this meeting of the Newport City Council is called to order We begin with the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands nationy and justice for all
Roll call Council member Schmidt here Council member Sumar here Council member Ingaman here Acting Mayor Taylor here Uh and Mayor Elliott is absent tonight Looking for a motion to adopt the agenda
unless there's any changes Motion from Sar second from Ingamman All in favor i I motion carries Next we will have a presentation on basic needs by Opie Pena Loga and
another guest with him as well Thank you for coming Thank you for uh having me and giving me a little bit of time on the agenda Uh I just wanted to talk a little bit about basic needs and how we ended last year
Um I know that uh the city of Newport has supported basic needs long before I came around I'm just about uh one month to uh making it a year as the new executive director and I've been uh wanting to come down and introduce
myself uh to the city and um and just kind of share more about what we're doing this year and give you a few invitations um to the council members I sent an email earlier today with uh links and dates to everything that I'm going to talk about just so you all have that Um but I just wanted to let you
know this uh last September we celebrated our oneyear anniversary of opening our free food market in um Cottage Grove that serves Newport St Paul Park Cottage Grove and most of southern Woodbury
And um we had we've had such an amazing year as far as the volunteers that have come out the local businesses um the cities supporting the hard work that our volunteers are doing And I just wanted to let you know that that investment of
that time and the revenue that's come from uh the cities and from our local sponsors and donors we were able to um put out into the community Uh over 680,000 pounds of food just this last
year in 2024 which that's a lot that's a lot of weight of food Um and we've got volunteers that do that hard work every day of the week Um we've served over 160,000 clients in this last um this
last year Um what I love about those numbers is over 50,000 of them have been seniors that have made use of our uh food market and over 26,000 have been um in households with uh children And so
super excited to serve so many different aspects of the community um our thrift our thrift store We also have a a voucher program for uh families and individuals going through you know an emergency crisis And we gave just over
$10,000 in support to families Um over 67 children were in the households uh the folks that we supported Um and there were two veterans households And so very happy again to serve so many different folks across the community Uh I think
the most exciting thing that we did last year from my perspective was our pit stop Uh it was a community resource fair that uh basic needs hosted and we brought together over 40 uh local organizations and agencies at the
Cottage Grove Armory and um we didn't know what to expect We were serving uh homeless folks and low-income folks at risk of becoming homeless Uh we were modeling it after uh a pit stop event that they do up the point in time homeless count in um Stillwater We
didn't know what to expect uh on in South Washington County but we wanted to really target it and and advertise it only to folks in this uh you know this corridor here between our cities and make sure that we were serving those families And so we kept it pretty low-key Um but we were able to serve
over 400 folks came that day and they got uh services and and resources and food uh free food and clothes and King of Kings Lutheran uh did a community meal and that was a really uh amazing um event that we did in service of the
community And so this year that's one of the events that I'd like to invite you all to to participate in and have the presence of the city there And that's in the email that I sent you all Um also right here just down the street we have our community garden that uh Steve has
um at the collision center here and has allowed us to use that space And that community garden just you probably drive by and you see it's not that big but that community garden brought in um just over 800 pounds of vegetables for uh the food market too and was distributed
there So that's super cool Um one of the other things that I'd like to invite you to is we have our gala just um on the at the 10th April 10th We still have a few tickets left If you'd like to come and support the hard work that we're doing um you're welcome to come to that And the other big event that I'd like to
invite you to is our badges and hoses event It's kind of a battle for the badges uh basketball event I've been emailing some folks uh in the city here about it um trying to get some officers um from Washington County and other
officers from St Paul Park and uh and Cottage Grove and our fire department together different fire departments together to um raise money having a good time and they're going to team up with the Cottage Grove the Park High School um varsity boys and girls team and uh
just have a good time and see if we can see if we can raise some money for the hard work that we're doing And so I'd love to have uh Newport there I'd love to have um the fire department there and uh so I'm putting that ask out officially and uh and uh and I'll send more information
about that too but that's also in the email Um yeah I it's just it's been an incredible year Uh our volunteers have done a lot of really hard work We changed our model We uh are now completely volunteer managed our staff
the work that we do is just to make sure that our volunteers have everything that they need to do So the free food market and the thrift store is all managed by top tier volunteer managers and they're in there more than they should be Sunday you know Sunday to Sunday Um so it it's
just a good demonstration of the community here Um I'm new to Minnesota I'm new to this community and so I couldn't have been introduced to this community in a better way than meeting the folks that are doing all of this work um and serving one another and
their neighbors in need So thank you Uh thank you for your support Thank you for your continued support and I hope to see you at some of our events this year If you have any questions you feel free to reach out Thank you Anybody on the council have any questions at this
time no Thank you very much The next item is public comments Seeing there's looks like nobody else in the audience aside from the basic needs presentation we will skip that Move ahead to the consent agenda All items listed on this section are considered
routine and non-controversial by the council and will be approved by a single motion Item may be removed from the consent agenda and discussed if a council member staff member or citizen so requests Is there anybody like to remove an item i wouldn't And I'll make a motion for
the consent agenda to be brought forward I'll second And motion is seconded All in favor i I All opposed Consent agenda is approved Next up we have the Washington County Sheriff's Office report Sergeant Leget is here
Good afternoon It's good to see everybody Um you know as far as news there's not a whole lot to pass on I guess if there's anything uh with hopefully warmer weather coming sooner than later uh we just ask public pay attention to motorcycles coming out
right being aware of those as well as kids playing in the yards balls ending up in the street just being very cautious as they're driving around the neighborhood We're kind of getting to that time of year So aside from that um there is not much further to pass on pretty much status quo for right now So
I certainly stand for any questions that the council may have Acting mayor how are your basketball skills you had an invitation here We had a challenge thrown down to you I'm I'm hoping to to see you It's final four month here in in
in the basketball world I'm I'm just hoping the warm weather is going to bring out you Yeah Well uh council member uh Matt uh here gave me that good eye when that that invitation would pass out I am very bad at basketball Um but I
know some of my partners at uh the office do play basketball so I will be happy to send out that invitation Sounds like obviously a very good cause We want to be part of it All right Good Good Any other questions that's all I have for the sergeant
tonight Thank you All right Thank you Next up we have Chief Wy with the fire chiefs report Good evening Mayor Council Um brief recap of our incidents from March We responded to 17 calls for
service Um two of those were um in St Paul Park for structure fires One was at a mobile home that we assisted with ventilation And then they had an apartment fire um in the middle of one of the nights So did that The rest of
them were you know motor vehicle accidents medical assists and alarm calls So kind of the standard fair for what we respond to So before you ask no I I don't have mean basketball skills but I did provide my
card to them So he's pretty good at dodgeball but that's one thing I've seen that he's good at Um other than that I'll stand for questions I think we're trying to finish a fast meeting so I'll I'll hold things down
The uh Oh no pressure All right Well all right Thank you Yeah Next up our engineers report Good evening acting mayor members of the council Uh I had one formal item for consideration in the packet but we're
we're going to have a little bit of a change to that Uh I would like to provide an update on our street utility improvements project Uh there is a resolution in your packet to approve the uh plans and uh order the advertisement Uh we're not going to ask for that
tonight Um but uh first uh just a little update on the plans We are generally complete with these plans There is a uh a portion of the plans in your packet These are the what we call the plan and profile So we have the the plan drawing
looking down from the top on the top half of the page and then the um uh section view on the bottom And these show all of the storm sewer the water man the sanitary sewer that we are uh proposing to be constructed on 17th
Street 2nd Avenue and 3rd Avenue Uh so I'm I'm happy to uh uh answer questions about these plans We did not include the entire set It's about 95 sheets or so And I think I was already pushing the uh the size limit as it was Um as we or now
that we have completed our design we go through and create an updated engineers estimate for the uh for the project with the uh design quantities that we uh that we've come up with in the feasibility study that we presented to council back
in um December I believe Uh that was based on just a highle estimate of we're doing this much road We know kind of how much uh pavement that's going to be we know about how many services we're going to have but we really didn't drill into the details Now we've gotten that
detailed account and and I'm I'm pleased to say that we are uh based on again our engineers estimate not what a contractor has given us but we are about 200,000 or so less than what we had anticipated in the feasibility study which is a good place to be Uh at least for the engineer
I don't like to be the uh high bidder on these projects Uh so we're we are uh we're we're pleased that we're we're coming in there Um but we do have uh uh a funding gap for the project We're
still uh roughly the uh entire project uh is uh in the neighborhood of forgive me uh about 7.5 or so uh million dollars And as of right now we have a grant in
the amount of $2.75 million and assessments at about $2 million or so Uh we are uh we still haven't heard on a a grant for storm water Uh I believe we put in a grant for about 1.2 million in
the uh MPCA storm water resilience grant And then we also have uh a a bonding bill request in this legislative session Unfortunately we were not able to get a uh a federal appropriation that was
going to help support this project as well So we have a uh so we have a funding gap Uh it's roughly about $2.6 million as of right now And so uh we have a few options for uh moving forward
Uh one of them being we could split this project into two separate projects and then wait to see if we were able to get some bonding bill money within this legislative session The reason that we can't move or the reason that we'd have to split the project is because we won't
know how much or if anything we would get from the bonding bill until the end of May And they wouldn't sell bonds for to support the state bonding bill until October and we can't do any work in advance of them selling the bonds We
can't wait to start work on this project in October So we would reserve about half of this project for a 2026 construction So that is an option Uh there's also other uh options uh whether
that be uh bonding or or using the enterprise funds to pay for this And that's uh not something that we're prepared to present to council this evening Uh we would like to uh for one have the mayor in attendance to participate in this conversation Um but
in interest of uh of advertising this project we would prefer not to advertise and put these plans out on the street if this project were to get split Uh so I believe that we have we have room within
our schedule that if we um uh we prepare the uh excuse me the the cost options or the funding options for council and either uh present those at the April 17th meeting or if we wanted to do a
special meeting in advance of that um provide that information to the council so that we can decide how to move forward to uh cover that uh uh that funding gap as it is now Hopefully by that time we'll also know a little bit more about the uh grant that we applied
for for the storm water I can't make any promises but I can certainly make some phone calls Um so uh to that end I think you know ultimately we want to get this project out to bid as soon as we can but I think there's some critical steps that we as a uh or the council needs to take
to before we we put this project out on the street So I'm happy to answer questions if I missed anything Uh council member Hatch can hopefully fill in the blanks there Uh but Okay No no you haven't He's a council member now Oh
administrator Hatch Oh my goodness We can take the pay give him the pay cut I didn't know you promoted me My apologies Uh but so I guess there no formal action but again uh and apologize for uh for the uh I guess a lot of
information to uh that wasn't included in the packet uh prior but uh we do want to make sure that we uh are proceeding in the in the appropriate fashion Acting mayor go ahead Uh so the storm water was pending or the storm grant was
pending 1.2 That's what we applied for There's no guarantees of course And then the gap okay so best case scenario if we got that the gap would go down to 1.4 and we would potentially still be able
to split this up to help pay for things is what I'm hearing Yes So the by splitting the project we preserve the ability to utilize bonding bill funds uh or bonding bill appropriation from this legislative session Um and that and that
is an option but again there's no guarantee that there will be a bonding bill and if there is one no guarantee that we would be included right and I do want to stress that the the uh uh the total project cost is based on our estimate Now ultimately we have to
receive bids and award the project So those numbers could change which I'm again we always want to estimate high on our on our unit prices so that we give a a reason a realistic outlook but I thought the caveat was important to mention that's helpful that's all I had
thank you couple questions there's some things going on at the federal level is there a reason we didn't get federal money yes and the I believe the mayor was uh
leading point on that I believe it was if others have the answer to that I'm happy to defer He had the continuing resolution which was passed um by Congress that all all federal ear marks were were negated not just ours
Every single ear mark was stopped So that's okay In that you know so that's we are in the same boat as everybody on that one And then also apparently there was some
tariffs applied starting yesterday afternoon Is that going to impact any of the bid prices i don't know how much of the steel is coming from places that would be impacted by that And of course
that's a 25% addition on this Are you just holding off with you're allowing your estimate to be presented to us but of course you've been couching it by saying that the contractors will have to
be bidding and that's where we would see any adjustments or tariff increases I can I can say this that our uh the steel that's involved in our project is is all American steel So the tariff should not
have any impact on that That's a pretty standard specification for public utilities that it's American iron and steel are uh are included in the spec That's not to say that tariffs won't impact but generally speaking most of
the uh materials uh that we purchase are purchased domestically Uh and so there I would hope that there's not uh a great impact but I I think it's anyone's guess at this point and cutting it into two different
projects Is there is that going to impact the mobilization charges and so forth or was that something we would likely see when the contractors give their bids so this is a uh from a construction cost standpoint this is
about a $6.4 million project So it's a sizable project and even split in half at that 3 million plus uh level that it it would still attract uh contractors or you know qualified contractors to do
that work and it's enough work that you know the the cost or that I don't believe the um the unit prices or the mobilization costs would be overly affected You know they would increase slightly but not significantly
Even half is a fair size project Yes it's actually similar size to the to the project we did in 2020 on 12th and 12th that was roughly about a $ three.5 million project if I recall I think that's all I have for today So I
guess you I guess one the one question I'd have is if you bring back split options do you plan on bringing back what do you you plan but maybe multiple options as far as how you want to split this is that kind of what you're envisioning well I I I think there's only one real option for
splitting the project One of the primary goals of this project was to well obviously replace our sanitary sewer and and shore up INI but also do a a sanitary sewer capacity increase on Second Avenue Most uh well all of the uh
wastewater from east of of 61 comes down Second Avenue and we also have three lift stations that uh go down that same corridor We are approaching capacity No I we still have enough capacity This
isn't a dire situation but we're approaching that capacity And with pending developments in Cherrywood and um uh the Bailey uh property we want to make sure that that area gets an increased size of uh sanitary sewer So
the way we would split this project would be we would do all of Second Avenue Uh so that would be between 17th Street down to 15th Street and then the portion of 17th Street from Second Avenue all the way to the river And
that's also all the downstream infrastructure So now we have all the storm sewer built up to 17th and and 2nd that we could tie into and uh proceed with work on on Third Avenue So it's a pretty logical split Um frankly we you
know we we set up our plans in anticipation that this might happen There is some work to do if if we need to split the project but it's not a tremendous amount We've also set up our quantities in a manner that we can we can split out the project Uh so there
should really only be one option Uh there may be a handful of funding options but really one for the the split And so residents who are out there should know know how this project will proceed probably in two weeks is what we're expecting So all right anything
else uh nothing on this project but a quick update on another ongoing project We are uh the contractor that is doing our manhole sealing work uh started a few weeks ago I think that was about three weeks ago Uh there were a total of
20 manholes that they were going to seal So was it 15 thank you Yeah So by sealing the manholes uh they go in and they put a uh uh an epoxy sealant on the manholes to seal the manhole joints as
well as down on the bottom of the manhole where groundwater can leak in These are also the manholes that we did end seals in as part of our lining project So they they started about three weeks ago They have uh 13 of those
manholes complete 12 of those manholes complete and the last three that they have to do are on 21st Street Um so that will require uh a traffic control and likely a detour Uh the manholes are now right in the center of the road and now
that it's a little narrower from the county's work a couple years ago uh there isn't quite enough work or space for them to do this under traffic So the contractor has asked us if they can use uh 1 Avenue
would it be 2 to 20th and then back over to 7th as the as the detour route They are expecting the work to last one day I would anticipate two days just in case Uh the county they're going to pull a county rightaway permit Uh but just
wanted to inform the council that uh we will uh staff from staff standpoint we are comfortable having that detour If there's any issues on the council's end we can certainly uh pivot from there but wanted to to make you aware of that Could they want to do that on the
weekend so if there's less traffic anticipated i think any traffic is well I don't I guess I don't know if they're planning to work on the on the weekend Um but I don't know that there's a big difference in traffic level uh weekday to week end I would take other
thoughts too because I I don't think so No I I think once you get past the initial rush in the morning and then you're before you know say 4:30 in the afternoon your weekday is probably your quietest period
for that stretch of road would be my my best best estimate So okay So you don't think it'd be a big problem with that it's a small detour So there's the county in charge of that then that would run through the sheriff's office Well the county issues the permit and then if
when we do have detours we uh we notify emergency services that they're in place They are well signed Um I'm confident that the emergency services know uh know how to get around those but knowing it ahead of time uh is is helpful
So I'll just Oh sorry So they just they just put up signs then they won't have officers out directing traffic No we'll we'll have barricades at each end of the of the project limits and then they'll have detour signs directing uh directing cars uh through the detour and and out
to seven Uh so for 20th and second I mean obviously those are neighborhood roads With the signage is it is it also speed control like reduction in speed for those areas or is that an option that we should look at because it's 30 mph
obviously and I don't know if we want to reduce that if there's ongoing maintenance on 21st there Just as we're routing more traffic through neighborhood streets I'm asking is there an avenue slow traffic during that project We could we could certainly ask
the uh uh the contractor to update their traffic control plan and add uh 20 m an hour speed uh speed signs That I believe is the lowest that we can go um for a uh for a for a detour route in in town Um I
guess yeah it keep in mind it is for one day stretching into two Um it does things can happen in one day just like they can happen in in three weeks But um we can certainly ask that of the of the contractor to provide that I I might if it's not too big of an ask I think
that's a minor adjustment just to kind of keep speed in check in that in that area if that's an option And we'll again we'll we'll make sure that the um county or the the sheriff's office knows and so they can pay a little bit more attention They are going to be driving right by
their office too So hopefully that works in our favor too It's more of just a visual indicator like hey just for this very brief stretch of road just you know speed up on the other side of that if you need to but thank you
Anything else for John all right and superintendent public works report Uh good evening council members Um nothing formal this evening Um but I do have a few updates for you Um we have been working on the levy
breach down at Cedar Lane Uh that's going pretty well Um I if if things go well I think we'll have the the brereech portion complete uh as early as tomorrow or early next week Uh which is great because if the
river level would come up you know we're the rest of the work can take place you know without that So uh very happy with how that's progressing um and hope to update with some more pictures and kind of a better timeline once you know once
we get that portion Then the rest will be mostly uh top soiling and seeding and kind of those uh less uh dependent on the the river level and that kind of stuff So um the next is uh next Saturday
will be the first day for compost site being open April 12th So uh just kind of a reminder that uh that that's coming up Uh we'll also have a grand opening for the dog park on April 17th which would
be uh two weeks from today Um from 3:00 to 5:00 at the dog park And um there will be I believe there'll be an ice cream truck and some other uh um stuff to other than just just the park itself
So we invite everyone to come out and check that out Um you know we're still working to get grass growing in a few spots that we had to disturb and you know it's not uh 100% but it's very usable at the moment and anticipate
things only improving going forward So um and the final thing is is we are out uh sweeping the streets when mother nature is allowing us to So um just a reminder if you can park off the streets
and then also to keep your trash cans in your driveway or on you know outside of the street so that we can get to all the curb lines and get everything cleaned up as much as possible pick up all that sediment from the vehicles over the winter and keep it out of our uh ponds
and river and storm sewer So uh with that I don't have anything else but would be happy to stand for any questions Have you been able to track how much rainfall how much moisture we've had over the past couple weeks with We had a
pretty good rain storm recently I I know catch bases I've got in my backyard were showing a couple inches maybe Is that what you're seeing too did we have any follow-up problems within the city we we haven't seen any large issues Um
was it yesterday we had six a little over 610 of rain I don't remember off the top what we had um the storms going forward and and then it's kind of hard to estimate how much uh moisture is coming out of the snowfall Obviously you know pretty wet and heavy snow So the
moisture content's fairly high Um but overall I'd say we're in in good shape at the moment especially with the river being as low as it is um you know we've got got some uh room for expansion without uh without worries So
anything else for Matt next up administration report Mayor uh acting mayor and members of the council just one item tonight Uh we do have a utility agreement um with Cottage
Grove for the Cherrywood development So um of course uh last year council approved the Cherrywood Heights development This is located off of Century Avenue Um and uh you can kind of see a little map here I think there's about 117 homes that will be uh
constructed here shortly Um Newport does not have the water infrastructure to provide that for these homes and Cottage Grove does have the infrastructure across the street So um staff has met with them and negotiated a contract to
provide for water for the Cherrywood Heights development And then also in Woodbury right across the street from here there's a a small uh development that we're working out uh an agreement to also provide water there
Um so we are we have a joint powers agreement I call it a JPA for short Uh some of the details of this is a it's a 30-year term Um there is a 5-year notice to terminate The area charge will be
kept by Cottage Grove Um this is a cost uh that the developer will pay and that's to expand the keep keep the pipe size a certain size so the water pressure can get there and then also the storage for the water Uh they're going to have to have that burden basically
forever Uh and then the access charge will keep and that helps us uh you know maintain this infrastructure for the longer term Cottage Grove we will install a meter uh right at the border there Cottage Grove will measure that meter once a month send us a bill We
will be paying a bulk commercial rate for that and then we'll uh you know we'll be metering the residents and charging them a fee So we'll pay them once a month Um I already kind of talked about that Uh we do have the utility agreement
with Woodbury for water and sewer We're hoping to bring that to council maybe in two weeks here And then we also will have a uh a contract for storm water The storm water will be going back and forth between the two developments We'll be bringing that uh shortly also
Um so with that said uh before you tonight um I recommend approving resolution 2025-27 This is approving a joint powers agreement with the city of Cottage Grove for water for the Cherwood Heights developments Happy to stand for any
questions Any questions i'll move the uh resolution 2025-27 resolution approving water service agreement with Cottage Grove for Cherrywood Heights Development
I'll second Any further discussion all in favor i Motion carries Uh no other formal items So happy to stand for questions
Hearing no questions we will move to mayor and council reports Start down I wanted to thank the public works for the additional street sweeping that they're doing because as you mentioned keeping the debris out of the storm
sewers is very important And I'm on this community advisory commission and one of the many projects that we're looking at is to keep those is clean So we're not sending stuff to the ponds or to the Mississippi River So the additional work
that's being done is very very much in keeping with the with the goals of that project also So I know that it's something that you put a lot of time into because I think you have one person driving a sweeper and a couple guys
driving trucks They they dump into the trucks They they dump dump the sweepings into the trucks Is that right and then take it up to the public works or how do they do that do they run up the public works in in spring it's just a oneman operation Uh but in fall with the leaves
then we typically have a guy in the truck just to keep up because Okay So that's that's very important aspect of of keeping the the waterways clean And once a year you give presentation is
it the MW4 something ms4 MS4 So this is in keeping with those demands and needs So city it looks like it's it's putting a lot of effort into meeting those needs
Thank you very much and administrator I wanted to thank public individuals also superintendent That's what I nothing for me tonight Uh the one thing
I'll add is next week on April 9th the planning commission is holding a concept hearing concept plan hearing for the part of the Bailey Farms development that'll include a quick trip proposed quick trip and uh 175 about 175 unit apartment So this is just for that phase
of it There'll be other considerations but for your interest in that project April 9th that's a Wednesday not the typical Tuesday uh at 5:30 here at city hall Tom I have nothing I have a motion to adjurnn
Don't move Second All in favor meeting is adjourned