03-13-2023 City Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION DRAFT 5 what the Board discussed the previous week. These include playground replacement at the 178 Brandywood and Birchwood Acres Park, and repurposing the bituminous at City Hall Park for 179 two pickleball courts and possibly a half basketball court. 180 181 The Council expressed support of the Park Board’s recommendations. 182 183 Councilmember Lyden asked to explore locations and costs for a dog park. Mr. DeGardner noted 184 they are typically run by the County, but if the City Council would like to look at it, they can 185 explore options. The Council would like to explore costs and potential locations. 186 187 The Councilmembers showed support for the playground replacements and the proposed 188 improvements at City Hall Park. 189 190 Item 6 — Blue Heron Days — Public Services Director DeGardner asked the City Council 191 whether they have opinions, ideas, or direction for 2023 Blue Heron Days. Staff would like to 192 host activities after the parade at the Rookery Activity Center for indoor/outdoor activities and 193 encourage people to become members and utilize the Rookery. 194 195 Councilmember Lyden inquired as to what activities have gone well and not gone well in years’ 196 past. Mr. DeGardner noted the touch a truck event and vendor fair have gone well. The bands 197 have not been well attended. 198 199 Councilmember Lyden suggested a K-9 demonstration. 200 201 Councilmember Stoesz spoke about the parade route being lopsided to the right-hand side and 202 asked about making the route narrower. 203 204 Mayor Rafferty noted the limited funds make it difficult and asked the Council how much they 205 want to invest in the event. Mr. DeGardner noted there are residual dollars in the Blue Heron 206 fund from previous years of about $15,000 and they did not put dollars in this year’s budget. He 207 agrees with the comment regarding changing the parade route and in the past they have looked at 208 alternate routes such as starting at the middle school, however the Legion has been against a 209 change to the route. Mr. DeGardner noted Staff will keep the Council updated on Blue Heron 210 Days progress and if they have any ideas or suggestions to let him know. 211 212 Item 7 — Q4 and Year End Wrap Up 2022 Public Safety Update — Director of Public Safety 213 John Swenson gave a summary of his written report and statistics in the City Council packet. He 214 noted case numbers for 2022 declined slightly with average response time for emergency/non-215 emergency was 5 minutes 56 seconds. He shared about a reduction in wait time (stacked calls) of 216 44 hours in part due to being closer to full staffing than in years past, which is a positive. He 217 walked the Council through stats on medical calls and ambulance services, fire division calls, 218 mutual aid given and received, and included a staffing update, and notable Q4 events. 219 220 Item 8 — Duty Crew Staffing — Director of Public Safety John Swenson gave a summary of 221 his written Staff report noting they have learned over the last 8 months that the part-time 222 personnel needs more work than the City is giving, therefore those personnel are getting other 223