##VIDEO ID:hy3E77UJftQ## e e e e e e e e e e e good evening and welcome to the Newport city council meeting today is Thursday November 7th 2024 we'll begin the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all will staff please call the role council member suar here council member Taylor here council member Ingman here council member chapalain here and mayor Elliot here um the next item on our agendas to adopt this evening's agenda are there any changes to the agenda move we adopt the agenda second I have a motion from council member Ingman and a second from council member uh chapalain to adopt the agenda as presented any discussion all those in favor say I I those opposed the agenda is adopted I will note that at 6 o' this evening we are doing an improvement hearing so uh we will stop whatever business we are doing at that time and open the or start the presentation and so on for that Improvement hearing at that time um next on our agenda is public comments this is where members of the public can address the city council about any local government topic that is not included on our regular agenda this is limited to concerns that are relevant to the City of Newport Affairs policies and practices we ask that you come up to the podium and clearly state your name and address for the record and to limit your comments to about 3 minutes generally the council will not take official action at this time but will refer matters to staff if appropriate is there anyone in the audience that would like to address the council during public comments seeing no movement from the audience we will move on to adopt the consent agenda the consent agenda is considered to be routine by the city council and all items are approved in a single motion there will be no separate discussion unless a council members or citizen or staff so requests in which case the item will be removed from the consent agenda and considered after after the consent agenda is approved are there any items to be removed from the consent agenda hearing n I'll make a motion to accept accept oh second I have a motion from council member chapalain and a second from council member ingan any discussion all those in favor say I I those opposed the consent agenda is adopted next we um have the Washington County Sheriff's Office report uh Sergeant Herold was unable to be with us this evening so we will move on to the fire chief's report and chief Wy is available good evening mayor council um how are you this evening um October was a busy month from a number of um aspects first of all it was fire prevention month so we had a crew at Newport Elementary on um October 11th and Captain mland oversees that he does such a a good job um with the school there um and the kids love it right so um and then we got some feedback on that in a little bit later I'll let you know that um kind of shows that we make an impact um when we go and do things like that and then we had our fire prevention openhouse that evening and started a little bit slow but it ended up being absolutely packed so there were a lot of kids there and a lot of family so it was really good um and then h que we handed out candy from the station here and went through 50 treat bags so about the same as last year so a lot of kids um two trailers full of them came you know you know so that was really good and kind of going back to fire prevention day a lot of the kids talked about seeing firefighters and saw that truck and were actually telling um what they had learned about smoke detectors and and fire safety so that was a month later I know my attention span isn't that long but it was pretty it was pretty cool so you know it's good to know that um you know the time spent you know hopefully you know pays dividends down the road yeah um from an incident standpoint uh we had 18 calls in October um you know just slightly above average but it was really more the significance of the calls than the um the number in October so from a mutual Aid standpoint we had six Mutual Aid calls um four of them outbound and two of them inbound so uh we were requested by Woodbury to assist with um getting somebody out of a holding Pond um ended up being cancelled before we got there off uh York Avenue up there um assisted cage Grove with a townhouse fire um assisted St Paul Park with a search for a person on the river so we did have the Airboat out for hour 15 minutes that night and then we had a respond at St Paul Park for a double house boat fire so um and then inbound we had um the fourplex fire on 8th Avenue and the Hazardous Materials incident on Halloween so overall we had um two structure fires a double house boat fire a vehicle fire a cooking fire and two full arest you know within our call volume that month um includ and also the water search and the Hazmat incident so there a lot of um you know significant calls that went on in the month um just a couple comments on the Eighth Avenue fire so that initially dropped as an oven fire contained to the oven and I think it was 73 seconds later approximately that um it dropped to a a structure fire flame shown and people trapped so you know it went South in a hurry but um you know when we got there we set up um Newport engine one got there and um Captain wood and his crew were able to um open up the entryway door there was Heavy Fire coming out I don't know if you seen the pictures or the structure you can see the flame pattern coming out of that door um they were able to knock it down enough that Captain me and his crew were able to push by them get down the stairs and um attempt to get into the fire unit um they met extremely heavy fire smoke and heat conditions down there but uh I mean through determination they were able to push through that get into the fire unit and start making progress on the fire so um you know uh engineer lovren running the truck did fabulous job got water right away St Paul Park engine was a quick follow and they secured water supply to our engine so I mean you know no laps in water it went basically Flawless you know their um aggressive attack you know I mean the buildings you know heavily heavily damaged but you know through their termination and aggressive attack they were able to save you know some belongings for the residents and then also there's buildings that were really close by to that um one 10 ft away so you know we were able to save the exposures to that as well um we also had Lake Elmo Hastings and Woodburry at that fire for us and Cottage Grove EMS right any questions on that one well I save his time smoke detector change your batteries yep yep yep we posted that uh last weekend so hopefully everybody did that and then the Hazardous Materials incident so we got called to the recycling center for a white powder that ignited when it was dumped out of a trailer onto their tipping floor and came in contact with water so um when I arrived there was um recycling center staff inside with n95 masks on um trying to extinguish the fires in the various piles ended up being two semi- trucks that dumped in there that both had the same item in it um once the recycling center wasn't able to identify what it was I pulled everybody out the workers are firefighters and activated the Statewide Hazmat plan uh let's see here so St Paul Hazmat arrived they were I mean it was pretty quick it was like 20 minutes and we had a HazMat team um two trucks in a lab so they spent a half hour 45 minutes um running a sample of the product through their lab they identified it once it was identified then we put together a plan um a St Paul Hazmat operator actually dawned protective gear and worked a frontend loader while Newport fire units extinguished it so had Cottage Grove EMS check out the workers everybody you know appeared good nobody need a transport and you know again you know that one was a little little slower action cuz you know unlike a structure fire where you're going in right away trying to be quick a hazardous materials in incident you're really stepping back right and trying to figure out what you have and sometimes it's right some times you know it would have been fine but that was an U an incident where going in would have been a mistake so well thank you for that report I you know to hear the variety of things that you responded to in October and the variety of skills and the depth of understanding needed to approach all these different types of incidents you know I just I appreciate so much the training that our our paidon call firefighters go through and they're you know on call service to the community and they are trained like a full-time firefighter um there's nothing different between their training and someone who works full-time for the city of St Paul or the City of Minneapolis and and it's it's great to hear tonight about how well that's serving us from airboats to hazardous materials to you know people trapped to um just to going to the elementary schools for fire prevention week I mean you're just really you really ran the gamut um in in October um so thank you and and thank you to the crews as well yep no I appreciate that the the guys do train hard and you know we one of the trainings we had in um October is we were invited to train with cottage grow fire at the East Metro training facility so we had live live fire training with our mutual partner Cottage Grove as well great so busy busy yep um questions for chief Wy okay thank you thank you so much um NE we next we have the engineers report so I assume we'll do the sanitary sewer manhole and leral replacement I'd be happy to Mayor okay thank good evening uh members of the council uh we'll uh yeah we'll start with Item B on the agenda the sanitary sewer manhole and lateral replacement project uh I'm pleased to uh announce that they are uh completely finished digging on the project and all of the uh all the excavation sites have been patched uh most of the uh Boulevard restoration is complete aside from some of their staging areas need to get a little bit more restoration work done so we are uh we're ready to uh um consider this project substantially complete uh there is a certif or certificate of substantial completion in your packet for consideration uh we're setting the date for that as uh October 25th which was the last day that they finished up Paving uh also in your packet for consideration is partial payment application number four uh the revised contract amount after approved change orders for this project was 1,457 3638 uh to date the contractor has completed just over uh $1.2 million of work so less the uh previously paid amount the uh PM is requesting uh $247,800 and 32 uh I'd be happy to stand for questions on the project otherwise looking for uh a council uh motion to approve the substantial completion as well as payment partial payment number four any questions for John hearing none I'll accept a motion to approve can I ask a question sorry I was slow I'm doing the math on the Fly here um the previously paid plus the amount being requested don't add up to the 1.2 plus million or am I just good at fast math here well 259 plus 247 is that what you're I'm looking at this 959 plus 247 is something short of what 1.27 I think but there's retainage to of 63 well and if that's maybe that's the answer and I believe that is the answer okay less 5% all right the way the words were done okay that that must be the answer John I apologize for give me I'll make it more clear next time no no it's it's I'm the one that missed the less 5% so I'll be glad to make the motion to uh thank you we go ahead with partial payment application number four I'll second thank you you have a motion from council member chap Delan and a second from council member ingan any further discussion all those in favor say I I I those opposed the payment is approved so if we go ahead with the substantial completion certific ific but the 5% when do that eventually so we would uh we'll probably hold a portion of that retainage uh through the winter so we can uh dress up any sparse areas of Boulevard Restoration in the spring uh we likely won't hold over the entire 5% because that would be in excess of the work that they uh have left to do so it'll generally be 1 or 2% that will will hold over um we would likely have another partial payment application uh at your next month meeting and then you can expect to have a reduced amount of retainage there at that uh at that time okay all right so we'll probably hold somewhere in the you know $20,000 range you know enough to keep them motivated to come back a lot of grass seed yeah okay well a couple times in the last month or two I've commented on my concern about the streets and the Damage I mean they really got their butts kicked with all the big equipment these guys had in town but they did a um a very good job along with Matt's crew I think helping and doing some of the small patch and then couple different Crews doing the big patch they did a nice job and and we kind of our morning walk routine is 90% of the project so I'm probably looking at it as much as you guys are so I was pretty happy to see how it all came back together in the end of October there so who knows great and with that I'll make a motion for the uh certificate of substantial completion as well do we need a motion for that too to adopt that accept that if you would that would be great okay thank you I would have done that first if I'd known okay so we have a motion from council member chap Delan and a second from council member ingan to accept the certificate of substantial completion any questions or discussion all those in favor say I I those opposed that is also accepted that was me making the motion on the payment before the completion it's my fault no no that's that was fine um John do you have anything else you want to report at this time otherwise we will move on I do not mayor but happy to stand for questions okay seeing none I will move on to the superintendent of Public Works report uh good evening mayor Elliot and council members I have nothing formal this evening um I do have two announcements and then I'd be happy to stand for any questions okay um the first one is is that we expect to have a soft opening next week for the dog park we're finishing up a few um touches that and it won't be complete complete I mean we'll need some grass to grow and that kind of stuff but um it'll be usable anyways um we'll still we are still waiting on the uh sign um you know the big sign and we haven't gotten a a hard date on that so as soon as we do we will uh we'll let you know and then the other part is as you've probably noticed the both Fire Halls are down um but there's still parking lot curbs some of that work to uh to to take place yet and the and the utility disconnection um for the water and sewer Services uh which the rain has kind of held them up a little bit but they anticipate being done by uh this time next week so okay with that I'd be happy to entertain any questions okay questions for Matt looks like we're good thank you thank you um we'll move on to the administrator's report uh mayor members of the council uh no updates for tonight but I'd be happy to stand for questions do you want to talk about whether we're open on Monday or not we will be closed on Monday it is Veterans Day and uh we'll be closed for Veterans Day um so yeah send all the emails you want they'll respond on Tuesday we might even respond on okay we have a few more minutes here so I will move on to council comments um at this time uh one thing I would like to ask if you have um ice skates at home that you're no longer using uh and are willing to donate uh those to be used up at our ice rink at Loveland please drop them off at City Hall uh we allow people to use skates at no charge and we rely on donations from the public for that and they're always looking for smaller size skates for kids as well as some uh sizes for parents as well so don't don't worry about the condition they're in don't worry about what color they are um just feel free to drop them off we have a volunteer who sharpens the skates for us each year and so it would be great if people could do that um I also uh want to mention as well just uh we had an election earlier this week some people had their candidates win some people had their candidates lose um I think that's all part of the process I want to congratulate those who won whether it was local state or national and I want to thank those who ran and and didn't uh win their particular seat or office you know you play an important role in democracy and it's very important that we have people who are interested in pursuing these kinds of positions and I know it's a lot of work to put yourself out there but I do want to thank candidates um on both sides of whether you you successfully you know are advancing into office or not just thank you all very very much um and uh with that uh I think I had a quick tour not a well it wasn't really not a quick tour but we were over at the recycling and energy center last week along with officials from Dakota County they are looking at um partnering with our Recycling and energy center here in Newport for some services so it was interesting to hear their questions and what they were trying to learn before they made a decision on uh the partnership with that I will uh send it over to council member ingan I have nothing at this time council member ch I'm just going to mention we had the volunteer dinner last what was that Wednesday yeah so was nice event as always yeah and well attended and you did a nice job another one thank you I always get a little nervous about that council member Taylor you missed the grand opening of the Red Rock two well I try to leave some things for other people our new apartment by the transit station opened here it's about 51 units I believe y um so that's open and being being leased out right now and on that same theme of Transit there is the Met Council has a network now a Transit plan that includes hopefully bringing new service to the trans station and public comments on that can be made until November 15th so another week to make public comments put a met transit.org Network now council member SAR yes I also attended the grand opening of the Red Rock and the volunteered dinner and went to the library and they had a pumpkin painting event for the kids of the neighborhoods and it was very well attended and the mayor and the administrator and myself had a crosswalk crosswalk discussion on uh 7th Avenue that we've had some comments from Neighbors about and I've got some information here from the uh librarian and upcoming events November 20th is the 135th anniversary of the Newport library and there's going to be an event on the 20th at 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 the Girl Scouts are going to be there with a very short program there is also a book challenge that's available for anybody to attend we're planning to read 135 books and we've already read 90 and it can include adults so if you want to participate in that significant event go down and work with Sarah Marie and then coming up in December the holiday review and Artisan assembly this is an event that's been going on for quite a quite some time and from 1 to 4: local vendors are being contacted we've had people come in from Newport and other other places they're selling Christmas gifts there's going to be some exciting new talent for the talent show including an author talk I won't tell who it's going to be it'll be a surprise for you to enjoy and anybody interested in participating in the popup talent show again contact the librarian I've enjoyed participating in that Community event for several years now so feel free to come and enjoy the afternoon other other questions check in with uh Sarah Marie there's also on Thursdays at 10 o00 there's a coffee event down at the library so those are many things that are happening at our library and Community Center please take advantage of that thank you very much bill so the time is now uh according to uh the computer is uh 5:54 we won't be starting the presentation for the public hearing until 6 o' so at this time I would like to make a motion for a brief recess until 6 I'll make that motion thank you do we have a second sure we're not all those in favor say I those opposed we are in recess until 6 o' e e e e e e e e e so I'd like to call the uh meeting back to order and at this time uh we will start our public hearing the process I use for public hearings is we have staff do a presentation on the project I then have Council ask any questions that they have on the project and um John answers those questions and then we open the floor up to members of the public to come and speak and ask their questions when you do speak I'll ask you to come to the podium state your name and address for the record and then to just State your concern or question or the whatever you'd like a little more information on so with that I will hand it over to John thank you mayor uh good evening again uh my name is John hergan I'm the city engineer for the City of Newport uh tonight we're having a uh an improvement hearing for our 2025 Street and utility improvements project uh we're we're very excited to uh take this step this is our uh number one priority project uh utility uh project uh within the city uh so this is the uh first uh formal hearing where we're looking for uh public participation and uh public feedback on the proposed improvements uh we'll be uh talk or we'll we'll start with just a short introduction on the assessment uh what assessments are and where we are in that process we'll review the project area the proposed improvements uh the uh total or the total project cost summary uh assessments and then uh what the next steps looks like if the uh project is to move forward then as the mayor uh mentioned we can uh we'll address the council questions and then open that public hearing where where folks can provide their their testimony so the uh uh special assessments this is a uh a a statute that allows cities to uh to impose a uh a assessment on a particular uh piece of property that benefits from a public improvement process uh the statute is uh Minnesota statute statued 429 uh and the uh where we are right now is the the city has completed a feasibility study for these improvements this identified what the uh the scope of the uh improvements uh would look like in accordance with the city's uh the city's standards uh as well as put together uh preliminary costs for these improvements uh we uh the the council uh deemed the uh uh feasibility study and the project necessary and cost effective so tonight we're holding that first of two public hearings uh to solicit uh Community feedback we will be holding if the the project does move forward there will be a second uh improve or uh public hearing the assessment hearing where the uh formal uh assessment amounts uh would be identified for each individual property tonight we'll provide an estimate of those uh assessment uh rates uh but they are not formalized until that assessment hearing so this is our our project area specifically we are looking at Second Avenue uh between 17th Street down to 15th Street uh Third Avenue from 21st Street down to 16th Street and 17th Street uh from 3rd Avenue to the uh to uh Cedar Lane and then ultimately to the to the Mississippi River all told we have about 83 properties that uh have sewer and water services to the uh that uh will be improved as part of this project and overall there's roughly about 100 properties that uh will be uh receiving benefit some of the uh improvements that we are proposing uh for second and third Avenue uh it's currently a rural section by that I mean there's uh uh just uh no curban Gutter and uh and just a payment section buted up to the uh Boulevard grass our our improvements would be to widen the road out to a 28t section this allows for two travel Lanes as well as a 4-ot shoulder uh for people to uh um that would allow for a vehicle to be parked and then still uh have uh uh cars get around that especially emergency vehicles as I mentioned we'd be adding curban gutter as well as storm sewer to the uh to the streets to convey uh to convey storm water be adding concrete driveway aprons to delineate the driveways um for each property that uh abuts the street uh we'll be replacing in uh the entire extent of the water M the valving and hydrants uh within uh second and third Avenue uh be replacing the entirety of the sanitary sewer uh including the sanitary manholes this the mains and we also are upsizing uh the sanitary sewer on SEC a portion of Second Avenue as that area receives um the majority of the uh Wastewater flow from the east side of uh 61 as well as the uh as well as north of the the interstate and that's uh it's currently uh um an area of a bit of a bottleneck and then lastly we'll be replacing all of the water and sewer services to each home within the right of way on 17th Street it's uh it's a similar Improvement although some of the buried infrastructure is still in pretty good shape uh so we we won't be replacing any of the sanitary sewer between uh Cedar and First Avenue uh but we will be replacing sanitary sewer between 2 and third and then the water m is is actually in uh uh very good shape so we're not going to be replacing any of that uh potentially replacing the uh the Force main um going from the 17th Street lift station up to 2 Avenue uh the major improvements for 17th Street is adding storm sewer which will be the conveyance for the local uh storm sewer on second and third Avenue to get out to the uh Mississippi River uh so we uh are planning to uh reduce the width of 17th Street from uh its current 32t uh width down to a 28t width to accommodate that storm sewer and overall reduce the amount of uh runoff that uh uh that occurs within that that corridor this is a uh a typical section uh this is the city's standard typical section for the um for the Improvement um uh so the overall uh withth of the pavement uh as I mentioned will be 28 ft so forgive me the uh if you're uh doing the math at home that's only 25 ft uh so that should be for the asph for the yeah um for the asphalt and then the uh and then the curb width uh uh provides that 28 I think that's actually supposed to be 14t uh no you're right yeah 25 and then a foot and a half for the curb thank you Matt and then so we do add in a crown so that we can get drainage off of that pavement into the gutter line and then the some of the challenges with uh second and third Avenue in particular is it's very flat and uh and I'm sure as folks know that the water kind of sits on the edge of that pavement uh and doesn't move north or south it just waits till it can infiltrate in our goal with this project is to uh introduce some grade to the uh to the street so we can get water to flow in in uh either direction so it does not sit in the uh Boulevard and then uh introduce that uh storm sewer to uh uh to take that water back over to 17th Street and then out to the Mississippi River so so we'll just run through quickly this is uh Third Avenue so this is the uh the green line there is the uh is the sanitary sewer that runs uh north to south and the blue line represents that water M again we're replacing both of those Utilities in their entirety uh as well as each service that goes up to the uh uh properties this is actually uh a replacement so we are going to be essentially replacing those facilities right where they are now the the majority of these utilities were constructed back in the mid1 1960s uh the sanitary sewer is a clay pipe uh which is very susceptible to groundwater infiltration which adds to the city's uh uh Wastewater uh output to the uh to the regional treatment facility and increases the uh uh the Wastewater cost for all the individual users so part of the part of the the goals for this project is to create a watertight sanitary sewer system to try to eliminate that groundwater infiltration the water M uh that was also uh constructed in the uh mid 1960s and constructed out of a cast iron pipe which is a fairly brittle and the uh the city experiences quite a few water main breaks uh not only in this area but uh throughout town on the uh on the cast iron pipe so we'll be replacing that with with ductal iron pipe which has a lot more um flexibility and less susceptible to those water main brakes I think you these will look very similar as we uh kind of tap through these this is Second Avenue again we're looking at the uh uh full replacement of water and water man and sanitary sewer on 17th Street this is the area of that uh the sanitary sewer is currently lined and in good shape so we're not going to re be replacing sanitary sewer uh between Cedar and first but we will be replacing it here between uh uh second and third Avenue the water main throughout is actually all ductal iron uh constructed back in the late 80s so we feel that that has a uh plenty of life and usability left so we're not going to replace that uh the Force main um which isn't shown on the map here comes from this uh lift station down here on Cedar and 17th up to 2 Avenue and that is uh we're going we're going to be evaluating the condition into that pipe and and potentially replacing it the new utilities is are primarily storm sewer so those are shown as kind of the the pink lines on the uh on the sheet we're looking at Third Avenue now so we're going to be extending uh a storm sewer collection system along the uh entire block on 3rd Avenue between 17th Street and 20th Street with adding colle or uh additional collection at the intersection of 20th uh this does uh two two or captures two primary goals to again provide drainage to the budding properties but also relieve some of the uh the storm water that goes down 20th Street and eventually out to 21st Street uh that system right now is approaching its capacity and we wanted to make sure that we can alleviate some of that for future growth in in that area then on Third Avenue south of 17 Street uh we'll have just a small amount of storm sewer on the very south end that will be connected to the existing 16th Street storm sewer and then but also do or uh install uh collection devices in that intersection of third and 17th eventually going out to the Mississippi River on Second Avenue again we're kind of splitting that section of the project uh north to south where we're having a small amount of the uh of storm sewer on the North End that goes to 17th Street a little bit larger of a of a collection system going down to 16th Street on either side of or either side of 16th Street the uh our motivation to minimize the amount of storm sewer that we install is because we have fairly High Bedrock as I'm sure uh many of you are aware if youve tried to put in a fence or dig a basement the uh the Bedrock is in some cases within a couple feet of the surface and that's uh fairly expensive to remove and put in these uh sewer lines our our preliminary cost estimates do include a a considerable Rock excavation but through our design process we will try to minimize the uh the amount of that rock that needs to be to be replaced then lastly on 17th Street this is where a lot of that new storm sewer will be directed toward down 17th Street and then we replacing a uh an existing outfall to the uh to the Mississippi River uh we are also planning on where that pipe uh discharges to the Mississippi River to put in a a flap valve to uh to prevent water during uh high high water periods or flood conditions in the Mississippi River prevent that water from creeping back up into the uh storm sewer the cost of all these improvements is a little north of 8 Mill ion dollar uh so we have those broke down into the different utilities the street water main sanitary sewer and storm sewer um and the the city is uh is utilizing a a combination of Grant funds um that we received for to reduce uh inii or infiltration groundwater infiltration into the sanitary sewer system uh also assessments that we'll talk about in a moment as well as some of the the Enterprise funds associated with each of those facilities city is also in the process of getting or pursuing additional grants for storm water additional uh inii grants and potentially uh some Appropriations from uh from the state legislature the assessment rates and what I'm sure many are uh most interested in are the are displayed on this map so we have identified uh again four different utilities that are uh that provide benefit to the abing properties uh each property that's shown with a red circle would be identified as a street assessment uh in the amount of $7,000 estimate the uh water and sewer uh are displayed as blue and green respectively at about $3,200 and the storm sewer uh is $2500 uh and those some of those areas as you can see are not necessarily AB buding the uh the physical Street Improvement but the the presence of that storm sewer will provide benefit to those properties to alleviate some of the uh localized flooding in that area we can jump back to that if needed during the conversation but this table uh shows a summary of those proposed uh uh the the cost of the of the different facilities and then the units that are associated with those uh with receiving benefit from those utilities the city has a policy or their local Improvement policy uh states that the uh assessments should account for approximately 20% excuse me a minimum of 20% of the local Improvement uh but we can't exceed the benefit that the um that the improvements uh provide to to the property so the city has hired a uh an appraiser to perform a benefit appraisal on the for the Improvement that will help the city council uh guide these assessment amounts they will uh that appraisal will will identify what benefit the property has or receives by the uh by these improvements and you can see that last uh that last row uh we're generally right around that 20% based on the those proposed assessment rates again those uh those assessment rates are preliminary at this time and wouldn't be finalized until we have uh the benefit appraisal and have a uh the project bid should that project move forward and as I mentioned you'll notice that a few of those storm the reason these storm uh units are higher than others is because the uh uh some of those uh some of those storm uh assessed properties are not immediately abing the the street improvements so next steps moving forward uh we're having this first of two public hearings tonight we will be uh soliciting feedback uh from Property Owners shortly uh the council May order the Improvement uh at the at this meeting uh if the Improvement is ordered uh we will begin the design of these improvements uh right away um uh this month with an anticipated uh bid uh time frame of about April looking at starting construction in May and then with uh with uh a completed construction sometime in October November of next year uh that assessment hearing that I've mentioned will likely be held uh toward the end of construction in that October or potentially November time frame o I got some contact information uh for folks that's on there uh I'm on the I'm on the top so if you want if you have questions following this hearing please feel free to reach out and then as the mayor mentioned uh after we um after we address Council questions uh we'll open up the hearing uh if you have uh uh feedback that you'd like to uh provide to the council uh please approach the podium and state your name and address and then after we've hear all the testimony we'll close the the uh hearing and then the uh Council will consider uh ordering this Improvement thank you John um questions from the council John do you know if we get State bonding funds and the state doesn't approve the bonds until the end of the session like May 19th the last day of session next year and we've already accepted a bid can we use those bonding dollars to help offset costs for this project even though we've already accepted the bids I believe um that it is when you incur the cost not when you commit that cost okay um I'd have to verify that to be certain but I I believe that you can't incur the cost until you or you can't get reimbursed for those costs until they are incurred incurred and so long as it's approved prior to that we could apply it towards this yes but there is there is a period of time between when if a bonding bill is to be passed that the uh agreement would be in place that that takes some time so okay uh there you know we we would have to look at that closely to see what uh uh what improvements are still left to be done that would be eligible for reimbursement uh after that agreement gets signed okay thank you any other questions I think just um I think it's hard to listen to an engineer because a lot of it it took me a long time to kind of be able to follow all the stuff that John was talking about but you know the management of storm water is important for flooding and it's important for how we control how the water gets to the river and it's not just rushing over Lawns and yards and picking up whatever debris and you know whatever fertilizer you're putting on your Lawns or herbicides you're spraying none of this is healthy um for the river so that's one of the reasons storm waterer management is important and it's one of the reasons when we talk to the state or I talk to our federal uh Representatives about funding for this as we talk about the environmental impact of of what this water is doing and being on a bluff like we the water runs pretty fast once it hits um you know working east to west in Newport so it's a little bit different than cities that are a little more level John also mentioned the Bedrock that also means that there's really no place for the water to go because once it hits the rock it just heads straight to the river there's nothing for it to absorb into um as far as some of the sanitary sewer lines they have done video of the lines to determine what kind of a project this needed to be and some of those sewer lines as he mentioned were clay pipes that were laid inside each other where we have a pipe that initially installed went like this and today is going like this which means when you're taking a shower or washing the dishes or using the toilet that water is not flowing properly through the sanitary sewer line so this is important that we get this fixed you know these were installed uh these lines were installed in the 60s um we've done very similar work uh kind of in that block block and a half two block area closest to the river so we are which is where we anticipated the worst of our water and sewer problems to be we're now working a little bit further to the east um to continue to tackle some of these problems and I just I wanted to take a minute to try to put some of this into lay terms that we aren't just going down to do this because gosh it's been since 1965 so we should do it we've actually got video of uh rainwater just gushing into our sewer system um again pipes that aren't aligned what they call root intrusions meaning the roots have cracked through the pipes and are blocking um the water flow so and once we've dug down we're going to look at everything you know we're look at Water and Sewer and when we're rebuilding the road we're going to add storm water to it to manage that so that's kind of you know that's kind of how I think of it in like I said in kind of lay terms as to what we're doing and and why we're doing it and why there's a need there for it so uh council member inamin we're charged by the mpca Yeah by the water that they process if it's clean water we'll still charged for it in other words we're being in charged a whole lot of money for clean water or rain water we' like to get it fixed yeah yeah so when rain water goes in through these cracks in the um sewer pipes as well so we're processing that as if it's dirty water well we all know rain water is fine it can go on the lawn and we can use it in our rain Gardens and our flower beds and and all of that um but a lot of it and by that uh you know our worst incident I think was was it three million additional gallons I think it was three million additional gallons and uh which represents about 10 times what the normal uh normal flow is yeah our normal flow uh was right around 400,000 gallons a day and in a 24-hour period I think they did uh 3 million gallons of water were processed out of Newport so we know we've got a significant problem we're trying to you know slowly resolve that we continue need to look for additional funding I also um which would help bring down some of the costs on this hopefully will help a little bit with the assessments but we would have to um wait and see if we're successful with with those requests um and that's been sort of a two-year process building to this and also John mentioned this benefit analysis um for those who are assessed per unit on all four items John shows here the 15,900 if the benefit analysis comes back and says well the maximum benefit to the household is $122,000 that becomes the maximum amount that we can assess so a couple numbers are you know lots of things are still kind of in play so that's why this is a preliminary hearing on this and this is why you know John is doing I want to say high-end estimates um to make sure that there's no surprises on the other end we hope the surprises are good answers um for everyone but but we do have things rolling in the background to try to help um with the assessment on this so I think uh anything any other followup from the council after that mayor May yes um there is a private inflow and infiltration grant that will be applying for I think it's November 27th uh there's also a storm water grant through the mpca that will be applying for on November 22nd um and then there's also uh potential help from The Watershed in particular so these are all additional funds that we're going to try to secure uh in frankly the next couple weeks in order to to try to help with some of these costs so yeah and we have over $4 million um currently being requested between the state and the federal government uh to help with this as well again it's all you know it's all really up in the air and it you know takes it's an act of Congress to get the 1.5 million and it's an act of the state legislature to get the 2.85 million that we've applied for um we're always hopeful but uh you know remains to be seen at this time um so I think with that uh it's I will open the public hearing the current time is 6:27 so those who would like to speak um feel free to come up to the microphone again to state your name and address for the record ask questions or comments or hi my name's k I live at 1777 3rd Avenue I just have a couple of questions when you are stating that you're going to widen the streets are you doing it east west or what side of the Street's going to be widened great question and I should have addressed that early on uh we we generally align the streets down the center of the right of way so the right of way in this area is about 60 ft wide so in most cases the road is currently centered in the in the right of way so we would be widening it on each side now there could be some exceptions to that you there are several very lovely trees that we would like to preserve uh not to say that we can completely design around to save a trees but that's where we'll go in and we'll put in our our best fit alignment to try to to try to minimize that that disturbance and well met console finally I mean how are we going to see a reward in this for our water bills ever I mean I think the answer to that question is yes and no and I'm just these are not accurate numbers so don't quote me on this and look I'm on camera saying this but let's say it cost $10 million to run the Met Council you know way sweater treatment as we fix our problems it still cost $10 million to run it other cities are also fixing their their inflow and infiltration problems so they still need a certain amount of money to make it operate if we don't fix these problems they have a capacity issue which means they have to build bigger plants and so that they can manage all this extra water that comes in so that is a cost that you're still going to continue to be assessed so some of it is yes you see a little bit of reduction but what you're seeing is not an increase because we're adding so much more water into the system that doesn't need to be treated does that make sense yeah but I'm you know my water bill is over $250 for two people yeah I mean it's ridiculous but anyhow um anyway one more question I thought I read somewhere that there was help for seniors over 65 that there was a form or something you could fill yes um do you have that form yes if you want to stop by City Hall we have an application and you just have to show us your ID okay that's it thank you you're talking water you're talking about this on the assessment the senior discount for your utility bill no I know that I'm talking the assessment assessment because that's a different question so I can I can address the assessment question so uh there is a opportunity for uh for a deferment of the assessment and there are qualifications uh one being uh uh someone over the age of 65 uh on mil active military um deployment or retired by virtue of disability now those are we'll discuss that in more detail at the assessment hearing that is a deferment meaning that you know once we die it'll have to be paid um yeah once the once the uh qualification ends or once yeah then it would need to be paid and there there is interest that that follows that okay thank you thank you kay um next hi Justin Campell 16202 Avenue uh just want to say John good presentation appreciate the work um so on slide six the infrastructure replacement example I see the grade is roughly 4% to get it to the street a lot on Second Avenue on especially the west side of the road is a lot of negative grade so what's going to be the solution for that well you you're identifying one of the major engineering challenges uh the 4% is you know I I clip this out of our our standard so I don't see us achieving 4% I think uh we're going to try to get 2% drainage across uh Boulevard areas maybe a little less unpaved areas um but in order to do that we are likely going to have to lower the road um but uh the same the with a Bedrock situation we want to keep that to a minimum because the less bedrock in some cases even lowering it six inches will get into Bedrock so I I guess to answer your question we are going to do a lot of uh a lot of finesse in the alignment to try to drop those um drop the uh Road Prof file to allow water from the from the front yards and driveways to drain when we do our survey we actually and you'll be seeing uh um potentially our surveyors coming through the area here soon we go and we we survey right up to the garage door so we know that whatever we design for a road we know what that grade of the entire driveway is not to say that we're replacing the entire driveway but we'll make sure that that um that we have positive drainage if we don't have positive drainage then you know we have to we have to look at other Alternatives okay I thank you you did remind me of one other thing I failed to mention during the presentation when we were when we get about 60 to 70% done with our plans uh we we usually have an open house or another setting little less formal uh where we can roll out full-size plans and uh myself and our design Engineers can go through on an individual basis with folks and look as specifically at your property and see what's happening review some of the information that we have tonight uh overall information but really dive into some of those details that we probably don't see when we're looking at this uh on paper that uh folks that obviously live there uh know a lot more about it not saying we can accommodate everything but we can certainly solicit that feedback who else would like to speak good evening good evening my name is Mark Noble I live at on Third Avenue in 1999 uh and I have an apartment that's available now and I'm just that's an aside of course kind of the fin thing but I'm wondering about the access to parking being able to uh uh yeah that's the main question dur during construction during construction yeah so uh it's challenging uh this it it will be and I know several members of the council have uh have endured these Street improvements projects in the past speak to that uh it's it's going to be a challenging summer of construction sure what we uh uh require of our contractor is that we allow people to access their driveway at the end of the day and to leave their driveway in the uh in the morning um during the day we can certainly work with with folks to get them in and out um especially those with uh you know some uh Mobility challenges or if we have certain appointments that that need to be taken place we can work with them to the best of our ability some of these utilities are you know 15 to 18 feet deep so when we have an 18 foot deep hole outside of your driveway that's going to make it pretty challenging but we have uh we have project Representatives that are that are on site working with with property owners great getting into the parking question here just in a second you're doing a good job uh so as far as uh we there wouldn't be any on street parking where there is active construction um you know we will have you know these are going to be long you know long linear projects where you know parking may be available on on uh on side streets whether that's you know kind of East on 17th or over on 4th um it's it'll be challenging because our street there has all that whole commercial thing there right yeah right across from you uh so I don't know if that space that's adjacent to tcis is if that would be available or otherwise it's along the uneffective thorough far is yeah and I and I think that's a it's a great suggestion that you know it's obviously a privately owned you know parking area but I mean through our conversation and and Outreach to the um to those owners we could certainly look at that as seeing if that would be something that they would be uh agreeable to thank you yeah thank you Mark um council member chapalain was just asking about not decimating the parking area at fire station one to have that available for people well they said they were't teared out I mean it's right oh really most of it's already gone oh could be class 5ed and cleaned up a little bit can for temporary parking next year well the part of the contract is the top soil and seed that entire thing to meet the Watershed requirements oh okay right but okay just you it's summer it's not a horrible to PL Park half a block from your house if we're dealing with this that's why yeah thank you who else would like to speak I mean I know nobody really wants to be on camera and speak but hi I'm Angela G I live at 16992 Avenue um I do have a coup of questions about the um I know you've been talking about a lot of Grants and that there's still some stuff in the work for applying now will those help with the assessment portion or is that separate completely separate that is our hope is to reduce the cost of the overall project so that we could have a positive impact on the assessments we can't take 100% of that money and apply it to assessments and certainly there will you know we'll have to have conversations you know as a council once we can kind of see the numbers and once we have that benefit analysis in you know that to me is really that's the point where we can really have some conversations about what kind of assistance do we want some of this outside funding to help with okay and my other question was on that um benefit assessment now is that done on each individual property it it's they they take a um a SEL number of properties usually approximately 10 or 10% of the overall properties and then they uh many of them are similar um you know sizewise you know there's not a great degree of fluctuation so they they take a average of those approximately 10 and determine what that uh value is based on that okay because I just know my property is located at the corner of 17th and second and I've got curbing in there already I've got you know so it's like we don't see huge mud puddles and water standing water so I'm wondering you know where is this at even maybe it's further down I guess um yeah that's all I was wondering because and I do want to say too that the 15 basically 16 Grand is just undoable I mean that's it's not where I'm a single parent household one income and you know the taxes I was just looking at my property taxes today since 2015 they've been they've doubled more than doubled just my regular property taxes so and especially within this economy I mean I'm hoping that maybe we things will get better within the next couple years but you know inflation is up 21.4% since 2020 I mean that that's across the board on goods and services so you know I'm wondering if we can wait on this project can we do it for cheaper in a year or two so I haven't seen the the projects go down um have you John uh we have not um and I guess what I guess what I would say in addition to that is and I and I certainly understand that the the $116,000 that's that's shown there is very significant amount of money um there uh part of that assessment project allows uh the city to take on that cost and then assess it over time as part of the as part of uh uh your property tax so that is spread out it's certainly not something that is a lumpsum payment by any means or something that you'd have to find uh financing for uh but that is that there is interest charged on that though isn't there there there is you're you're correct and so that that is a consideration now none of that has been decided at this point that again is something that we can get very specific details on at the assessment hearing should this project move forward okay thank you yeah thank you so much hello um thanks for your service by the way I appreciate people dedicating their time it's awesome yeah H just a couple quick questions have you guys thought about offering 4x4s for people your name and address oh yeah Steve Johnson 1625 2 Avenue thanks 4x4s are they accessible to get to our houses with the city pay for those just a kid just just just kidding all right everybody's kind of freaking out I can see it on your faces sorry series of new side by sides for every yeah exactly everybody second yeah everybody's like look kind of dumbfounded there for a second to be honest with you um so I have there's a couple dayc carees on uh Second Avenue so I'm concerned about that um when is the when would the shovel go in and when would the wrap it up cut the ribbon happen time frames exact time frames oo exact time frames is going to be hard for me but uh my my hope that you know obviously weather permitting generally we can get uh starting construction in the first few weeks of May first couple weeks of May okay and a project like this is going to it's going to be it's going to be big uh contractor is likely going to have to have multiple Crews working throughout the entire summer okay our hope would be that we be begin Paving toward the end of October uh the generally excuse me about mid October is when we wanted to start Paving we're pretty safe uh to go to about Halloween uh with Paving yeah a year like this seems like we're going to be able to go into Thanksgiving and beyond my hope would be that we would have everything complete by early November aside from some of the boulevard restoration uh again with the length of this project it's going to be difficult to actually get green grass growing uh this year so that would probably be something that we'd have to fill in on uh in 26 once the uh once spring comes around okay is this for sure a done deal is this for sure happening this is the Improvement hearing so it's not uh done deal until the council orders the Improvement which could potentially happen this evening after we hold this hearing okay all right okay all right thank you evening all um my name is Riley Nelson I live at 1955 Third Avenue in Newport and I have two lots and my properties are totally fenced in and one of the concerns I had was am I going to be assessed the same for a vacant lot other than the property that the house stands on and if they're going to I got an 8 foot gate out front and of my extra property if that's going to be accessible for me to use that because I do use that quite a bit for like in the fall this time of the year with leaves and everything else and run the trailer in and out and things like that I need to know if there's going to be an apron also for accessibility okay to that lot yes so our past practice has been that any buildable lot is an is eligible for an assessment um now if for instance if you have two lots and the house straddles those two lots where you couldn't physically build another home on the uh second lot then that would be considered one but if you have two separate lots that are buildable it would be two assessment okay I was told a long time ago since new city laws and stuff like that they're 60 foot lots and it has to be 80 foot for me to build on that in fact when they became available in back of me on Second Avenue I was thinking about buying two of them lots and they said that you could that I couldn't do it because they were 80s and I couldn't own property from Street to Street anymore I don't know if I can address the question about purchasing other property I I didn't think you could I guess what I would say is if if the lot is deemed that it's not buildable then you would not be assessed for it so through this process going into that assessment hearing we would work with the uh uh City staff and the city planner to determine if that lot is buildable um okay all right you had a second question in there about your access so if you are if that lot is assessed uh then yes we would put in an access uh because that is that is a portion of the benefit that you're receiving from that or that the property is receiving from that if if I'm going to well one of the things is is if I'm going to pay for the lot that I have the structure sitting on and I got that extra lot how does that work out am I going to get cut a discount because there's no structure on it or how is that going to work uh there's no discount the assessment is actually to the property itself not the uh not the building uh so it's uh the the lot itself is what's getting assessed so again if you uh if it's a buildable lot it would would be eligible for assessment at that point it would be we would if it is eligible for assessment it would be given access if it's not um then generally we have not put in multiple driveways to a single uh to a single property hey I don't care I got a I got a four-wheel drive pickup I'll go over the curb I don't care all right I just need to know but those are great questions when again if the project goes forward and we have that uh open house where we can look at plans that's the kind of feedback that we would really like to hear from people like I use this area to access X Y and Z exactly being able I don't want to see that closed off like that have ask us do it being able to incorporate those in the plans uh it's it's helpful that we don't have to make those field changes and certainly less expensive if we don't have to we don't to change things all right thanks thank you right just I mean I'll just kind of note that we there was like 5 years ago we did change from like 70 to 60 foot Lots as the zoning in that area too so it probably is buildable just hi I'm Sherry Das Russia 1645 2 Avenue um my question is I do daycare are my parents going to be able to drive in and out to get to my house I live in the middle of the block and it's gonna not going to work so I I will say that we will we will do our best to make sure that we can get in from one side or the other um it will I can't say that it's going to be able to drive into your driveway throughout the day every day um and I will say that it would be a um it would be not the same route every time sometimes we'll have to come in from the north sometimes we'll have to come in from the south sometimes we you know if they're working on one side of the road we can keep the other side passable uh and vice versa but as I mentioned before if we have to change if we when we're reconstructing the sanitary sewer right in front of your driveway there's there's only one way to do that and that's a really big hole okay trying to now that doesn't say that we uh that we can't get people to and from we just have to figure out a way how we how we do that whether it's you know how far you can drive in where can we you know where can we work within the right of way to get safe uh um to get safe transport between the where they where they can drive to and and your front door okay and so we're not going to be able to pull our cars into our driveways so they're going to have to be parked on side streets so will we have extra patrolling watching all those cars sitting on our side streets sorry our expectation is that you'll be able to pull in your driveway each night oh okay so not it's not once we you know once we put the shovel in the ground we're not asking you to vacate your driveways okay it's going to be a gravel road uh and and the gravel you know it's going to be a dirt road at times it's going to be you know muddy it's it's going to be very inconvenient uh but something that we we uh require of the contractor is they make the road passable at the end of each night unless there's something that is unforeseen that they they can't okay and at that point um luckily we don't have any dead ends on this road which makes it uh more challenging usually we can access from the from the North or from the south on this project but we would um we would set the expectation that they're able to have you know a passenger vehicle get through the construction site into your private driveway at the end of each day okay and we get to know your schedules too our project rep representatives and we get to know what what folks do uh including a daycare or there's two of us on that block so and and just just to be clear it would be typically like 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. roughly for the hours you know where it could be disturbed so can be longer can be shorter but just so you're not expecting you know 8 to 3 is is the only time of disturbance okay okay thank you would anyone else like to speak or ask questions well you're pondering that Tom and I both uh live on a dead end Street we had our road completely reconstructed um they put in water and sewer replace fire hydrants um raised the road by a foot so they brought in a lot of fill I think the only days that I could not use my driveway was for the curing of the apron at the end of the driveway uh connecting to the street and so being a dead endend challenging but still it was only a couple of days where they were like if you need to leave you need to get your car you know west of this part of the road so that you can you can take it out and we're going to need to you know be doing some work so you know the contractors did work really hard uh with the residents and uh John was around for that project and and John's quite experienced in working with contractors and kind of what kind of needs happen with people so we I see we have someone else at the microphone here so go ahead and give us your name and address uh Carissa Vasquez I live at 1655 2 Avenue so my concern is that we you guys said you guys are going to start from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. there's school buses there's kids that you know rides their bikes to school are you guys going to have any safety regulations for that because I know my boys they ride their bikes to school and I just want to know if they're going to be safe while they're riding it absolutely uh yeah so again we we uh we work with the school district uh right away uh during the design of the project we uh let uh uh we let them know where the extent of the project is going to be find out where the bus stops are that are uh in and around that area see if those bus stops are going to be impacted by by the uh construction now there's a nice 3mon block there where school isn't in session that we're going to try to make the most uh most of the excavation work um but that's not to say that there the construction site isn't going to be active when school's in session and it's going to be uh you know it's not going to be a um you know it's going to be an active site so making sure that we have a safe route for you know your children to leave their uh you know your driveway and get from your driveway through the site to wherever they're going is something that we will communicate uh to Property Owners usually we try to do a newsletter at least every uh every couple weeks perhaps with this project with the amount of uh uh you know the amount of work being done we can probably dial that up to maybe a weekly uh um a newsletter and then website updates to make sure that people know where the work is going to be taking place so you can have that conversation uh with you know with your kids to say okay we know that work's going to be happening here when you leave let's make sure that we go this way we also have again our Representatives we'll probably have uh one person full-time and another part-time here that are not only watching the construction making sure the contractor is doing everything that uh we're looking for them to do but also communicating with with property owners to say okay this is what you can expect here um in the next couple days we know that you're we know that your boys ride their bikes through here why don't we stay away from this area and you know our my contact information you know as well as our our field guys or contact information will be provided and we we encourage you when you have questions to uh to make sure that you uh reach out to us or if you have concerns like this is this doesn't look safe or I'm concerned about um you know this particular area of the site that that folks reach out to us okay and then also prior to one of the other neighbors they were saying that they have one income family my household is a one income family as well so that amount for my home the 16,500 we wouldn't be able to pay that um right now with everything so Rising the pricing everything you guys obviously know you guys live here too as well in Minnesota you guys know how everything's rising in every pricing so I was wondering would you guys be able to push it out cuz you guys seem like you guys are already stronghold on already agreeing to the agreement like what do you guys look at our view about pushing it out for a couple more years out cuz you guys waited so long already yeah yeah the the funding has a limited spend window you know when the state gives us money it's got to be spent within a certain window of time same thing with any federal dollars or other Grant dollars right and I know prior to that you guys said you guys have other grants you guys are going to be applying for in this month but then you're saying too at the end of the whole project you guys will reimburse us but once again I'm a one income and it's seasonal family like we don't have all year round where we have income coming in it's seasonal cuz my husband works in construction and it's only one person in our house working okay so we wouldn't be able to afford that much okay this is me assessment how long is it typically spread out years so you know it's 1, 1600 a year plus interest obviously just I mean I'm just trying to get you you know I know that's it's a you know 125 a month I'm just you know it is and it's the the council can so the uh the term has generally been a 10-year term with with assessments um there is a there at the council's discretion that that term can you know can change um but that's the assessment payments are with your are twice a year with your property tax uh statement it's generally May and October right unless they're making mortgage payments then it's monthly ESR y that is yeah if you're if you're making a mortgage payment it's paid monthly through your escrow that you uh your tax and insurance escrow that you have with yourage okay all right well thank you thank you for uh asking those questions who would like to go next me again Campell 16 202nd Avenue what would be the interest rate charged uh our policy is that it's uh 1 and a half% higher than the bond rate now we're not going to bond for this project so generally we've used the you know the current federal or the federal interest rate when that assessment rate occurs right now I couldn't tell you what that interest rate is it's usually I would say in the four to six% range yeah Council can uh correct me if the assessments that we just finished up with this year's project were 4% were they not that was the rate we chose for this project and we tried to keep it down now today ironically the FED dropped rates again that seems to be where we're going but this is the the interest rate is not a revenue stream for the community there's a certain cost to borrow money and process the money and we try to keep that interest rate right there just cover that expense and that's it so it'll be as cheap as we can make it now you got to remember that these guesstimates are on the high side that doesn't mean that you're going to get nailed for 16 Grand it's on the high side all right it's a guesstimate yeah I mean if it's in this is really no consolation but John's really rough number came in at 18,000 so now we're down to 159 so it's trending in a better Direction and again we're hopeful but um you know we're keeping an eye on those dollars as well and I appreciate people talking about that and how that's impacting your household um it's good for us to hear that as we make these decisions mayor coun member another consideration I think is that there are costs that we're going to be incurring if we do or don't do this because if we don't do it the amount of water going to the Metropolitan waste treatment plants is going to continue to be assessed to us and that's going to go up to so we'll be paying to treat this water that's going down there or doing this project the doing the project also gets us some leeway from the amounts that they increase the charges from the Met Council so as long as we're actively addressing the problem of the excess water going to the storm system they're a little more lenient to us correct but it but these are costs that we're going to have either we pay the money to fix the problem or we pay the money to deal with the problems or we get fined for not dealing with the problem yeah yes we get fin so it's a it's an issue that we've been looking at over 10 years and we're finally at the point with income and so forth that we're able to start to address it on behalf of the the residents and all of us as members on the council I believe have had this impact I I'm paying the assessment myself on project that that started a long time ago when this was just beginning so it's it's and as the other members have said this is not a money maker for the city it covers the cost we're able to get these re Revenue um income that we can assess this and and apply that to your property taxes on your behalf so thank you Bill on the latest Road Street Improvement projects how many contractors um solicited a bid yeah I they were they were very active I I want to say it was six to8 now our last Street improvements project like this uh was bid in 2020 uh so that was a little bit of a anomaly uh but we still had a lot of uh a lot of biders show interest and so we we did get good competitive bids then and we'd expect that a project that project was in the neighborhood of about million so this is almost three times the size so that does hopefully attract uh larger uh firms that have the capacity to take it on one and to Pro or to do the work uh efficiently which should help that drive down that cost thank you uh Steve Johnson 1625 Second Avenue um just a quick question are we talking Dynamite are we talking Jackhammer all day what are we talking here uh likely Jackhammer likely now yeah it I have to say likely cuz as soon as I don't I will regret it but okay generally we can uh the upper uh the upper portion of the Bedrock is weathered so you can scrape it with just a regular uh excavator bucket okay um but if you if folks were around for uh or saw any of that manhole and lateral replacement work that was was going on this summer and you and you heard that pneumatic uh hammer that's going to be a lot of this work now the water and sewer are already in place there's they've uh They removed all that rock back in the in the 60s the the primary Bedrock removal will be that storm sewer okay so our our goal is to keep that as uh minimal as possible but there will still be plenty is that is that pretty deep is that 16 ft eight what is but those the stuff you're talking about replacing how deep is that yeah it varies well yeah the probably the shallowest manhole we have is you know 78 ft and the deepest is in the neighborhood of 18 okay yeah and the Bedrock it varies it's uh it's actually varies pretty widely in some areas it completely disappears other areas it's within two feet of the surface okay so and we're we're going to pay attention to that too that when they when they put these uh Utilities in in the 60s they actually did a really great job of mapping out where the Bedrock was okay so we can use that and rely on trying to trying to fit the utilities in where the Bedrock isn't which is going to help balance and uh or save that cost okay one of my neighbors told me that Dynamite a few years ago her dad's toilet just blew up out of in the bathroom could that be true I mean I don't want we sitting on the toilet of all a sudden she goes up you know have you heard the city has the city has never used uh they've never blasted Bedrock we actually uh the county did some Bedrock blasting as part of the uh storm water ponds for the apartment buildings just north of here okay uh that was earlier this summer okay um so it blasting in a uh in kind of a a tight dense uh uh you know urban area isn't isn't something that we want to do unless we absolutely have to but you could potentially we could honestly I'd rather redesign the storm before I'd want to blast anything well that's good to hear yeah thanks give us notice if you do yeah hello I'm Elaine Nelson I live at 19553 um I have two questions one we have a sizable drainage ditch to the east of our street will that be gone we're talking between 20st 20th and 19th or 17th whatever that is new par Collision right behind where the garden is thank youf there's a nice ditch that grows tons of mosquitoes oh yes uh most likely yes okay uh the the only thing I can uh think of is we need to provide storm water management M so in some cases we can do a larger uh pond system but in in other areas we may do some rain Gardens uh in and around within the rain Gardens one thing a ditch that grows active mosquitoes is another uh very true um but in in some areas we have to you know the the Watershed has has new rules where if we we we used to be able to get away with if we just replace the uh pavement that's there we didn't have to do as much storm water treatment now regardless of what was there before if we put down impervious surface we have to treat that water so we are going to try to find some uh selective areas that we can put some of these rain Gardens in but uh there'll be much better problem the big problem with this ditch is it's plugged up and nobody ever cleans it up that'll be I know which one you're talking about you know exactly what I'm talking about Mar you seen part this the other question we have some really really huge cottonwood trees along that block are they in the easement or are they not in the easement uh I don't know that until I'm saying that with I hope I hope they're in the eement because I hate that tree it's throwing limbs at our cars and it is we can't do anything about it well that is another great discussion to have when we have that open house at that point we'll know we'll have our our alignment we'll know exactly where our road is going to be and then we'll know how far out we're going to have to grade to constru conu that road and then you can see where that grading limit is and if that grading limit is right by that tree and folks want to see that tree go away I I can't take them all out uh nor do I think anyone wants to because there's always a cost to everything but uh we can make decisions based on whether it's a nuisance tree or a or a a tree is in very sad shape and it keeps throwing things at us so it would be nice to be gone fair enough so thank you great thanks so much Chine next on that Tre yeah all right make note um who else would like to speak are there any questions we haven't addressed that you know people are thinking about or one that one that popped into my mind is mail delivery uh generally we set up a a a series of temporary mailbox clusters um so that you know for a project of this size we'd probably do four of them uh so mail service to your to your front door uh will be uh will be limited now with the uh with Amazon trucks and and other things they they Co we'll we'll get them in and out as best we can as well um that but the routine mail delivery is going to go to a mailbox cluster some folks like to kind of hold their mail at the post office and pick it up routinely there if if you don't feel comfortable having your mail mail delivered to that cluster but we try to do it uh well lit areas in uh where there is space for people to get in get their mail and get get safely out uh garbage delivery is another one where um you know when we can get the garbage trucks in great if we can't um we we ask folks to uh put their address on the receptacle um we've been uh We've we've learned that some some people are pretty protective over their receptacles so we make sure we give you back the right ones but if we can't get the garbage truck in there uh the guys on the crew generally haul them down to the end of the block the garbage pick picks them up and then we'll we'll get them back to your door so those kind of routine Services uh we do our best to keep those uh keep those um you know least interrupted as possible are questions or comments from anyone we missed anything the only thing I noticed when your guys were in my neighborhood this fall was that em he works for MSA that's a our engineering consultant and they're there all the time and their car is well marked and he's either walking amongst the construction gu doing his job with his MSA hat on or he's sitting in the car on his computer but he's easy to find he's easy to walk up and talk to and ask a question or bring up I got a doctor appointment two hours or whatever your issue is there they're they're on site you can find them you can talk to them you'll all be in a firstname basis with these people pretty quickly but um I I found the whole process I hadn't lived through one of these before and I found the whole process worked better than I expected so if that helps and I mean there's no fooling there's going to be some noise and it's going to be disruptive and and you know there's going to be times when water needs to be shut off because they're doing water M you know disconnect and reconnect and and I know I I managed my way through it by going it's going to be really great when it's done and just keep my eyes on the prize and and try to just know this is this is a couple of months that's not great I had neighbors who said they'd had a couple of their kids had been through Road reconstruction projects similar to this and they said we weren't very sympathetic you know we just didn't think it was so bad and they said now we really know that you know it's just more than just some trucks out on your road doing a little bit of work so you know we'll be realistic but I think you know they really do try to think through all of those things and and really do try to work with the neighborhoods and with the homebased businesses um to make sure everything is is getting done and like I said you know Tom and I are on a dead end and it somehow you really managed it pretty well um and when we lost water it wasn't I don't even think it was ever all day I mean it was pretty quick you know it was four or five hours um um but we had a heads up we knew it and um so pretty responsive uh from that respect but but no it's it's challenging and just try to remember it it will get better so any anybody else like to speak okay uh with that I will close the public hearing that time is 7:13 p.m. and so the public hearing is now closed uh with that John I will let you uh now address the council as to what steps you need us to take next so mayor members of the council uh there is a resolution in your packet uh resolution 202478 that would uh for consideration uh to order that Improvement and uh in order the preparation of plans and specs so I'm again happy to answer any questions but should you uh consider this uh um ordering the Improvement uh there's uh there's the proposal from MSA to complete that uh final design uh that would go along with that that resolution and aside from that I'm happy to answer questions okay any further questions from the council said you know one it was a little minor note on the slide like on 17th Street how that flows to the river I think you had it terminating out the main Channel I think currently the the it's in that you know it's more by the levy behind the fuel terminal you're not going out to the main channel are you we're we'll replace it right where it right where it is fig larger pipe but terminating at there plans on doing like a grit well you wouldn't have space for a grit chamber there would you well yeah we're probably going to have to utilize that right of way uh the 17th Street RightWay that terminates at the river it's about 30 ft wide so that's uh we're hoping that we can work with the wated to install a grid chamber similar to 15 Street 16 Street something the city is already maintaining so that would be kind of a continuation of of that effort and again hoping that they'll they'll come to the table with some uh some Financial Resources to help us with that no other questions you want to move this I'll make a a motion that we accept resolution 22478 resolution ordering the Improvement and preparation of plans and specs for project that's been articulated by staff thank you do I have a second second is that you so I have a motion from council member chapalain and a second from council member Taylor any further questions or discussion all those in favor say I I those opposed the resolution is adopted I'll make a motion for adjournment unless you want to do something else okay do you need the scope and fee proposal do we need to do anything with that uh I guess if there's a formal motion or otherwise the preparation of plans and specs would uh would cover that for you I believe would C okay okay with that I have a motion from council member Chapan to adjourn don't we have other things no we did them all we did them all Workshop next before 6 o' oh all right never mind second yeah so have a motion from council member chap to Lane in a second from council member Ingman to adjourn any conversation all those favor say I I those opposed were adjourned