I call this meeting to order.

Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Okay, welcome everybody for attending our meeting this evening.

Will the clerk please take attendance?

There are six council members present, Mr.

Mayor.

Councilmember Wendell is absent this evening.

All right.

Item three, approval of the agenda.

Entertain a motion to approve the agenda.

So moved.

Second.

Any public comments on the agenda.

Council any comments, questions?

Please call the roll.

Avery.

Aye.

Doran.

Aye.

Hager.

Aye.

Neemaier.

Aye.

Specker.

Aye.

Tilton Burton.

Aye.

All right.

Open forum.

In order to provide equal access to all during no open forum and public comment portions of the meeting, each individual offering comments shall not exceed allotted three-minute period.

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

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

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

Please state your name and address, sir.

Good evening.

My name is Greg Jorgensen.

I live in Aurora.

We currently in the city of Brookings have contracted a company called Flock Safety Group.

They are a maker of security cameras.

And these cameras uh track a variety of items.

Um, but here in Brookings, we leverage uh seven automated license plate readers.

Uh these cameras are stationed throughout town, and they record the make model license plate identif identifying information about every vehicle that drives past, regardless if they are a suspect of a crime or not.

That information is recorded and logged in a database that is then searchable by Brookings Police Department, but also any agency that the Brookings Police Department chooses to share that information with.

So I just I really finally fundamentally find that even if we warranted that this system was necessary, this flock safety group isn't the organization that we should be doing it with.

Um all that to say I have some fundamental questions that I'd like the council to maybe consider and hopefully provide answers to the community.

Um is how are these systems being used by Brookings Police Department?

Uh how effective are these systems?

I would really like to know the number of arrests that are tied to use of these systems versus the volume of vehicles that are being logged by these systems.

Um I would honestly be surprised if it was significant.

I imagine a lot of data is being generated on these using these systems that don't lead to a lot of arrests.

Um I'm very, very curious what other agencies um have access to the data collected by Brookings Police Department.

Um I also was I requested the Brookings Police Department to um give some insight into how they determined we needed this system, and I wasn't given any answer.

So I would be very curious as to how it was decided um and that we needed this.

And also I'm curious what liability this opens um our city up to.

Um as and that's all thank you so much.

Thank you for your comments.

I'll see if the city manager can follow up on your questions, sir.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

All right, we'll move on to the consent agenda.

Are there any items that need to be removed from the consent agenda?

Entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda.

So moved.

Second.

Is there any public comments on the consent agenda items that we have today this evening?

Council have any questions, comments.

Please call the roll.

Doran.

Hi.

Hager.

Hi.

Neymar.

Hi.

Specker.

Hi.

Tiltonburn.

Aye, Avery.

Aye.

Okay.

On to presentations and reports.

Uh invite Anna Hunt up for SDSU Student Association.

Good evening, everyone.

We welcomed all of our students back to campus yesterday for the first day of classes in the spring of 2026.

For students association, we finally finished up our itinerary for shed day.

That is the 25th and 26th of January.

So we'll be up there for a two-day event.

We're bringing 23 senators, and then one of our senators is actually serving as an intern in the Senate, so he will also be joining us there.

And then we do have three of our execs joining you next week for Brookings Day at the Capitol as well.

Unfortunately, I'm unable to go.

So our vice president and president and chief of staff will be attending.

And then coming up this week for sports, women's basketball is playing Denver and on Saturday, they're also playing NDSU.

And then men's basketball is also playing Kansas City on Saturday.

End of report.

Thanks, Anna.

Any questions, comments for Anna?

Don't let her off easy now.

All right.

Thank you, Anna.

All right, uh, we'll move on to ex official reports.

Uh let's do BMU report first.

Bonnie.

Yep, the BMU board met yesterday, and in addition to a lot of their usual business of approving bills, um, surplus property, awarding some bids.

They did give a 2025 update for the different utilities.

And the electric, I just want to go through some of their highlights.

The reliability figures for the electric is that they're both in the number of times that the elect service has been interrupted as well as the minutes of outage.

BMU lies b far below other municipal averages throughout this region.

And I asked them about that, and obviously part of that is that a lot of our utilities are underground, so we're we have less outages due to that.

Um they did receive the diamond design from the American Power, which is the highest designation.

I'm sorry, diamond designation, and they've provided energy efficiency rebates totaling more 122,000 last year.

The solar project has been ongoing in 2025 and is expected to be operational in the summer of 2026.

The automated metering infrastructure is now complete and operational, and there are a whole variety of projects, um, a lot of new construction, their solventum expansion of their substation, and a lot of other work that the BMU was involved in.

As far as water, there was significant water system upgrades, the new wells and well houses, the construction on those in both the east and north fields has begun.

The water treatment plant is operational, but the final completion is this spring, early summer.

They still have a lot of landscaping type issues to do.

The wastewater dump station was moved, and water and sanitary sewer replacement was done in collaboration with the city.

And the big thing that everyone always asks about, I did get a commitment.

The bid was awarded on removal of the water tower on 6th Street, and that will be removed by July 1st.

So that seems to be a lot of questions I get from people.

Um telephone and telecommunications, they surpassed 5100 subscribers.

They have several large projects and um laying new cables.

The internet satisfaction survey that was completed had over a thousand responses with some good results.

They started offering the unbundled internet so you can get internet now without um landlines.

And they're now starting to work on planning on the infrastructure needed to get 10 gigabytes to homes.

And they also have a managed Wi-Fi program that's up and running that automates um the routers and increases router speed.

And the new telecommunications tower, all that's been moved off of the water tower over to the new tower.

That's the highlights for 2025 in just a few minutes.

Thank you, Bonnie.

All right.

Brooking Shell System report.

Councilmember Hager.

Yeah, so I attended the last meeting on December 15th.

So we continued to discuss the transition to EPIC, which is the portal that doctors and other providers and nurses use.

So employee training is going well with that.

And then, of course, that led to a discussion of advancements in AI that could be used by the health system.

Of course, making sure that it's used ethically and responsibly while protecting patient privacy.

So some of the areas where there's potential for AI would be to transcribe patient and doctor conversations.

Of course, proofreading is needed.

It could also allow for the creation of personalized treatment plans, improve coding accuracy, and ensure for faster pre-approvals.

We did get an update about the community access naloxone box that Emily's hope installed, which ensures that the community has access to NARCAN, which would reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.

So far, 30 kits have been taken from the box, but there's no reports on if any of those have actually been used.

We also talked some about the impact of Governor Roden's fiscal year 27 budget proposal, which included a 0% increase for the big three, which is education, health care, and state employees.

Obviously, this was a reason for pause during the meeting, especially as the finance committee talked about the fiscal year 26 operating budget, which included a variety of needs for increases, primarily an estimated 3% price increase across most items.

Some other items needed to be adjusted for volume and inflation, and then, of course, still the need to ensure that employees receive merit raises.

So that budget proposal with that just really got everyone in the room thinking about how to ensure to navigate that potential situation of a 0% increase while still maintaining quality health care services.

On that front, the neighborhoods did receive a four-star rating of above average on health inspections, staffing, and quality.

So they were really excited about that.

Even though the budget was somewhat of a reason for pause, there were some bright spots relating to funding.

So the foundation had a strong day of giving, which brought their yearly donations to roughly 250,000.

They're still waiting on their final fundraising totals for the year.

And then a small rural hospital improvement grant was submitted to the state to hopefully receive some funds to improve some facilities.

But that's the update on the Brookings Hall system.

So I'll can take any questions if anybody has any.

I should say the same thing for Bonnie, also if there's any questions that uh could be answered.

All right.

Move on to item seven, which is contraction change orders.

We have none.

Uh we'll go on to first readings.

Item 8A.

Introduction and first reading on ordinance 26-001, an ordinance amending chapter 74 streets, sidewalks, and other public places of the quota ordinances of the city of Brookings, South Dakota.

Charlie Richter, our city engineer will present this item.

Uh good evening, council.

As your city engineer, I'm here to present the first reading of to the revision of Article 4 of Chapter 74 streets, sidewalks, and other places, uh, public places in the city's code of ordinances.

This revision will establish a formal policy and amend ordinance to establish permit and licensing procedures for contractors and entities working within the city's right-of-way.

The city currently utilizes an excavation permit for work within the right of way, but it lacks clarity and enforcement.

With this ordinance, the right-of-way work permit would replace the excavation permit and will establish the following.

Establishing a time frame when a permit must be applied for.

This will allow the proper entities aware to be aware of the work that occurs.

The excavation permit will also establish a requirement for a traffic control and detour plan if applicable.

This shall help determine the impact of the project and allow the city to notify the public if necessary of the disruption to service.

The permit, the new permit will also establish penalties when work within the right-of-way occurs without an approved permit.

For their first offense, $250 will be the fine.

For a second offense, it would be $500, and for the third offense, it would be $1,000.

Over the past five years since I've been with the city, I have had to stop numerous contractors working within the right-of-way without permits.

This will help hopefully clarify our intention here.

Um of three years, which is a reduction from the five years that currently stands, but it will align with industry standards.

Outside of these time frames that force trenches to stay in gravel until May when the asphalt plant would be open.

A nominal $35 fee would be established to recover the costs associated with permit administration.

Currently, there is no fee.

Also, work were performed on water, sanitary sewer, and storm server would require a state issued plumbing license to help ensure that the contractor is properly certified and licensed for this work.

Contractors who obtain a permit must first possess a newly generated excavators license that requires proper insurance and bonding to protect the city from liability.

Workmen's compensation insurance when applicable, but there is no fee for this license.

In addition to these changes, staff will propose to eliminate the plumbing portion of city ordinances in the following agenda item.

The plumbing ordinance was solely used at this point to require plumbers to become licensed with the city by showing proof of insurance, state licensure, and bonding requirements to work within the right of way.

The excavators license will eliminate the need for this plumbing license.

In December, the policy and proposed changes were presented to local contractors and entities for feedback.

General feedback was positive.

Those contractors are entities that were not able to attend to attend were emailed the presentation and allowed a chance to respond.

Staff recommends approval for amendment to this ordinance as proposed.

This concludes my presentation, and I stand for any questions.

Thank you, Charlie.

Is there any public comment on this item?

Council have any questions or comments at this time?

Councilmember Specker.

Yeah, Charlie, um, so to me uh this is a good way of minimizing where people dig across streets, right?

If when that happens, say they're putting in a line and a private person does this.

Does the city actually pay for the repairs to that then currently, or do they try to repair it, but sometimes it's not up to city standards, or is there an issue with how it's done?

Yeah, uh currently we have an excavation permit that requires the excavator or the contractor doing the work to actually perform the repairs to the street.

So uh providing the proper um asphalt and gravel required in the trench.

Uh at times these trenches do fail.

Uh we've had uh issues with those trenches failing, but uh have had luck with bringing contractors back to repair make those repairs.

Um we want to minimize that liability though, because we're counting on the goodwill basically of the contractor uh to come back and do the repairs as necessary.

Uh the bond and insurance that we're requiring at this point will provide us some protection in case a contractor were to balk at that.

We would be able to go back to the the uh the company's bonding agency and have them pay for their work uh to repair the street.

Thank you.

Any other questions, comments?

Councilmember Hager?

I have a couple of questions.

The first one is are right of way work permits common across municipalities?

They are.

Um there is uh many uh communities within South Dakota have a permit such as this uh back out east.

This is very common.

Uh this is the way to protect the community from uh pork workmanship within the the the right-of-way and make sure that the city isn't forced to make those repairs on their own dime.

For sure.

And then my second question is in light of the proposed removal of the plumbing license that we'll talk about a little bit more next.

But then with this new permit, do you think that this will cause projects to increase, decrease, or remain about the same in terms of cost?

Um I think it would be about the same.

Uh you've got a lot of excavators that have been required to get a plumbing license, a city plumbing license, which is a requires a $50 fee, a bond and insurance.

Um we are actually uh going to require only those that work within the right-of-way to obtain those.

I will talk about a little later with the plumbing license.

Uh unfortunately, a lot of plumbers that don't work within the right-of-way were also required to get this plumbing license, which cause unnecessary cost to uh a burden to those contractors.

Okay, thank you.

Okay.

Any other questions, comments?

Thanks, Charlie.

We'll move on to 8B.

Introduction and first reading on ordinance 26-002 and ordinance amending chapter 22.

Buildings and building regulations of the code of ordinances of the City of Brookings, South Dakota.

Charlie will also present this item.

Uh good evening, Council again.

Um, I'm here to present the first reading to the revision of Articles 2 and 3 of Chapter 22 buildings and building regulations in the city's code of ordinances.

Article 3 of Chapter 22 outlines the city's regulations for obtaining plumbing permits and plumbing licenses for the city.

However, the city of Brookings has not been responsible for permitting inspecting plumbing work for either commercial or residential construction since 1970.

Uh that's at that time the state assumed those responsibilities on behalf of communities across the across the state.

With the state assuming responsibility over licensure and permitting, the plumbing ordinance is now solely used at this point to require plumbers to become licensed by the city.

City licensure required proof showing proof of state licensure, insurance, and bond to work within the right-of-way.

And as I explained earlier on, uh this also required plumbers that were just residential plumbers to obtain this license.

The proposed excavators license in the previous agenda item eliminates the need for the plumbing license for people who work within the right-of-way.

To reduce confusion regarding the authority responsible for re regulating plumbing, public works proposes eliminating chapter 22, Article 3, plumbing in its entirety and amending chapter 22, Article 2, Building Code to adopt the state plumbing code as reference.

And all parties are in agreement.

Staff recommends approval for amendment to this ordinance as proposed.

This concludes my presentation.

Thank you, Charlie.

Is there any public comment on this particular item?

Council have any questions, comments.

All right.

We'll have second reading on both of these uh two items that we just uh had first reading on on January 22nd or 27th, I should say.

All right.

On to second readings and public hearings.

Item 9A.

Public hearing in action on resolution 25-01-106.

A resolution of intent to lease real property north of the Brookings Regional Landfill.

Charlie Kuhn, our solid waste manager will present this item.

Uh good evening, Mayor, City Council members.

Uh item 9A is proposing a resolution that will award the bid for the farmland lease at the Brookings Regional Landfill.

The landfill owns 115 acres of farmland to the north of the current permitted area located at 4101 30th Street.

Leasing out the farmland to the highest bidder not only brings in an additional revenue to the solid waste division, but allows for sustainable and proper land management practices.

On Friday, November 14th, the city published the bid notice and on Tuesday, November 25th at 1.30.

Staff opened and read each bid.

In all four responsive bids were received.

Staff reviewed all bids and determined that Dave Burnt, operating out of White South Dakota, submitted the highest responsive bid in the amount of $326 per acre.

Burns bid is approximately 5% higher than the next highest bid, as well as 30% higher than the previous leased amount.

Staff recommends approval, and that concludes my presentation.

Thank you, Charlie.

Entertain a motion to approve.

So moved.

Second.

Been moved and seconded.

We have public hearing on this.

Is there any public comment on this?

Council any questions, comments.

They're allowed to farm anything they want on it as far as crops, right?

Yeah.

And and just no livestock.

And is this a renewable lease?

Yeah.

So that uh well, it's it's a five-year lease.

Um, and this this lease does not have a renewable option for it.

So it's just for five years, but there is an escalator every year into the lease.

All right, please call the roll.

Hager, aye.

Nehemiah.

Aye.

Specker, aye.

Tilton Byrne, aye.

Avery.

Aye.

Doran, aye.

All right.

Item 9B, public hearing and action on ordinance 25-046.

An ordinance pertaining to a conditional use permit to establish a concrete, asphalt, and rook rock crushing facility in an industrial I1 light district.

21625 40 471st Avenue.

Mike Strucker, community development director will introduce this item.

Thank you, Mayor, and members of the council.

Uh, the ordinance before you tonight is for conditional use to establish as uh uh an accessory use on an existing contractor's shop um at uh 21625 471st Avenue down there on the S curve.

Uh the applicant has been operating um on an interim basis, uh concrete crushing activities down there since he moved down to that location um approximately five years ago.

Typically, with his operations is is they stockpile uh spent material from construction projects, they haul it to the site when they have enough to warrant bringing in uh crushing contractor, they typically come in for a seven to ten day period and crush all the material and then they leave it on site.

Uh the crushed material is then hauled off site as needed for various projects throughout the the area, uh typically used as base course.

Uh, with the recent uh passage of an ordinance um addressing concrete crushing this particular property uh you know, just wanted to go through the process to make sure he was in compliance with all of our city ordinances, and so uh he's gone through the rezoning process.

He's here tonight for uh conditional use.

Uh essentially with this, the traffic generated from this is really no different than their current operations.

They haul gravel in to this site, stockpile the gravel, and then they haul it off-site as needed for construction projects with the concrete material.

It lessens some of the need for some of the gravel because they're very complementary resources that are utilized in the community.

Uh, he meets the separation distances from the property line.

Um as he contracts with uh crusher to come in, um, they schedule it when there's enough material that's stockpiled on site, they have provisions in place that if the wind conditions are such that it would generate significant dust that they're not able to keep under control, they would shut down operations until uh the weather is more cooperative.

Otherwise, they can also use uh um they have sprayers on the crushing belts that uh can help wet the material to keep it uh the dust control um under control.

Um this does come to you as a unanimous recommendation from the planning commission.

Uh the development review team supports the request, and with that I'd stand for any questions you may have.

Thank you, Mike.

Entertain a motion to approve.

So moved, second.

Move to second.

Open to public hearing on this item.

Is there any public comment on this particular item?

Council have any questions, comments on this item.

All right, please call the roll.

Neymar.

Aye, Specker.

Aye.

Tilton Burn.

Aye.

Avery, aye.

Dorian, aye, Hager, aye.

All right.

Item 9C, public hearing in action on a request of transfer and on off sale malt license with video lottery authorization for Tolf Golf located at 2508 Wilburt Court Suite B.

Bonnie Foster, our uh city clerk will present this item.

Mayor and council members, this is for the transfer of an on-off malt license with a video lottery authorization for TOF golf.

Nick Pisek will be the new owner of this establishment.

Um he has been operating as their manager since late last year and will be transitioning into the ownership of the business.

Um if approved, both licenses would be evaluated by the appropriate state offices for final issuance.

Staff does recommend approval.

All right, thanks, Bonnie.

Entertain a motion to approve.

So moved.

Second.

We move to second.

Open the public hearing on this item.

Any public comment, questions?

All right.

Close the public hearing.

Is council have any questions, comments?

Please call the roll.

Specker.

Aye.

Tilton Byrne.

Aye.

Avery.

Aye.

Doran.

Aye.

Hager?

Aye.

Neymar.

Aye.

Okay, so we're done with our uh business for this evening.

Um is there any topics that the council would like to bring up for future?

Councilmember Duran.

Thank you, Mayor.

I would like to make a request to add the Dakota Bank Center to next week's study session, please.

All right.

We have a second.

Second.

All right.

Do we need discussion?

I I can just add a comment.

Um that the contract with OVG is up at the end of this year, and so just looking to get some background and how the facility is doing.

All right.

Uh I I would assume we need to have a vote on this.

Please call the roll.

Tilton Byrne.

Aye.

Avery.

Aye.

Doran?

Aye.

Hager?

Aye.

Neymar?

Aye.

Specker.

Aye.

All right.

Is there any other items that the council would like to bring up for the future?

Okay.

We looked at advanced agendas.

Uh next week we have a informational meeting, community room at six o'clock on January twentieth.

Uh we have a presentation on new volunteer board application member management program.

Uh Bonnie will be giving us that.

And then uh the police facility.

Uh Councilman, our uh city manager Paul and uh Chief Drake will uh give us an update on the facility and site selection, and then uh presentation for possibly Dakota Bake Center also by Johnny and and uh Samantha and Kristen from Park and Rec.

And then we have our January 27 meeting.

Uh we will obviously have uh second readings on two of our two first readings this evening, and then um uh possible first readings on some ordinances, and then we'll progress report, and that's pretty much about it.

Uh consent agenda's got some declared surplus property.

That being said, I guess we're done this evening.

Entertain a motion to adjourn.

So move.

Second.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Meeting adjourned.

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