Okay, Jesse, whenever you're ready. >> Good evening. I'd like to call to order the public works committee meeting for Wednesday, December 3rd, 2025 at 5:00 pm. Uh we are starting the meeting at 50:01. Uh with that, we will get to the first agenda item. Uh gravel pit
management issues discussion. Mr. Tom. >> Yeah. So, um what this is why this came up on the agenda is a couple reasons. Um the primary one was we've had we had a pretty good late fall as most people are aware. The weather was beautiful right
up into November. Well, there were several people that were asking us to extend how long it's open. Um, my guys can't wait to close the gate. So, anyway, uh, that's one item I would
like to address is the length of the season. So, right now, uh if you focus in on this sign on the picture there, you'll see that it the uh pit is open until uh Halloween and then and it's
closed. So, it's open May 1st to October 31st. Now, usually uh like the May 1st, we get some comments once in a while for uh that open prior to that, too. Um, so that date is somewhat we try to put it
close to when road restrictions go off. So, um, yeah, you can have some nicer weather in April, but you can also have some pretty lousy weather in April, too. So, um the whole thing with the gravel pit, um it wasn't open to the general
public until a few years ago when we had the blowdown in 2015 and we opened it up then um to allow people to get rid of the huge volume of trees that were blown down at that time. And we just never closed it again after
that. And so, it's kind of become just like our recycling over here. it's just continues to grow. And so, um, one of the other issues that we're having is we're getting a lot of commercial dumpers
and we would like to restrict that. Now, every time we pull one of them over, they'll say, "Well, I'm working for so and so private resident." Well, the intention of it was just so that somebody who has, say, a pickup load of branches or leaves has someplace to
bring it when they start coming with end dumps and dump trailers and several loads of it. I don't think that's really the intention of why we opened this up. And so, I'd like to get a little feedback on on that as well. Um,
and then just like the recycling, it's being abused. Um, you know, we've signs all over that say, well, right there it says accepting tree and lawn debris only. Well, we get concrete, rocks, uh, you know, anything that they don't
want to deal with finds its way down there. Now, we don't man the facility, and I don't think that we should. Um, it's open 8:00 a.m. to 300 pm, which coincides with when the guy the schedule
of my guys that are there. So when they drive by, if they see something, they'll stay they say say something. But um so if you go through the pictures here a little bit, um just just to kind of show you what what things look like. So we've added this year the yellow signs that
you see there kind of directing people where to put things because that was one of the other issues we were having is people just dumping things willy-nilly. So then we have to have somebody go down there with a loader and sort it. So, that's gotten a little better with
the signage. This next picture I have, this is our class five pile. Now, this we have to pay for, but people like to rob from that, but they don't ask. And if you look back at that first slide that I had
showing this the main um sign at the gate, um no taking anything out without written permission. People never read this sign. I've had people ask me, "Where is this gravel pit?" And they're standing right out,
you know, they're sitting out on lower uh Rory Lake Road right in front of it. >> Who who even gets written permission, Tom? >> Almost no one. Um the only things I really like to let out are um we allow tree services to dump wood chips
and we get a huge volume of them. So I I'll give those out freely just because we got so many. Um, but anything else pretty much? No. And that's why we say it's with written permission because we have had
contractors from time to time um, use our pit during a construction project like um, especially if they're working for us, if they're doing something for us, then I'll sometimes let them in there. So if they dump something in there, I want written permission that's
going back out. So, kind of covers both of us, >> right? >> So, >> this whole thing is >> it is >> somebody else would >> we open it at 8:00 a.m. and we close it
at 3:30. And we've had quite a few people that want it open different hours. They said, "Well, it's a free service. If you if that doesn't work for you, you know, it's open a long time. I mean, we all get a day off here and there. You could find time to get out
there. I would think we don't open it on the weekend. Um, I know that's probably more convenient for people, but there are other places they can take the same stuff that we take. Uh, you know, couple of the private contractors have there's, you know, Stumbles have a pit right across the
road from us. Um, Mike's Tree Service takes stuff. I'm sure there's others. Um, so I for us it was mostly a storm depository and I guess you know I get a lot of questions from my guys saying why can't we just shut it all together
unless we have a storm and so that's why I wanted to bring it up here. I I don't think that we should shut it all together probably but I'm kind of hoping to get a little re reaffirmation of the rules that we've got. >> Is that concrete?
>> So this is next slide is concrete pile. So, this is one of the things that people bring that we don't want. Um, and the reason is is we have to crush this eventually and that doesn't come free. So, but you'd be amazed and a lot of
them are little contractors bringing stuff that and they'll say it's coming from private citizens, which it probably is, but you're a contractor. We >> private citizens, they're, you know, >> customer. >> Yeah. They're charging for it. uh like during the blowdown for instance I know
we had uh contractors coming up here from the cities that were charging people for the dumping several thousands of dollars and we didn't see a dime of that and often they would just haul the stuff right to the edge of the road and
we would haul it away. So um I really would like to limit contractors. I want to make it clear, no contractors, but um that could be challenging too without somebody at the table.
>> It's enough to service the captain. >> Mhm. And most people are good about it. They bring their few little box trailer loads of leaves and that's fine. Um, but more and more we're
getting contractors in the area, especially newer ones who maybe don't have an alternative and they like to bring it here. So, this right here is the current brush pile from 2026. And so, um, I wanted to show you, give you an idea of the volume of material.
We've compacted this and pushed it up with our loader um, over the summer to get it to be this small. Um, I'd say we push it up daily to make it look like this. Uh, what'll happen now is, uh, in when there's a break in snow plowing
action, the guys will light this on fire. That's how we get rid of it. Um, during the blowdown, we actually had, um, a company come in that would chip all that uh, because they had a they had an outlet for it. They would take it down to I think it was
Ortonville. Um there's a bio solids furnace processing power plant kind of place that that has since shut down and so there's no market value of this material currently not enough to warrant
doing anything with it. Um and this one I just wanted to give you an idea of the volume of material. So, where you see that sign that says leaves pointing to that big pile snow covered pile, that's how much leaves
we've collected since 2015. Um, that's a huge pile. The picture doesn't do it justice, but uh there's a lot there, a lot of material. So, which is which it's organic material, so it's it's
essentially >> compost. >> Yeah. Then what are we going to do with it >> right now? Nothing. We're just leaving it there. We don't have uh compost turners or anything. We could go out there with a loader, I guess, and turn it, but we don't have a marketable
product for it of it, I guess. You know, it's not consistent probably. Um but that would be one thing. If somebody said they wanted it for compost, we'd let them take as much as they want. >> No, that's what I was just saying. We don't have um
there's special machining. >> Yeah. So when I work for city of Hutchinson >> front end loader >> no >> it winds it. >> So the the wind rows when they do that are probably about five six feet high
and about the same width and any ideas to >> I'd rather not. Um anyway, we have it there. It's it's not a problem at the point, but it it's quite a volume. Um five, six
years, this is what we've accumulated. So, um and then the piles to the right of it that don't have any snow on it, that's wood chips. So, we have a huge amount of wood chips. It's not the clean stuff that you would buy probably from one of the garden centers, but if you just
wanted some general gu uh wood chips for something, please give me a call. Get you can take as much as you'd like. Um that's pretty much it. Um I I guess just looking for some feedback as
citizens of Niswah. What would you like to see done different if anything? I I'll start with one item. I mean, you got to guess. How many hours in a calendar year do we have public works employees tending to this? Adding up all
the hours? >> I would say they spend four or five hours a week on average, maybe a little more. >> So about 250 to 300. Holy smokes.
Okay. Those individuals time could be used better elsewhere or based off of your department needs. >> I think what I would if if we could get less abuse of it, >> but how do you monitor the abuse?
>> Yeah, I I don't have a good way. Um, when we were talking about the recycling over here, we had that was going to be in the same spot and at that time we were looking at an electronic gate and people had a code or we would have had it manned one or the other.
When that was there, it barely made economical sense then and now of course it wouldn't. So, um the only other thing I thought of doing was uh limiting when it's open. Um you know,
I don't know if I could just have it open on a Saturday once a month. Well, you got I mean, you don't have guys on the clock continuously on Saturdays. >> Not. >> So, >> I would probably hire somebody part-time
to deal with that. >> Service restor. >> Yeah, I've kicked a few of them out already. But you got to have somebody there to enforce it. You don't have you don't have a uh
camera. That gate is open in the morning, closed at night. I mean, I I could go in there with a demoed house and you wouldn't even know who dropped it off, right? It's >> true. >> So, I see this going one way or the
other. My opinion is It's just for for the use of it from citizens. That's great. And and I mean I used to dirt bike in there when I was a kid. Go to Stumball's Pit and then go over there cuz it was all sand.
>> There was no concrete with rebar sticking out. There was no compost and there was no uh uh various tree debris from storms. Right. Yeah. >> If this is going to be maintained,
would it not behoove us to consider having some additional ramped up security in there uh with a camera with a motorized gate with perhaps some sort of system? This
is a far-fetched one, so bear with me. But a a code like perhaps you enter your house number and to be able to get gain access. I I don't know. >> Yeah, we talked about that. Um having an electronic gate and people would
purchase a pass kind of like they do say a golf cart pass and then that would be the number that they type in to get in. or you perhaps I I don't want to say close it um but perhaps you perhaps we
consider like seriously limiting when this thing's open. Um you have a window in the springtime, a window in the fall, and then it's open again in the in the summer during an emergency event such as
you know the the storm of 15, 16, and 17, right? >> Yeah. I I think if I could make a suggestion what from our standpoint might make some sense. Um we have a guy that comes in each day on the weekend for a short time to check on the sewer
plant. So they're here for about three hours. I could maybe extend that a little bit to where maybe we had this open for four hours on Saturday morning. >> Why not? >> Um and then if we had a larger storm like you say, then we could open it up more.
Y >> and then maybe some extended hours during the summer and fall. >> Uh I mean like my my thought for sure would be the fall with the leaf compost, right? Like hey, we're going to we're going to open this thing up again for two weeks or three weeks and we can
advertise when it is because we all kind of know when our leaves are falling around the same time. That would be my thought because again, I mean, if I had to ask you right now, what are you going to do? And what are you and your guys going to do to get that concrete and that bar out of there?
>> When the pile gets big enough to where we can't get around it for our normal use of the pit, we will hire a contractor to come in and crush it. >> More money. >> More money. >> $250, $300 a year for
your folks doing that. You could go over to Nis Elementary School and be the flag guy so the kids cross the street could probably get more use out of that than what this is bringing. Right. And that's no knock. It's just >> Yeah, >> it's interesting. >> Yeah. I I I think
>> especially with the other options out there. I mean you have um what's the recycling place over by the airport? Um Crowing is that? >> Oh, the county. >> Yeah, county landfill. And then you got Crowing Recycling, which is south southeast of town, old highway. You got
hangles. I mean, these places take anything and everything. So, I don't buy it when somebody says, "It's close in this. I want to go there." Well, where do you go get your sneakers? You go to Kohl's.
Well, we don't got one in this. People travel for the things that they need. And if you got to drive an extra five, ten minutes with your trailer full of leaves, then so be it. Because it's gonna cost you, the taxpayer resident of Niswah, money they don't even know of
yet to clean up people's abuse. >> Yeah. I I don't think most people recognize the expenses that go into running something like this. >> Most people don't I I'll expand on that. Most people don't understand a lick of what goes on in this city until they get
pissed off about something. Like I give Ron a lot of credit for coming here and taking notes because he's been doing that for the last three quarters and God bless him for it. It's why we deal with this crap on social media because these people are just misinformed because they cherrypick. Yeah. >> Right. But and that's all they'll take
from this is the city's taking away something from you when rather you could oppose the question of why. Well, this is why we're gonna have to pay three grand to have Hangles come and pick this up and crush this concrete and separate the bar because it's rusted.
>> I think a lot of why I brought this up tonight was just education, too, because I I don't think people realize what it takes to run this. >> Um they they just see themselves going out there with a little dump trailer. They dump it themselves and they think that's all there's to it and just a gravel pit. What's hurt,
>> right? Um, I think what I'll do is I'll follow up with this maybe next month or sometime later this winter, um, with a plan of what we would like to do as staff and then we can
focus on the points we talked about >> and then I would just ask you to make a recommendation at that time to the council. >> And on that note, I did get a text back from Gayen. He said he still is intending to be on this council. He said he just not was not able to make it tonight in the past couple times. So,
>> all right. Wasn't sure if he was getting the notices. So, appreciate the heads up. >> So, I'm going to grab So, >> that's it for the gravel pit. Wait for Jesse for the next item. Okay, we'll go to item number two, lift station number one, rebuild for 2026
update. >> Wherever you want, >> wherever is you're more comfortable at. >> It does. There you go. I didn't give uh any kind of a handout or anything to anyone. So, >> okay. I have handouts if people want
them. I wanted to um So, again, Morgan Sale, project manager with Bolton Inc. I'm working on lift station design and wanted to have the opportunity to go through and just provide a little update on where things are at with the the the lift station process here. Um I do have a handout. It's kind of a rough sketch
about of of kind of the discussion of the transparency of where do we want this lift station to go on the site. Um I'll give a little update on timeline survey is complete. Uh we have the survey done. We got the inverts for all the manholes. We did the 360 camera um in the manholes to check the condition
of the manholes as well going into this lift station uh wet well. Um so that is all complete. we coordinated to um make sure the property boundary was uh that is currently being pursued for purchase is correct. Um the property descriptions to make sure we have all accurate
information. Um Woods Seth was very helpful with that portion of that to we confirm that that's all good to go there. Um, and so the next piece of this is to we're going to put be putting a data request together to start gathering some additional information on um
existing flows, existing pumps, existing pump operations, existing pump run hours to evaluate all of the components going into this to to verify the capacity and then looking at the force main capacity of the current force main. In addition to getting planning documents and
looking at the big picture scope of what is the planned development for the drainage area for the gravity system that this lift station will handle to ensure that we look at the future capacity of the of the lift station for not just 5 10 20 years down the road but long-term ultimate flows. There are some
strategies when it comes to lift station design to look at that um such that if there's not planned uh development for the next let's say 10 to 15 years where you're going to see those larger increases in flows, you can design structures so that the the structure is
built for that ultimate flow and then phase pumps in um over the years so that you can get a pump that meets your better uh flow parameters today. Um, and then in when you need those bigger pumps, everything and include the electrical system is all set up for a
larger horsepower pump. And so that's kind of the thought, the theory going into this lift station design. Um, I do have some handouts if you want to look at just some sketches about what we're envisioning. We'll share these with Tom as we work through the process to develop the lift station design. Um,
that's kind of where we're at and and the next step is getting that background data to really dive into the design. um and then start developing this in in modeling software to start looking at in three dimensions of what this is actually going to look like. One of the pieces I do want to bring up and and
just for discussion is to talk about the um eventual tree removal that would be required if this list station goes on the site and just conforming with the rules in the state of Minnesota with tree removal. Um that is something to discuss just depending on when the project moves forward into construction
uh to ensure we're following all applicable rules for the uh the bats in Minnesota. Um that I am still working with our environmental and funding group to verify components and and all the rules and regulations on that. Um so that there is information forthcoming on that. I just want to make people aware
of uh of the situation there that we want to be consider as we work through the winter and when this project is going to bid. Yeah. So, Morgan, one thing that needs to happen, um, too, um, Tom Pearson, our city attorney, is working on, uh,
ownership for the site. >> Yes. >> So, I'll probably be sharing your information with him so that if there's any need to change what we're looking at to purchase there, he can make those changes. But he's working on that right now. So, I don't know where he's at in
that process. >> Yep. Yes. and that and that you've been very good with the information coming to us on that and where that process is at. I just wanted to have something on paper so we can start that discussion and and work with um staff uh to to make sure that this is the right direction moving
forward um so that we can have that transparency and that there's no surprises when this lift station site plan comes out. It's like why is it going over here? So, >> so in in Minnesota, um, and my my uh there's a federally endangered northern
long-eared bat, and there is tree removal restrictions. Um, and and my AI here says that it's from April 1st to October 31st, um, that you're not allowed to remove trees. I am making sure that it it how this is going to
move forward with some of this stuff. We've dealt with it on various projects um and treatment infrastructure where a lot of tree removal happens in the winter months. So >> yeah, we had we ran into that for the Golic Bike Trail >> two years in a row.
>> Yep. And I'm sure Dave has seen stuff as well with the the it's a federally endangered species and so these rules are um semi-reent over the last few years. Um and so there are provisions we do need to follow with infrastructure projects on when trees can be removed.
So, and there are options to to address that too, such as some cities have taken liberty to just take the trees down on their own um in the winter months before you get a contractor on board and then the contractor is responsible for stump grinding and stuff like that. So, there's different options there. We just
want to discuss. >> Sure. >> Anything else? >> Nope. That's it. Unless you have any questions on the timeline or the process. Um, like I said, moving forward, we're going to be data collection and and analysis as we get into the design. >> Yeah. And I would say the timelines is a
little fluid right now until one, the ownership issue is figured out and to how that affects things like the tree removal. So, >> yep. And there's flexibility in a lot of that, too, depending how staff wants to
move forward with the project. So, any questions from our city engineer? Mr. Tom, anything from you? Okay. Appreciate it, Morgan. >> Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. >> All right. Well, with that, we will then go to the last item on the agenda, which
is the topic for the 2026 road bond update and plan review. Um, as we all know, we're going to be uh having a public information meeting in 32 minutes from now, hence uh the table set up and hoping to try to get some sense of a
turnout. So, I'm handing you home the presentation which is very short. It's uh This gives you slides that
points to costs and then the door to allow us questions. It's not having
basically improve access, right? There was something. What does FDR stand for? We've done this time and time again. Well, especially
area these projects on this very confident instruction. So we don't have to So that's 30% model.
I think she'll be in September. They all should be able This is fairly close. Yeah. I thought that I thought that number would last at like five or 5.5 >> maybe.
>> Yeah. Yeah. And we shook out that. Yeah. Okay. >> We have Yeah. >> The skinny version compared to where we were at before. Yeah. >> Longevity of these roads. I don't mean
to interrupt you on the run through on this, but long longevity of the roads. It's like anything else. All right. >> Okay. Unless it's a Honda. Okay.
>> You can go through those looks like All of them form a little bit big files. There you go. >> All right. Start at
information meeting. >> Oh, you don't say. It's like when people come here for a topic. I like I emailed you today. Put them at the bottom of the agenda. Let them sit here for two hours. I think Morgan that hap that happened to you the first time you're here, right?
It's two hours later. Um, anything else for the run through? Anything else on the run through? No, I think uh we're just at the point where want to see what we're going to do this summer and get people's feedback on that and then uh try to put together a
final product for uh the public hearing then in January is where we're headed. >> Let's make this a good run through. We'll be doing it again next year. Um okay. Well, without that, um we'll go
to the last item. uh January 28th, 2026 regular public works committee meeting. I had a question to pose to all of you. Is there any desire to
uh accommodate my selfishness in moving this meeting on January 28th a week earlier? Any objection? >> Let me look. Ron.
Oh, you're here. Let's see. >> So, it would be the it would be uh the uh the Wednesday after our regular council meeting
be what the >> 21st. It looks like I'm good. that accommodates going somewhere warm. >> Yes. With with with a new child. So if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. Um just want to throw it out there. >> Looks good by me.
>> Okay. Dave, you okay with that? Maggie? >> Yeah. >> Okay, Ron. Okay. Well, we will move the next regular uh regularly scheduled public works committee meeting to Wednesday, January 21st at 5:00 p.m.
And and with that, I will take a motion to adjourn the meeting. And I will second. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. This meeting is adjourned. >> Thank you.