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Lindstrom City Council met August 19 for a regular meeting.  Council member Greg Krueger attended virtually.

The meeting began with Mayor Judy Chartrand telling the council how much Kay Mattson will be missed and thanking City Administrator Dan Undem and Finance Director Krista Lord for stepping in to fill such a big void.

Resident Lani Strand next spoke to the council about historic Lindstrom buildings.  Strand said she was sad to see the Dinnerbel structure removed and would have liked to see it registered as a historical building.  Strand passed out a brochure showing what steps are followed registering historical buildings.  Strand pointed out there are many grants available for historical buildings to aid with remodeling.

Council next heard from Scott Ross who is the president of the Good Neighbors Club.  Ross passed out photos of a refurbished screen gazebo at the Valkomen Apartments that the club cleaned and painted.  Ross said the club has 100 members and is a 501c3.  Council thanked the club for all of their hard work.

Administrator Dan Undem introduced Nathan Fuerst from Bolton Menk who is a senior planner and was there to discuss Lindstrom’s comp plan.  Fuerst has also worked with Chisago City and Forest Lake.  

Lindstrom currently has a comp plan that is partially adhered to.  The plan presented is more “data driven” and is broken down into tasks. 

Task 1: project initiation

Task 2: community 

engagement

Task 3: goals and vision

Task 4: community history and demographs

Task 5: land use and 

development

Task 6: housing and 

neighborhoods

Task 7: transportation

Task 8: public utilities

Task 9: parks and trails

Task 10: natural resources

Task 11:  implementation

Task 12: plan adoption

Council agreed in hiring Bolton & Menk to proceed with the comp plan and urged Fuerst to blend the existing comp plan to not double up. Cost to Bolton and Menk will be $78,000.

City engineer Brian Bachmeier presented a task order for the 2027 street and utility improvement project.  The project will include Maple Street, Park Street, Linden Street and Summit Avenue North.  Bachmeier will prepare construction plans, including public engagement and bidding solicitation.  Total engineering costs for this portion of the road projects come to $122,500.  Council member Mike Hilber asked Bachmeier if the city would have to lose some mature maple trees along Maple.  Bachmeier said unfortunately some may have to be removed.  He also told council there will be public meetings to discuss plans and get resident’s input.  

Administrator Undem said the city has the projects budgeted.

Council passed the request for engineering funds for the road projects unanimously.

Council next agreed to enter a contract with Yooz (an accounts payable cloud based software that streamlines accounts payables).  Yooz has an initial start up cost of $3090 for the modem and a monthly cost of $452 thereafter.  The city can terminate the agreement whenever it chooses.  Council voted in favor of the new software unanimously.

Assistant City Administrator Tom Rynott gave the council a rundown on the parks capital improvement plan.  Rynott mentioned staff is planning on touring all city parks and invited council to do so.  Rynott also mentioned a plan for city staff to take a tour of a flagship park in the Twin Cities to get ideas for Lindstrom parks.

Maintenance supervisor Payton Hill next told the council his department was seeking permission to use a free AI integration tool that monitors and inputs road surfaces.  The sensors would be attached to multiple maintenance vehicles and would imput information every time the vehicle traveled on a roadway.  The software is free for three months and Hill told council he could envision a lot of data being entered in that time.  Council agreed and thanked Hill for finding the software.

Lastly, Rynott gave a brief synopsis of the 2026 Harmony in the Park. Rynott said 6,884 people attended eight concerts that also featured 59 vendors.  The event had 78 sponsors.  Rynott said a questionnaire will be sent out soon to the public for input.

Council adjourned at 9:25pm.

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