e e e e e e e e good evening and welcome to the Newport city council meeting today is Thursday February 20th
2025 we'll begin the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation God indivisible
with liy and justice for will staff please call the role council member Schmidt here council member suar here council member Taylor here uh council member Ingam is absent and mayor Elliott
here next on our agenda is to adopt this evening's agenda do we have any changes to the agenda tonight hearing none I'll move to ad adopt second I have a motion from council member suar and a second from council member Schmidt to adopt the agenda as presented all those in favor
say I I all those opposed the motion the agenda is adopted next on our agenda is the state of the city address um so good evening to everyone and welcome to the 2025 City of Newport state of the city address tonight I'd like to talk about some highlights of newport's many
accomplishments in 2024 it was another highly productive and successful year I'd like to start with several projects that were completed in our Park system and new initiatives that are in the planning stages in June we celebrated the opening
of the newly updated Busy Beaver Park featuring expanded play structures designed to make help children improve their strength coordin balance decision making and creative play abilities we also installed the Ada accessible Turf beneath the equipment to
improve accessibility for all visitors this exciting renovation was made possible by a $100,000 donation from the St Paul Park marathon refinery in November we had the soft opening of the highly anticipated dog park this project was the second most
requested item from our 2021 Park survey with 71% support the dog park was also made possible through our partnership with Marathon Refinery because it's located on Refinery owned land this is a beautiful location with mature trees a
walking trail through the woods designated parking a water tap and several outdoor benches the countless paw prints in the snow serve as clear evidence of the Park's popularity and frequent use last fall we authorized a trail system study to evaluate potential Trail
connections and set priorities for linking our Parks business businesses and Community spaces as part of this effort the consultant gathered public input at Pioneer Day and the booya ensuring Community voic has played a role in the planning process later this year we will receive the final results
of the study last October we conducted a second Park survey to gather Community feedback and set new priorities for our Park system once again we partnered with a professional consulting firm who spoke to 250 randomly selected households this
approach gave us confidence that we were hearing from a broad crosssection of the community developing a Riverfront Park along the Mississippi River was resident's number one priority we also learned that expanding our highly used trail system was resident's second highest priority there's still strong
interest in modernizing playground equipment specifically at Loveland Park which came in third followed by adding more picnic areas and seating throughout the park system with these insights Council and staff will soon discuss addressing these priority items in 2025 and Beyond we'll have the consultant's
full presentation at our next council meeting we've also completed a concept plan for Cedar Lane for the Cedar Lane area envisioning it as a future park or open space this concept plan strengthens our grant applications and funding requests to support the development of
trails a canoe kayak launch a shelter parking and other amenities along the river next our community garden was featured in the May June issue of the league of Minnesota cities magazine this publication is sent to elected officials and staff in over 800 cities across
Minnesota this recognition provided wonderful and positive publicity for Newport and our community garden volunteers for their good work and success in 2023 we completed an area study for Hastings and 7th Avenues and
in 2024 we started to implement three of the 12 recommendations for business recruitment and retention the first included updating our zoning code market and Community forces have shifted since the last time the code was updated the current code leans on mixed use districts which can
be good for allowing a wide range of uses but can also lack Clarity it benefits developers and staff by having a code that is easier to understand interpret and apply the second recommendation from the study was better code enforcement code
enforcement is a tool to protect the safety and Welfare of a community it also establishes Community standards code violations negatively impact not only the immediate property but the properties around it the public perception and a developers perception
of the entire Community this can discourage developers and businesses from wanting to invest in Newport and this is why code enforcement not only addresses health and safety issues but is also key to our Economic Development efforts to attract more businesses into
Newport our third initiative as mentioned earlier is improving our pedestrian and Trail Network this is about connecting our Parks Regional Trails Elementary School City Hall and Commercial areas we know through National surveys that homes and communities that are walkable are more
desirable and we know that a strong Park system is important to developers completing the trail system will be a longer range multi-year effort I would be remiss if I didn't talk a little bit about inflow and infiltration work completed in 2024
this is when rainwater enters our sewer systems through cracked pipes and is then chemically treated as sewage this unnecessary treatment is is expensive and increases our utility bills this year we completed all the needed work nearest to the Mississippi River which
included repairing the final connections and sealing a number of leaking manholes this past summer this work along the river first began in 2011 it is a significant achievement to finally have this section completed I've also talked in the past
about clean drinking water and the past contamination issue in the East Metro initially our plan was to connect our water system to the cities of Woodburry and Cottage Grove because they are both building water treatment plants to filter pest from their water
supply however as we moved forward these cities determined this plan could not be implemented either quickly Enough by W Woodberry or on the longer term basis we needed by Cottage Grove in the short term we will connect to Cottage Grove's water treatment system
in the next 12 to 18 months which will provide Newport with clean water for the next 3 to 5 years while we research and implement the best solution for our own water treatment needs this report will be submitted to the 3M settlement trustees later this spring for review
and we are hopeful that construction can begin as soon as possible after their approval we have been told repeatedly that any filtration or treatment plant costs for new report will be paid by the 3M settlement fund moving on the Metropolitan Council
has planned to add a bus route connecting our Transit site to the Gold Line in Woodbury to the Northeast and to the airport to the West with service to begin no later than 20127 this route will provide our residents with greater access to
essential services and job opportunities Additionally the recent construction of a 51 unit apartment complex on the transit site has made this service even more vital County Commissioner Carla bam and current met Council representativ Susan vento and I have been strongly
advocating for the return of Transit service to Newport much earlier than 2027 to address these growing needs in 2024 City staff successfully secured nearly three4 of a million dollars in funding for various City
projects through multiple grants this impressive amount does not include funds that had already been committed prior to 2024 the staff's efforts in identifying and applying for these grants reflect their commitment to Moving Newport forward while reducing the financial
burdens on residents 2025 is set to bring a variety of exciting new projects to Newport one key Park Improvement will be the Reconstruction of the sports Courts at Loveland Park which will include adding pickle ball we'll also be seeking
funding for Riverfront Park in the Cedar Lane area and will'll begin our planning work for the Lions Park reconstruction trail system planning and funding discussions will also take place this year per usual we'll be doing more inflow and infiltration work in the second and third Avenue area thankfully
we were able to secure $2.75 million in state bonding funds to help pay for this work and reduce the burden on taxpayers and our water rates representative Rick Hansen and Senator Matt Klein were instrumental in securing these funds for Newport and we are requesting earmark
funds at the Federal level for additional Wastewater repairs and maintenance work on the development front a third multif family building on the transit site is in the planning stages which would add 51 new units at this location plans are also moving forward for 120
plus Housing Development along Century Avenue and United properties is proposing a commercial project along Bailey Road we continue to see a steady stream of inquiries from businesses and developers interested in Newport as a place for growth and investment this
shows that our ongoing efforts to increase the appeal of Newport is having a positive impact and we're excited to keep this momentum going through 2025 we couldn't accomplish all of this work without significant leadership at the staff and consultant level our
Consultants continue to provide quality work for our Parks infrastructure residential and Commercial development which has been substantial for a community our size they will remain busy this coming year fire chief Wy continuously promotes Advanced Training
and keeping our equipment current to best serve newort Newport and the surrounding Community by fostering this culture he guarantees that our firefighters and resources are at the Forefront of fire safety and response and last year we said goodbye to
longtime Sergeant Bill harell and welcomed his replacement Sergeant Joel leot to the team our firefighters and deputies continue to keep us safe responding to a wide range of Fire Traffic Safety medical and other calls we're grateful to have both groups
serving Newport I also want to recognize our Public Works superintendent Matt Yoko our assistant Public Works superintendent Derrik Marsen and their crew our service levels are one of the best in the metro area thanks to them they work tirelessly on the dog park which has already become a popular
Community Asset they've also tackled some very tough water main breaks throughout the city usually in the middle of the night and carrying over for many hours across multiple days they're an important part of our 2024 accomplishments and we greatly appreciate their hard work and
dedication thank you Matt Derek and the entire crew I also need to recognize our city administrator Joe hatch nothing moves forward without a strong administrator Newport was Joe's first city administrator role and in two short years he has established himself as a
quick study who is well respected in City circles and committed to Newport his diligence ability to manage a wide range of responsibilities his people's skills understanding of city financial matters work with the business community
and ability to keep an eye toward the future have made all the difference for Newport as I said last year we are very fortunate to have him at the helm I also want to thank my co-council members and former council member Kevin chapalain for their time and service to
the city there are many meetings where they represent the city's interests not to mention the hours spent reading coun packets attending Council and workshop meetings and staying informed on City matters in closing I'd like to thank Joe the administration team and all of the
Newport staff consulting services and our County state and federal legislators and staffs for their assistance the city council and I look forward to more great things as we continue to serve you this year this concludes the 2025 state of the city I hope you found it both
helpful and informative thank you for your time and attention and now we'll move on to the next item on our agenda which is public comments and seeing no one in the audience uh we will move on to the next item on our agenda which now I need to locate my
agenda consent agenda there it is yeah the consent agenda um are there any changes to the consent agenda mayor I don't have a change but I would like to pull item D for just a special recognition oh sure otherwise I
will move with that with that uh change thank you to a second second I have a motion from council member suar and a second from council member Schmidt uh to approve the consent agenda with item D removed all those in favor say I I I those opposed uh the consent agenda is
adopted item D for those that can't see the agenda it's a appreciation for Dean swearington he is a member of the Public Works staff they were just acknowledged by the mayor in her state to the city address and he
has had 23 years I believe that he has uh been working for Newport yeah and I know from a number of people that have have watched him at work and so forth they say that he's a very skilled
operator and when you're managing the extremely expensive equipment that Newport has it's nice to know that we have an example being set by somebody who was diligent respectful careful and constantly working for the betterment of
Newport so that's just a little quick wrap-up that if it didn't get pulled out people at home may not know that he's being recognized for 23 years of very efficient service to Newport thank you for those comments Bill and um Dean didn't want to be here tonight and we seem to find that's a common theme among
our staff is um they're happy to do the hard work they don't necessarily need to be standing on on camera to be recognized um they just feel I think pretty proud of what they do so uh thank you for calling that out and and giving
Dean at least his moment um to be recognized for for all his years here absolutely so with that I need a motion to approve a resolution 20256 because it wasn't approved as part of the consent agenda I I'll motion I'll
second that so I have a motion from Council member Schmidt and a second from council member suar all those in favor say I I those opposed the resolution is adopted next we have the Washington County Sheriff's Office report we have
Sergeant leot with us this evening hello mayor council members everybody it's good to see you again um well over the past couple weeks it has been pretty status quo which I think is a good thing uh for that uh if there's anything to pass on here today it would
probably be uh again refresher of the scams that is still a big problem right now of all the reasons listed in previous meetings so please be aware of the scams do not give out any personal information I did touch briefly uh we are coming to spring break and finally
some nice weather next week so as people are going on vacation just another little side tip uh don't forget about your mail right mail and packages if you're having stuff delivered to your house either stop it have you United States Postal Service stop service for that week or two weeks however long
you're gone or if you know packages are going to be delivered make sure you have a friendly neighbor you trust to grab those items not just sitting on the front porch That's a Telltale sign that someone's not home and for porch Pirates you don't want your stuff taken that you just bought of course so please make
sure uh it's one of those little weird things that sometimes a lot of people forget about uh but can can pose a threat because people will notice that aside from that there is not too much else to pass on we're out there in force working hard and responding to calls and enforcing traffic rules so I stand to
you for any questions you might have well thank you and thanks for the reminder on the vacations as well um any questions for sergeant Leed none this evening thank you so much very good thank you have a good night next on our agenda is the fire chief's report Chief well is unable to attend this evening so
we will move on to the engineers report John good evening mayor members of the council a couple items uh regarding 2025 Street and utility improvements project uh first we uh received our benefit appraisal uh back from our consultant that the city hired uh the purpose of
this benefit appraisal was to establish the uh level of benefit that each property would receive uh as part of the proposed improvements that we uh plan to do later on this construction season uh according to our policy as well as State Statute the assessment uh levied on any
property should be uh equal to the benefit received by the Improvement uh our policy generally states that we would uh normally assess approximately 20% of the cost of the Improvement to the uh benefiting properties but not in
or not in excess of that benefit so um from time to time as part of our projects we do go out and uh solicit these benefit appraisals just to make sure that we're in line uh so the uh the the full appraisal report is in your
packet um but I did summarize in the uh in my memo that we had uh two different types of properties uh single family residential as well as commercial properties within the project scope so the appraiser had identified uh property
or uh Residential Properties um small medium and large Residential Properties and they had identified a range of benefit of uh $7,900 up to $9,500 uh and then for the commercial site
uh there was vacant commercial sites minimally developed commercial sites and then a standard commercial site that had a wider range at uh 5,300 for the vacant up to uh 10,600 for the fully developed commercial
sites uh with the uh uh with the current uh cost projections for the for the project if we were to assess 20% of the total project cost to uh adjacent Property Owners the resultant assessment would be uh
$15,900 based on the benefit appraisal that we received we believe that an assessment of 9500 is uh more representative of the benefit received again based on the benefit appraisal so in your packet I
have provided a uh a quick table for how we break that 95 how we would propose to break that $9,500 assessment across the different uh utilities that are benefiting the reason we do this is because some properties uh uh would
include a street Improvement but their water uh service comes off of a different street and then likewise some of the areas that are outside the um uh the street Improvement area benefit from uh bringing storm water or storm water
facilities into that area it alleviates localized flooding and it provides an outlet for uh for some properties so uh simply because you're not directly on the street that we're improving uh you may still be eligible for a a storm
water assessment so the way we had broken that down is the street assessment uh we were proposing at $3600 uh equal assessments for water and sanitary sewer at $1,700 and then a $2500 assessment for
storm uh that would equal that 9500 if you receive received all uh four of those uh benefit from all four of those utility improvements uh based on the number of units total on the project that amounts
to uh just over 12% of the uh total project cost so I have a couple questions uh and then happy to uh help with a discussion regarding the Improvement um but we um the first question is that does that rate table
look uh appropriate based on the findings of the benefit appraisal I do note that the um the previous assessment uh project that we did in 2020 on 12th Avenue and 12th Street had a very similar assessment rates the total was
about 9 or the total was 9,000 and it was within you know $100 or so on on each of those utilities um based on our assessment policy we assess on the unit regardless of the frontage um and and the although
the benefit appraisal identified small medium and large I think that it would be appropriate to assess each property the same and U from staff's um I guess uh recommendation would be to assess at that $99,500
and then secondly the uh commercial rates we've generally um we've generally not differentiated between commercial and residential frankly it hasn't come up on many of our projects cu we've been focused on some of the or the more uh
residential areas so in this case I we were looking for council's um I guess opinion as to whether or not a separate uh commercial rate should be established um keeping in mind uh this is for discussion only uh I would love to hear
the council's thoughts but eventually or the the final decision on this would be made when we hold our uh assessment hearing um but this would help uh staff as we start to engage the public and this is obviously a very uh important uh
piece of this project that we can start providing them a an idea of what these uh costs would be so hopefully that was a good table set and otherwise I'm uh I'm I'm happy to uh yeah participate in a discussion
about the uh the assessment rates that we had proposed thanks John so are are you proposing then that properties would all be assessed at 9500 regardless of commercial correct that that's what we
would propose uh just for a straightforward approach I I believe we have three commercial properties on this project okay so it is I think it's a little simpler but understanding that there may be some precedent set there if we uh if we would
deviate from that in the future yeah oh council member suner is that a maximum of $9,500 that is a maximum if you benefit all four if you have all four categories yes there's four potential levels at which
an individual property could be assessed or do any of them not qualify at the one or two level there are there are several uh that uh apply in each category that apply in each category uh if you if you look at that table uh on page 88 of your
packet so there are currently 105 properties that would be would qualify for a street assessment and then there are 89 properties that would uh that would qualify for a water assessment 88
properties that would be uh sanitary sewer um if you have a sanitary sewer or water main assessment you will also have a street assessment because we won't we won't be doing any work out side of the the street uh uh the
street adjacent to those properties and then as I mentioned say that again sorry we won't so the water and sewer assessments yeah would be within the street we are reconstructing okay so all 88 of those properties or 89 for water
would also have a a street uh assessment so there's about 16 homes or so where their water or sewer line comes off of a opposing Street mhm that would not get an assessment or we've already repaired that service line in the
past and then the storm is at 122 units so again all of those properties that receive a street assessment would also get a uh storm assessment uh and then there are um in this case my quick math
would say 17 properties outside of the immediately adjacent to the streets that would benefit from a store storm uh improvements long answer to a short question but hopefully that was good information and I think um there's a map
in the packet on page 97 um that has the project area outlined um and also the water mains storm sewer um sewer Mains and then obviously the street um on that map so you
can I know still there's no property line so it's still kind of hard to follow and that's fine it's not it's not a knock on the map it just um you can kind of see a little bit what all is being done here and I think you know there's a couple of issues that are uh pushing us into this area I think the
first one really was the II problem you know that was uh targeted you know a few years ago where we got pretty active in trying to repair this and not only do we have uh cracks in the pipes but we have some pipes where the the uh ground has
shifted and the Bedrock has shifted so instead of the pipe lining up this way it's kind of lining up more like this meaning that anything flowing out of the bottom of that pipe is uh going into the ground and not uh going out to the Met
Council to be treated as um sewage like it should be treated so that was initially I think our first concern um secondly now we're ending up with uh storm water the where we that we're seeing some developments in not only in
Newport but neighboring communities and that storm water does come through Newport because uh water runs downhill and it runs to the river which means it runs through Newport and so it's it's not one Community you know kind of all of them Woodberry Cottage Grove maple
wood they've all got kind of a little bit of water flow happening so we're also trying to make sure that we don't flood our own uh storm water system uh because too much rain is coming through on a heavy rain event so there's a couple of problems we're trying to
address and and make sure that residents are you know not put out by one of these problems they don't find a flooded street because it's a heavy rain um we're taking care of the environment as well as making sure that sewage uh gets properly uh taken care of so so that's
kind of the impetus behind this and these uh pipes are in the mid-60s so they're about 65 years old um they've had a good use use ful life and um now it's it's time to work on this so that's kind of the impetus behind why are we
here and why are we doing this we do have video and we do have photos of you know evidence of problems down there so um well I think it's the benefit analysis is good we had you know
residents were initially told um around $116,000 we had a recent meeting talking about this project the public was invited to and we it was about $155,000 so we were trending in the right direction now with this benefit analysis it's dropped you know
over $6,000 to about 9500 so again still trending in a good direction but I don't know that it's going to get much lower than 9500 um and this $9,500 number it would have been higher uh but
our engineer did get and staff did get a grant from the Met Council for $60,000 for private property tax relief so that money goes um directly to helping um residents with the cost of this of this work it's not a lot of
money but I would anybody wants to hand me free money I'm good so um questions or comments on this I I think in the past are you saying we have just taken one number and applied it
across the board that's what we've done in the past yeah okay and we did have I believe we had one commercial property on 12th uh 12th Avenue excuse me 12th Street on our last project that was yeah that was assessed with the res at the
residential rate okay so it's and you it's only three commercial properties out of how many properties overall affected by this hund 122 okay so it's a small even if we did assess them differently it's not going to make much of a difference and and the
benefit for a standard commercial site uh according to the benefit appraisal was 10,600 so in the grand scheme of the total cost we're not we're not generating a whole lot more revenue from uh from a separate um assessment
schedule for commercial property okay um council's thoughts on kind of a an across theboard number council member suar once again State the amount State how close these were Ben State how close the benefit
analysis was to the previous one and when was the previous one done so the the previous assessment project was in 2020 okay and the total assessment if you qualified for all four uh unit or all four uh facilities was $9,000 okay this year it's
9500 okay so it reflects the reality of the increased costs and so forth and the benefit also went
up the benefit that was discovered by the analysis team that you you made us made available to us also found an increased benefit yeah so the The increased benefit was the $500 The increased costs associated with
these improvements I would venture to say it's gone up considerably more yeah um this is a different nature of project too we're dealing with with bedrock on this project that we weren't dealing with with uh uh further east um so the I mean the the construction costs are
inflated because of that and and I think it's important to note that you know just because that we have to put these facilities in Bedrock the cost is more but the the benefit isn't necessarily in or uh increased at the at the same rate
so unfortunately that means there's a lower percentage of the total project cost that's paid for by assessments and the rest of it's going to be bonded I don't think I'll comment on how the rest of it's going to be uh financed but we have a combination of of
Enterprise funds and other grant opportunities a portion of this project is being funded through a uh through a special appropriation from the state legislature that's paying for a lot of the inii improvements that the the mayor mentioned I just remember we had a
number of people come in to to PR public hearing that we had and there were a lot of concerns this is a lot of money and people are going to want to understand exactly what they're getting from this why the cost are what they are and Clarity that you've provided tonight
I think is a good step in that direction so hoping that the people that come in understand it's not with not with Glee that we bring these numbers up but it's it's necessary and they always need to understand that is offset against the
guaranteed continuing cost of treating unnecessary amounts of water that go through our storm system were being assessed by the Metropolitan Council and those numbers have gone up steadily and they will continue if we do
nothing there's a a major offset against future costs that are going to be bor by the resid that is correct um do you anticipate if we get some bonding money this
year uh for what we're calling at the state level our priority one project which is this area that we would break this down into two years uh it's it's certainly possible the the project uh is is able to be
broken down Okay um and then so I so yes I think we can and I you know I you always hesitate to get on camera and say things that may not most likely won't come true and as a mayor I
rarely say things that uh you know may not come true um I'm I'm pretty careful about that but the 2.75 that we have from the state is already approved for work in this area we are asking for additional Mone right around the $2.85
million Mark um through the way things work even if the state approves that money it's not available to us until after it is incumbered meaning the state has sold the
bonds um and has money available uh to handout for bonding projects last time around it was October before things got encumbered in this project would be done by then meaning if we received that kind of money it would not be available to
help residents if we get that money and this project gets broken into two in two then there's 2.75 for whatever is being done this year and then
hopefully some money to help with the other part of this uh for next year which could also help on the city financing side of this you know whether it's we can protect our Enterprise funds because this project area is really just the North End of what needs to be done
in this area we know there's more work to the South that also um requires attention and then also moving further east towards Highway 61 so we know we have a lot of inii work that needs to be
done and once we're down there we're also looking at uh storm water management and and other things to be ACC so we don't need to come back and bother anyone for 20 or 30 or 60 years
um down the road so that's you know I'm it's it's I'm it's I'm making it more complicated than it is because I'm trying to be very careful about what I'm saying and how I am saying it but the place we're at right now is getting that
additional hopefully additional bonding money and being able to tackle all of this at the same time and then we're done and we're out of there and and the noise and all of that is is finished for that neighborhood but that all remains to be seen um and the the pace of the
legislature the state legislature is you know they're they've got many committees and subcommittees and things that have to hear bonding bonding requests so that is where we're we are at uh with that so I want to make sure and I went into that long explanation for a reason you may be
in this area and then all of a sudden be told told no we're not going to do it and then you're wondering I've been to a meeting a public meeting already I've been to you know I've heard on camera that we're going to do this area and all of a sudden the skids are put on and that would be why it would be um because
we'd have a better funding Advantage um to split it that's the only reason we would do that so good luck uh sorting through all of that everybody um I yeah so if it went into a two-part project would it be done a
specific would whatever John would tell us to do and he's going to break it out based on you know where manholes and connections and all of that I think you know you know my fingers are crossed that that
things can go smoothly um this was money that if they'd gotten a bonding bill passed last year we would have this sitting in front of us we could account it for it this year we could you know use it to um do all of this but the bonding Bill wasn't able to pass and and
um so now they're trying to play some catchup this suffice to say we would move from the River East because we would need to upgrade our Downstream infrastructure and then move away from the river okay
yeah got one yeah question and I think it kind of gets to me like you know we did benefit appraisal but to me like the number we settled on is not the most representative number of the you know the large we're going with the large the 9500 which is tied to the large estate
which is 160 foot Frontage when you know the more typical would be the lower medium why why go with that I know that's a could be answered different ways but that's if we're going to go to the if we're going to go to the work of having appraisal should we not
choose the one that's most representative and that's certainly and that's certainly a a discussion point and decision for the council to make um and if it would be helpful to that conversation we can come up with a an a rate schedule uh to break down between
water sewer Street and storm that that reflects that $8,700 for the for the medium unit or was it the small was well I think I think certainly the you know it's given the the the the lots that are it's it's somewhere between those two I
mean you have down to 50 foot lots a lot of 60s 70s but certainly even that even the middle one is 120 which is above average so I mean we tend to think even the medium one isn't necessarily median it's more but it's closer to representative if we're going to do the
benefit appraisal to me that we we should otherwise it I mean you can compare to other projects but then what we're not really using the benefit of apprais we're just so I guess that's I kind of want to you know whether I agree with the benefit appraisal or not it's what we're saying that we're basing our
decision on so I feel like we should be trying to you know if we're going to go with one number I think it should be a little closer to what the the median is and I think that would be medium the medium number would certainly be closer I mean it's hard to get exact without doing different you enough our policy is
to do one basically I'm fine doing one if that's kind of the practice I mean it's but it's yeah so the policy does state that we assess by the unit and so the frontage is not is not something we consider and I'm fine with that so that's the policy that's what it is so
but but council member Taylor you you make an excellent point I want to reiterate that again I'm I'm putting in a high number here um to start at because I don't want to I don't want to put a low number in and the council has a has a different thought process it is completely up to the to the council to
interpret this benefit appraisal and if it's more appropriate to use uh what the the benefit received by a small or medium lot uh it's a it's a matter of adjusting that rate schedule but it's also helpful for from a staff standpoint
to work out the financing and what the finance or financial implications are so any of this discussion is very helpful to us the final decision again is made at that at that assessment hearing but if unless there's uh unless there's I
guess consensus from the council uh right now I think as these questions come up from residents uh we will probably uh stay with the 9500 and if it's reduced then I think that would be a uh a welcome uh modification rather than going in the
other direction if that's fair I think it would be helpful to have kind of a and maybe it's somewhere in this lengthy report how many properties Residential Properties are considered small how many are considered medium how many are
considered large I don't believe it's available now but that's something we can certainly uh we can we can create a um map of the properties affected and and dictate that to the I think the council member Taylor's point point if it's 122
properties and 100 properties are small um considered small residential lots then it seems like they're bearing kind of a higher burden if 100 units are medium or large Lots
then how much that burden should be um might be different I mean I'm surprised that it's only 500 the assessment's only $500 over what a 2020 assessment was
um five years ago I mean that's not a huge inflationary adjustment over five years um so I guess the benefit hasn't changed much that's the deal the benefit hasn't really changed too much uh over
time so so I think that would be helpful for me and kind of doing that analysis is how many how many homes are getting upcharged because if it's you know significant majority then I agree with council member Taylor that maybe that
9500 number is a little high but I also agree that we have to figure out how to pay for it and how much comes out of an Enterprise fund and and you know what what fund balances should be there um after we we go that route so I mean
maybe a way of looking at analy is like you could take those I mean I think it's really going to be between the low like the medium like how many above and below 120 ft I mean it's really is like it's 90% below 10% above I think it would kind of I mean I think 60 there will be
a few below 60 but it's ad I mean I don't know what the way to break that down is but I think it would be helpful yeah it would just be explain because I when I explained to people I need to be able explain it this is being set on the appraisal and this is why we do one number because of a policy the the appraisal is what's guiding it in if
they look at the appraisal and go well that's for 160 foot and nobody around here has 160 foot on my street it's just going to be hard I mean I just feel like it's again I might appraisal might seem a little low to me relative to the previous thing but that is what we the point whole point of this
exercises that we're being we're taking it out of our political hands and making it more of a empirical empirical things so it's I know it's yeah I know it'll make challenges for us to pay for other parts if it's lower but that's what that's not the point that's the point is to to
honor this you know not assess more than we're praising the benefit yeah can be justified counc member Schmidt so I was going to ask this earlier when we were talking about possibly splitting the project up a little bit let's just say hypothetically we were to do it all this
year are the units that are listed here everything in scope for one year or is this so like a mul year this is this is the entire project it would be less if we were to split the project up got it so then if it was to go in a two-part project the assessments are basically
allocated after the work is completed or is it so you can you can do either uh and sometimes you uh wait for the project to be completed if you um uh if the assessments are going to be at all
based on the end product or end total cost of the project we're not going to get to a point where the the end total cost of the project is going to be significantly larger than that would impact the assessment so the assessment hearing can really take place at any
time um presumably well after we uh determine if we're going to split the project up certainly we wouldn't have want to have the assessment hearing early and then I would generally say after we award a a contract to the contractor so we know that project's
moving forward the the reason I asked that is is one way that might something we can talk about is do we do partial assessments before the project starts and partial after and spread payment out over mle year Well usually the assessments are 10 years so that's what
we've done so even if we started earlier it would only be a couple of months oh over a over a 10 year period yeah okay that's helpful and I think that's you know another option I think when we probably settle on a number John I think it would be helpful to see what the
basically the monthly assessment over a 10year assessment period versus a 15-year assessment period yeah typically we've uh so the assessment if it's if it's uh paid over time it goes onto your property taxes you pay that twice a year
so we would generally give you uh the amount of your property tax statement uh or your property tax that would be increased at those two payments and we can do that as an amortization schedule over that 10e period to see what that dollar be so as people like to remind me
most people have a mortgage and so it just gets added to to their mortgage payment so it's something that they would see on a monthly basis rather than that six-month uh Mark I can we can prepare that any way you'd like uh well and I think if there's rental units here and it's it's
going to be you know $1,200 more dollars a year that's $100 a month increase in rent most likely you know that cost is going to get passed down so you know I kind of want you know if we do a 15 year then maybe that gets um to be a more
palatable number that 10 year I assume is that just a practice or is that a policy do we know uh it is not stated the the term as a policy okay I will say that we uh for for instance on a corner
lot uh a part or a parcel can't be assessed twice within a 10-year period so if we extend out to 15 years you could potentially have a assessment for one project and still have five years left to pay on that and then another
assessment comes on now is that a reason to make a decision on term maybe maybe not but that's I mean generally we have gone 10 years it's not unheard of to go longer yeah because I was looking at other cities that go out to 20 years for example on these larger things so I
definitely for me that's something that I definitely would these larger projects I think it's the option I mean again since want to pay it faster pay it off without it that's great but I think it's these I mean the cost coming down helps but certainly yeah but we were initially talking that 15,000 and 16,000 over 10
years that's a big big chunk I mean we're getting it down but I think there's no reason I don't if we're if it's cost neutral for the city which it should be I think it I think at least a 15 is something that we should be providing that option but because I think it's in line at least with little
bit of cursory review I did to other cities I'm not you're obviously more knowledgeable probably what other cities do but it seems like these larger above a certain threshold I think we should strongly consider it we can provide that am iation schedule for for both 10 and 15 and see uh see where that
uh see where those numbers and I'd also mention uh for for the breakdown of lot size I I believe the the County's um uh data has Frontage yeah so uh it would be pretty easy to download that data and we
can we can sort and slice that any way we'd like and and the plan is to do a buildable every buildable lot on the residential is that still correct every buildable lot other
questions so for now leaving it at 9500 is that what we'd like to do and then um continue to get more numbers and more data in and and go from there okay and much appreciated because as this project becomes more real and we're engaging
with uh with residents more uh and and likewise with the uh with the council I'm I'm sure you'll be engaging but it's it's helpful to have these numbers and at least be able to start talking in in Concepts and and then uh hopefully things are are pretty are round into
shape by the time we come into that assessment hearing so they have a little bit better of an idea of what's great thank you John we'll move on to your next item uh also related to the um to the improvements project and now I got a scroll down through that
long report if you can give me a quick second um we are having a neighborhood meeting uh to discuss the project coming up a week from today on the uh on the 27th of February uh we're going to have that meeting downstairs in the fire hall uh
training facility a little bit more room to uh spread uh spread out some uh plans and get uh solicit feedback from from Property Owners we've uh sent a mailed uh a notice to everyone on the project and then uh myself my design engineer
and then uh our lead inp ctor who's going to be on site throughout the uh construction uh the three of us are going to be there it provides a nice opportunity to start building those those relationships ahead of time uh I believe uh Matt is planning to attend we
we extended an invite to Derek as well uh that we'll have plenty of people uh to uh to field some field questions our main goal is to again just provide a little bit more information uh now that the plans are starting to round into form we're right around that you know 60
70% complete we're not done so it's not a uh it's not just a frivolous question of oh what can we do to change and no we can't do that so we we are we do we are still at the stage where we can make some some minor tweaks but our plans now know you know where where driveways are
going to go where you know where we're going to connect to utilities if a tree needs to be removed out in someone's front yard because that's always going to be a pretty uh critical question how deep are some of these utilities out in front of my house so when the utilities go by am I really I mean how big of an
impact is it going to be um so we we look forward to that we get a lot of great feedback um uh through this process we've been doing this on a number of City projects uh a few things that I we've we've discussed uh you know from a design team and and also with
public works and we have a a pretty good idea of how we would like to uh handle a few uh perhaps some controversial uh client or excuse me some uh uh resident comments or questions wanted to make sure the council is on board with how we
would approach things uh first being driveway aprons so the driveway apron is the concrete uh portion of the driveway it extends about 4 feet up the driveway um we are pro planning to provide one single uh driveway uh apron per
parcel if there is a corner lot uh we would consider doing two driveway aprons but that second driveway apron needs to go to somewhere whether that's a garage or a shed if it is simply a uh secondary
driveway to allow the resident to park their car in their yard we would not put a second one in we would put barrier curb across that I believe we are in agreement that that's appropriate and if we'd like to
take these one at a time I'm uh I'm all for that um or if we want to talk about this one and then go to the next one however the mayor would like to added assessment if there was a second curve done no um I think it's rare that the
second there be qualified for a second driveway um if we would like to uh have a have an assessment I think that's certainly warranted because that is a special benefit that would be afforded to a single
property have you been out to look to see if there's how much of this is going on there are several locations where there are uh kind of makeshift driveways or driveways that lead to the house rather than a garage
oh so and there are multiple of you know multiple driveways per parcel so right okay so I understand what you're saying if the garage is 25 ft from my house I want to park by my house and not trudge
to the snow from my garage to the house potentially or have a driveway at both locations yes and I know um you saw that on a project in my area and part of the issue is that uh there's some properties that are long and skinny and so you
can't do a house and a garage necessarily you know connected to each other it's just because the depth of the property um changes because the road curves and and all of that um so I know you had to make some judgment calls um you've had to make judgment calls in the
past so but I understand where people are going with this if I've got groceries in my car I don't want to be parking 25 ft from my house and carrying those because I'm not allowed to have my car park next
to my house because my garage is uh separated from the from the property in many cases at least for the project that we're working on the the lot width is fairly standard okay and the and the setbacks are also fairly standard okay
so with you know there isn't a lot of room for to have a you know a house and then a large a long distance from that that driveway okay I think the issue that is is uh evident is people want to park or they don't have a garage and they want to they they want
off street parking um okay and that's something that I think we're trying to curve correct I I think that is par the pond yeah I think that is yeah that is correct well and I think in the project in my neighborhood you know you were
allowed some personal judgment um and decision making and I think I would ask you to apply that here as well um because yes just we are trying to manage how many vehicles are are
parked and and I guess related is the width of that driveway so generally the apron uh that we put in matches the existing width of the driveway at the property line usually it's a minimum of 12 feet
is the uh we usually don't go any smaller than that the maximum width is 24 ft that's part of the city code so if someone has a driveway that's wider than 24 ft we're going to put in a 24t apron and then we will um taper out to that
width of the driveway but where it connects to the street is only going to be 24 ft okay that is a code provision so and I think you mentioned the curb you know we're adding the curb this is part of storm water management uh we don't just put in curbs because uh we
like to spend extra money or just because we think it looks pretty this is how we really manage the flow of water we get it into catch basins we get into storm drains and we get it to the river um and and that's why cities do this and this is an important part of inflowing infiltration
uh uh management as well so you do II work and you do storm water management and they go hand in hand so and I would also mention that the the apron itself is part of that St storm water management so the apron allows the water to stay in the road but gives you that
ramp to drive into your uh into your property so that's why we put those on there right um let's talk about driveway material material uh we match the material that's there so if you have a concrete driveway we will put concrete back in say um and if you have a
bituminous driveway black top driveway the uh the portion of your driveway between the concrete apron and that binus where we have to cut that off will be replacing with pinus if there is a gravel driveway uh our city code requires that the last 40 ft of the
driveway is paved now that's a point of sale requirement I believe um as part of this project we would generally put in uh uh binous pavement between the end of that apron and the property line in most cases that's about 8 to 12 ft depending
on the where the road is so uh again it's that's for maintenance purposes that when we have that gravel and rock washing into the road we want to avoid that so it is to the city's benefit obviously the property owner gets a a small benefit as well from having that
piece paved yeah um we do not uh normally pave outside of the RightWay unless we have to to tie into the to the uh existing driveway if the property owners wish to contact the the contractor and coordinate that directly
they can but we generally don't want to be in the middle of that okay okay that makes sense any questions on that okay moving on duplexes uh if there is a single garage for a duplex we will only put in one driveway uh just
because there's two units does not mean there's going to be two driveways generally there's usually not two garages with the uh the duplex as far as I've seen on the plan I haven't across okay uh parking pads this kind of goes into the previous discussion where where
uh folks have constructed concrete or black top or even gravel pads in their front yard so they could have off street parking we are not going to we don't plan to reestablish those we're going to run barrier curb through remove any of those improvements within the right of
way and then as we can remove additional but you know it doesn't cost a lot to remove it we're certainly not going to replace anything that uh is private improvements in the in the right way okay question council member SAR if a if
a piece of property does not have a garage at this point if we notify them they possibly would want to apply for putting in a garage if the property is is of sufficient size so if we can identify this particular situation where
they don't have the garage but they would qualify to put one in can we let them know that this would be a time to apply for that uh thank you that's a it's a it's a good it's a good uh point point to bring up so for those properties that do not have a garage or vacant Parcels we would likely we will
put in a apron for them so so we don't have to cut into the curb later especially for the houses that don't have garage that's pretty easy we can usually figure out where that uh uh where that apron should go it's a little bit more of a uh we we'll probably be
reaching out to owners of vacant lots to try to put that in a in a convenient location for them um and if if we can't or we don't uh we can't get a hold of them we can usually figure out a pretty good spot based on the terrain of the
lot as to where that driver put it in an in an allowable location correct uh tree removal um as you might expect we have uh we have a number of trees that are currently in conflict with our grading um so it's about 49
trees right now we expect that number to go down where that's a conservative estimate at this point uh Public Works has a really good relationship with uh a tree removal contractor so we're probably in the end going to air on
removing less trees then more and then if for whatever reason the contractor is concerned about trying to do their work or that the Tre is going to to suffer root damage we can remove it outside of the the project uh um because a lot of
times when you have to when the when the contractor has to come in with the sub that's going to be an extra cost um Matt's guy is a pretty reasonable so we um we had planed to put back in about
50% of those trees uh if that and and mainly because we're going to be limited on places that we can get trees to um to be planted um because of bed rock because of bedrock and we're we're working with 50 foot right of way and we
have a lot of we have a lot of sanitary sewer services and water services that we need to avoid um so I we're going to hopefully get more trees put in than the 50% but that's in the end that's what I'm guessing that will end up replacing uh we also you know sometimes
the you know there's the big willow trees that people just want gone and we don't necessarily we wouldn't necessarily replace that that tree or if don't think we have many uh yeah um though that that 49 does include you know shrub trees and things that uh
maybe aren't a tree of value if you if you will um we also as uh you know if there's some uh we'll say additional um I guess what's the word additional uh factors or or hardship that a property
owner uh ends up going they lose you know a really substantial tree that's providing a lot of shade perhaps we'll do two trees in that area all we'll always put all the trees in the in the front yards so this isn't a situation where someone gets a nice pretty tree in
their backyard okay um so that's and I list some of those you know like you know the type of trees that removed you know the we're going to try to preserve as many trees as we can but we also don't want to damage roots and then have a tree uh fall over and then cause a
worse situation last one I had and thanks for bearing with me through a lot of these items are sidewalks so uh there are several sidewalks that are constructed from the house to the property line so
they don't make it all the way out to the street it's it's typical that you know once upon a time someone thought that there was going to be a sidewalk running down the uh the street and so now their sidewalk would intersect with the uh parallel sidewalk well that's not
the case here um so our position was is that if the sidewalk currently goes out to the pavement we would replace that sidewalk to the new curb location the Street's going to get a little wider so we would we would put that sidewalk back
into the curb if it only goes to the property line it'll be the con it will be the property owner's responsibility to complete That Sidewalk to our new curb uh if for whatever reason for grading purposes if we have to remove a portion of that sidewalk even if if it's
in the right of way we would put it back in uh if it's a sidewalk that actually goes somewhere and has a has a purpose do you have a rough idea how many homes fall into the category of a sidewalk that doesn't come out to the road that would still leave a a gap
probably about a dozen so my feedback on this would be we're getting in here and we're doing this stuff is this the time to bring um kind of unification of things not proposing we do that I'm just saying that if there was a time to do it make things look uniform might something to
think about I appreciate that feedback I'd love to I'd love to hear more uh a lot of times those sidewalks that in in our experience those sidewalks were put in law or a few several Property Owners ago
and it's a sidewalk that's of no use to the the property owner so so my my fear would be that we're we're going to connect that sidewalk and it's something that they don't want and now they have to maintain something they didn't want
or you'd also have a a mismatch of existing to true so that would also not aesthetically solve problems and the less sidewalks that uh we extend or we modify uh I think there's an equity
piece of that too you know this individual is getting additional sidewalk and I didn't have a sidewalk I'd love to have one you know why are they getting 8T of sidewalk and I don't I don't get any so it's I can appreciate the uniformity and I I don't like
stopping the sidewalk short but it's uh and I'm and and we're happy to put them in again this isn't right in the grand scheme of things the number of driveways that we have isn't isn't going to be a tremendous cost but that's helpful thank you number of driveways or sidewalks sidewalks
sidewalks give me well and I think what you're telling us or sharing with us is really the past practice that we've done on other projects similar to this correct okay and again we when we start meeting with residents especially coming up here in a
week uh this feedback is helpful I don't uh I don't want to um you know provide a perception or this is our policy that that conflicts with with Council and I think uh between between Matt and I when we sat down and reviewed the plans with Derek these were the kind of the hot
button items that we wanted to just verify with Council so I appreciate the feedback well and I think there's always there's always some quirky properties that we just can't anticipate and um so I I like allowing you to have a little
bit of judgment on on what to do with those items as well we don't do uniformity it was worth a shot but I recognize the fault of what I suggest last thing I'll mention mayor is that we will post the meeting uh so if uh if
council members want to attend you can uh you're welcome to and even if we get over three it will be posted so it won't be an issue with Tom what are the times uh 5: to 7 uh on uh on Thursday the 27th week yep a week from tonight um in the
fire training room which is on located on the first level of City Hall well thank you for bringing this and any other questions for John on this before we move on okay we're moving on it's still you it's still me I have
forgive me uh uh We've provided a proposal in your packet thank you uh for the uh Sport Court uh uh reconstruction uh as part of the mayor's state of the city address um the The Proposal uh we have a short memo there but essentially
The Proposal is to reconstruct those uh sport courts in their current alignment uh so essentially within the fence that's already there removing the surfacing down through the uh the base and then building that back up from uh
from the the base of the uh pavement section uh we'd also do a or conceptual planning to see how we can best utilize that space uh for the different uses whether that's a combination of pickleball courts uh
basketball courts or the uh or tennis courts and so our our plan would be to provide that concept to uh either the park board I would assume or other stakeholders to get that buy in and then proceed with uh um plans and specs bidding and then a limited amount of
construction observation um just to make sure that it's it's an important feature we want this we want this to last so we have some uh construction observation time into this proposal as well so um have you guys gone out there and
looked at I mean my real well have a couple questions but and I'm not trying to um you know you write a memo and then somebody dissects it right so it says a full replacement of the existing pavement surface but I don't know that the
subsurface yeah you know do we need to dig deeper will because we're on the bluff add more sand more class five and then do concrete or whatever the materials are that go under concrete um is that you're anticipating doing that so we would uh likely we would solicit
uh geotechnical proposals we do a soil boring and then uh through that soil borings they would provide us a pavement design uh that would be suitable for the use for that sport court so whatever would need to be placed uh however thick the pavement would be as well as the
subbase material uh that's how far down we would we would uh grade and reconstruct that pavement section okay so you're not sure right now what that depth is going to be because I'm seeing a number here of 185,000 I have a pretty good idea what it's going to be uh and
whether it's you know is there a change order in our future well I would uh forgive me I would I would not live or I would not uh the project has not been designed yet so we did a a a rough estimate based on what we anticipate for quantities and that's where we The
Proposal assigns that uh 185,000 uh it's we have contingency built into that number so we feel that that is a that should represent a total construction cost uh but as we work our way through design um and and again
feedback from from Council uh and and other stakeholders you know that number May uh be adjusted now before we would go out for bid yeah we would provide a uh a final design uh estimate for Council as well okay that number also does not uh anticipate or taking out the
fencing that's there so you're G to do all this work and leave the fencing in place while you're working well we uh we we don't take down one side so you can that's what we had I guess from from our conversations with staff that was the initial initial uh I
guess scope okay if that changes and there may be some cost savings not to have to work around an existing fence and obviously there's some um you know putting a new fence in there is certainly a uh for for a new for a new sport court it's it's great but there's
some added cost there yeah yeah tall chain link fencing is very pricey um questions for John on this council member suar will we be maximizing the area that is paved so
that when the Winds of in excitement change from pickle ball courts back to tennis ball courts or to tennis courts will they be able to accommodate them with this upgrade yeah so the idea is that we're keeping the same footprint um and for whatever reason if there's just
you know slightly larger area is needed to maximize that space that's something that we can do as part of that concepting plan okay um my my thought would be you know how a lot of these work is there's different color paint so the the quarts themselves can overlap uh
but you can clearly see the boundary of the of the activity that you're participating in because a year years ago everybody wanted the tennis courts and now everybody wants the pickle ball courts well we you know unfortunately uh
we couldn't have our our survey presentation um on the park last time on the on the park survey but it was 55% were interested in the sports courts whether it was basketball tennis or pickle ball also and it split fairly evenly so I between those three groups
at this point I think a you know better surface there is certainly going to bring out more tennis players um uh to that to that amenity um I think my I'm looking at the project schedule you kind of John kind of knows
this is coming it's frustrating to me this is is an expensive project and then Summer's over and it's finally ready to be used and I don't really understand why
develop why designing a concrete pad takes like three months you know from February to May to basically design a concrete pad for an area that's already been designated you know to it's not like I'm sending you out there and you're going to go like oh trees and oh it's hilly and you know it's generally
flat uh there I think I don't know what we're going to see when we pull up those metal grades but um what is taking so long why I mean my expectation when we do a a new park
amenity is June 15th is the target date and that allows two weeks that by July one it's ready to be used by the public and so that they can use it over the course of that summer and so to me every time we're doing a park project I need
whoever we're working with consultant staff whatever to backwards engineer the schedule so that people can enjoy this new amenity through a majority of the summer so why does it take three months to
engineer a concrete pad so the not to put you on the spot but well a couple factors yeah uh one we have to we have to hit Council meetings for approvals so those those happen we
will do special Council meetings to approve this fair enough I mean to keep it moving yeah and you know and so then it's the part of it is stakeholder participation right so we're going to put together a concept but we've done
stakeholders we've done the park survey you know it it's going to the park board next week on their park board agenda so those components I believe we have done I don't know does staff think we
haven't gotten feedback uh mayor members of the council it has not gone to the park board but it's scheduled to go there next week um you know and I so yeah that's the engagement we're looking at at this point yeah the future engagement but I
do think it's important to what that court is going to look like you know do you how is that Court going to be painted how you know is it is it okay to have you know these I want I I I guess I don't feel like I want to make that final decision as to exactly how this is
going to be uh oriented does it take long to design a uh a concrete pad it does not but I do want to make sure that the the the Coatings and the and how this court is configured gets Buy in from Park Council and whomever and we we
wanted to add in that time to do this now you on the schedule as well we were looking at bidding in in May mhm so the the February to May design yeah is is really a march to April design to fit in
that public feedback and then we bid in May so that we would hopefully be contracting at the end of the month and we're awarding that contract by either the end of May or that first meeting in June so are you thinking that if we take public feedback we would somehow
reorient it the direction of the tennis courts and the basketball court and the you know I'm I'm trying to understand what feedback we would be looking for I think it's possible that you would
that we would come up with a concept that that the park board or the council may want to have input on and and and modify okay and I guess I don't want to presume that at at a proposal stage that you don't want to have that uh because I
I I think that this is it's an important feature and it's something that the um that the council and and you know City staff I think deserve to have that uh time to to review and and sign off on I'll add some thoughts at some yeah
go ahead couple thoughts uh last year I recall seeing an initial kind of allocation I thought it was like 250 was allocated for this that's correct so we're coming in kind of initial swing is 18 which one of the things I started
thinking about as we were discussing this is I want to Ace this project right I want to make sure it's done right and hitting a date I agree with in in spirit right trying to get these amenities out there for folks I want to Ace this and do it right so I'm I'm looking at this
saying I think taking the time to get feedback taking the time to get some options what this looks like how do you divide out it's it's more than just the paintwork too is my concern right is like if I'm having someone play basketball next to pickle ball that might be a little bit intrusive right
and it might actually restrict usage so it's just some things that I'm thinking about in the back of my mind of like I'd like to get this out there sooner but this this is not a small amount of money we're spending I'd like to make sure we get this aced so to speak um I also keep in
mind too there I'm assuming there'll be some sidewalk work and concrete work to increase your accessibility to all all Mobility levels um you know I mean not that I expect that to be 30,000 but you know as soon as you cut yourself short
then you know we have issues there and then another big portion is to when you when you go out to a contractor and you ask for a price and you tell him he's got two weeks to get it done you pay for that you know whereas when they can fit it in their schedule and not only that
as soon as weather becomes a factor because you know last year we didn't have any issues with the with the river until the end of June and then you know July 4th we're at you know record levels you know as soon as you
put such a tight window on something you open yourself to you know or or they open themselves to um liquidated damage you know because they didn't complete it on the date that we set on a really tight window so just something to you
know something else to keep in mind is the general you know General bidding bidding practices that was actually one of my second questions then was like are we getting do we anticipate pricing favorability the later in the year this goes or is that not something that we're
anticipating if you have the flexibility I would assume you potentially get better better projects because if if a the desired contractor has 10 jobs lined up already and again you're trying to butt in line uh he is going to say yeah
we're going to do it but it's going to cost a lot of overtime and because I already got my employees booked out and my equipment booked out and you know so again you can do that but you tend to pay a a premium to do so last thing and just because you
mentioned the sidewalks in the packet here it does include the sidewalks in the red bounding box which I hadn't looked at before so we are including the sidewalks as part of our general estimates already as is okay that's perfect thank you yeah so there's there are sidewalks there now yeah yeah y I
just want to make sure we're including I guess I mean it's I kind of gave up my bigger ideas about pickle ball so to to kind of simplify things to try to move this project forward so I'm not going to but it's just it's like I guess if that's the question is if we're going to go off for bring it to the State Park
Board is I think I would like to see things like the fence discussed if we're going actually going to if we're going to take the time to to do this I mean that to me is one of those things like how can you make if we're going to spend the extra time and you know I'd rather see that as an option because it is it's going to look
a little you know that a lot of the fencing with pickle ball can be lower basketball can be lower and it makes it a lot more inviting so I mean I just that'd be my one thing if we're going to take the time I won't I won't complain about the time I would just say at least you know consider that what would would that be how much would it really be
extra and what would that fencing look like because that's one of the things again I'm not you I'm not going get a pickle ball design but just how are you inviting that space looks right now it's a big cage a big tired cage and and it makes a big difference as far as the approachability so I guess that would be my
one by one thing to consider I know it's I know it's a little extra cost but maybe we have that and if it's but let let that be an item for discussion too okay other comments does that answer your questions
uh it does and uh if the council would uh uh would consider a motion to direct MSA to uh begin the design uh of this project uh right away and and hopefully we can get you guys something uh March plan or uh Park commission when
is our March Park THS there's a meeting next week mayor next week is going to be challenging that is will be challenging uh but they will be discussing it next week yep so we can you know make sure it's on
the agenda and provide some feedback there so there's a uh the fe uh scope and fee proposal is in is in your packet and we would uh the council would consider a motion to uh direct MSA to proceed that's a 38,000
38860 is what and that I will say that includes um uh inspection time uh when this is going in we put an or we put a just an estimated amount of hours that um that inspection would be buil on an hourly basis based
on what that need was because we don't really know how quickly the contractor is going to be uh to be working on that and that 180 is on top of us right uh is it one is in the 180 or is this on top of the 180 this uh is on top of the 180
about 210 2 15 oh hold on hold on uh no we have our we have our costs included in that 180 thank you thank you for the distinction okay so um just to clearly State on the record I'm looking for a
motion to um authorize MSA to move forward with the enclosed scope and fee proposal for to cost of $ 38,866 do I have a motion I'll make that motion
thank you do I have a second second have a sec okay so I have a motion from council member Schmidt and a second from council member Taylor all those in favor say I I those opposed and we do have a vote from the back of the room uh for
council member suar and so that is approved and you can begin moving forward thank you mayor and that's all I have for this evening but I'm happy to stand for questions I think we'll just move on to Public Works we're move on to public
works thank you um Matt what do you have tonight good evening mayor Elliot and council members I have nothing formal tonight um but I would also uh like to recognize Dean swen um 23 years of service tomorrow will be his last day of uh showing up to work he's got some
vacation that he's going to um use on the way out um but uh like you said he he's a a big part of the team that um you know with limited staff we don't have you know a guy DED dedicated to each you know little department and
aspect and he's been a huge part of uh you know figuring out how we can make some of this old less used equipment more useful modifying you know fabricating doing stuff like that um along with the normal you know after hours water main breakes and and plowing
snow all night and uh you know like you said just kind of the the stuff that people forget about and you know just expect to happen so uh you know he's he's been a great friend um great employee uh we're sorry to see him go
but also you know very happy to see him take off and enjoy you know enjoy his time and and I assume he won't be a a stranger but you know he will definitely be missed so uh we appreciate the resolution and uh yeah so um the only
other thing I was going to say is uh please get your skating in we're running on borrowed time here with the uh 10day forecast which I don't think anyone is too upset about um but it's been uh I don't I haven't tallied the numbers but uh a record year for us for skating use
a lot of that being you know the new lighting The New Rink um you know just all the all the effort uh that guys have put in making great ice and you know trying to get ice earlier so get out there and use it while you can um and uh with that I'd be happy to stand for
questions okay any questions for Matt okay thank you and thanks for spending some time acknowledging Dean's work um at this time what I would like to do is make a motion for a brief recess do I have a second a second all
those in favor say I I that was opposed we're just going to take about a five minute break and then we'll be back with our NE e e e e e
e e e e e welcome back everyone we are uh back in uh Council session so the next item on our agenda is the Cherrywood environmental assessment worksheet and
findings of fact we did have a lengthy Workshop uh discussion on this eaw request and petition that we received I think the staff presentation was 50 minutes or a little bit longer than that and then we had pretty lengthy um conversation as we went through um our
analysis of the different components um that are required for us to do um to come up with our own findings so at this time though I'll turn it over to our city planner Nathan first and he's going to give sort of a quicker summary of no we're going to do 50 minutes of Nathan
going back through the presentation no go ahead Nathan oh thank you mayor and members of the council so yeah as the mayor said we did have a pretty lengthy discussion at the February 6th Workshop so this is a lot of the same content I am going to go through it a lot faster if there are questions I I can pause but uh we'll work towards the end where
we've got a staff recommendation for you at this time so uh yes there was a petition filed uh from for uh consideration of an eaw uh for the Cherrywood development project the Cherrywood project is depicted in the red outline on the screen that's the subject
property and here is the cherry wood project you can see on the uh left side of the screen here that is cherry wood cherry Meadows is a project in Woodbury that is corresponding to this one uh done by the same developer so as an overview for Cherrywood in Newport this
is a project of 117 residential units split between single family and attached town home units uh this the single family lots are 50 ft wide the net density for this project is just over 5 units per acre and there uh through the preliminary plot approval was a very
strong focus on storm water management and Bluff protections as uh the city council will remember so as a status uh where we're at in the development review process the Newport city council did approve a preliminary plat in PUD for Cherrywood in October of last year and
in uh November of last year Woodberry approved their corresponding Cherry Meadows preliminary platin PUD so those those projects have both been preliminarily preliminarily approved uh the City of Newport Woodbury and Cottage Grove are all working together on various agreements related to this
project we have a water interconnect agreement uh between new Newport and Cottage Grove and we have storm water agreement uh between the city of uh Newport and Woodberry we do not have a final plat request in the door yet at this time uh that would be the developer
Next Step so uh just as a very high level overview again for you there are uh three levels of environmental review in Minnesota environmental review is created by the Minnesota Environmental Policy Act really the purpose of environmental review is to provide
really you know it's information about the potential impacts of a project not necessarily an approval or a denial of said project environmental assessment worksheets are the lowest level of review all environmental review has a lot of content it's and so even for eaws
these take between three to six months uh typically towards the middle or later part of that period to get through given the the amount of review and comments that are required so I've summarized here and we've talked about the processes already so I'll kind of move through this slide
and through this slide which is a summary of the petition process uh that is the subject of this request in front of the city council and so I have summarized that kind of lengthy flowchart on this slide and so generally speaking there's kind of four different
steps there's the uh petition creation period where the applicant or the petitioner learns about the project and they have to receive at least a 100 signatures from people in Minnesota that live here in the State uh second is completing that petition and filing with the Minnesota Environmental Quality
board uh so that was done uh by the petitioners for this in this case uh in January in January the the eqb received the petition and then determined that Newport as the municipality was the responsible government unit and
transmitted the petition to the city and here we are now making a decision as the city the rgu whether the city would require the developer to move forward with the eaw so a little bit about the petition I'm going to go through uh pretty quickly
some exhibits that were provided and then summarize what the petition um is is requesting or or claiming so uh you can see a number of exhibits that speak to some of the concerns of the petitioners uh there is a wildlife Corridor that was uh discussed in the
petition along with some concerns for various species and access to a water source that's located in Cottage Grove so you can see some white tail deer some wild turkeys some waterfall these are Canadian
geese and bees so in terms of the the stated concerns in the petition um there are three General buckets that some of these can that these concerns fall into the first one is health of various animal species that were um purported to be
located on this site or in the area so white tail deer is mentioned wild turkey goer snake was specifically listed by the petitioners and the rusty patch Bumblebee which is a federally listed endangered species uh second I did mention that
there is a the existence of a kind of a natural habitat Corridor um in between the bluff area and that wetland in Cottage Grove that's the petitioners uh mentioning that Wildlife are moving in that area and and the last concern was really
for the protection of that water source which is a wetland and that again is located in Cottage Grove so staff analyzed and the city council had a pretty long discussion about the uh findings uh regarding these claims so first and foremost uh those
those um larger animal species the deer and the turkey there are no um state or federal protections for these species they are not listed and so it wasn't determined that an eaw would would provide additional information to form
inform future approvals the gopher snake is a a species of of large-bodied snakes that generally is in the area of River Bluffs these again are not uh protected listed in the state or
federally the rusty patch bumblebee again that was uh that is listed as a federally endangered species uh certainly environmental review helps to identify um issue you know issues related to this be and mitigation
um it is noted though that the critical habitat area is um virtually the entire city of Newport and and actually the critical habitat for this be is really the the entire South Metro area in the
Twin Cities in St Paul area so there was a Desktop review performed by Bolton and man on the presence of habitat for the species you can see the general habitat characteristics on the screen not ton of foraging habitat uh some over wintering
and nesting along the bluff you can see some historical Aerials here on the left a 1938 um image that really shows not not a ton of tree cover and then uh 2021 showing more more tree cover on the
bluff Bolam M's technical assessment also identified concern for Northern longear bat or the potential for uh this species in the area and so this is another endanger inured species that really the primary one of the primary concerns regarding
development is with tree removal and having tree removal occur actually uh before April 1st in order to help preserve roosting areas for the be or the bat so you can see the US fish and wildlife service does have some habitat
area maps if we zoom in uh to look at this development you can see uh generally at a very high level where there could be be habitat areas for the Bat Staff did also take a look at this Wildlife Corridor the potential 4
one and I did did take a look at the protections that are um included in both new newport's approval of the preliminary plat and also Woodberry and cottage Groves approvals for developments uh that all include drainage and utility easement corridors
to help preserve some of that habitat um basically the ability of life to go um between the bluff and that Wetland another thing that we took a look at was uh DNR based um information
on biodiversity and so this area is you know it's it's not to say that there's no habitat value of course there's value in all natural areas but there's not necessarily areas of high significance to the state and biodiversity so that was one thing at a at a high level that
the city council did consider and it also considered what protections are currently in place for wetlands and in Minnesota there are there are pretty strong protections for Wetlands uh one thing that I would note is the the water source that was mentioned in the petition is protected uh through
drainage and utility easements um it is on a lot owned by the city of Cottage Grove so for protection purposes that Wetland seems pretty well protected so this leads me to the council evaluation and decision that we need to make uh so first and foremost
the decision should be based on Minnesota State Statute and we did discuss um really what the statute is is looking for in terms of uh decision and the criteria that are involved so here's the Minnesota state statute reference we discussed this we also discussed those
criteria that are on the screen we can go into these if you have more questions but uh you'll probably remember that discussion so I'll move right into the action that staff are requesting this evening so when the city received the petition uh it was transmitted from the
eqb on January 10th we extended our review period to the maximum uh 30-day period to allow for review and consideration uh by the city council so we are towards the end of that review period that 30 days so that expires um
not long after tonight's meeting so we do need an action from the city council today on uh proposed resolution 2025-the um the the city council directed staff at the February 6th Workshop to um put forward findings of fact summarizing
that discussion and denying the eaw petition that is one of several options the city has with this petition in process so I want to break down very briefly what the resolution does and what the city will be approving through this resolution so the beginning of the
resolution is a is a number of whereas statements uh these statements provide basic facts about the development they provide facts and information about the process and what the city has done and looked at to date it also provide some uh very basic information on the the
basis of the council's decision the resolution concludes that it adopts the findings of fact found in an exhibit that's exhibit B that's an important conclusion findings of fact are needed obviously to support um this
decision the the second conclusion is that the evidence presented fails to demonstrate that the Project based on its nature or location may have the potential for a significant environmental effects I won't read the whole thing but you kind of get the idea there and the last conclusion is that
the project will proceed under applicable local state and federal requirements uh the conditions may be added to the Future approvals in order to mitigate potential environmental impacts so certainly evaluation will be had moving forward when a final plat is
um submitted as to how the development can be modified and we already have some really good ideas about how we can mitigate concerns about habitat loss breaking down those findings of fact one through three nature of the project zoning of the of the property
and a summary of the petition and we talked about that already really the meat of this is in the criteria under Minnesota rules 4410 1700 so part seven we talked about those again at at length the first is the type
extent and reversibility of the environmental effects so the city council considered the material evidence that was provided by the petitioner and their claims the city council considered relevant protections for deer turkey gopher snake and the impacts of
development on those species city council found that no material evidence was provided to document the presence of the species of concern in um some of those species that we mentioned are the federally listed ones it was the rusty patch bubblebee in the northern longard
bat cumulative potential effects so there was consideration of the scope of the Cherrywood and Cherry Meadows projects it's not worth noting that there are no future phases no stub roads Etc the development approvals do include enhanced woodland habitat and Bluff
protections through easements which which are controlled by the city and that that's over some of those areas of concern the third um area was mitigation by ongoing regulatory authorities so the city council did consider that you know
there are there is going to be required permitting and existing Public Authority over the project we've gone through part of the approvals process already there's more yet to do um with final plats and other permits so there is uh it was determined adequate Public Authority
paired with the obligation to comply on the developers behalf with federal law which is The Endangered Species Act lastly the extent of anticipated or controlled or other studies so the project is still subject to All City Watershed County state and federal
requirements and we do have feel that we have an adequate understanding through review that's been completed to date in the resources available to the city so in summary uh material evidence was not provided regarding the Water Source or other um claims about
significant environmental effects um there are a number of species that have no federal or state protections that are still able to move around this area the development timeline as it's currently on can still allow for mitigated impacts to the bat foraging habitat for the be
can be replaced through future conditions of approval city council feels that it has adequate information to assess the uh potential for significant environmental effects and areas where impacts are possible can um be mitigated through modifications to
either the Project's timeline or the plans so with that uh that's a long kind of long summary but a summary of the um where we've been and and the the resolution in front of the city council tonight so I've got an example motion
for you on the screen happy to take any questions that you might have and um I would note that the City attorney did also help draft that findings of fact resolution so we feel pretty pretty strong about it great um questions for uh no questions and and I would say the
developer uh made some adjustments to their planning and how they laid out the houses and setbacks to um try to accommodate some of the concerns that the petitioner had and so I think uh that helped us in our assessment as well that that certain things were preserved
um favorably so with that I would accept a motion uh somebody wants to read it off the screen I will thank you move to approve resolution 2025 2 denying thetion
forry findings ofed thank you do I have a second second so I have a motion from council member suar and a second from council member Taylor any discussion all those in favor say I I
those opposed the resolution is adopted thank you anything else from Administration mayor members of the council uh nothing else formally from uh the administration office uh but I'd be
happy to stand for any questions I think we're good um so we'll move on to Mayor and Council comments I mentioned this at the last meeting I want to mention it again because I think it's just a really neat program um our ZIP code 5555 was approved for the Imagination
Library this is sponsored by uh foundations through Parton she started it because her father never learned to read or write and she thinks childhood literacy is very important and the program is that you can get a free book
every month for um children from birth up to age five and you go on to imagination library.com and you can you know over on the right hand side you can go in and and sign up uh to get the book there's
no uh charge for mailing and and they mail out about 2 million books um a month to people as part of this program so it's uh Newport residents only and I do want to encourage you to get involved with this can help your children learn to read you can read to
your children they can practice reading to you um next I did want to talk about the Woodburry Parks and Recreation catalog is uh coming out in the mail it comes out to Newport residents because we contract with them to provide uh Recreation programs to Newport residents
at Woodburry resident rates this doesn't apply to every program that they offer um but it does apply to several of them and you'd need to call in and to you know verify if the program you're interested in would fall under a new new
Woodberry resident rate lastly we got some uh food composting data in and uh Tom's not able to be here this evening um but 20% of all landfill uh weight B is food scraps and
this is why they're working very hard to get food scraps out of the landfill so right now there are 110,000 households between Washington and uh Ramsey counties that are eligible for the food scraps Pro program there's only about
11% participation their goal is 40% but what that 11% participation has done is removed 58 tons of food from the land fill and it goes to an industrial compost uh facility and it gets turned
into compost so this allows our landfills to last longer um because we have less waste going in them so I want to encourage everyone to get involved with this program you can either sign up online and make an account you can call Washington County just go to their
website Washington count mn.gov and um you can call them they'll send the bags out to you they just look like a typical plastic garbage bag you can get a bucket and you can put the bag in the bucket it's got a lid you put their
your banana peels and orange peels and carrots and you know any food that you're is not good enough to stay in the fridge you left it in the fridge too long you throw it all in there bones can go in there um at the end of the week you just knot it and throw it in your trash that's all you need to do nothing
special you don't have to drive anywhere special it's a very simple program yes the bags are um built to tolerate being in a big garbage truck with lots of garbage on top of them and to survive their way over to the um Recycling and energy center where they are picked out
by an automated machine um and then loaded onto a truck and taken uh to this facility so it's it's a very easy program to participate in I'd love to see Newport leading the percentage numbers of all the communities uh that this is now open for um so please do go
out and sign up to do that that's my comments marf uh yesterday along with city of misser hatch attended a housing Forum of sorts hosted by Washington County and the CDA it was a very good discussion represent us throughout the county I
think housing is going to be a big uh thing for Newport in the years ahead and so we want to be intentional about what we're doing and and thoughtful and trying to to learn and and work with other communities as we do that so great thank you um council member
Schmidt nothing for me council member suner I attended a pigy lake dump task force meeting and we were continuing to work on arriving at a decision to go to the legislature on a way to deal with contamination at that particular
location okay and a timetable of most recent activity is education was primarily from September of 23 to December of 24 the decision making was focused around February February of 25
to June of 25 and then a documenting and a review and a and a creation of a report is from August of 25 to December of 25 and we're addressing the sediments
and the groundwater impacts in that area and the relationship with the Mississippi River makes that so very important and we have come to understand that the pasas is also been aggregated in that area too so it's
it's something that that we know is impacted the entirety of Washington Ramsey County and it's another source that we're looking for ways to deal with it and it's a massive project and it's there are multiple options of ways to deal with it and they're running from 50
to 570 million in costs so it's it's such an impact on the quality of the water in the Mississippi River and this is something that Dr Victoria Reinhardt who used to be the Ramsey County Commissioner she's retired from that
role but she has been very involved with this for a long time and is hoping that we can continue to move toward an answer with something that has been brought before the legislature and the old proverbial kicking the can down the road
but it does need to be addressed sooner than later and there's going to be a couple ways to give impact and I'll I'll continue to share that with the council and ways that we as Newport residents can can share our concerns thank you thank
you for that report bill with that I would entertain a motion to adjourn so M I'll make that motion okay second I have a motion from council member suar and a second from council member Schmidt all those in favor say I I those opposed we're
adjourned thank you everyone