City administrator Dawn Collins, right, administers the oath of office to Noah Hanson, left, who started his term as an honorary City Council member on Monday, March 2. Hanson is currently a senior at Blue Earth Area High School, and is the first student to take part in the honorary City Council member program, which allows students to participate in City Council meetings for a three-month term in the fall, winter, or spring.

Further discussion on cannabis buffer zone ordinances, as well as clarification from the Senior Center Board on how to proceed with setting lunch prices at the Senior Center, were both on the agenda at the Blue Earth City Council meeting on Monday, March 2.

City attorney David Frundt presented the council with a draft ordinance for cannabis business regulations, based on the discussion and the feedback that the City Council had on the issue at its last meeting.

“This draft ordinance is very bare-bones, but it takes into consideration the feedback I was given at the last City Council meeting as well as the relevant regulations for licensing a cannabis business at the state level,” Frundt reported. “I am open to further discussion on the matter.”

“I just want to tell the Council that the primary reason this has been brought up is that Dawn is currently in talks with an interested business seeking to apply for a cannabis license,” mayor Rick Scholtes added. “We currently don’t have the necessary of rules and regulations in place to tell them yes or no, so she can’t really give them an answer either way until we sort this out.”

City administrator Dawn Collins confirmed that this was indeed the case, and raised the question of how to go about navigating licenses issued by the state that cover multiple different aspects of cannabis legislation, ranging from the sale of cannabis products to on-site consumption of cannabis products.

“There are multiple different types of licenses available for businesses to obtain at the state level, a few of which allow the holder of a single license to do multiple different things, such as growing, manufacturing, selling, and allowing for on-site consumption,” Frundt explained. “The issue is that those licenses aren’t necessarily put in check by a buffer zone, since the state has already said they can do those activities. The decision of whether we want to set different buffer zones for all of these different activities, or we don’t want to set any at all, is up to us.”

“In my conversations with council member McNerney, he emphasized that his main concern was the buffer zone distances,” Scholtes commented. “If it’s just a retail business, what do we really need for a buffer zone? If you get into a place which allows for on-site consumption of cannabis, that’s a different story. My personal thought is that we take away the buffer zone for any area that’s just going to be retail, where cannabis will not be consumed on-site.”

Several council members questioned the need to set this specific legislation now, raising the point that if the state legislature is still subject to changes even in its current state, it wouldn’t be worth updating the ordinances only to have to adjust them again in the future. However, Frundt reminded the council that there was a current need for clarification on the city’s cannabis licensing policies, as there is already an interested party waiting for further direction on how to proceed.

Ultimately, no formal action was taken on the issue at the meeting. However, an agreement was reached to direct Frundt to look into the current state guidelines regarding buffer zones for cannabis retailers, and come back to the next meeting with an updated draft ordinance that includes proposed buffer zone distances for certain types of cannabis licenses.

Collins presented the council with an update from the Senior Center board regarding the discussion held at the previous City Council meeting concerning the current prices of a to-go lunch at the Senior Center for punch card holders.

“The Senior Center Board has reviewed the suggestion we made at our last meeting to adjust the price of all meals at the Senior Center to $5,” Collins shared. “They have rejected this suggestion, and decided instead to keep the current meal cost at $4 for those eating in, while also extending that $4 price to those with a prepaid punch card who wish to take their meals to-go.”

“I thought the intention of the lower prices for the in-person lunches at the Senior Center were to incentivize people to engage with the community,” council member Jacque Drew remarked. “The reason we kept the cost of the to-go meals at $6.50 was to help pay for the cost of the to-go boxes.”

Collins proceeded to explain that as of the current meal counts from 2025, the proposed change by the Senior Center Board to keep lunches at $4 would result in approximately $1000 in additional expenses for the city. Other council members expressed concerns that people might choose to purchase a prepaid punch card specifically to take advantage of the cheaper to-go meals, despite not being “regulars” at the Senior Center for lunch.

A member of the Senior Center Board, who was present at the meeting, offered some clarification on their decision to keep the lunch prices at $4.

“Our intention with this decision was to allow those with a prepaid punch card to benefit from the discounted $4 lunches whether they eat in or take it to-go,” the board member clarified. “Those who get a meal to-go that are not punch card holders will still pay the full price of $6.50. Currently, we only have two punch card holders who take their meals to-go, so we feel confident that this is not currently an issue, and will not become an issue in the future.”

Having heard this explanation, a motion was made and seconded to accept the Senior Center Board’s recommendation of setting lunch prices at $4 for those eating in or with a prepaid punch card for to-go meals, and at $6.50 for those without a punch card taking a meal to-go. The motion passed unanimously.

Other business discussed at the City Council meeting included:

• Blue Earth Light & Water director Tim Stoner, Blue Earth Fire Chief Corey Survis, Blue Earth Community Library director Heidi Schutt, and EDA development specialists Amy Schaefer and Macey Becker all presented their 2025 Year In Review reports to the council during the work session prior to the meeting.

• Food truck permits for Kris Tacos, Inspire Health & Wellness, 2 Sisters Eatery, and Angela’s Egg Rolls were all unanimously approved.

• The first reading for Ordinance 26-03 to amend Subsection 250.11 regarding the Fitness Center board was held. Hearing no discussion on the issue, a motion to set a public hearing date and second reading of the ordinance for March 16 was unanimously approved.

• A series of revisions to the personnel policy, previously discussed at the last City Council meeting on Feb. 17, were unanimously approved. The amended policies included an updated description of an employee’s lunch period, defining what constitutes overtime for Office Specialists, and an addition to define and explain the new rules set forth by the Minnesota Paid Family and Medical Leave Program.

• The resignation of Tucker Bottin from the Blue Earth Fire Department, effective immediately, was unanimously approved.

• A motion to adjust the hours of the brush site to 3 – 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday, and 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. on Saturdays was unanimously approved.