detailed that he did speak with other potential bidders, but their schedules were already filling up for next building season. He then added that he was very confident in the capability of the bids received and that they are very experienced in the ice rink industry. Mr. Helms then asked where Commercial Refrigeration is based out of, to which it was answered they are based out of Virginia, MN. Work Session Minutes November 25, 2025 Mr. McDonald then detailed the project bids and walked through each of the alternate options on the ice arena systems and on the dasher boards. He and Mr. King informed the Council that the alternate at the VFW Arena bid alternate for the Ice Arena system 180 Ton system has been further reviewed by the building steering committee and the design consultants. At this time, it doesn’t appear to be cost beneficial to oversize the VFW Arena system for future connection to the Blue Line Arena. This is largely due to the fact of additional costs at the time of updating the Blue Line Arena. For the upsized plant to be cost beneficial, the system should be connected and the Blue Line upgraded within five years. The current Blue Line Arena system is expected to have more than 5 years, likely 10+ years of service remaining. The recommendation of accepting Bid Package #1 with awarding the projects to Commercial Refrigeration, Inc. and Rink Systems was moved forward to the December 2nd meeting for action. 2. City Engineering Contract Renewal with Widseth – Reid Huttunen, City Administrator Mr. Huttunen detailed that the City Engineering contract with Widseth is set to expire at year end 2025. The current contract in place for 2023-2025 has a not to exceed 3% rate increase over each year of the contract. In looking at an extension of the contract for 2026, Widseth has agreed to honor that not to exceed 3% rate in setting their hourly rates for 2026. Council Member Pokrzywinski asked what the total cost of engineering is in a year from a budget impact. Mr. Huttunen answered that the 2026 budgeted amount for General Engineering is $38,000. This covers general engineering time, meetings, plan review, etc. It doesn’t include project design or administration, which is project specific with rates agreed to by City Council for each project. Mr. Pokrzywinski followed up with the question that he was curious if it is beneficial to contract for engineering services or hire an in-house engineer. Council Member Peterson answered that the City’s Ad Hoc Finance committee had studied this in 2023 and came to the conclusion it was cost beneficial for the City to continue to contract rather than to stand up its own engineering department. 3. 2025 Residential New Construction Property Tax Abatements – Maggie Brockling, Economic Development Director Economic Development Director Brockling introduced that eight new homes constructed had come up to full tax value and had applied for the two year tax abatement program. The program is funded with taxes paid reimbursed to eligible homes by the City, ISD 595 and Polk County. She is seeking approval of the tax abatement program for taxes paid in 2025, to be reimbursed in 2026. The tax abatement program is currently approved for new homes constructed through 2026 calendar year, which is payable once the home comes to full valuation. The homes built in 2026 may not come to full value until 2028 or 2029, meaning the City is committed to funding tax abatements through this program into 2029 or 2030. The proposed Tax abatement will move to the December 2nd meeting for action. 4. 2026 Budget Discussion – Reid Huttunen, City Administrator and Karla Anderson, Finance Director Mr. Huttunen detailed a budget summary as of today on the status of the budget at a proposed 6% levy increase and the impact of the proposed levy increase on the City’s General Fund Reserves. He then Work Session Minutes November 25, 2025 reminded City Council of the impact of the acquisition of the Simplot property on the general fund reserves. Funds for the Simplot purchase represent about 10-12% of the City’s general fund reserves. When the Simplot property is listed and ultimately sold, those funds will be placed back in the general fund. Council Member Larson asked and suggested the need to look at our planned expenditures and reduce where we can. He asked what feedback the City Council needs to provide to look at ways to reduce expenses. Finance Director Anderson answered that our budget doesn’t have much room for reduction without reducing the City’s services and staffing levels. If we are to look at reducing those, we need direction from City Council on what services to look at for reduction. Mr. Huttunen then added that city staff have brought forward reductions of about $160,000 in the budget over the course of the last few weeks by removing planned equipment purchases and reducing some line- item expenses like utilities or general supplies. He asked for further direction on service levels and how those services tie to staffing levels going forward. Mayor Olstad added that the process to reduce expenses further for 2026 may be difficult because of ongoing negotiations and we don’t yet know exactly where staffing levels are going to land. Looking ahead at 2027 and 2028, we will have union contracts settled and will know our staffing costs. He added that he hopes the Simplot property is turned around quickly and those funds can go back to the General Fund reserves, at which time the reserves would be closer to 50%. Mayor Olstad finished by encouraging city staff and council members to reach out to Ms. Anderson and Mr. Huttunen with any questions or ideas for budget reductions over the next couple of weeks. ADJOURN: A MOTION WAS MADE BY COUNCIL MEMBER POKRYZWINSKI, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER PETERSON, TO ADJOURN THE NOVEMBER 25, 2025 WORK SESSION OF THE EAST GRAND FORKS, MINNESOTA CITY COUNCIL AT 5:55 P.M. Voting Aye: Larson, Peterson, Schumacher, Pokrzywinski, Riopelle, Helms, and Casmey Voting Nay: None. Respectfully Submitted, ______________________________________________ Reid Huttunen, City Administrator