All right.

I call this meeting to order.

Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Thank you all for attending this evening.

Will the city clerk please take city council attendance?

All council members are present, Mr.

Mayor.

City Attorney Vince Jones is on the conference call line.

All right.

Thank you.

Item three, approval of the agenda.

Entertain a motion to approve the agenda.

So moved.

Second.

Moved and seconded.

Is there any comments of the agenda by the public?

Comments, questions by council?

Please call the roll.

Specker.

Aye.

Tilton Byrne.

Aye.

Wendell?

Aye.

Avery.

Aye.

Doran.

Aye.

Hager.

Aye.

Neemaier.

Aye.

Item four, open forum.

In order to provide equal access to all during the open forum and comment public comment portions of the meeting.

Each individual is offered 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 address the council on an item not listed on tonight's agenda?

All right.

Off uh councilmember Duran, you have a few comments you would like to make.

I do, thank you, Mayor.

Um, so I just wanted to have uh kind of a community moment that in January and February, this can be a peak season for seasonal effective disorder.

Just wanted to just remind the community about some mental health resources that we have as we see a rise in anxiety as well as isolation and knowing that help is out there.

There are many mental health trainings sponsored by local partners that can help instill some skills with people to navigate conversations with their friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers.

Um we also have resources like the helpline center and 211 that you can look online or you can call to find local counselors or events or programs and supports for you.

And then a reminder that you can always call crisis hotlines such as 988 for 24-7 help.

We also have private resources and community partners like the Ivy Center that does have emergency after hours phone call for you, and those resources are available for free for anyone.

And we have an event coming up hosted by the mental health coalition, resilient communities and united way on February 18th from 8 a.m.

to 1 p.m.

It's a free event called Stronger Together, Building Assets for Brookings, a day for suicide prevention.

You can find more information by uh just going on United Way's Facebook or website.

So just want to remind everyone that help is out there for those experiencing any mental health issues.

Thank you.

Thank you, Brie.

On to item five, consent agenda.

Action on the consent agenda.

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

Entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda.

So moved.

Second.

Is there any public comments on any of the items on our consent agenda this evening?

Please call the roll.

Tilton Byrne.

Aye.

Wendell.

Aye.

Avery.

Aye.

Dorin.

Aye.

Hager.

Aye.

Nemeyer.

Aye.

Specker.

Aye.

So item 6A, report from SDSU Student Association.

I invite Anna Hunt, our CSTSU Students Association, Government Affairs Chair, to come forward.

Good evening.

Uh yesterday and Sunday, our students association attended Shed or Students for Higher Education Day at the Capitol.

We did a great time.

We met with the governor, Lieutenant Governor, and the Secretary of State Monet Johnson.

Our student federation also met while we were there, and we got to hear about everything that the schools and the board of regents were working on.

And then one of them is doing a GAF reallocation just like we are.

Our GAF reallocation survey is live.

It's been live since last Monday, and it'll close on Friday.

And we are about 86% of the way there for all of our votes, and we're looking for about 2,500 yes votes, and we're about 86% of the way there for that.

And then our government affairs committee will be meeting this Thursday.

We have to discuss House Bill 1133, which was just added to the LRC website on Sunday while we were at the state capitol.

And then just things to look forward to this week.

The wrestling team has a luncheon on on Wednesday at Cubby's.

And then women's basketball plays NDSU on Saturday, and men's basketball plays Kansas City right following.

And Saturday is also our junior day as well.

End of report.

All right.

Questions for Anna.

Anna, can you elaborate a little bit on 1133?

What would what the concerns may be on that particular item?

Yeah, so House Bill 1133 effectively removes the requirement for a permit to conceal carry on campus.

So it's constitutional carry on campus, which just changes house or Senate Bill 100, which was passed just last year.

All right.

Thank you.

All right.

At this time we have no contracts or change orders.

Uh we do have some first readings.

Item 8A, introduction and first reading on ordinance 26 003, an ordinance amending chapter 70 in the solid waste of the code of ordinances of the city of Brookings, South Dakota.

Charlie, oh John is going to present this item.

Yep.

Unfortunately, Charlie tonight is under the weather.

So I said I'd step up and help them on this.

Um we get to it here.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council members, John Thompson with Public Works.

Item 8A is a introduction of first reading of ordinance 26 003 that proposes a prohibition uh e-waste and lithium batteries disposal at the Brookings Landfill.

Currently, there is no e-waste regulations in the state of South Dakota.

However, there's several municipalities have already implemented uh restrictions throughout their areas, and then there's also a lot of states that already have e-waste bans at all landfills.

So next slide.

So why would we want to recycle this type of stream?

E waste is estimated to make up approximately 2.7% of all landfill waste.

So here in Brickings, we receive approximately 60,000 tons per year.

Uh so if the percentage is right, that means we're landfilling about 1,620 tons of e-waste per year.

There's better things to do with that.

If we recycle it, it saves on landfill airspace, extends the life of our landfill.

Within the e-waste, there's a lot of hazardous materials.

Um like uh candium, lead, and arsenic.

If we get that out of the waste streams, these heavy metals pose a significant environmental and health risk.

So it's important that we properly manage them and dispose of them properly.

Number three, reduces landfill fires.

We've had a couple of fires since I've been here for the past three years.

Majority of those fires are caused by either lithium batteries or electronics.

Getting those out of that waste stream and disposed of saves us to go on the fires.

And then four, sustainability for the EPA.

About 98% of the components within e-waste are recyclable.

So we need to go do our part and recycle those the best we can.

Next slide, please.

Our operations plan.

Uh we're gonna have a designated site at the landfill for customers to come out.

We'll be on asphalt at all times.

Uh the tipping fee is gonna be set for 100% cost recovery.

So, what it costs us to run this program is gonna be received by those fees.

Um, our recycling companies out of it's American Recycling out of Lincoln, Nebraska, they were the closest ones that we could find that would come up to take unsorted e-waste from us, but they are charging us a fee for that.

Ultimately, as this program evolves.

I'm hoping uh that there'll be other companies that maybe would be able to reduce that cost and reduce and we'll just pass that along to our customers.

Next slide, please.

Um go back one.

Okay.

I did cover all that.

Sorry.

Um, next slide.

This then this slide, it kind of shows us what what are acceptable items and what's not acceptable.

Most of the most common are gonna be your TVs, your compute old computers, some of your printers, keyboards, routers, stuff like that that you have laying around at home.

Uh, we will not accept any type of medical equipment.

Um, anything with mercury in it, thermometers, uh, thermostats, stuff like that, or fluorescent bulbs in this program.

Staff intends to uh launch this program in April.

We're gonna do it in conjunction with the spring bulky item pickup.

To promote the new service, we're gonna start a marketing campaign in February, uh starting real heavy in February, and we're planning to offer a one-week free amnesty event during the spulk uh spring bulky item pickup uh time.

I'd like to mention a couple things for our customers.

Um, number one, this ordinance will change e-waste collection, right?

Because so in previous years at the uh spring cleanup, we do we collect the TVs off the curb side.

Now will they be excluded from the bulky item pickup going forward?

Number two, um, although it's already banned in our ward nets e-waste in carts.

If we see them in in the carts, like a cart overfilled right now or even with e-waste going forward, we're going to put a tag on that cart, and that cart won't be picked up for that week's service because we can't collect those, couldn't collect those e-wastes from those carts.

So if hopefully that makes sense.

Um second reading of this ordinance will be February 10th, and that concludes the presentation for it now.

Stand for any questions.

All right.

Thanks, John.

Is there any public comment on this item to this this evening?

Obviously, we have a second reading yet, but if there's any comments or questions this evening.

Council any questions, comments?

Councilmember Specker.

John, just out of curiosity on fluorescent bulbs.

Where are is that hazardous waste drop-off only, or can they currently go in the landfill?

So the the fall in August, the household hazardous waste event.

Yeah, we do not accept any type of electronics at that event.

But you'll see that in a lot of jurisdictions, you'll combine that household hazardous waste with an electronics free disposal of, and that's something we may be able to consider.

It's just gonna be the financial side of it.

Uh right now, that is only for house what's underneath your sink.

Yeah, but you have a the fluorescent bulbs as things that are not accepted.

So I am sorry, I I'm getting death.

Uh the fluorescent bulbs are acceptable at household hazardous waste, yes.

Okay.

Thanks.

But they are not as electronics, correct?

No, no, no, electronics would not be at this time.

All right, council member Tilton Burne.

Um, thank you for bringing this forward.

Um, I think that this is going to be a really great program to try and get some of the e-waste out of our landfill um so that like you were talking about some of those heavy metals aren't kind of contaminating things um and mitigating some of that risk while increasing sustainability.

Um my question is you had mentioned that we will uh provide the free um one week during the spring bulky item pickup.

Will that be an annual uh free option, or are we doing that just the first year to sort of see how that works and then potentially charge in yours?

We were intending to do it the first year, like to see where the cost costs go with us.

Uh and if if possible, I'd love to be able to do it every year, but it's just gonna be depends on you know, at the landfill we in 2023, I want to say, we started the solid waste master plan.

With that came a very uh in-depth financial tool, and that we're following that financial tool heavily.

If we can find some money and it doesn't cost that much, we'd love to be able to do that, but at this time it'd be only for this announcement of the program.

Yeah, as we evaluate that, I would um I hope that one of the things we'll look at is if having um e-waste not be part of bulky item pickup, if that would reduce the time that it takes for staff to go out and do a lot of that pickup, since a lot of those items do tend like TV and and computers and whatnot, if there's a reduction in the amount of time that it takes to collect everything, that could be seen as a savings as well.

And so potentially uh maybe the the way that we can help um facilitate uh an annual free um e-waste uh drop off.

Um my other question is um you had mentioned that uh e-waste is not currently allowed to be um just freely placed into the landfill um and that there'd be tags on carts in the future.

Um is there are there any other uh um fees that need to be paid or will folks be fined?

Is there a fine that we have if folks do drop e-waste in the landfill at this time?

Uh um for the carts, uh the collection driver would actually have to see it.

It's kind of sticking out.

I mean, they could be buried in the carts, we're not gonna know it.

And then the truck goes out to the landfill, and it's a mixture of a whole uh neighborhood.

We really can't do anything with that.

If you haul self-haul a truck out there and we see tires, a refrigerator or e-waste in it, you'll be charged for those.

And that's the same with like our commercial customers right now.

If they haul in and what they dump and we see count two or three tires, we'll radio to back down to the scale house, and they'll be charged for those fires.

There's no fine or anything.

It's just we'll charge them for the fee that they should be paid.

Great.

Well, again, thank you for bringing this plan forward.

I think between the hazardous waste uh event that we do, this e-waste.

I think there's just a lot of great things that we're doing to try and mitigate some of the um the negative things that could possibly happen out at the landfill and increase our sustainability.

So thanks for the work that you and your team are doing.

Appreciate it.

Councilmember Hager.

I have a couple of questions.

I remember when I was doing orientation and we were briefly talking about this issue and how you wanted to get this going, that a lot of the companies that accept these different items make sure that you know, even if you've deleted everything off your laptop or desktop, they do destroy the hard drive.

Is that correct?

And could you just elaborate a little bit on that for folks?

Yeah, American Recyclers, what their what their intent will do is anything on the e-waste that they pick up, they'll send us a certificate certificate of uh destruction on the way back.

They physically uh physically destroy the all the hard drives, even though I would still recommend anybody who's getting rid of their laptop or anything, pull your hard drive out.

I mean it's it's there's got a lot of data in it.

Um and then you can destroy that at with take some aggression out.

Sounds like a plan.

And then my other question is uh going off of uh council member Tilton Burns line of questioning where obviously you could have some e-waste in the bottom of somebody's green cart, and so I know that there's you know different mechanisms in place to try to ensure that doesn't happen, you know, not picking up carts, not accepting these types of things at the landfill.

But in your experience and in researching these types of programs, knowing that there's typically a public information campaign that has to go along with this.

Like, what's the effectiveness of just simply putting this ordinance in place and eliminating the e-waste in the landfills?

You have to you have to have that social media.

You have to have that marketing going out there, and it needs to be continuous.

You're always going to still get um items that you should not be in the carts.

People will still have a tendency to do that, and it's really tough to lock down on that.

But I think the best we can do is a good faith effort on the marketing campaign and get it out in front of everybody's face.

Yeah, we have a great social marketing um team and public information office.

So I think they can keep getting those reminders out there.

So hopefully the compliance just gets better and better.

Thanks so much.

Thank you.

All right, any other questions, comments?

All right, as John said, we'll have second reading on that on the 10th of February.

Item 8B introduction and first reading on ordinance 26 004.

An ordinance to change the zoning within the city of Brookings.

Lot one of Clark Second Add from an agricultural A district to an industrial I-1 light district.

Mike Strck, our community development director, will present this item.

Thank you, Mayor, and members of the council.

Uh, ordinance 26-004 is a rezoning for a 51-acre parcel on the east side of the community um located near the intersection of uh 6th Street and 34th Avenue.

Uh this property is recently annexed here in the past year, and the property owners are wishing to pursue um industrial development out in this particular area.

So they're proposing the rezone it from egg to uh I wanna I light industrial district.

Uh it is consistent with our future land use map that designated this area as uh business park light industrial area.

It's comes to you with a unanimous recommendation from the planning commission for approval and the development review team recommends approval.

I'd stand for any questions you may have.

Thank you, Mike.

Uh, is there any public comment on this particular item?

Council have any questions or comments at this moment?

All right, we'll move on to next one.

Item 8 C introduction first reading on ordinance 26-005, an ordinance to change the zoning within the city of Brookings.

Block one of Mills third edition, excluding H1 and H2 from a residential R3A apartments, mobile homes, manufactured housing district to a business B2 district.

Mike Struck will also present this item.

Thank you, Mayor, and members of the council.

Uh, the ordinance before you tonight is to rezone about 3.1 acres right near the uh on ramp at uh 20th Street South Interchange.

Uh this area is part of a on our future land use map as an urban high intensity area.

Uh property owners are wishing to rezone the property from a residential purpose to a business B2 district.

Um it is supported through the comprehensive plan, and this would allow for future commercial development along that 20th Street South Corridor.

This does come to you with a nine to zero recommendation from the planning commission for approval and the development review team supports the request.

I'd stand for any questions you may have.

Thank you, Mike.

Is there any public comment on this item?

Please come up to the mic, state your name and address, sir.

Luke Davidson.

Um just a simple question.

If the city rezones this area, do they have to provide another area, rezone a different area to provide apartment mobile home manufactured housing, or will we just lose another mobile home area within Brookings?

Currently, sir, there just so you know, currently there's nothing on this land now.

Okay, and so we're not taking away from something.

It's obviously is part of an area that has R3 right now, right, Mike.

Yes.

Um is there a map located?

There's not.

All right.

So we'll make sure that we do have a map up for next week or next meeting so that people can identify where this is at.

But it's basically right as you do the southbound off ramp.

So it's kind of quite a ways away from everything else.

Yeah, so it's currently uh undeveloped R3A property.

Um, but to speak directly to the question, if you change the zoning on something, we the they're not required to replace that uh land um elsewhere with in the community.

So sufficient.

All right.

Uh council have any questions, comments.

All right.

That both of these items also will be on the uh second reading will be on the February 10th.

Now we move on to second readings of public hearings.

We do have a public hearing in action on a special event and temporary alcohol beverage, and Bonnie Foster will present this item.

Mayor and Council members.

St.

Thomas Moore Catholic School has applied for a special event, temporary alcohol license to hold a St.

Patrick's Day event fundraiser on March 21st.

The location would be at the school on 8th Street South.

Staff recommends approval.

Marissa Kessler is present this evening if the council has any questions for her.

All right, thank you.

Entertain a motion to approve.

So moved.

Second.

Open to public hearing on this item.

Is there any public comment?

This is the time for you to advertise if you choose to.

All right.

Close the public hearing.

Council questions, comments?

Please call the roll.

Lendell.

Aye.

Avery.

Aye.

Dorian.

Aye.

Hager.

Aye.

Emayer.

Aye.

Specker.

Aye.

Tilton Byrne.

Aye.

Motion passes.

We on to mine B, public hearing and action on ordinance 2600 one.

An ordinance amending chapter 74 on the streets, sidewalks, and other public places of the code of ordinances for the city of Brookings.

Charlie Richter, our city engineer will present this item.

Uh good evening, Council.

As your city engineer, I'm here to present the second reading to the revision of Article 4 of Chapter 74, Streets, Sidewalk, and Other 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.

Permits such as these are common in municipalities.

After researching how other municipalities and structure their permits for right-of-way work, public works is proposing to replace the excavation permit with a new right-of-way permit pol uh permit that will establish the following.

A time frame when a permit must be applied for.

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

Over the past five years, I've had to stop numerous contractors who are working without a permit.

It will also establish a warranty period, which will be reduced from five to three years, which aligns with industry standards.

It will also restrict permits to be issued from April 15th to November 15th unless deemed necessary as an emergency to prevent trenches from staying in gravel for long periods of time over the winter.

It will also establish a non-model fee of $35 to recover the costs associated with permit administration.

This cost will be partially offset with the removal of the plumbing license fee requirement that will be discussed later on.

Work performed on water and water sanitary sewer and storm sewer would require a state-issued plumbing license to help ensure that the contractor is properly certified for this work.

Uh ordinance also establishes an excavator's license to obtain a right-of-way permit that requires the following.

Proper insurance and bonding to protect the city from liability, workman's comp insurance when applicable, and there will be no fee for this license.

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

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

The excavators license now eliminates the need for a plumbing license.

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

General feedback was positive.

Those contractors or entities that were unable to attend were emailed the presentation.

Staff recommends approval for amendment to this ordinance as proposed.

This concludes my presentation and I stand for any questions.

Thank you, Charlie.

Entertain a motion to approve.

So moved.

Second.

Moved and seconded.

I opened a public hearing on this item.

Is there any public comment?

Okay.

Public hearing is closed.

Council cons questions, comments?

Councilmember Specker?

Yeah, Charlie, you answered a lot of the questions I had last week.

Um, but one thing I was wondering is did you hear from any uh additional excavators in this past week since the first reading?

I have not.

Okay.

So you still think it's pretty positive?

Correct.

Yeah, from what I've uh my discussion with uh contractors and entities back in December, they were it was positively received.

Okay.

Thank you All right.

Any other comments, questions?

Please call the roll.

Avery.

Aye.

Norren?

Aye.

Hager, aye.

Neymar?

Aye.

Specker?

Aye.

Tilton Bird, aye.

Wendell.

Aye.

Okay.

On to item 9C, public hearing in action on ordinance 26-002.

An ordinance amending Chapter 22, buildings and building request regulations of the code of ordinances of the City of Brookings, South Dakota.

Charlie Ricker will also present this item.

Good evening, Council.

As your city engineer, I'm here to present the first reading of the second reading to the revision of Articles 2 and 3 of Chapter 22, buildings and building regulations and the City's Code of Ordinances.

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

However, the City of Brookings has not been responsible for permitting and inspecting plumbing work for either commercial or residential construction since 1970 when the state took assumed those responsibilities.

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

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

The proposed excavators license in the previous agenda item eliminates the need for this plumbing licensure requirement.

To reduce confusion regarding the authority responsible for regulating plumbing, public works proposes eliminating Chapter 22, Article 3 plumbing in its entirety and amending Chapter 22 Article 2 building uh building code to adopt a state plumbing ordinance uh state plumbing code as reference.

Plumbing uh public works has coordinated with community development and Brookings municipal utilities regarding these proposed changes, and all parties are in agreement.

Staff recommends approval for amendment to this ordinance as proposed.

This concludes my presentation and I stand for any questions.

Thank you, Charlie.

Entertain a motion to approve.

So moved.

Second.

Then move and second, an open public hearing on this item.

Is there any public comment on this item?

Close the hearing.

Council have questions, comments on this item.

Pretty much a cleanup thing.

So please call the roll.

Doran.

Aye.

Hager.

Aye.

Neyer.

Aye.

Specker?

Aye.

Tilton Byrne?

Aye.

Wendell?

Aye.

Avery.

Aye.

All right.

Move on to item 10, other business.

Item 10A, action on resolution 26-012.

A resolution authorizing the carry forward of outstanding encumbrances.

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

Thank you, Mayor, and members of the council.

This is resolution 26-012 authorizing the carry forward of outstanding encumbrances from 2025 to 2026.

The public works department uses encumbrance accounting to reserve funds for purchase orders and contracts that were approved but not fully paid by year end.

As of December 31st, 2025, we have 1,617,053.

These funds were previously budgeted in 2025 and are still needed to complete the associated projects.

Council approval is required to carry forward those budgeted amounts into the new fiscal year to appropriate for accurate financial reporting and project continuity.

And state law requires and allows encumbrances to be carried forward via resolution by the first meeting in February.

The full list of purchase orders and budget adjustments was included in your packet.

And just to clarify, we'll also be bringing forward a budget amendment ordinance at a later meeting for other departmental carry forwards.

The ones before you tonight are clearly marked as encumbrances in our accounting system, and it's based on the purchase order tracking mechanism that we use in public works.

Staff recommends approval of this resolution as presented, and I'll stand by for any questions.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ashley.

Entertain a motion to approve.

So moved.

Second.

Is there any public comment on this item?

Council questions, comments?

Please call the roll.

Hager.

Aye.

Neymar.

Aye.

Specker?

Aye.

Tilton Byrne.

Aye.

Wendell?

Aye.

Avery?

Aye.

Doran.

Aye.

All right.

Uh move on to item 10B, action and resolution 26-004.

A resolution amending the consolidated fee schedule.

Ashley Wrench will also present this item.

Thank you, Mayor, and members of the council.

This is resolution 26-004 and amendment to the 2026 consolidated fee schedule.

This resolution reflects several updates.

First, we're adding the right-of-way work permit and compliance fees in conjunction with ordinance 26-001 to formalize the permitting process for the work in the public right-of-way.

This includes a $35 permit fee and then escalating penalties for working without a permit, ranging from $250 to $1,000 for repeat offenses.

Second, we are creating a new excavator license classification.

While a license will be required, there will be no fee assessed at this time.

This is for excavators working in public rights of way, and no license will be required for work in pub in private properties.

Finally, we are removing the plumbing contractor license fees from the schedule based on ordinance 26-002 presented by Charlie earlier tonight.

And that eliminates local plumbing uh licensing from the city code.

Staff recommends approval of this resolution as presented.

And I'll stand by for questions.

Thanks.

Thank you, Ashley.

Entertain a motion to approve.

So moved.

Second.

Been moved and seconded.

Is there any public comment on this item?

Council have questions, comments.

Please call the roll.

Neemeyer.

Aye.

Specker.

Aye.

Tilton Byrne.

Aye.

Wendell?

Aye.

Avery?

Aye.

Dorin.

Aye.

Hager.

Aye.

All right.

Item 10 C action on resolution 26-013.

A resolution establishing the 2026 fees for park rec forestry and edgebook golf course.

Kristen Zimmerman, our park and rec forestry director will present this item.

Thank you, Mayor.

Members of council.

Before you tonight is our annual resolution adopting the 2026 Parks Recreation Forestry and Edgebroad Golf Course fees and schedule.

This item reflects staff's recommendation and follows our annual review of fees to ensure affordability, equity, and cost recovery and consistency with market standards as outlined in the in the memo.

Some of the key highlights of the proposed fee schedules include targeted adjustments to select facilities and shelters to make them fall in line with our beneficiary of service.

So earlier this year we worked with a firm to really look at our true cost of doing business.

So how much does it cost us to maintain a shelter?

Um clean up after a birthday party and that sort of thing.

So it in one of the attachments in the packet is that kind of philosophy.

So subsidizing more recreation programs rather than like birthday parties in a shelter, because that's for single, not for the public use.

So that's kind of the philosophy behind some of our well, all of our fees structure.

Some of the highlights include in the proposed um fee structure include shelter rentals, decreasing the cost to community gardens, streamlining fees such as outdoor courts, tennis courts were one fee, pickleball courts were a different fee, sand volleyball courts were a different fee.

So just making all outdoor courts one fee.

Maintaining the golf course fees with the exception of increasing the CIP for daily use by one dollar for eight holes, um, and then two dollars for or for nine holes and then two dollars for eighteen.

Um then also establishing a discount during the water sourcing construction, which um we're not sure what that timeline is yet for sure, but it'll happen hopefully this this season.

Um the bit other large changes you'll notice that all recreation programs are removed from the fee schedule.

Um, this change reflects our philosophy statement.

So it goes into recreational versus competitive sports, for example, are at a different um cost recovery method that's in that beneficiary of service.

The reason those were also removed is those fees fluctuate based on instructor, based on um different mainly instructors.

Um so we need to re keep those fees as flexible as possible so we can keep them as affordable as possible possible.

Um the parks and recreation advisory board reviewed in the proposed fees and supported staff's recommendation with one exception.

The board discussed the ongoing ongoing water sourcing project at Edgebrook and suggested increasing the CIP fee for golf memberships to help address the long-term infrastructure needs.

Um, since the park board meeting, the Brookings Country Club and other golf courses released publicly their rates and to maintain competitive our competitive nature within our community.

Um at this time, staff is not recommending to increase the CIP so that we can remain competitive while still mainly maintaining strong participation at Edgebrook.

Overall, the proposed fee structure before you reflects a balanced approach, supporting fiscal responsibility, maintaining accessibility for residents and positioning our facilities and programs to remain competitive and sustainable.

Staff will continue, of course, to monitor operational costs, market conditions, and long-term cash capital needs and bring forward any adjustments as appropriate in the future.

Staff recommends approval of the resolution as presented.

Thank you, Kristen.

Entertain a motion to approve.

So moved.

Second.

We move and second.

Is there any public comment on this item?

I have a question on the please come up to the mic and state your name and address, sir.

Thank you.

I'm Todd Sumner.

I had a question on the water project.

Um we have 1.3 million dollars to spend on it, and the lowest bid is 2.1.

Correct.

So we are about $800,000 short.

What I'm suggesting is that we take and start right now on putting liners in the ponds.

Okay.

It would take some of that $1.3 million, but if we could get those liners in the ponds, when you do get rain, it would stay in there a lot better than without it.

All right.

Thank you for your comments.

Kristen, would you like to comment on that suggestion?

Um being a public entity, we have to go out for bid for all construction projects as a part of that building it as one project is really beneficial to the course.

Um, some of the ponds are connected into the aquifer, so it allows us to still pull up the water in the event of construction.

Um moving forward, we need to be have the flexibility to transfer the water from pond to pond, especially during construction, so that we can still maintain at least the greens, greens and tea boxes with as much water as possible.

Right.

I I would also recommend that once you have a timeline and have spoken with the engineers, maybe we have a work session so that the public can understand what uh the proposed project is and maybe uh respond to this question as well.

Absolutely.

Any other public comments, questions?

Please come on.

Oh it's just that we have been told for the last four or five years that the city is working on a water project for the golf course.

Nothing yet.

Okay.

And if we need bids, can we get just a separate bid for the liners?

Okay, and maybe we can go forward with that.

And then we can get bids for the rest of the project, but those liners are desperate.

I don't know.

Do any of you guys play golf at Edgebrook?

Well, we need it bad.

So thank you for your comments, sir.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

And the council um Mark Stratton, lifelong resident Brookings member of Edgebrook, longer than I can remember.

Um the only reason I'm really asking is I didn't quite hear for sure what you said.

Um I know this has been a big struggle uh 10 years ago.

We had all the water we needed out there, right?

Spent a lot of money on the front nine, and now we're fighting for water.

My question for you was did I hear you correctly about the cost of the membership and the CIP.

Is the membership going to go up at all this year?

Or is it just gonna stay the way it is right now?

Staff is proposing no change, but it's ultimately um before council right now for um vote.

So staff is proposing no change.

Park board recommended a change to the CIP.

I think there is also a change though that you do recommend a reduction uh in the fees uh during the construction if we should have to take down a couple holes, though, correct?

Yes, that's for daily golf use, not for memberships.

Um, so it's just greens fees, not cart fees.

Um I try to be intuitive about our fees that we charge.

If I can, just so that I would just ask you to consider not raising the membership fee at all.

No, nothing with CIP or anything until you get this water project taken care of.

Like the gentleman said, we've been fighting for water a long time.

It is a little discouraging, and I think it would be kind of a slap in the face to us if we still don't have water and then you increased our rates again.

So I'm just asking you to consider not raising our rates this year.

Thank you.

Do I understand right?

The membership fee was being raised also?

Just the green fees for for the CIP, right?

Yes.

Correct.

Yeah.

So the membership fee is not being increased.

Is what staff is proposed in the item.

Okay.

Um other public questions, comments.

Councilmember Duran.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I just wanted to express my appreciation for your philosophy of how you came up with these numbers on balancing the cost recovery as well as affordability.

I was wondering if you could dive a little bit deeper into like uh checkpoint or how you really analyzed what is affordable for families.

I know we do a really great job at scholarships for those lower income families.

I'm just curious about how um you checked the the numbers that we got to just kind of your your process.

Yeah, so we compare our fees to other communities, but then we also of course listen to our constituents.

Um so for example, the community garden fees.

We heard a lot of feedback from the public that um they were expensive last year, $50.

So but yeah, all fees can be expensive though, too.

Um so it was important for us to also look at our actual cost.

What we found out is when they were established at $50 a garden plot, um, we were looking at the water usage.

Um what we didn't realize at that time is the water usage was actually actually also tied into the golf or the cart track um just to the north of the community gardens.

That's had um that's been since remedied.

So now we have two water meters out there.

Um so we're able to track the water usage at the golf or at the community garden plots um to better reflect what fees should actually be charged.

Sure, thank you.

I I appreciate that thought process, so I just wanted to dive a little deeper into that.

Councilmember Specker.

Yeah, I have a question on the removal of leagues and the different rec programs.

And it maybe this is more a procedural question, but when those rates are determined, will that come through council or does the council need to approve that the parks and rec have the flexibility to set those outside of council?

I believe and Ashley can correct me if I'm wrong.

I don't believe council we have to bring the items back to council for recreation programs.

The fees established are generally set fees that don't fluctuate from over the course of the year.

Okay.

Council member Tilton Burne.

Thank you for the presentation.

My question is just the more procedural.

I want to make sure when we get to the point of a motion that we know what we are making a motion for since there is differing opinion from the parks and rec board versus the staff recommendation.

The motion that we would have, does that include the increase that was recommended by the Park and Rec Board, or does it not include it does not include the board recommendation?

Okay.

Any other questions, comments from council?

Please call the roll.

Specker.

Aye.

Tilton Byrne.

Aye.

Wendell?

Aye.

Avery.

Dorin.

Aye.

Hager.

Aye.

Neymar.

Aye.

All right.

Action B item 10 D, action and resolution.

26-014.

A resolution authorizing the transfer of real property to Brookings Regional Humane Society for the purpose of public, charitable, or humanitarian purposes.

Paul Brasino, our city manager, will present this item.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council members.

Before you deny an exciting resolution, it's resolution 2614.

This action before you transfers 2.5 acres of city owned property here on Prince Drive to the Brookings Regional Humane Society.

This recommendation represents continuation of the city's partnership with the Brookings Regional Humane Society.

For several years, the Humane Society has been planning for the development of a facility that can meet the growing needs of the Brookings community in the county.

This recommendation tonight is a step forward to achieving that effort.

One note regarding the transfer, the proposed conveyance does include a 10-year revisionary clause.

And while the land is estimated at a market value of 272,000 to 326,000, this transfer is recommended as an investment in our partner rather than a cash contribution.

Staff recommends approval of the request.

I'm happy to answer any questions before you deny it is the board of the Brookings Regional Humane Society.

I believe the chair, Brianna, if you want to come up and maybe talk a little bit about this project as well here in just a minute.

Uh but would stand for any questions the council might have.

All right.

Thanks, Paul.

Entertain a motion to approve.

So moved.

Second.

Move and second.

Is there a public comment on this item?

Yes.

Yes.

That's what I mean.

I'm is there anyone that wants to make public comment on this item?

I'm sorry.

I haven't done this before.

Hi everyone.

My name is Brianna Johnson.

I'm the board president of the Brookings Regional Humane Society.

This transfer would mean the world to us.

And I'm not usually at a loss for words to be quite honest.

But I hope the lack of words that I have for you today speak volumes.

This would open doors that are currently shut to us and would open, I mean, it would blow the doors off of all of our plans for our future plans and our hopes and dreams for the organization and the community that we serve.

So I really urge you to consider this.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, so we've worked since um 2018 basically with the city of Brookings in various ways, but one notably is through animal control contract.

Um so we currently serve a big role for their services as well.

Um but yeah, we've kind of hit a stopping point with the amount of animals that we can care for in a given year.

Um we try really hard to make room for everybody, but our facility is just too small.

Um we have to rent it, which impacts our financials quite considerably.

Um it is just time to upgrade.

And so everything hinges on getting a new plot of land for ourselves to call home.

So we've like Paul mentioned, um, we've talked to architects in the past um and are currently working with them about what something might look like for us.

We've also obtained a capital campaign consultant through a firm called BWF, who has been really wonderful and helpful.

Looking forward to a capital campaign in the future to finance our facility on this property if that were to happen.

So we've done financial analysis as well, as well as a needs of facility needs assessment, which basically made sure that what we wanted at a shelter was actually what we needed.

So we can go forward knowing exactly what we need out of this shelter, exactly where the funds are going to come from, that kind of thing.

I hope that was good.

That was perfect, Brianna.

My first meeting with the city uh Brookings was regarding the Humane Society and the need for a capital project.

So it's neat to see this come to fruition.

I know this is just a step in the process, but it's been very exciting engaging you guys over the past eight years, and then most recently here for the last year or two years to bring us to this point.

This is just one step.

So very excited for you guys and for the community of Brookings, but with that would open uh to answer any questions council might have for us or for the main society.

All right.

And do we have any other public comment?

All right.

Councilmember Tiltenburn.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I want to just thank uh those of you in the room that are with the shelter.

I see a lot of shelter faces in the audience tonight.

Um we are uh I I'll speak for myself.

I am very excited about uh being able to move forward with this.

Um the the shelter's been a fantastic partner, like you mentioned, helping with um animal control, but also helping some of us in the community to find our furry family members.

Um my dog came from the Humane Society here in town.

Um, and uh just uh really really excited to be able to partner on on this next step in the evolution of the relationship between the city and and the shelter, and uh just excited about what this is gonna look like going forward.

So thank you for all the work that you do.

Yeah, thank you for your support.

Councilmember Specker.

I was wondering if you have some estimate on the time frame for when you'll be starting the capital fund campaign.

Yeah, absolutely.

Um, so our capital campaign um is in the works currently.

Um, right now we're in the leadership phase, so we're um building a capital campaign cabinet um to help us launch into getting some lead gifts and stuff to help us uh establish a good foundation as we go forward.

Um so the capital campaign is kind of started.

Um, however, we have a goal of building it, I believe it's uh 2031.

Um, so that's kind of at the end of the decade.

That's when we hope to be actually digging in the dirt and getting this thing set up.

So councilmember Duran.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I would just echo Councilmember Tilton Burn's sentiments on appreciation for the work that the Humane Society does.

For the community members who maybe haven't heard about um this project, even though we've talked about it for a while and you're becoming more public with it.

I was wondering if you could list off some numbers and express the urgency for this building of talking about how many times, even in the past year that the shelter has hit capacity or looked at overflow and just talking about the the urgency for an upgrade.

It's not just enhancing the community benefit, it's actually a high need that this community has as well.

Yes, absolutely.

Um you asked me to mention how many times we're at capacity, and we have just uh in 2025 consistently been over capacity, especially with cats.

Um right now we only have nine dog kennels in our facility.

Um just lately we've had um within the last year or two, we've had hoarding cases and bigger um intakes, meaning five dogs is a lot for our kennels, you know, um, and that severely limits our ability to not only care for the animals that we have, um, because we still get animals from animal control.

There's we're not gonna turn those away, you know.

Um, so we've got consistently animals coming in from animal control, and we have people in our community in our region requesting our help and services, and we are hitting a limit where we we can't help everybody that we would really deeply love to help.

Um, so yeah, we're we're consistently over uh capacity for pretty much all the animals that we have.

Um, and I believe in our facility needs assessment, we were hitting right around that 550 to 600 animals per year capacity for quite a few years.

Um this year, I believe, Maya, please correct me if I'm wrong.

We had somewhere in like the 750 range.

Um, and that's all in the same place that right?

Yeah, it's all in the same same area that we were um working with before.

So our facility needs assessment um did tell us that we should be looking at least like in the double ish range for capacity in the future, so closer to a thousand animals per year in the next five to ten years.

Um and as you guys know, Brookings community is just continuing to grow and grow, and it's not gonna stop.

And when the community grows, our needs are um or our uh services are in higher demand as well.

Thank you.

I think that that number is just quite impressive, and uh not many people may know what that looks like.

Um we obviously want this project to be very successful too in the steps that you have outlined of a capital campaign.

If people are interested in learning more about this project or getting involved, what steps should they take?

Who should they reach out to?

Yeah, so if you're interested in getting involved um with the capital campaign uh cabinet, for instance, um, we are in need of folks to help us get that uh good work done.

Um you can contact our treasurer uh Tammy Knutson as well as the uh co uh chair for that committee, um Angela Daly.

Um you can always reach out to the Brookings Humane Society um in general, and all those people there know exactly who to get you in contact for for the board.

Um but yeah, I would say if you're if you're interested in any sort of the project and you want to see how you might be able to fit in, um please just reach out to the Brookings Humane Society and we'll get you where you need to go.

Thank you.

Thank you for the presentation and sorry, and I just wanted to thank Paul too for this long work and our city staff as well as bringing this forward.

I think this is really important.

So thank you so much.

Councilmember Avery.

I just wanted to comment.

Um I've had dogs for a long time, and then I my last one died a couple years ago.

So I still I keep going on to the website and looking at the dogs, and I really appreciate the whoever is writing the little write-ups about the pets, you know, and it uh gives you this insight into their what their personality might be and who they might be suited for.

And I just get a kick out of that all the time.

I read that, you know, that you really put uh some effort and creativity in that, and I appreciate that.

So yeah, I would say our staff definitely throws our whole heart into it.

We've got our um executive director Maya Moore behind us and our uh shelter manager Mariah Curry, and their big uh people who get that stuff out.

So I really appreciate you commenting on how much little things mean because they put their heart and soul into it.

Yeah, I'm just thinking that one day I'm gonna see that just that one that I can't live without and I'll come get it.

Yeah, well, you know, the more space that we have, the more options that you'll have.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Council member Tilton Byrne.

Um, you mentioned the different ways that folks can participate if they want to give to this campaign.

What other needs does the shelter have right now?

Because I'm sure as folks hear about this project, they're gonna want to help and and chip in in any way that they can.

So, what other needs does the shelter have?

Yeah, so um for specific needs, um, say if they're running out of litter or cat food or something like that, uh definitely check out their Facebook page and their social media.

Um, that is the place where they say, hey, this dog needs a dental and we need somebody to help us raise funds for it.

So that's a that's a good spot to look.

Um other things that you could get involved with is volunteering.

Um, we have an amazing uh program called uh Pam's Hall Pass, which is basically like a dog recess where you come in and give them a really great day out of the shelter and helps ease stress for them.

Um that's a really great way to give back.

Um, and honestly, there's so many ways that you could give back.

So I won't go on and on, but um, if you're interested in getting involved, I really strongly urge you to just walk through the shelter, um, walk in and say, How can I help?

I think that's the best um best direction and spread the word about um our organization and the good work that we do.

All right.

Uh so um I'm just gonna throw this question out of here.

If you guys are highly successful and raised your your funds that you're expecting to do, would you up the turn dirt date?

Uh yeah, we would hope so because uh as Brianna uh was trying to highlight, we are in desperate need of more room.

So once we hit that um about that 75%, um I think that's industry standard, right?

75% um funds obtained, we can break dirt.

I think that's probably what we would do.

It's hard to say because we're not in that sh uh our uh that moment right now, and this is our first go round, but uh uh yeah, we want to make this happen as soon as possible.

All right.

Well, thank you for giving us the opportunity to start this and help you guys out.

Thank you.

With that being said, call the roll.

Tilton Byrne.

Aye.

Wendell?

I Avery.

Hi.

Dorin.

Hi.

Hager.

Aye.

Neur.

All right.

Specker.

Aye.

All right.

That uh concludes our business for this evening.

We do have a progress report.

Samantha Bick.

We've got one more of the police department facility.

Oh, oh, I'm sorry.

I checked it off and didn't even think about it.

Should have thought about it.

Sorry about that.

Item 10E, action on resolution 26-008.

A resolution selecting the site for the future Brookings Police Department facility.

I almost had the chief probably come up here and arrest me for this.

Paul Bracino, our city manager, would present this item.

Thank you, Mayor.

City Council members uh probably have Mike go and come on up in case there are questions of the police chief.

Uh we did present this item in detail last uh Tuesday, including the full site evaluation that's provided to the public as well as city council.

Uh staff provided a refined evaluation of the 22 sites that we looked at at over the past six years.

The analysis considered risk avoidance, available infrastructure, fiscal responsibility, neighborhood impact, and most importantly, council and community feedback over the last few months.

Based on the refined analysis, staff recommends proceeding with the development of the city-owned facility and site either on the Dakota Bank Center site or the WES property site.

This areas are located east of I-29, and the resolution is constructing a way for you to decide which site you would like us to proceed with if it's one of those sites.

Both sites do meet uh operational needs, address public input that we've heard, provide long-term value for the community of Brookings.

The recommendation does avoid additional cost of long-term debt associated with purchasing land.

In response to concerns raised about visibility and access, the proposed plan includes maintaining the downtown police presence through a satellite office within the new fire department, and then a continuing the sector-based patrolling that the police chief talked about last week as well.

At this point, staff is seeking council determination on the site, and once direction is given, this next steps would include design, cost refinement, and potentially construction in 2027 based on the timeline.

With refinement last night, uh with last week's presentation, we we have a uh the presentation available tonight if you want to look at any of the slides, discuss further any of the information that is provided.

But staff does recommend council determine uh the future site for the Berkens Police facility either on the WES or the Dakota Bank Center with the action tonight.

All right.

Chief, you want to add anything to that?

No, I think the city manager hit the nail right on the head, and if you have any questions or something that I can clarify, I would be willing to do so.

All right.

So I'm gonna entertain a motion for either selecting the Dakota Bank Center property or the wife's property, one of the two.

I would make a motion to select the Dakota Bank Center property.

Second.

Second.

Second.

Is there any public comment on this item?

Council have questions, comments.

Councilmember Specker.

Yeah, I just want to say last week I was a little nervous about making a quick decision on this, um, given the previous site and wanting more input.

And pretty much consistently, everyone I talked to this past week thought that having it in this location would be good.

And when I say, well, what about Dakota Bank Center versus and I explained where the WES property is in case they didn't know what that was.

And I think people like the idea of the Dakota Bank Center because of the visibility driving into Brookings.

But so I have no problem with not having uh public another public presentation of all the different sites because I think it was really well done last week and answered a lot of people's questions.

So council member Wendell.

Thank you, Mayor.

I just wanted to clarify as we talk about the Dakota Bank Center location.

I think last week we had discussed, you know, whether or not we're committing to sort of the southern part of that property that is right along Highway 14, or if we're just saying Dakota Bank Center and it could be north of the existing facility, it could be in a couple of different platforms, but somewhere on that city-owned Dakota Bank Center property is sort of what we're confirming tonight.

Is that everybody's kind of shared understanding?

Yeah, I think right now the motion, or at least what I understand, is to look at that southeast portion of the Dakota Bank Center side.

If council is opposed to that, it'd be good to hear from council tonight.

Um but with that said, my intention uh, because we haven't completely explored the site with the design staff.

We just know that the site would work in any of those areas, is to explore those two front sites and potentially the back site to see what is most optimal for infrastructure, location, accessibility by the public, and make sure and hear the chief's concerns or our thoughts for opportunities there as well.

I I think that satisfies my question, just that there would be some flexibility to kind of explore the site of what is most viable from an infrastructure and cost perspective.

But the only concern I heard, and I don't think it was a concern that um too heavily negated.

This property was just that this obviously is among other locations, prime real estate that has some commercial value as well, and so would we be better served to look at the property that's north of the Dakota Bank Center versus this frontage property?

Um I think tonight's action still gives us the room to explore some of those options if uh we determine that this frontage property had value other than as this location, but um I'm I'm comfortable proceeding.

All right, council member Duran.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um we had quite an extensive discussion last meeting, so I'll I'll keep this brief.

Um I just wanted to say that I'm excited to finally take a step forward on this year's long process.

A couple of just thought process is that I had as well, some chatter is um in our previous presentation.

We talked about keeping it or not the presentation, um, the school presentation of keeping it central to town uh or having some sort of central location, placing it by a school, and so some of the community members that I spoke to just wanted some clarification about that.

We discussed that at the last meeting, but I do think of it.

This isn't placing it at the edge of town.

Um, and with that, we discussed substation satellite offices as well as the intentional programming that the police department does, such as community policing.

So I feel really comfortable with this location that it still has visibility.

Um, it meets all of our requirements, and my only consideration between this and the Weiss property was just that economic trade-off.

So I do think that the Dakota Bank Center is not taking out that desirable commercial land.

Um my only question, I guess that I had was are there any plans right now of the public engagement moving forward, like maybe in the design phase, or what does that look like preliminarily I'm not sure if Mike have you guys Mike and John if you guys have talked a little bit about that?

I know there's a lot of staff engagement in that process.

Um I would welcome it.

I mean, I don't think that we would turn the state, you know, this is the community's police department.

Um I would definitely welcome their comments, but as the city manager rightfully says, is the staff will play much a more integral part than even myself for the police department because they'll be living in and working there more often.

But I would welcome staff and the community to do a joint collaboration to meet to talk about what they expect or police department to look because it's gonna be there for 50 to 7 years, I'm hoping, which if you add to my life, I'm not gonna be around that much longer after that.

But I would that's my endeavor in this.

And I John, I don't know if I speak for you, but I I'm pretty sure we've spoke about this with the project is that was our intention from the beginning was not to lock the community out ever at all because this is their police facility also.

Sure, absolutely, and I I appreciate your engagement with the end users.

I think that is um very important.

And so I just wanted to emphasize with the community of how they could still be involved in this process since we have been pretty heavily focused on community since it's a community building.

So thank you for that clarification.

Of course.

Uh councilmember Hager.

So last time I just wanted to um reiterate how I really appreciated city staff going back and really kind of looking at these different sites, especially after we had the listening session on the Madary Avenue location.

Because even as the newest member of council, that caused me to have a lot of questions about what were the other sites, why were they eliminated, and then more importantly, how we could take the public's feedback into account to re-evaluate them.

So I know I had a lot of questions about the different sites last time, but I just wanted to make sure that I expressed my appreciation for you all thoroughly going back through each of them and presenting the pros and cons.

Like my other council members have mentioned, all of the engagement that I got about these different sites were all mentioning positive things about this Dakota Bank Center location, which made me feel confident moving forward supporting it.

For me last time, I saw that obviously there's the con of eliminating existing parking, but there's some flexibility with the site about where the police department's located, or you know, could we just build different different parking structures of some kind on that property?

So I think this is one where the con can easily be eliminated, where I express a lot of concern about potentially using commercially developable land for our police department.

And so I think this is just the best location moving forward based on staff recommendation and the public input, because then we can still use that we've property to hopefully try to pursue retailers that citizens want to see and eliminate that sales tax leakage.

All right, thank you for my comments.

Councilmember Avery.

Well, I would just say that I have had some calls on it and people that you know have very well intentions and some real thought through ideas and and uh you know probably won't be unanimous on this decision, you know, probably have some different uh thoughts.

And I appreciate the I talked to young one man today that had some different you know, had a lot of information, had uh different how many square feet this building had, and anyway, so I would appreciate it.

I talked, I told him, I said I really you know you've really done the research, you really have uh some good uh ideas, but we we probably will go a different way, you know.

I just uh so I know there will be people who will be disappointed in what we do, there'll be people that will be disappointed no matter what uh decision we make.

I guess that's part of making decisions.

But I know the one thing is the first thing you hear usually is it's so far away, you know, and you know, we've had the discussions that well our officers aren't anchored to that police station, and you will look at where the police station is now, it's not really in an ideal location to be close to anything but you know, maybe the the downtown area, but it's um you know it's completely on the west edge of town, and so that's not ideal either.

And you got the railroad, you got the elevator.

I mean a lot of different negatives about that.

So I think this is the best you know option, and as you have said, we have the availability or the ability to put an officer in a satellite location at the fire station.

So that's another thing.

I think so.

I think that we've we've talked about all the possible negatives, and I think we're everybody's on the same page now that we have to move forward, or if we looked for everybody in the community to be unanimous, we would never move forward.

So appreciate that.

Thank you.

Councilmember Chilton Byrne.

Um I just want to thank staff for the work that's been done on this, and then also thank the members of the community that reached out with uh feedback and comments about preferred locations.

Um I did receive several comments, and uh I would say the overwhelming majority was in support of this Dakota Bank Center location.

Um and so I think it is um it in the feedback that I've received, it seems to be the preferred location amongst our community, and so very excited to uh to move forward and take a step forward in in this process um because in all of the years that I have been on council, this has been uh high priority on our list, and so to finally see some progress on this is really great.

So uh congratulations to you and the rest of the the department um because this will be a great step forward.

Appreciate that.

All right.

Any other public comments?

Uh uh council member questions, comments.

Um I just want to make a few words, comments about this is uh I want the public to know that we've already squirreled away 18.5 million for this project.

Uh the project has become more expensive every year that we push this off, and uh um we will have to do some bonding on this, but not as much as uh other cities have put themselves in as far as financial uh um bondage, I guess is what you want to call it.

Uh but uh we will have uh borrowed less money for this project because we've taken the due diligence to set aside money uh for numerous years in a row for this eventually.

Uh Paul, could you give us a little bit of a timeline as to how this is gonna probably look?

Yeah, actually I'll ask John to come up.

John uh has been leading this effort.

John, if you could give a little bit of timeline.

I know it uh if council takes action tonight.

Uh we also have items coming forward here in the next month.

Because we are distancing the police facility from the fire facility, we have to go out for a new construction manager.

Uh that will take about a month or two process.

But in that time frame, we'll be doing design work.

Uh, what is that design work timeline ultimately going to bid and then construction and construction completion?

Okay, John Thompson Public Works.

Uh Paul's right.

Um next uh next agenda item is February 10th, I want to say council meeting.

Uh at that meeting, um we come into council with a uh authorization to terminate the current CMAR agreement and rebid that back out.

That will take us through March, April by the time we have a construction manager at risk back on board.

Um currently, right now, everything's on pause, both the fire fire station and the police station.

I want to make that clear.

We've been on pause since December on this.

Um so by April, uh, if we have our construction manager back on risk, we'll we'll retain our existing architectural firm with us and existing owners of rep.

Um we'll get things start rolling back again.

Uh the schematic design, which is we're we haven't vetted the police station that much, so we're still really in a conceptual schematic design.

That's gonna probably take us all the way through the fall of this year.

And then our hopes are uh by winter, have go get through the design phase of it to be able to go out and bid this thing out in the winter time so we could start construction in 2027, uh which will run all the way through probably 2028 by the time substantial completion is done.

At the same time, we have the fire department.

Fire department has been very well vetted.

We have minor work left to do before we get through the design phase of it.

Um and if we have appropriations, we could move forward on that.

Possibly even get a building closed up so they could work through the winter.

But it'll be depending on appropriations and and where we go from here.

So, John, during the design process, when would it possibly be possible the community could be prepared to be engaged in in part of the process?

I would think on the fleece facility, it'd be once we have a conceptual design kind of laid out, maybe at that point in time.

Uh public won't really have much involvement for anything in the inside of the building, more of the aesthetics and where it's going to be laid out at on at um because it's all operational on the inside.

Um, but I would say probably about that time, and that's probably gonna be late summer, early fall.

We would probably have a second meeting on that.

So this is where this is the concept, kind of where it's be placed at it uh at Dakota Bank Center, and by that time we should probably be able to have the aesthetics fairly well matched out too.

So what it looks like from the outside.

All right.

Thank you, gentlemen.

Any other comments, questions?

Well, I would just comment again on your comments that most communities increase property taxes for a project like this.

It's the intentions of this city and city council because if you've saved this money over the years not to increase property taxes, and that's for two massive projects for this community, the fire department and the police facility.

So a pat on the back for city council, and of course, staff were working tirelessly to save that money.

So excited about what the future holds.

Thank you, Paul.

All right.

Please call the roll.

Wendell.

I.

Avery.

Dorian.

Hi.

Hager.

Aye.

Neemaier.

Aye.

Specker.

Aye.

Tilton Byrne.

Aye.

All right, we get to spend some money.

All right.

So let's move on to the progress report.

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

Good evening, Mayor, members of the council.

Um, this is the January 2026 progress report.

Up first, a couple things for the library.

They are undergoing a bathroom remodel currently on their first floor restrooms, and they should have things wrapped up within about a month on those.

Um, this week they're also hosting an interactive mystery game.

So be sure to check out all of their programs on their website, which is also listed on the screen.

And then they were able to um get their 2025 statistics wrapped up here, um, including several things that I'll kind of point out here, but 285,000 total circulations, 72,000 visits, and 1600 new card holders were issued.

So these are just really great um numbers to point out here.

Uh last week you all got a presentation on um onboard gov, which is the new software system the city clerk's office has implemented for better volunteer management of their uh maintenance and application systems here.

Um and if you would like, there are several volunteer board applications that are open right now, so be sure to check out each of their um web pages and see if they're accepting applications.

And the public works department, the engineering division has several 2026 projects again this year, including the straight maintenance and overlay projects.

Um these projects include resurfacing numerous streets this year, as well as removing the hill at the 20th Street South and Rapid Valley intersection.

Uh they'll also continue doing their annual concrete and sidewalk maintenance projects and the intersection of 20th Street South and 22nd Avenue will have one more round of street widening to help facilitate larger vehicles that are turning, uh specifically at the east corners of that intersection.

There's a couple of drainage projects that will be a little bit bigger, the village square one and the fifth 15th Street South and 7th Avenue project.

And then we'll continue to receive updates on the master transportation plan as well as a new snow equipment building at the airport.

So lots of really great big projects coming up in 2026 here.

And the police department, they are keeping busy with community policing efforts that were mentioned earlier.

Um recently we had officers from multiple local and state agencies partner with us.

Um there were 38 children and their families nominated to do the annual Christmas kids and cop event, which is always a fun one for our officers to participate in.

Um, as well as um the children's museum, they have a create with a cop event, uh hockey games at the Larson Ice Arena, and breakfast with badges at our local schools.

Also of note, um, at the request of South Dakota State University, the City of Brookings has entered into agreement to provide coverage of some of the university police department duties.

That agreement is expected to continue until the university can hire a new UPD chief.

Um until then, Chief Michael Drake will continue to provide leadership of the UPD.

Public works department and our solid waste division.

They also have some notable 2026 projects, including the e waste program that we heard about tonight, as well as implementation of the Solid Waste Master Plan.

Um some of those things include uh implementing the route optimization study that the SDC students helped us with this last year, adding new GPS software to landfill equipment, and continuing the permitting process for the future expansion of the landfill that will happen down the road.

And then they also just received a couple weeks ago their new landfill excavator, which um I pulled the pulled John before I did this and asked him how much it was, and those large pieces of equipment are very expensive, right?

So this one was just over 400,000.

And the Parks Recreation and Forestry Department, um, a couple facility updates have been happening at the golf course clubhouse as well as the arts council building.

Uh the activity center is in full swing with their winter activities, so make sure you're checking out their newsletter online.

And each week the Larson Ice Center will host tournaments and special events that see thousands of people coming through every weekend from surrounding states as well as Canada.

Uh we've got Frostfest coming up in February, uh February 13th through the 16th, so make sure you're checking out the Visit Brookings website and calendar for more information on um fun things that you can do around town during those days.

And finally, we're putting out a call for volunteers to help assist with the wall that heals in June.

This is a three-fourths replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, which will be traveling to Brookings over the summer.

And if you're interested in helping in any capacity with this project, uh be sure to contact the Parks and Rec office.

They're also going to be looking for efficiencies in winter operations with cross-departmental collaborations and uh replacement of several large equipment purchases up here as well.

And rounding it out, um, the Dakota Bank Center had seven events in January.

That's my mistake up there, including a pool tournament, which had over 4,000 attendees over multiple days, a gun show which had over 1,700 attendees, and a Dart tournament.

And then there are several upcoming concerts in March and April, so make sure you're grabbing your tickets early.

And if you have any questions, I can try to answer them, or we have several staff members here as well.

All right.

Thank you, Sam.

Any questions, comments for Sam?

Um kind of excited about the uh Vietnam War Memorial coming now.

That's gonna be cool.

I think if I'm not mistaken, it's the only city in South Dakota this time that it's coming to.

So uh consider so special, especially 250 year uh anniversary for our country, also.

So our next regular meeting is February 10th.

Um of the usuals and consent agenda.

Uh we will have exoficial reports possibly for BMU and uh the hospital.

And then uh we'll have three-second readings on the first that we had tonight.

Otherwise, there's nothing else on the on the agenda right now at this time.

Is there anything that the city council would like to have introduced in future agenda?

All right.

I would ask that we all kind of watch what's happening with this legislature this year.

Uh the open carry conceal thing that Anna showed us to it is a concern.

Um we also uh are being scrutinized on our uh TIFF usage.

Uh it might be tougher for us to do some kind of an infrastructure improvement uh without having our hands tied a little bit with TIFFs.

So please follow what the legislature is doing this year and please make comments to your representatives that that uh are our our representatives at uh Resident Event our community.

And so with that being said, uh entertain a motion to adjourn.

So moved.

Second.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye aye.

Meeting adjourned.

Thank you for attending.