We'll start the meeting.

Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Underground individual with liberty and justice for all the clerk, please take the attendance.

There are six council members present, Mr.

Mayor.

Councilmember Wendell is absent.

All right.

Entertain a motion to approve the agenda.

So moved.

Second.

Any comments from the public on the agenda.

Comments from council.

Please call the roll.

Avery.

Aye.

Doran.

Aye.

Hager.

Aye.

Neymar?

Aye.

Specker.

Aye.

Tilton Byrne.

Aye.

Okay, item four.

We're going to go into an executive session pursuant to SDCL one-two five-two point one for discussing the qualifications, competence, performance, character, or fitness of any public officer or employee or prospective public officer or employee.

The term employee does not include any independent contractor, and S DCL 1-25-2.4 for consulting with legal counsel or reviewing communications from legal counsel.

Entertain a motion to go into executive session.

So we'll move.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

We are in executive session.

Okay.

Item five, open forum.

In order to provide equal access to all during the open forum public comment portions of the meeting, each individual offering comments shall not exceed the allotted three-minute period.

The podium light turns green to yellow when there is one minute remaining.

Your time for comment is expired when the podium light turns red.

Is there any member of the public who wishes to speak to the council or address the council on an item not listed on tonight's agenda?

All right.

Is there any items to be removed from the consent agenda?

Seeing none, entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda.

So moved.

Is there any public comment on any consent agenda item that we have?

Council questions, comments.

Please call the roll.

Neymar.

Aye.

Specker.

Tilton Byrne.

Aye.

Avery?

Aye.

Doran?

Aye.

Hager.

Aye.

Okay.

Uh presentations and reports.

Got a proclamation here.

Small business Saturday invite Kristen Casdell and just Kristen.

Stephanie.

Stephanie also, all right.

Okay.

Okay, Merrill Proclamation.

Whereas the City of Brookings celebrates our local small businesses and the contributions they make to our local economy and community.

And whereas, according to the American Independent Business Alliance, spending at independent local businesses puts 3.5 times more money into the local economy as shopping at a chain store.

Whereas, and whereas, according to the U.S.

Chamber of Commerce, there are 33.2 million small businesses in the United States, and they employ 61.6 million workers.

And whereas the Saturday after Thanksgiving is small business Saturday in communities across the country.

Now therefore, be it resolved that I, OK GD Meyer, Mayor of the City of Brookings to hereby proclaim Saturday, November 29, 2025, a small business Saturday, and urge our residents to shop and dine and support locally throughout the year.

Thank you.

Go ahead.

Thank you, everybody.

Small Business Saturday has been going on for about 20 years now, and we're excited to be a neighborhood champion again this year in downtown Bricking.

So come and shop, support local and small, give a shout out, like something on Facebook, appreciate those small businesses that help make our community run.

Thank you very much.

Now I invite Cherry up to uh our public information officer to come forward and present this item, a presentation on new mass notification system.

Thank you, Mayor and Council members.

I'm happy to be here tonight to talk about the city's new mass notification system.

You might first wonder what is a mass notification system.

It's a bit of a mouthful.

It simply is a communication tool, typically software enabled, that allows entities like ours to simultaneously send messages to a large number of subscribers.

It's that simple.

Currently, we have had a system called Notify Me.

You might be familiar with that.

We've marketed over the years, Notify Me, and encouraged people to sign up for email or text messages through that.

That system is built into our website that is just part of our website.

And with the new with the notify me system, it did have some limitations.

It does limit the number of total subscribers.

So for example, during COVID, when the city was sending out a lot of important messages, and we increased the number of subscribers, we had to pay slightly more than to accommodate that.

With the new system, there's unlimited number of subscribers, and there's not an extra fee.

It's just all part of the annual cost.

Some of those might eventually roll over into the new system, some might stay with the notify me.

But residents have the option to sign up for both of those through both of those systems pretty sign uh pretty seamlessly with this new launch.

These are the categories that residents will be able to sign up for.

Then we have routine alerts that we would consider our snow operations and snow parking bans, mosquito fogging, landfill and collections schedule changes.

Then one of the new things, new features with this system, is that people will also be able to sign up for weather alerts.

We do not manage the weather alerts.

Those are managed by the National Weather Service.

And people can choose to sign up for different categories of those.

So it would not be the public information office sending out any weather alerts.

Again, those would come through the National Weather Service.

Some of the features of the new system that I'd like to talk about are it is a multi-channel communication software.

And in short, what this means because people could already through Notify Me sign up for email and or text messages.

This adds a voice message option for emergency alerts, only for emergency alerts.

And this that is new to email and text message options.

People can choose both their cell phone and landline if they still have one.

So they can decide if they want to get voice messages for emergency alerts to whichever phone number they put in the system.

Another really wonderful thing about this is that it gives us a language translation option.

So people who sign up can select their preferred language to receive auto-translated messages.

And I want to note that's auto-translated.

Again, the public information office is not doing the translating for those, but people can select from 70 languages for text or email messages, and up to 30 languages for voice messages.

So that's a really wonderful feature to help us again be more inclusive in communicating with our residents.

In order to sign up for voice messaging option and for the language translation, people do need to go to the website to do that, and it is www.city of brookings-sd.gov backslash alerts.

Okay.

I'll talk more about that in a minute.

Another feature of this new system is the ability to download a free mobile app called My Alerts.

People can simply go to the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, search My Alerts, as you see on the screen, and download this app, and the icon for the app looks just like the one I have on the slide.

And then they can choose to toggle on community alerts and weather alerts.

So some people might prefer this over texting.

Some people want may want both.

Again, I want to reiterate emphasize that we're not managing the weather alerts.

That is done by the National Weather Service.

The weather alerts are location specific.

And people using this app actually have the opportunity to add different locations.

So you might add your current location of Brookings, South Dakota, but you also can go in and add additional locations.

For example, maybe you're going to be vacationing in Miami, Florida in February, and while you're there, you want to receive weather alerts, and you could add that city into this.

I'll tell you that I personally have added the cities where my children live, just so that I have that information in the app.

And so I find that helpful.

One of the other key features, and the one I'm probably the most excited about, is the ability to text to join.

This feature was truly one of the biggest, probably the primary impetus for the city to consider software.

And the reason is that it is the quickest and easiest way for people to sign up.

And the simpler something is, the more likely people are to do it.

And then we have more people sign up and we get our messages shared more widely.

And so people can text keywords to the number 38276, as you see in the graphic on the screen.

Message frequency will vary depending on what people sign up to receive, what categories they sign up for.

And then of course we want people to know that message and data rates may apply for text messaging.

So I want to walk you through the three ways that people can sign up.

The first option is to text keywords.

Again, that number is 38276.

And we have different keywords or phrases for the different types of alerts.

So for emergency alerts, which we really would strongly encourage all residents to sign up for, you would text Brookings S D to 38276.

For public safety alerts, Brookings Public Safety, and for the really important one right now, snow operations and related parking ban alerts, Brookings Snow.

And then for landfill information, for example, when the landfill is closed for holidays, when collection schedules are altered due to holidays, like they will be, of course, for this Thursday due to the Thanksgiving holiday, it's Brookings Waste.

So those are our primary categories that we want to really promote and encourage people to sign up for right now.

The second sign up option is that free app that I mentioned.

And again, you can simply go to the Apple App Store, Google Play Store, and download this app and make sure it'll ask you if you want both the weather alerts and community alerts.

And if you want to get all of the alerts we send out, then you want to make sure you toggle on that community alerts.

And then the third sign-up option is online at www.city of Brookings SD.gov slash alerts.

And that QR code you see on the slide will also take you there.

This is where you can really manage your contact information in depth.

You can add your address in.

This is again where you would maybe you want both text and email messages.

This is where you would need to go if you want to sign up for the for the voice messages for emergency alerts.

And then last but not least, in the spirit of the season, and given the weather that it is occurring currently outside, we really want I want to close this out by again encouraging people to sign up for the snow alert information.

And the quickest and easiest way for you to do that again is to text the words Brookings Snow, no space between, just Brookings Snow to 38276.

And we want you to get a text, not a ticket or a tow.

So we ask that you help share the word, spread the word with your friends and neighbors.

We will be doing a marketing campaign.

We've run, we've done one ad, digital ad with the collegian this week, the SDSU newspaper, and we'll be doing a lot more of that here in the weeks to come and continuing throughout the winter season.

And with that, I will stand for questions.

Thank you.

Council questions.

Just a couple questions I have.

If folks are currently signed up through Notify Me, do they have to sign up for the new platform in order to continue to get the notifications?

Thank you for that question, Councilmember.

I forgot to mention that.

And so you do not need to go back in and sign up.

We were able to migrate the existing subscribers over to the new system.

However, I would encourage people to still go to the website to that slash alerts site and log in and just check if they want to update their preferences.

Thank you for that very important question.

Absolutely.

Another question I have, you'd mentioned some of our notifications are staying with Notify Me, others are switching to this new platform.

Does that mean we are paying for two platforms then?

The Notify Me is part of the website.

And so we will not be paying any additional money to continue to use that.

It just is part of that.

The only time we have to pay a higher amount for notifying me is if we reach a certain subscriber level.

And by moving most of the categories over to the new system, we will not have to worry about a higher level, higher number of subscribers.

So it's not like the separate ones that sometimes we get when everybody's phone starts to beep, right?

Um this would be a set like a separate thing from the National Weather Service through this platform.

Right.

This would be separate through that.

You might still get those text messages when everybody's phones start going off.

Um that gets into an area of IPAUS integration.

And so I don't want to get in the weeds too much with that, but you could very well still get those, but the alerts you know, app would be separate.

Yes.

Okay.

And then my last question, um, the slide that you had that sort of showed all of the keywords to send, will you be distributing that on some sort of printed material like a business card or something like that for folks to be able to pick up?

Yes, we absolutely will.

And one thing I want to add, we'll also, of course, have that on our website.

Um then another thing I want to add about that is we will be rolling out some additional keywords that are seasonal or are specific to events.

So a couple examples I can give you are the spring bulky item pickup and the household hazardous waste drop-off event we have in August.

We will have separate um keywords for people to text for those.

If they go on to the website to sign up, they'll see those as categories already.

But once we start marketing those events, then we will be encouraging people to sign up.

And the reason for doing that is while those are both programs that are part of our solid waste division.

There we have a lot of community members who by virtue of perhaps living in an apartment complex, do not have their uh garbage or recycling picked up by the city of Brookings.

However, they might still want to participate in the household hazardous waste drop-off event.

So we'll do some you know, more targeted use of those things.

Okay, councilmember Duran, do you still have a question?

Yes, thank you, Mayor.

Um I'm also really excited about this transition, especially the different methods of um how to sign up and just the ease of use, I think will be really good with the public.

I do have a couple of questions and maybe it's just clarifying.

Um I am under the assumption that since we are able to transition all of the numbers over, and it seems like it's just a one-time subscription to the alerts, right?

You never have to re-subscribe to this with your phone number.

Is that correct?

You should not have to do that, but if it's possible that in the Notify Me system, people selected to receive only emails.

And if they did, they would not have put their phone number in the system, which is why again, we strongly encourage people to, if they're not sure, to go ahead and text the keyword that is of interest to them for the topic that is of interest to them, or to log in and update their preferences.

It could be that somebody signed up for notify me, you know, a few years ago before they were really maybe using text messaging a lot, and so it's just a good opportunity opportunity for some housekeeping.

Sure, absolutely.

Um, and then another question I have is I think about how uh one of the categories that you talked about was um imminent threat to life and safety.

I was wondering in general with the city or our emergency department.

Do we have a way of contacting people who aren't signed up?

Like I think of visitors who are in town, but it is that immediate threat to life and safety.

Do we have a way of contacting them?

Thank you for that question.

Um we really want to do that.

We want to be able to send emergency alerts to non-subscribers.

And um I am going to be working with uh deputy police chief and some of his team members in the E911 dispatch to try to um work with the county of Brookings on an agreement that would allow us to have access to that.

That again comes into what we call IPAUS, IPAWS, and the new mass notification software.

One of the great things about that that is again different from Notify Me is that it has the opportunity, the uh option to integrate with IPAWS.

Um in South Dakota, it's a little different.

Every state is different, but in South Dakota, most the counties have IPAWS emergency authority, and um so we need to work through the county and through FEMA to be able to integrate that part.

But that is something that we are um prepping to do very soon.

It will take a little, it takes a little bit of time to go through that FEMA process, but I um I'm in contact with cities in other states that have done that already, and so they'll be able to really help us along with that.

Sure.

I'm really glad that you're working on that.

That's good to know.

Um, and then my final question is you know, when I I visited other towns for like a special event, um, so with Brookings it would be like the Arts Festival in Hubble Day, a really big community event that has a lot of visitors too.

They do like a temporary for three days, you can sign up and you get the weather alerts, the public safety alerts, even some parking alerts.

Is that something that you've considered here of when we will have that big influx of a community event that someone could temporarily sign up and still get those alerts?

That is honestly not something we have looked into.

Um, but that's something that I will make sure we do.

I think that's an excellent idea.

One um way to do that right now would be if you have if you choose the app, if you download the app, you would be able to select Brookings South Dakota if you were visiting, let's say you were coming from Sioux Falls or Fargo or Minneapolis for the Arts Festival, you and you had the app, you could do that.

But that's a really good um idea, and we'll look into that.

Sure.

Thank you.

I think that this presentation was very timely with our winter weather, so I appreciate uh all of the information you've provided.

Thank you very much.

Councilmember Hager.

So I just have a couple of clarification questions.

So is everything completely transferred over from notify me to this new system?

Not categories.

We chose the categories that we wanted to move over.

So for example, bids.

Um basically uh things categories that are managed primarily by the city clerk.

Um bids and right now, city council notifications, and then we also have a main calendar that people can sign up for.

We have not moved those over intentionally.

Um the software provider really suggests that some things stay with notify me and other things move.

Okay, so there's not the possibility for duplicate notifications.

It's either it's on notify me or it's on the news system.

Correct.

Okay, yes, that is correct.

That was really what I was doing.

I was a little unclear.

Thank you.

Very good.

Paul.

I just want to say publicly thank you for doing this process for our community.

A lot of times we don't think about how important these services are until we need them.

Sherry's worked on this for the last nine to ten months religiously putting in hours and hours to bring it to this point.

So thank you, Sherry, for all of your hard work and and for helping us keep working safe.

Well, I appreciate that and I appreciate the support, and I would not have been able to do it without our communication specialist, Jessica Well U Fawcett, who's also been my right hand through this, and I'm really looking forward to working with uh deputy police chief Ryan Barranos because he's very excited about really bringing the pieces together so that we can empower our police department to be able to send those emergency alerts and help assure the safety of non-subscribers.

And I'm really looking forward to working with uh Deputy Police Chief Ryan Viranos because he's very excited about really bringing the pieces together so that we can empower our police department to be able to send those emergency alerts and help assure the safety of non-subscribers.

So thank you very much.

Appreciate it.

Thank you, Sherry.

Councilmember Specker, did you still have a question?

No.

Okay.

Thank you very much, Specker.

Okay, so we'll on the no contracts and change orders this evening.

We'll be item nine, first readings.

Item 9A introduction and first reading on ordinance 25-039, an ordinance to rezone lot three of block two of Tel Camp Industrial Edition from an industrial one industrial, yeah.

I1R.

Yep.

Restricted district to an industrial I one light district.

Public hearing in action December 29th.

Uh Mike Struck will present this item.

Thank you, Mayor, and members of the council.

Uh the rezoning ordinance before you tonight is to rezone uh parcel property currently owned by the city of Brookings in the Tel Camp Industrial Park.

Uh the property is currently zoned in I 1R.

Uh it's an industrial restricted district, and what that essentially was is uh there's enhanced uh landscaping requirements.

In addition, there is a certain um maximum lot coverage percentage that is allowed.

We've seen in recent years that uh some of the properties in this vicinity have chosen to uh to rezone from the I1R to an I-1 to provide a little bit more flexibility.

Uh it was really uh an intent to try and uh encourage the aesthetics along some of our major corridors.

This particular property is uh approximately 880 feet from Interstate 29.

So there is property uh directly west of this between the property that's proposed in the interstate that uh if developed would block the site lines and and this property wouldn't be uh visible very well from the interstate corridor.

Uh this does come to you with a unanimous recommendation from the planning commission, the development review team supports the request, and we'd stand for any questions you may have on the rezoning.

Thank you, Mike.

Is there any public comment on this item?

Council have any questions or comments at this time.

All right, we'll move on to 9B.

Introduction and first reading on ordinance 25-040.

An ordinance for a conditional use permit to establish an office in a residence R2 two-family district.

709 Main Avenue is the address.

Public hearing action on December 9th.

Mike will also present this item.

Thank you, Mayor.

Members of the council.

Uh the ordinance before you tonight is consideration of a conditional use permit for an office uh to be established in the R2 district.

This is located along uh Main Avenue, um, kind of around that uh seventh between seventh and eighth street.

Uh you may recall at the last meeting we had a similar request where it was conversion of a former dental office to uh uh an office.

This one would be uh strictly it had been used as a residential property.

Uh the applicants purchased the property and are interested in establishing counseling services within uh this structure.

Uh the recommendation that comes before you from the planning commission was an eight to zero vote.

Um but they did provide a couple of conditions, and I'll state those briefly that the conditional use is for the property is limited to three office suites, and that the conditional use is non-transferable.

And part of the reason behind that is the applicant um was supportive of limiting to three offices.

Uh they express their clientele is currently they they deal with about 32 or so um clients per week between the three different counselors.

Um about half of those occur in this would would occur in this space.

The other half are typically um at either uh a school or other setting uh depending on where their clients are coming from.

And so it's not a real heavily used, but they need kind of uh a location to kind of um be located within and to maintain some level of privacy.

Uh they do meet the requirements for an uh to establish an office uh in a residential district.

And uh as I mentioned, it comes with a unanimous recommendation from the planning commission and the development review team supports the request, and I'd stand for any questions you may have.

Thank you, Mike.

Is there any public comment on this item?

Council have any questions, comments at this time?

Councilmember Specker.

This is more just uh question out of curiosity.

I mean, this particular building was built in 1889.

Is it a historical considered a historical building and it is not part of any of our historic districts?

Um, and it's not uh individually listed as one of the historical structures within the city of Brookings.

Okay.

It's a really nice use, actually.

Thank you.

They do not anticipate making any alterations to the structure at this particular time.

They like the condition of it, they want to make sure it's compatible with the neighborhood, so any exterior modifications might be what we'd refer to as a shingle that hangs out near the front entrance, which would be a small, like one-by-one sign that would just have the business name listed on it.

Okay, but uh well, go ahead, Allie.

Um thank you.

I I am wondering this um this structure, I think, as you mentioned, is in close proximity to another uh conditional use permit we recently heard.

I'm just curious, do we have any um policy or whether that's it written in policy or just policy in practice, maybe uh uh regarding kind of how many different structures can have a conditional use permit within a certain proximity of each other?

No, we don't have uh a policy that would regulate the number of uh conditional use permits allowed within a specific area or anything like that.

Are there any triggers where like if you were to see several of them popping up in a certain area that you might consider rezoning that area or anything like that?

Potentially, I mean this stretch from A Street to Sixth Street is a candidate for rezoning.

However, um I would guess that a majority of the neighbors would prefer to keep it in that residential zoning um category.

And I'm certainly not suggesting we change the zone.

I just I think they just they've looked at some of these areas and um most of the interest that we've seen when these houses have come up for sale is they're trying to look at how they can get more density into the homes.

And so some of them have looked at it and from a price point, it maybe makes a little bit more sense if it's a business use in there, they can uh uh typically afford to pay a little bit more since there's um greater potential of income to come from the property.

And so they've seen opportunities, and in this case in particular, is they really want to maintain that warm, welcoming, neutral kind of feel for when their clients come in.

They kind of want to be in a location where they're not maybe um is publicly noticeable just to kind of protect the integrity for their clients and and and their safety as well in private.

Thank you.

All right.

Mike, I had a question.

I I obviously on the on the screen we've got this here.

It says uh ADA wheelchair ramp.

The age of this home, what kind of an accommodations do they have for a wheelchair getting into the back end of that house?

And are we having to make sure that that's accessible?

So if they were to put a ramp in, um we would have to make sure that it is accessible from width and slope perspective.

Uh and basically, you know, part of the reason why they chose it to be located where it is so they could run that ramp along the property line and then be able to make kind of an L shape to bring it up to help uh get the elevation changes that they would need to get into the back door of this particular structure.

If they would need to potentially widen doorways or such, they they could.

Um but yeah, if they um any ramp or anything, they'd have to get a permit and we'd make sure we do the calculations and such.

Okay.

Um second reading on the December 9th.

We'll move on to the next one.

Item 9C introduction and first reading on ordinance 25-041.

In orders to rezone northeast quarter, northwest quarter, excluding outlet A in Section 3-T 109 North R50 what W from the residential R3 apartment district to a residential R1A single family district.

One one one five West 20th.

Mike will present this item also.

Thank you, Mayor, and members of the council.

In my profession, we like to make reading things very difficult for our elected officials with legal descriptions.

So I appreciate you um working through that.

Some of you may be a little bit familiar with this particular rezoning.

Uh, this is located at 1115 uh West 20th Street South.

Uh TH companies has been before our council previously.

It's currently zoned R3 and it is associated with a large-scale residential development plan.

Credit to the property owners and the developers.

Ideally, they would like to provide small acreages out in this area.

It's total acreage is just over 30 acres.

By the time they take into account some of the right-of-way improvements and some of the storm drainage improvements, it's going to knock them below the 30-acre requirement.

They want to provide a little bit of variety where they may have some three-acre lots, but they may have to have some one and a half to two-acre lots.

They're trying to kind of target about 12 to 15 lots out in this particular area.

So a larger lot development would maybe work out a little bit better.

And so they're coming back with a rezone to re to down zone it from an R3 to a R1A, which is a single family designation.

The minimum lot size in the R1A is 15,000 square feet.

The minimum lot frontage is a hundred uh feet of street frontage.

That's the minimum.

They can certainly go larger than that if they would like.

Thank you, Mike.

Any public comment comments on this item?

Councilman, any questions, comments at this time?

All right.

We'll move on to 9D.

Introduction and first reading on ordinance 25-037.

An ordinance setting the annual election date in June.

Bonnie Foster, City Clerk will present this item.

Good evening, Mayor and Council Members.

So I'll give a summary.

This will be for both items 90, which is this ordinance in front of you, 25-037, and item number 9E, which is ordinance 25-038.

Each of the ordinances identify a specific election date for 2026.

Ordinance 25037 states June.

Ordinance 25-038 chooses November.

Election administrative details are still unknown at this time.

Those details will be better able to be identified once an election date is chosen.

The most pressing election administration detail we need to be concerned about right now is if the June election date is chosen, our notice for vacancies must be published for the first time the week of December 15th.

But that is the only concern that we have at this time.

Okay.

Let's just move on.

Is any public comment on this particular item?

Council have any questions, comments right now?

Councilmember Hager.

So I do have a comment, which will eventually lead into a question for Bonnie.

So just to bear with me, but I did want to update some citizens who had reached out to me and who have been following this particular issue after the Brookings Register had an article last week on the school board's consideration of this issue.

So for anyone who maybe hasn't been following this issue or have read that article, it did focus on a statement from the Brookings County Finance Officer that detailed how the county would not be able to provide much election assistance to the city or the school board.

And municipal races would not be included on the ballots with the county, state, or federal races, even though that was potentially logistically possible.

The article then went on to discuss what that would mean for the city and the school, specifically having access to voting equipment such as poll pads and tabulators, and how that could lead to maybe having to even hand count ballots.

So things that would delay results being able to be announced.

So I had quite a few people reach out to me who are concerned with questions.

I also had some of those questions as well.

You know, what does this mean for the logistics of the city and the school board trying to run an election?

You know, at the same time, would that mean that those two entities need to possibly invest in voting equipment, which would be hundreds of thousands of dollars?

And so I did just want to let folks know that we did receive an updated statement from the Brookings County Finance Office where they did think that they would be able to provide some assistance with running the municipal election and possibly even putting those races on the June or November ballot, depending on what is chosen by these different entities.

So with that, I just wanted to give Bonnie a chance.

Is there anything you'd like to add on that?

And if you've received any information about potential costs of the county administering the election.

We don't have any updated costs at this time.

We're still seeking quotes because we want to go into this with all of the information possible.

So we're looking at what it would cost a city to purchase our own tabulator, what it would cost if the city and school were to combine and purchase our own e-poll pads, but I don't have any figures to present to you this evening.

Okay.

Thanks so much for your work on this issue.

All right.

Councilmember Duran.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I would also like to reiterate my appreciation for all of your work.

I know that um guidance isn't what we originally expected, and so I I understand kind of the legwork that you've had to do throughout all of these evolutions because I feel like we've had a lot of conversations, and those conversations lead to like double the questions.

So thank you so much.

Um, I I do appreciate that this conversation is more than just that election date, right?

It's broadening to all of the factors that were listed in the memo.

Um, and I understand that that is better suited at a different time.

Um, I was just wondering, kind of in your initial work, besides just the um deadline for when we would have to submit the vacancies.

Are there any other factors that we haven't discussed around what the date would impact you administratively or these costs or or anything else that we should be aware of?

I don't know if there's anything that I would categorize as urgent at this time.

Um, I think everybody that's voicing opinions, you know, and they're sharing them with you is what's important is we need to know what the citizens and what the voters within the city of Brookings, Brooking School District, Brookings County, what they feel would be best for the needs of our community.

Sure.

Okay, thank you.

I just wanted to make sure that we have all the information, and I would also reiterate that that um we've received a lot of public feedback around the logistics and kind of those other factors that we'll talk about at a different time, but um, I would encourage the public to keep reaching out and letting us know if they have a preference between June and November and what their reasoning is.

Councilmember Hager.

So kind of related to both um the questions that you've received so far.

So as of right now, as far as logistics, which maybe is a little cart before the horse potentially, but it does seem like there's possibly a variety of different logistical format, different logistics that could take place with respect to this.

I guess I don't have like the right word for it, but sounds like there's a variety of options.

Maybe that's what I was looking for on the table with like whether combining onto the county, state, or federal ballot or having like a separate ballot or something along those lines.

Is that correct?

Yes, that is correct.

And at the heart of all of those discussions is what's the best for the voter?

Because we certainly don't want to impose any additional stops on election day for voters to vote.

We don't want to increase any sort of voter confusion as well.

For sure.

And then I did see that we received some guidance from the Secretary of State with respect to some different deadlines, like relating to having to publish vacancies, things relating to when candidates can take out petitions and what the absentee voting window is.

Is that information that we can provide to the public so they have some insight into that as well?

Yes, that's that is all public information.

It's currently available out on the Secretary of State's website as well.

Okay, perfect.

Yeah, because just in case we have questions, I think it would be nice for folks to be able to be pointed into a particular direction.

I'm sorry, Councilmember Tildenburn.

Um Bonnie, can you tell us what would be uh, and I think we've probably discussed this before, but what would be our deadline to make a decision in order to meet the requirements of the announcing and to make sure that we have the proper amount of lead time in order to do that?

December 9th would be the prime opportunity to make a decision as to what the election date will be for 2026.

If for some reason the council does not make a decision, we would still publish a form of a vacancy notice in order to meet the confines of state law to the best of our abilities.

Um we certainly want to keep the public informed and obviously any potential candidates.

Thank you.

Uh we do have a legislator present here.

Senator Reed, would you like to make any comments?

Evening, Mayor, Council members.

I guess I don't have any real comments to make about it.

I know I was just invited.

I didn't know if you guys have any questions uh that I might be able to answer.

Um, when it comes to legislation, we really got to kind of go by the intent of the legislation uh once it's passed.

And uh really that was to there are quite a few people that feel that the it'd be you'd have a better election turnout if it was during the regularly scheduled uh elections in November and June is really the main reason why it was passed.

I didn't vote for it.

Um, just for the reasons you guys are here talking about this.

I felt that really that has to be something that needs to be worked out with the cities and the counties to figure out what's best for them.

Any questions for Senator Reed?

All right, thank you, Tim.

Did you want to make any comments?

Not at this time.

Okay.

All right, Bonnie, do we want to just go through this whole thing again in 9e or just all right?

Item 9E.

Maybe introduction and first reading on ordinance.

We we do not need to, as you started at the beginning.

All right, all right, that's cool.

Let's move on to item 10, second readings and public hearings.

Item 10a, second reading in action on ordinance 25-036, an ordinance authorizing budget amendment number eight on the 2025 budget.

Ashley Wrench, our finance director, will present this item.

Good evening, Mayor and members of the council.

This is the second reading of ordinance 25-036.

Amendment number eight to the 2025 budget.

This amendment authorizes a $38,000 transfer from the 3B tax fund to the Capital Improvement Plan Fund to support the Fishback Park splash pad project.

This project was budgeted in 2025, and the contract will come before you in the next item.

Installation will occur in the spring of 2026, and this amendment ensures that all funds will be allocated prior to contract approval to carry forward into next year.

No changes have been made since the first reading, and staff recommends approval as presented.

I'll stand by for any questions you have.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ashley.

Entertain a motion to approve.

So moved.

Second.

Is there any public comment on this item?

Council have any questions, comments.

Please call Councilmember Duran.

Thank you, Mayor.

Okay, this is a clarifying question because I might be thinking of something else.

Is this because um a bid came in higher than expected, right?

That is correct.

We had budgeted 650,000 and it came in closer to 688,000.

Right.

Um, would you be willing to provide some uh reasoning of what like what factored into why it came in higher?

I'm just curious.

Um is that in the next item?

Okay, I know it's this item in the next item, so I just wanted to ask.

Thank you, Mayor and members of council.

Um, a lot of the reasons why they came up quite a bit higher were the talks of tariffs and how they would impact um our splash pads.

Um there aren't any splash pads that are made in the United States, so um tariffs.

Sure, thank you.

Any other comments, questions on this item?

Please call the roll.

Specker.

Aye, Tilton Byrne.

Hi.

Avery?

I Doran.

Aye.

Hager?

Aye.

Neymar.

Aye.

Move on to item 11, other business.

Item 11, action on resolution 25-088.

A resolution to build a splash pad at the fish pack software soccer complex.

Kristen Zimmerman, our parks and rec director will uh present this item.

Uh thank you, Mayor.

Members of council.

Of course, this is splash pad weather right now.

Um the resolution before you is a proposed splash pad at the fishback soccer complex that features multiple recreation zones designed to serve a wide variety of ages and abilities, including a toddler-friendly area in the up front, interactive water features for youth, and larger activation zones for older kids.

Um you'll see the different zones in here.

Um contracting, collaborated with staff to create and design that aligns with our community needs, provides inclusive and accessible water play, and supports the goals identified in the 2025 CIP plan.

Um the project is planned for construction in 2026, offering high quality multi-age recreational amenities for families across our Brookings community.

All right, thanks, Christian.

Um entertained motion to approve.

So moved.

Second.

Move and second, is your public comment on this item?

Okay.

Uh council, questions, comments.

Councilmember Duran.

Thank you, Mayor.

I'm really excited about this project.

So I just have a couple of questions and then a comment.

Umuding to last May when we discussed this project when the design was unveiled.

Um, I know that a question was asked about training for the structure, and uh I saw in the quote under commissioning, it talked about operation instructions will be included.

I was just wondering, are we anticipating you know any higher cost of training or maintenance with this facility as well?

No, we already operate aquatics facilities, so it's similar chemical makeup.

Um we're actually going to, it's an app called HydroApp, so we can pull it up wherever we are.

I can pull it up wherever.

Um, and we can make those accommodations through our phone, which is kind of scary when you think about it, but we're okay.

Exciting to use technology.

Um, and then I also noticed in the quote, you know, there was a list of exclusions and clarifications since I know it was a different factor of why the bids came in higher than expected.

I was just wondering, looking at that list, are you anticipating any high costs of anything that was included in that list of exclusions or clarifications?

Nope, that's what it will be.

Okay, perfect.

Um, and then my only comment is that uh I'm really excited for this project.

Splash pads really connect families and communities.

Um, it's proven the caregivers will be more involved in this play.

Um, and it really builds that caregiver relationship and it builds into that social, emotional, and mental well-being as well as increasing physical activity.

So I think this is going to be a really great amenity for our community.

And I just wondered if you wanted to remind the public that this is part of a larger project as well as a playground and just quick highlight uh reminder for them to get excited and jazzed about what's coming to Brookings.

Yeah, this is part of a much larger project where we're designing recreational spaces for people of all abilities.

It's really important that we help facilitate play.

I'm I'm biased, but I'm a huge proponent of play.

That's where kids learn.

They learn problem solving, they learn how to interact with the public and just it they're the greatest things ever.

Um so offering these spaces for everybody to be able to play and offer parallel play.

So we want to make sure kids of all abilities are challenged at every level.

So there'll be an accessible route parallel to a more challenging route so that all kids and adults have fun on the playground.

Thank you.

I really appreciate all the work that you've done in your department, but especially in this project of really looking at how to align with every developmental stage of a child.

I think that shows a really great investment that we make as a city to grow our families, grow our children, and grow our community.

Thank you.

Okay, any other questions for Christian?

Please call the role.

Tilton Byrne.

Aye.

Avery.

Doran, hi.

Hager, aye.

Neymar.

Aye.

Specker.

Aye.

All right.

Now we have item 12, progress report.

Samantha Beckman, our assistant to the city manager, will present this item.

Good evening.

And this is going to be our November 2025 Progress Report.

Uh we heard earlier tonight about the new mass notification system.

Uh, and with winter upon us, I just want to reiterate that you have the opportunity to text booking snow to 38276.

And be sure to let your friends and all your neighbors know about this as well.

It's a very great opportunity that we've got.

In the community development department, uh, last week on Wednesday, November 19th, it was GIS Day.

This is an annual event which began in 1999 and aims to elevate the understanding and appreciation for the impact of geographic information systems or GIS.

Uh GIS is a tool that helps us understand and visualize information based on locations and helps people make better, more informed decisions.

And make sure that you check out our GIS uh maps on our city's website, which I have listed on the slide here.

In the Public Works Department Engineering Division, there's been several completed projects this month, including the 32nd Avenue and Capitol Street Sanitary Sewer and Road Project.

The 20 Street South Shared Use Trail Path also has just some cleanup left.

And lastly, the sidewalk repair program and that all three wrapped up, which was great.

In the Solid Waste Division, construction is completed on the public drop-off area, also known as the Z Wall is what we've been referring to as.

Community members are encouraged to dispose of their old tangled and broken holiday lights at the drop-off locations across the city, which are listed on the screen here.

And please be sure to make sure to leave your lights loose by removing bags and boxes, removing any garland, garland ribbons, or strings.

And once the string lights and extension cords are collected from this program, they're sent to the CanBee Development Achievement Center in Canby, Minnesota, where the bulbs and wires will be separately or will be separated for environmental safety recycling.

And drop-off bins again are located at these locations through January 31st of next year.

In the Parks Recreation Forestry Department, we've got some playground replacements that wrapped up this month, including the Indian Hills and Sarah Renee playgrounds as well as swings that were replaced at Hillcrest.

The Larson Ice Center facility is now in full swing with our winter sports.

And also speaking of winter, we have uh several of our parks have been winterized for the season, and we'll be continuing to wrap that up.

The Edgewood Golf Course is also now closed for the season as well.

Staff were also able to go out and do the holiday decorations around town, and that includes the mayor's holiday tree, and we will have the tree lighting ceremony again just ahead of the Festival of Lights Parade on December 5th.

So stay tuned for more details on that event on our city's website or social media pages as well.

And the Farmers Market will be holding winter farmers market hours two Saturdays a month at the Fifth Street Gym during the winter months.

And every Friday from 6:30 to 9.30 p.m.

We're also having open gym times at the Fifth Street Gym in partnership with the Brookings Multicultural Center.

And lastly, on the Parks Recreation and Forestry kind of page here.

This is a new thing that we found out after this presentation was made.

But June 11th through the 14th, Brookings will host the All That Heals, which is a replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

The library was recently recognized by the State Library Association as being an accredited library.

So again, a very huge shout out to our library staff for all they do for us every each and every day.

And the library will also be closed December 1st through the 5th in order to remove and replace shelving and furniture in the children's and teens areas as well.

Officers have helped with DARE lessons, substitute teaching at the high school to help them with their substitute sort shortages.

And they've also been present at several STSU games, Larson Ice Center hockey, Dakota Bank Center events, and career fairs, the downtown trick-or-treating event, and Coffee with a Cop happened to land on National Donut Day this year as well.

The police department also recently helped with a DEA drug take back event for the public to dispose of unused or expired medications.

The police department has a secure prescription drop box located inside the police department lobby, and that is available 24-7 if you weren't able to attend that event.

And lastly, for the police department here on Veterans Day, the department was able to visit some local nursing homes and hand deliver thank you cards to veterans, as well as host a Thanksgiving meal.

And wrapping up here, um, the Dakota Bank Center had some highlights from the last month, the PRCA rodeo, the Monster Truck Nitro Tour in Chicago, and upcoming events.

We've got the Manaheim steamroller concert or Christmas show that will be December 6th, and all are welcome to attend the mayor's holiday party and awards ceremony that will be held on December 3rd, starting at 5 p.m.

at the Dakota Make Center.

And I will take any questions.

Thank you, Samantha.

Any questions, comments?

Councilmember Avery.

Do they have any results on the uh Chicago concert?

I I went to that, and there's a lot of old people there like myself.

Really thought that was pretty neat.

I guess I have not heard any results at the for the Chicago concert.

I can ask on that and we can follow back up next month.

Because it seemed like that was a quite a successful event and looked like a lot of traffic just pouring into town from every direction.

Yep.

Councilmember Duran.

Thank you, Mayor.

I just had a comment about uh GIS.

I think that's a really great tool in transparency and accessibility.

And I really appreciate appreciate staff in continuing to find ways to build in um unique ways to utilize that technology to increase community use.

So I do encourage all of the community members to check out that link.

Um I also have a question.

I was just wondering with the drug take back day if we had any numbers of how successful that was, or just testimony of how successful it was.

I walked all the way up to say I don't know.

But I can find out for you.

Okay, thank you.

I was just curious.

Um, it seems to be a pretty successful day in our community, and so uh yeah, any information qualitatively or quantitatively, I'd appreciate thank you.

All right, thank you, Sam.

Um all right, so we get uh next meeting is gonna be December 9th.

Um student report, ex officio reports.

Uh we got two bid awards for hay leases, and then of course, all the second readings that we had first readings on this evening, and then we will be working with uh uh Paul, our city manager's uh compensation and and uh future contract.

Then we also have a meeting on the 16th.

Uh, there's not a lot of things around the agenda yet.

Uh city attorney contract.

Um we won't have any first readings so far, and we may not have any second readings.

Progress report by the assistant city manager, and that's about it.

Does anybody have an item they want to bring up in the future meetings?

Okay, entertain a motion to adjourn.

So moved.

Second.

We are adjourned.

Or after we vote.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

We're adjourned.