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e e good evening and welcome to the Newport city council meeting today is Thursday March 6 2025 we'll begin the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance IED Al to the flag of the United States
of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all will staff please call the role council member Schmidt here council
member suar here council member angman here council member Taylor here mayor Elliott here next on our agenda to adopt this evening's agenda do we have any changes to the agenda tonight hearing none I'll take a motion hearing none I'll I'll make a motion to
adopt I'll second have a motion from council member suar and a second from council member ingan to adopt the agenda as presented all those in favor say I I those opposed the agenda is adopted so we have some presentations on our agenda for this evening and our first
presentation is from Peter Leatherman and um this is on our Park survey that was done last fall and he is with moris Leatherman and Company and uh we had the pleasure of working with him in 2021 for our first Park survey so it was nice to
ask some questions about how we did on the last survey and also to get some direction on where to go um over the next three to four years so with that I will uh hand it over to Peter super it's a pleasure to finally be with you uh it was supposed to be your first week of
February and developed influenza A so uh it's glad I'm healthy this this week um just to re if we can go to the first nothing's on this one's on it's on here we're good
if we go to the next slide on methodology the same methodology we spoke with 250 randomly selected residents across the community the interviews were conducted between October 21st and the the 30th uh the
average interview time time was 9 Minutes non-response rate uh still at a time if you think back that was pre-presidential election uh people were still willing to talk about their local government they no longer wanted to talk about the state or the federal government uh but they were more than
happy to discuss uh the local and that's what we that's what we see it's always much easier to talk to folks about their city or their school district uh the projectability with a small sample correction is plus or minus 5% and putting up some demographic uh 55% were
cell phone only households um they're still out there 10% landline only households and then 35% have both cell phones and landlines if we go to the the next couple slides the first one uh the first two slides are looking at the demographics and once again the
demographics are done for two purposes so we can look at uh differences between groups households with children versus empty nesters uh but then also to validate the sample versus is updated census information the first set of bars on this slide looks at how long has the
person resided in the City of Newport you can see you have 45% that have been in the city for 10 years or less you have 55% over 10 years uh the typical resident now has been here for about 12 and A2 years households with seniors are
27% households with 36 to 34 year olds 50% uh the millennial group is 37% % we divide out households with children the teenage years uh one in8 households and then one in four have and under 13 if we
look at to combine those about 30% of households contain a Child in the City of Newport men and women were represented equally in the sample continuing with the demographics uh 26% were 18 to 34 year
olds there we go uh 37% 55 are over the age of 55 typical resident comes in at about 462 years old uh the dividing line uh that we've used in the past in the city is east or west of Highway 61 4% more on
the West Side than the East Side um and then we included because we did ask a potential property tax increase for Park and wreck and so we did want to include and ask our uh Financial situ situation of the household uh this is the major issue over the past two years across
Minnesota um and what we found this being back in October is you were right where we were seeing in the fourth quarter of 2024 uh you know typically we're we're we're seeing 45% it's gone down just a little bit uh the first quarter of 25 um
so it's moving in the right direction the caveat I always tell folks is before the pandemic the typical financially stress in the metro area was 26% so we're still approximately 20 points higher than where we were but in comparison to where we were in the first
half of 23 uh where we are almost a 60% financially stressed we're moving in the right direction some of the general city questions um and we have the comparison from 21 and it's a fair comparison I always I presented last night at a
school district uh where they're last survey was 2018 and that's apples and oranges in public opinion pre- pandemic vers versus post pandemic but with 2011 things were at least starting to settle down and so it really is a fair comparison on the overall quality of
life no change uh we had 90% we have 88% now we have seen this drop over since the pandemic um folks are just less happy about everything and the favorable rating on quality of life has moved from
90% down to about 81 or 82% with the shift of people going into the only fair category you don't have that at all it's very stable and especially with if you think back to you know just the slide earlier about one in four people have
moved in over the past 5 years um and it has remained stable even with that turnover in the city if we go to the next slide two open-ended uh first off what do they like most they can tell us anything we
collapse them down into categories um and it's really the same values that we saw back in 21 and they revolve around the small town feel um that this is an oasis in the vast Metropolitan suburban
area the values of close to family and friends friendly people quiet and peaceful schools the neighborhood and home then we get a Suburban response it's close to my job but then we go back to the small town F field the rivers of
nature safe parks and trails it your community what they value are small town attributes as opposed to the Suburban responses of location close to job and those sorts of things now if we ask what
the most serious uh what they like most we always follow up with what's the most serious issue facing the community and first off what I look for on this chart is is any hit 25 30 35% you have one in four one in three people coalescing around a response that's a significant
issue in a community you don't have that you actually only have two issues that hit double digits and that's high taxes at 133% we're going to talk a little bit more about that uh in in a slide is it's
a little bit lower than we're seeing typically now we're seeing that at 15 to 20% and crime and safety at 11% considering your location to uh St Paul that's on the low side of what we
would expect in first and second ring uh communities we're now seeing that be 20 to 25% crime and safety um so the safety issue is not as pronounced as it is in similar uh cities around the metro area
as they Circle Minneapolis and St Paul everything else house um one item almost hits 10% uh the public safety issue dour of the last 2 years has been reckless driving uh and traffic speeding um all across the Metro doesn't matter if we're
in Brooklyn Park uh I'm in Newport uh White Bear it's across the metro area as a major issue the other uh area that you're abnormally high is the booster core down at the bottom the
nothings they're different than unsure um where they say there are no problems in the City of Newport this is Utopia um I'm sure it's a surprise to many of you that that's the case um but that one in five is about three times not saying
anything my value this uh from what you hear it's unusual um that's that's been cut in about half of what we're seeing pre pandemic that's now about six or 7% so you have about 3x the amount of core boosters um and they're positive
throughout the survey um they really are supporters of the community and they serve as a good basis of a reservoir of Goodwill now I mentioned property taxes this is an issue that has
exploded uh across the state of Minnesota um and It Centers back to actually just after your 21 survey in the spring of 22 people got their assessment and they saw their home was worth 20 25% more and
they were thrilled and I think only about three people in the entire state of Minnesota realized what that was going to do to their property tax statement November 15th of 22 is like an explosion of property tax hostility um communities you know we we
had 15 20 point drop gains um it abated a little bit now your survey was done in October before the November 15th um but you don't have that uh increase from 21 to 24 you were
actually at 47% you actually went down to 41% you actually had 7% say they're either somewhat or very low I always make the joke I have their names and numbers if you want to call and thank them but it's it's strictly confidential I can't share
that uh with who who we talk to but this is is atypical um to give you an example of what we're seeing now since November 15th uh presented at a school district a couple weeks ago that did a survey last summer in the metro area that had and
say 50% said their taxes were high in January 70% in six months it went up 20 points um and so this is a major issue across the state luckily it's not here um that 41% is the lowest I have in the
last 18 18 months since what happened during 2022 keeping in mind you still have 41% that rate that their property tax is high if we go to the next Slide the value proposition of city services last
time 67% rated the value positively it actually went up to 76% um and if we only have 20% saying only fair keep in mind that 41 % said their taxes were high only half of those
translated the value into an only fair proposition which means that the quality of services you could think something might be high but you still believe the value is worth it if the services provided are deemed favorable and that's
exactly what this chart is showing us now going into park and wreck an overall assessment of the rating of Park and Recreation facilities last time we had 69% rate them favorably this time we have 76% rate them
favorably the unfavorable was from 27 to 25 so it has been stable now obviously you've made improvements and I'm going to kind of come back and do a summary statement about the improvements and how it's impacted people's ratings in a few
slides if we look at the rating maintenance and upkeep of parks it was 76% in it did drop to 70% the unfavorable went from 19 to 30 part of this coming into play is the fact you've
made improvements so it's opened people's eyes and made them look at okay this got improved this needs to be improved now um and it's made them more aware of what it could be um it always
kind of happens when a school district does a bond referendum well my facilities are great I built a new middle school now the high school all of a sudden doesn't look that great um and so it's one of those things you're kind of become a victim of your success as you make these improvements until
everything is completed are they aware of the park improvements 2third indicate that they are if we can I think we're one slide behind one slide behind nope one more one more the pie
chart pie chart nope going backwards there we are 67% said that they were aware of the park improvements if we go to the next slide um have they visited or uh used any of the park improvements 41% said that they are a member of their
household had how do they rate the experience overwhelmingly positive 90 to 10 um so once again it's setting up that evaluation you can see the unfavorable amongst users is half of the maintenance up keep unfavorable overall so it is
improving folks perception where the improvements were made if we go to the next slide and look at usage what the yellow bar indicates that they said that they have not used they are members of their household have not
used the park or the trail um if they have used the favorables the green the red is the unfavorable um so for instance Lions Park 50% of the Community says that they've used it a 42 to8 so about an 80%
favorable rating on Loveland Park 49% indicate that they've used it 39 to1 39% indicate Newport Bailey School Forest Park uh 31 to8 Pioneer Park 63% indicate
that they've used it a 4815 rating buzy Beaver 57% have not used it well 43% have and then the city trails and city trails are always the most highly used um 70% of the community indicates that they've
used it that was up from the previous survey um and it's 61 to1 on a favorable almost about 87% rating city trails positively if we go to the next slide does the current mix uh facilities meet
the needs of their household yes 90% indicate that's the case now once again this question is a binary choice this doesn't mean and this question also requires a it does not require a l an imagination they're just thinking about
what folks what they have doesn't meet the needs as you're going to see when we ask about potential other Park and wreck improvements they're supportive of those but as a whole is they're sitting there thinking and they don't think deeply about Park and recommend um they're
saying yes it does meet my the needs of my household at the outset we ask about sports courts first off we ask folks do they play either pickle ball tennis and basketball and so
we have 30% indicating that they play pickle ball 34% indicating that they are members of their household have play tennis and basketball 33% we then follow up and ask if you play if the city uh made improvements to
the sports courts or added Sports would you be very likely somewhat likely or not likely to play that sport in the City of Newport and you can see amongst the those that indicate they play the sport vast majorities of them indicate that if the improvements were made at
the courts they would play them now if I look at this because you look at you basically have 30% segments what I did with the data is I asked the computer tell me what percent of people of household olds play one of the three so
they're not competing overall 55% of households indicated they played at least one of these three Sports so it is a majority that would be touched by improvements to the courts just you can see the impact uh with pickle ball
tennis and basketball um the individual users uh it would increase their use for the sports now like I talked about we have 90% indicating that the current mix meets the needs of their household but would
they support the use of city funding for these items well yes now we've given them a list to react to of specifics what leads the list uh two areas actually get to 80% river access Park
85% and picnic areas in seating 82% we then Dro down to the 7 % level expansion of trails modernizing lovelin uh playground then we have three in the in the well four in the 60s improving
horseshoe pits the splash pad frisbee disc golf and the skate park and then cornhole Courts at 58% over and in developing the survey it did I really didn't expect that big a difference between Horseshoes and
cornhole um but there was was um but still you have majority support for the use of city funding but it does give you a sense for the prioritization as you pit all of these against each other now we did pull the list together on the next slide and ask
what is the top priority what's the second priority and what which one are you most opposed to so if we look at the green and they have to pick one of the of the list what goes to the top as a
top priority is modernizing Loveland Park 23% if we though add first and second it's river access park at 34% and expansion of trails at 31 and
then modernizing Loveland Park at 30 um the rest then you go frisbee disc golf the horseshoe pits the splash pad picnic areas and seating actually goes up to fourth place you can kind of see the specialty of the activity versus the
general appeal comes in if if I if I like horseshoes I'm going to pick it if I pick if it's frisbee disc and Gulf I'm going to pick that um but then but the broader things the Improvement to the uh the trails picnic areas and seating and
River uh access um if you go to the bottom 24% said they're not opposed to anything um it all sounds wonderful where those that say they're opposed to everything the all it's only 5% so
people do want to see the changes um and the prioritization the good news is is you're you know for those of us old enough to remember the old stereos with the equalizer it's not like you have one thing Out Of Tune you just have to set things you're going to pick them and you
have support as you do this to build in and kind of do the update of the park uh plan that's been discussed now what are folks perceptions of the pace of the park improvements um
it's about right 2/3 19% say it's too slow 5% say it's too fast so if they're making a judgment on speed by about 4 to one they go too slow but an overall assessment is 2third saying it's going
at about the right pace now to flesh out a little bit more the 19% that say too slow on the next slide we ask folks would you support a property tax increase for faster Park
improvements um no well softly no uh because a 53% majority without any sort of specifics on cost um would be difficult um it comes in 53% support 40% oppose and 7% on un sure if we look at
intensity those that strongly feel one way or the other it's not a lot it's less than a third but it's equal 177% strongly support 15% strongly oppose if this was a park Bond I was actually writing a park Bond survey before I came
down here for another uh Metro uh suburb um that it's looking to go this fall uh this would be difficult to get past um you're kind of doing it at the right pace for the community in the right way as you
prioritize um the improvements to go um and part of this is coupled with people's economic situation and their feeling on property taxes what's the preference on Recreation uh it was strongly the preference last survey was passive it
remains that way um it's just kind of we we we don't like really organized anything anymore um in anywhere in any sort of uh Recreation program 68% passive only 25% prefer active an
organized recreational barriers to participation um not surprisingly the commodity now more than anything is time um 32% say it's a barrier a lot total of
68% lack of Interest 18 with a total impact of 55 five personal health then accessibility for disabled lack of information and travel distance I mean really at this point you know as the city looks at this uh the lack of
information piece is very low um whole bunch more information is probably going to necessitate a 25th hour in the day would help uh get more uh participation uh in park and wreck um but the things that limit the barriers
perhaps lack of interest but then you're going to have to fine-tune into what interests people specifically and that's why kind of the broader appeal sorts of improvements are kind of the best way to start we added uh questions on Pioneer
Days this time and we asked just in the past have you were members of your household uh attended Pioneer Days uh 29% said they had not 71% % they had sometime in the past uh the evaluation
of it is it's good uh 63% rate it favorably 8% said only fair um so if we look at it it's about a 90% favorable rating um but it's a soft rating uh that it's good versus excellent we followed up with the only fair and asked what
could be done to Improvement and you're getting into small numbers with very specific talks of certain food vendors and those sorts of things and then finally where are folks getting their information the newsletter leads a list
at 31% or I'm sorry the website leads the list uh followed by the newsletter at 21 uh the Great Vine uh strong uh 16% one and six mailing social media local newspaper um so the city if we just look
at the top two a majority of people are relying on information coming from the city either the newsletter or the website now that's how they get their information how do they prefer to receive their information if we look at
the next slide and we look at this as print versus electronic do they want to push a button on a computer the city website at 27% social media at 12 email at 11 you have 50% that prefer electronic on the
flip side they want to hold something in their hands the newsletter is 20% mailings at 16% local newspaper at 5% you have 41% in that category so tips a little bit more electronic but still
there are very specific demographics around this you know basically if you're over the age of 55 you're much more likely to say I want something in my hands if you're a household with a child you want something electronic so cities
do do need and I know i' been I've been doing this now for 30 years probably when the internet came you know since I started this the internet developed good Lord um when the internet became a viable option and we started
asking people if we could switch over to a newsletter that's all electronic um you're no city is at that point no school district is at that point because the the tension is and those those cities in school district districts that make the decision to get
rid of print um I can always see it in the data because electronic requires the user to do something you need to want to go get the information as opposed to just go to your mailbox um and pick something out of it
you're much more likely to take that information and what happens when City goes electronic is especially we know in the data that over 55y old and especially us men we're not going to go to the website uh we're going to use
Word of Mouth um we're going to talk at restaurants that's going to be the primary primary source of information um and so I always say it becomes a mile wide and an inch deep where we start asking specific things about City how do you rate the council how do you think
about spending and you have many more people saying I don't know uh because they're not paying attention at the levels that they were before you could see on the last slide that than the impact uh over the last three years just on communication do people feel informed
about Park and Recreation facilities in 21 62% said they did it's all the way up to 78% indicating that they feel informed so a lot of progress has been made on communication at the same time you've
done the improvements and that's really the communication that's gone into place so I'd be happy to answer questions you have okay question got a question it goes back to the you talking about support Public Funding and like the picnic benches came
in really high for example then it's like it shows up much lower in the priorities you know as far as what do you make of something like that and what we should how should interpret interpret something like that oh when we're looking at them individually versus pitting them against the others as you're picking
um which is the most what's the sexiest I I I would say a river access Park versus picnic seating you know I might like picnic seating but if I'm asked to pick one or the other it kind of comes
down to that um and then also what are you more likely to use um and like you know I think we talked about developing the survey um what I would look at with that is if you have a river access Park and development for sure you want picnic areas is and
seating available then you're kind of killing the two birds with one stone thank you council member SAR do you ever include potential cost estimates in any of your surveys and if so do you have an average cost that you could apply based on all your experience
with many other cities uh when we're testing like a park Bond referendum so like the one I wrote Today $60 million on an average house that's going to cost this much uh for the improve improvements Apple Valley very specific on this when we get into the use of city
funding um we don't because you'd have to go through each one individually um in a sense um in order to gauge where folks are at um but the safest I mean where we're at for tolerance so if I just do what we call it a Let's Make a
Deal question if you hear the city is going to make improvements to the parks before they know anything else um what sort of property tax increase would you be willing to accept um we're at about a hundred bucks a year at the
outset uh so about eight bucks a month on the typical house um I always tell clients it can go up and it can go down depending on what if we look at that list of priorities if that that we went
through yeah I think the bottom was cornhole if the vast majority of the dollar were going to go to cornhole go back one joke please there we go if the vast majority of the money was going to cornhole it'd probably be right at about eight bucks a month but
if it was going to go for river access park there is elasticity up because we have over 80% supporting it um so kind of I always use that Baseline of a reasonable amount about eight bucks a
month a hundred bucks a year and people work forwards or backwards depending on what they value you don't have anything you know I've T you know the the thing that polarizes in districts or cities when I test it is a hockey rink um that
one it might be four bucks a month on the average house so it can go up or down it depends on what's being asked for but it's a good general rule at about 8 bucks a month any questions Mr lean uh first of all excellent presentation today this is
great um couple quick questions for you there was a graphic you showed right at the beginning on safety and traffic and some of those being you know high on the list I haven't seen the survey or the questionnaire that went out but essentially when I look at this my mind
actually went to are these just things that people think about on a daily basis or is this actually things they've observed and I don't know if you have that information yeah the the question is in general what do you think is the most serious issue you facing the city
today and so they can tell us anything and some people will tell us six things what gets coded for the purpose of this is the first thing they say it's the top of the mind it's really you know it's just like the previous one what they
value most what they like most this is what to your point they think about if if they're sitting around in the neighborhood I've got an issue with this this is the first thing that pops to mind okay that's helpful yeah and then um
there was a demographics also early in here as well it kind of talked about 25% of the community has been here less than five years that's 2024 data do we have the 2021 data and like does it show kind of the transformation over the last
couple years we do I don't know if I have the survey but if I don't I can get it for you okay absolutely not urgent here um that's probably good for questions I appreciate it super thank you good um I did want to ask you you've
separated out newsletters and mailings and generally our only city-wide mailing is our newsletter and we do some spot mailing for something um that's a public Improvement or something that's a special
assessment does it make sense to combine the newsletter number numbers and the mailing numbers for purposes of kind of what you know just because I said oh I like the mailings I might be thinking about a newsletter absolutely okay yeah yeah we don't we'll
separate out so if they tell us the specific name of the newsletter if they say just the generic City newsletter or I say mailings from the city we'll separate it out that way okay um so it
yeah people at home are probably getting so really if you take the 21 and the 11 you actually are seeing that the newsletter and mailings is outranking the city website just by a bit yeah yeah or I would call it even yeah yeah yeah
statistical tie okay okay and then if you do that then you have over 60% you know one of one of the things that is developed across the metro area now um and it's happened I mentioned because
specifically older guys aren't going to go to the website or social media to get information as local newspapers disappear or don't cover cities like they used to they've just gone to that there are many school districts and
cities in the metro area where the number one source of information is the Great by now that's that becomes difficult um because and for the most part in all those communities and school districts it's still POS positive but
the grape vine is it can become poisonous sometimes it depends what goes into the grape vine um and so a lot of communities no longer especially if they don't do the newsletter and there's not a supplement to help fill in the gap of the local The Disappearance of the local
newspaper you I mean you have a m flat majority that they rely on information from the city first before that's not saying that they don't also look at social media or anything this is what is your principal source of information okay I think one other question on the
passive versus active um activities and I just if you can clarify the definition active really is more about organized activities where you have to need you must show up at a certain date in time to
participate versus like pick up basketball or you know pick up hockey game that is not organized that would fall into the passive category yeah I I'll I'll read the exact statement so everybody's clear we ask them to pick either statement a or statement B
statement a is I prefer to undertake passive park and recreation activities that don't require organization such as walking statement B is I prefer to undertake active park and recreation activities that require organizations such as sports
leagues um and and part of it links back to time the minute you have organization the minute you have sports leagues you have okay this starts at 5:00 uh so the time flexibility comes into play as we've shifted um over the
30 years I've known public opinion okay other questions from the council well I want to thank everyone um who answered the phone calls uh took the average of nine minutes to uh help us and guide us over the next you know
three to four years as to what our Park priorities are going to be and each one of these will get you know further scrutiny and further discussion um as time goes on but we do have the sports courts on our list to be improved in 2025 so you can look forward to that
coming coming in 2025 I want to thank you as well Peter it was a pleasure to work with you again and fun to kind of see the comparisons I know the passive number and active stayed pretty steady uh from a few years ago uh so that's
interesting to see I think also in some of the the other data that went uh specifically out to the subcommittee um 20% of seniors would like to have their own kind of facility or place to gather and I think three four three years ago
it was teens activities for teens sort of had gotten a little bit uh more highlighted and that didn't really show up in the survey this time around agreed yes so so yes um thank you so much and uh thank you for joining us tonight wonderful it was a pleasure thank you
all thank you can we get the cross tabs sent out too sometime yes absolutely yeah you can send them through Joe yeah gritty data spreadsheet so next on our
agenda is the uh presentation by Washington County and we have Kevin Peterson with us this is about uh improvements to uh County Road 74 which we refer to in the community as 65th Street on the south end of town so with
that Kevin I'll let you um introduce yourself I design engineer and and uh go from there awesome thank you Madame mayor members of the council uh good evening my name is Kevin Peterson as noted I serve as the Washington County design engineer I'm here on behalf of Public Works to receive feedback from
you all on the current status of the County Road 74 or 65th Street Corridor Improvement project normally Mike Klein as our engineering PM would be here uh but he is out on a planed vacation and we wanted to prioritize getting this in front of you folks um I'm also joined
here tonight by county commissioner bigam so here you'll see an overview of our presentation tonight uh certainly don't hesitate to interject with any questions along the way next slide please Joe thank you so
as a bit of background uh the project covers County Road 74 which is locally known as 65th Street this roadway carries just over 2500 vehicles per day and coincidentally drops over 150 vers vertical feet um as it goes from the top of the bluff on the East down to the
bottom of bluff near Highway 61 uh this grade change leads to consistent washing out um which is causing environmental concerns and significant maintenance efforts by County Crews next slide please Joel um going
back to the project here you'll see an overall General Schedule efforts kicked off last summer with the creation of a project team consisting of County city and Watershed District staff that team has been leading the project design and engagement efforts working toward a
targeted Construction in 2026 that team has engaged with several community members through the project an initial blank map openhouse was held in person and online last September the project team utilized data compiled um through the project and the community
feedback received to bring several feasible alternatives to the public in January we we've been very pleased by the amount of Engagement we've seen on this project at this time the South Washington Watershed district is working in parallel with the roadway Improvement
project to analyze Ravine improvements uh to be constructed in conjunction with the roadway work um in addition to the meetings listed on the previous slide Washington County and South Washington Watershed District staff met with the St Paul refiner and Company this fall to
talk through the project uh they shade shared General support for both efforts here you'll see a few more specifics on the information that was presented at the second open house the project team developed seven Alternatives ranging from no build to
full reconstruction with pedestrian facilities ultimately four options were carried forward and shared with the community community feedback was as always mixed um but as a transportation engineer it's always telling to me at least when safety is noted as a priority
for both motorists and bike and ped users um additionally challenges and opportunities with the unique nature of this Corridor were shared next slide please Joe utilizing the technical information gathered and the feedback received the
project team has developed a recommended alternative this recommendation includes full payment replacement the installation of concrete curban gutter to manage drainage and erosion a 10-ft wide multi-use Trail on the north side of the roadway bikable pave shoulders
for those users that choose that um and removal of the scurve on the on the west end of the project near Hastings Avenue next slide please Joe I don't want to spend a lot of time on this slide um as it's very hard to see but this represents a plan view layout of
that recommended design I've got a printed copy here too if the council would like to review in more detail what is the blue the turquoise line on there what is that representing that represents the bottom of the Ravine where the water flows on the north side of that Corridor and yeah you have good eyes mayor um kind of moving south
you'll see the pink line represents that trail um so it would be on that Ravine side of the roadway and then it's it's a little bit subtle too on the left side of that page but you'll kind of see the roadway goes a lot straighter into Hastings Avenue where the S curve is kind of buried underneath it that that
green blob I guess on the South Side there represents a pond right over that existing pavement next slide please Joe with any significant project at this stage of the process costs must be part of the decision-making discussion here
you'll see a draft estimate of preliminary cost for this project for a bit of background on the County's cost participation policy generally a cost participation policy provides direction from the County Board to staff and our partner communities to identify
appropriate costs to be used us on Transportation Investments a CA policy provides uniformity and consistency for budgeting and Project Specific expectations all communities in Washington County are treated the same what our policy does not require is for
cities to pay for any of the base roadway items the policy acknowledges that the county is responsible to handle that Regional traffic next slide please Jo so which brings me to next steps in my final slide
uh one reason cost participation policies are in place is because we prioriti prioritize local support for our projects quite simply we will not move forward on a project without formal approval from our partners in this case the City of
Newport um we call that formal support a resolution of support following that resolution the team will advance the project through the final engineering and RightWay acquisition phases we will absolutely learn more about the project through that effort
including details and costs so following that uh phase we'll approach the city with formal cost and maintenance agreements then ultimately open contractor bids Before We Begin work on this project all that to say this is a critical step in our process that
resolution of support um but it is very much not the last chance for formal City action with that Madame mayor members of the council first and foremost thank you for the time tonight uh we've done a lot of great work together over the past several years that said I understand
that this is a lot of information uh I was just going I was just sharing with you so we're here to listen what are your priorities what do you like what do you not like about the project as proposed and overall thank you and I will stand for any questions thank you so much uh Kevin questions for
Kevin Council memb some there general question is what is the percent grade that this is overall do you have that information I'm trying to do it in my Mr Mayor I'm trying to do in my head as as you asked the question I I honestly don't know off hand John do you have
going to know I I do not either but I can effort that while uh while Kevin addresses some more questions here yeah I mean it's over a half mile at 150 ft so it's it's significant that's for sure yeah riding a bike or or walking of it is it is a
steep section of roadway and riding in the winter it's always steep I'm glad they invented ebikes well and this will this Trail will connect uh to a trail that is in Cottage Grove already and then leads all the way up to the mate Middle School
correct yes ma'am so it connects that as well as there's some neighborhood development going on in that area and then the trail connects down to our Hastings so neighbors um from that neighborhood could always come down and go visit the North Pole or or other
businesses in Newport um we want to encourage that AB exactly Josh you have question oh sorry council member SAR when you talk about acquisition of properties do you go in then with an
assessed value and just offer that to the property owners and because it's a right away acquisition they have to accept that or is it a bid process yeah mayor council member that is is not a process we take lightly um in fact we identify the amount of
acquisition both by square footage in size you know it's that specific um but also in some cases we're only acquiring what we call a temporary easement which means you know we need to do some temporary grading into your property but when we're done with that work we want the property owner to continue owning
that property so it's just a way to kind of manage slopes and Grading going into that so what we do is we identify those areas literally by square foot down that level of detail and then we we actually stake those areas in the field and then we hire an independent appraiser to go
out and review that in the field so they can see you know if there's things like a fence within that area right or a large tree um and that independent appraiser actually sets a value and hands us a report on each property um that we that we have that appraisal
worked on and then that's what we offer to those Property Owners okay Council M some is there a significant amount of property that belongs to the refiner yeah Mr Mayor Madame mayor council member there is on that North Side um in fact most of that Ravine is
actually owned by the refinery which a large part of the reason we met with them so early in the process acceptable to this they've been supportive in fact they also see the importance of an agency like a watershed District having access and at least an
easement to that property to maintain that Ravine in the appropriate way Josh a couple quick things so earlier in the presentation it was mentioned on improving safety because there's a blind intersection or folks have a hard time seeing that
intersection I looking at the the rendering for what this would look like how does that address those concerns yeah Madam May counc membera or this one yeah so that specific issue was at the stop sign um as you're facing
north looking West toward 10e um and what's a little bit subtle here but the road is actually shifting a little bit to the South to fit that trail in on the top of the Ravine and so as part of that work um there would be you know some tree clearing and Grading to kind of tie
that roadway back in oh so it's more for visibility Improvement and okay I see and then similar on the on the west end of the project just straightening out that curve of course will help those S lines too that area didn't come up as much for Sidelines it was really that Eastern stop sign area that that came up
a few times through the public council member suar what width do you anticipate building this road to yeah Madame mayor council member the roadway as planned right now in this recommended alternative has two 11t lanes and then it has six foot shoulders
on each side to essentially the face or the vertical part of the curban gutter so that would be what a 34t total width I think that's Mr engineer that's that's a little wider than our city wider than
our city streets we typically have a 28t section so those uh the uh shoulder the bikable shoulders that that Kevin mentioned would be the addition then the trail is on the other side of the curb yes um council member there' be a I believe it's a 10- foot
Bullard space for kind of snow storage and and green space um and then a 10 foot wide multi-use Trail so the trail is completely independent of the roadway itself people will not have to bike on the roadway any longer correct that's a huge safety B your average slope is about 6% uh but
the it looks like at its steepest it's a little over 10 10 and a half I've been working on 16 12 R lately so it's all good Mar did you have any questions I mean I think for me I guess the the big questions get down to users
who's going to you know who's going to use this road I mean I like the IDE is nice but what as far as traffic do you expect this to Inc traffic counts to increase on this road I mean that's a separate question from what the city part is but I mean I'm just trying to think and also from you know what I'm just concerned
like Newport it's a it's a pretty route if I never got never been on except for the car because it's not safe but it's just like I mean do you have a way of anticipating the usage levels on the trail like this yeah Madame mayor counc member looking at traffic projections is a baseline part of any project like this
as well as as well as County work just dayto day um this isn't a significant growth Corridor you know we go into some projects wondering if it's going to need to be expanded to four lanes right this Corridor that never really came up um you know as you know this area is pretty welldeveloped you know even as you go
further East toward Cottage Grove um so traic growth here won't be significant um what really is what we're excited about with this recommended alternative is the bike and pet infrastructure like noted there's a significant trail system both in Newport and in Cottage Grove as well as schools um but also that
maintenance piece um I I I can't you know understate enough our County Crews you know get angry at me almost every day they have to go out there and say what the heck Kevin why aren't you done with this project because that gravel washes all the way down to the bottom of that hill and that's clogging coverts
it's it takes a lot of work to get this this Corridor cleaned up when we get those events can you just tell me a little bit more I mean I'm a little bit IGN ignorant on the trail that as it feeds into K Grove what how far does that go what does it tie into besides ultman does it keep going Beyond on 74
does it I don't know the trail Network I'm just trying I'm trying to understand this piece in the bigger puzzle why should why should be us Newport care that if we're you know you know right now other than Cherrywood which is a development nearby but they could get down to down we're planning a trail probably on Century and so I guess unless maybe create Loops I mean
connectivity and trails I'm just trying to kind of skeptical a little bit of you want go ahead commissioner thanks uh council member you're answering your question is the connectivity to make sure that these uh neighborhoods and the
communities are able to um be accessed um in the in a regional manner right um the top part and I please correct me if I'm wrong um as you go forward and and further um from ultman middle school it connects to the neighborhoods up there
as you've already stated with Cherrywood um there's going to be um you know just an an effort to through the various communities to have continuity through our Trails um you know this is uh I
think a priority just to to have the connectivity from this area down to Hastings for the economic development the CDA as you know did The Vision on Hastings um for you guys last year I think it was a year before last 2023
2023 and so um you know all of this kind of plays into these conversations on on how we have that variety of how people are accessing um the various areas too of Newport so in a safe manner I think
to the fact that this now connects into the Mississippi River Trail system and you can you can go an awful long ways uh once you kind of hook on to Hastings Avenue uh from Newport so
um I know from a cost perspective this is a little higher than um I had hoped and I you know would appreciate just some conversations on funding options um at some point in the future um and if there's you know if we're getting a lot
of RightWay out of the refinery and if they're not charging any money for that right of way um then maybe our RightWay cost shouldn't be quite so high so I think uh just some conversations about how we can affordability for this so
yeah I think that's that's it we've answered you've answered all our questions thank you both so much for being here we appreciate it very much uh commissioner bam and uh Mr Peterson thank you for the time so next on our agenda is public
comments and as we have no members of the public in the audience this evening I will move on to the consent agenda do we have um the consent agenda uh items that are considered to be routine by the city council and are approved in a single motion there'll be no separate discussion unless a council member or
citizen so request in which case it'll be removed from the agenda and considered at the end of the consent is there anything to be removed from consent this evening second I have a motion from council member Ingam and a second from council member Schmidt to adopt the consent
agenda as presented all those in favor say I I I those opposed the consent agenda is adopted next on our agenda this evening is the Washington County Sheriff's Office report and we're going to be getting a presentation on uh the
services that Washington county is providing to the city and we have Sergeant leet with us yes good evening Madame mayor council members it's good to see you again hard to follow up after those well presented presentations so bear with me for a
minute please yeah as far as updates within the past few weeks to be honest there's not a whole lot obviously everybody knows we're digging out of the the snow dump that happened yesterday um but uh awesome work by our Public Works folks and hard work that they did over the couple days to try to clear the
streets um and we appreciate people being cognitive of driving safely through that um other than that there is really nothing new to add for that part of it um so if it's okay I'll I'll kind of morph right into this presentation uh
it's mostly to discuss some of uh what you are paying for right and what what the Sheriff's Office provides and does for you and for the greater good of the County as well as your your good Community out here which I have to say was quite fascinating with that first presentation uh hearing all the
statistics and what the city members believe in and my goodness that's to me I think that was great uh really great news so Kudos seems like you guys are doing a wonderful job so so with that uh first I should say a huge thank you to a couple of people that did help put this
together name name shout for them U Lori olssen is one that did a lot of work behind this as well as Amy Larson the records person and of course the sheriff and Chief Deputy assisted with some of this as well so thank you to them for their help on this so uh the next slide kind of diving into it it's a friendly
reminder of who your employees here are um working in your city uh as uh obviously you know myself Deputy Berg Otis he's uh he's newer to this contract full-time but he also has that Australian accent uh and he's very good at it Deputy Duran who has been here for
quite a while and does good work uh during the days working with our community members and Deputy hints as well as Deputy Jang are overnight deputies working hard to ensure we have drunk drivers off the road and uh so everybody is safe and Deputy mesara works the afternoon shift again equally
works very diligently to make sure all are safe so that is your crew so I was trying to Fig figure out what's the best way to cover all the things that the Sheriff's Office provides to be very honest there would be a lot a lot a lot of slides on here
um the sheriff's office is is fully comprehensive with all the different things that they have but we figured we would highlight a few things here the one benefit of uh with the sheriff's office is the agency size allows us to give our deputies an opportunity to do different things and be well-rounded as
you can read on that slide well-rounded deputies or officers make them better in turn makes it better for the communities that they serve and the people that they interact with they take those experiences and move forward and learn from those as well um so that is one huge benefit us being the largest law
enforcement agency in the county uh we have that ability and statutorily there's things that we have to do that cities don't so it gives people those opportunities to have a wide range and learn from all those to highlight a few a very few of
these things as you see on these points the coordinated response team to help with mental health related calls which we all know has grown quite a bit over the years certainly the past uh three four even five years and this group just to remind everybody is currently made up
of two deputies that are full-time and now two full-time social workers they work together all the time every single day and they report to calls during the day or even at night hours um additionally the community impact unit this is a new group group that was
formed this year and they uh actually have been in Newport a couple times um and they have been very successful in getting all sorts of things which you have read in the newsletter that has come to you guys monthly um one in particular was someone who who had DWI
on the freeway and they did not want to stop uh but they were able to get them so that they wouldn't cause any injury to anybody else just a very very small example also the programs with our training unit our training unit who are full-time members is growing we now have
a sergeant as well as a deputy that's full-time in that we'll also have a full-time correctional officer in that hopefully in the future and they're able to take time to figure out what training they can provide to our deputies to just help them grow again and be better out there the ageny wide participation
through County events um truly you've seen hopefully you've seen us at Pioneer Days uh also other things with parades you name it National Night Out try to get involved in uh our community engagement group is very involved
throughout the entire County so we fully welcome being asked to be participate in stuff for what it's worth last week I read to kids at uh the elementary school which honestly was fun I love that the questions that they have are pretty darn
good questions I will say um some of them unexpected and some of them kind of expected so it's it's fun to just hear them see their smiles hand out stickers uh uh gave a hug to one kid they there were just sweethearts absolutely sweethearts so we enjoy it I enjoy it um
and the people that work in this contract all love it uh and obviously the last bullet point um being part of the washing County Sheriff's Office we are also part of the drug task force as well as a human trafficking task force side please so here's something that uh was
asked me to bring up to you and that little picture is just kind of a overview highlight of what our maybe our Command Staff would see now they get notices or information whether it's daily or weekly that I'm not 100% sure but this crime view is a newer program
that the sheriff's office has and it takes stuff from the record management system and pretty much takes that data and puts it in a way that you can read it more easily and understand it and quite honestly the next couple slides will be able to help illustrate some of
that so if you don't mind going to the next one here's an example right we can create Heat maps to kind of show you geographically where some of these things are being accomplished and there's different things that we can also you know put in the computer like what is it this is just an example for
like uh you know traffic tickets this was over the course of 2024 okay and how many were misemer P Mis meaner where were most of them written that's kind of what that heat map shows on there so the county has this ability and we're still trying to learn and grow more from this
um but that is something that not everybody has and it's a good resource for you so if you do have questions in the future we can try to get that information for you next slide please this uh currently for 25 um which
I I'm sure you know but just to highlight this is what the cost is for the officers and sergeant that you have currently um and again uh the hopes are is with the grant um if that still is a go that we will get that position to
help um help some the officers down here next one to relate this a little bit better um the per capita is what we wanted to try to figure out and we took some of the PDS and smaller P PDS within our
County uh Oak Park Heights which is pretty much up kind of by the Sheriff's Office uh Walmart you know Menards all that Bayport St Paul Park your neighboring community and then you guys uh Newport and what the cost is per capita and the population that we use there was about 4,200 we understand
that's a give or take um and it can kind of move around a little bit as far as 2024 these are the call volumes throughout the entire year and where the highest amount of calls happened this was uh last year midnight kind of seemed
to be the stroke midnight I guess uh for who knows un unknown reasons but that was a peak out um obviously with 11:00 p.m. close by the lowest is 80 at 5:00 a.m. which is pretty pretty common to be honest people are still waking up or people are just
going to bed one or the other um and then you can kind of see it kind of averages out throughout most part of the day but that later evening is when the highest amount of calls came again this is 2024 total amount of calls okay next
slide please now as far as the arrest data uh for your information this goes through 2020 to 24 as you see on this slide 24 being the last one with the yellow that's where our stats ended up at the end of the year um so as you can see it's kind of gone up and down just a
little bit staying relatively consistent um for the arrest citations lower last year so this as you can see the total calls of service again that'll show the past 5 years in Newport and where we
ended last year also stays Rel relatively consistent with the acception of the uh spike in 21 those are the overall calls that were at least labeled that they could track down in the uh system over the course of those five years with the assaults robberies drugs
and overdoses I will say uh as far as drug overdose and where that's laid out the use of Naran that our deputies have and also what's been accessible to the public has been able to save quite a bit of lives of those uh only seven
unfortunately uh passed away but to think that still 21 lived because of that accessibility and obviously our officers being able to be there quickly and to provide that to them now how to explain this again this this is breaking down just three years the past three years of the call Total
calls for service in Newport the crisis calls so you see there are crisis calls that our deputies your deputies the ones that work here dayto day had and have responded to of those three years that you see 110 153 and
125 200 were referred to that coordinated response team now again that's those two full-time deputies and now it's two full-time so social workers and we cannot forget our furry little friend that is also with one of those deputies they have a therap dog that's
also with them they make phone calls again during the day they might respond on scene or they also respond in different odd hours as well to help those people that are in person of Crisis and they try to work with them to have a plan so that they can work you know live dayto day and work through
whatever issues they might be going through this can be very time consuming uh so we are extremely grateful for that group and the hard work they do uh I was asked to come up with what are some key challenges maybe for our deputies who work in this contract um
certainly officer safety and backup is an issue as far as the sheriff's office is distributed throughout the county uh Newport is somewhat of an island as far as other jurisdictions that the Sheriff's Office directly patrols So
currently what would be our closest Sheriff's Office to help support would be either up in Lake Elmo landfall area and then uh also Al the low Sinker Valley contract and South Deputy all right uh we're kind of the island
surrounded by PDS now the good thing is we have a great working relationship with our PDS and we certainly help each other and we will continue to do that obviously because that's the right thing to do so the call complexity is a real thing the statutes change constantly and
it's uh they can be very timec consuming trying to figure out if there's a crime or what crime did they commit and if it's not a crime but we can't just leave what kind of resources can we offer them this could be a lot of phone calls it could be a lot of reaching out it could
be who knows what so the complexity of the calls that we respond to is is becoming great which does consume time for some of the deputies who are out on these calls if that makes sense and there is and continues to be an up and down uh increase and decrease
of mental health response the assistance of that coordin Response Unit has been very helpful um but we certainly do still get a a handful of calls for persons that are in crisis next slide so with that I know
that was kind of a Down and Dirty a brief synopsis there's a lot of other things that the Sheriff's Office does do full-time but also provides um but I do want to make sure you know that we appreciate the uh the partnership with you guys you guys are have been wonderful to work with than you continue
to be and I know the sheriff is grateful for all that so with that I certainly stand here for any questions questions council member SAR I certainly can say that your level of presentation was right on par with the two previous ones so thank you very much for an excellent
summary and an explanation of the vast number of things that your Sheriff's Department is providing to Newport residents thank you I've got a question about the difference between a robbery and a Burg I didn't see burglary
out yes uh Madame mayor council member uh first of all uh thank you for the kind words I'll give you 20 bucks later uh yes right yeah uh so the difference between a burglary and a robbery right um a robbery could be either in the use
of a weapon or not in the use of weapon and that could be someone coming up to you and saying give me your cash right or give me your cash and I'm going to shoot you or something like that um a burglary is more of breaking into someone's home or breaking into
someone's garage or storage facility now talking about complexity there's different levels of these crimes right uh ranging from whether they actually had a weapon whether they didn't have a weapon can you prove they had a weapon right for a robbery burglary is the home occupied is the
home not occupied is the garage attached to the house if it is that's a different level burglary than if the garage is detached from the house what kind of items were stolen did they steal anything when they broke in or did they have the intent to commit a crime other than breaking into it because then if
not that might not even be burglary anymore so it's complex um but really burglary is more breaking into something to to commit a crime with the attempt to commit an additional crime to steal or you name it robbery is more face tace
personal contact give me this or else hopefully I explained it well then do you have an average time on calls I know some of them develop into a much longer time um Madame mayor council member that
that is that is a loaded question I I don't know if there's a really good way to measure that and the reason I say that is because they are so very different um I have been on domestics that have taken three hours where I've been on a call and there's also the same
you know same domestic could be 30 minutes it truly depends how much has happened how much evidence has to be collected how many statements need to be taken is there any footage or surveillance video to collect um all those things come into play that really dictate the amount of time that it would
take on a call cameras data from the cameras kept how long that great question on average they are kept for 180 days and then they are deleted now if there is a video that we need to keep or retain uh we have the option for keeping it for uh a year or
indefinitely and those are some different parameters it depends if there's what level of crime has been committed we'll dictate how long we might keep some of that footage on top of whether how backed up the court process is thank you council member Schmid yeah
uh crime evaluation on the call complexities you were mentioning about how it can be challenging for a deputy to is there to evaluate and try to determine what crime if a crime that's um what I wanted to ask is what I mean what resources are available to them at
any given time do they have like a central call center that they can reach out to for support if they have questions is it all online like how does that work that's uh Madam mayor council member that that is a great question to be honest is working with your partners
in problem solving so what we'll use is uh whether it's a deputy who's been on the job launch it might just have more back knowledge uh it's also using uh the computer and looking up the Minnesota state reviser page looking up the statutes and seeing what the verbiage
exactly exactly says um it could also be as far as resources maybe that the county could provide like Crisis Response Unit or Social Service uh Community Services being involved to give uh you know a worm shelter we do have some of those numbers that we can
contact but then at that point it's also waiting for for a call back um so there is kind of a wide range I I hope that maybe answered your question it it does and I think it really to me it's it's putting a lot more ownership on the deputy to determine if the charges are
accurate or not I mean there's there's a lot of evaluation and kind of real time assessment that you guys are doing I was just curious what resources you had to expedite that or to give you more confidence in what you're determining so yes um next question there was a the
call totals slide that we had um there was a rather large amount of the 7,489 how many of those are like actionable how many did we actually look into and respond to is that 100% or is it less than
that so that is a very good question that is going to incorporate Deputy initiated things so that could be either traffic stop a park check in the middle of the night it could be school checks you name it that could also be a call for a medical it
could be a call for a crash it could be a call for sus uh suspicious persons walking around of all those things all those calls there's some sort of action taken whether it's us being notified uh from Public Works of maybe a you know a water
main break right of what happened and where they might have to do some fixing on the street that's us them notifying us so we take note and we pass it on to our partner partners for the most simple basic explanation everything else so anytime we get a call from some somebody
um as long as they want the call back we will call them back even for the uh medical alarms that might be an accidental push of a button we still respond to those because you just don't know if it was really accidental or not
so I would say overwhelmingly all those we are taking some sort of action okay that's hopeful and that kind of feeds into the last question I had on um the cost breakdown slide that we had there's a line item for overtime and what I
wanted to ask on the overtime item is that is that officers that maybe are responding to a call and it goes beyond their working hours is it folks picking up because there's PTO for other officers is it um overtime is other
agencies coming in or other support staff coming in like how how is the over time item here represented in the actions that are taken so look I I will say with this preface I I will have to do some extra double-checking on that
for you uh but the way it has traditionally worked that will most more than likely be officers who are held over because of having to do reports so for example we had Deputy last week who just by luck almost his whole work week
he ended up getting bigger calls at the end of his shift so he had to hold for an hour or even two to finish the reports to get them submitted before he left at the end of the day and especially if someone is in custody that's mandatory we have to get that done so that the county attorney's office or City attorney can see
it okay that's very helpful thank you you did great ah thank you I'm gonna run out of money okay well thank you very much uh see we have no other questions for you thank you very much for that presentation all right thank you so next on our agenda is the fire
chief's report uh Chief Wy wasn't able to be here this evening so we'll move on to the engineers report uh and the levy breach Mr heran good evening mayor uh one formal item for consideration then a couple updates on some projects that we're working on so we uh solicited
quotes for our Levy breach uh improvements so this was uh work that's going to take place in the Cedar Lane Park area we're going to put a uh remove a portion of the man-made Levy so that water from the Mississippi River can
travel in and out of that Levy and reduce the uh chance for a uh a large failure with unbalanced pressure on that Levy this is part of the uh the last step in the FEMA funding that we received uh to uh purchase and then
demolish uh several homes in that area uh we solicited uh quotes and we received four uh back from local contractors uh this uh the low bid was or the low quote was from Fitzgerald Excavating for
$58,500 50 this does include removing the uh the docks that are uh currently out there um we bid that as an alternate just in case that uh that price came in a little high
um uh folks will notice that the uh the low quote received was significantly lower than the second low quote um we we have a pretty good history with Fitzgerald uh they are the contractors that did our uh fire station De demolition they also worked on the 10
Street uh storm water improvements um we've uh and then uh personally through my firm we've worked on them with a handful of other uh other communities I don't exactly know how they are able to uh complete some of this work at the costs that they do but
they've always performed very well on the projects I've personally been involved with as as well as the city uh they're also working in Woodbury uh right now doing some pond dredging and so this is a pretty convenient stop on their on their way out and uh I guess
from from our standpoint both myself and Public Works we feel pretty comfortable uh recommending uh Council accept the uh quote and uh certainly saving some uh some cost on the uh on the project uh it should uh the council accept the quote I
would expect that they would be starting likely next week uh they were they were very uh they were very eager to go we had to tell them that we at least had to accept that tonight um I don't know if the the recent snow is going to slow them down a little bit but they uh are
hopeful to come in uh very soon uh we will be doing some tree removal that's going to be outside of their contract uh the contact that Public Works has can do that at a very reasonable price as well uh so that work will likely be starting uh yet this week as um and then any
material aterial that we excavate out of that Levy we're going to distribute on site so that we're not hauling any material out um hopefully in preparation for some Future Park improvements but uh it'll be able to be re reused and graded as as needed for those improvements
thank you um is the 4 foot depth enough like what's the anticipated fill in like how often will we have to go and drudge that out um I don't have a good is going to get silt and it is going to get
sediment from the river we're hopefully uh aligning that uh breach in a way that it won't uh it it'll minimize that um the the four feet uh from our standpoint is what we thought could reason or could
be dug out at a reasonable um effort we didn't want to go too much further because that then widens the uh widens the excavation and it requires additional um additional equipment larger equipment to get down that low so
I guess the the design idea was less about how often that it would be need to be maintained it was more what can we do and and and uh do at a reasonable cost okay thank you uh questions Tom nope council member Taylor any questions here
what did we budget for this project well it's FEMA money there's no uh mayor members of the council I uh there's no specific line item budget in our uh budget this was a pre previous um FEMA grant that we received frankly I'm not
sure what the year uh we do have to spend the money it's due to be spent by June and thankfully it's kind of lining up I believe there's approximately $93,000 left over so thankfully we were we were very nervous about this bid and frankly we thought it would be much
higher but uh we're we're excited about this price should Council approve this contract sounds good council member SCH uh very quickly so when would they start uh starting hopefully next week uh and then complete
uh they uh should be complete by May 15th when is payment due uh payment for deadline for the FEMA Grant deadline for the FEMA Grant uh administrator hatch you'll have to remind me is that June 30th I I believe it's June yep were we intending to
prepay or pay at completion of the project pay at completion all right we have a we have a tight timeline uh uh get her done all right that's it for me thanks we don't give anybody bu I I well that's why council member suar
this is a single sight bre correct we talked earlier about higher and lower one this is yep one site well good job on the quotes is there anything we need the additional the leftover FEMA dollars for is there
any additional trees or anything like that that we can ex that would qualify I don't it can be done by June 30th or June 1st or the tree removal will come out of that the tree removal yeah and you know we'll we'll go out
there and and stake or provide the contractor some Stakes some removal limits so some of the Professional Services will go along uh and you know this is a unit price contract so it I mean the the uh the quote that we received is subject to some fluctuation
there's not a lot of uh deviation in quantities on this so I don't expect a lot but I think we can evaluate you know whatever funds are are left over and then if there's perhaps maybe some more tree trimming that or tree clearing that would be a pretty easy one to to
tackle okay well I think uh seeing no more questions I would take a motion yeah yes a motion to um accept the quote from Fitzgerald Excavating and trucking for 58,000
$4.50 to complete the Cedar Lane Park Levy breach project it's on the bottom of page 15 I'll make that motion so I have a second I have a motion from council member suar and a second from council member Ingam and any further discussion all those in favor say I I I
those opposed call right now they can they can get out first thing tomorrow and then just a quick couple updates on our ongoing projects our 2025 Street and utility improvements we uh held a neighborhood meeting uh last
Thursday uh pretty well attended uh I would say 2530 maybe 30 plus folks uh uh showed up uh we had about a 45 minute uh presentation walked through some highlevel uh information and then I think we stuck around for about an hour
and a half after that uh answering kind of one-on-one questions so a lot of great feedback from from Property Owners uh as always we learn a lot from these uh from these meetings and we can incorporate a lot that into our plan so I uh I was very pleased I know uh
council member uh Taylor council member suar uh attended uh as well so I'd be happy to hear their thoughts uh but we are targeting uh your first meeting in April I think it's April 2nd to bring those plans uh to council for approval
uh and then uh and then solicit bids through the month of April uh hopefully uh awarding and beginning that project in May uh secondly our uh water system interconnect project so connecting from Cottage Grove up to Loveland Park uh
we're probably about 90% done with the utility design of that project still working on getting the the flow meter and the pressure relief valve some of that detailed design work done uh but we are planning uh tomorrow actually to share those plans with the city of
Woodberry uh woodberry's consultant will be responsible for Designing uh Sentry Avenue uh on either side of the pending development so we'll be there'll be some coordination work uh with our utilities because this money is coming from the 3M
settlement it has to be separate from any other development costs uh so it'll be a little bit of uh coordination to have uh one project doing the street and storm sewer and sanitary sewer and then we'll be coming in with the water M
we're hopeful that we can uh uh encourage the contractor are doing uh the the uh development project to bid on our project um but we're we're hopeful to bring those uh depending on how much coordination there is with Woodburry we'd like to bring those to your March
uh 20th meeting for Council to approve and then we would uh do some coordinating with the state Trustees for the uh 3M settlement uh we'll need a grant uh application submitted to um to fund the construction of that project and then we'll you know get permitting
through Department of Health so I'm I'm hopeful we can get something uh to your next meeting uh if not we will be bringing that one to the uh April 2nd meeting as well okay and that was okay um any questions on that okay with that we'll move on to the
superintendent of Public Works report thank you John good evening mayor OT Elliot and council members I have uh nothing formal this evening but I would uh like to say thanks to the public work staff for working on our close to a foot of snow um and then just a quick
reminder to Residents um you know please please make sure your vehicles are off the road I know it's getting nice out it feels like spring is coming um but when we do have snow in the forecast like that uh if you can please you know find a driveway or somewhere to park um if
you don't um and we've got to come by and make multiple passes and wait for vehicles to be moved before we can plow again uh it's really frustrating for for residents because they clean their driveway once and then we've got to come back and and push it out to the side of the street so um like I said I you know
it helps helps it go faster for for our staff and do a better job and it also saves um residents time and frustration as well um and then the second uh thing I would like to bring up is a thank you
to Dave and Gina our warming house staff um we had a a great season best that I can remember uh we had over 650 skaters and uh almost a 100 pairs of skates that were borrowed for free um so um you know
we had a had a great U season as far as a length of time and uh I think staff did a great job making ice this year and and so um really happy with how well it turns out and it uh you know it it feels good for the staff putting in that much
effort when when it is used and used well you know it feels like it's going to a good good purpose so I know last year was a little disappointing yeah with our six days of skating right so yeah I would just like to thank everyone that came out and then
like I said everyone that put the the effort into uh making that happen as well so great with that I'd be happy to stay in for any questions questions for Matt council member suar were tickets issued for people that off the roads uh that I don't know I can't track
that um specifically yeah I mean I the the Sheriff's Office does a great job of staying ahead of it and I think like I said people see spring coming and kind of forget about the mother nature along with a a much higher snowfall than was
predicted as well so um you know we're bound to have issues there but like I said if there's a chance if we can just get the cars off the road it it makes everyone's life a lot easier so well and thank the crew on our behalf too for their uh good work with that really heavy snow that was really something
that was really something so um thank you so uh next on our agenda is the administration report do you have anything other than the closed session mayor members of the council nothing formal okay so I will have us do our mayor and Council reports and then we
will move into a Clos session so just a couple things I want uh people to be aware of the staying in touch which happens to be the uh Washington County newsletter is starting to hit mailboxes and wake somebody up in the
back see if they can zoom in on this um but their cover is on the gold line that is starting March 22nd and what's nice is it shows the um it shows the actual route of the Gold Line and the stops so
and it takes off uh west of Target in Woodberry kind of off Creek Road right next to the interstate you can actually see the parking ramp from the interstate so it shows you all the stops on the route and in downtown St Paul it'll connect you to the green line as well as
several bus lines purple and gray lines down there so this is exciting I know I talked at the last meeting during my um state of the city that the gold we're going to have bus service eventually and you know perhaps as late as 2027 they'll take you up to the Wood Lane stop and
then from this you can uh see see where you can go um and get to and also that that uh that bus system when it does come to uh Newport will also go west to the interstate also just to let people know I um was at the uh down at the
capital a couple days this week and uh City administrator um hatch was with me as well we testified on our influent infiltration uh infrastructure Bill request before the capital invest committee and um we talked about our
first and second priorities along second and third Avenues this is very competitive there are a lot of communities that have inii issues water issues and so on this was just a hearing where they hear about the projects no votes um actually take place and then today um administrator hatch and I were
down at uh the capital again for a city day on the hill we were able to meet with representative Hansen as well as our Senator uh Matt Klein uh we talked a little bit about our inii but also about local government Aid this is funding that comes from the state it's about a
half a million dollar that we get each year and it goes into our general fund and becomes part of our budget and with some of the projections on uh what's happening at the state level and I think everybody's a little nervous what's happening at the federal level about
what kinds of funding you know are coming to programs services and into the county and State levels as well um you know I'm concerned about local government Aid and you know they reiterated that uh that is something we should be nervous about and keep our
eyes on because it's a it's a it's a big enough chunk of our budget that uh it it makes a difference that we get that so um down essentially lobbying for Newport um on behalf of some of those issues um with that uh council member inamin
anything nothing council member Taylor uh about a week ago the had a joint Planning Commission Council zoning code update work session uh it's the second that we've done I think we're planning on doing a third it's of a more of a comprehensive update
to our zoning code which was the top priority identified in the 2023 Market study kind of commercial Corridor study so I think we're making a lot of good progress um it's designed to kind of get us together on the same page but then also then once we get a little bit further along it'll come out to the
public for input as well um and just a reminder on the Planning Commission side there will be a concept plan for the Bailey Farm uh part of that development north of Bailey Road uh next week at for the Planning Commission on Tuesday that
will include an apartment and a some convenience store I think it's quick quick trip is on the concept plan so if you're interested in that it's a major development it's part of a bigger development that we've already had a previous concept on it's going to change the area a lot so I would encourage anybody that lives up there or is
concerned about that development to to attend the the concept plan hearing on Tuesday thank 5:00 uh 5:30 I believe yeah council member Schmidt nothing for me council member SAR if I may follow up
on the Gold Line yeah presentation on March 22nd there is going to be a celebration at Park at 10 o' celebrating this just expanding on the information available I also attended the neighborhood meeting as mention by here
the library we just had a wonderful presentation talking about how much the people in Newport like the city and one of the aspects that's certainly a highlight of new library system and there's many things coming up and a few
of them that I will share with you is on Saturdays at 3:00 there's a family Story Time on Thursdays at 10:00 there's a t a latte a coffee group getting together and visiting so if you've got neighbors
and you want to meet some more people invite them down to the library at 10 o' and enjoy a cup of coffee and then at 3:30 there's homework help for people in school on Monday the 17th is St Patrick's Day and there's a finger painting of Shamrocks at 3:30 and
ongoing right in the near future from Wednesday the 19th to Tuesday the 25th this Quil show this is second year previously it was up Quil were hung from the around the second floor and it just highlights the beautiful work that some
of our neighbors are able to produce so those are some things that are going on at the library and take advantage of a wonderful thank you very much so with that um the next uh item then on our agenda is we will go into close session
that means we will be off camera um and if there is any uh motion or action after that um we do let the camera people leave but um that would be in our minutes uh so if that we take any action
following that um we will do that but otherwise um I think at this time we will move into closed session and uh it's a closed meeting pursuant to Minnesota statute 13d
.05 subdivision 3 C to develop um or consider offers or counter offers for the sale of property located at 1545 7th Avenue in Newport Minnesota and um this portion of the
meeting uh properly noticed of the Newport City Council um do I have a motion to close the meeting yes and I was actually was going to see if people wanted to do closed take a quick break and then actually come in and do some action uh have some
discussion I mean whatever order you want to do that I think it's easier that then the camera people can go and um we can do that and and uh thank you second so I have a motion from council member suar and a second
from council member Schmidt uh to close the meeting all of those in favor say I I those opposed um we are now in closed session and the time is do you have time I 711 p.m and
then and then back 5 minutes