[0:00] One nation under God. Go ahead and call the regular city of Lexington. Council meeting to order for September 17th, 2026 at 750. We have the Roll. Council members, degrees here. Mark here, Benji hunt here. Mayor Murphy here. We have a quorum. All right. Citizens forum tonight.
[0:22] Uh, please just, uh, just, uh, you know, the, you know, the the routine. Yeah. Thank you. Congratulations, by the way. Thanks. I was wondering if you guys heard about that tough city to get a hold of. We don’t have good phone numbers, or. I think I’ve got one phone number and one email. My name is Derrick Glenn. I’m from Ramsey.
[0:38] I’m part of a Anoka County election integrity team. Uh, the reason I’m here tonight is to bring you an update about pole pads. There was a Supreme Court case that we won. Oak Grove one, uh, last week. It was on Friday. It was a big deal. Take you back real quick on the history.
[0:58] Two years ago, a couple of cities decided they wanted or several cities decided they want to go to the paper. Oak Grove actually passed a resolution to go back to paper pulp pads for checking people in on Election Day. And then this letter came out from the county, said, you can’t do that. We’re in charge.
[1:16] Um, it’s a felony if you do that. And they laid out their statute argument, we took a look at the letter and we said, hey, we don’t think you’re reading the statutes, right? And they said, you know, they basically ignored us. Get out of here, that kind of thing.
[1:29] They didn’t verbally say that, but they weren’t listening to us. Well, it took two years. And ultimately the Minnesota Supreme Court agreed that Oak Grove and Lexington has always had the right to to choose paper or electronic pulp. That’s not what the county was saying. County said you had no choice. They they decided. So that was a big deal.
[1:49] I wanted to bring that news to you. You guys can do whatever you want now. You always had that that ability. Uh, a couple other points. I want to make. Two cities have already gone back to paper. It’s it’s, uh, Oak Grove. And then Lynwood recently passed a resolution. They’re going back to paper.
[2:05] They were waiting to see, um, how that court case turned out. We got other cities we’re talking to. So the the stuff is in the works. I think most cities are just kind of sitting back waiting for that. That court case, uh, in July, Trump addressed the nation.
[2:22] He said that China hacked our registration rolls, 220 million voter records, names and addresses. Guess what’s on those pulpits? Names and addresses. That’s why. That’s why it’s so important. That’s why I’m always talking about these pop ads. The thing about paper. Is it can’t be hacked. It’s transparent. We can trust it. We can audit it.
[2:47] The problem with the pull pads is we don’t know what’s going on with those things. I can’t tell you what’s going on inside of them, and neither can you guys. Nobody knows it’s a third party vendor.
[3:00] So we’re asking you, the City of Lexington, to consider going back to paper full pads. Now, these are only used on Election day. One other thing that’s interesting about your city is you’re small. You’re our third smallest city out of 21. I didn’t realize that. I thought it was a little bigger. 1300 voters on, uh, the general election and then on midterms, 781 voters.
[3:22] These statistics rate now at a statewide level is 60% of people vote on Election Day. I’m not sure what it is for you guys. Maybe your voters all show up in person on Election Day. Does it? 63 on Election day. Okay, so that means 40% vote early. We had upwards around 80% on Election day. Okay. Yeah. You’re different.
[3:40] Yeah. Except if it’s a primary. If it’s a primary, you’re never going to get that. But usually I know general election we have that. So what I’m saying is would it be a big a big administrative burden to your staff to check people off on paper? If you remember where we’re using paper up until 2016, it wasn’t
[3:55] that big a deal. You know, when we go to some of the bigger cities, they say we’re big. What’s that? 16. Yeah, it’s been ten years. And at first when these came out, people were like, they didn’t trust them, they didn’t need them. But you know, they’ve had them for a little while now.
[4:08] And, and so we got to go around and tell people it’d be a big deal to change. The last point I’ll make. I’ll wait a minute. I’m almost done. That’s fine. We got a lot of media today, so. Okay. Yeah. Okay. I’ll I’ll wrap it up quick.
[4:22] Um, the other thing that you might want to consider is the state has a tendency when they lose control of this to pass laws. So, um, we saw this with the pull pads and the cash flow records when we made a big deal about those, they passed the statewide mandate.
[4:36] There is no mandate on pull pads right now, but if you make the move, they may do something in the next year or two. So you might want to make that move. Now, what they said on machine tabulators is if you’re already using them, you have to keep using them.
[4:52] Um, so if you went back to paper, maybe, maybe that would help you. If you want to bring us back for work session, we can have a more thorough conversation. That way you guys can ask questions and stuff like that. And, uh, there was something else and I can’t remember what it was. So other in that contact information is on there. It’s a big deal.
[5:07] Winning that court case. Big deal. I mean, that was a David versus Goliath type thing. And it happened. So, um, we’re pretty excited. Thanks for your time. Have a good evening. Appreciate it. Take care. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else? Number four, approval of agenda with changes in corrections. Motion go first. I’ll second. Second.
[5:33] Any discussion? All in favor, say aye. Aye aye. Any opposed? None. Number five. Informational update from SVM fire department. And we have Assistant Chief Montaigne here for that tonight. Council. Thanks for having me this evening.
[5:52] Just giving you a brief update about the fire service and how things have been going for that. Um, so call volume has been pretty steady as we’ve gone through and the transition has taken place. Um, even with the change in the call matrix, the numbers kind of stayed roughly the same.
[6:07] Um, and one of the items before the change took place, we still are always available if COPD or Allina may request us for it, but the call volume has been staying good. Uh, response time has been amazing for the city. Um, we continue to provide some of the quickest times in the county. Uh, and that’s countywide. So again, this is no exception on that. The response times are fantastic.
[6:22] Can’t say enough about our crews. Um, one they’re excited. They love getting out there, and they’re making an impact when they get on, uh, on scene. To echo that, we had two incidents recently within the city that, uh. Hey, Matt, can you just give him the. What are the response times average? Uh, averages were right around that.
[6:41] Four minutes from arriving to the door. Yep. I don’t actually have just Lexington in front. Of me. That’s okay. That’s as long as that number is out there. Yep. Um, tackle that though.
[6:53] We had two big incidents or what would have been major incidents if we wouldn’t have had really quick response times. Crews were on scene one. It just so happened we were clearing a call across the street. Uh, came over, um, would have been involved into a structure fire, but they were able to get in there, knock it down really, really quick.
[7:08] Just became a room and contents item, which we love to get on to those where you can see where we make an impact. Crews got in, uh, didn’t even have to stretch a hose line. We were able to put that out with an extinguisher and water can.
[7:19] Everybody was safe, which we’d love to see, but it’s also one of those that response times are making a difference, not only in the lifesaver, but also when it comes to, uh, costs and everything. Like with their homestead. Now, to make that response time even better, uh, Alina will be moving into station four, which is in Circle Pines, October 1st. So that means we’ll have an aligner rig available to respond to Lexington that much closer.
[7:38] Right now, it’s depending on where they’re located. Again, that could be Lionel Mounds View, uh, Shoreview. They kind of rotate around the area. Uh, but all that’s been taken care of, and they’ll start staging out of station four just right down the road off Lake Drive. So that’s really exciting for the area.
[7:52] Just for the viewing public, that is an advanced life support ambulance. Yes. Okay. Um, we have had a couple of locations. We’ve had multiple calls for the same reason. So our calls have been out. Those location.
[8:10] Um, afterwards, trying to do follow ups and just make sure that we can inform and educate public, uh, want to make sure a better environment. But to that, uh, um, again, in the event of a 911 emergency versus something we could handle, hopefully elsewhere or in an informal, uh, educational session. Fire inspections have been progressing nicely. Um, our first priority is just going out and introducing ourselves to everybody.
[8:28] Um, our plan is to do a fire inspection to the businesses throughout. So one that’s gaining a contact, uh, who wants to put NOx box or be able to have access after hours making sure their sprinkler systems and basically just fire safety is good for not only them as the business to protect their assets, but then also for
[8:43] any type of consumer that might be going through. So that’s gone really well. They’ve been very welcoming. So kudos to all the businesses that we’ve been out to. Appreciate their cooperation and going through. Um, that will continue to progress.
[8:56] And I’ll be making sure that we follow up with that update as we continue to progress on that. Um, from the community outreach side, night to night, we attended every party that got submitted. Um, we’ve got Fire safety, uh, week coming up in October. Uh, we’ve planned or we’ve started planning all the Santa parades. So continuing to look for our website and social media.
[9:13] Uh, a lot of information is going to be coming out about that. One thing I hope that everybody takes advantage of is with our Santa parades as they’re going through, we’ve got a tracker. So if it is bitter cold all like it has been a couple of years ago.
[9:27] Uh, even last year, a couple of the nights were bad. You can actually track, and it’s within five meters. You’re able to get outside right at time. Be able to see the parade go by and you can hustle back. You’re going to cover the whole city because all the comments.
[9:39] , we want to make sure that we give the best parade they could possibly have for us. And our goal is to make sure that, uh, one, we collect as much as we can, because the food shelves do require that too. So, um, our goal is to get out. So continuing to take a look at our website and social media posts, because we’ll keep you updated on that.
[9:52] From a staffing side, um, the nice part is we’re full, which is awesome. Um, out of station four right there. We’ve got 14 callback members, three captains, and then nine non callback with that just means is when they’re not on duty, they can come back if they like, but they’re not required
[10:06] to. Um, so 26 people just responding out of station for their. Which is awesome. Um, that includes uh, former Lexington members as well. So, um, excited for them to come aboard and start getting in there as well. Um, and they’ve been working with the city as well.
[10:21] Assets are getting sold, a few little loose items and stuff like that are going to be handled. Um, really after the elections and stuff like that. Uh, kind of wrap up the last of the items that are all set up for it, but I’ll take any questions. Otherwise, you’re going to hear from me again a little bit later in this meeting.
[10:35] Um, I just want to say the nine over 11 person at the corner, I thought that was very honorable. That was. Service area covered. Pretty cool. Yeah, it’s very cool. I saw that too. As well. Yeah, well, Firefighter Robinson spent all day right out there for it.
[10:51] It means a lot to him then, as well as a veteran. For him to be out there and being able to stand, he really enjoys. It as well. I’ve never seen that before. So that was nice. Well, fantastic. I’ll make sure it gets passed along. That was very nice. I even called Bob. I said, there’s a guy at the corner for the 911. Yeah, that was awesome. Great.
[11:09] Thank you very much. Thank you. Thanks, Matt. All right. Up next, we have chief, uh, Brian Gretzky from Centennial Lakes Police Department to give us the, uh, annual report. Our new chief. New chief? Mayor. Thank you. Council. Uh, it’s my privilege to be here tonight. I’m. I’m excited to give you guys this presentation.
[11:31] When I was putting it together, I was trying to think of how I wanted to present it, what I wanted to really highlight from the department. And for me, it was more of the people within the department, kind of the roles that people play in the department and some of the events that were were involved
[11:43] in within the community. Uh, so first 2025, our leadership team, chief, James Mark, everybody knows who chief Mark was. He was the chief for us for six years. He brought a lot of stability to the department. Um, really good culture underneath him.
[12:07] The department’s moving in a really good direction because of his leadership. And we’re continuing that now that I’ve transitioned into the role. Captain Pat Aldrich, he oversees our operations, basically, so he’ll oversee the patrol officers, the community service officers, anything that needs to get sent on down to them, goes through the sergeants and then goes to the officers.
[12:28] Sergeant McGee’s is our administrative sergeant, so he oversees our field training program. He oversees our body worn camera program. Uh, he’s a Taser instructor. Use of force instructor, field training instructor. And then he supervises our day shift officers. We have three day shift officers, and he’s in charge of of overseeing all of them.
[12:48] Sergeant Wahlberg is a firearms instructor, field training officer. Um, he’s also responsible for supervision of afternoon shift and overnight shift. And then in 2025, I was also a patrol sergeant. Same thing I oversaw afternoon shift, our overnight shift. Um, use of force instructor, Taser instructor and field training officer. And then our patrol division. So, um, we have 17 sworn officers.
[13:18] Obviously with the chief, with the captain, the sergeants that in our investigator takes us down six. So we have 11 that we actually have on patrol. Our patrol officers are the backbone of our department. They handle a wide variety of calls throughout the course of the year.
[13:33] Uh, aside from the calls that they handle, trainings, that they’re they take part in and our officers are all extremely involved in the community. That’s one thing that we take a lot of pride in is having our officers, that willingness to not only just do the police thing, sit in the squad car, drive around in a squad car, but they like to get
[13:47] out. They like to get to the community events and they’re really involved and they’re very dedicated people. So we’re really happy to have all of them. But one thing that we continue to focus on as a department is just the well-being of our officers.
[14:02] So mental well-being, physical well-being, we’ve implemented workout on duty that they can do. We carve out time in the day if they want to work out. And then we’ve also, um, put in some some things for the mental health side with law enforcement just because shift work and what we’re exposed to on a daily basis can be taxing on the officers.
[14:18] So we’re doing everything that we can to look out for them and to take care of them. And then our investigations. So Detective Manning is our our lone investigator. Um, aside from preparing cases for for charging, she gets Mark reports. So that’s the Minnesota Adult Abuse Reporting Center.
[14:38] So those all come into Detective Madden, and she screens those out, and then she sends them down to an officer. So she’ll read them, review them, and some of them can get screened out once we get them. And then the rest of them get sent off to an officer to go follow up and do more investigation. She does the exact same thing with CPS reports.
[14:52] That’s Child Protective Services. So we get those reports sent into the police department. She’ll screen those and then send them on to an officer for investigations, our community service officers. So this is one thing. We don’t give them enough credit.
[15:08] They don’t get enough credit for what they do because our community service officers, they’re out in the they’re out in the community. They’re they’re doing the public events. And they’re also addressing a lot of the ordinance issues with within all three of our cities, uh, they take a huge weight off of the patrol officers. And a lot of the tasks and the responsibilities of the patrol officers.
[15:24] And we’re extremely thankful and fortunate to have such good community service officers in our department. And then our record staff. So Cathy Hancock retired in 2025 after 19 years with the department. And then Jean also retired in 2025 after ten years with the department.
[15:44] Uh, Jessica Thurston is our new office manager and Donna Anderson is a record stack. She’s been with us for quite some time. Our records department, they kind of serve as the customer service end of the police department. They field a lot of phone calls, a lot of public requests, and then they act in a support role for the officers.
[15:59] Training and professional development. So throughout the course of the years, officers are various trainings that they they partake in. They go to uh, biannual defensive tactics. So we used to train just annually for our, our defensive tactics stuff, and we’ve implemented multiple trainings throughout the course of the year, which is a huge, huge thing for us.
[16:19] The better we can train our people, the better off that they’re going to be in the situations that they have to deal with firearms qualifications, tasers, re certifications in a licensed cycle. They also have autism training. Implicit bias, conflict management, crisis intervention.
[16:36] All of these trainings are phenomenal for our officers. It teaches us how better to deal with the public that we’re going to be interacting with on a daily basis, given the situations that they’re dealing with. It helps us understand what they’re going through better. And just today’s day and age with law enforcement, there’s so much overlap, there’s so much mutual aid.
[16:53] We’ve started to partake in a lot of joint training with neighboring agencies. It’s been extremely beneficial to our officers. Uh, just some highlights from 2025. We added a position with the Anoka County Swat team on our department, which was a huge tool for us.
[17:13] We’ve been trying to create retention things for our officers for years now, and having this opportunity, having this spot on the Anoka County Swat team is a great, great thing for an officer to who wants to get some extra duties outside of the patrol work, and aside from that, it’s allowed us to have somebody who’s got that higher level of training and then they can bring that
[17:27] back to the department and help us with our in-house trainings. Officer Noah Pineau, we added in 2025. So hiring climate and law enforcement obviously has been very difficult for the past 5 or 6 years.
[17:44] We take a lot of pride in the fact that we’ve still been able to find good candidates, and we’ve been able to train people very well, and we’re at a place right now where we’re only down one officer and we’re actively searching still. But for us, it’s a really good spot to be in. Despite all the troubles with hiring right now, we added Emily Felton, who’s a CSO.
[18:03] Monique Kallstrom as a reserve officer, and I mentioned Jess earlier. BJ Stevens celebrated his 25 years of service this last year. Uh, most of you probably know BJ, BJ is one of the more personable people you’re ever going to meet, and he’s the epitome of, uh, community policing and law enforcement. So a huge, huge accomplishment for BJ.
[18:21] And then some of the community connections I wanted to highlight are, like I said, our officers are involved in the community in quite a few different capacities. One of the really important ones for us is the Centerville and the Golden Lake, uh, mentoring program.
[18:35] That’s just been a big emphasis on us over the last few years is to get our officers into the schools, get that face time with the kids so that we can get to know them on a totally different level, where we’re not so much the law enforcement figure. They get to know our police officers on a first name basis.
[18:49] It’s been a great program for us, and it’s something that we’re looking to continue to grow in the future. And our officers really enjoy it. And they’ve the kids have have loved it. And we’ve gotten great feedback from the schools on it, too.
[19:07] Uh, Heroes and helpers is a program that we participate in the holiday season, which pairs first responders with kids to go Christmas shopping, basically, so they’ll they’ll match up and they’ll get a list for their family, and then they’ll go shopping. They’ll get holiday gifts, and then the toys for Joy program. So it’s kind of the same concept.
[19:24] We we get gifts and we get food, and then we load those up in our squad cars and we actually go to the houses and we deliver those for the families, people who maybe can’t afford it around the holiday season. It gives them the gifts, it gives them the food, and it’s a great opportunity for us to get into the community and give back. And how do you know who they are? Do they apply for apply? Yep.
[19:38] They apply through the police department. Okay. And just a couple other things. Our social media, uh, today’s day and age, it’s just as important for us to be active on social media to engage the community. We’re looking to continue to grow our social media, uh, followings. We’ve just got some statistics here.
[19:56] 9400 on Facebook, 1300 on Instagram, and just over 1300 on Twitter, something we’re going to be tracking over the years just to see how we’re growing it. And then we have the prescription drug program at the police department.
[20:11] So we have a been inside the lobby of the police department where prescription drugs can be dropped off, provides people from the community a safe place where they can drop off their prescription medications so that they don’t end up in the city, on the streets, wherever it may be. And they need to be in plastic bags out of the. Plastic containers, in plastic bags. Okay.
[20:27] Uh, we collected £132 last year. It was 125 the year before. So that number we’ve seen steadily increase over the years. So the message is the message is getting out to people that that’s a good place for them to come and drop it off. And then just, uh, some statistics for you guys.
[20:45] We written warnings and verbal warnings in 2025 was down from the previous two years, about 2200 written and verbal warnings. And officers issued 638 citations, which was down from 804 in 2024 and right about on par with where we’re at in 2023.
[21:09] We had 631, and then our total activity, we had total activity. So those factors in 911 calls, in any self-initiated activity that officers do, 10,294 total incidents, which was up from 2024, where we had 10,071, and up a little bit from 2023, where we had 8800, just over 8800. Our largest volume calls for service medicals.
[21:33] Um, all of our officers are EMR trained. We have two EMTs and a paramedic on staff, which is a great asset for us because a lot of times we’re the first people there and our officers are very well trained with the medical stuff.
[21:49] Aside from that, I just guess I want us to just say thank you to all of you guys for all the support that we get from our council and our, our cities as a, as an agency, we’re really thankful for everything you guys do for us. And if there’s any questions, I’d be happy to answer those.
[22:03] Do we have fixit tickets anymore? Uh, no, we don’t have fixed tickets. We need them. I can’t believe the people that drive around with one light. Half a light, no lights. Yeah, more times than not, the officer will give them a just a verbal warning on it, but. Yeah. Okay. Or or a written warning sometimes.
[22:29] Anything else? All right. What drove. The drop in citations? Besides the obvious that people are just being good or. Or are. Probably officers are just as I think, generally speaking, as an agency, as you as your officers become more seasoned, citations kind of go down a little bit. There’s a little more leeway there. There’s a little bit more.
[22:50] I mean, I’m not against it by any means, but. Uh, yeah, I think for the most generally speaking, our officers, they’re more apt to give a written warning unless it’s an offense that. Closer to the 23 numbers. So I’m trying to figure. Out, like what. Happened in two years ago.
[23:03] Well, we just like to think that, uh, the public is just following. Yeah. Following the traffic laws. Better as time goes on, right? Yeah. Obvious. Good luck with that. Four years ago. Off the top stuff. Don’t get don’t get Bill going on that.. Yeah. Right. Yeah. I blocked that whole part of my life.
[23:21] I mean, everyone needs to have the glass shields right here, you know. No. And did it do any good? No. Thank you. Thank you guys. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right. Ladies and communications, planning and zoning minutes. Nobody wants to talk about that. Uh, we do need a motion for a consent items.
[23:43] Unless somebody wants to start something that’s a matter of consent items. So moved. Second, first and second. Any discussion? All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? No. All right. First action item nine A tonight. And for your reading pleasure, uh, to buy paintings here.
[24:04] I’m sure you have this memorized for us. Uh, and that is. Well, uh, I guess we’ll just let you talk first, and then we’ll make art. We’ll talk about it. And I didn’t put it in your package just because you can see the size of it. Yeah. Don’t want to see it on paper. And that’s it. No, thanks. Nope. That’s just.
[24:25] That’s 304, 14 pages of good information. 314. That’s it. Oh. But I’m gonna sum it up for you. Is it cool? And then, uh, anybody that has, I’ll make sure that, uh, administrator has the, uh, link, if you guys want to read it all. It’s also available online at the Anoka County website.
[24:42] So just know that it’s there. It is a lot of good information, um, a lot of statistics and stuff like that over the years. So it’s, um, if you do have some spare time, I would recommend kind of combing through it, but I will cover the highlights here.
[24:55] Um, so every five years in Oak County is required by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to outline a variety of different hazards. Um, and basically, it’s what affects Anoka County. Um, this is the hazard mitigation plan. That’s what was presented here, um, and identifies the hazards and details, plans, policies and projects to help reduce our risk as a community.
[25:13] Um, this is also a tool for cities to be eligible for disaster funding. If a disaster were to strike. So with that, that 314 page document is drafted and put together. Um, it’s basically developed by every single agency you could think of within the county and everything from school districts, the watershed districts to cities to fire departments, police departments, uh, the sheriff department, everybody kind of
[25:34] puts in their input and it kind of all comes together as one master document. Um, no County emergency management. And Terry Stutsman was kind of leading that. They use the U of M spatial services to help out with that. So, um, that’s kind of how it all got put together.
[25:46] Um, but if you do want the link or anything like that, we can make sure that it’s there. Otherwise it’s on the Anoka County website as well. Um, the hazard mitigation is basically just an act in reducing or eliminating, um, basically natural, manmade or technological disasters around the area.
[26:02] It’s not saying it’s going to eliminate them or anything. That’s but identifying it to make sure that one we have what’s in place if something were to happen. And two, what do we do to recover from that if something were to happen.
[26:14] So it’s to help us to understand the hazards that we’re most at risk for or, or show our vulnerabilities. So and I’ll get into Lexington’s in just a second here. Um. But yeah, go. Ahead for the viewing public. Uh, so with our new partnership with SBM in Lexington, you are now our emergency manager, correct? I believe so, yes. Yep, that is correct. Yep.
[26:32] Chief gets key. But now we switched over because it’s just easier for them to have more resources. And with that though, with everything that we’re going to be doing um, and chief again I meet then as well. But it’s one of those where it doesn’t matter the incident PD is going no matter what.
[26:48] Um, I just wanted the public to know that your the SBM took over that role as the emergency manager for. Our city. Yeah. And basically the goal is what’s the best thing we can do to make sure one public, if something were to happen, has the resources they need, the outreach for it, and then the
[27:05] recovery portion for it. And that’s really what this kind of all puts together. Um, for this update then, um, I wasn’t or SBM wasn’t covering, Lexington at the time, but uh, SBM along with uh, chief Mark and COPD did help put it all together for all three cities. So again, we met with Centerville.
[27:22] We met with Circle Pines, um, with COPD, and it was basically putting everything together. Not a lot changed from the previous to this one. So again, if you go back to the 2019 2020 plan to the 2025, a lot of the risks that we identified, um, are the same.
[27:37] Just because it’s a continuous goal, a continuous goal for us is to continue to improve that. And when I get into that, that’ll make a little bit more sense. Um, but what it was, was basically sitting down together, taking a look at what the city encompasses.
[27:51] So what are your vulnerabilities? Where are the locations that might be at at risk? And what can we do to not only help the public, but everybody around? So and I’m actually happy that chief was here as well, because it’s one of the, one of those that they deserve a lot of credit to when they put that time and effort.
[28:04] I know they were at almost every single meeting as well. Um, it takes a lot of work to put this document together. It takes a lot of people to get this all put together. I could only imagine.
[28:16] Um, so if you do look at that, page 277 is basically the Lexington specific items, um, mitigation items that we have listed, public education and outreach. Um, this goes how do we contact anybody in the case of an emergency? Different ways that we’re getting, uh, messages out.
[28:33] Um, both myself and chief also mentioned that we both have a social media presence. We’re trying to get that up. That’s a great way to connect, especially with the younger people that are out there. Um, you know, they’re glued to the phones or they’re glued to that.
[28:44] You know, before it was easy, you could just call up the radio and you’re able to get your information out. Am radio. I’m probably doesn’t have the reach that used to have for it. You know, I know I listen to it, but it’s not probably the go to, you know, Facebook acts. Uh, anything like that might be the spot where it was able to go.
[28:55] If we don’t stay up on that, in the event that we need to reach out to people, how are we getting that out? Um, and that with Anoka County being able to send notifications out, um, it’s that thing we just want to continue to improve and make sure we have the right things in place. Siren upgrades.
[29:11] That’s across the board. Almost every single city within Anoka County is in that, um, eventually they wear out, and if something were to happen or if a disaster were to take one out, that’s always something that want to keep in there.
[29:24] Um, the notification and warning devices that we have around the area, one are monitored to make sure they’re kept up and active. But too, we want to make sure that as we continue to progress, that we’re making sure that it’s still there. Uh, another item was, uh, tree planning from around the city. And it’s not planting.
[29:39] It’s planning, um, the age of the trees also do affect that. If a heavy storm wants to go through, how does that look or what type of roadways might be impeded if trees were to topple on that, where are they placed? Are they positioned correctly? Properly? Um, just making sure that if all your roads are rock
[29:52] or every or every exit is blocked at a location or unable to access something, it’s making sure that that is something that we have on the forefront to know that we can access every location.
[30:07] Last thing you want is someone to be having a cardiac arrest, and their tree is blocked by two trees and we can’t access them. So it’s just kind of a big picture as it’s going through. And this does not, uh, show one specific tree or anything like that.
[30:20] It’s just a general consensus of, hey, as the trees continue to grow and get bigger, that we’re keeping that in mind, that, hey, we want to make sure we have access to residents and locations around the city. Stormwater management. Uh, again, pretty common thing throughout, um, how we handle any of the precipitation, whether it’s snow in the winter, whether it’s rain in the summer, yes, even on dry or summers like this, we still have to manage.
[30:38] Where is it going? Um, especially as you continually develop, all of a sudden you don’t have those ditches or those, uh, stormwater ponds and things like that. How are they handled? And if you do have them, how are they maintained and cleaned? So those are kept in there.
[30:51] And then new development, um, just being conscious of how they’re developed and making sure that we’re not setting ourselves up for a disaster.
[31:06] Uh, an easy one from the fire side is do they have fire lanes? Do they have a hydrant that are nearby? Um, do they have adequate parking? It’s those little things that you, as a city has already set the majority of those in place with your building codes. Um, but it’s also making sure that it’s not just. Hey. Yep. We can put this right here. It’ll fit if we. Oh, we don’t need a hydrant around this area or.
[31:19] Oh, we could get by without electricity or water. No, there’s standards that have already been set in place. It’s just making sure that we keep up to date and making sure that they’re available to everybody.
[31:35] So I know I spoke quick on that, but the request for council action tonight is to approve the resolution that was put in front of you. I actually didn’t have the resolution number, but I’ll. Dash. 1126-11. I will take any questions before that. But uh, yeah, I’m here for that. Do they still have, um, like I assuming there’s like the structure of emergency command, like who’s directing who? If there is some kind of.
[31:57] So both, uh, PD and fire have our kind of chain of command and incident command. Um, this plan itself doesn’t get into specifics. Okay. Um, but one of the items I know that’s on my list to do is annually with every single city, we try and do a tabletop just to review that, um, names change, people
[32:13] change. Uh, what? Each incident may look like is also different. If it’s a structure fire. Fire is normally in command. Almost everything else. It’s normally PD and it just kind of falls in line.
[32:31] Um, we use what’s called blue card or ICS, which is kind of the national standard where it goes through um, same with PD. And kind of as we develop that, you have an incident commander. And our biggest thing is you report to one person. Otherwise it’s kind of a free for all.
[32:44] Um, but this plan itself does not go over every individual one or who is there. Um, the city EAP is one of the items that, uh, um, as we transition, we would like to review and update just to make sure it’s there. But, uh, we haven’t put that in front of you yet. So is. This EP. Emergency Action Plan? Yeah.
[33:02] So is this the 5 or 10,000 foot view overview? Uh, 30,000. 4000. So it’s even higher. Okay. Yep. So the EP, that’ll be more like your 10,000 foot view of okay, the city. Um, what is your role as council? What would. You do? Natural disaster. Yep. Yeah, yeah. This is county level kind of looking for each one.
[33:17] This is in place. So if something very big were to happen, um, one, you’re eligible for federal funding, but then two, the framework is there that we’ve actually looked at what might happen, what might occur. Um.
[33:31] But yes, my goal is, uh, first half of next year to be able to do one address or EP, uh, kind of present that in front, whether that be in a closed session or a work session or something kind of informal. Because normally a lot of questions come from that. And then we can kind of build out from there. Okay. And everybody’s a little bit different.
[33:46] Some people will update their EP annually. Other ones it can go years between that just because you’ve got the same people in place and not a whole lot changes for it. But um, me being new, it was one of those that I need to be a prize of it. So yeah.
[34:07] Anything else for Assistant Chief Montaigne? Thank you very much, and I appreciate you both times for it. Thank you. Thank you. So nine A is recommendation to approve resolution number 26-11A resolution to adopt the 2025 Anoka County Hazardous Mitigation Plan. I’ll make the motion first. I’ll second. Second. Any further discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye aye.
[34:29] Any opposed? 098 passes and nine B recommendation to approve the special event permit for the Centennial Girls Blue Line Club at the Boulevard Bar and Grill on October 10th, 2026. And this is an annual event. I think at this point I’ll make that motion. I’ll second. Any discussion. All in favor, say aye. Aye aye.
[34:53] Any opposed? Mayor and council input. Councilmember hunt. Other than the Christmas lights coming up. But that’s a few couple months off. That was about it at the park meeting. The park board. Uh, Councilmember Meyer. Uh. We had a cable commission meeting last night and received the audit report.
[35:19] There were no abnormalities form, so that’s fine. Um, we have a new production manager, Matt Percy. Uh, or not, that’s the mayor. Production manager, rusty Ray. I was like, Matt. What? No, no. Rusty previously worked for North Metro TV from 2018 to 2022, and he was one of the people that, um, helped create the election format. So there’ll be a lot of coverage.
[35:45] They’re going to have interviews on Metro TV of all the local candidates. So, um, if you’re looking for some information, that might be a good place to look. Um, Comcast had an outage on June 22nd, which the co-directors fielded many calls from frustrated cable subscribers.
[36:04] It was a nationwide outage. Um, and so then they took care of that and that got back up. But, um, yeah. So we’ve now had more than 700,000 views on social media of the short form videos. So they’re getting a lot of coverage on that. Thank you. Thank you. Anything else? No. No, it’s no thanks, Angie.
[36:28] Yeah I have nothing tonight. All right. Uh, I’ll bring up, uh, old, uh, Council Member Benson saying it’s a great day to live in Lexington. So. All right, uh, Bill. So you have a, uh, good East Coast violation that was received from the Minnesota Department of Health.
[36:47] We just got that last week. The staff and I have dealt with. The water situation. Yes. So what this is, this has nothing to do with our water quality and our community. No. Nothing has to do with individual homes and potential for that in your homes.
[37:08] They might like your pipes in your homes that might cause lead in your water. So we tested high for a couple two homes out of our ten tests that we, uh, do every three years. Unfortunately, one of them was sky high. Um, and it put us into a a violation level. And Department of Health level.
[37:28] Uh, and so now you’ll see on our pay channel building access channel, we have a, notice of violation on there that notifies people of this violation because this is required for a state compliant with the Minnesota Department of Health.
[37:51] Um, but more importantly, it’s going to add more work for our staff for the next couple of years, perhaps do more testing of homes and the lead in the homes potential lead. Can I? And the hard part about it than that I’m just going to say this because this is the kind of guy, you know, it’s is it a little bit is it a little bit overreaching? Yeah.
[38:11] Because I mean, quite frankly, it’s one of those things where we’re concerned about that. But we have no lead concerns in this community. I’m going to put that out there. We have no lead service lines. We’ve done an overall evaluation of the community.
[38:27] We have no lead service lines, no no lead in our pipes, no lead in our water. So individual homes may have old pipes that might cause lead concentration in the water that goes to your through your faucets. Unfortunately, this particular time, we’ve never had a high concentration of lead. Uh, for as long as I’ve been here.
[38:47] And Travis doesn’t have any recollection of it during his time. He’s been there over 20 years. It’s just one of those things that it was an isolated incident that put us into a different level. And so now we have to deal with this. But I just want to make community know our water is just fine.
[39:05] But the point of this is to check your have your water tested coming out of your closet to determine if your heart rate is putting lead into your water, because your house may have old infrastructure, old pipes that might have lead in it. So that’s that’s where we’re at.
[39:26] That’s my discussion with you folks, and I’ll leave it at that. And any questions? No, I just want to add that we were receiving completed, fully treated water from the city of Lake. So it’s not not our old water. Clean has nothing to do with it. No. So is it. So we. Have my understanding that it was dispensed improperly.
[39:45] It was done right. It’s just that it was. You sure. It was taken out of a faucet that hadn’t been used for a long time. So do you follow the rules? The person that took the water out followed the rules. You probably followed. The so closely that so.
[40:03] But that’s okay. No, it is what it is. Um, we’ll have to deal with it as a as a staff. Um, but it’s also good education for the community to be aware of your own home.
[40:24] Um, understand and, and quite frankly, going forward, if you would like to have your home tested, contact the city and we will do it. We will do it the next time we have to do tests, because now we have to do more tests of more homes in the community, more frequently. So please notify City Hall if you would like to have your water tested and we’ll do it.
[40:38] We’ll have we’re on that list we’ve been doing it for. I don’t know how long. So if that comes up, uh, what’s the city’s responsibility to do? We purely education at this point on and it really and that’s and you’ll see it in the notice too.
[40:55] That’s what we’re going to work with the Department of Health to educate. That’s one of the part of this, this whole violation is to educate the community going forward. Um, and uh, it’s you’ll see flyers, you’ll see things on our peg channel, you see things on our website that’ll educate you. Maybe maybe on Facebook.
[41:12] All those things that we tried normal media outlet. So we try to educate the community on it. Um, so but I think he is, is, you know, if, if you have concerns about your house, it’s maybe old, maybe the pipes are old and you’d like to have it tested.
[41:28] Let the city know when the next time around when we have to do tests, we will make sure that we, um, collect the sample from your house. So there you have it. That’s all. Okay. Thank you. And ready for the closed session? All right. The, uh, Lexington City Council closed this session of the meeting pursuant to Minnesota Statutes section.
[41:55] Section 13.05, subdivision, subdivision three C to develop or consider the city’s position regarding the price and other. I’m sorry. Let him finish up there. The price and other terms of the potential sale of the property at 9055 South Highway Drive, Lexington, and related property and equipment.
[42:19] Because discussion of these matters and an open meeting would likely have a detrimental effect on the city’s bargaining position. We need a motion. I’ll make a motion first. I’ll second. Second. Any discussion? All in favor, say aye. Aye aye. All right. We are officially in closed session at 742.