CG Council meeting swears in mayor, council members

Mayor Bailey makes 2025 appointments in short meeting Jan. 8

By Joseph Back
Posted 1/19/25

It was a short one Wednesday, Jan. 8 as the Cottage Grove City Council met to conduct city business. Chief on the night’s agenda was oaths of office. Mayor Bailey took the oath following …

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CG Council meeting swears in mayor, council members

Mayor Bailey makes 2025 appointments in short meeting Jan. 8

Posted

It was a short one Wednesday, Jan. 8 as the Cottage Grove City Council met to conduct city business.
Chief on the night’s agenda was oaths of office. Mayor Bailey took the oath following pledge, roll call, adoption of the agenda, and open forum. County Commissioner Karla Bigham administered the oath to Mayor Bailey as Bailey’s grandson Easton held the microphone.
“I, Myron Bailey, do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States, and the constitution of the State of Minnesota, and that I will faithfully execute and discharge the duties, of the office of Mayor for the City of Cottage Grove, County of Washington, State of Minnesota, according to the law and to the best of my judgement and ability, so help me God.”
Bailey was followed in the oath ceremonies by council members Monique Garza, Justin Olsen, with Bigham administering the oath to Garza and Olsen while City Administrator Jennifer Levitt administered the oath to David Clausen.
Following the oaths and picture taking it was on to official welcome, followed by consent agenda.
“Welcome to the Council Mr. Clausen,” Mayor Bailey said.
The night’s meeting agenda was not posted in the packet online on the city website at meeting time, the consent agenda being passed with motion by council member Olsen and seconded by council member Garza.
Bill pay was approved with motion by council member Olsen, seconded by council member David Clausen.
2025 committee and commission appointments were made by Mayor Bailey as follows:
Mayor Pro Tempore - Garza
Beyond the Yellow Ribbon - Olsen
Cottage Grove Chamber of Commerce - Bailey
Cottage Grove Convention and Visitor’s Bureau - Olsen
East Metro Strong - Clausen
Economic Development Authority - Bailey and Olsen
Great River Rail Commission - Garza
Historic Preservation Advisory Committee - Thiede
Holiday Train Committee - Bailey
Investment Committee - Thiede and Clausen
Parks Recreation and Natural Resources Commission - Clausen
Planning Commission - Olsen
Public Services Commission - Thiede
Red Rock Corridor Commission - Garza
South Washington County Telecommunications Commission - Thiede with Clausen as alternate
South Washington County Watershed District - Clausen
Strawberry Fest Committee - Thiede with Clausen as alternate
The 2025 committee and commission appointments were approved. with motion by Olsen, seconded by Garza.
Bailey gave council members a chance to speak on items important to them, starting with Garza.
“It looks like we have lot of fun things coming up at River Oaks Golf coming up in January and February,” she said.
Included in the lineup at River Oaks are the Francis Ford Coppola Director’s Cut Wine Dinner at 5 p.m. Jan. 16 and the Sweet Keys Dueling Pianos event at 5:30 p.m. Feb. 21..
The Francis Ford Coppola Director’s Cut Wine Dinner is $90 per person and includes a four-course meal, while the Sweet Keys Dueling Pianos tickets range from $75 to $500.
Garza also mentioned the upcoming Park vs. East Ridge face-off at the Cottage Grove Ice Arena Jan. 16.
For Thiede, Strawberry Fest was the major point to emphasize.
“I just want to mention about Strawberry Fest,” he said. “We’re still actively planning for that, and the intensity starts to build at this point for the festival in June. We could still use a lot of help and input and so forth. Typically our meetings are on the first and third Monday of the month over at Carbone’s in their back room there. We would definitely like to have anybody that would like to have fun come by and help us out, give input and things like that.”
Thiede also spoke of the Historic Preservation Committee.
“We’re always looking for people that have interesting information and stories and so forth about the city of Cottage Grove and stories of development and things like that to contribute,” he said, inviting input as they seek fun and meaningful ways to document things.
Olsen was next.
“First and foremost, I want to congratulate my colleague David Clausen on his election to the council and his swearing in this evening. It will be fun to work with Dave and he brings a lot of knowledge and experience from his time as an employee with the city that will be invaluable to the work that the city council does. So congratulations Dave.”
That wasn’t all from Olsen.
“Second, I wanted to take a moment to remind people that with the turn of the new year we will have some commission openings that will be available in February. For those who currently serve on our advisory commissions, those terms tend to expire after the end of January of the new year. And so, we may have some commissioners who choose to move on, they’ve done their duty and it’s something that they want to give somebody else a chance to do. Sometimes people actually time out, where they’ve served several different terms and they need to take a one year break before they’re able to reapply. If you’re interested in serving on any of the city’s volunteer commissions and you heard the mayor talk through the various liaison appointments, you can definitely see that there could be several opportunities. Now would be a great time to get your application in.”
Residents could do this on the city website, Olsen said. He also mentioned city’s parks and recreation department has been working hard on getting the ice rinks ready and that he had heard a great deal of positive feedback from residents.
“Kudos to the Parks and Rec Department,” Olsen said.
Next for council comment was Clausen.
“First of all, I want to thank the city staff,” he said. “They’ve been very welcoming. All the questions I ask, all my why questions. Thank you council and mayor, you’ve been most gracious and inviting in welcoming me to the group. Thank you to the voters, you’ve entrusted us with a lot of responsibility and we’re going to serve you well. Most importantly I want to thank my wife Jane and sister Ellie…thanks for all your support.”
Bailey closed out with a recap of a meeting between the city and state legislators on city priorities for the coming legislative season, among which is the money for extending 100th Street east to Highway 61.
“We’ve been slowly gaining the money in order to make that project become reality, among other things,” Bailey said, thanking both legislators and Washington County Commissioner Karla Bigham for their help with the matter.
The council meets on the first and third Wednesday of each month at City Hall.