I'm sorry. Okay. Folks. What is that other stuff that I'm doing? Is it a Okay, folks. What was I like to stand for? I'm really in need of you. Okay folks. Okay folks. We're about to get started with the personnel committee meeting. Getting started with the personnel committee meeting. Today we'll be interviewing, doing a group interview for the library board, if one Sarah Kessler and Carly Bolt. Blale. Blale. Blale. Blale. Blale. Okay. Can come up to the table. Thank you so much. I'm gonna butcher both of your names. But thank you for your patience with me. Hello. Thank you so much for applying to the library, to be on the library board and being willing to do this interview and have some FaceTime with us and us allowing council to have some face time with you. Today we're going to be doing the library board interview, the library board advises the director, city administration, city council on library policies, proposes new services, proposes new facilities, and on the deletion of services and facilities, aids in raising grants, gifts, donations, securing grants, and advises on the expedienter of trust funds. The library board is only served by City Council, sorry, Duluth residents and meets once a month. Thank you so much for being here. I will first just introduce myself. My name is Nazmi Nau. I serve as an at-large city counselor. And I will be conducting today's interview to begin. Can you just, can both of you, will start with one. And with every question, we'll kind of sneak back and forth so each person has a chance to ask the question Here the question answer So first who are you and why? Yeah, if you can just who are you as in just a general question about like tell us a little bit about yourself. I'm Sarah Tesla. I'm 21 years old originally from Grand Rapids, Minnesota. I moved here just in September of 2024. I started going to the library board meetings in October. I really care about libraries. I was involved as a teenager in the Grand Rapids area library a bit. I got my four-year degree from a mid-state university in accounting. Now I currently work with Girl Scouts in fundraising, grand writing, that sort of thing. Hi, my name is Carly Lado, and I am 24 years old. I am a first-year special education teacher here in Duluth. I'm not originally from Duluth. I'm from LaCrosse, Wisconsin, so about four hours away from here. And I would say that I care deeply about the library and all the services that we offer, especially to all of the youth in our area. So it's a little bit about me. Thank you so much, Ms. Bladall and Ms. Kessler, for your responses. I have a set of pre-written out questions that I'll ask and then turn to Councillor Questions and then turn back to you for the last comment to conclude your interview. Does that order sound good? Okay. First question. Why are you interested in serving on this particular board, the library board? Well like I said I've been involved with libraries a long time. My mom was originally involved in the Grand Rapids Library Board so I kind of grew up in libraries and I really care about their programming, especially to you know, to you because you mentioned and the programming is really important I think because of the library's status overall as a really cornerstone in my mind of community and healthy communities and you know open access to materials but I think programming is a really big part of that because it gets you connected to community and experiences more than just the physical materials that libraries offer. Yeah, so I would say that I would like to be a part of the library board because I think because I'm so young and an educator, I think that gives me a unique perspective, probably compared to a lot of other board members. And I really want to be representative of a teacher on the board. And I think that the library, at least for me, it provides so many resources as a first year teacher because I can't buy all the books, I can use the library and that's been very helpful. So thank you so much for your answers. For the next question, we'll start with Ms. Bladell first. Okay. Did I get that? Yes, you did. Bladell first and then Ms. Kessler, please give a brief outline of your educational work experience and your lived experience. How will your background and personal strengths be of a benefit to the library board? Yeah, so I graduated from UMD. Let's see, it was only last year. So last winter, my 2024 grad. And I graduated with a degree in elementary and special education and I currently work at Duluth Edison North Star which is a charter school here in Duluth so it's only my first year teaching but I really like it so far. Yeah so that's my experience. Thank you. Like I said I'm'm from Grand Rapids. I went to Etasca Community College, now I'm in Minnesota North. In high school, I got my two-year degree, and then I transferred to the Midgie State to get my four-year degree in accounting. I had several different internships with Girl Scouts, have a tap for humanity, and then finally, an accounting firm in Grand Forks before choosing to stay with Girl Scouts have a tap for humanity and then finally, an accounting firm in Grand Forks before choosing to stay with Girl Scouts. I'm sorry, what was the second part of the question? Personal strengths and that you bring to the board, your background, your work experience, your lived experience, be a benefit to the board. Thank you. At the Mid-Jews State University, I was student body president my senior year, and I got involved in regional state and federal advocacy through an organization involved in student advocacy. So I think I really have a good grasp and lived skills in leadership, especially working with other young adults and community community members to really synthesize ideas, lead meetings, but also lead kind of grassroots community organizing in a smaller, more rural places in the state. And I'm really, really excited to be able to bring that to a place like the library. Thank you. Thank you for both of your responses for the next few questions. It's kind of logistical questions, so if you want to go boom, boom, and then back while I ask the questions. Are you presently serving on any boards or commissions, if so which one? Can I clarify with the city or in general? In general. Oh, okay. I am currently serving on the Girl Scouts of the USA's movement governance advisory team. We're working to kind of reevaluate Girl Scouts's democratic process and how, if any adjustments need to be made to the way that Girl Scout governance is handled at a national level, so that's given me a really great high oversight onto governance decision-making, decision-influencing, I would also serve on community advisory board for student advocacy organizations, students united based out of Minneapolis. I think that's it. Thank you. I do not currently serve on any reports. Sounds good. Thank you so much. Do you have a personal or financial interest direct or indirect with the library board, or are you engaged in any capacity where a conflict of interest might arise? No, I am not. Thank you. No. Okay. Do you foresee any personal schedule in complex which may prevent you from attending the regular meetings of the library board? No. No. And at this time, I will open it up to Councillor Questions, Council Questions, President Tamanik. Thank you. Chair, can you tell me if you, no, can you tell me what you see as the role of the library in Duluth? Yeah, I can go ahead and start. I would say the role of the library in Duluth is to provide not only materials to the community, but also free events. And I think that has been so helpful for not only children, but adults as well. Yeah. So just providing a space for everybody in the community to gather. Programming is really important to me, like I mentioned before, but on the higher level, I think open access to education and, you know, books. A lot of materials like that that are sort of being challenged right now in our country is really really important. So I really, I'm going to prioritize making sure that making sure that every community member can access the library buildings, can access the materials, make sure that there's nothing keeping residents of the loot from accessing education. Thank you. I do have a second question, but feel free to take other Councillors if there are some. Thank you, President Tamanic, for your question. Thank you for your response. Councillor Mayo. Thank you, Chair Hall. Thank you both for interviewing. I think it's really just wonderful to see young people getting involved in particular. In our boards and commissions, we just had a group of students come a couple weeks ago from UMD and encourage them to also join boards and commissions, but it's great to see you both interested in this. And my question is more based on the downtown library specifically, if you have any thoughts on, as plans and projects evolve and move forward, if you have thoughts on what you're hoping to see from the downtown library in the future, and maybe the importance, if you can speak to that, of what you think the downtown library serves right future, and maybe the importance if you can speak to that of what you think the downtown library serves right now and beyond. I can start. I recognize that the downtown library is in a precarious place right now. Like I said, I've been attending at the board meetings for about six months as, excuse me, as an individual just, you know, watching. So I'm kind of aware of some of the challenges that the building specifically on the location offers to the main library. I think it's really important to keep a library presence downtown just because so many residents access the library that way. don't really have, it would be really hard to get to one of the other branches. And others also been a lot of talk of making sort of a regional hub and connecting with other municipalities, you know, hermentown, like areas like that, that also use our library systems but don't have quite as much of a direct connection to the library. I think it's really important to work with them to continue to kind of build relationships and see where it's really needed the most as far as the main library in the long term future. But I think some sort of library branch or presence definitely needs to remain downtown. Yeah, so I personally, the main library is the library that I go to the most. So I feel like it's very near and dear to my heart. I really like that specific library. I would say it's unique compared to the other branches too, just because of the size. I think that like there's more events that can happen at the main library, maybe compared to Mount Royal or the other library in West Duluth. So I think that makes it unique and important and I think just continuing to have all of those events and I think that the main library is a really great spot for that. Like one thing that I think of is Kalidascope, where they have all of those events outside, and the main library is really unique in having that outdoor space. So I think that, continuing to do events like that at the main library will be very important. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Mayo. President Tamanik. Thank you, Chair. All. Can you tell me, have you met with Carla Powers and Erin Krieger about your desire to be on the board? I have not met her in person, but I have just been emailing with her. So, I met her. We've had several conversations around the library board meetings that I've been in attendance. Thank you. Are there other Councillors in the queue? Go ahead, come on. Okay. Can you tell us your thoughts on the number of libraries in Duluth, give the downtown Monterey on Evergreen? Yeah, I could go first. So can I just clarify if we would want to make changes like some more libraries or like to add more locations or no just general thoughts okay yeah in my opinion I feel like if it were a great world and we could afford it I feel like having a library in the lakeside neighborhood as well would be really cool because I know that they used to have Gabriel's bookstore in that neighborhood but but it unfortunately is closing. And I know that that is an area that they don't really have close access to a library. The closest one is Mount Royal. So I feel like I really like how spread apart the libraries are, but I just think like the like side neighborhood, if that could ever happen, that would be a really cool thing. I think it's really important to have several locations possibly more but I really agree with the previous comments that the Mount Royal Library serves more than its fair share of residents. I think we've seen in the usage of the main library, Mount Mountain Oil they're almost identical. So I think it's really important to possibly expand the library's branches in that, you know, the patrons that utilize the library there see where they're located and expand into those neighborhoods to better serve them. I also think hermentown is a really challenged area as far as library access. I think that'd be another big priority to examine. Thank you. Thank you, President Tamanik. Thank you for your responses. I had a question that I ask all applicants, which is around kind of equity work, just very briefly. Can you give an example of how you promoted diversity equity inclusion in your past roles? Yeah, I could go first. So one of my past roles was I worked with the Duluth YMCA at a lot of their after-school programs. I also worked at some of their day camps. So it's something that we do at those camps in after schools. We have it's called Turtle Time. So kids get to rest and read books, but a lot of the books that we had access to, unfortunately, were not very diverse, equitable. A lot of them were very outdated and not representative of the students and all of the kids that were attending. So I actually applied for a grant through the Duluth YMCA for their innovation project and I got it, which I was very grateful for. And I was able to work with Zenith Bookstore to purchase, oh, I don't even know how many. Probably like 15 different books for each Keyzone site, like each after school site, and each day camp site. So that was, I feel like one way that I was able to really make change and see how it helps the kids. Yeah. Thank you. In my time at student government at Bemidji State, I worked really hard to include group as representing LiPOC students and marginalized historically marginalized students. It was a challenge to build relationships with them and then personally invite them to the Student Senate meetings, have them actually show up and care about the issues that we worked on, the bills that we voted on because I really believe in the power of student government and grassroots advocacy. So it's really important to me to make connections with individuals in those clubs and build a repertoire and tell them that, you know, we're listening, you can come to the meeting every week, you can bring new bills. Let's say that's the most significant impact that I've had. Okay. Thank you for your responses. Just one last question is, is there anything else you would like to add concerning your possible appointment to the library board? No. No. Thank you so much for interviewing with us and appreciate you coming and you know just asking, being willing to answer our questions. Your appointment for both of your resolutions will be in the next council cycle so you can keep an eye on that. Thank you so much. And with that I conclude the library board interview. Thank you. Thank you. And with that we will be moving to the parks and recreationreation Commission interview. Can I have Miss Constant Cummins come up? Hello? Miss Cummins, thank you so much for interviewing with the City Council. My name is Ezraine Owl. I serve as an at large city councilor for the city of Duluth. Today you are being considered for a appointment at the Parks and Recreation Commission for District 5. And of course the mission of the Parks and Recreation Board Commission is to preserve a naturally beautiful city. Our vision is to provide innovative and quality parks and recreation programs and facilities that will sustain a dynamic quality of life for everyone. The mission is to act as an advisory capacity to the Mayor City Council, Parks and Recreation Division, and other agencies and organizations that matter, in matters related to Jalut City parks and recreation programs and facilities. the regular commission board meetings are held on the second Wednesday of every month at 5 p.m. In various parks locations and at the City Council chambers. Thank you so much for being here and interviewing with us. I will let you just Kind of Tell us a little bit about yourself. Who are you? Sure. Well, I moved to Duluth in 2016. I came as the Forest Supervisor for the Superior National Forest. So I got to see oversee about 3 million acres of public land. I have a bachelor's degree in Forestry and natural resources from Purdue University and really have spent most of my well all of my career with US Forest Service 42 years. I'm now retired and it's been great and I have some time and I think experience to offer to the commission. Thank you so much. That kind of leads beautifully into my next question, which is, why are you interested in serving on this particular board, the Parks and Recreation Board? Well, first of all, I have a big passion for the other doors. Obviously, I spent my whole career in it, especially an outdoor recreation. I also have a passion for trying to ensure that there's accessibility to all people, especially within the community that they can get out in the outdoors and enjoy some of the beautiful parks and recreational opportunities that the city has provided. And so working with the commission, because I know Duluth has done a good job of making some strides towards that. I also think that I have some experience in collaboration in working with partners and working with nonprofits and community businesses. I'm currently working with the Duluth Area Outdoor Alliance and we represent many of the outdoor nonprofit organizations and businesses. So I think I can bring that to the commission as well. Okay, thank you so much for your response. I know you've already have given some background but if you would like to expand please give a brief outline of your educational, your lived and work experience. How will your background experience and personal strengths be a benefit in relation to the Parks and Recreation Commission? OK. Well, as I said, I have a background in forestry. But most of my career has been in managerial positions. And so I've just taken my last job on this period, National Forest. I oversaw the boundary waters Canoea Wilderness, which is a million acre Wilderness. Lots of outdoor recreation on the forest, on public land, lots of controversy and people loving the land to death and recreating. So I think that through most of my career, I have overseen large recreation programs and the challenges that that brings. But I also have this, again, strong passion for people being out of doors and knowing how much that improves their health and well-being. So I think I've had many years of that and also as I mentioned earlier with the Duluth Area Outdoor Alliance, I think you know that experience in working with those nonprofits has been really helpful and those and the community businesses as well. Thank you. Just really quick couple of really quick questions. Are you presently serving on any other boards or commissions? It's so which ones? Presently no. Or do you want past? If you want to expand on passports. Sure. But I've served on the Minnesota Forest Resource Council. I've also served on the Minnesota Scientific Natural Area Board. I'm very active with Mentor North. I'm not on a board with that, but I do mentor within that program. Okay, thank you. Do you have any personal or financial interest director indirect with the Parks and Recreation Commission? Or are you engaged in any capacity where a conflict of interest may arise? No, I don't believe so. Do you foresee any personal scheduling conflicts which may prevent you from attending the regular meetings of the Parks and Recreation Commission? No. Okay. Counselors at this time, I will open up questions for counselors. President Tamanik. Thank you, Chair. Oh, the first thing I wrote down was commitment to outdoors even before you said that because I know of your strong commitment to that. Can you tell me kind of a two-part question what your top priority would be for parks and what your biggest concern is for parks? To me the top who choose the top one huh? What's the next one? It doesn't matter. You know for one, as I said earlier, I do believe accessibility to all people is very important to be able to get outdoors, to access recreational facilities, to have the equipment to do that. I know the parks and Rec Department has been working on that. I think that's great. I do think that continuing to work with the city and the, you know, nonprofit organizations and the businesses to build a collaborative around building this park and recreation, you know, kind of mission in the delivery to provide the opportunities to maintain the system that we have, the infrastructure, all of the volunteer work that goes into providing these opportunities are important. I think as a member of the commission we could be helpful in bringing, helping with that partnership. I think it's in terms of what do I see as challenges? Well, I think I'm not having been on the commission yet, but I assume it's going to be financial resources like anywhere where we're trying to provide that. And again, working in the community and with these organizations and business to help assist the city in providing those resources. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Thank you, President Tumonic. Did you have a second question? Nope. Okay. Perfect. Thank you. Councilor Forstman. Thank you, Chair Wall. Thank you, Ms. Cummins. I didn't recognize you at first. Then you walked in and you said your name. I was like, Forest Service Supervisor. So I think that's fantastic. That's somebody of your background is interested in serving. So I had two questions for you. One is around force management within the city. I think it's, we have one forster that you might know at the city and I've wondered in the back of my mind a few times about whether we're doing a good job taking care of our forest resources within city parks. And so it's just curious from your background if you had any thoughts on that topic. Well obviously I believe in forced management. That was my degree. You know I do think that it is very important to take a long-term look at those resources, especially with climate change and you know we're seeing a lot of changes out there that we really need to pay attention to. So I think having that forester on staff is extremely important. I haven't really, you know, kind of inventory the area to just tell you what I think about the forest management, but obviously it's a different type of management than it would be on a national forest, but I believe it is important and it is important to keep an eye on that. That's great. Yeah, wildfire risk and all that. I think we've had blowdown from storms in the past and maybe not the resources that you would hope to take care of some of that stuff. And so that's just something that's been in the back of my mind, somebody like you knows way more than I do. I don't know if I could add one thing to that. There is a, there are adaptation, climate adaptation strategies that look into the future and assess the risk of a community. What kind of hazards may increase as time goes on and what's a whole playbook of different options that the city could choose to do to try to get ahead of some of those risk factors. Awesome. I have one more question, but if there's others I can pause. There is and we might be sure on time, I apologize. Councillor Meu. Thank you, Chair All. Thank you, Miss Cummins. I had a question based off of Councillor Forcements question. If you've heard of the natural resources management plan that the city has and if you have any ideas about how we can further that through the Parks and Rec Commission because in 2019 we received some notice from the EPA that we should work on this and then 2022 we as a council passed a policy but we haven't really made a ton of progress towards that in the past couple years. So if you have thoughts on that in particular and if you've heard of it. No, I have not looked into that or heard of it but I would say that recreation parks and commission has a vital piece of that plan. As we learn, we can manage our natural resources in many different ways depending on the objectives. And so I think that's really important that the commission is part of that plan, but I have not seen the plan. No worries, thank you. Thank you, Councillor Mayo. Councillor Forcemen, very quickly and very quick response. Real quick. Practically managing parkland with other things. You know about that with your background in this period national tax base and other uses. Lester park. Any quick thoughts? I think it needs to have a solid plan and I think it has to have different options considered because it is very important to the city, any public land within a city boundary is important. And I think it needs to have very thorough public engagement around how to manage that piece of ground. Okay. Thank you so much. This coming is my quick question is how have you promoted diversity equity inclusion in your past roles just very quickly. And then the last question is, what else would you like us to know about your possible appointment? Well, having worked for the Forest Service for some years, I mean, that has especially been a big part of all of our programming. And so we've made efforts from all age groups in educational programs trying to encourage diversity in terms of education and moving into positions that we could pick up within the Forest Service. And we've promoted diversity and equity from all different standpoints. You know, it's not just race, gender, diversity of thought. And I think, you know, we've made some progress in the agency. Can I, you know, take credit? Are we there? No. We're not. But it is something that's always been in our mind. And we have worked a lot in the cities through urban forestry and providing educational programs down there, bringing people up to the superior from the cities to kind of get an outdoor experience and in the hopes that they would continue to either be great through employment or also, if just to understand and be an advocate for the outdoors. Thank you so much. Any last comments for the council regarding your possible appointment, which will show up in the next council cycle? Just so it would be very excited to be on the commission, I really appreciate the work that this department has done in the city of Duluth. I think it stands out amongst many cities. So that's pretty exciting. Thank you. Thank you so much for coming to interview with us. And with that, I will conclude the personnel personnel chair interview in the personnel committee and I'll turn it back over to President Tamanik. Thank you. Oh, thanks. Good evening. Miss Gullmac, you want to come up front and start your presentation. Thank you for being here. President Tomanek and council members, thank you for the opportunity to make this presentation and thank you for the clicker. My name is Ann Blumack. I'm the executive director at Spirit Mountain and I'm here to present our operating budget for FY26, which is required as part of our enabling legislation. If you have questions while I'm going through this, please just interrupt. I think we've done this before. So, is it on? Yeah, there. Could you advance it for me? Oh, there we go. Did you do that or did I? Thank you. I'm going to start with our mission which you've seen before, but I want to ground us in what spirit was created for 50 years ago. And we are here to provide multiple outdoor recreation opportunities for our visitors and our residents to aid the economy and then to protect the environment. We have a big campus to protect. And I wanted to emphasize the aiding the economy part because it's something we've been doing for 50 years and it doesn't necessarily get a lot of attention. The Spirit Mountain Task Force that was co-chaired by Councillor Kennedy and Forzman had an economic impact plan that said in 2018-19 we had a $22 million economic impact. I ran that number through just an inflation calculator. at 27 at 27.5 million every year for Spirit Mountain. So I feel like we sometimes lose sight of that because we talk about skiing and other things. Thank you. I'm going to do a little bit of a reminder of where we've been. This is my fifth time of presenting this budget to you. We reopened and at the end of April of 2021, fiscal year 21, we had a solid operating profit despite COVID restrictions that were really interesting. In 2022, we had the benefit of COVID. Everybody wanted to be outside. So we had a great operating profit of over a million. We had a solid operating profit in FY23 and then came FY24, which is the winter that wasn't. And we had a loss that year. We had a loss for our last fiscal year of about $92,000. And that might not sound like a good thing, but I will tell you that every one of my members of my team, every single employee sacrificed so that we could have that number that small and that we could manage that downturn and that operating loss through our cash reserves. And so I, you know, I was paying attention to social media at the time and everyone said, oh, they're going to go to the city and ask for more money.. And we didn't, and that's because my team really sacrificed. And we were really, really, really cheap. So that gets us to December of last year and we celebrated our 50th anniversary. And again, it was a celebration acknowledging the leadership of the elected and community leaders who got together and said we need to do this for two reasons. One to provide the natural resource and outdoor recreation, but because the US Steel Plant had said that it was going to be shuttering, and that's 2400 family supporting jobs that left our community in the early 70s. And that's part of the reason Spirit Mountain was created to encourage that type of economic development. And then finally, for this year, we are still in our fiscal year so I don't have any final numbers, but we know we will have a solid operating profit for this year. And we're pretty excited about that. You'll be seeing those figures, but we have to wait for a few more days for those to come to fruition. Thank you. Just a little bit about what we have done in FY25. We've invested in the community-owned resource that Spirit Mountain is. I won't read through all of those, but remind you that the items that are bold were things that were either recommended by the task force or the SE group report. We continued to use that as an operational plan and guideline. We didn't have a huge investment in this past year because we use our operating profit plus the tourism tax appropriation that you guys make to do our investments. And we didn't have an operating profit last year. So we really had to scale back our spending compared to prior years. And then also in FY25, we started the process of really investing in Spirit Mountain through the Spirit Mountain Restoration Project. I don't remember a a couple months ago you approved contract for a new lift that will be installed and replace two of our 50-year-old lifts. The work has already started on that and getting the site ready and we anticipate that will be ready for the winter season and November. Operationally we had a great year. We had 108 days of downhill and cross-country skiing. I, when I sent this in in late March, it was a hundred, we were hoping for a hundred nine and we got rained out on our last day. But that is the longest season spirit has had in many, many years. And it's a great value for our season pass holders who invest in us and also gives more people a chance to come in and see what's going on. We had more than 5,000 kids participate in downhill or cross-country through either our field trip program. We have a snow club program and we also have a home educators program. And that's a way for us to allow our kids to get a chance at seeing what spirit has to offer at a very low cost way. We were able to say thank you to our Duluth residents who elect you guys and you make decisions to support the tourism tax appropriations. We had 2300 redemptions for our $5 lift ticket or $5 tubing sessions. Only available to people who live in the city limits, it's part of our spirit loves Duluth program that we have every February. with the help of our partners at the city who applied for a grant from the Greater Minnesota Parks and Trails Commission and received it and then helped us plan for some significant enhancements to our mountain bike program, which included this summer and a nationally recognized blue jump line, which is a jump line for people who are a little bit better than green, as well as a lot of additional investment in the lower Nordic trails down at Grand Avenue. We will be doing more work on both of those this coming summer. And we have to look here. I can't read my rating. Oh, we do use our minards, rebates. We spend a lot of money at minards. And so we have a stadium down at the lower Grand Avenue, Shale, and we use that for the cross-country skiing. We were able to buy some nice fencing material to fence that in and have it look nice as well as to cover a couple of our reruf some of our storage sheds and real quickly we were able to enhance our food and beverage. We added one more outlet as well as being able to being able to offer things like gluten free items that we learned that our past holders really wanted when we did a pass holder survey a couple years ago. So if we could, thank you. Where are we going? I think I've said this every time I've been here, but it is what the SE Group and the task force told us we needed to do. We need to increase our revenue. We're really, really good at not spending money. We need to do a better job of generating revenue. We need to continue to work on enhancing spirits brand and reputation. I've heard from a number of people this year that our snow, our grooming, is better than anything they've had in the Midwest. And I believe them because they tell me when they don't like something. So I feel like they're being honest with that but we need to continue raising that visibility and then we just always as an operation that caters to the public. We always have to look at our guest services and continue to refine that operation. Thank you. So what are our goals for FY 26? We want to ensure that our operating expenses will be covered by reasonably attainable operating revenues. And what that looks like in real life is I hear from my team what their operations plans are and they put that together in a budget. This year they submitted it and it was more money than I thought we could generate. And so we had to revise our operating plans. We don't just bump up our revenue in the hopes of paying for our expenses. We continue to use the Task Force report and the SE Group report as an operational guide. And that will be ongoing for a long time because it's a wonderful bit of work that gives us not only the perspective of experts in the industry but the perspective of people in our community. And then we need to prepare for construction that will be starting in the Shelae in the spring of 2026. And that involves prepping the Grand Avenue Shelae so that it can accommodate a greater number of visitors and that type of thing. This slide is a little busy, but you also have it in your packet in a little bit more readable form. And I show you this to help drive home what our budget approach has been, at least since I've been there. We try to be very conservative with our revenue estimates, and then we try to be very realistic with our expense estimates So you'll see that as we look at our budget and I'm going to use FY22 as an example We budgeted a very small operating profit. We knew we would cover our expenses We worked really hard to exceed it and we did the same thing happened in FY23. FY24, I told you what happened. That was pretty awful. FY25, well I said we're going to have a strong operating profit and we will. We learned some things. We were overly optimistic on, for example, our lift ticket sales. So the budget that is before you for this year has scaled that back. Particularly because lift ticket sales are, they can be affected by weather, they can be affected by the economy and who knows what's happening with that. So we were more conservative with that. And so you'll see our revenue projection for FY26 is a little bit lower. I think we're going to exceed it, but I'm not counting on that. One good piece of news is we had our spring season pass sale in March. We exceeded our target. We raised slightly over a million dollars, which is a great season pass sale for us. About 14% better than last year, and about 18% better than the year before. So I think that puts us on a good trajectory. But we can't predict what's going to happen in the future. That's sort of an overview. And moving into our likely capital projects, this is still a little bit in flux as we figure out how much money will actually have to spend. We certainly will be first and foremost setting aside money to replenish our cash reserve because that's really important. We know we will be installing a new lift and among the things we're looking at is leasing a new groomer. We have to lease a new groomer about every four to five years. There are about four to five hundred dollars depending on how kind you get. But it's a huge expense and one that is just a cost of doing business. That's how we get that great snow. We will continue to invest in our snow making infrastructure. We have about 13 snow making lines. We've done a number of repairs on some. We fully replaced one, but that's an ongoing project that we need to continue to invest in. And then we hope to be able to invest in some changes to the Grand Avenue, Shell A to help it better accommodate which we anticipate will be more users for the 26-27 season. And finally, my thanks. This council, the city has embraced spirit as a community resource that not only contributes to our quality of life but to our local economy, and so many of you have said that and you've said it publicly. And I have to tell you how important that is to my team and to me, but I think also to our community because you are leaders and people look to you. And what you say matters and your words of appreciation, your support, it just means the world. And I really want to thank you and be happy to answer questions. Thank you, Ms. Glumeck. First in the Q.S Councillor Neff you? Thank you, President Tumannick. I just want to mainly thank you again for the good work that you guys have done over the years as someone who has a family that is skewed, not because I grew up with it because it's something my kids chose. Our family has definitely valued spirit mountain and business I see it as a last leader for our community. It helps with economic development, helps with business recruitment. And I know that the chairlift hasn't necessarily always gotten the greatest press, but I would say bringing in a number of ski families, they can show you the oil stains that are probably on their gear from riding that lift. And I can probably, myself, name at least five people have gotten a concussion from that lift, because it swings really fast as you come around and it hits a lot of little kids. So it is a dangerous lift so I'm very excited to see the replacement. And these are assets for our community if we want other things to grow. So kudos to you and your staff for the great news on the budget repeatedly. You've had some hardwood doors to work with. So thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you, Councillor Neffy. Councillor Forzman. Thank you, President Smonock. Thank you, Ms. Gloomack. As always, it's great to see you in these chambers. And I want to give your staff a huge thank you and note of appreciation for the work that they've done, especially bouncing back from a tough year last year and having to do what you guys did to get through and then having more of a normal winter this year, but still some challenges with weather. So I just first want to get that out there and just say it again on the record that you don't actually sustain spirit mountain with property taxes. It's a weird thing that just doesn't seem to get any traction on social media. Every time we have a budget discussion here, but once again, that's not how spirit is funded. So my question for you and maybe for director Philby Williams, if there is any update on the discussion around long-term operating structure with spirits or if you would rather defer comment to a later time, but I'll offer that up. I would be happy to defer comment to a later time. I won't speak for a Phil B. Williams. He's up. President of the councilor for us. We have very briefly paused attention to pursuing the long termterm lease opportunity, very briefly only in order to button up the outstanding documentation on our big $26 million state bonding project. Remains our hope and intention to resume our work together in pursuit of that lease opportunity. We're hoping by early May. Great. And then, Ms. Gloucnec, maybe one quick fall up. I'm sure you probably already said it, but just so that it drives home into my brain once and for all. When do you plan on construction starting on the bonding projects? Well, the construction on the lift, some of the demolition, et cetera, will be starting this spring, as soon as the conditions allow. The last schedule I saw for the Chellet would be demo starting in May of 26, continuing through the summer, and then, again, last I saw, this is something still in flux, would have the interior remodeling that will be done in what we call the North Chellay, the newer part, sufficiently completed so that we would be able to have our rental and our ski school out of that part of the Shalay, because that's where the beginner terrain is. It doesn't make sense to try and put that down at grant. Great, are there others in the queue? President Suma, okay, thank you. Thank you, Councillor Forzman,, Councillor Mayo. Thank you, President Smondak. Thank you, Ms. Goumack. I would like to echo, I think, spirit has been a valuable community asset and appreciative of everything you've done to build that financial stability as well as really building access for members of our community. I think the 2,300 passes you talked about from this year during Duluth days or the Duluth past days is a really great testament to your work to get that out and your marketing team's work to really promote that to our Duluth community and get folks out there. My question is kind of based around the details of that construction timeline so will any parts of the upper Shalai be open during that construction period or will everything be based out of the Grand Avenue Shalai starting in May of 26. President, Tomonic, Councillor Mayo. That's still a little bit up in the year but we're going to have a big hole from the very southern part of the Shalai all the way through what we call the walkway. I don't anticipate that there will be any use of it for banquets, which would normally be what we would see during the summer season. So we will not have a summer banquet season then. During the summer, most of our activity is at the Grand Avenue, Shell A, with our summer camps, as well as the mountain biking that the headquarters is really there. And then our adventure park where people can also start their mountain biking journey or ride the rides. And is that banquet assumption built into the budget for next year that you won't have that as a revenue source? President Tamanik, Councillor Mayo, yes it is. Great, thanks. Thanks, Councillor Mayo. Councillor Duroctor. Thank you, President Tamanik.. In minus, a little bit similar to Councillor Maye's, or maybe it just kind of adds on to that a little bit. Thank you for your presentation. It's been about a year since I met with you last, but I was very impressed with the measures you were doing to keep the expenses down, especially in unfortunate year, so I'm very impressed. And I know you had a lot of exciting things to say about your intention of building events in the offseason, possibly outdoor. And I know Councillor Mayo touched a little bit on events in the off-season. I'm just curious if you might be able to report on the progress you made in the last year on that and what your plans going forward into the next year. Sure. Thank you so much. President Tumonic, Councillor Dr. Wockter. We started a little bit last year and we had events at Grand Avenue because That's a good community gathering. We had a family picnic. We had a Stratir Mutt where it was a dog friendly event with live music and silly pet tricks and that type of thing. But something that brings less traditional users into spirit this year, we will, and we also had a pass pickup which is sort of a community celebration as well in the fall. This year we will be having more of those events. They are scheduled for one every month and we hope to build on that. It is a great venue where I think we haven't gotten traction is I just don't think we've been able to promote it sufficiently to get more people there. So that's on our list of things to do for the coming years. Get out there early and often and remind people because it's a nice thing to do on an evening in the summer. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Derr-Wakter. Councillor Forzman, did you want to ask another question? Yes. Thank you, President Fawke. Real quick? Oh, President Tamanik, Councillor Forzman. Snowcross was a lot of snowmobiles. We had a great attendance. I think that the organizer said it was down like 50 or something like that compared to the prior year. I understand some of it was the competition wasn't as neck and neck that the likely winner was going to be the likely winner. But we had a great attendance. We have changed the way we do snowcross. I think we are aware we no longer pay a sanction fee. We have no upfront costs. We provide food and beverage and we keep the shell a clean. benefit you bring to ourman. I just have a couple of words to say. I want to thank you in addition to the other Councillors for the economic benefit you bring to our city, the hotels, the restaurants. It's just incredible. And just to have so many people come and enjoy Spirit Mountain, it's great. Also thank you to your team. You said that they made sacrifices to help with the budget. That's really appreciated. We hope we don't have to make them do that again. I do have a question. Can you tell me if people pay to use the mountain biking trails? President Tumonic, thank you. They pay to use the lift. So if they want to have them themselves in their mountain bike brought up the hill with the. They do need to have either a season pass or a day ticket for that. If they want to just ride the trails, pedal up on their own steam or just ride the cross country trails. They can do that on their own. They don't have to pay for that. We do not have bike patrol on site when we are not running the lift. So there is a, just a little bit of caution there that normally if we're operating and we have the lift operating we have trained staff that will be able to come and help someone if they have an accident and we don't have that on the days the bike park isn't open. Thank you. Also could you talk a little bit about walking trails at Spirit Mountain? Yes, President Tamanik. We have the superior hiking trail winds through the campus. And it's one of my favorite places to hike because I don't mountain bike. I just listen to the people as they're going by. So we have an extensive trail that goes all the way through our property and then a couple of loops that will take you through our campground for example We haven't had a lot of We haven't had a lot of people using the mountain bike trails to hike which is good because people come whipping around real quickly But we really rely on our partnership with the superior hiking trail for the the walking trails So if people come out to spirit mountain would they find signage to find the walking trails? Where would they find that? President Tamanik. Yes they would. They could either find it on the Superior Hiking Trail website. There are also some blazes along the trees. We have a small little map key and I need to correct myself. We also have the DWP trail, which is a walking trail cuts right through and that's also wonderful. We'll take you way beyond our campus. Thank you. Councilor Sen. Further questions? Miss Glumeck, thank you so much for being here. President Tumannic, Councillors, thank you. We will begin our City Council meeting in three minutes. Oh, I can see it too. Yeah. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm sorry. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to gouth City Council will now come to order. Will the clerk please call the roll? Councilor Loll. Councilor Duroctor. Councilor Forzman. Councilor Randolph. Councilor Kennedy. Councilor Mayo. Councilor Swenson. Vice President Nefue. President Tamanik. Here, please stand for the pledge allegiance. A pledge allegiance is 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. The agenda for this evening's meeting is posted on the bulletin board and copies are available at the rear of the chambers. For those watching on public access TV, the agenda for this meeting is available on the city's website at www.joluthmn.gov. Livestreaming can also be found on our website under Council Meeting Media. Citizens who wish to address the council, you will have three minutes to do so. Please sign up at the counter near the clerk's desk. And please remember to turn off your cell phones and council chambers. I will read the tools of civility in honor and memory of Council President Renee Vanette. The Duluth City Council promotes the use and adherence of the tools of civility in conducting the business of the council. The tools of civility provide increased opportunities for civil discourse, leading to positive resolutions for the issues that face our city. We know that when we have civility we get civic engagement. And because we can't make each other civil and we can only work on ourselves, we state that today I will pay attention, listen, be inclusive, not gossip, show respect, seek common ground, repair damaged relationships, use constructive language, and take responsibility. We will now move to the approval of Ministers. They're a motion. So moved by nephew, second by all. All those in favor? Opposed, same sign. Minutes passes approval and minutes passes 9-0. We will now move into public hearing. I'll open the public hearing for the assessment role for sidewalk repairs. There are first call for anyone that would like to speak on the assessment role for sidewalk repairs. Second call, if anyone would like to speak on the assessment roll for sidewalk repairs. Third and final call for assessment roll for sidewalk repairs. Seeing none, close the public meeting. Thank you. Opportunity or reports from administration, Mr. Staling. Good evening, Council President Tamanik. Councillors. Two quick updates. First, Dr. Shana Weaver, our interim sustainability officer began work last week. She's been meeting with staff getting up to speed on all of the grant opportunities ahead of us and all of those grant opportunities that we're currently managing. So we're happy to have her on board. Second, I relate to the sustainability officer position. The job description is making its way through various staff. I believe it was recently approved by the Civil Service Board. And so that should be coming before the council shortly. And then we can post that permanent position. Second update regarding the Skywalk last week, I received a proposal from the consulting firm, MIG, they're also working with downtown Duluth, and so we're processing that proposal as well. So I look forward to providing additional updates and detail on the Skywalk study. Thank you, Mr. Staling. Next we move to opportunities for citizens to be heard. Clerk Danem. Our first speaker is Mary Kursling. President Tomonic. I am here because I understand that you will be spending great the all time looking at the city's budget. And I am here to advocate for the library system. I would hate to see any services cut in that area at all. I have been going to the library since I was four. I am 75 years old. And I go, I attend. I go to the West End Library, which is closest to my home. And it is a small library. It could actually be bigger because that's how busy they are. But you know, it is what it is. It's not gonna get bigger, but I wanna maintain the services that we have there. They have six internet computers. They have 14 computers, three laptops, and two kids game computers. You can fax there. There's a notary public service there. They have 418 programs for children, 58 and 138 for adults. You can sign up for mincher, you can get tax help. I believe there are some social services available, at least in some of the branches of the library. When I go there, that library is very busy. Every computer is filled. And sometimes there's someone standing there waiting to use a computer. The West Duluth population is not as wealthy as other parts of the city, shall we say. And it is well used by people who do not have access to computers or perhaps do not have internet service. And there are a lot of young children there. I see moms in there all the time. And I'm reminded of when I was a little girl, I grew up in a very impoverished family. And there was not money to buy very many books. If I got books, they were very treasured and cherished. You just couldn't just go to the bookstore and buy books. So my resource was the library. And so that's been 71 years I've been doing this. And it is, I'm almost a library nerd. I go on tours of libraries. I have brought and gotten all my children a library card and my grandchildren library cards. And I just, I would really, really hate to see any services diminished by the, you know, unfortunate way we find ourselves with the city budget. So that's what I have to tell you and I thank you for your time. Thank you, Ms. Kursing. I neglected to ask you for your address. Sorry, 30, 23, Palisade Drive. Thank you. Click down on our next speaker. All right, next speaker, Shayan Pion. I'm here today to talk about how fear can be used to manipulate human physiological responses. I live on the outside. I'm speaking to this council because I have noticed this trend here within City Political Redirect. I also think that everybody in the public can benefit from understanding their bodies. So I'm first gonna describe the three states of physiological arousal and then I will follow up with the ways these states can be manipulated for either political action or in action. Got myself a little. Okay. Sorry. I used Crayola because I don't have a printer. In the middle in green is our window of tolerance, which is the ideal place for humans to exist under most circumstances. Here we can actually accept and understand new information. In some situations it can be helpful for humans to briefly spike up here into the hyperarousal zone. This is our fight or flight response. Your heart might pound really fast, maybe your face gets flush, and your muscles tends to run. People are more likely to act impulsively, feel panic anger, and become hyper-vigilant. When trapped here, people have difficulty feeling safe in their environment or even their own bodies. Long term, this is pretty hard on our brain and heart health, so our bodies have another protective response, low or hypowarousal. Here, our vital signs are often lower, we'll experience things like fatigue or lack of motivation. This is commonly associated with things like depression, numbness, and desensitization. Here, a person can become extremely agreeable to their perceived threat or their perceived protective figure. Unfortunately, many people throughout the world are experiencing dysregulation, whether trapped in hyper or hypolarousal or rapidly flopping between them. This dysregulation can be manipulated to confuse, distract, and weaponize scared constituents. While not necessarily conscious, that's how marketing works. Convince people that you alone have the solution for calming that Ikye dysregulated feeling. So when one wants political action they fan some fire of fear telling folks you must act now or others will hurt you. Conversely for in action they minimize state violence and encourage us to accept it is what it is and to just comply. Balance together this is incredible propaganda propaganda and citizens respond by relinquishing bodily autonomy to the state, their own or more often that of others. Finally, to be clear, achieving regulation requires at a minimum access to stability and basic needs such as food, water, housing, medical care, and community. This is why I've been asking the council to prioritize community care over criminalization. Everyone deserves to feel safety, especially those struggling to access privileges that should be inherent human rights. Thank you. I will be sending an email with some resources for you to have access to a nervous system regulation. It's just like some YouTube videos and then obviously a couple of sessions back. I came in a bit hot and accused this council of helping Nazis and I'm going to send some information to help explain where my brain was coming from that because I'm really noticing a lot of patterns and it's scary. So I personally am up here often and I hope other people can get back into the window of tolerance. So thank you. Thank you. Polar, do we have other speakers?. My name is Brandon Parker. I live at 621 Atlantic Avenue in District 4. I'm speaking on a few different subject lines today. First, the Lakeview 333 Project. The recent eighth development amendment for this project was done under the guise of a center's need for traveling nurses and doctors to have temporary housing. Maybe, just maybe, the billion dollar revenue generating medical institutions should foot the subsidy for their temporary housing needs themselves Why should Duluth taxpayers subsidize them more than we already have to? The lack of contractual obligation to meet certain requirements in order to keep receiving the $7.5 million tip subsidy for this project is an abdication of responsibility by the city to whole developers accountable. And this is becoming a common theme of baiting and switching by developers looking to build into the loop as they sucker tith from the city while imposing the increasing tax burden from levy increases on single families and working deluthians. On a similar note, the $14 million tith agreement for Sofidel, a multinational corporation valued at over $3 billion. Over nine years, could have significantly aided in improving core city public services and social services for Deluth's unhoused and marginalized. I don't believe that Sofidel was at risk of leaving the city of Duluth had they not received this tax break. I have serious concerns about the longevity of the claim to 160 jobs this expansion will create, given increasing automation, looming, and no contractual guarantee by the company to deliver along their promise. With significant increases in property taxes proposed for Duluth upwards of 16% levy over the next two years. Now is the time to take a critical look at where TIFF is allocated because the onus of these levy hikes is going to be placed on working Duluthians rather than a shared tax burden with untrustworthy, ingredient developers, and multinational corporations such as Sofidel. Finally, the tabling of the Safe Bay application, the commission cited signage blowing away due to a snowstorm, further delaying of the site's use by Safe Bay, which was quite frustrating and an insult to the people of Delus Intelligence. The real reason for the delay clearly has to do with concerns raised by those in the surrounding neighborhood who are either opposed to social services for the unhoused due to irrational fears, contempt for the marginalized, or simply they oppose zoning changes. With the delay imposed by the Planning Commission, the Safe Bay Lot v. Church will have to wait until after their May 13th meeting. For the sake of our marginalized neighbors, the unhoused, and your eight to one vote last year to support stepping on up, let stepping on up. It is incumbent upon the council to hold firm to the Safe Bay proposal in spite of oppositional pressure you may face, whether from residents or the Planning Commission. Please consider pushing the planning commission to expedite the Safe Bay application. So our vulnerable neighbors can be met with more dignity, grace and respect. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker and last speaker is Richard Cronzer. I was under the impression tonight's meeting included the condos on woodland but not so. Correct. When is that? In tweaks. Okay. Can I spot off on it now? You may certainly have your three minutes of time. Go ahead. Richard Cranzer, 2135, Woodland Avenue. I am going to tell you what in my opinion is fundamentally wrong with that plan. I've always believed in the saying, first, do no harm. The project on woodland, the condos, 60 condos will harm many people in many ways. The big problem is the harm and the hurt it will inflict on people, actually people, families, children, if you don't believe me, why don't you talk to the homeowners who live on Minneapolis Avenue or on Wadina Street. Roughly 15 homes will be greatly impacted by those condos. If I owned the land and then I don't, I would't cut that land up and put in 60 condos. There's no way I could do that. I can't even imagine it, actually. There are rules in place to save residential neighborhoods, I think. Exceptions to the rules means there are no rules. So I'm asking you to not vote for this exception and let the current code prevail. Please save this neighborhood from the blight of 60 condos. What I would hope you do would do would be to ask yourself, what would my constituents say, the people that I represent? If you pull them, would they want 60 condos put up there? Destroying that neighborhood? Again, I would say first do know harm. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Cronzer. Okay, our last speaker, Lauren Martell. Pretty new console, Lauren Martell 623, e7th. My first date with my wife was canvassing for a Democrat presidential candidate in Wisconsin. She was bit by a dog. It was just a little much. She didn't think she had to worry about, but it got her ankle. She was on fire for the cause, though, and wanted to keep going. One of the reasons we were Democrats way back then, well before some of you were born, was because we believed in the seven generations. Safeguarding wealth and resources for those coming in the future, and we thought the Democrat party felt the same. We used to run a little reuse operation on our property, Cellulaging things from the waste stream, washing clothes, fixing things up, bringing boxes of good, reusable stuff to the second hand stores. We both dislike wastefulness, and I knew the red plan was going to be wasteful. It's one of the reasons I fought against it. We tore down six schools. We spent $9 million to purchase 63 private properties, most of which had buildings on that were also torn down. It all adds up to about a million square feet of building space hauled off the landfills. The new central high school was only 40 years old when it was shut down. It was a 228,826 square foot building. To give everyone some sense of how big that is, it would have been like adding Cognin Elementary on the old central high on Second Street. The lower campus STC building opened in 1995, 30 years ago. It's been sitting empty for 14 years, nearly half as long as it's been standing. It is a 52,775 square foot building. We spent $2.3 million to pay it off as it sat there empty. I've been keeping an eye on everything up there for years. I went up there again a few weeks ago. A cold wind was blowing hard out of the north, but I liked the wild feel of it. I walked the whole property. I went down onto the football field, then over to the district's new buildings, and down Porsche Johnson Drive. Then I walked down to check out STC. Standing there in the cold wind, my blood boiled at the sight of a window smashed out. The wind howling into that wonderful building. I presume most of the people sitting in front of me are Democrats. And I don't understand how you gave these New York operators the right to tear that building down. How do you justify adding another 52,000 square feet to a million square feet of building space already in landfills? How do you square that with your concerns about climate change? It is so distressing. 30 seconds. To see a 30 year old school neglected like a pilot trash. It is a distressing. 30 seconds. To see a 30-year-old school neglected like a pilot trash. It is a terrible waste of our community's wealth and resources, a crime against the environment, and I think inarguably, a forsaking of the seven generations doctrine by the Democrats in here and in the boardroom of ISD 709. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you to all our speakers. We move next to our consent agenda. Is there a motion to approve? Moved by Swenson, seconded by Forzman. All those in any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favour? Aye. Opposed? Consent agenda passed, this is 90-0. We move on to Councillor Cunnet. Councillor questions and comments. Councillor Kennedy. Thank Thank you, President Tamanic. We are excited to announce that the Westwood Reimagine Business corridor meetings are starting next week. All of you or many of you voted on that. Right now it's known as the Valley Corps Investment Area and the planning development has been working hard. There's a meeting next week. It's called the building blocks. This week, yes, this week it's called the building blocks for a successful Spirit Valley, April 16th, 530 to 7pm at the Evergreen, actually the library evergreen senior center. And so they'll be having a presentation and workshop with Michelle Reeves. She's a principal civilist consultant, urban strategist, commercial development consultant, and revitalization expert. So they're saying if you're a business owner, a property owner, or just have an idea of how we want to move forward with the Westerns' business corridor. Please show up. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Kennedy. Councillor Mayo. Thank you, President Semonich. I wanted to take a moment just to highlight the Chester Park Drive project that was on our agenda that we passed tonight on consent. It was part of the lead service project funding, but it was also a project we've had on our list of street projects for quite a few years here. Really excited to see that. It's in my district. The residents there have been waiting for that alley to be redone for many years now. So very happy that we'll be moving forward with that. And then secondly, a couple updates. I know I've been talking about federal funding over past weeks. List had some deluth list, had some good news this week from some of their community development funds are back in play, which is wonderful. They did a lot of advocacy on the federal level to get those back. And E.C.L.L.3, one of our really good local partners here, has been talking about those federal impacts and how it's really impacting them. But as a community, there are a lot of ways we can support E.C They have Earth Week coming up, which is just about seven days away, six days away now. And one of their big events during that on Friday, April 25th is their SIP and support event at Clyde Ironworks. So you can attend that event. I believe it's a pay what you can if you can't pay the normal admission fee. You can donate to equilibrium three or help support them throughout that other way as well. Really great community partner that we really hope to have stick around for many years to come. Thanks. Thank you, Councillor Mayo. Councillor Sainte, any other questions? Councillor Kennedy? I have one more update of information. We talked about the Morgan Park Bridge. I went back and looked at my email with Mr. Staling on April 8th and he had stated Mr. Staling you had stated and correct me from wrong. That the repairs had begun yesterday so that would have been April 7th. On the columns adjacent to the outbound lane, they were going to take those repairs, we're going to take two to three weeks. Next steps would be based solely on the railroad owners. But the plan is to install concrete barriers adjacent to the columns to be able to open one of the lanes. That is correct. I have no information that anything has changed. I think we're still on course. Thank you, Councillor Kennedy and Mr. Stanley. Thank you, President Tamanik. Thank you so much for speakers. Mary Kursling, Cheyenne Pine, Brandon Parker, Richard Kunso, and Lauren Martell for speaking during public comment and pushing us on a wide range of issues. I just wanted to thank you for coming. It takes great courage. I wanted to say that I am working with the City Clerk's Office to really push and fill our boards and commissions. So if there's any residents, do folks who want to, you know, join any boards and commissions, please do apply. We have many vacancies in really important boards and commissions that need to be filled. And with that, we did pass some of Mayor Reinhardt's original appointees that he had brought forward last month. A lot of the reappointments will be also coming forward next time as well with another planning Commission interview coming up next week next council cycle as well. So just really pushing folks. Let's get involved So it's like really focus on city processes and if you're able to commit to join a border commission and Will continue to I'm continued in discussion on how do we streamline the process, how do we work to have trench transparency, but then also, you know, just efficiency through it also, continuing those conversations. And there's one other thing, oh, and I'm working with vibrant streets to bring forth a proposal next month and working with a couple of Councillors here on that project, more about that project and initiative will be coming up. So just wanted to give that announcement. Thank you. Great. Any other questions or comments? Thank you, Councillor. All the preview of upcoming business. I do know that the pancake breakfast is coming up, but you should go and celebrate my husband's birthday, but it's on May 1st this year, not his birthday. But I will be pouring coffee and I hope to get to wear the arco costume. Don't they have a coffee pot costume? Anyway, if the arco family is listening, I really want to wear the costume. Our next agenda session is on the 24th of April. And please note that the next meeting, the council meeting on the 28th, we started 515. All right, we will take pictures of that. Thank you all. The meeting is-