City of Shoreview, MN City Council

The same. There you go. Yep This meeting shall come to order. Welcome to the city of Shoreview City Council meeting for Tuesday, FEBRUARY 17th, 2026. The first thing we do is to ask you to join us in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the republic for which it stands, one nation under GOD, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Oh Welcome and thank you for coming tonight. Welcome to all that are joining

Us online. So we, the first thing we do is, uh, did the Pledge of Allegiance. Now we have roll call, and it should show that all council members are present tonight. So that I can hear you. Ok, great. We had a request to shut the door. We ve got the variety band, uh, practicing tonight close by. The next item is approval of the agenda, and I looked to the council to see if there are any changes, additions, removals. Um, of the agenda. I ll motion to approve. Second. All right, we have a motion by Council member Maryland and a second by Council member Springhorn to approve tonight s agenda. All in favor, please say aye. Aye, all opposed same sign. The agenda is proved 5 to 0. We do not have any proclamations and recognitions tonight. Um, and the next item on our agenda is public comments. So this is where individuals can address the city council about any item that is not on the agenda.

If it is on the agenda, you d have a chance to speak then, um there are, uh, specific rules for public comments, um. And, uh, when you do come to the podium, we ask that you share your name and address, and if possible, keep your comments to 3 minutes or less. Um, and I also just wanna clarify that because these items are new to the council members, they MAY not be a resolution tonight, but if there needs to be an answer at some point, city staff will follow up with you. So welcome. We have someone at the podium. Um, James Van der Waal. 637 Birch Lane North off Hodson Road. Um, before I wanna talk about your three memos that were attached to this um, but I wanna give you a quick background so you know a little just a little more about me. Um, I spent a year living and working in China back in 89 90 school year, my wife and my three children went with.

We were invited by a Chinese school, uh, university that had a high school attached. We had a great time there and we really enjoyed it, made a lot of friends, started learning Mandarin, and I can, I can Juneieman Dole, Shinian Kwale, because today is the first day of Chinese New Year That s why I m wearing a red hat. Red is we also spent 17 years living and working in Malaysia. 17 years. I learned Bahasa Malayu, the national language to fluency, the last 5 or 6 years I taught civil engineering subjects in Bahasa Malayu. I was at a college that was 98% Malay, which are who are Muslim. So I was surrounded by Muslims for 12 years. I participated in the Ramadan fast, several of those years, and today, the Ramadan fast starts, so this is very unusual for both Ramadan and Chinese New Year to follow on the same date. So I have friends across several religions across different cultures across different languages.

So I can say, I m not a racist. I m not a bigot I m not a white supremacist. But I don t feel safe and shoreview. And that s why I want to touch on these three memos. First one is unsheltered individual. Is making some shoreview people feel unsafe. But that person s likely a us citizen who s fallen on hard times, and I know they ve tried to help that person out, but I have a son who s mentally ill He s gotten progressively worse. He s in his mid-30s now. He lives with us, and 3 times when he s been walking either down the sidewalk or in Turtle Lake Park. He s had someone call the cops on him. Now, I can understand people might feel unsafe. My son doesn t like to clean his head so he shaves it. So here s a young white man with a shaved head. One woman told the cops, he s got a gun.

So they come running and, well, he doesn t have a gun, he doesn t have access to a gun. But I can understand that people in Shoreview want to feel safe as I do. Second memo item Operation Metrosurge. Makes sure view ones feel unsafe. So are they unsafe from the illegal migrants who ve come into this country. And many of them criminals, or do they feel unsafe from the federal law officers who had to go after these people. In the community Now when I before I went to China, I had to have a valid passport for everybody in our family. I had to provide a police report. For everyone in my family, and I had to provide medical reports before I could go into China and work there for a year. When I went to Malaysia, we went in on a on a tourist visa, but when I changed the tourist visa to a work permit, I had to show a valid passport from everybody in my family.

I had to show police reports from the state of Alaska. We were Alaskans at that time, that I was not a criminal, and we had to have medical reports from the state of Alaska showing we didn t carry any diseases. That s what Malaysia and China does. And here s what happened the prior presidential administration allowed people to come into this country on vetted. They didn t bring passports They didn t bring police reports they didn t bring medical records records. Now, mayor, if I MAY just to note, you re well over the 3-minute time just to inform the council of that. Yeah, thank you. Um so, so here s what happened Under the Obama administration they deported people but here in Hannepin County, we re in Ramsey County, I relate, but I ll use Hannepin as an example. Hennepin County cooperated with uh immigration enforcement. They held illegal migrants who had been picked up at the police station.

They allowed the federal officials to come in and take them. There was no argy-bargy. There weren t riots. There weren t mobs. There weren t people trying to impede the federal immigration enforcement. Under this administration, the local politicians decided we re gonna fight back. We re gonna, we re gonna encourage people to impede you know, they say peaceful protests, but you know that there s people that will go beyond peaceful protest. And, tragically two people lost their lives. And so to me the hypocrisy is monumental On the one hand, you got a us citizen like my son, oh, somebody doesn t feel safe, they call the cops. Fine. But on the other hand, you got illegal migrants. I don t feel safe If they re not vetted, I don t feel safe. And I m not gonna take the law into my own hands to deal with them. That s what government is for. Ok, so memo 3.

City of Shoreview is asking to join the cities for safe and stable communities coalition. I say no. Because I seriously doubt it s nonpartisan. Can you name one Republican representative for me in this metro area. Klobuchar Smith Kelly Moeller John Marty, Governor Waltz, Keith Ellison,

Are any of those Republicans? So again, I don t feel safe. I think you should stay out of this coalition unless you simply participate to observe. What are they doing? Because I feel it s gonna just become another coalition to fight the Trump administration, and I don t think my money, tax money should be going to that. Now, a couple more examples, sir, and I m gonna please wrap it up. Yes, I attend a church whose sister church was invaded by a mob. Who disrupted the service, screamed obscenity at children and physically obstructed people from picking up their children and leaving the building, and yet Keith Ellison, our attorney general, shrugged his shoulders and says, yeah, just First Amendment. No, it s not I m not my mob is not allowed to go on to private property. So I don t feel safe under this current Attorney General. There s a mint an activist group in Minneapolis wants to promote jury nullification training.

The Sixth Amendment provides for the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury. Here s a group that wants to train people how to lie to get onto a jury, and then nullify the verdict by not cos I need to interrupt MR. Van der Waal. I m happy to talk to you as long as you want outside of this, Mayor Dinkinger has clearly allowed you well more than the time she s and the council are available to talk to outside of the council meeting. This is the business meeting of the city council where everyone s expected to follow the same rules, so it s fair to everybody. And at this point, you ve gone so far over your time, it s really time to be done. Thank you Hi, my name is Carrie Johnson. My address is 1275 Nursery Hill Court, and I m in Arden Hills. However, um, my kids all go to school in Shoreview.

So I m here to talk about a letter, an email that you guys got on JANUARY 29th from responding to the council s questions that was sent regarding immigration enforcement in 911 response. From the sheriff However, after I reviewed that letter, I believe there are important clarifications that are still needed to ensure a community safety, as well as um effective law enforcement specifically the sheriff states that a 911 call involves that involves an immigration matter and does not involve a criminal issue. We ll have a supervisor, contact the reporting party rather than responding. What s unclear to me is how that is

Determinations made. So what I m asking is that the city council clarify with the Ramsey County Sheriff s Office. What criteria is used to determine that the 911 call is immigration related. I d like to know specifically, how do you know? At what point is that determination made? Is it made during the phone call? So during dispatch is it prior to the response? Or after an officer arrives on the scene. How the sheriff s office ensures that potential criminal activity is not misclassified before it s investigated. Because I believe the sheriff said that he would respond to any criminal activity committed by the ice agents if they re not there. How do they know To me, this lack of clarity raises a 2 equally serious concern. If community members believe that calling 911 MAY result in no response. Whenever immigration is mentioned. The perception MAY discourage people from reporting crimes at all. That chilling effect would not only undermine public safety.

But would also impair the ability of law enforcement and prosecutors to investigate and successfully prosecute crimes, whether committed by a civilian or by federal agents in our community. I respectfully ask that this city council seek explicit clarification. From Sheriff Fletcher on these points and make sure that this information is public. So residents of Shoreview and neighboring communities can have confidence that when we call 911. That people will respond in a timely and appropriate response when safety or potential criminal activity is at stake. Thank you. I appreciate your attention. I appreciate it. Thank you, thank you. Hi, Kelly Anderly here again, uh, 1624 9th Street, um, just checking in to make sure that even though the news says Metro surge is over, it

S not. What we are seeing is not a drawdown. Um if there s 3000 people and 300 left and 700 left, there s still 2000 here. They might have gone somewhere else, more people might have come in, we re still seeing people just. That s all Thank you. Doesn t look like it today, but we re still out there. Um, usually we just have people come on once I do have an issue with her coming back but you can for a very brief, usually we ask that you have one citizen comment. No, that s right. Just maybe give your name again so for our Johnson for everybody online, um, so one thing I asked at all the city council members do is if you do not think this is happening, if this is real, I will tell you today we had several attempted abductions within about 10 minutes from here, but just when you leave, look up in the sky.

Last night there were hundreds of drones in this area We those drones were That s where people were attempted, um, to be picked up today. It is scary. It is terrifying. You don t have to believe me, don t believe Kelly. Look up in the sky when you leave, please. Thank you. Ok. I think All right Um, so we, that looks like that. Those are the public comments from people in the room today. So now we will move to council comments, um. And I can start tonight and then I ll move to councilmember Springhorn. So uh actually kind of a little bit in response to, I know there have been announcements and um information around the uh reduction in agents. I went back and listened to some of that, and I m having difficulty. I know how many are supposed to go and some were supposed to leave soon and some this week and more next week, but I don t really have.

Um, I have not confidently found a number that I think are in the Twin Cities, so I think we re aware that the information that we re getting isn t necessarily verifiable or I don t know that anyone could give other than perhaps MR. Holman could give a count of how many people are here, so I think from my perspective until I know for example that we re down to a number of agents and that s been confirmed. I think we operate as if people are still in their homes, sometimes afraid to go. I was at Oliver s restaurant this morning, and they are back at full staff at least their people that were afraid to come in have been coming in. Their menu had been reduced, it s back. So, but that s one business, um, and I know in certain areas of the metro where there are large pockets of immigrant owned businesses and immigrants, um, and others who might feel um targeted even for the way they look.

I know this is not back to normal, and I think also I, believe we re keenly aware of the long-ter m impact this will have on children, many of whom do not understand what s going on, um, here or just know that some are not in school, they re remote, um. Having food delivered to their homes, so. Um, I think until we have a really accurate number. That s kind of where I think we re operating. Um for im anyway, um. We talked at our workshop about some of the other activities that, uh, Shoreview is doing, but, uh, for those that maybe don t want to uh wait for the notes, um, our human rights commission is doing a food drive, and is that this week, MS. Eisenbais, was that? Yes, I kicked off yesterday and we ll run through MARCH 1st. Ok. Um, and that ll go through Ralph Reeder. And we did find out last week from the Mountie School District that Ralph Reeder also um will serve for those who MAY need rent or utility assistance that they now have, um.

They will accept donations specifically to assist people with those, and that can go through Ralph Reeder and you can specify that s that s where you would like it to go, um. And then we re looking at signing on to the safe and stable uh communities group of mayors, uh, which we ll talk to, that s an item under general business, um, we have not seen a lot of calls into um 911 regarding immigration activities, and I don t know why that is, but that is an option, um, and I understand that that you have some questions around what exactly will happen if you do dial 911, but we are not seeing a lot of calls to that, but that option is available. Um, let s see. That was that Just on a couple of other items, um. That are not on this topic. The, uh, I did want to remind people that on FEBRUARY 23rd, the Environmental Quality Committee has uh uh, a program, part of their speaker series for Roseville Green to go ordinance so that it takes place in here at 7:00 P.

M. They have, I believe, one coming up in MARCH as well, and APRIL. Um also wanted to, uh, mention that. Shoreview again has received the an annual, um. Financial award certificate for the 40th year running for excellent financial reporting, so I wanted to acknowledge that and compliment our finance department for um the monthly reports that they do that result in the audit usually where we have won this award for excellent financial reporting and our government is audited for the prior year s activities, um, starting, they actually started a few weeks ago and that runs through APRIL, so because these are taxpayer dollars. They are audited very thoroughly, and this recognizes that financial excellence, so. Um and that is all I had, so I will look to councilmember Springhorn. Mayor Denkinger, um going back to my early days on the council there to report on, uh, the first Lego League challenge state tournament, which happened this, uh, this past weekend.

It s, uh, uh, something a negative for something a, for those who aren t familiar with the First Lady of the League Challenge, uh, that s a science and technology program that uh is for 4th and 4th through 8th graders and uh the shoreview area has been a powerhouse, or, at least was a powerhouse for many years in, in the state, uh, Minnesota is, is kind of a powerhouse in, in the nation, but um we have a lot more teams per capita in Minnesota than most states. Um, and I coached, uh, all three of my kids. I coached a council member Gardner s son for a few years and um and we had pardon? And he s fine. He s he s turned out just fine. And I m recovering. Yes. Um, but, uh, we had a number of teams, uh, usually at the state tournament, so they re, they re hundreds of teams throughout the states, the top teams in the regional qualifiers advanced the state tournament in FEBRUARY.

Uh, and year after year, there were multiple teams from the Shoreview area, uh, both from the Mountainsview schools as well as from Saint Odelia, and then independent teams or maybe a team that started at Island Lake or Turtle Lake, and then went on to Chippewa and and just remained a team even though it wasn t sponsored by the school. So, um, so we had a number of teams from the area not only competing at the state tournament, but doing very well over the years and going on to international competition, uh, but after the pandemic, things kind of took a turn for the worse, and we did not have teams from this area at all, let alone moving on. But uh this year I m proud to say there were 3 teams from Shoreview at the state tournament. Um, one of those was the galactic pastry Delivery Service from Saint Odelia and they had a good day, um, another team from Mountainsview Community Education based in Shoreview was a kinetic energy, and they won an award, um, and that s our, our finance director s, uh, son is actually on, on, on that team.

Um. They won an award for their mission merge alliance, and uh, extremely happy to say that uh spell coded, which is a team uh based in Shoreview, um. One, a second place created presentation award, but also was one of the finalists uh for the Champions award and did well enough to advance to international competition. So I did speak to the, uh, the coach of, of that team and uh told them we d love to have them come and present their their findings to a council meeting uh at some point, because part of what they have to do for their project is, uh, share what they ve learned with the community and I said it d be an excellent. Time to do that. So uh, so we hope to see them soon. Um, so congratulations to all those teams. Uh, I m just gonna go ahead and jump into another uh topic concerning youth that I m very passionate about, um, a lot of people know that I m a musician and on most Tuesday nights I d be across the hall right now at the Shorevie Band rehearsal.

Um, but it was brought to my attention yesterday that the school district, um, is changing the schedule for Highview Middle School for next year, uh, for 7th and 8th graders, um, so that performing arts groups, uh, band, orchestra, choir, will, uh, will only have, um, those rehearsals every other day instead of every day, effectively, um for 7th and 8th graders losing a full year of instruction. And so I, I have to admit I, I don t have all the uh information on this yet because I just, like I said, learned about it yesterday, but I do know there is a group of parents that have started the Mountview School Arts Alliance, uh, to get information to and from uh parents and other concerned community members. So if anyone would like more information about that, I m trying to still gather information myself and you can contact me, my contact information is on the city website and, and I will let you know what I know and uh uh just something to, uh, although High View does not uh include any of Shoreview and its attendance area.

Uh, I think the thinking is that this will be piloted at Highview and maybe moved to Chipwan, Edgewood in the future. So, uh, it s, it s of great concern to me. Uh, and maybe just some others in the community as well. Um last unrelated announcement I have is that tickets are on sale now for the tastes of Shoreview, which is the annual fundraiser for the uh slice of shoreview Festival, and tickets are $35.

They are available at um at the slice of Shoreview website. Um actually, it s not, it s on Eventbrite, so you go to the slice of Shoreview, uh, Facebook page, and there you can get a link um to purchase tickets for Taste of Shovey that includes, uh, free tasting of samples from local businesses, as well as uh uh a live auction. Uh, there s a bucket raffle, uh, all sorts of fun things, and a great uh way to make sure we have a good fireworks display at the slice this summer. Ok of I have a couple of things I just wanted to mention. Um, I noticed in the hallway down by the fireplace that there is a uh a display from the Shoreview Historical Society regarding Boy Scouts and um being a long time, um, Boy Scout mom. I appreciate that and I think FEBRUARY 6th was um Boy Scout days, so I, I thought the display was very nice and I appreciated that tribute to um Boy Scouts.

Um, secondly, I wanted to just mention that um Northeast Youth and Family Services, um, I serve on their board. And um they do have openings for mental health counseling. They counsel, um, children and adults. They have counseling available in playgroups. Um, individual therapy. Um, group therapy, um, and online and in-person therapy. So there are openings, um, you can look them up at nyfs. Org or give them a call, um, check out their website and um you can actually do an intake form. Um, to get more information right on their website. So that s nyfs. Org. And then lastly, just want to remind people to support, um, our local businesses by shopping and uh going out to eat or drinking out if you re at a local business, if you work at a local business, um, I know where I work. We have more recently um ordered uh lunch in, um, from different restaurants just to um support those local businesses to.

Help keep them going, um. And um that s it Thank you Council member Dawn Yes, thank you, Mayor Uh, first of all, um, happy year of the horse to everybody that s uh with us and listening. It is the Lunar New Year and this is the first day of it, and the Lunar New Year is celebrated by many countries, uh, including, uh, where I was born in Vietnam. Um, and, uh, just wanna wish everybody good luck and good fortune in the year of the horse. Um, what I wanted to also share that uh as a shoreview City council member, one of the roles that I have is to be the liaison to the Ramsey County League of Local Government, which has been in existence for many decades and we re a member of that, uh, group of Ramsey County cities the county along with school districts and watershed districts. So it s a broad base of local governments that all get together to learn from each other and to share information, and I have the honor of serving as the PRESIDENT This year.

And I just wanted to share that uh rclg hosted two very, I think, uh, timely and productive, uh, events, uh, in the last couple of weeks. The first was on JANUARY 30th, where we had a virtual town hall meeting with um staff from uh Representative Betty McCollum s office that s uh understand and uh uh and to hear from them about what s happening at the federal level, uh, at that point with, uh, operation Metrosurge, of course, that has evolved and continues to uh be very dynamic, um, and so, uh, it s very good to hear from our federal partners as to what they re doing, uh, and what they re hopefully continuing to do, uh, to make our communities, uh, safer and to make sure that we live by our own rules and laws. Um, the second event was a uh our annual legislative meeting with uh Ramsey County legislators, and we had a great turnout of not only local elected officials but also our legislative delegation from Ramsey County and um uh one of the themes that I ve heard that came out of that, uh, is the three f s for this year.

Uh, that uh our legislative, uh, maybe themes, uh, one, f is firearms. The second f is uh federal uh uh issues related to uh the surge, uh, and then the third issue is, is fraud and so thank you uh uh COUNCILMAN Gardner, uh, for the, uh, lifeline there. Uh, so I a couple other f s in mind if you. Needed to I ll leave that for uh Council member Gardner s comments, uh, to share his other f s, uh, but, uh, that was a just a at least one way to think about uh the upcoming legislative session and what kind of the hot topics are that the legislators will be focused on and um also, uh am uh have the honor of serving on the Shoreview Community Foundation, which is an independent organization from the city of Shoreview. Uh, it is associated with the Saint Paul in Minnesota Foundation. So, uh, our community has its own foundation called the Shoreview Community Foundation.

And that foundation over the last about 20 years has uh created an endowment that s over $1.2 million. And so, uh, from those funds, uh, this year for 2026, the Community Foundation, uh, has approved uh for quick action, a $10,000 fund to support Ralph Reeder, uh, Saint Odelia, uh uh, the Saint Odelia, uh, community as well as the Emmanuel Church community for their work to help support people that have been affected by um Operation Metrosurge, uh, particularly for rental and utility assistance support. So very excited that uh the Shoreview Community Foundation has been a, uh, an entity that our community can be proud of to step up and help uh those in our community in a time of need. Uh, with that mayor, I ll pass it back to you. Thank you. Councilor Will Gardner Uh, thank you, Mayor. Uh, a couple of things. Uh, today was the first day of the, um legislative session for 2026.

Uh, it was a rather somber day, uh, for the House and Senate because the only order of business was a remembrance for a late Speaker Emerda Melissa Hortman. And her husband Mark, uh, I did watch from home. There was not enough seating for all the former electeds to attend. Uh, there was a nice, um, set of remarks from Governor Wells, uh, Majority Leader Erin Murphy, um, I really appreciated the remarks by the Republican Speaker Lisa Dameth. We re very gracious. Uh, and also by, uh, default House leader Zach Stevenson, who used to work for me years and years ago. Uh, the reason I mentioned it is, um, there was a resolution read uh just to commemorate the day in her life and among the uh speakers who were reading out the resolution was our own representative Mueller. Who actually um repeated what the Hortman children had recommended that we do not just to remember her parents, but to be better, and one of them at the top of the list was Planet Tree.

She was uh Melissa Hartmann is very big in tree planting. We do have some federal money. This is the c. I m spinning it to something more positive. Uh, we do have some federal money to plant trees to replace those lost by the emerald ash borer, which is great. Uh, it s not nearly enough, but the spring tree sale here in Shoreview, which is a great uh activities um going live. On MARCH 2nd, uh, with orders due by APRIL 17th. I ve already picked out a two dwarf bush honeysuckles and a North Pole arborviti. But I can t order yet. I have to wait until MARCH 2nd. So, uh, I hope people will take advantage of that second, I wanted to mention that uh community Connection Week is uh now FEBRUARY 16th to 22nd. Uh, the Human Rights Commission hosts the Community Connection Week uh to urge people to find creative ways to connect with their community.

And that can include donating time or resources for the local organization and one of the things they re promoting right now at the Ralph Reeder Food Shelf is a food drive that also includes food and personal uh products. The city will have drop off bins in the city hall lobby. Or we do have them, I guess, uh. And community centered lower level entrance near the Linus statue. Uh, there s quite a few items listed on the website. If you go to the home page and scroll down and if you see that we show up. Um uh screen, uh, click on that and you will find everything you need to know. That s it Thank you Um, the next item on our agenda is the consent agenda and this these items are considered routine, so we will enact those in one motion, so we won t do a separate discussion of these items unless someone on the council or a citizen so requests.

Um. So I look to council to see if there s any item here that they want to have removed for discussion, otherwise we could have one motion for the 10 items 8a through 8a. Does anyone want to need to have a discussion around any one of these? Mayor, I ll move approval of items 8a through 8j. Second, we have motion by Councilmember Springhorn and a second by Councilmember Doan to approve items 8a through 8j of the consent agenda. All in favor, please say aye, all oppose same sign. The consent agenda passes 5 to 0. Thank you. We do not have any public hearings tonight. We do have 3 items of general business, the first being the appointments to the Environmental Quality Committee and is is that Tom? Oh that and our director of public works, Tom Wesolowski, will present on that. Thank you for being here tonight. Thank you, Mayor. Um, in response to recent vacancy vacancies on the Environmental Quality Committee applications were reviewed, uh, received and reviewed by the committee, uh, for a regular and student member uh for the committee.

Based on, uh, after reviewing the applications, the committee is recommending the council appoint Shiva Vashish sorry, sista as a regular member to serve a three-year term that would end JANUARY 31st of 2029, and Whitney Olsen as a student member, uh, to serve through her graduation, uh, which is in MAY of 2028. Uh, that can be felt that they would be great additions to the group and thought they would, they would provide unique perspectives given their different backgrounds. I read through their uh, resumes or applications and thought all three of the non-student candidates looked excellent, um. Both their backgrounds and, and what they had hoped to accomplish, so that was really, it s great when you see. You know, very qualified and talented people stepping up. They all looked like they might have been good choices, but so it must have been a little tough. Yeah, tough choice. Um, they just felt that, uh, uh, Shiva had some different, you know, areas that, um, they, ve lost a few people on the eqc in the past few years and with, with kind of more of an energy focus, and that s kind of where, you know, a lot of his passion lies, so they felt that he would be good to have an individual like that on there, so yeah.

Thank you, counsel, any questions? Not, I ll look for emotion. Mayor might like to make a motion to appoint Shiva uh Vasishta, uh, as a regular member of the Environmental Quality Committee for a three-year term expiring JANUARY 31st, 2029, and to appoint Whitney Olsen as a student member for a term expiring MAY 2028. I ok, we have a motion by Council member Bradone and a seconded by Council Member Maryland to appoint the aforesaid uh regular member to the eqc and uh student rep Whitney Olsen. Uh, all in favor, please say aye. Hi. I ll oppose same sign. Motion passes 520. So. Thank you for all the applicants for applying and now our next item. Of business, get back here. General business is approving the plans and specifications ordering the improvement and order the taking of bids for the 2026 Street rail rehabilitation project and we have our city engineer, Stephanie Smith presenting. Thanks for being here tonight.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, as you said, this is, um, the item for the 2026th Street rehabilitation project. Um, the areas for the project were chosen based on a combination of repair records that we ve had in these neighborhoods, using our pavement management database with data collected over several years, as well as coordination with other projects nearby and into the future. The project goals are to extend the life of the street, maintain the safety of the traveling public, as well as to be good stewards of the public funds. The neighbors, the neighborhoods chosen for this year include the Willow Creek neighborhood. That is south of Lexington Avenue and on the west side of Hamlin Avenue, as well as as well as the silverthorn neighborhood, which is again south of Lexington Avenue, but on the east side of Hamlin Avenue. Um, Silverthorne was an alternate bid in 20024, um, and will be part of the base bid for this year.

Trails for the project include that it will be rehabilitated as part of the project, include trails near um Lee Pack Court and Lexington Avenue. Um, that ll include trails that will. Create access to um Turtle Lake Elementary School. As well as, um, a new trail stub that will go out to the leak, the lee pack house Park. Um, this will allow us to coordinate with the Ramsey Counties project on Lexington Avenue that will be between County Road I and County Road j, and they are planning to rehabilitate the Lexington Trails, um, that have not been recently rehabilitated. Um, the city s preferred method of street rehabilitation is stabilized full deck reclamation, that is where the existing pavement is ground up with the aggregate base underneath and then a stabilizing agent is added to make it very strong. Um, it s compacted, grated, and then a new pavement surface is paved on the top. Um, our street, oops.

Um, our street rehabilitation project also includes trail rehabilitation, which I had mentioned previously, um, trails near the Lake Johanna Fire Department in Turtle Lake Elementary at the corner of Lexington Avenue and County Road I. It also includes replacing two retaining walls, um, one on awaso Heights and one at West Owaso Boulevard. 88 pedestrian ramp upgrades, Spot curb and gutter repairs along with catch basin repair to improve drainage. Minor sanitary sewer improvements and replacing bolts on aging water gate valves. Included in this project is also some improvements at Commons Park. The older part of the parking lot area in the lower level parking lot. The pavement will be replaced with a full depth reclaim and new pavement. We ll also be doing spot replacement of damaged curb and gutter, and minor stormwater drainage improvements, including a couple of new catch basins. We ll be adding 2 new guest spaces to the lower level parking lot. You can see them here in the map in blue.

We are also going to be constructing pipe, um, sanitary sewer pipe for a future relocation of the sanitary sewer lift station that serves the community center. Um, currently it is located near the pavilion, and it would be relocated to be closer to Highway 96. There will also be infrastructure added for future ev parking. As well as conduit added for additional parking lot lights and a security camera. Sanitary, uh, I already mentioned the lift station, um, as well as, um, pavement and curb and gutter replacement for the service entrance drive, which is on the other side of the community center. Um, an additional 5 employee parking spaces will also be constructed in that space. So some of the employee vehicles that are currently parked on the upper level lot will now be able to go down to that service employee lot. Um, new trail construction will also be done to connect the trails that circulate in the Commons Park to the Mount Avenue playground.

Funding for the project was, um, anticipated in the capital improvement project, which is um 2.5 million for 2.550 million for uh street renewal. Um, 220,000 for surface water, 275, 100,000 for um water and um capital asset replacements of 525,000 and community

Investment of 100,000. Um, the proposed schedule moving forward would be um tonight approving plans and specifications, ordering the ad for bid, as well as the bid opening would take place MARCH 18th. The um award could happen at the council meeting on APRIL 6th, and then we would anticipate construction beginning this summer. Um, staff recommends the city council adopt the attached resolution. Thank you. Council, what questions do you have, uh, Councilmember Springhorn. Mayor Denkinger, um the, uh, I, I, as I recall, usually we, the more flexibility we can provide on uh timing, um to uh contractors, the more the, the lower the bids are likely to be, right? That, that we give them flexibility, it doesn t have to be done in MAY, it can be done in JUNE or you can do it in JULY. I do, I, I worry a little bit about that parking lot project, uh, because we ve all seen what the lower parking lot is like on Farmers market days.

So, do we have an idea how many, weeks the uh farmers market is likely to be impacted. Um, that s a good question. We ll be working closely with the contractor as well as with our parks department staff to confirm that as we get into the project process, um, it probably would be, goodness, it would be several weeks. Um, and we have had discussions on whether it would be appropriate to relocate it temporarily. Thanks Other questions, Council member Don. Yes, thank you, Mayor. Yes, if you could remind me, I, I was trying to remember. Uh, for our street rehab program, have we been through a full cycle so that every city street has been touched and been rehabilitated and been brought up to ada standards yet or are we still finishing off that first round. Um, for ada standards as far as pedestrian ramps throughout town. We still have deficient areas where we have older style ramps.

We also have some situations where the ramps were reconstructed and then the standards changed again. So then that brought them out of compliance with ada standards, um, as far as if all of the streets in town have been reconstructed. Maybe Tom can speak to that, um, our public works director. Yes, thank you, uh, Councilor Mulverone. Um, yes, uh, I, I guess in reference what I m, I m kind of thinking you re talking about is um we have brought up all of the streets in Shoreview to the same standard, so they all now have urban gutter, uh, storm sewer collection and so forth. So we ve, we ve done that. So now what we re doing is we re going back to the, the first streets that were constructed with concrete curb and gutter and, coming back and, and res and rehabilitating those, those payments. So a lot of these, streets are, have been, we re we re sorry, uh, constructed initially in probably the 80s or early 90s.

Thank you. I had a couple questions. Um, what I was curious to know for the new parking spaces that you re at the non-employee ones. What was their now or what had been there. Um in the places in the lower level parking lot and the map shown in blue, um, so currently they re they re either um part of an island. So if you look sort of towards the center of the screen, you can see there s those 3 spaces that was previously part of a parking island, and we have a couple of other spots where you can get like one extra space where we re looking at reducing the size of a few of the parking islands. And then, um, also along the easter n side, Currently there s just a short stub of a collection of parking spaces, but we would be expanding that to the south, so that whole line would be a full aisle of parking spaces.

Great, good. That s, that s great because we do have those events. I think even, even sometimes with the concerts, um, we ll have an overly full parking lot. So that s great to see. Also, uh appreciate the Commons trail to Mounds Park. I think that s a great addition and around um the Lee Pack house and I m sure that people that will be using the trail now along the new trail, as Hamlin Avenue is redone. That ll be a great way to access Turtle Lake School, and I know there s a little cul-de-sac back there and I ve thought to their near trails, but getting there in, uh, you know, in a road that goes past or accesses both the school and the fire department kind of limits, you know, the safety, i guess, a little bit. So I, I m really glad to see both of those. Um, this council have more questions?

Mayor Councilor McCar I m pleased as always that people who came before us came up with this system for rehabilitation of our streets on an annual basis so that we don t just scramble around every year trying to figure out how we re going to pay for doing things that. Are predictable in Shoreview. And then the, the infrastructure for the ev uh is that just basically kind of laying in the electrical components or what it s needed, so it, or there are a certain amount that that it potentially could. Provide, you know, the infrastructure for or is it just to actually get that, the base of that in there, meaning the electrical. Yeah, um, good question, Mayor. What that consists of, it does consist of laying the empty conduit pipe out to where we re looking to work with a specific ev contractor to do the actual installation of the charging station, because that s really their specialty.

So that would be a separate, um, that would be a separate project where they do that part. Right now we re just putting in the underground conduit so that in the future they wouldn t have to dig up the pavement that we re just putting down right now, right, that makes sense.

So potentially how many units or how many charging stations could that accommodate? Um, oh goodness, since it s conduit, they could put, um, they couldn t put pipe in or they can put the electrical lines through there. I I m not sure how many spaces we currently have planned for, Tom. Would you be able to speak to that? Yeah, uh, the, the plan is to put in two dual station ev charging stations similar to what we have up above. Um, the, problem we, we have, uh, that we get into down below is, um, the, the, the, the amount of electric availability of space in our current uh uh circuit system in the building. So, uh, we re, we re kind of limited to the, to the four charging stations down below, um, but it appears that we could actually add some additional ones up top. Um, if we ever need that to do that in the future, so yeah, thank you.

Any other questions? If not, I ll look for a motion. Thank you very much. Mayor. I d like to make a motion to adopt resolution Number 2614, approving the plans and specifications, ordering the improvement and ordering the taking of bids for the 2026 street rehabilitation City Product number 26-04. Ok, we have a motion by Council member Doan with the second by Councilmember Springhorn, uh, to adopt resolution number 26-14. All in favor, please say aye, I. I ll oppose same sign, uh, motion passes 5 to 0. Thanks very much to our public works department. And we have one more item of general business, and that is Teni, which is the resolution authorizing the City of Shoreview to join the nonpartisan coalition, Cities for Safe and Stable Communities, and I ll look to our city manager Brad Martins to introduce this to us. Thanks, Mary Consul. Um, as you know, over the last several weeks, Operation Metrosurge has put a significant strain on many local governments, including Shoreview.

In response to the strain, a group of cities have developed a nonpartisan coalition called the Cities for Safe and Stable Communities. And their goal is to focus on local governance, public safety and operational stability. It is a short-term mission, um, as of now, they re talking of a 4 or 5 month initiative, which cities will work together to restore trust and advocate for the needs of our communities through a strength and numbers approach. Um, the coalition is nonpartisan, um, the part uh participation does not require lobbying, litigation, or public advocacy unless a city independently chooses to engage in those activities. Um, just a further um, promote the nonpartisan nature of it. I m bound by a code of ethics to the International City County Managers Association, where I have to be, must be nonpartisan in the work I do. So me bringing this forward to you, I would not do so if it was not a nonpartisan endeavor.

Um, well we, no, there s no fee to join at this time. There will likely be some shared costs. They re hiring a consultant group to assist with, um, communications and those types of activities. Um, I believe they ll be somewhere in the realm of 35 or 40 cities to help fund those, so, um, the, the amount should be nominal. In addition to a shared strong voice, member cities would receive regular updates, briefings, and strategy assistance for the legislative session, um, which would be helpful, helpful for us as well. As far as the governance of the group, a core group of city managers will provide the direction for the coalition with the goal of overall consensus. If there is a a a topic in which there s not consensus, there would likely be some sort of voting structure. Um, I do not know whether that s a, you know, 50% + 1 or 2/3 or anything else.

It s kind of building the plane as it s flying approach a little bit on this I do feel, however, that joining the coalition um it would show Shorview s continued commitment, um, to continue to advocate for our community as well as our commitment to stable communities and strength of the local government level. So I feel there s a lot to gain with uh minimal risk and minimal contribution to have a strength in numbers approach, um, at the legislative session as well as beyond. I m happy to take any questions MR. Martins, I wonder if you could talk a little bit about, um, we know that um. Communities, law enforcement agencies, um, businesses, uh, there s been an economic impact, uh, schools, so part of this, the mission of this group might be to collectively ask for funds at the legislature to help stabilize those activities, pay for law enforcement, um, um assist schools with funding to make up for, for example, having to deal with remote learning and providing equipment to kids, um, impacts on businesses, etc.

So this group as a nonpartisan group, um, would, could potentially provide support for that funding because right now there is no funding planned other than I think the governor has made some money available for small businesses, but other than that, communities are. Kind of left to pay for this um on their own, and I know for example, a lot of law enfor local law enforcement agencies have been working overtime and, you usually local governments don t have room in the budget, so maybe you could just kind of confirm that, um, and that collectively gives us a little more um strength in that area than it would as an individual city. Yeah, correct. Shoreview on its own is hard to advocate for uh legislative change. But if you have a group of cities with a population of a million, for example, that s a pretty powerful group to have at the legislature. Um, all of our communities are also different.

So I think having the more diverse group will have a more um a bigger um bigger group of, of concerns to go to the legislature to get assistance with. Additionally, this group, the consultants that um is working with also has a Washington dc office, and that was done intentionally, so there wasn t the possibility that advocate at the federal level as well. Councilor Amber Springhorn earlier in the meeting we had a speaker uh who seemed to me was, uh, to an extent trying to poison the well uh when it comes to the, goals of this group by kind of inexplicably bringing up the names of a couple of United States senators and a state senator and a state representative and a state attorney general, none of whom are city officials. So it is my understanding that this is from the ground up, uh, uh, a collection of cities. Uh, nonpartisan entities who uh wanted to join together for this purpose, and there is no involvement from um state or uh legislative or uh congressional uh personnel, as I understand it.

That s correct. That s right. Thank you. Um Other questions, Councilmember Gardner. Mayor, I certainly would be, um, supportive of this motion. I think we ve seen, you know, our staff has been working very long hours to figure out how to respond to very unpredictable federal action with Operation Metro surge. Um so at the least, being able to have cities, pure cities uh, have a more uniform response as to what is going on. Would be super helpful so that our team doesn t have to reinvent the wheel on everything. I really appreciate that. I also appreciated knowing about your association and non-partisanship, MR. Martins will be sure you don t lose your membership card. And get on double secret probation or anything like that. Um and as I ve said with the gun violence prevention and what we ve talked about with the legislative platform, uh, the compelling need here is that Operation Metrosurge is imposed costs on cities.

We don t know what they all are yet. It s gonna be different for different cities like Columbia Heights is gonna have it worse than we do, but um I think we need to have a, a uniform response to cities to tally up the bill whether anything happens with it or not. So, um, I just think there s uh value and uniformity here. Uh, especially when uniformity is not what has been happening. Um, generally speaking, so I d be supportive of the motion. And I also would agree with uh council member Springhorn. I appreciate that people come to offer their comments whether I might agree with it or not, but um I think what was being described about this. Group is inaccurate. Council member Don, I think you had, did you have a comment? Yes, uh, thank you, Mayor. Uh, I quite a comment and a question. First, um, in the, uh, launch press release that we received, um it showed, uh, or at least 12 cities and I think that they re very good pure cities that I, uh want to make sure that uh that we understand also how that group is growing because I do think that there is strength in numbers, um, and those pure cities, I think, are very reputable cities.

They re uh ones that um I would. Be glad to be in partnership with sharing, uh, resources with because we are stronger together versus trying to do this individually. So if uh if I could ask uh our city manager, if you could share a little bit more about what other cities are joining, uh, what about, uh, the, the, I don t see the two core cities as well as greater Minnesota cities listed. So if you could talk a little bit more about how the coalition is building out. I can a little bit. I will start with um every city in the state of Minnesota is invited, so it s not metro only. It s all over the, the, state of Minnesota. So all of the 856 cities could participate in this. Um, uh, I m not aware of the finalists. I will ask for it tomorrow, um, if it s approved when I share that information to ask for an updated list, I can send that to you.

I do know, um, Near us, Badness Heights. Um did join, I believe, Falcon Heights. Um New Brighton is joining, um, so most of our neighboring cities are joining us well. Thank you. And again, I, I think someone here raised that point that um the impact on uh any number of, uh law enforcement, local law enforcement, schools in particular, um, you know, after this search is done, there will be economic impacts that go way beyond what might be really apparent now, for example, in terms of businesses, so this group also supports those other, you know, whatever we can do to help support the schools who are already on very tight budgets for the costs that they ve um incurred, and which I think will be significant and then um other entities as well. So it s really thinking beyond when the agents are here, making sure that these communities come back whole again as much as possible or get the support they need.

That s the way I look at this letter, so. Mayor Denkinger, I m prepared to make a motion to adopt resolution 2615, joining the nonpartisan coalition, Cities for Safe and Stable Communities. Ok, we have motion by Councilmember Springhorn with a second by Councilmember Mirland to adopt um the adjoining the nonpartisan coalition Cities for Safe and Stable Communities. Um, I think on this I ll ask you to call Ro MISS Isabeis. Council memberer Don? Aye. Council member Gardiner? A Councilmember Maryland. Council member Springhorn. Mayor Dinkinger. Hi. The motion passes 5 to 0. Um. Thank you to our city manager for the information. And uh with that, brings us to the end of our general business items. We do not have a special order of business, but I will ask counsel if there s anything else. That they want to bring up. If not, I ll look for a motion to adjourn. MAY I like to make a motion to adjourn at 8:03 P.

M. Do you have a second Ok, we have a motion by Council member Mirland with a second by Councilmember Gardner to adjourn tonight s meeting at 8:03 P. M., all in favor, please say aye. I, I opposed same sign. The meeting is adjourned, um, motion passes 5 to 0. This