Informs me that it's 5 30, so we better get this meeting off on the right foot.

Jordan, would you start us off with a roll call, please?

Please respond by stating present.

Councilmember Ronin.

Foberg.

Present.

Ward.

Present.

Johnson.

Econger.

Present.

Nelson.

Present.

Normstrap.

President.

Mayor Shonaman.

Present.

Please stand with me for the pledge.

And to republic area.

Fair enough.

All right.

First order of business will be to approve this week's printed agenda.

I take a motion.

Move to approve.

Second.

Motion e-conger.

Second.

Nelson.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Opposed nay.

Motion carries.

Approval of minutes from our meeting that occurred two weeks ago on June 1st.

Move to approve.

Second.

Motion Lebelt.

Second.

Bobberg.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Opposed nay.

No one is signed up to speak at open forums, we'll move along to our consent calendar where we've got quite a long list of routine city business items.

I take a motion to approve that consent calendar in its entirety.

Second.

Motion e-congress second.

Ward anyone have anything in particular on any of these agenda items or any abstentions that would need to apply to a single line item.

Go ahead.

Yes.

Councilman Ward will abstain from L.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Opposed nay.

Motion carries with that abstention.

We've got zero old businesses.

We took care of things last meeting.

Moving along to our new business segment.

The very first item is a public hearing and possible approval of a one day retail on sale liquor license.

It's for the downtown association.

Would someone care to make a motion on that?

One day license.

I take a motion on that third and final.

So moved.

Second.

Motion remained second.

Ward, all in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Post name.

Motion carries as well.

Thanks for joining us.

Sabrina, good to see you back there next.

We've got a presentation set for our Northern Innovation and Startup Center.

B Smith has came here to share some information, and she attached her annual report from last year, 2025 to the agenda.

Hopefully you've all had a chance to uh spin through that a little bit.

B welcome.

Good to see you.

Thank you.

Thank you for having me and allowing me the opportunity to update you all on this last year, but also just paint an entire picture for you.

For those of you that don't know, uh, the city was instrumental in funding the initial grant that really funded the Northern Innovation Startup Center.

My name is B.

Smith, and I have the absolute pleasure of being the director of the organization.

And like I said, I just wanted to share with you the overall success that we've had.

For those of you that don't know, the Northern Innovation Startup Center is a strategic partnership between Northern State University and the Aberdeen Development Corporation.

We're a small but very mighty staff.

Um it's myself as the director, and then we share our program coordinator.

Her name is Kendra Hines, uh, with the Aberdeen Development Corporation.

We have a student worker and a graduate assistant.

So, like I said, we're small but very mighty.

And we truly have become a hub for entrepreneurship and innovation, bridging academia, industry, as well as entrepreneurs.

So, like I said, every year I come to you and I tell you about this is what we've done in the last year.

I've provided that documentation to you in the form of our annual report.

But I really just kind of wanted to take a step back.

So when uh the startup center was launched, the people that came together to dream up the startup center had this lofty goal of advancing the ideas of 25 entrepreneurs launching 10 plus startups to result in 50 new digital jobs by the year 2026.

Well, I'm happy to report, we've blown it out of the water.

Um, as of the end of May, we've actually helped 56 entrepreneurs, with 30 of them actively biz building their businesses in Northeast South Dakota.

You may ask, well, B, you're not telling us how many jobs have been created.

No, we're not doing that yet, but those numbers will come this fall, um, as we'll actively survey those people that we've worked with to really get that number.

You also may be asking yourself, well, you're only showing a 54% rate of people that are actively building their business.

Well, we all know not all business ideas are maybe meant to come to fruition.

It's our job as the startup center to encourage them to just get started, to really look at the business, connecting with support organizations to really see that come to fruition.

So, how exactly do we do this?

Again, here are some stats year over year to just kind of see the growth that we've had.

So we host a number of networking events.

Um, some of my favorites I'll share with you today.

Our quarter four is a fail fest.

We literally throw a party that embraces the idea of failing because fail to us stands for first attempted learning.

If you're gonna take that entrepreneurial jump, you gotta be okay with you might fail.

Um, we do plan to restart our quarterly networking events.

Um, if you have not been to uh the Northern Business and Health Innovation Center, you may notice some ongoing construction.

Uh we do have our offices there as well as um some co-working space and event space.

Uh so stay tuned this fall as we'll be bringing those back.

The other annual event that we host, and one of the big reasons why I'm here is our Aberdeen Business Pitch Competition.

So that's hosted with support of the Aberdeen Development Corporation, who sponsors a $10,000 cash prize for that event.

Um, we had 20 applications this year, not only from here in Aberdeen, but a number from outside of the region in the state, as well as other states.

So here's your formal invitation.

We hope to see you all at the finalist event, which will be June 29th at Engels Event Company, where we will have our four finalists take the stage, pitch their business, our round two judges will select a winner, and someone will walk away with $10,000, which is pretty incredible.

The other major event that we host every year is a technology and entrepreneurship summit.

Again, you can see the data points here, but I do have to just bring attention to this last year's event.

Um, we worked with Amber Schwab to pull place or AI data, and it was actually kind of cool because those numbers showed that we had over 1,000 people at the Johnson Fine Arts Center.

We like to make the joke in our office.

We like to make the joke in our office, if people are sneaking into your event, you know you're on to something.

So again, thank you to the city for having that software that truly allows us to get a better read on how many people are coming to these events.

This year, our technology and entrepreneurship summit will be September 30th at the Johnson Fine Arts Center.

And I gotta tell you, it's gonna be our best year yet.

Watch our social media as we will be announcing our keynote speakers as well as breakout speakers.

And as always, we do have a couple surprises up our sleeve.

Um this event is available both in person, physically here in Aberdeen, as well as virtually.

We've seen a huge uptick in collaborating with other, we like to say places and spaces.

So like Area Technical College has some of their business classes virtually tuning into this event.

We have a number of communities as well that will purchase a virtual ticket to that event and kind of host a little watch party in their community, which is really exciting.

The other major area in which we do programming to support innovation is we host what we call tech workshops.

Now these are on a number of different topics that are meant to help people embrace technology to further launch their business.

Again, so far we've hosted 36 with an average attendance of 26.

These are available in person, online, as well as in an online classroom.

We've seen a huge uptick in views in our online classroom.

But something to note is in the last six months, 54 par excuse me, 54% of our participants have been from outside the Aberdeen zip code.

So those are mainly rural communities across the state of South Dakota, which is super exciting.

The other major thing we host is an idea workshop.

As we all know, we all have those friends that they just want to start a business, but they have no idea what they want to start or how they're gonna do it.

So we host an education, an educational opportunity that's facilitated by northern faculty business professors that walk a person through like how do you monetize a pain point.

So far, we've had 42 people participate in that.

And last but not least, our business incubation programs.

So we host a number of different things.

Our first is our idea to market program, again, taught by NSU business faculty.

Where it's eight weeks, again, in person as well as virtual.

I bring up this photo.

My left, there's actually was this last spring there was a participant um from South Dakota School of Mines out in Rapid City, participated 100% virtually.

Every time we do it, we have at least one person.

It was really fun with Bendari because we've started to incorporate mentorship throughout the program.

Well, we were able to connect Bendari up to a statewide association that can help him further his innovation where he's at.

You'll also see that in total we've helped 72 founders and business owners.

Now you might be saying, well, B, that's different than the first number you reported.

And the reason why is because we actually have some individuals that will go through our programs a number of times as they're continuing to further develop their idea, or they'll scratch one idea and move on to the next.

So within this next year, we plan to continue to focus on being a true regional and statewide hub of innovation, working collaboratively with other support organizations, so people like the Small Business Development Center or a local economic development organization, working collaboratively to further drive both innovation and entrepreneurship forward right here in South Dakota.

So with that, I would ask the council if you have any questions.

No questions because you've done such a thorough job of presenting B.

Or you have a really long agenda.

One or the other.

On behalf of the council, thank you very much for the hard work that you've put in.

And as a person that's attended a number of these different events and participated.

Um I can say that she does a bang up job over there, and really glad that this is part of the community.

Great work.

Thank you.

All right, thanks for joining us.

And then for anyone that uh needs the reminder, June 29th is a pitch competition that people are invited for.

And pitches start at five.

4 p.m.

Thank you for that clarification.

Next, we've got a possible approval of entering into a hunting access and habitat contract with the South Quota Game Fish and Parks Department.

Uh Dave will kick things off.

And we've got um Joe here from the state as well.

Joe, welcome.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor.

So tonight um, if you haven't had an opportunity to meet Joel Galbraith, our regional supervisor for the game and fish.

Uh he does a great job for this community in this area.

And recently he pointed out an opportunity for the city of Aberdeen and and really kind of our northeast area uh to expand a walk-in program.

And with that, um the city owns a 40-acre parcel of land located north of Aberdeen, a few miles, kind of northeast near the water treatment plant.

And historically, this parcel of land was used to harvest gravel, and then after that, lime was deposited at this site from the water treatment plant.

Uh the area has been remediated, and basically the city no longer has a use for this property.

And talking with Joe, uh, he saw it as a great opportunity that we could provide public access to hunting and recreational activities on this piece of property.

And commonly uh game and fish looks for opportunities like this and enters in contracts with property owners, cities, organizations uh to expand uh access.

And we see this as a great area to allow uh public access and it's really a unique area up there with kind of some wetlands, some rolling hills, grasslands, and and some trees up there.

And again, with no uh future use uh designated for that property, we'd like to enter in a contract with the game and fish and parks for three years, allowing public access hunting and uh recreational opportunities.

And with that, Joe, would you be willing to explain the walk-in program a little bit?

Well, you did a really good job there.

I don't know why I needed to be here.

That was outstanding job.

Uh so what the walk-in area program is is we lease land from private individuals or the city uh for hunting, obviously.

It could be residents or non-residents.

Um, those of you that maybe have hunted or fished before know that we do publications, and this will be on our website along with the hunting atlas.

Um, and it allows again residents and non-residents to come in and hunt this property.

Um, it is only 40 acres, but there's a 20-acre chunk below that that the county owns, and they have already put that into the the walk in area program because they see it as a good fit and a good use of the property.

Um as Dave said, it's uh you know, an old borrowing pit.

We thought maybe there was a possibility of throwing some fish in there.

We thought maybe it was going to be deep.

Um it's only about five feet deep, uh maybe six at the most.

It's a it's a slough.

And we kind of talked about maybe kayaks or canoes or anything for you know the public around here to be able to use.

Um but it it we put a boat in there and it is not that deep.

Uh it's a slough.

It's for ducks.

Um obviously we shoot some ducks out there, some deer, maybe some pheasants, and uh there they're all out there right now because when we were out there we we saw it all.

But again, this is uh we have about 13,000 acres of land in Brown County alone in the walk in area program.

Um it is just 60 acres, but or 40 acres and 20 acres with the county.

But every acre counts and uh provide opportunity for people that are in the community or that come here to be able to use this use this property.

So um again, it's a it's a great little chunk, and uh again we looked at it for other avenues as well, but it is basically just a slough.

So thanks for joining us on that Joe.

Um City Manager Dave did also think that maybe you could speak to um that walking path up at Willow Creek Lake, which um I'm not sure maybe it wasn't quite as much your baby, but something that's new and exciting for residents of the city, and we would then need to hold you to the end of the meeting to talk about if you had some things to share.

Yeah, absolutely, and thank you.

We had an excellent, we've had two meetings with uh Dave and a few other city employees here in the last probably two, two and a half months.

They've been great.

Great uh for the community of uh this community and also the people in the city of Aberdeen about different uses of of property and what the game and fish can provide to the to the folks here in the community.

So Willow Dam is actually owned by the city, and during that meeting, they asked if we could put a walking trail up there at Willow Dam.

So the habitat guys for the Department of Game of Fish went up there and we have mowed, I'd say it's about a mile and a quarter on walking trail up there.

So just for now, we have mowed it from one section line to the other where we already have parking lots, so people can do a little um hike out there.

Again, there's some trees and different things out there that they can they can walk through.

Um at our last meeting we had, we maybe even talked about making some points down to the water so people could shore fish out there as well.

Um so just an opportunity for people to get outside of town.

Um again, this is city property already that the game and fish just kind of manages the ground and things like that for the city, which also helps you know the the people and stuff like that that whether they hunt or fish, because there is fish in Willow Dam as well that the department stocks.

Um so again, just a good use of the area.

Um this trail is going to be mowed probably three, four times a year for people to come out and and utilize this area.

So those of you that don't know, Willow Dam is is northwest of town up here along Highway 10.

So, Joe, real quick, um, the those are uh cattle gates on either side.

Has that been addressed, or are people going to be having to climb over cattle fences?

Uh I don't believe there's any cattle gates up there.

I believe you can just walk through and walk out there.

There is fences on the north side and south side of the property, but you can just go through it and walk.

Okay, so where the trail begins it ends.

It should be pretty easy access.

Easy access.

Great.

Thanks for that clarification.

I'd also like to add real quickly before you vote on this to for approval or not.

I just want to thank Joe.

Uh, we're talking about multiple opportunities across this area to stock fish.

You know, you'll see every spring that the game and fish comes in and stocks trout.

I think salmon and wiley park.

Highly received, and and it's wildly popular.

And uh they're they're just a great partner, and they're always looking for opportunities, and we just appreciate everything everything that they do.

So thank you, Joe.

And I would like to thank the city council as well, because I think it was about seven years ago-ish, right in there.

Um, if you remember, while it used to be for kids only.

And then we kind of opened that up and and let everybody and it is in the last seven years, the amount of people that are out there fishing, it's great to see.

And you know, we do different surveys and things like that throughout the department of how to get more people outside and how to get more families involved, and that was one of them.

Is that the parents are more apt to take their kids fishing if they can fish too?

So it was really nice for you guys to open it up and let us let the people fish, and then we ended up throwing more fish in there.

So just to give you some rough estimates here, we've thrown about 20,000 trout in there in the last five years.

Wow.

About 4,000.

2,000, usually in the spring and 2,000 in the fall.

And then we put several bluegill in there, we put large mouth bass in there, catfish, white bass.

I mean, we've a lot of things that you know, hopefully the kids can catch.

But again, the parents are able to go out there and do it as well.

And we've looked at other places and we're in talks about some different things and things like that.

Um, you know, also canoes and kayaks and different things like that.

I mean, there's all kinds of things that uh we're we're in the talks about, but I just wanted to give you guys a rough idea of how many trout we've thrown in there and the amount of use that it has gotten in the last seven years.

It is incredible.

As we used to go out there and and there would hardly be anybody out there, and now there's so many people out there, it's just great to see.

So Wiley Park is is a great area and a great spot, and maybe we can come up with some more.

And as far as game of fish goes, we're always looking for more urban fisheries.

Places to get people out and families out to go recreate.

That's what we're after.

So and I thank you guys for all that.

Appreciate you joining us here tonight, Joe.

Great to see you.

I'll move to approve.

I've second.

Okay, we've got a motion from Councilman Ward and a second, Councilman Econger and enting into that hunting access and habitat contract with game fish and parks.

Um Jordan, would you give us a roll call?

Councilmember Ronane.

Aye.

Foberg.

Aye.

Liebelt.

I ward.

Iconger.

I Nelson.

I Norbstrom.

Mayor Shannon.

Aye.

That motion carries.

Thanks for joining us.

Joe, next we've got a possible adoption of a resolution, which is titled 260604R, that establishes a general fund reserve and a fund balance policy.

And here to talk about that is Jordan McQuillen Finance Director.

Jordan, I know that you've been working on that for quite some time.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, tonight I'm presenting a general fund reserve and fund balance policy.

It's titled that because a general fund fund balance policy is a bit of a uh mouthful uh fund fund just doesn't flow.

So this is what it is.

Uh the policy doesn't create a new fund, it doesn't set aside new money, and it doesn't restrict future councils.

What it does is establish a framework for measuring, maintaining, and reporting general fund reserves.

We've historically talked about reserves, but we've never really formally defined what they are, how they're measured, and when they're appropriate to use, or what level we should be uh generally maintaining.

The policy before you tonight is intended to provide that framework while preserving flexibility for future councils and administration.

Financial policies work best when they are established before they're needed.

One of the themes you'll find in municipal finance literature, including guidance published from the government finance officers association, is that reserves are not intended to function as savings accounts, rather they are a risk management tool that helps local governments respond to emergencies, revenue volatility, and changes in economic conditions.

The purpose of this policy is to provide a consistent framework for how the city thinks about reserves, fund balance, and long-term financial stability.

It establishes expectations regarding reserve levels, supports future budgets, and capital planning decisions, while providing guidance to future councils.

This was the next major financial policy on my list, and I believe it's better to establish those expectations while reserves remain healthy rather than waiting until until there's a concern.

One of the questions I asked while developing this policy was whether Aberdeen's historical experience supported establishing a formal reserve target.

Looking at the last 10 years, the answer is generally yes.

While reserve levels increased significantly during 2020 through 2023, the city historically operated within reserves in the upper 20s to lower 30s as a percentage of expenditures.

That historical experience became the foundation for the policy as proposed.

Rather than adopting a reserve target from another community, I wanted to uh reflect how Aberdeen has actually operated over time.

And you'll see here this is a banded chart.

The blue area shows where the draft policy would put us, the lower threshold at the 20%, the higher at 35.

The previous chart looked at reserve levels as a percentage of expenditures.

This chart shows the actual reserve balances in dollars.

Reserve balances increased significantly, as I've mentioned during 2020 through 2023, and have since begun moving back toward more historical levels.

Every or even with the decline, the city maintains in remains in a stronger position than it was a decade ago.

One of the decisions I had to make when developing the policy was determining which fund should be used to evaluate historical levels.

We do government primarily through the general fund.

Recently, we've consolidated the parks and rec 208 fund into that.

Sometimes the airport fund is part of what we do, but other times we you know have a lot of federal dollars.

For this purpose, it made sense to pull airport out.

Um, there's still high still value in maintaining the broader operational picture.

The airport just provided too many sways up and down in in that in this policy.

Um for this purpose, it's it's mainly 101 and 208, but keeping an eye on where 215 is headed.

The policy establishes three reserve concepts.

The first is a 15% operating reserve intended to provide working capital and short-term liquidity.

We don't get all of our revenue on day one, we don't get all the grants on day one, so we need some cash in the bank to get the work to do government.

The second is a 5% stabilization reserve intended for economic downturns, disruptions, and emergencies.

Um together, those establish a minimum target of 20%.

And the policy all also recognizes normal operating range up to 30%, excuse me, up to 35% with a capital reserve.

Uh one of the questions that often comes up is what should happen when reserve levels exceed what the minimum level is.

Rather than allowing excess fund balance to accumulate without a defined purpose, this policy recognizes that those resources could be designated for uh future capital needs.

It creates a mechanism for supporting pay as a go capital uh infrastructure, equipment replacing, grant matching, and other one-time investments without relying exclusively on debt or future revenues.

Importantly, the capital and capital investment reserve only comes into play after the city's minimum reserve levels have been met.

For purposes of this policy, reserves consist of committed assigned, unassigned fund balances.

These are terms that are set forth by our uh GASBE, which is a governmental accounting standards board.

We have to follow these pronouncements.

These are their terms.

Um you don't see is a fund balance or excuse me, a reserve policy or reserve as a term.

Uh this is that distinction.

Uh non-spendable and restricted balances are not spendable, so we don't include those.

And this is, like I said, the distinction between fund balance and reserves.

This is where I take my policy and intermesh it with the requirements that we have for financial reporting.

This table, while there's a lot there, uh, summarizes the data behind the charts.

You'll see 10 years of that threshold from the minimum to the maximum combined with where our number was, showing that by and large we're within that 20 to 35% range.

Um again, it's intended to establish long-term guardrails than to create new constraints.

At the end of the day, the policy is intended to provide common framework for discussing reserves and fund balance.

It establishes expectations, improves transparency, and gives future councils and staff a consistent point of reference when making financial decisions while serve still preserving financial flexibility, allowing us to respond to changing conditions.

I believe the proposed policy is both practical and balanced.

It reflects Abrain's historical uh historical experience, recognizes the realities of municipal budgeting, and provides guidance without being too prescriptive.

For those reasons, staff recommends approval of resolution 260604R, and I'd be happy to uh answer any questions.

Move up I move approval.

Got a motion from Councilman Ronane and a second from Councilman Norstrop on that.

Jordan, if the fund balance falls beneath the 20% guideline, what is the like practically speaking?

What becomes of that?

So if the fund balance dropped to below 20%, obviously I'd inform the council per the policy, but at that point the city manager could make decisions that wouldn't be necessary to bring that fund balance back into compliance.

Whether it meant uh reduced spending, reduce travel, um things like that would help us reserve uh maintain those reserves, uh reduce capital, finding savings where possible Mr.

Mayor.

Go ahead, councilman.

So the state of South Dakota doesn't have any requirement for what the reserve has to be for municipalities cities, counties, schools, we all have different requirements.

Uh ours doesn't explicitly say what it should be, but um most cities have somewhere around 20 to 30 percent.

Some have the policy in terms of months, two to three months being the most common, but for cities, uh there's no clear guidance on what a minimum fund balance has to be.

And you and I had talked a little bit ahead of time uh as it relates to further back accounting.

It seems like um you know things were accounted for in much in this way all the way back to about 2010.

Previous to that, it would have been a whole different discussion generally within this range for a majority of that time, all the way to 2010.

That's correct.

We've we've wobbled above and below um activities have uh you know changed over time.

That 2010 is just after the Great Recession, so conditions were much different.

So for this policy, I focus mainly on the last 10 years to to build a policy that made sense for today.

Thank you, Jordan.

Any further questions?

Appreciate the work that you put into this.

If there's no further questions, Jordan, would you give us a roll call vote for the first reading then of this uh resolution?

Councilmember Ronane.

Aye, Foberg, aye, Velt, aye, Ward, Econger, aye, Nelson.

Aye, Norbstrop.

Mayor Shannon.

Aye, that motion carries.

Next is a possible approval of a pay request.

It's WRF facility improvement project to PKG contracting for 2.635 million dollars.

And here's Amanda to talk to us about the uh wastewater treatment project that she's been spearheading south of town.

Amanda, how's it been going?

Good evening.

Good.

Um, this project is about 38% complete as of last uh check.

The work included is ongoing pre-treatment bypass pumping, um, demolition of the pre-treatment building and structural work building out the new UV disinf our new pretreatment channels.

We're also working um in the UV disinfection area area or in concrete.

Um the final slab is almost poured.

They have the UV disinfection channel poured, final clarifier, um pores are nearing complete.

We've also started in demolition of plumbing and HVAC.

Um there are some pieces, larger pieces of equipment on this pay request as well, including the UV disinfection um equipment, some removal equipment and gates.

Um, and with that, if there's no questions, staff recommends approval.

Move to approve.

Second.

Got a motion from Councilman Ward and second from Councilman E.

Conger.

Any questions from Ms.

Fisher on this?

All right.

Jordan, would you give us a roll call vote on that payment of 2.6 million?

Councilmember Norbstrop.

Aye.

Nelson.

Abstain.

Councilmember E.

Conger.

Aye.

Ward.

Aye.

Liebelt.

Aye.

Foberg.

Aye.

Ronane.

Aye.

Mayor Shannon.

Aye.

That motion carries Nick.

A quick note.

Oh, Dave?

Yeah.

I just want to say real quickly.

I want to thank Amanda for all the work that she does out there.

Very involved.

Um, and she does a great job interacting every day weekly, uh, staying connected to the engineers and the workers out there.

She does an outstanding job.

Just want to thank her for all the work that she does.

She knows her business.

And with that, we talk briefly a little bit about the and I'll talk more about the rising water in our MOG and Foot Creek.

But Amanda, uh, we talked briefly.

Is there anything to worry about from from the water wastewater treatment aspect with the crick level raising it all?

So contractors are obviously watching it daily.

They did an excellent job of building up the area, work area.

So they have the ability to um drive their large marines around.

So have they not done that groundwork?

It definitely would be uh inundating the project right now.

We did install the watering uh because it is a wall spot in it, and um so the footprint confluence.

So Moccason Creek is on the water reclamation property, so it's very backed up on our property um foot creek as well out of its banks and up to the ox law out of its banks.

Um we watch it daily, and they have I mean they're sending a tremendous amount in the watering that they thought you know would have been wrapped up with initial um site prep work, but um so far we are good in that there's a tremendous amount of the concrete work done that needed to be done in order for it.

So we have lots of walking bridges, um three confidence uh um culverts.

That's all under the water.

So I imagine that there's one to the estimate there to rebuild those roads up.

Um thank you.

Appreciate that information.

Amend.

Next, we've got a possible approval to authorize the city manager to sign the 2026 letter of agreement with Helms and Associates after review by the city attorney.

Rich, tell us about that agreement.

Yes, thank you, Mayor.

Uh, this is the letter of agreement that we do on an annual basis, and it's for random items at the airport that require engineering assistance that are not covered under any existing grant.

So it could be something like um uh proper location of a sign or remeasuring a runway marking, so stuff like that.

Um we've in the past, I mean this this uh kind of gives a range of ten to not to exceed fifteen thousand dollars, and uh I think the last three or four years, I don't think we've ever exceeded even uh about seven thousand dollars on this miscellaneous works.

So um we talked about this at airport boards uh airport board and staff recommend approval of this uh letter of agreement with Helms and Associates move to approve.

Second motion Ronane, second e-conger.

Any questions?

Transpiration director Rich.

Jordan Councilmember Ronin.

Aye Foberg.

Aye, belt, aye, ward, econger, aye, Nelson.

I normally mayor Shannon.

Aye, that motion carries next.

We've got a possible approval for a payment of three invoices, and they are all for the airport terminal expansion, first and second or to helms, 8107,000 respectively, and then finally quest construction, their pay estimate 92,727.

Rich, walk us through these payments, please.

Yes, thank you again.

Uh, these projects are all part of the airport terminal expansion project.

Um we're we're using those under AIP AIG uh 55 and 56.

Um item number one is an invoice in the amount of eight thousand one hundred and nineteen dollars and thirty-five cents, and that is for resident engineering services provided uh during the project.

Item number two is uh invoice fifteen in the amount of seven thousand seventy-three dollars and twenty-four cents, and that's uh construction administration um client prep and meetings and uh the sort, and item number three is quest construction pay estimate number four in the amount of ninety-two thousand seven hundred and twenty-seven dollars and eight cents.

Um as a reminder, these this project is funded through Senate Bill 144 uh 1.2 million dollars, uh federal grant AIP AI IJA at $800,000, and a federal grant AIP IIJA at $64,600, and our local share is projected to be at about sixty thousand dollars.

Uh staff and airport board recommend approval on this.

And uh the construction actually is going very well out there now.

Uh we started out pretty slow.

But last Monday they poured all the concrete floors.

So it's going very well.

Move to approve one, two, and three under item I.

Second.

Motion from Councilman Level and second councilman Ward.

Does anyone have any questions or comments on our airport terminal expansion?

Rich, thanks for the update on how things are going.

I appreciate to hear that they're going well.

Jordan, would you give us a roll call vote on those three payments?

Councilmember Norpstrup.

Hi.

Nilsen.

I Econger.

Hi.

Ward.

Hi.

Liebell.

Hi.

Foberg.

Hi.

Ronane.

Hi.

Mayor Shannon.

Aye.

That motion carries as well.

Next, we've got a possible approval to pay Helms, 11,200, and to allow the city manager to sign the invoice for that project.

That is the SRE building expansion.

Rich, last agenda item for you to cover tonight.

Walk us through that payment, please.

So this is AIP project 58.

This is our snow removal equipment.

Building expansion.

This is design work only.

We had a meeting this afternoon.

Things are going pretty good on this.

So this payment invoice number six, eleven thousand two hundred dollars and forty-three cents is for uh design and um administrative work completed to date.

Um this project is currently about 15% complete, and uh Mike assured me that they would have uh the design work completed by end of August.

So uh the project funding is 95% federal, uh two and a half city and two and a half state.

Airport board and staff recommend approval of this as well.

Move to approve second.

Got a motion from Councilman Ward and second from Councilman Norbstrop.

Any questions?

All right, Jordan.

Councilmember Ronin.

Hi.

Foberg.

Aye, we belt aye, Ward.

Aye.

Econger.

Aye, Nelson.

Uh Normstrup.

Mayor Shineman.

Thank you.

Aye.

That motion carries as well.

Thanks for joining us, Rich.

Good to see you.

Next we've had a possible approval to a change order of uh schedule A for the water tower transmission line.

It's 298,664.

It's Dadami Construction Destined Spellman.

Walk us through that uh $298,000 change order.

Yeah, thank you.

Um so this change orders for the water tower project schedule A.

Um, schedule A is the transmission line portion of the project.

Um I'll just give you a brief overview what's here what's going on here.

Um I got Leaf here, he's the project engineer from Helms that can maybe elaborate if there's further questions.

And uh Helms is also the designer on this project, so he can give you an insight if there's any questions.

But the the big thing here is um adding in uh alternate bid one back into the project.

Uh the reason we did not accept it at time of uh bid was we were waiting on a permit from the Corps of Engineers, and that project that permit was years in the making, with the thought being that we might have to let a project out possibly after uh completion and do that later.

But luckily we have our permit back now, and we can uh change order of this back into the project as originally planned.

So pretty much alternate bid one was uh the levy crossing section of the project.

So uh that's where the core of engineers got involved.

They don't like you crossing the levy.

So uh this gives us permission and adds it back in the project to put the 16-inch uh transmission line through the levee section of uh project.

And then on top of that, we have some uh miscellaneous concrete repairs in the intersection of 8th Avenue North Roosevelt Street.

Um this is just from mostly from concrete slabs that were distressed, damaged.

You know, you got the road closed, traffic control is expensive.

Now's the best time to do some of these repairs.

Uh we're replacing the traffic detection loops with traffic detection cameras.

They're much easier to uh use maintain.

We have a strong preference.

We're moving toward the cameras, so uh replacing the loops with the cameras, and then uh lastly, we needed to uh replace a valve in this um in that intersection too.

Staff recommends approval of the change order, and be happy to take any questions or thoughts move to approve.

Motion ward second north stroke.

The breakdown of the uh aspect of the project that had been delayed waiting for approvals that was added back in what how many dollars was that approximately, Dustin?

Uh about 171,000.

Okay.

And the remainder is the is the uh the light and the valve and the others.

Yep.

Mr.

Mayor.

Go ahead, councilman.

I can I get some clarity about what's going on with the project and why it's taking so long, why it started before state softball tournament, and why um and what's gonna happen with the intersection if we're as residents up in that area of town gonna see any improvements in terms of traffic movement through that intersection.

Okay.

Sure.

Um so uh just take one thing at a time.

Um the reason it happened before the softball game was you let out a contract, they're really allowed to start any time they get up to the notice proceed.

Our only time restriction in our contract was that they will not do it during school.

Um so it just happened to be the time that that happened was was after the softball.

But you know, there's never a good time to start a project, or always be something going on.

Um there was a sign detour here, and and there was um always a way around.

Um then um what's going on in the intersection?

Um right now you probably noticed if you drive in a lot, there's a very large hump in the road.

So uh one thing that we'll get that's one thing that'll get eliminated with this uh concrete work that's going in there is to eliminate that really rough transition when you hit it at speed.

And um so our I think we um we told everyone would be about August 1st, and then still kind of looking about um when that intersection should wrap up.

Mr.

Ayer, go ahead, council.

I guess there's I some constituents have asked me about why was this all turn up what was that four years ago?

That intersection to put the um new the new electrical holes up, right?

Oh wasn't that what they was done then?

Something was put up like four years ago and the intersection was all turned up.

I'm not hallucinating, right?

All right, that's good.

Um like what what weren't we planning on putting a water tower there?

And why didn't we do this then?

There's just a lot of questions about uh no the water, so I can't entirely speak for that because I have not worked here uh that long.

Um but my understanding is that the the grants and and the permitting and the design were multi-year um processes, and it just all finally came together now is and that's kind of why it's it's happening now.

It's it's all takes a lot of time every single aspect of that.

You know, it's a fair question, I think, too, to ask why the eighth avenue corridor and leaf.

I know that you've been involved in this considerably, and that's one of the discussions we had with business owners a few weeks ago.

We brought involved business owners in to kind of answer questions about the project, its history, the necessity, and and leaf and and his colleagues kind of explained how they looked at that, the decision making process.

There were different ways they could go, but ultimately I think this corridor was probably gonna be the best suited.

And Leaf, would you be able to speak to that a little bit?

Yeah, I can first looked at this city.

This product has been more extended property and said that the classic funding in May 2016 before I got involved with it.

There's many alternates to get to that area of town where we felt it was necessary.

And looked at uh Milwaukee Avenue, and there's some issues with uh library code off of that or the other half would be on that company called that building.

We also looked at maybe cutting through some route between Milwaukee Avenue, and we also look at eight avenue.

We looked at maybe just in a portion of eight avenues and we have enough infrastructure.

Thank you, Jordan.

And look at if we have enough infrastructure to facilitate the needs, and so part of that analysis was was modeling and HDR assisted with that and modeling the system and seeing where is it best served.

And one of the goals that we had was not just for today but for the future, and how does this best serve the community long term and the issue with Milwaukee was it's not on our mile line.

That's our goal is to get our main lines on the mile line to have a mile grid system that best serves the community for future expansion needs.

We looked at crossing through between um eighth and Milwaukee.

Same issue there.

Um but also there was environmental concerns that we wouldn't be able to meet the requirements of the grant that was submitted with the environmental, so we couldn't take that route and explore it further.

And then we looked at 8th Avenue, we knew that would be a painful process, no question.

We looked at maybe doing a partial, and we have existing water main on 8th Avenue.

Is it size adequately to meet our needs on the tower location?

And it didn't, unfortunately.

So we want the towers to operate all together so they all go up and all come down at the same and that required the 16-inch transmission line all the way from Brown Park to the tower itself, and that was the was ultimately recommended to the city staff and what was selected and moved forward with as far as the timing-wise go, there we there was there was multiple delays in getting this project off the ground.

Um, one was funding, the other part was getting the modeling done and making sure we were putting this right location, and then once we had our right location, we were close to the airspace of the airport, and there was a lot of conflicts there to get that sited properly, and that's a long drawn-up process to get those clearances on the air space.

And then of course there was the levy permit, which we're you know, eventually pulled the trigger without it, and we had some water main through that area, and we said, Well, we'll move forward it.

We'll have to operate without it and maybe do a separate project once it'd come once the permit is received.

We didn't know what we didn't want to wait any longer.

As far as timing, you know, like Dustin said, you know, we we left the contract.

Um we've put a milestone in there for the closure of that intersection.

Um existing was asphalt for the east-west bound traffic.

It was a rough crossing.

Ideally, we get that rebuilt in concrete, it's a main road.

We want to get it done right and stable for the future, so we get many years of life out of it.

Um that would take time, you know.

There was constraints with school, we didn't know that's obviously a big issue with the traffic.

So we we set that constraint for them between June 1st and August 1st.

That was their two-month window to get done.

Do we expect them to take two months?

Not necessarily, and if you look today, we're probably ahead of a schedule, but there can be complications that come up after the fact.

Um, we've had these discussions, like the city manager mentioned with business owners along 8th Avenue, maybe some of your constituents.

Like, how do we make this better?

Um, we looked at traffic signing to sign it better with digital signs.

You know, I believe the city's staff has reached out and obtained two more digital signs from the DOT to assist with that.

We looked at how do we expedite the schedule as far as getting the work done in a more timely fashion?

It's not just the concrete on Eighth Avenue going east to west, it's also looking at the railroad grid.

There's also a valve in addition to the one we have in this change order that we want to replace.

There's another leaky valve a little further into Roosevelt on the north side that it was leaking, but it wasn't a problem yet.

And that was now's kind of the time to take care of that.

We have the railroad cross uh railroad bore to the east of Roosevelt, and with those silent crossings there, we can't maintain head-to-head traffic, so we have to basically close that road for that portion.

So they're doing all this work at one time and as efficiently as possible.

We've been monitoring it, you know, with city staff and looking for inefficiencies in their work, and and they've been dedicated and they've been efficient mostly, and we've seen their schedule improve, and now we want to carry those improvements of schedule through to completion, and that's our goal to do that.

But to set a date prior to 8-1 might be you know inappropriate this time to give you any kind of hard date on how that might improve.

But I think that's the goal from the contractor city staff helms is to get it done as soon as possible.

There was some discussion on you know that we've talked about do we try to open traffic to the north and the west out of the intersection because some of our constraints will be to the east and the south.

Is that possible?

There is cure time on the concrete that takes a while.

We need to make sure we have strength, and as each element and phase of rebuilding that intersection takes place, we get a better idea on when we can open on our alternatives.

Even we just discussed today at our construction meeting about a lot of traffic is cutting through the pit stop.

And you know, is that a hazard?

Is there a concern there?

Do we do better traffic control?

You know, do we block their entrance?

You know, and Domy staff has has talked to the pit stop and said, hey, we know this all this traffic.

Do you want us to you know try to cut that off, you know, to make it more efficient for you guys?

And they actually didn't want us to.

They they appreciated the traffic because they felt that generating more business in their regard.

And so we've been talking to them, you know, in depth, and you know, I think Dommies are very good about that.

You know, as part of that additional valve, you know, we have another element to the project of temporary water that we weren't planned for that is gonna get fixed, and so talking to residents north, um, north of 8th Avenue there on Roosevelt, and there's gonna be a temporary shutdown of water, you know, keeping them informed and and trying to give them as much information on the schedule as we possibly can.

Hey, there's gonna be a temporary shutdown of water, you know, keeping them informed and and trying to give them as much information on the schedule as we possibly can.

Thanks for all the answers.

I appreciate it.

Yeah, you're welcome.

So it sounds like they did Daisy chain quite a lot of projects together, even if they might not.

I just want to write turn lane going south on Roosevelt.

Well, go back and work on that and come back next week.

Sure.

There is some constraints with the powerful I know because you guys put it in a bad place four years ago.

Is that where we have to think ahead?

We have to think ahead.

But I do want to compliment the fire department because there was a fire um my neighbor's house on uh Birchwood, just one block north of that intersection on Friday afternoon, and they got there within three or four minutes of the call.

So they obviously figured out their routes and better than the most of us that live there.

So thank you for that.

Yeah.

If I could add just a little bit more, and then uh I won't talk about this in my manager's report.

So Leif, I really want to thank you and Jeremy and Destin, the rest of the our staff that are working hard up there to include Domy.

Uh the engagement meetings that we had was very valuable, I think.

Um, some of the things that came up from the business owners and from Domy as well.

Dommy's running a hectic uh narrow, limited space to do their work, and we maintain that road for two-way traffic.

And uh, you know, obviously intersections have been closed and different things, but they brought out their safety.

You know, that sometimes they're worried about uh motorists that are going through there too fast.

You know, they're just a few feet step off distance from cars that are going back and forth on that.

So uh to enhance to add to the enhancement of increased signage and notification of the public, we added speed boards in that area.

We we reduced the speed limit.

Uh the Aberdeen Police Department's been monitoring that every day for traffic control.

Uh we have uh somewhat of a problem with people crossing barricades sometimes, they're impatient uh unfortunately, and they think that they can maybe cross a space and there's a dramatic drop-off on the shoulder of the road there that you wouldn't necessarily see.

So we recommend to the public not crossing barricades.

You could drop into uh the shoulder of the road and hang your car up.

Sadly, we had that happen a couple times.

So just want to thank law enforcement for providing some safety and security and visibility in that area, but just remain uh remind people to uh follow uh the speed signs, uh slow down, you know, it's a dangerous area in there.

If we're just tracking and not paying attention, somebody could get hurt.

We want Dommies to do this safely.

And again, don't cross our barricades.

So with that, thanks again, Lee, for that explanation.

Thank you.

All right.

Any other questions for Leaf?

All right.

Would someone care to make a motion on that change order payments?

I think we did.

No, you got our motion or second.

All right, Jordan, would you give us a roll call vote?

Councilmember Ronane.

Hi.

Foberg.

Aye, belt.

Aye, ward, aye, econger.

I Nelson.

All right, Normstrom.

Mayor Shannon.

Aye, that motion carries.

Next, we've got a review and approval of our claims and payroll.

Payroll period May 31st through June 13th.

Move to pay the bills.

Second.

Motion label.

Second.

Ward.

Jordan, would you give us our final roll call vote of the council member Ronin?

I would I uh abstain as to uh Neil and Joan Bellica and Plains Commerce Bank and vote yes on all other bills.

Councilmember Fulberg.

I abstained to the Dakota Bank item and vote yes on all of the bills.

Councilmember Liebel.

I'm in favor of all the bills.

Ward.

Are you really the bigger?

I don't like any of the bills, but I'll vote to approve them all, I guess.

Councilmember Econger.

I Nelson.

Abstain on payments to Banner and PKG and I.

Councilmember Northstrop.

Mayor Shannon.

I motion carries.

Next we've got our city manager's report, and then following that we'll have an executive session to discuss a few contractual matters.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor.

So tonight we'd like to report uh work milestone.

Uh Jeff Neal, you may recognize him from the Aberdeen Police Department.

He's been with the department for 15 years, done a great job, been involved in a lot of things, trained a lot of officers, uh a key component of our uh crisis negotiation team, done an outstanding job over those 15 years, and we're proud to have him on our team and we want to thank Jeff for the 15 years of service.

Uh with that, uh, we talked a little bit about our water levels and how that's impacting our community.

If you spend any time on our bike trail this weekend near the soccer complex, you'll see water kind of going over the trail down there.

And you know, obviously with the rain that we got in the last few weeks, uh, the seven inches of rain north of our community, that continues to move its way through our lakes and rivers and streams, and we're seeing an an increase in the level of the Moxon Creek right now.

So just talking to Scott Meinz, our Brown County emergency manager, there's nothing to be overly concerned about at this point, but um basically uh the foot creek is full, and the Moxon Creek drains into the foot creek.

So, and given our elevation here, and we don't have much slope for our water to drain, you know, things are moving slow through there.

So I just want to recognize uh for the community's sake that we're aware of the rising water levels, and uh you know, there's nothing that we're worried about at this particular time.

Uh but we do recognize that and we're continue to keep an eye on it.

So just want to talk that about that a little bit.

Um other quick thing related to the police department.

So that you know uh for almost two and a half decades, uh, we've had an animal control officer, John Weaver, that's done a great job.

Uh he's he's done things um with just a passion and dedication and a work work out, they are just amazing.

So over the years he's handled people in their worst moments, finding their lost pets, uh dealing with difficult situations and conflicts and helping develop policies and being part of the animal review board, giving people their due process and city actions, but he's gonna be retiring.

So this Thursday is his last day.

And John is a humble person.

He doesn't want any recognition, he doesn't want to party.

But if you want to go thank him, you'll find him in his office.

He's willing to receive you or the general public in his office and receive the thanks and maybe share a story or two.

So but we just want to say thanks to all the years of dedicated service that John has given to the community and in the department, and thank you, John, for that.

And again, uh this Thursday, if you want to go over and say thank you, that'd be great.

And uh let's see, we're in right now, um, we're at a process where we've received our 2027 general fund requests.

Uh we've looked at that where we we are reviewing those things, and you'll know here soon that uh our promotional request opportunity will be open.

So we're obligated to uh start publicizing and receiving promotional fund requests from the community uh by the first council meeting in July.

So I just want to remind the staff of that.

And with that, Mayor, that's all I have.

Thank you.

Great.

One more thing I'd like to just throw into the mix.

I know that I've independently talked to you and Tanner and uh Ron over here about the scooters, the motorized scooters, motorized motorcycles.

Um right now it sounds like Ron, you are investigating language that might create a clearer distinction between what is allowed and what is disallowed.

There's a heck of a lot of residents that are, I think, primarily concerned with the safety of these operators that are traveling in and out of uh through marked intersections, in and out of um, you know, drive and no drive places and uh in some cases maybe endangering pedestrians or themselves.

Tell us where you're at with that, Ron.

This is a modern problem that our ordinances have just not kept up with.

We've seen a proliferation of different types of electric scooters and uh dirt bikes and these one-wheels and a number of a number of these devices that are now uh on our roads and sidewalks and on our recreational trails.

And so what I'm doing is doing a is comprehensive reviewing our ordinances to see how we can try to update and uh I've I've right now I've lumped them under a under a phrase personal mobility device uh and see if we can't come up with a with a way of dealing with these that that embraces and allows for new technology, uh, but in the meantime helps regulate some of that stuff.

Uh, as we drive around on a on a nice summer night, uh especially in the residential areas, we'll see a lot of these.

Um, and children, uh young young children on the sidewalks with these types of of uh devices.

And uh the council is going to have to take some take some thought about how it wants to deal with those.

Um streets, sidewalks, and recreational trails, and then those recreational trails that abut our streets that have the have the flavor of a sidewalk.

We'll have to kind of work through those.

Uh, right now at the downtown core area, just to just as a public announcement, the downtown core area, there can be none of those items on any of the sidewalks down there.

All that can be on the on the streets down there are our bicycles and longboards.

And uh, we don't not that I I don't know that I know anybody who's on a longboard.

Um so all the other devices that we're talking about here are not allowed in the downtown core area, they're not allowed on second street overpass.

Uh those have to be walked, as a matter of fact.

So I can I can confidently say that that's the status of on of our ordinances with respect to those items.

So we'll we'll be bringing something to you fairly quick.

So Chief in terms of managing what's going on right now with the existing laws that are on the books I mean obviously they can't be disregarding traffic laws going through stop signs and that kind of a thing is that something that we can take a look at.

Absolutely particularly with uh the streets any bicycle uh moped types of things like that they have to follow all traffic traffic signals stop signs uh give signals when they're uh interacting with other traffic on the road move to the side of the road if they're you know moving slower than traffic um I did catch uh far and this isn't a unique issue obviously to Aberdeen that I saw uh just late last week that uh uh Fargo did a PSA uh same thing kind of identifying different types of electronic mobility devices to try and delineate what can be used at where so it's gonna be a unique challenge uh for for Ron to work through sounds good but if a person sees someone like flagrantly breaking a traffic law they can still reach out just as they would if it was an automobile absolutely and even the you know I know one of the concerns with these things with these scooters are they can go quite fast depending on the model if there's reckless driving you know even on the sidewalks or higher suites because I know they can go 2530 plus miles an hour.

If you if there's an issue let us know and we'll we can still stop and address those issues.

Thank you for that clarification I appreciate that.

Thanks to uh Jeff Neal for the service to the city and thank you to John Weaver I would encourage anybody to drop in and he's always fun for pleasant conversation.

So congratulate him on his many years of service to the city of Aberdeen.

So with that we'll take a moment clear the room to uh to move into our executive session to talk about those matters uh of contract