[0:01] It is uh 7 o'clock. I will call the uh
special work session of the city council
[0:06] meeting of March 2nd, 2026 to order. Uh
we do have a quorum uh public forum.
[0:12] Individuals may address the city council
about items on the agenda or not
[0:16] included on the agenda. Speakers are
required to state their name and address
[0:20] for the council record and limit their
remarks to three minutes or fewer.
[0:24] Speakers are requested to frame their
comments around items that fall within
[0:27] the authority of the city council.
Generally, the city council will not
[0:31] take official action on the items
discussed at this time, but may place
[0:35] the item on file, take the matter under
advisement, refer the matter to staff or
[0:40] a committee for a future report, or
direct the matter to be placed on an
[0:45] upcoming agenda.
Does anyone wish to speak?
[0:52] Does anyone wish to speak?
Does anyone wish to speak?
[0:58] Hearing none, we'll move on to bill
discussion. Any discussion on the bills?
[1:04] Hearing none, we'll move on to the
consent agenda items. Any discussion on
[1:09] the consent agenda?
[snorts]
[1:13] Hearing none, we'll move on to council
information only items. Um, first up we
[1:18] have the Morrison County Historical
Society Riverbank Reconstruction Project
[1:23] Update. Mike
Worch Worchester
[1:29] and Camila Warzeka. Welcome.
>> Good. Good evening. Thank you for having
[1:34] us. And we're here to update. It's been
a long session. I had to go back through
[1:39] my my notes to kind of refresh my memory
about when we started and it was in
[1:44] 2023. And so it's been a while and
thanks to the city council as well as
[1:51] the county commissioners uh we were able
to get an LCCMR grant with help of
[1:58] Shannon Wetstein at soil and water uh
without a plan which you helped provide
[2:04] us to get an engineer to give to build
uh build a plan so that we could go and
[2:10] get the grant. We also at that same
time, Representative Krisha uh was able
[2:16] to uh get an appropriation for 700,000
at that at that that same year in 2023.
[2:24] And uh Mike is going to talk a little
bit about what's been happening and uh
[2:29] we've also had a little bit of a few
delays, but
[2:35] thank you.
>> Hello. Uh I'm Mike Worcester. It's like
[2:40] the city in Morster. I was I was
debating which way should I go with that
[2:44] one.
>> Your first instinct was correct. So
[2:47] you're fine. You're fine. I trust me I'm
used to that. Um I will not go into too
[2:52] much of the arcane detail of what we
dealt with but as Camille said we have
[2:56] been working on this process. I've been
at the museum, it'll be four years in
[3:00] May and go back close to another seven
or eight years beyond that that this has
[3:05] been an issue out there at our building
and it's been a lot of people involved,
[3:11] a lot of planning, a lot of plans, a lot
of meetings, a lot of back and forth.
[3:16] And uh she talked about delays. Yes, we
had experienced um unfortunate delays
[3:23] throughout this process that put us off
almost two years past where we had
[3:27] originally hoped to do this work after
we started receiving the funding. Um and
[3:32] I'm I'm not trying to be too terribly
critical because there's a good side to
[3:36] this too and that some of the delays
came at the behest of the Army Corps of
[3:40] Engineers. They wanted us to continue to
do archaeological surveying on our
[3:46] property. Now, we always knew our
property had some pretty some
[3:50] significance archaeologically, but in
working with them and the Max Band of of
[3:56] Ojiway Tribal Historic Preservation
Office, we found out just how much
[4:00] significance we had. And I will tell you
one moment this summer, it was pretty
[4:05] cool to hold in my hand what was
estimated to be a 2,000-year-old fully
[4:09] formed Arrow Point.
>> Wow.
[4:11] » Yeah, I said that, too. And then some.
It was pretty amazing. So working with
[4:16] them was fantastic. And so there was one
good point out of some of these delays
[4:21] is that we really got a good sense of
what what was under our ground and
[4:26] during the entire process too. And
you'll when we go through some of the
[4:29] photos, we had representatives from the
tribe there the whole time um working
[4:33] with us as we dug because as one of them
put that he said our history is under
[4:38] that ground and it's just as important
as what you have above the ground and we
[4:42] didn't argue that. [snorts] So, at one
point, even in July of this past summer,
[4:49] we really didn't have a clue when we
were going to start. And we knew we had
[4:52] a limited window. We knew we we knew the
vendor, the u the excavators needed a
[4:59] certain amount of time to get this work
done based on weather, based on
[5:02] conditions, based on all of it. We were
sitting in September still not 100%
[5:08] certain when we were going to start. And
we were starting to get nervous, very,
[5:11] trust me on that. And then all of a
sudden within days it fell together and
[5:16] we were told October 15th that's the
day. That was a Wednesday which was
[5:20] strange but that's what they did. And
then on top of that we had the other
[5:26] part of this which was the building work
which was part of the legislative
[5:29] appropriation and the biggest item that
was going to be done was the roof and
[5:32] our roofer said hey we're ready to
start. I said good when? October 15th.
[5:36] [laughter]
You noticed in the photos that you kind
[5:40] of scrolled through how that played out.
So, it just literally came together in a
[5:44] hurry and so we had to scramble to get
everything going and we did and they
[5:49] moved and they moved hard and I will
also tell you if you've been out on our
[5:53] property and you know how the beautiful
trees that we had out there. It was
[5:57] really hard to see them go. It was very
very difficult to see like our big white
[6:02] pine go and all of that. But we knew it
had to be done. Um we kind of like our
[6:06] view now to be honest. We really do. But
we miss the trees. We we truly do. But
[6:11] it, like I said, it had to be done. And
going through and watching them excavate
[6:14] was pretty amazing. Um, these guys have
done this before. The it's an um company
[6:20] called Sunramm Excavating out of
Excelsier. And they do a lot of work
[6:24] with other soil and water conserv
conservation districts. And so they came
[6:28] highly recommended. So they they
absolutely knew what they were doing and
[6:32] they went at it and they dug and they
scraped and they dug and they found out
[6:37] just how hard that ground was underneath
us. They had to bring in special
[6:40] equipment just to dig to get at some of
the hillside. And there was a few of the
[6:45] photos that um I I won't tell you how
many photos I took um with my camera and
[6:50] with my phone and um some of the drone
photos that Soil and Water was kind
[6:54] enough to give to us. Um it was pretty
amazing to watch. And at one point and
[6:58] in one of the photos um I did say I was
standing below the water level. I'm not
[7:03] kidding. I was standing below the water
level because we were down 30 feet from
[7:07] ground level where the museum was all
the way down and then they started
[7:11] building back up and then six inches at
a time they built back up and that's
[7:17] what they had to do and they just kept
layering it and layering it all the
[7:20] while mind you we had representatives
from the tribe and hired archaeologists
[7:25] sift checking everything and making sure
we weren't missing anything. Um and I
[7:31] mean I'm a highway engineers kid. I've
been on my share of road construction
[7:35] projects and culvert replacement
projects and um all sorts of of building
[7:40] projects, but this was pretty amazing
and it was a lot of fun to watch. And
[7:44] well, it wasn't fun when the vibrating
excavator would kick in, but that's
[7:47] that's another matter. So, we'll just
deal with that. And then again, all the
[7:51] time they were working on the roof, too.
And within 10 days, they had that brand
[7:55] new roof done. And then that aspect is
done. and and Camille noted we had kind
[8:02] of separate pots of of money working on
this which meant we're we were we were
[8:06] juggling a lot of different work. We
were juggling the hillside work and
[8:10] we're juggling the building work at the
same time. And um I've probably got
[8:15] about four spreadsheets on my laptop at
work that tries to keep track of all
[8:19] this because the funding comes from
different sources and has to go out to
[8:22] different go out different ways. And so
that's been an interesting exercise too.
[8:28] All told, here's where we're at. We're
probably at about 80 to 85% done,
[8:34] which isn't bad when you think about it.
Now, if you go out there right now, what
[8:38] you're going to see is a a series of
giant tarp pieces covering the hillside.
[8:43] And those were intended to keep erosion
down come spring. And Sunramm wants to
[8:50] start April 2nd. I think they're being
a little ambitious on that, but we'll
[8:56] see. And and if we are able to do that
in one in one month's time, we'll have
[8:59] it done. And by done, what we mean is
all the rest of the excavating because
[9:05] there's still more excavating and
rebuilding to do. And then the
[9:08] installation of the vegetation, which
has to be done on top of that, the
[9:12] fencing, and then the reinstallation of
the burm, and then last but not least,
[9:16] we'll get a new parking lot out of all
of this. So when that's done, so again,
[9:22] fingers crossed, 30, 45 days, we'll have
it all done.
[9:27] you know, but like we found out last
fall,
[9:30] we weren't always quite sure when we
were even going to start. So, we'll
[9:33] we'll, you know, and I mean, obviously
that depends on road restrictions and
[9:37] that depends on um I think all of us
know what it can be like at the end of
[9:41] April sometimes when you get suddenly 8
10 inches of snow and I guess we're
[9:46] going to wait and that's okay, too. But
our goal again is to have that work done
[9:53] um end of May, early June, and then
after that, we'll commence again with
[9:58] getting the rest of the building work
done. But in terms of Yeah, if you're
[10:02] scrolling through and you're looking at
those photos, um you can definitely see
[10:06] they were right down at the waterline
and uh it was it was really interesting
[10:11] again just to watch that. We'd have
people come out and just kind of stand
[10:13] there and look. We'd let them do it and
that was fine. and uh our they as long
[10:18] as they didn't get in the way of the
excavators, we were good. But yeah, in
[10:20] that particular bottom photo there, what
you see is again how they basically had
[10:25] to layer it all the way up. And we're
act we're going to get more um hillside
[10:30] than we originally had, which is
interesting, too. And it's going to be a
[10:34] bit of a better slope and all of that.
Um it's been a fascinating process to
[10:39] walk watch just in my you know four to
five years that I've been around plus
[10:43] Camille going back what a decade now at
least a decade more than a decade um of
[10:49] trying of start to finish on this but um
I don't want to say the finish line is
[10:53] in sight but I'm beginning to wonder if
it will come into focus here at some
[10:57] point especially once we can actually
start getting mobilized again to get
[11:02] started on the rest of the work.
So, that's kind of where we're at. Um, I
[11:08] didn't want to belabor it too long, but
any questions from anybody on any of the
[11:12] work?
>> No. Those excavation pictures are
[11:15] unbelievable when you look at what
they're doing there. It's like,
[11:18] » yeah, there was a couple of them that I
took after they left and I just kind of
[11:22] walked the path down to below the water
level and then I turned and looked back
[11:25] up and I went, "Yeah, I'm I'm down here
quite a ways." And it it was a bit
[11:31] walking back up too, you know, and and
what you really don't get a sense of is
[11:35] how almost how steep that drop is until
you're standing down at the bottom of
[11:39] there at water level looking back up and
realizing how really far down you are.
[11:45] Um, and one of the issues they ran into,
again, I mentioned the the the toughness
[11:49] of that work, they had to bring in, it
looked like a giant basically picker
[11:53] because that ground was so hard. I mean,
we knew that when we did the soil
[11:57] samples, but we really didn't realize
how hard it was until their bucket just
[12:00] couldn't even move half move that and
they had to bring that piece had special
[12:04] bring that piece in special to get at
that and just work on that.
[12:08] » Do you find any more artifacts?
>> Yes. Yes, we did. Um, a lot of it the
[12:14] same stuff. A lot of they call them
points and shards is what they call
[12:17] them. And eventually those will all work
their way back to us. But right now
[12:20] they're in possession of the max band
because then they evaluate I think was
[12:25] what they have to do is evaluate if
there's any any potentially sacred
[12:29] orerary objects because then they are
allowed to keep those and then we get
[12:33] back what they don't keep. But we'll
work that process through and that's
[12:37] going to take a little while also
because we've been working with them for
[12:40] close to three years now too on the
surveying and then they want to come
[12:43] back and do more because of how much
they are finding on our property and how
[12:47] much they believe is there and it ties
also up to the Lindberg property too
[12:52] because they've done a lot of work up
there and what I finally asked them was
[12:55] well what's the difference and they said
how they worked it laid it out to me was
[13:02] whoever would there and
This isn't just something that happened
[13:06] for a few years. They talk
multigenerational is what we're so we're
[13:10] talking hundreds of years, not just a
couple of decades that people were on
[13:13] this site. They lived
basically when they were there on the by
[13:18] the limber property but did their work
down by us. So that they find on the
[13:22] limber property they find pieces that
indicate living elements but with us
[13:28] they find working elements
>> which is really interesting too.
[13:36] You are welcome to check out our website
and social media. We have some really
[13:40] cool time lapse videos of the work they
did too. That was a lot of fun to watch.
[13:44] Otherwise, you're welcome to come out
anytime. Give us a call. You're welcome
[13:48] to come and see it. We are we are more
than happy to show people around and
[13:51] show them what we've been doing cuz it's
been we want it to be as open as
[13:55] possible for people because it's been
we've had so much support from the
[13:59] community on this, from the city, from
the county, from the state of Minnesota,
[14:02] from private individuals. We've had
townships give us money. We've had
[14:06] family members of the wirehousers give
us money. It's been it's been a really
[14:10] great effort. Um stressful at times,
yes, but it's been a fantastic effort.
[14:15] So, we're very happy for that.
Thank you for all your work.
[14:20] » Thank you.
>> I just wanted to mention uh while it it
[14:26] it's more expensive what we did it it's
going to last longer. We didn't want a
[14:30] retaining wall. We didn't want it which
will decline over the years. This will
[14:37] the way the the mic was describing the
building up every six inches there was
[14:43] MSE fabric that's laid between. So, it's
building up that whole area stronger.
[14:49] And with the vegetation, it'll just get
stronger. It won't deteriorate like
[14:54] anything that we commercially might put
in there as far as building a wall. So,
[14:59] we're pretty excited. It's a little
costly, but it in the long run, it's not
[15:04] going to require maintenance that we
might have had that we can't afford.
[15:09] [laughter]
Thank you.
[15:10] » Thank you.
>> Thank you.
[15:15] Okay. Um, moving on under other, I'm
going to stick something in there from
[15:20] me. Um, the, uh, meet and greet that we
had, uh, last week here, uh, the first
[15:27] time we tried that. Um, and in my
opinion, it was, uh, a great success.
[15:33] Um,
I didn't anticipate as many people
[15:36] showing up as did. I was very pleased
that we uh, we had that many people
[15:41] there. Um, and I'm sure that we're going
to be uh doing that again. Um, but what
[15:45] I would I would like to ask each of the
council members, if you would please.
[15:49] Um, since
not everybody talked with everybody, um,
[15:54] if you could make a list of the items
that you discussed with the people from
[16:00] the community um, that were brought up
to your attention, if you could make up
[16:03] a list and then send that to uh, Alex
um, she will compile that list so that
[16:10] when we get to our strategic meeting uh,
in the end of March here that we can go
[16:15] through that list um, and look at those
things that um, the community had
[16:20] concerns about and so then we can
possibly use that list to address some
[16:25] of those concerns. So if you can do that
within well the next week
[16:31] » week to two weeks um send that into her
um that would be great. Just pinpoint
[16:37] you know fire hydrants you know or
manhole covers you know um those kinds
[16:41] of things. Okay, those are two that I
have.
[16:45] » Um, can I bring up some of the stuff
under constituent messages or do you not
[16:50] want to do that?
>> Well, as soon as I get there. Yeah.
[16:52] » Oh, no. I did. Well, you were saying you
want that list. I didn't know if you
[16:54] wanted me to bring up anything or not.
>> No, just that just if you just want to
[16:58] send that I I don't think we want to
discuss those items that were discussed
[17:02] here during that night. Um, but I think
if we just take those and compile them
[17:07] in a complete list and then we can look
at that and sta save some of our time in
[17:11] our strategic planning to go through and
discuss some of those when when
[17:15] everybody's there. Um, because yeah, we
could go on for an hour just talking
[17:19] about everything that we heard. So, I
think just doing it that way would be
[17:22] the the best way to do.
>> Um, and then I think Alex, you had
[17:26] something that you wanted to bring up
also. While we're talking about
[17:29] strategic planning, um I just wanted to
since I have most of you gathered here
[17:33] right now, uh if you remember our
structure that we used last year for the
[17:37] strategic planning, little bit of
homework on uh priorities for that each
[17:42] individual council member has for the
next year, three years, five years, 10
[17:46] years, talked through all of that. Um is
that a format he would like to use again
[17:51] this year? If so, I can assign you
homework again.
[17:56] Frank is nodding. He likes homework.
>> No.
[18:00] » Former teacher is way back.
>> Yeah. [clears throat] Homework. No.
[18:03] » I like the way it was run the last time.
>> All right. I'm just honing in the
[18:08] details on it. I want to make sure that
I'm I'm covering grounds. Do we want to
[18:12] again approach that in our our
multi-year or do we want to have a
[18:15] little bit more of the directional
theoretical discussions?
[18:20] » A little bit of both.
>> Both. I can balance both.
[18:23] » Yeah.
>> It's a little bit of both. combination
[18:25] of both of them I think would be
beneficial.
[18:27] » Perfect.
>> Yeah, I'd definitely like to sorry
[18:30] definitely like to have directional
theoretical discussions as far as what
[18:34] our
>> That's good. All-encompassing view of
[18:37] Little Paul should be
>> all right. I can do all of those things.
[18:41] » Cool.
>> That's all. Thank you.
[18:44] » Great. So, we'll move on to constituent
messages other than those discussed at
[18:49] our meet and greet. Uh, well, I do have
a couple that were also discussed at the
[18:54] meet and greet, but I got phone calls
on. And one of them was, and I talked to
[19:00] a police chief about this, was the
cameras
[19:05] that they're setting up. Uh, they were
worried we're playing 1984.
[19:12] [clears throat] And I said, "No." And I
told him what Kyle told me that uh, Mr.
[19:17] Ruby is going through that. and
collecting the information and you know
[19:22] we're not going to use it for this other
than things like um what missing kids
[19:31] and stuff like that and uh the other
thing is I heard from one person who was
[19:37] very technical about it and he cited to
me what California is using flock also
[19:43] and he said they were pretty loose with
their information just so that's what he
[19:48] told me because they're trying to get
out of their lease and they can't in
[19:52] California. And um but that's I told him
I talked to well I talked to Kyle about
[19:58] it and I discussed that with them. Um
and the other thing that I got a phone
[20:05] call on was again the ATV just so you
know that was brought up again. I got a
[20:12] couple phone calls on the side by sides
and that thing and I talked to Alex
[20:16] about that today a little bit. So, but
that's what I got.
[20:20] » Okay. I think just to remind the
community with the flock thing that that
[20:23] is just a uh a trial program, right,
>> that they're going to initiate in April
[20:28] and just to um set it up and take a look
at it. Uh the city has not decided to go
[20:33] for it or or invest in it or whatever.
It's just a trial period to see what
[20:39] kind of information we get, how it is
valuable to the police department. So,
[20:43] just
>> we haven't put it into place yet. It's
[20:46] just a trial.
>> Any other constituent messages?
[20:49] » I'm sorry. I got one more.
>> No. So, I know it's been I had a busy
[20:54] week on the phone.
>> Go ahead.
[20:56] » Uh, a gentleman who lives across the
street from this hockey rinkham forestry
[21:02] up here. He told me, he says, "Dave, you
are wasting your money. Nobody goes
[21:07] there." Just so you know. And I talked
to Greg about that also.
[21:11] » Yeah, we've been we've been discussing
that quite a bit. Any others?
[21:17] If not, I will adjourn the meeting at
7:21 to our regular meeting at 7:30.
[21:29] » How you doing, David?
[21:33] Antibiotics.