[Music] good evening and welcome to the Rapid City council meeting for Tuesday February 18th 2025 if you could please rise and join us for the pledge I pledge aliance 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 please call the rooll council member groak here council member Butler here council member Novak council member Geisler here council member Armstrong
here council member Carlson here mayor cook here one absent Novak thank you all right um why don't we approve this evening's agenda motion to approve the agenda Mr Mayor second motion by Carlson and a second by
Geisler to approve the agenda any corrections or discussion hearing none all in favor signify by saying I I I opposed and the agenda is adopted um let's why don't we approve the minutes from the February 4th 2025
meeting Mr mayor council member Butler I move to approve the minutes from the February 4th 2025 meeting second motion by Butler and a second by Carlson any corrections our discussion Mr Mayor um council member Geer I sent staff one minor correction
earlier okay Mr mayor council member guar will'll make that correction thank you okay very good anything else hearing none all in favor sign I by saying I I I opposed and that motion carries we have five items on our
consent agenda this evening the first one is to adopt resolution 25-33 calling for a public hearing to vacate the drainage utility easements at 1210 117th Lane Northwest on February 4th city council
approved planning case 25-4 final plat approval to create 21 lots for the purpose of building a 20-unit town home and multif family residential development this plat was formerly titled Hidden Creek wood second edition and has been renamed Creek
Commons in order to construct a 20 unit Town Home and multif Family residential development the applicant is requesting the city vacate the entirety of the drainage and utility easements on the site and then new drainage and utility ements will be dedicated along the entirety of Lot 21 on the plat so we're
looking to adopt the resolution to start the process of vacating the drainage and utility easements a vacation petition may be initiated by the city council upon adoption of a resolution by four fifths majority um resolution 25-33 calls for a
public hearing on March 18th 2025 for Council to consider the vacation so this is to adopt resolution 25-33 which calls for a public hearing on March 18th 2025 for a vacation of
drainage and utility easements next item on our consent agenda is to receive the schedule of electronic payments um we're looking to receive the schedule of electronic payments from January 30th 2025 to February 12th
2025 uh next item on our consent agenda is to approve a First Amendment to the purchase and Redevelopment agreement 12258 cired Lake Boulevard the original purchase and development agreement called for completion of the project by March 31st 2025 due to unanticipated
plumbing and mechanical work the buyer requests an extension of the completion date to June June 30th 2025 so we're looking to approve the First Amendment to the purchase and Redevelopment agreement with 246 home Capital
Incorporated next item on our consent agenda is to adopt resolution 25-37 appointing John urkhart to the fire Civil Service Commission uh with the resignation of commissioner El hofstead we had one vacancy we solicited
applications we workshopped this and we are appointing John urkhart to the fire Civil Service Commission um so we're looking to adopt resolution 25-37 appointing John urkhart to the fire Civil Service Commission
um the next and the final item on our consent agenda is to adopt resolutions 25-35 and 25-36 accepting a police K9 Grant from AKC reunite and amending the general fund budget the police department
applied for and received a grant of 7 $500 from AKC reunite to assist in replacing K9 Taz as a requirement of the grant the police department will provide matching funds of $2,500 to purchase Associated equipment from the existing
2025 budget the $7,500 will cover the replacement K9 and Associated training for the new K9 team the purchase of a new police canine was not included in the 2025 budget and per government accounting standards is
considered a capital expenditure so we're looking to adopt resolution 25-35 amending the 2025 general fund budget for a police K9 Grant from AKC reunite and to adopt resolution
25-36 accepting the Grant from AKC reunite and that is our complete uh K9 consent agenda Mr mayor council member Carlson motion to approve the consent agenda
second motion by Carlson and second by Armstrong any discussion or questions all right hearing then all in favor signify by saying I I I opposed and the consent agenda is adopted and we are about ready to hold a public hearing
and we're going to get Mr Hansen up here uh to uh talk about ordering projects Mr Hansen yeah thank you mayor and city council I have a quick presentation to do prior to the public hearing talk about our
proposed 2025 Street reconstruction program so a little bit of background for the counil and for the audience here the streets that we have proposed for reconstruction this year have been previously rated as deficient and in
poor condition and our engineering staff uh which plan these projects we spend a lot of time talking with our Public Works Crews finding out where they spend the most time repairing streets and potholes and that's how we base our plan
uh back on July 23rd and 2024 we held a work session with city council where we initially introduced this proposed program so the first neighborhood that is proposed for reconstruction in 2025
is between 131st and 133rd Avenue also between Creek Boulevard and shann andoa Boulevard the uh scope of the work is to resurface the road replace any damaged curbing gutter driveway aprons and then
repairing the storm sewers and sanitary manholes we will also be replacing plugged City fire hydrants and then the adjacent valves to those hydrants and then up upgrading all of the city lights and fixtures to LED
standards the next neighborhood is the Thousand Oaks neighborhood hang on we we're Notting you're not getting the presentation that's up there we well that front row is open we could move out there I guess I'm sorry oh there we go thanks Mr
Erics okay so the next neighborhood is a thousand o neighborhood this is a neighborhood that's south of Main Street or County Road 14 and then west of Olive Street uh we are going to be resurfacing the roads completely and then replacing
the damaged curban gutter very similar to the last neighborhood replacing driveway aprons repairing storm and sanitary man holes and then in this neighborhood in particular we will also be replacing segments of cast iron water
M pipe uh and then in addition also any plugged fire hydrants and adjacent valves a plugged fire hydrant is one that where the bottom of the hydrant exists within the ground water table so we have to plug the holes and then pump it out after we use it it's one of those
hydrants that we have or it's the type of hydrant we have the most maintenance problems with and then we will also be upgrading all of the city-owned street lights poles and fixtures to LED standards and then the last area is what
we call the thresh Park uh area we've been doing some uh Street reconstruction work in this neighborhood before I think the last time we were there was in 2019 or 20 2018 or 2019 um but again we'll be resurfacing
the road replacing damaged curb driveway aprons repairing storm and sanitary manholes also replacing any plugged fire hydrant and valves and then upgrading our city owned street lights to LED standards our project schedule so we
have had a couple of open houses uh previously one on October 1st and then one on January 22nd of this year both were the same we provided the same information it gave us an opportunity to answer questions about the project tonight February 18th we're here to hold
the public and the assessment hearing and then order the projects if Council chooses to do that that will take us to April 15th where staff we will go out for bids and then we would recommend a contract award for
construction on April 15th and then adoption of the assessments on May 6 this spring uh staff will have a meeting at the end of April uh we'll find a city park that's generally within
the project area and then we will have schedules at that time we'll also have the contractor there so we will provide more information about this specific schedules of each of these neighborhoods prior to starting any work which would happen at the beginning of May and then
take us through September and then completing in early October so like I said letters will go out as well containing the construction schedule we also contain responses to the frequently asked questions that we often get with these projects we do
provide weekly updates on our City website every Friday Friday it's a general update a one-week look ahead on what the contractor is planning to do things of course are subject to weather but it does give a good heads up to
people on you know when when certain major operations are going to be happening and then residents also have the option to sign up for text messages estimated project costs will be spread over a number of
City funds and this is a very high level uh uh estimate um that also does include contingencies as well as administrative and Engineering construction materials testing times the ACT actual construction cost will be uh much less
than what we're showing on this slide but also assessments will be part of the funding equation for the total project cost so a lot of people do ask and a lot of people are likely here tonight wondering why the city assesses for
these types of projects property taxes pay for approximately 50% of the street surfacing cost so everybody throughout the city has already been paying for Street reconstruction projects taking place in other neighborhoods throughout
the city the the the special assessment policy is to really have the assessments pay for the remaining 50% but in practice due to the orientation of property is and that and and what we can assess the city actually
covers more around 70% of the street surfacing uh and curb and gutter costs that are taking place in these projects uh special assessments also allow the city to raise money without increasing the overall uh property tax
levy um and it does also allow us to bond for Street reconstruction projects as well uh special assessments apply to property that impact the road but are exempt from taxation so schools and
churches also use the roadway system they are also assessed and just for clarification purposes we're we're not assessing for the sewer water or the drain repair components of these projects those are paid for themselves
uh through the utility uh funds so our proposed assessment rates for 2025 single family residential all of the properties within the project that are single family residential pay the same rate it does not matter how much front footage you have along the
road if you were a corner lot or if you're an interior lot they all pay the same so the rate this year is $2,430 duplex town home apartment properties are uh assessed at $32 of
front foot so those assessments can vary and Commercial properties is at $6 a foot and then industrial properties at $77 a foot assessment payment options the public hearing noticed that property
owners for this meeting tonight contains all of the information on how to pay the assessment there are different ways to be able to pay it off we recognize these projects come up and people don't expect it necessarily they don't expect that an
assessment is is part of a a construction of their street uh so we do provide a number of different options for people to be able to pay that one option is to be able to pay the entire assessment um assuming the council
adopts the assessments on May 6 between May 7th and June 7th there's a 30-day interest free period they can just pay it off as soon as the council the day after the council adopts it presumably on May 6 and they can pay it off
interest free after after that it starts to ACR some interest at a rate of 4.48% so if they pay it off between June 8th and November 15th they'll pay that assessment plus very minor amount of Interest or residents Property Owners
can choose to to Simply do nothing and the assessment will just automatically appear on their property tax statement starting in 2026 and then they can just continue to pay that off every year as part of their property taxes for 10 years so that
would look like that would be $316 additional to their taxes every year for 10 years if they choose to pay it off that way so um if there's questions about what the current amount owes we uh is owed on the
assessment we encourage Property Owners to contact our assessing department so what are the other cities around us charging um every city does uh assess for these to be able to afford to
maintain their infrastructure um and you can see once again Rapids is at the lowest end of the spectrum for Assessments in our neighboring communities notification forms I always include this so that the property owners that are viewing this meeting see what
the notification forms are going to look like this summer uh these often appear on the front door so if you use your garage door a side door in your house pay attention to that front door but there will be periodic times where we have to turn the water off during the
day between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. and you'll get a notice 24 hours in advance describing the time for when we're going to do that uh it'll be on your your front door it look like that left paint tag and then all of the other
notifications that could affect your street access uh will show up and a form that looks like one on the right we do have videos on our City website that describe the entire process
start to finish of what a street reconstruction projects in the city of Rapids looks like there's also another video that describes a lot of the frequently asked questions that we get we encourage residents to view those
videos and then we did get one written objection I gave the council members each a copy of what that objection looks like it came from a call to sack within the thrush uh Park neighborhood uh residents that live along upender Street
in 124th Avenue um and council is provided with that written objection so with that I'll turn it back to the council if there's any questions uh and then if you want to open up and conduct the public
hearing um Mr Hansen the uh it's it's an impressive letter of objection it's all nine properties on the Uplander culdesac yes um my question is what's the condition of that um compared to the other streets
and I know if we do all the other streets it's really difficult to come in there and just do that one street Orphan Street later and I know and I know this kind of gets we've had this conversation before where these these get caught up War Street isn't that bad yet and but unfortunately
we're they're doing the whole project at one time well this is the most economical time to be able to to reconstruct that street so it's likely that most of that cesac is in better condition it's it's the newest cesac it was the last Street within that
neighborhood to be built so it's about 22 23 years old um but certainly there's portions of the C toac that are in rougher shape and do need maintenance we have found over many years of doing this that it's most economical to try to
group these areas in together works best in terms of a cost for the project and it also puts us on a very consistent maintenance regime so one of the things we do with these projects we come back a year later or two and and do crack
sealing we also do rejuvenators to make you know bring that asphalt back up because the best way to maintain it is just to hit it with those applications as quickly as possible there are no assessments for those latter maintenance uh techniques that we
use okay thank you um questions of Mr Hansen um also member Butler uh thank you Mr Hansen for walking through this I I just have a super simple question about payments of assessments so I know you walk through the three different options you could pay all sort of up at
once within a 30-day period there's one where there's interest but it's I think towards November I think I saw and then there's just getting it applied to your property tax bill could you do like a hybrid version of that so if someone said I can't pay $2,400 but I can put
you know 700 bucks towards it does the city accept that portion then the remainder is added to the balance or is that not how it works I just don't know no no you you you wouldn't we wouldn't be able to do it that way thank you for clarifying mayor counc member Geisler or
then Council uh Mr Hansen just uh generally speaking when we do these reconstructions how long are we talking about from from the asset will it last especially with the Rejuvenation process that we do you know what kind of investment does this last for yeah so
Pavements in Minnesota are designed to last 20 years but we anticipate with proper maintenance and consistent main we expect to get 35 to 40 years out of this one of the things I should note that we're doing with this project is
we're actually thickening the asphalt that is on these streets many of these streets were constructed with 2 in or less of asphalt pavement we're putting back three Ines thank you I should also maybe expand on my
response to council member Butler um one thing that residents could do is they could pay the assessment with their property taxes for a couple of years if they choose and then they would just have to pay off the balance but we wouldn't be able to take like a $700
payment as you suggest in in one payment and then pay the rest later so so I'm sorry I just want to clarify Mr H so you're saying you could do it sort of the opposite way where you make the payments for make through your property taxes and then you you know if you're perhaps you're you're selling your house
typically that's a time when assessments are paid and you would use the proceeds of the sale of your house to to pay for it but you would be able to pay the rest if you decide to at that point but you just have to pay the remaining
amount okay C Carlson Mr Hanson um I think uh council member gesler asked a question cleared it up for me a little bit but uh how old are the streets that are right around the cuac so the cuac is 22 23 years old how old are the streets are the surrounding other
ones that's [Applause] a so most of the rest of the cacs were built in the 90s so the Thousand Oaks neighborhood was chosen because of the age of the the Thousand Oaks goes back to 1973 I'm
sorry I'm in the I'm in the wrong neighborhood the thres park you're talking about the thres Park neighborhood yeah that's going to range from 1992 to 1999 okay most of them this would be the first time that those roads have been
done over yes yes and we be switching from a 2 in to a 3 in correct any other work being done other than the uh possible uh curb gutter curb and the utility work I talked about you mentioned water Ms by I didn't know if that was specific to this neighborhood
no just the the the uh the plugged fire hydrant within the thresh Park neighborhood and the ancillary valves that are near and within the groundwater table near where those plugged hydrants are storms who are catch Basin Replacements and then sanary sewer
casting that fire hydrant work is that part of regular uh routine maintenance that's something that would be well this is a holistic replacement of the fire hydrant just completely brand new so and that would include the
Colac I don't I don't believe there there is a a one in that particular called a Sac it's just wherever they happen to be based on the groundwater table but that neighborhood uh we will be doing that work in that neighborhood we'll be painting the rest of the
hydrants that we are not replacing all of them will be painted brand new to look brand new and to match our current standard of red all right so Mr Hansen if we're using our normal typical routine
replacement we would have to single out that culdesac in 10 years or so if we're going to do it that way yeah it' be the same process yeah and you know five six years it's going to be in pretty rough shape thank
you other questions of Mr Hansen and Mr hon when you say we paint them we actually have a whole process we sand blast them and do that whole we completely re renew them really yes yes yeah okay and a lot of times in the past we've had our Public Works forces do
that but here in this case we're actually included including that work within the contract oh really yeah okay all right um okay any other questions mron Mr Mayor I I apologize for asking this
question because you probably just asked it but I was looking something up on on the cuac there on Uplander is the water main being replaced no okay it wouldn't think so being 22 years old okay thanks for the clarification okay um all right with
that then I think we'll open the public hearing that's where we're up to right all right we'll open the public hearing on this and if you are here and like to address Council on resolution 25-1 6A
um or 25-1 sub 8 um all of those streets this is the public hearing and you can come up and um address the council public hearing and the assessment hearing Mr BR as we've noted we have
received the objections from the all Property Owners they certainly didn't speak to council but they would have met their legal obligation by objecting both peers to the project and to the assessment so and they like you said said we've acknowledged receipt of that so that may save us some time if they
don't want to come up and and formally object because they've already done so okay um does anybody want to come up to address Council I have questions um please come up to the ambo so we can hear
you um so I haven't seen a map but just getting this piece of paper could you I'm sorry could we get your name and address yeah my name is Jeff hail I live on uh 12147 thrust Northwest it's right on the end there there's no exit out of the uh the
neighborhood so um the reason why I'm here today is because um I'm you know I'm sure you've heard it before I've lived in this town my whole life I have um I lived in one other neighborhood over by San Creek School and uh moved over to thrush about 10 years ago I've
never received a letter from the city saying we're going to charge you up and above what you normally pay for taxes and to charge interest on it um I was floored I I couldn't believe it and then
after hearing what I what I heard today and and I'm sorry I've been very busy so I haven't been able to do in-depth research on this but it sounds to me like uh you haven't accepted any bids yet or you haven't decided how much it's going to cost but yet you're going to
bill us in advance and charge interest on it if we can't pay it in full I want to know how you're allowed to charge interest on taxes and how when did this I also my other question is how did this start
when has this ever happened before my 55 years of living here it's never happened and in my other neighborhoods they've come through redone the streets just got a letter in the mail saying we we'll be doing streets you may be block your drivway might be blocked off for a couple of days something like that never
been chared more taxes now over the years taxes go up I assume that's how it P it was would be paid for I assume that that's how this would be paid for our taxes would just go up I already pay uh about $5,000 if I pay this off in a year
that's a 50% increase on my taxes for that year no um is it too late to formally right uh uh it's not too late nope this would be your opportunity if you wanted to object to the assessment I object I you should put it in writing I know it
says in here you have to put it in writing so I guess I have sit down after this and write it okay bring it over to the city clerk here I don't object to the work being done of course I object to the way that it's uh uh being handled as far as oh you live here you have to
pay this uh you know suddenly um so I've never been to one of these before MH is this do you wait till I sit up down to go over my questions and answer them or we wait for everybody to do the public hearing okay and then and then of see what we've got for similar
complaints or sure next question is I heard them saying our crews have gone out and said oh yeah these are the ones that need the most work I mean are these experts do are they hired company that comes in and does an assessment saying
this needs to be replaced this doesn't or is it just like uh we haven't done this in a while um that's one of my questions because I I just heard that uh that's that's how things are that that they spend a lot of time doing
maintenance and filling potholes I've lived in uh at at thrush for 10 years I've never seen a City truck other than the small ones that you know drive by no one's ever done any work to my road um let's see
here yeah that's it I've asked all my questions thank you okay thank you um I'm just I'm writing writing questions down for you Mr Hansen but you're probably writing them down too is anybody else to uh address
Council for the public hearing yes sir hi my name is Rob Orlowski I'm at 12208 thrust Street and I'm kind of going to Echo my neighbor here can Mr Hansen tell me the last time that there was work done on thrust Street I wouldn't be able to have that
off top of my head because I I I'm pretty sure it was recently that they they came in put a new storm drain in ripped the whole Road up did some runoff we did okay yeah
um okay sure thank you mayor if I may we we did reconstruct certain streets within the thres Park neighborhood within the last five six years so I believe that's what the resident is talking about I don't know exact details about what other kinds of Maintenance we
have done on the remaining streets but every year we're doing skin patching and pothole patching throughout people may not notice it but we do do it so that's what I was talking about they have they have done work on our street and to pay
$2,400 I mean what more can they do so that's why I'm up here and I I oppose this look the way it's being handled so you want to be you'll want to get that into the writing then so that and leave it with the clerk yes sir yeah okay hi I'm Angie Cous I live on um
12445 Uplander Street I am the one who rot via opposition letter um nice math by the way nailed it 30% yeah thank you for noticing um I'm um I've lived at this
residence for since 2008 um as Neighbors in the neighborhood have mentioned we did just have some work done on some of the roads um I think most of them anyway in our in that thresh area um I think
Mark said 2019 it's been recent um that we had some work our neighborhood our culde act specifically in this neighborhood there is no other way in or out we don't have traffic it's just us just the people who live there and our
guests um and and garbage trucks um we don't even have buses that come back there so um I spoke with everyone we all you know myself I'm a single mom um you know to pay this um even like I said in
the letter even paying it over 10 years it's even more money um yes there's options um but just generally speaking there's you know I have an elderly neighbor who was going to come with me tonight but is ill and unable to make it
um who lives on a fixed income you know and actually he's on a corner he's actually lives on Thresh street so you'll see two of the thrust street addresses um they go into 124th so that kind of in let Outlet the only one that we have so that's why they're included
on that assessment but um him specifically he doesn't even use that road he doesn't he can't afford it and um lives on a fixed income so that this is significant especially for him um
we see that our road does not need major you know at least an a 1- in increase on any sort of asphalt um yes we do have occasional regular wear and tear on you
know the little potholes that get patched here and there those those do not cost $2,400 per person to fix um we're okay with those we're okay with those being a part of our taxes we're okay with you know them being repaired but um when it comes to having you know
curbs redone and things of that nature um our area specifically we all up it so that is that is all thank you thank you thank you Mr Hansen do you want to interject a couple answers here in between while
we're waiting to see if there's somebody else um sure first though um Miss Hansen don't we have a um a way for seniors to defer the assessments um specific to her example
of the the senior the senior citizen there yes Mr Mayor uh we do a lot ow for the council to authorize deferment of special assessments for for seniors anyone over 65 years old um and there is interest that does AG grou but oh crap
that's what I fit into that too then the assessment doesn't go away right no no no the assessment doesn't go away it's deferred until they sell the property or correct to sell we also allow it for active duty military
personnel okay okay very good also um a deferment okay so as as far as the um assessments this is the way we've done it since I owned my first house4 we've
been doing it this way yep um and then uh and then who who um who or how do you as assess the quality of the streets myself and our my staff so trained Engineers basically and we also
talk to our Public Works staff so but yes it's it's internal City staff that do the ratings okay very good Mr Mayor coun Carlson if you don't have any more questions may I ask Mr Hanson of course you may too thank
you so Mr Hansen this worked in 2019 or so was that a resurfacing or was that a Reclamation same project yep same similar very similar project yep correct yep so we had to do a section of it like we did as much as we could afford at the
time and we did other neighborhoods throughout the city that year I think we had four different street reconstruction projects in 2019 that was a year we did Foley Boulevard uh the Bridgewater neighborhood um so uh we we didn't do the whole ideally
we would have done the entire neighborhood all at once but we just felt like there were certain streets that had to be done so so Mr Hansen the only difference between this project and that project in 2019 is it's going back a few years later and assessments always
go up so if we wait the assessments are going to be more in the future well you had the slides up on the assessments and yeah I do no assessments yeah for sure for sure 30 years as a matter of fact I think my neighborhood's coming up next year
um yeah I know the amount goes up and you had the slides that showed our comparison to other cities um and again what percentage of a typical if we were just to uh um just to
Bill everyone like some um cities do what would that cost probably be well like I said the the assessments really intended to pay for 50% of the street surfacing costs so all the work on the asphalt payment the driveways the
boulevard areas the curb and gutter um but really with the way the assessments are and how they're tied they they go up every year based on the construction cost index for the Minneapolis area um and the cost of doing these projects
year after year um they really they really pay for about 30% so the cost to resurface the call Toc similar to upender street is about 100,000 so the assessments if you were to told it up it's about 30,000 so it's
right in line with kind of what what the assessments actually pay for in terms of what the true cost is of the work so this colc had a a Reclamation after being about 17 years old or
so it was built in 20 2003 2003 there was a Reclamation in 2019 that it was about 16 no no no there was no there's no this this is the original Street oh it is okay I thought we're talking about other streets within the neighborhood
have been reconstructed so thr Street was not reclaimed and no okay all right I thought it was all right so we're not doing any we're not proposing to redo any work that we would have done six years ago these are all
the remaining streets that weren't reconstructed before so there was some work done in the neighborhood yes work done in the neighborhood but this is is you know finishing off the neighborhood so that it's consistent across the board
okay all right stay tuned for more questions just in case um anybody else here to address councel for the public hearing on this I have follows um all right go ahead are you are you and my pen is up here um I just have a
question um you said that uh the project that was done in 2019 is similar to what's about to happen right did residents get build like we are today yes back then what was that price I don't recall it would have been whatever
the assessments were in 2019 probably 1,900 or something they go they go up each year with inflation sure I'm a little confused here so I'm on thrust as well and there was some reconstruction to our road for
runoff there was new storm drains put in I didn't imagine it um and you said this this type of reconstruction lasts how long the road will be good for how long we expect it to last 35 years okay and my road was done in 2019 parts of my
road in front of my house and it's 2025 6 years later you want another $2,400 for me like I said not redoing any of work we did before you yeah so then you won't be doing anything in front of my house you didn't pay did you pay an assessment five years
ago yes we did you did pay an I would assume so if well because if you if you paid an assessment five years ago you're not going to get assessed now correct and we reviewed the assessment role um so nobody should
should be getting assessed twice so maybe one corner if you're a corner lot maybe one of the roads on one side of your house got reconstruct but even but even in that case then they wouldn't be assessed this time because one street it's where the driveway access is is
where we would assess a property yeah yeah okay all right um just let me just okay is there anybody else to address Council for the public hearing on this yes please let's get this wrapped up and then we'll go to the C hi Sharon Eisen
chain from thousand folks can hear me yeah I'm sorry would you would you give us your address though please 915 124th Lane Northwest okay um I just have a couple questions could you clarify what you had said about the deferred payment for 65 or older cuz we couldn't hear
everything that she had said over there so just cuz we have residents also that are going to have asked me questions yeah and I don't know the answer so yeah um Miss Hansen can you use your outdoor voice yes I'm I'm just uh looking at our
special assessment policy real quick here Umar with me um we do allow for Council to defer a special assessment for those that are 65 years or older it is deferred it does
recruit interest but it is deferred until the property sells or they are no longer living there okay thank you um the second question I have is um you had about town houses and that how are the tow houses for Thousand Oaks assessed
because my understanding only four out of the 24 were assessed so none of the front of the houses that face the 124 there that's the backside of their property however there's 24 tow houses all that use the same entrance to their
tow houses which is a private road off from 124th so four tow houses out of 24 where a assessed the remainder were not assessed as far as we were notified Mr Hanson's got an answer for that I'm sure good thank you yeah so everybody so town
homes and condominiums that have their direct access onto a private driveway or a private road are assessed differently we take the the the frontage along the public road we uh multiply by the multifam rate and then we divide by the
number of units so it turn turns out to be about a third of what a single family residential assessment is so I believe every so first of all everybody in that neighborhood whether they are a single family home on the main public roads or
they are a unit that is on one of the private drives um is getting an assessment it's just the latter ones are paying about a third of what the single family homes are and that's because they still have their private driveway and road to to Main M and that has been the
case throughout our history okay and that makes sense thank you and my last question is years ago our streets have always been we've always been told our streets are not um as wide as they should be so the questions that the
associations are having right now is during this time are they going to widen our streets to make them more like they're supposed to be Mr Hansen and pretty sure I know the answer to
that no is the answer yeah and I I could explain why but it just would not be practical no that's fine that was the question and then I think that's it thank you okay thank you that would probably require permission from every
single property there and some resurveying and well the driveways are short the setbacks in that neighborhood are very short um so it would create some very steep driveways oh
sure okay anybody else here to address Council for the public hearing here yes I okay come on up that's fine just give us your name and address please um so my name is Jennifer Heckle I at 2050 122nd Avenue Northwest I'm not
sure which neighborhood that is yet um so my husband and I um bought our first home in April of 2021 um throughout that time property taxes have increased homeowners insurance has increased due to you know everything
increasing because of the economy um when it comes to the bids so if they're planning so the amount right now is like 2,400 for those in the single family homes when it comes to the bid aspect of
it is there like a minimum minimum amount of that bid requirement to make it so it's 2400 or if the bids come down low does that mean that the amount is just a done settle even 2430 is the amount we'll be
assessing single family homes this year correct Mr Hansen yes yeah irrespective of of the bid okay and that doesn't matter what work is being done so even if some part of the neighborhood certain extra things have to be done and not a
specific it's PL jeene right well because some of because some of the funding comes out of the Water Utility Fund some comes out of the storm Utility Fund um but when we reconstruct a seat a street we use the Straight
2430 um per per single family home okay so because the one concern I have about that is you know the the pricing of everything is going up you have the families that are potentially living paycheck to paycheck basically it's to
the point where you know property taxes are going up okay so now I'm for out money for that then you have now this 2430 Additionally you have options to pay it upfront or you know included in your property taxes well now you're
spending even more money regardless for that that's ideally that's unfair that's not right like I I understand that things are you know it's part of life it's part of being a homeowner yipp
be why it's it's it's not okay to be basically forcing people to pay for something that one doesn't necessarily have to do with them because it could be issues further down the road not necessarily what's in front
of your house that's just my opinion okay so if you would like to formally object you can leave your um with the city clerk over there thank you okay yes sir I just have a oh can you
come up I don't need to come up okay have you ever thought about a franchise Fe just asking yeah okay I don't maybe you can explain it for people that don't understand what a franchise Fe is is there anybody else here to address Council for the public hearing here
tonight that would be it yes ma'am okay so I am penly we're at 2120 131st Lane Northwest my so I am here to formally object um my issue is there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with these roads
whatsoever and again getting a notice saying you owe 2430 again when property taxes are going up I just fail to understand why this just seems unnecessary and and no nobody has been able to tell me any
reason why this needs to be done it just seems like government wasteful spending so again I'm I'm here to formally object I I 2430 to be paid in full or I'm being
charged 5% interest rate so where do I formally object um city clerk great there okay thank you Mr Hansen you don't happen to have your your rating sheets with you tonight do you your Street rating sheets I don't
okay no because it's it's one of the things we go through every year with the workshop is is we go through every street and it's all rated for what condition it's in and when you think it I think the it's important to to point
out though that you know we we want to reconstruct these streets before they are completely failed and completely falling apart this is the most econom economical time and way to be able to resurface the streets at a very low
assessment our neighbors charge quite a bit more in other cities so um there certainly variability on the different you know the the payment conditions within a segment of street
but certainly called to saacks are going to be worse where you have have the heavy garbage truck traffic turning on the outer edge of the culdesac bulb Street intersections are often going to have much worse pavement conditions in
between if it's on a tangent section or a straight section of Road it may not be quite as bad but economically this is the best way to maintain the streets plus everything is on a consistent even maintenance plane so we can program out or feature maintenance operations in a very consistent Manner and get it all
done consistently across the board and a logical neighborhood Zone sure all right um anybody else to address councel for the public hearing yes sir please state your name and address
Ron wein barer 132nd Avenue have you assessed the utility vehicles that come through there they're the ones damaging these roads it's not us is there any assessment for them the trash utility views those are the heavy vehicles
coming through there yeah um not not specific to this they pay a lot of taxes I'm don't not sure what we get from them but so is it's easier to go to the masses than hit them yeah I don't know about that
sir I don't know and I think the way it was assessed was unfair too I mean we just got notice which do and if it isn't you got to pay and then those who get a waiver for 65 and over there's an interest rate what is that yeah well you don't have to pay it
till you're dead so that's not funny really that's actually pretty rude okay all right sorry so could you give us the interest rate if we defer yeah the interest to
cruise what is the interest rate if it's deferred 4.48 wasn't it same same rate over the life of whatever right Mr Mayor can I just speak to the interest rate so the interest rate
portion of the project is paid for with the city issuing bonds so the interest rate that we use for assessments is tied to a future issuance so we typically will take uh the Bloomberg value or the
BV for a double A mun and then add um a percentage because we were assessing you quite a few months before we're actually going to go to market so we want to make sure that the interest rate is enough so that the bond isn't
subsidizing the assessments so that's your interest rates on the assessments are tied to the city is going to issue a govern uh General obligation bond for the remainder of the street costs so that's so it's not a number we pull from the air it's a number we correct it
is tied to City issuing debt sure okay anybody else would address Council for the public hearing your honor before you close the public hearing I do want to remind folks that when we close the public hearing that that's your time and the public hearing
was your time and opportunity to object in writing so those folks who indicated that they were going to object to the um to the uh assessment should come over to the city clerk and make sure sure they've done that in writing that they I'm sorry Mr all they have to do is just give her their name and address correct
they don't have to write a big letter or anything they just well i' ask that they probably write a letter saying they're objecting just write it on a piece of paper I object to my assessment with their name and address and that way for those folks that already fill it out this one right here you're good to go oh yeah so everybody from come on over yep
I prefer that you would yeah so everybody from Uplander and then the yeah anybody that signed this one is already yeah okay we'll just give them a moment to finish that Mr Mayor our discussion will come after
you close yeah I'm afraid if you if we start it now it'll just stir up for public no makes sense uh sorry one more thing um a couple of my questions didn't get answered about once you get is it I I
don't get answers to those questions my questions are uh like I stated lived here before or 55 years never had an assessment even though the streets have been done my whole life I was born here in Mercy hospital um also when did it
become legal to charge interest on taxes is there a laot these are assessments these are assessments that are contributing to the project yes and so yes yes we can we charge the interest that we pay the same interest that we
pay on the bond for the project is what the interest was would charge what I'm saying is that is there a Minnesota statute that says a city can charge interest on taxes Mr hmer Mr Mayor counil sir Minesota statute
429 allows for municipalities to assess so that's $429 and and um a couple of your other questions in 2019 we did uh Partridge 123rd 124th 123rd Lanes the assessment
at that time was $2,070 so it's gone up about $350 over the last 6 years um 429 allows municipalities to uh assess for improvements to benefiting properties this as as Mark had mentioned we've been
doing this since the mid 1990s and we're almost done touching every Street in the city and that will occur probably by the end of this decade like 2028 2029 um the way we determined Assessments in the beginning is to evaluate a reconstruction area before
and after so you identify a benefit and what the council at that time decided to do was take that benefit and cut it in half so at that time when we first started this I think the benefits were around $900 and the council said we're going to cut that in half and we're going to charge $450 and then all we've done
since the beginning of that is add the construction cost index over the years to get to the number that we're at today so we started really low we cut that number in half and that's where We've Ended up over the years is when people started getting letters in the mail saying you have to pay extra above your
taxes well they would have received a notice that we are going to be reconstructing your roadway same thing you did come on down answer questions tell us what your concerns are where might some improvements be needed how might we impact you yeah but that's the question I've received those letters in the past and they've come through and
redone the roads it never said you're going to pay above your taxes what you're you know you have to pay for the project there's there's two types of improvements one would be a street reconstruction which is happening here so we're really taking out the roadway surface and putting a new one in what
you may have received is we're doing a seal coat we're doing a uh Reclamation we're doing a crack ceiling we're doing some other sort of a maintenance treatment which are covered through your standard taxes so 429 when did that become law Mr Brody many decades before
decades forever decades ago okay so it's just never happened before it it's happened every year and this we every year about this time we have this exact same hearing for some Street reconstruction project in the city of K rapid since the mid 90s so we've been doing that for 30 years exact same
process we're following tonight exact same process we did in 1994 and so it just got into your neighborhood this year um and unfortunately you've seen there's a cost to that and and that's but but that's the process we've used since we've started and again I would
encourage you to look at 429 that outlays the whole process that we fall under State Statute because obviously we're obligated to do so including why I wanted to make sure we got our written objections in and I think we have so we can did everybody got your written objection in over here if you had an written objection to the assessment okay
yes question sure I want to get clarification on this sure Bond so you charge the interest and you're basing it on Bloomberg that but you said that in the interest you're going to charge this
fee plus an up charge so basically if I understand it correctly if you can't pay this in full you have to pay this based on the interest for the assurity bond but we're going to add more to it because we're going to charge you more too to do that is that
correct you're not getting char charge more than what what it's 2430 and it's 4.4 4.48% interest so that's so your your for the charity Bond it's going to be 4.48% interest I'll speak to you so we
assess these projects far before we actually go out to issue the bonds so there's a little bit of a buffer there when we set the rate earlier because we don't know what the Market's going to do so we potentially will ask the council to issue bonds for this project if it's approved probably sometime in May and
June and so it all depends on when we go up for an issue what kind of bids we get um so we've had it in the past especially with interest rates low were low that we set our our assessment rate in the one some percent and then we go to issue Bond and it was up in the 3 to
4% so the is because we do the assessment so early there's a little bit of a buffer there that's tied to the market 45 days ahead of the assessment hearing so the 4.4 or whatever interest rate was ass set for this one we're not
going to change that regardless of what our actual bond issue interest rate will be um but it is tied to it's set based on um what the what it will likely be and that's a advisement of our M
Municipal advisers Ellers so thank you okay I'm going to close the public hearing is this it all right closing the public hearing Council
questions um so Mr Hansen so the streets that that were were redone they were they're probably um in that thrush Park they're probably the ones that um are currently not being redone then the on
that are um I'm sorry um like Partridge 124th Avenue of the work that we did in 2019 we're not those are the onbody would have been and anyone that was assessed
for that work wouldn't be assessed now okay and if and if and if we did something on thrush it would have just been tangental to that project on 123 all right but certainly not assessed okay
okay Council questions Mr mayor council gak comment then then a question but you know we talked about how long we've been doing this you know we've been doing it this way for 30 years and we think we're going to get through the cycle of having everything done within the next five
years as a council we have talked about how are we going to pay for roads in the future and we will have that discussion probably in a few years once we're through the cycle but it would seem Maybe unwi to go back and change it this late in the game because we've established this protocol for the city
um but that said I think you know a lot of good points from the folks that have spoken here and it sounds like some of the folks in this room don't think this street is so bad and I know that you're a professional and you've assessed them um but I'm just wondering I mean are we
setting our standard too high I mean are these streets could they go another 5 years and then do this whole area in five years yes um but it would be more expensive to and some of these cacs are
the furthest away from the main road so we would be traversing over the the newly reconstructed roads and potentially risking some damage there um yeah I mean they could go a little bit longer but it will be more expensive
in the future and the assessments will following our process that has been in place for 30 years will be more than what they are now so I think you know I'd rather if I was I I certainly empathize with the
residents that are concerned and we do offer we we do acknowledge the assessment and usually it's it's the assessment that's the concern here I think most people would be happy to have a new road a brand new road in front of their house with fixed
drainage the intersections and everything utilities and reliable fire protection um but um you know it it's it's certainly they could they could last a little bit longer but this is the most economical time we do offer
numerous ways to to pay for the assessments over a period of 10 years so okay Mr hon I don't I don't recall such a concerted push back back before and I
I guess my my question um is no matter when we do these streets we're going to be driving they're going to be traversing over roads that have already been redone right because they you you've already done Partridge and we've already done 124th in these sections
here correct yeah yeah um I know a lot of times what happens is we're not hearing from the rest of the neighbors you know and mhm there's there's there's a good chance that an
even greater percentage in the neighborhood is going yeah I'm ready for my street to be redone oh I guess I should have gone down there and encouraged them but do we ever do surveys as well we don't do we just do the the assessment Street assessments y
um and when when I know we like to go out for bids early because we get the best pricing on it MH when when do you when do you anticipate going out for bids on this so within the next couple weeks we'll be well if the council approves the project and we move forward
the plan would be to start advertising within a couple of weeks finishing up our permit uh applications and and process that we need to follow to be able to construct the project but uh we would have bids uh anticipated come back
to council for approval in in April okay Mr M council member Butler uh Mr Hansen I I was just curious so I I'm looking at the map and it shows how like Partridge and some of the other neighboring streets you know we had been done in
2019 um and forgive me I'm new so this might just be a silly question but can you walk through why the rest of the neighborhood wasn't then done in like 2020 or 2021 and I I know part of it's just where are other streets and disrepair but I'm just thinking about like okay neighbors see half their
neighborhood's done much of the years later the intent was to come come back in a relatively short period within 5 six so that these streets have been shown on our our plan our long range plan for for years okay thank you so
yeah we just only have so much money that we can in so many miles I would certainly like to do more but we can only we have budgets that we have to live in you know within so Mr Mayor M Carlson I know it may like
small thing but I am glad that we're switching to the 3-in pavement I think we'll get a lot more wear out of our roadways that year I know when we had the the hot discussions on the um garbage hauling you know especially with respect
to culde acts one of the biggest arguments for switching uh to organize hauling was to reduce the trucks because the way the trucks go around the back the bottom of the C the saac and um you know we did not go with um organize hauling and so we could potentially have
12 trucks I don't know what what day of the week you guys have I'm on Wednesday but you can potentially have 12 trucks in your neighborhood on those days and I'm hoping that the you know a threein surface would help us cut down potential damage from the garbage trucks and it
sounds like there's no bus stops only heavy Vehicles you'd have with would be garbage trucks but am glad that we're we're doing that to get more wear out of our out of our uh roadways and um I would hope we wouldn't be back in this neighborhood for especially with the 3-in asphalt for another not years
within the time frame that most of these people are living here you know we we we want people to only have to deal with an assessment one time when they're living in their home but eventually you know regardless of which city you live in all cities have to use some form of uh you
know uh Revenue uh generation to be able to afford to maintain their streets we don't get any funding from the state or from any other uh government agencies this is City C City funds that and we have 220 miles in Rapids that we
have to maintain of streets thank you Mr Mayor C Armstrong yeah I I just I just want to know to let the people know that came up here and and spoke tonight I I understand I
really understand where you're coming from my neighborhood is going to be done in I think three or four years and hopefully by that point I'll be retired but I'm going to be I'm going to be
looking at this same kind of situation in three or four years ours actually had been put off and correct me if I'm wrong here ours got put off again because of what it costs to do these streets and
our neighborhood had to be pushed back and pushed back because there were others that needed to be done first or needed to be dealt with um and trust me as we go through these things and I see the number go up and up and up I'm
pretty much resigned myself to the fact I'm not going to be paying $2,400 in in 3 years when it's my turn to go through this so I appreciate your passion and I know where you're going where you're coming from and things have been things have been challenging over the last few
years and um so I don't I would just want you to know it's not falling on De ears Mr mayor council member Carlson I'd just like to add to that council member Armstrong and council member groak I said my neighborhood's coming up next
year um and I we're all in different places financially and it does trouble me it really does trouble me with all the rising costs of everything Rising taxes Rising Insurance Rising costs and and
and as a city we face those Rising costs as well with our construction and reconstruction and and what's a you know a project this year Lord knows 10 years ago was a lot cheaper and 10 years from now probably a lot more expensive and so
um it really does uh it really does tear my heart when I hear you know some of the financial difficulties that these can can cause and um so I just I I do like council member Armstrong want want you know that I I hear what you're
saying Mr C grovia I'm sorry c gisler g sailor G thank you sir I I I agree I'm eagerly awaiting for my special assessment to roll off from the time when my street was redone about eight nine years ago I believe is what it was
um it it it is it is a cost um but you know I I do think what it comes down to here is we're really talking about you know an ounce of prevention versus a pound of pain every time the crews are going out spot spot patching and doing the small
little fixes everywhere around the city those build up and those get expensive and then that drives higher levies every year from this yes this is a a one-time hit that can be spread out but it is it is an intensive hit but the reason why
staff has chunk these pieces out is to do it in the most coste effective way possible to try to help keep Levy pressure down so we can keep those increases every year down or as low as we can um and I I appreciate the fact that you know other cities are are
hitting individual properties harder when they do this work versus spreading it out over the whole city um but either way the bill comes due um what I worry about is if we Chunk Up Little parts or we drop one street or one little culde
saac here or there be it this one or any other one uh we still end up in a situ sitation where it will come due it will be more expensive later construction costs only go up especially in the roadway category we've seen that Statewide um so you know I this is very
painful but I do I do believe that staff is trying to provide the most coste effective and the least impactful way to do this work to as many residents as possible within the city every single year and we have done and we've done
that for many many years so I I I do know that staff works very hard at this I know that they don't want to just willy-nilly have people try pay more it is for a purpose it is for a plan it is to keep our city nice and have a high
quality Community to live in so thank you yeah we don't we don't take this lightly at all I mean it's we we look at these streets in a long time in advance and we try and systematically go through do the Reconstruction as they
make sense and and I understand I mean insurance has gone crazy this year property taxes are Count's gone up 15% this year um but I I it's I think you have to keep
moving forward or or we're just kicking the can down to next year or the year after that um so yeah it's not de years and I'm I but I I I support I support the process
so is it has it been about eight years we live on the same street I was wondering when I was going to fall off yeah anything else Mr Mayor okay council member Carlson make a motion to adopt resolution number
25-1 sub 6A ordering the Improvement ordering the Improvement and super majority vote is needed on this and um Mr Brody may I read the second one why don't we take them one at a time since they need different so I'll stop at that first motion
okay second we have a motion by Carlson and a second by Armstrong uh Is there further discussion on this Mr Mayor can you have our city oh excuse me could you have our City attorney to explain the super majority what would that mean without one council member
present we well with one with or without one council member presid it requires six votes of the council so tonight it would require unanimous decision all right now and just to be further I this is a hard vote for me right now because I mean we all make good points
we've been doing this a long time but when you've got a whole list you got a whole called to sack saying they don't think they want it they don't think they need it right now I mean if we had just one more signature on this line for the
lady on 124th of the house on 124th is very hard for me to go forward with the project um I don't know if there's time yet to give this another two weeks to go out and
reassess or at least have myself go out reassess the condition of those streets the area that is being done there it's mostly that Sandy good sandy soil and the road's only 20 some years old so um
I'm having a hard time kind of getting behind a couple of these roads understanding that it's a project in itself so I uh yeah this is this is tough for me so one no
vote you know kills the whole project is there any thought of assessing these streets another time or getting getting the assessments from you as the in terms of the
grading I I don't what do you think is there any doesn't sound like there's much support for that consideration yeah um coun Mar yeah this is this is only the second time I've
I've gone through this so um as far as the as far as the process goes uh I'm I've kind of got mixed feelings I think you touched on a little earlier we're doing there's what
435 units or homes involved in this entire project and and again I'll I'll I'll say I understand this this the the list of of names here and I'm I am very very
glad they've done this and they've come out and they've use their voice and um because I don't know what the number is 10% of the people would actually go to this extent so uh kudos to the people that have done this um
again from a a cost Effectiveness standpoint that's where I run into it you've you've got including the the names that were there tonight let's say we got 20 names out of 345 or 435
properties um can you just pick the whole project up and say okay let's pick the next one on the list and go there instead um or or how does that actually even work and and a part of the challenge is the
culdesac and we've run into it before where the culdesac doesn't get the traffic of all the streets around it but you can't come back in and do just the culdesac later um Mr mayor council member Chris
goak great points by both you council members on on that um you know 435 houses versus you know eight or 10 or 12 that are in opposition here um and and you know it would be very
hard to I mean when I think about it I mean the roads are going to have to be redone at some point within the next five years or so not only the roads but again the uh infrastructure underneath you know like you said for fire protection and water and everything to be the way they should be CU you know
we all pay taxes and that we've got to keep that uh infrastructure set so uh still a hard decision for me Mr mayor council member Geisler uh so I I
you know I I have a deeply professional job and I deeply respect the amount of education and skill and talent of the staff of as being Engineers of being civil engineers of understanding what that is the these are educated folks
folks who know this job specifically um like many things when you call an expert there are things that they will point out that you may not know look bad until it's a gaping hole in the ground or filled with gravel um the these are the kinds of things that that what we pay
them to do is to inform us and be our subject matter experts on this type of work and to provide us the best plan um I I I struggle a little bit of questioning that skill as a council um
this is this is what we hire them for um I empathize me immensely with the costs that come with it but nothing is free either a new road is a new road five years from down from from now it'll be another you know if it's 2400 now it
could be 2700 3,000 you know we don't know what what's going to happen with those rates going forward so and and and like I said a holistic project is always better per square foot than spot projects that's we we've seen
that elsewhere in the city we know that um so I I I worry about kicking the can on anything if we're going to be working in a portion of the city that is due it you know most asphalt is 20 to 25 years
and it is dun skis um you know and you might only have one intersection that's really bad or another one that's nearby but you can't just do the one little chunk and then you just have weird patchworks and it doesn't work as effectively um so I I as as much as this
could be very painful to do I I do think this is the best route forward uh as a reminder we have a motion and a second on the table is there any further discussion Mr St I haven't talked yet
let's hear from the city manager feel like you know I you know from my perspective the the value in the street reconstruction process is providing consistency and so to the extent that we start to deviate within that plan starts
to create inconsistency and therefore potential inequities across how that plan is applied so over that course of the last 30 years certainly there have been areas um blocks you know segments of a block that have contested the
assessment maybe didn't want it but we've applied it consistently because frankly that's the best way for us to reach our end goal and to make sure that it's fair to all the residents because you know we all we all use the public streets you know in my neighborhood I I use my street more than others and so
I'm paying for sort of the upkeep of my particular Street whereas the rest of the city is paying for 70% of my street when it gets reconstructed and so that model has worked very well for the city for many years um the City of Anoka I think that
example was provided you pay triple um I've got some friends who lived there when their street was done they paid for everything the the water the sewer Street reconstruction before I moved to Rapids I was lucky enough to have a street reconstruction on my block right before I moved so I got to pay for that
and then moved to Rapids and um and that was 10 years ago and that was $55,000 so I think our the way we do it very um effective that way that we're we're allowing our city tax based to pay for 70% of the street reconstruction cost which is different than the maintenance
you see on a more of a regular and seasonal basis and you're paying 30% and that ratio has provided has proved to be a really effective ratio for Rapids over the years um and fairly predictable and yes it's you know it's a a spike in
cost um but for 30 years people have experienced that Spike and cost and only because we've done it consistently we've been able to keep up with our streets and I don't think you have to go too far to see some maybe not neighboring communities but not too far away where they've deferred
maintenance for far too long and now they're behind the apall and they can't catch up they they can't bond their way out of it um and then those streets the the magnitude of of Maintenance that's required now is you know double and triple the expense because they didn't reconstruct it five years ago now they
have to go in there and they're you know doing patches of w wide swats of the street and so now we're paying for our mistakes is it's compounding and so that's I just don't want to get to the point where we're allowing it's not to say that the the argument isn't a valid
one we should really focus on is that street does it need that reconstruction and Mr Hansen's staff is saying yes these streets need that reconstruction is it terrible today maybe not that's because we're getting ahead of it so three years from now it isn't falling
apart at your feet so I just urge Council to consider that applying it consistently is truly the value when it comes to these programs and to deviate from that I guess gets to be a little concerning okay all right we have a motion and a
second to adopt resolution number 25-1 sub 6A ordering the Improvement is there any further discussion Mr mayor council member Butler I had one quick question for Mr Hansen too and I'm sorry if this was in your PowerPoint can you remind me how
long the construction project itself is like you know are they going to be out there for a couple weeks weeks couple days you know longer than that the the construction project has three different neighborhoods so the contract is intended to go from the beginning of May to approximately the beginning of
October but the actual work within these particular neighborhoods is going to be more like8 weeks to 10 weeks depending on if there's more significant underground utility work to be done thank you so schedules will be provided
that will Define that that range to all of the property owners before any work begins that that's helpful the the reason I was curious about that is that you know in addition to the the frustration of course of getting this assessment and the work that's going to come with it if we were to carve out a
street or a couple of streets the rest of that neighborhood still will get the work done this summer so that could lead to a situation where you're going to deal with the construction because all of your neighbor streets are going to get construction this summer and then we're going to come back in a couple years and we're going to do construction
again just for your street and it will cost more because and Mr Hansen can correct me if I'm wrong I assume the assessments never gone down the 30 years right thank you Mr Mayor okay um Mr Hansen later in the meeting
on item 15 we're actually going to be ordering all new street lights for this neighborhood too correct because that's part of the Reconstruction process yes yes I thought okay we have a motion in a second do we
have further discussion Mr Mayor C I don't think we need further discussion I mean you've all made valid points I'm glad we had this discussion uh council member Geisler excellent points uh staff excellent points and in my history here
on the council uh our staff recommendations have always been the right way to go we're not doing anything frivolously you know we put a lot of thought into this so so I will have to go with uh with the recommendation
okay is there any further discussion on this as a reminder we have a motion in a second to adopt resolution number 25-1 sub 6A ordering the Improvement all in favor signify by saying I I opposed and that motion
carries Mr Mayor counc M Carlson like to make a motion to adopt resolution number 25-1 sub eight approving plans and specifications and ordering advertisement for bids second motion by Carlson second by
Geisler is there discussion on this hearing none all in favor signify by saying I I I uh opposed okay and that motion carries thank you all for coming um I'm
not sure what happens with the contested things I imagine they can deal with that later for uh at the assessment Hearing in May or for adoption in May um and then at that point uh they filed their objection if they wish to continue if those assessments are adopted then
they'll have an opportunity to go to district court if they want to okay or choose to thank you and they'll get continued notice thank you um Mr Hansen I will be sending letters to the people that objected describing in
detail what their process is for the next steps oh good good better all right all right um okay thank you for uh let's see what do we got anything else on this
one item 8 this consider adoption of ordinance 2327 amending the city code section 13-1 1300 stormw water drainage utility um Mr hammer yes Mr Mayor coun yeah want me to just
read this I'm happy to give you a brief intro if you'd like um we're looking to adopt ordinance 2327 uh for the storm water drainage utility uh the only change to this is the addition of aad farm land use designation to the RF it's just the way
of calculating storm water utility fees so uh we did update this uh late last year and this was brought forth by Council as something for consideration and we've talked through we've been in work session and so this is the final step in that process for adopting and I'm happy to answer questions very good
anybody have any questions of Mr hmer Mr Mayor c m Carlson make a motion to adopt ordinance 2327 amending chapter 13- 13000 storm water drainage utility
second motion by Carlson second by grisco viak is there a discussion be back hearing none all favor signify by saying I I opposed and that motion carries item number nine um we have to
take this off the table first right yes okay um Mr Mayor I move to take planning case 25-1 off the table for consideration second motion by Geisler second by Carlson to take the item 25-1 off the table all in favor signify by
saying I I I opposed and that is off the table a um Mr patner is back thank you Mr Mayor thank you members of the city council um so I'm bringing back the item uh 25-1 uh
request for um design flexibility for Club Car Wash at 2550 Rapids Boulevard and I have just a couple updated images to show as part of my presentation um just to go over really quickly the applicant uh is request design flexibility in order to
paint the Brick on The North Face of of the building at 2550 Rapids Boulevard it's the old Rapids Express Car Wash um Club Car Wash bought the building and would like to paint the building to match their branding um there's a requirement in the port District that at least 30% of the the face of the building facing the street
has to be uh of one of the approved materials one of which is Brick the existing building does comply with that requirement because more than 30% of the building is Brick however um the aesthetic element of the requirement would not be met with that brick being painted entirely the applicant would
need to leave at least 30% of that exposed brick in order to meet the requirement thus the applicant is requesting design flexibility in order to not have to meet that 30% requirement um the Planning Commission did vote to recommend approval at the January meeting uh unanimously and the city council Ted the request at
the um the applicant did bring forward an updated proposal which shows 20% of the building being unpainted brick on the North building face as opposed to their original proposal uh which was 0% so um just to to remind the council the this is an image of what the car wash
looked like back when it was Rapids Express Car Wash and the updated 20% unpainted proposal by the applicant is shown here so what the applicant is proposing is to leave the wne scating of the building basically up to the windows as unpainted brick and paint the
remainder of the building um and uh see I also have a an elevation showing that as well so essentially um staff's understanding is that has probably three potential ways to um
go about approving or denying the requested design flexibility um the council could approve vote to approve the original request for 0% exposed brick um the council could vote to approve the request for flexibility for
the updated request of 20% exposed brick or the council could uh choose to vote to deny the request for flexibility which would require the applicant to meet the 30% um requirement uh it's my understanding that the applicant would not take a denial of the flexibility um
and choose to not paint the building at all but that they would choose to paint as much of the building as they would be able to while still meeting that 30% requirement so without knowing exactly what the proposed design would be should the flexibity be denied um my understanding is probably that the
exposed brick would be left um up higher uh than the just the way scating which is shown here so probably up um partway up the windows um the applicant still is committed to um trying to represent their their brand identity as much as possible and so would likely paint um
the remainder of the building there is no um ordinance in the city code that planning staff would be able to use to require the applicant to not paint any of the building at all so some of the building would still be able to be painted um without any um any issue with
uh with the the city ordinance um the applicant is here tonight and they may um wish to speak on the item should it please the council um but with that staff are recommending um findings for approval and staff do um continue to recommend approval of the
entire original requested flexibility um for 0% of the facade to remain unpainted um with the 20% also as an option and that's all I have for presentation thank you I looked at that building so many times and I so struggle with this because right now I just I love the way
it looks right now with the black and the red brick I mean it's just like it's like Americana it's Route 66 and it's it's like every other building code now you know you drive by the the Jensen's and Champlain and it's the red brick and the black it's just such a classic look
and it's like there isn't any amount of paint that isn't going to just make it butt ugly and I'm just but he's got a right to paint up to you know 30% of it or or I'm sorry has
to leave 30% exposed so there's it's the building's going to get messed up anyway so I don't know however it happens it happens but I would like to address this that at our Retreat I would like to change this I'd like to up these standards so we can have some decent
looking buildings there Mr Mayor councilor can we ask Mr paxer to you gloss over one photo and that's the way it looks like right now with the black roof and the and the brick so right here um to me this looks like it meets the
intent of our River Rapids overlay District this is what people before me said we have a vision we want the the the uh Boulevard to be at a higher level we're getting there slowly and uh I
don't think we should detract from that original Vision I think this looks good I like the way this fits with the over the district so I would be opposed to granting a this design flexibility Mr Mayor C scovia I'm guys I
get that get that g figured out here uh thank you Mr I you know the river raids overlay District contains the flexibility uh tool within it which is very useful for the city um we've used it in other spots uh for example
when it really is a difficult space to work with the Caribou cabin down the way needed some flexibility for a second sign cuz the county has a sign on their property and wouldn't let wouldn't share um we had the same thing down uh by the frenia spaces where we had a requirement
for clear glass along the bottom floor that open glass to a street for a medical clinic really doesn't make a lot of sense so allowing flexibility there made a lot of sense the point of flexibility is to try to is a tool that we can use but we don't have to use it
and it is an option it's not a variance uh we're not going into that space But it this really the point of having this standard here is to drive a certain aesthetic along certain very narrow corridors that are highly visible and represent the city as a whole um and and
with that that this is one of those cases where uh the existing building met the standard so there really isn't a whole lot of existing need to use flexibility in my opinion um we have definitely run into cases where
flexibility was required and did make sense because there was no other way to do the job or develop the property without it um we' had many many cases for that that's why it exists because we know we want to up the standards but sometimes things come in with little weird properties the cabin the Caribou
cabin property is a perfect example of a little tiny lot that just had to be shoehorned in there in certain ways to make it work and now we have a productive property I I don't feel that that meets this here I I agree with Council stoak um that this is the intent
this is is where we're going I wish every building on the boulevard looked as nice as it currently does honestly um so I I'm inclined to deny the use of flexibility here Mr Mayor that's Carlson it's pretty apparent I was in the minority when I expressed my thrill for
a black and white building few weeks ago and I I understand that I'll live with that um I've had a chance to think about it though and um although there is a plethora of colors Down K Rapids Boulevard including some pain in walk and painted brick I um I understand
though I understand the reason for keeping a standard and I understand the 30% and um and so just because I do believe it's important to have the consistency um I would also um not
support uh flexibility in this case what year did we come in with the River Rapids overlay I mean anybody that was was in the '90s OR 2000 or something yes your honor it was the early 2000s I think in the 2003 2004 time okay because
the the buildings that are down there that have like the painted brick those are our older building older buildings the one that's opened is like Winchell Donuts that's now you know 20 businesses later all right Mr Mayor counc M Armstrong I'll
just weigh in for my two cents um I actually think the the last photo we looked at where it's majority brick I think that I think that is a gorgeous looking building um I I get branding I
understand branding for the the the company that that uh I work with it's a big deal to us as well um but I I look at that I look at that building there and number one it looks great between the signage and the the logo on the
building you can definitely tell it's it's the club car wash and again for what it's worth the the the people I know that use that on a regular basis um they they appreciate the the service
and the the ETC that they that they get out of it and they've they've commented that it's a step up from what was there before so for what it's worth to the owner of the the business I think you got a I think you got a good location there I think you got people that that
like the business and I love the way this building looks versus the black and white so that's my two cents Mr Mayor may I make a comment sure Mr Pastor I do just want to be clear that by denying the flexibility that doesn't necessarily mean that the building shown here will
be the result oh no we know that yeah okay the I I and I if it pleased the council the applicant uh is is available and may be able to speak to what they would do where the design flexibility that what they would be proposing in
terms of a paint job sure okay sure thank you um Michael Li with Robert lean Associates we're the engineer for Club Car Wash um yeah just I understand I'm kind of I've obviously I can count to the majority here um I I guess just
two two items so we are requesting the design flexibility specifically for the two Street facing portions that's what the code requires is that 30% brick on the two Street facing portions um I understand there's some push back especially on the Rapids Boulevard side of things um our position is still
that we would request the 0% we'd also propose the 20% um if it is denied we would go up to that 30% um Club Carwash would still paint the other two sides of the building um we would ask if if the
Rapids Boulevard face is the predominant face and the predominant concern face um the picture that's on the screen right now shows excuse me um that other side street facing I believe that's Southeast direct River Drive yes
um that's very heavily screened uh fall obviously from the air from a drone um from the ground you can't see that face unless you are on property leaving or entering the wash um we would request if council is uncomfortable with the plan
commission and staff's recommendation of the appr for the whole thing if the council would be comfortable with allowing the on that one side so that we can have the three sides painted and then because that side is screened and not really visible from the street level
um if there would be tolerance for that as another trying to find a middle ground so if it's not visible why do you care if it's painted oh it's it's visible on site it's not visible from the street that would be sort of the the argument that it's not necessarily
impeding the River or excuse me the Rapids Boulevard in the same way where you have Street traffic for that narrow Corridor Mr yeah c um gisler uh just a just a question for you since you're here um I you know you guys added to the the tunnel the entrance tunnel side of
that that's correct with red brick uh why why not choose white brick or black brick or any of the other materials closer to the color palette you were going why did you choose matching materials to the rest of the building to make it look cohesive yeah that's a great Point um because they didn't
intend to their intention was to paint the brick rather than if they like let's say they used like a black stained brick or something like that um it would not match when it was done it would look like an addition versus if they used the brick um for the addition and then
painted the whole thing it would look like a uniform design is if that kind of Jes um that was that was the intention behind it um possibly a little bit CP before the horse but here we are kind of like it does now it looks
uniform now right yeah I know Mr Mayor counc rovak have we already granted some flexibility on this in terms of the uh glass I thought Mr yeah go ahead thank you Mr mayor
council member GC to my knowledge no flexibility was granted um on this property you know it's possible that the requ there was there may have been a request actually now that I think about it there may have been a request when Rabbids Express Car Wash was built to
add more glass and thus reduce the amount of the building that was um that was one of the approved materials um and I think before the addition was built that may have been less than the 30% um but I I would have to look back in the files to see if that's the case but
you're correct there might have been um a flexibility request back when this was originally built anything with the because you can't see through that glass right that's so there's correct there's Cinder Black Walls behind glass yeah yeah there's no it's just fake class but
you I thought our standards were that the grass had to be transparent where this is opaque you can't see through so there must have been Council scrovak that that uh applies only to retail and office uses okay fair enough thank you
council member Geisler and also uh we've we've done opaque glass in places where like it would view the back of racking like at the Dollar General right there's there's a couple spots where we've done that exception because it it wouldn't make sense to see the back of a rack I think that was his point though he was
wondering if we'd already offered them some Flex flexibility on that to be clear also on the cinder block front that's not going to remain cinder blocks I think you know that's that that'll be material to match the building it's not going to remain cinder blocks once I'm not sure what we're talking about I was actually talking about the cinder block
walls that were built behind the glass the behind the glass panels that are there oh I'm I'm sorry I'm not familiar with the existing Car Wash but those those um as is on a previous slide there's two of those glass areas are going to be filled in with
brick okay I'm not sure what we're talking about now so Mr pner what do we I see it here ins inside the windows yes essentially I mean obviously they're
blocked right now the building's still under construction right now the building is not complete that photo is taken from a it's not completed yet so I I I apologize I thought you were talking about cinder blocks in the windows right now I was saying that that's a function of construction so right
so so you're what I guess so what's going on you're you're you're going to block off two two of the windows what no so this elevation yes this is where these let's see here so you see how
essentially this is MH all window across right if you look at the proposed excuse me the proposed elevation you can see that some of those windows are no longer there those will be replaced with brick why are oh why did you ever put those in because there's I mean they
they were that all of the windows were gone from the side of that building and they put in cement Black Walls and then they put the windows back in there again um this is and and now now you're going to Black over them that that was how it
was I'm not the architect with the civil engineering so um yeah okay well I'd like somebody to make a motion to deny this so we can just let them figure this out because we're not going to be happy with it anyway Mr mayor council M Geisler in
planning case 25-1 I move that we deny designed flexibility for the painy brick facade for Club claash find uh with the four bulleted findings set our packet second motion by Geisler second by Carlson to deny is there any discussion further
discussion hearing none all in favor signify by saying I I opposed all right so actually we should have actually made a motion that was here and then voted against it or how or how do you want to do this are we okay did we do it okay I think so because we did oh did we table
the last motion did we table a motion at our last well we pulled it off the table pulled it off the table we had no motion pardon and we had no motion before we had no motion and now we've just brought a motion to den I based on the findings I think we're good we're good okay all right very
good all right item number 10 thank you item number 10 is to consider and receive the 2024 Community Development annual report Mr Brown yes good evening and I will be
brief since it is getting late uh I do though like to take this opportunity once uh once a year or so just because um while our department frequently has agenda items in front of you like like the last one uh our staff of 20 or so
people uh includes many many people who do a lot of hard work behind the scenes so just like to take the opportunity to recognize them in 2024 we issued over 7200 building permits uh for over $146 million in construction activities so
that included a wide range of projects certainly dominated by some of our institutional uh users over the last year including Mercy hospital and an oar Ramsey Community College but in in addition to that a wide range of indust
commercial and residential projects we achieved permits for uh 27 New dwelling units total so there weren't any new apartment buildings last year um so that included 19 townhouse units and eight single family
homes uh on the housing front our front door program contined to be popular I will note that the application period for this year's front door program is open for another week or so so if anyone is interested in applying for that they
can do so but our uh other Home Improvement programs were very well subscribed as well so that's just another highlight uh and I'd like to call out to on the sustainability front we're able to introduce some new programming uh including receiving a
grant for the solar for public buildings program to uh improve Energy Efficiency and save our residents some uh money on electricity so happy to answer any questions but uh appreciate the opportunity nice work those are it's
always fun to look through that and see all the work you guys have done uh questions for Mr Brown Mr Mayor uh council member Geisler Mr Brown where May the public find this report on your website uh well currently it is attached to the agenda assuming it is accepted we
will put it uh in the document center with the other annual reports we have that linked on the various Community Development Pages thank you so Rapids mn.gov and look for the Community Development all right um so we need a motion to accept this is that what we
need here Mr mayor council member Carlson make a motion to accept the 2024 Community Development annual report wow that was fast Butler okay motion by Carlson second by
Butler Is there further discussion on this hearing none all in favor signify by saying I hi hi opposed and that's accepted item 11 is to consider resolution number 25-5 sub eight approving plans and specifications and
ordering an advertisement for bids for the annual Street maintenance program Mr Hansen yes Mr Mayor and Council this is our annual Street reconstruction or Street maintenance program so uh the item in front of you
is to approve the plan specifications order the ad for bid um Rapids we have been the lead Agency for a number of North Metro uh area cities we're now up to 17 different cities um the contract itself is for Street
maintenance services that includes seal coating pavement markings crack sealing and fog sealing um the uh the cities that are participating in this year's program are listed in the council memo uh weather permitting uh and if the council
approves the bids ultimately the work would be done between May and September of this year very good any questions of Mr Hanson Mr mayor council member Geisler Mr Hansen do do um you know quite the Consortium you've got going here do we
open that up for other people if they want to join in like Anoka or anybody else um is that an annual like hey if you want to join H hop on or how does that go about yeah so cities will often contact Rapids staff to uh
understand the parameters of the joint Powers agreement and how the Contracting for it works and uh if it works for them uh they'll there needs to be an amendment to The Joint Powers agreement for the overall program um but if our Council and their Council approve that
Amendment uh then they're allowed to join and each City may not participate each year and they still may not participate even after they review the the bid prices that come back um but uh we've had had a number of cities uh contact us throughout the the course of
the the program since its Inception in in 2004 and now we're up to 17 different cities thank you Mr Mayor counc member Carlson Mr Hansen did you say 17 different cities correct well we must save a lot of money
on that it it is an economic yes it it works better for the smaller City or the cities that have less quantities I would say and Rapids and and over uh some of the other bigger cities provide more of the quantity thank
you okay um somebody want to move this forward Mr Mayor gisler I'll move that we adopt resolution number 25-5 sub eight approving plans and specifications and ordering uh advertisements for bids for the 2025 Street maintenance program
second motion by Geisler and a second by Armstrong Is there further discussion on this hearing n all in favor signify by saying I opposed and that motion carries item 12 is to consider resolution 25-3 sub eight accepting plans and
specifications for miscellaneous Trail reconstruction and authorized solicitation of bids Mr Hansen uh yes mayor and councel so this this is our annual miscellaneous Trail reconstruction uh project uh we've been
doing these for a number of years now so the 2025 project includes uh a trail segment that is within sand or Sunrise Pond Park um uh portions of the riverv view view Trail between uh exava Street
and direct River Drive including we're going to straighten out that crosswalk that goes across direct River Drive part of this work um portions of Al the trail system within Alin park behind fire station one primarily
um a connection to Sand Creek Trail portions of rockslide Park trails and then some of the city hall trails that are directly behind City Hall and connect to the Kon Creek Regional Trail um the pro that is the base bid of this
particular project and then we do have an alternate bid um the golf course has contacted us they have a number of golf cart paths that they would like to combine with this project if it is econom iCal and within their budget to
do so so we have included that work as an alternate uh to be reviewed and evaluated based on the actual contract bid prices um and then if everything is accepted and the project ultimately moves forward the work would be
programmed between June and August this year all right any questions Mr Hansen Mr mayor council member Geer Mr Hansen when we do an alternate bid biders can place a primary and the alternate together but they're not required to
deposit on both they are they are required to bet on everything okay yes okay okay Mr Mayor counc M Carlson make a motion to adopt resolution number 25-3 sub 8 approving plans and specifications
and ordering the advertisements for bids for the 2025 miscellaneous Trail reconstruction and Improvement project second motion by Carlson and I'm going to give that one to Armstrong second Is there further discussion on this Mr Mayor counc M SCC you know we've got
this in the 2025 budget for both so I think it makes s uh to combine them and ask for that alternate bid hopefully we get some really good pricing out of this uh motion of a second any further discussion hearing none all in favor signify by saying I I I opposed and that
motion carries item 13 is to consider resolution 25-4 subate approving plans and specifications in order advertisements for bids for sanitary sewer lining U Mr Hansen this is what we've talked about a number of times already
all yeah so it's really continuing the program of the large diameter sewer lining uh concrete large diameter concrete pipes we started doing it in 2017 this would be the fourth project that we have done on our large diameter sewers and something that was talked
about in our sewer comp plan that was developed in 2018 as a priority for the city to focus on uh so this next program will really or take off this next project will take off on Hansen where we left off two years ago and then bring us up to
Mississippi Boulevard then we're going to go west and we're going to try to get to Riverview Creek So within the budget and our our construction or cost estimate and what we have budgeted we think we can get close so we have
included that as a a uh the base bid and then we have an alternate bid for another 300 ft either way we're going to look to avoid any impacts to Mississippi Boulevard Excavating within Mississippi Boulevard and we think we can do that by
by using the 96 inch Culvert of Riverview ditch or River Creek uh to to thread our bypass pipe um through there to avoid excavations there um as talked about in the council
member memo there are a few property owners that would be impacted that have direct connections into the sewer so we're going to have to provide vouchers to them uh basically cash so that they can get a hotel for a night or two until
we can reinstate their sewer service so there's 11 property owners that we'll be working with there we've done this before and we haven't experienced any issues with the property owners that have had to have vouchers in the past um
so the project includes a base bed and then an alternate bid and then if everything moves forward the plan would be to complete the work really starting after Fourth of July uh and then through the early fall months so we don't want the the work on Mississippi there will
be traffic control and there will be the bypass P pipes set up um throughout the work um but we don't want the Fourth of July parade and the associated traffic to be impacting any of this so we're not
going to start until after the 4th of July and then we'll go through the summer and then early fall it'll all be wrapped up okay much appreciated I'm still picturing that 4inch sewer pipe going into that 36
inch I didn't realize we had any direct feeds into those things yep all right any questions of Mr Hansen Mr mayor council member Carlson I just want to make a comment on how uh great it is that we have this sewer lining program so much better than tearing stuff up and
rebuilding it and my understanding Mr Hansen is that this a long last just as long as a new pipe would just about wouldn't it absolutely it's a it's also a structural liner so I mean it it doesn't need to be lined again it's it's going to be good to go for many many many many years it's a great program for
cost and and practicality and also it probably puts out our residents a lot less than if we would have been digging things out yeah okay Mr mayor council member Armstrong I make a motion Council adopt resolution number 25-4 subate approving plans and
specifications and ordering the advertisement for bids for the 2025 sanitary sewer lining project second motion by Armstrong and a second by Geisler uh Is there further discussion on this hearing none all in favor
signify by saying I I I opposed and that motion carries item 14 is to consider resolution 25-7 sub 8 accepting plans and specifications for the highway 10 water man relocation and
Order advertisement for bids um Mr Hansen anything you want to touch on this uh yeah I can just explain the city has about 500 ft of 8 18inch water M that's within the mot right away so this is kind of along where Crooked Lake
Boulevard wraps around and turns into 124th it would be the South Westerly quadrant of Main Street and Highway 10 so mindat is uh they've actually got bids now um uh for the highway 10
expansion so they will be conducting that work here this summer as part of that project there are noise walls and one of the noise walls that's proposed with the project is going to be on Crooked Lake bouvard extending all the way almost up to Main Street and that's where the impact that we're talking
about here is is so this water M uh exists within mindat right away by permit and uh it was decided by mot that the work would not be done as part of their Project work and the city would have to undertake it separately we
develop plans and the cost estimates for it and exceeds the amount that we would just be able to quote uh from a few different contractors and get bids that way we have to go through the public bidding process so that that's what we're proposing to do right now uh and
then our our plan would be to do the work in May and June of this year and and try to be out of the way uh when mindock comes through and and starts the highway project this summer all right any questions of Mr Hansen on
that and I would point out we did anticipate that this would be work that we would have to be doing in 2025 so it is included in our city budget for this year it was anticipated as part of our costs for Highway 10 right council member gesler Mr Mayor I move that we
adopt resolution 25-7 sub eight approving plans and specifications and ordering advertisements for the bids for the highway 10 water main relocation project second motion by Geisler and a second by Butler Is there further discussion on this hearing none all in favor signify
by saying I I opposed and that motion carries item 15 is to consider purchase of streetlight material for 25-1 Street reconstruction um I can do this one too
get Mr hmer in here I can I I should be able to answer any questions this is part of the street reconstruction project so this is our process every year for how we upgrade the street light poles and the fixtures it's part of Street reconstruction it's not included
in the actual contract for the street work so it's done with the city's electrical contractor uh we get quotes from our our lighting material vendor Protek lighting solutions and then we also compare we compare those prices to
make sure they're competitive and then we work with our our City's uh Master electrical electrician uh Muska to actually do the installation so this is the work uh to secure the materials needed there are 63 different poles and
fixtures that will be upgraded to LED um ultimately saving the city on maintenance and energy costs and the cost for this work is $147,000 $315 all right any questions of Mr
Hansen Mr Mayor Conor Butler uh Mr Hansen I was just curious like what's the timeline overall to getting Citywide LED everywhere I I just need some historical context there yeah so our process uh thank you for that that question council member Butler our our
process has really been in the last five six years we have been uh more aggressively upgrading these street lights to LED and we've been doing it our our program is really to do it as part of the street reconstruction program so some neighborhoods that we're
working in uh may have Conexus or Excel uh street lights that are owned and maintained by those uh Electrical uh providers um in in which case they've already upgraded most of their fix to LED and then whether the polls get
upgraded as part of the project sometimes they do sometimes they don't it's kind of up to them um but it kind of depends on the neighborhood that we're in um and our program is really to do it as part of the street reconstruction projects thank you any
other questions from Mr Hansen Mr Mayor C Carlson make a motion to authorize a proposal of $147,300 from Protech lighting solutions to purchase street light materials for the 2025 Street reconstruction project
second motion by Carlson and a second by Armstrong Is there further discussion on this hearing none all in favor signify by saying I I I opposed and that motion carries item 16 consider resolution 25-34 amending the 2025 fee schedule to
add storm water fee for the S Farms um anybody need anything else on this seems like we've kind of already done this one tonight now we're just adding it Mr mayor council member grisak I'll make a
motion to adopt resolution 25-34 amending the adopted 2025 fee schedule to add storm water fee for sod farms second motion by grisak and a second by Carlson is there a discussion on this hearing none all in favor signify
by saying I I I opposed and that motion carries Open Mic portion of the meeting please and I'm so sorry it's normally never this late but please come up and give us your name and address and then you've got three minutes to share anything with uh with us regarding City
business thank you Mr Mayor my name is Derrick Lind and I actually live in Ramsey I do have a handout are you guys willing to accept a handout or should I give it okay sure I'll be brief I I you guys had a long evening here so like you said I'll be wrapped up in 3 minutes uh the reason I'm here tonight is for election
Integrity I'm with the asit group and we're focusing on the pole pads and the reason for that is the county is set to purchase new pole pads on the 25th I believe you guys were involved in a meeting on the 29th of January where um
they stated some facts to you and we just want to respond to some of those some things from that meeting if you could open up this this first thing here uh page one they said the pole pads are going to cost about $1,000 I'm sorry
$100,000 our figures are coming in at um up to $873,000 and we're getting those figures from them so I think they kind of misrepresented how much these pull pads are going to cost let me back up for a second we think these pull pads are a terrible idea we do not think they
should get them for three reasons cost security and then we've got a legal thing here and we're I'm laying this out here in these sheets so that's a breakdown of the price comparison between electronic pole pads versus Paper Pull pads that's on page one if you go to page two security at the end
of the day these eole pads are iPads with cellular service that use third party software somebody explained to me how that's more secure than a piece of paper at a local Precinct it's just not so I'm appealing to your common sense there you
can look at that that sheet there side by side if you can go to the next page please I guess we'll call this political process they they came out with these poll pads in 2018 and they kind of quietly pushed them out through staff between the county and all the cities this was a major change to our election
system there should have been a political process involved you guys should have voted on this up or down whether or not you want these things that's up to you that way the people can have a say but that's not what happened what happened is it got pushed out by staff you have a service agreement these
pull pads just showed up uh one example we have there is in Dakota County they have a jpa and our question is why do they have a jpa when you guys don't now the count saying they have the authority well why does the city of uh it's in
Grove Heights actually has the jpa uh if you can go to the if you keep flipping through to the very last page of what I gave you I actually have a copy of the first page of the jpa from INF Grove Heights
and then the story in between that is we are comparing these e pole pads to a trojan horse they advertise them as doing something or all these wonderful things but what these things are really doing is giving these e pole pads access
to our election data so I'm going to wrap it up there I know you guys had a long night thank you for giving me this this three minutes are there any questions for me at this time any questions I know I know you weren't expecting me to show up here we're making the rounds I had to come tonight that's why I had to sit here so well
sorry sorry for keeping you so late thanks for keeping it under 3 minutes nice job yeah thank you thank you for the time and uh any questions you can reach out to us our information's on that have a good thank you all right yes Open
Mic all right give us your name and address and Jim Hutchinson uh 2908 109th and I live like a d a driver on the block by that car wash and I want to thank you
gentlemen for standing up and saying I like the brick I'd like to see everything on K rapid Boulevard Brick I my daughter lived in Chicago and it's they they got rules that everything is built in Brick after the fire and I'll tell you what it's a
beautiful I mean it's it really would be nice if we had brick all the way up and down that ugly little white brick building you talked about that's a Nicea but yeah I mean I agree it's a
nice looking building the way it is and that black oh I mean I drive by that car wash up here uh from uh by the Burger King oh my God somebody throw some water on that thing it's on fire that's nasty so so so
Jim is that why you came to talk to us no no I just came I I tried to come to meetings every once in a while oh it does you know I'm retired now but a lot of things happen in between okay and it and it's interesting here are some of these things that are going on and this
is the first time I heard about the car wash oh okay because because normally at Open Mic you actually that's the one thing you can't talk about is things on the agenda that night that was the one thing you pulled out but I figured we're going to give you a little lateral movement here
that's fine but I I wanted to thank you guys though I I agree with you guys 100% that well thank you picture a was much better and thanks for hanging out for the evening thank you normally these don't go that long either so all right um any uh we'll close the
open mic portion of the meeting and we are up to other business other business to C for Council this evening what everybody just want to go home now or what Mr council member Armstrong i' I'd just make a suggestion to Mr Hansen that you participate a
little bit more in the meetings I I appreciate all the I appreciate all the information tonight and yeah I always learn from you so thank you yeah and thank you uh council members uh usually the second meeting uh of February has traditionally been our
public hearing evening so I appreciate you all being able to be here tonight and uh to be able to support the projects sure all right other business motion to adjourn second motion by Carlson second by Butler to adjourn all in favor
signify by saying I I we're [Music] adjourned and