regular meeting for the city of Wyoming Minnesota June 4th 2024 let the record reflect we do have a quorum member Luger member Schilling member joerger and mayor Iverson are present please stand for the Pledge of
Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for I always like to thank council member um
Schilling for leading Us in the pledge of pledge of allegiance as he is a veteran so we appreciate that all right um next on our agenda is open Forum open forum is an opportunity for members of the public to address the city council on items that are or are not on the
current agenda items requiring Council action may be deferred to staff or boards and commissions for research and Future coun agendas if appropriate you will be limited to 3 minutes and we ask that you conduct yourself in a professional courteous
Manner and refrain from the use of profanity failure to abide by this policy may result in the loss of your privilege to speak we do have a public hearing after this on the road so you'll have time to speak is there anybody here that wants to speak on anything else
that is not for the public hearing seeing none we'll move on to number one of the um of our agenda number one is to consider approving the minutes of the regular meeting of the Wyoming Minnesota city council for May 21st
2024 are if there are no questions or comments do we have a motion to approve so moved we have a motion to approve by member Luger do we have a second second second by member Schilling all in favor I I opposed so approved number two on
the agenda um I'll read that we're going to have a presentation and then we'll go into our public hearing so number two is to consider resolution 24650 a resolution ordering the project and authorizing the preparation of plans and specifications for the 2024 Street
Improvement project Mr Ericson you're going to lead us in on this thank you Madame mayor members of council uh this presentation is very similar um verbatim actually to previous ones that we've had uh at a neighborhood meeting held uh previously uh so I'll I'll quickly go
through that I know their uh residents I recognize a number of them that were here previously but we will go through that uh and certainly be available for questions and then move into the the public hearing portion of the the meeting next slide I'm doing [Music]
that all right uh again project location you can see on the screen uh 258th Street Goodwin Road Goodwin Lane 255th Street granford Avenue Granada Avenue and Grafton Avenue everything highlighted in red is proposed as uh to
be reconstructed as part of this project well sorry uh this is really the project schedule that we've identified it is not exact U something that uh we've worked through uh there's a little bit of play in the schedule depending on a number of
factors and uh we'll highlight those but we have um been ordered to prepare the feasibility study we held an informational meeting for property owners to really understand what the public improvement process is what that consists of how the city of Wyoming moves through that process and really
try to get information from residents to see what they want to see out of this project as well we've identified the project um but really wanted to make sure that we were aware of any drainage issues or any other concerns that we could make sure to include in that feasibility study um the council at its May 7th meeting received the feasibility
study and set the public hearing and then the last meeting that we had on this topic was a public informational meeting on May 28th that was really to give the property owners an opportunity to see the results of the feasibility study to prepare um prepare them for the meeting tonight so they could formulate
questions and and uh and and POS those to council uh so with that that brings us to this evening uh the public hearing um which property owners will have the opportunity to speak and ask questions um you can see the remaining schedule uh is pretty aggressive uh to move forward with the the the plans of specifications
the the bidding of the do the the plans and specifications receiving the the bids moving forth construction likely in that end of July August timeline if the council elects to move forward this evening so with that uh I'll move on to the next slide um a little background
again for those that haven't participated in some of the previous meetings um Wyoming has aggressively undertaken uh Street improvements really over the last 10 to 15 years uh really um taking on uh a number of projects and this happens to be one of our next highest priority and how do we arrive at
our priorities uh do Street ratings every three years where we actually count the distresses um within the Pavements throughout the entire Community uh and they all receive a score and uh that was one method um and this was one of our highest priorities based on that we've also uh based that
on on Council and staff and Public Works uh experience calls and complaints and Road tours that we we all go on and evaluate the roadways and so a combination of all those things is really how we developed a 5-year Capital Improvements plan that really identified this is our next highest
priority um the streets were originally constructed back in the 1980s and 1990s and so they have have have gone through their entire life cycle they are on the tail end of that and uh Public Works has spent an awful lot of time over the last number of years uh trying to keep those together and so we're at a point now
where uh we're all uh recommending to council uh that uh we we at least look and evaluate this through our public improvement process um due to the surface and subsurface again we are looking at complete pavment removal this isn't a pavment preservation type
project it's not a Mill and overlay the condition is such that it warrants the complete removal of the PVE uh pavement uh there are minor drainage uh improvements that have been uh a concern um that we will address with this project um and they are relatively
limited but we did televise all the s all the storm sewer I should say and uh and did get some feedback from property owners and we are addressing those concerns with this project uh the next uh few slides are really just uh photos that really highlight uh the pavement condition and and the
pitchers really don't do it justice I think there's been chip seals and patches on top of patches um but certainly uh this last year was a really uh degraded year uh in 2023 that winter over 2023 was uh really hard on a lot of
our our city streets and so our proposed uh improvements really involve complete pavement uh removal we looked at and evaluated is this a Reclamation project where we can just grind up the the pavement with the underlying aggregate leave everything in place in some cases yes that works in
some cases that doesn't work and so uh it might be a little bit of a combination as we get into final design uh but we simply can't raise the roadway 4 Ines everywhere and we were hoping we'd be able to do that just to save costs and and and things like that but driveways are very flat we just can't
raise that or we'll trap water back in people's yards and things of that nature so we want to make sure that we're conscious of that as well um we've identified um other portions of the project to receive concrete cbon gutter there's an existing Urban section roadway meaning there's no ditches uh
and it has old asphalt curbs they're not really visible Much Anymore they've been uh worn over the years and so uh those that is one option that had been evaluated as part of this and we did have a resident question related to binus curb and I'll cover that a little
bit later um the rural sections uh the portions that don't have that cbon Gutter and have ditches uh will remain uh that way um a number of areas really don't have ditches but we aren't hearing from Property Owners we've we've asked them we're not hearing any drainage concerns uh even though there's not
ditches or curban gutter but it does fall off the roadway we're not seeing standing water we have pretty Sandy soils and it infiltrates we're not seeing that as an issue um and really the the road width will match what exists out there today for the most part uh as far as drainage again we are
maximizing the use of the existing ditches to the greatest extent practical um there is some expansion of drainage systems that are there just for the fact that it's not working today we want to extend a small portion of storm sore to pick up some areas that aren't really uh
functioning that well today and then we have uh talked about um the San or the storm sewer where there's some deficiencies based on our review of the televising tapes we had a camera go through those and there's some some minor things that we want to correct while we're here rather than build a
roadway on top of something and have to correct that later uh and then we also talked a little bit with uh Comfort Lake Forest sake Watershed District there's possibility to enhance this project with regard to water quality uh this would be funded by them if they're um inclined to
move forward with that we will work with them we've talked to the property owner that uh this opportunity exist and they are in favor of it and would Grant an easement uh so we're we're looking uh to work with Watershed District on that whether that's something that we take on as part of our contract or we help
facilitate with the Watershed District we don't know the answer to that but that will be discussed here at a at a quarterly meeting that we have with the Comfort Lake Forest sake Watershed District here later this week next slide sorry I'm so used to you doing this um
again our proposed improvements uh are really matching this the street width you can see it's 28 ft in width with um surmountable concrete carbon gutter is what we've identified the rural section roadway again is much narrower it's it's 24 ft
in width so it's about 4 feet narrower in width uh and then again no carbon G we're just going to use the the ditches uh that are present there to convey the storm water our Project funding is that we do assess 20% of the surface and drainage
improvements only this is based on the city's assessment policy this has been a longstanding assessment policy uh where we assess the minimum amount that we can so again 20% is the minimum we can when we're bonding for improvements uh and so the city has chosen to have a uniform
assessment rate for all projects of 20% and it is based on a unit and when I say a unit means how many houses could go on that property and so it's a a buildable unit we don't have any Parcels uh within the assessment area that would receive more than one assessment we have in the
past where we've had multiple assessments just based on the size and that's really to take into consideration the size of the parcel um we've we've evaluated uh as part of that process do we want to go with front footage or unit and I think the council all unanimously felt it was most fairly applied to go
with a unit assessment rather than based on front footage and then the city pays the remaining 80% of the project costs so there are two areas um and you can see area one uh is
identified at as the rural section the green area and again assessments are based on where your driveway takes access and so you would be assessed um if your driveway accesses any of these roadways that are identified um to be reconstructed so we look at the total
cost of area one in Green at 1,6 or 1, 168,000 in change we multiply that by that 20% and we come up with a total amount to be assessed of $3,716 and we divide that by the total number of units within that green area
of$ 35 and we end up with an assessment of $616 18 this is an estimate based on our um our quantities that we've identified for this and what we estimate those cost to this is something that will be evaluated
at the conclusion of the project if it moves forward but we actually base them on actual costs not not our estimates and so oftentimes these estimates have been a little bit on the higher side and the S estimates have come in a little bit lower I cannot guarantee that but that's just what trends we've been seeing with with our estimating and what
the what the bidding climate has been our area two is the urban area uh the area that is identified in blue that is the concrete curb and G area um you can see again that 20% assess we have a project cost for that area of just shy
of 1.7 million 20% of that is about $339,000 divided by the total number of units in that area of 52 uh that yields an assessment of $652 43 uh a question was raised by a
property owner um oops what what would it be if we had binous curb got it right there is a a comment related to that and I wasn't really sure uh we had to do some checking of course uh the cost variation is again the
6525 versus the 6,16 so again about just over $400 if I can get this to go $400 difference again there this roadway is is four foot wider so part of that increase in cost comes from that
part of it comes from the increase in in uh the concrete versus the pinous curb and so it's certainly not that entire $400 it's probably more in line of $75 to $200 to have that that increase in that assessment to have the concrete cbon gutter it's something that I
feel that I I'm I'm pretty passionate about the concrete versus the binus uh that's something certainly that the council can can weigh and discuss um the reason and I'll give a couple reasons for that and I understand you know that the desire to keep costs down I certainly understand that and can
appreciate that but longevity is important for me as well and I think you can see the curb what it looks like now I can go through countless examples um in other communities as well where you have that and it just it doesn't hold up nearly as long um it does not perform as
well with with grade as well so when we look at concrete carbon gutter it can be laid as flat as half a percent of grade because it's put in with a string line in a concrete curb machine and it just has much more control over grade for for drainage purposes where when you're looking at a p it's it typically
requires about twice of that to make sure that you're maintaining drainage and a lot of these areas are flat and so I just want to make sure that we end up with a high quality project as well and so those are my comments related to that um considering the the cost um I think there's I think the the benefits far
outweigh the the cost Savings in in my opinion but I'm certainly happy to discuss that further if anybody would like to uh as far as the assessment process uh again it does follow Minnesota State Statute chapter 429 uh that process is
laid out in great detail what cities are needing to do and how they need to follow that process for assessments um we do follow that we do exceed those requirements by having these other neighborhood meetings we've had multiple neighborhood meetings um those are not requirements as part of this process but
we know that we are much more successful when we engage the public and engage uh the property owners that are adjacent to these improvements and and get their feedback and so we feel that's important and we we do go above and beyond with that regard um there will be uh if the project moves forward there would be an
assessment hearing that would play take place this fall um that would be received similar notice right in the local paper and mailed notice to all the property owners and there would be a lot of instructions that go along with that um written or objection written
objection of appeal uh must be presented in writing and signed by the property owner prior to or at that assessment hearing and so that's a right that property owners have to to appeal uh the assessment that would need to go um and be filed with Chisago County courts
within 30 days after the adoption of the assessment uh so Property Owners do have further rights related to that we just want to highlight that that would be included in that letter all of the information um with with your rights and what assessment rates are what the assessment amount is all of those things
would be included uh interest rate is set at the time of the assessment certification last year's rate was 5.25% % uh this is a project that I believe if we do move forward with we would be bonding for is that correct Mr lwood and so there's a typical uh rate that we
would uh well it's a it's a process uh in which we' receive interest rates uh in the in in the borrowing of that money and we would be able to uh determine that at that time uh assessments would be paid over a 10year period um interest rate again is
determined at the time of the assessment hearing um Property Owners do have uh the right to pay off that assessment without interest within 30 days after uh the adoption of the assessments um so we we sit on those assessments uh property
owners have the right to prepay those without interest prior to the city certifying those which is Sago County if uh a property owner does not do that uh the balance of property owners that that have not prepaid would all be uh sent and certified witha County and be applied directly to property taxes and
again that would be uh paid over a 10-year period here are uh just a couple examples um again one of the the $ 6,16 assessment what those uh total payments would be to shago County over
that 10-year period and then again another example here for uh the $652 assessment again this is just a a slide that I'd like to share kind of where we're at um with the process we're we're right here um if you can see the mouse
moving here but or the the arrow here we're at the point of holding the public hearing so we're roughly halfway through that public improvement process um The Next Step would be um receiving bids and um or that would be receiving plans and
specifications and authorizing the advertisement for bids so with that I'll stand for any questions that Council may have prior to opening for the public he okay questions from Council uh we'll start with um member Luger no questions okay member
Jer did you say that the road was going to be a little narrower we're going to match uh the existing roadway West to the greatest extent practical for the most part it will be uh exactly it it varies so I can't say that it'll match exactly everywhere but it'll be a uniform 24 foot in width and 28 feet in
width okay because my concern was if it's was narrowed in places when uh the property owners had like a grad party or some workmen over then the street I mean I I noticed it on my
street uh it was narrowed after it was reconstructed and now uh if there's a party or if even somebody's doing work it's almost impossible to to get through with um
when you have somebody on both parking on both sides of the street yeah so it like I said that the with the does vary some but you know for the on average I would say the roadway is uh 24 ft in width for the rural section and 28 ft for the urban section and so that's
that's what we're putting back in that's that's what the width will will be folks shouldn't see shouldn't see that problem occurring correct okay thank you member Shilling I do not have any questions thank you all right and I have
none either so uh we are going to go into the public hearing we need a motion um to go into public hearing so moved we have a motion by member Schilling do we have a second second second by member Luger all in favor I oppose we are in public hearing so what that means is
you'll be able to come up we usually try to limit about three minutes um for you to come on up we do ask that you be respectful you'll say your name and your address so do we have somebody who would like to come up um for the public hearing please come on up state your
name and your address hi I'm Kristen ort worth and I live at 25730 granford Avenue in Wyoming and I just have some questions so obviously it's frustrating when there is a lack of accountability
and Things We believe we've already paid for we are now incurring a cost for the second time with live us living in what was once the township where we don't have city sewer water Corner lights or streets that are rarely plowed and a
rarely see police patrol we feel like our taxes are high for the services we do get anding asking us to pay more was a very unpleasant surprise it does make me Ponder a few things is there a line item in the
budget to pay for upgrades the roads what was the question is there line items in your city budget to pay for roads we have we have essentially a year but we have a long-term plan a CIP plan as most cities do so we have a capital
Improvement plan um as Mr Ericson stated our our Capital Improvement plan we work through the lowest amount possible for assessments for community members of 20% um there are communities where it's opposite of that even so we do try to limit that to the most but we do have line items within our budget for Street
Maintenance but then we have a 5year CIP plan that we work with to develop with the council and then those are essentially um we've done some projects we'll try to pay in cash or we'll try to use state aid and then there are projects where we have to do bonding we try to kind of collaborate those through the years and be strategic with our funding points but
on these type of projects in this one particular we do have to bond for this particular project because I do know other cities it's going to say personally with several friends from different cities that they've had complete warw work done in front their houses and they had to pay nothing else so to me that sounds like it's just not
funding that was really well budgeted and we all have those issues that we have a bud to live in and this is a big extra expense um should Property Owners then be preparing for other things you propose to do that will not be included in our property taxes currently we
thought that everything that would be done would be part of our property taxes that we're already paying and now we found out this that this isn't it this we thought would be a standard thing so what other things can we expect that you guys are planning to do that we're going to have to pay additional on top of that
so right now we're just discussing the road project I know but talking about General in the cities go say that's something that would be nice to know as a homeowner like when you move into this town is it like well anytime your roads being improved now this is going to be something else if they're going to add
sewer and water this is something else you're paying for it would be very nice to know it's go say because everyone does have a budget and it's go say and adding $6,500 to a budget is a large dent in a budget um so when did the procedure then
going say you were talking about the city assessments going say to char charge the property owners an additional cost of the road so that is because you guys don't have the correct funding necessary so that way you guys are using these Minnesota statute that was is that was that was the Minnesota statute it's
statute 429 so that that would be common practice you may have a city that does pay um maybe you don't have to pay an assessment for I would say there are less cities that do that and usually most cities those assessment percentages are much higher example city of Still Water is 80% towards the resident or shago city is usually 50 or 60% those
Road Project costs so we are at the low end it's not necessarily um I I can't say it's something that where we don't budget it um the council could if they elected to to put large amounts of money into our um Capital Improvement for our streets but you would essentially see that on your taxes if we raised the levy
um every year for what the project would be that would be directly you'd be paying for maybe someone else in the city for a project so if we had a $3 million project and that was um within the levy then that would be spread out to amongst all our taxpayers and you'd see significant um increase in your property taxes so this is pretty
standard how most cities operate in regards to how we do that so this road has been in our CIP for quite some time that CIP list is on our City website so we encourage people to look at that this one originally was scheduled as of about three years ago for 2027 um due to the
condition we do evaluate those with the city council every year so this was moved up due to the poor condition as we felt as Mr Ericson explained we try to look at those and do an inventory of those um and the conditions of the streets so we bring those forward based on priori every year it's going to say so I understand that it's going to say
but still it's just the fact that people didn't budget to have that allocated just because it's best practices does it mean it's a good practice um so has there been road work then completed in the city streets in the last 10 years and the property owners weren't charged for an additional
fee for it just like last summer they did road work down their thing and they did a really poor job unfortunately but they paved the road going outft on Grafton that whole Road was red I mean not saying that was done well Springs is what we call it and so did
they get charged for that that was this patching that they did on wasn't patching that was a complete overlay well there's overlay Mr eron can you describe overlay versus yeah so again that that was a public works project that we did not
hire out that was a public works project where they did a I would say a and and you can correct me if I'm wrong cuz I know you we've looked at that but it was a um almost like a skin patch right I mean it wasn't a structural support it was something to get that by that roadway by they will be uh at some point
in the future uh a part of a a road Improvement project there as well and they would be assessed at that time um that is something that we have not uh assessed for overlays or you know patching or things like that it was a a large scale project but they put it down with the skid steer um and compacted it
just to get that roadway uh down the road a little bit further because it wasn't on our 5year CIP and we knew it wouldn't hold together so Public Works um had gone through and done some patching but as far as all of our roadway Improvement projects that we've had um there haven't been any as as far
as the ones that we we entertain through this 429 process there hasn't been any projects any road projects that have been built where there haven't been assessments on them um gonna say so when you guys are figuring these roads is gonna say and so you guys are just doing strictly on the
roads that are in front of the people's houses not considering the traffic where it comes from like specifically like where we live there are a lot of dead end roads and those we get higher traffic because there's no Outlets that were planned in those in those city streets and so then those roads is going
to say that there's noet obviously will not have to get repaired nearly as much as ours and so I think that is not something that I think it should be something that's considered um how long to then do you expect this
estimated um estimate this new proposed road to last so that we get and go through this proposal how long is going to see are we expecting this to last so this roadway should last in that 30-year range it will include other maintenance that occurs over that time period it
certainly will not last untouched right so as far as assessments Property Owners would not be assessed um for anything within the next 15 years um for certain that's part of our assessment policy um but roadways would require um Mill and overlay or crack filling or some sort of
uh surface treatment to preserve the roadway and protect it from oxidation things of that nature so there will be ongoing maintenance things um but those those things are not assessed um those are those things is going say you guys charge on top of everything else too so I just said those are not assessed those
are things that um would be done by our public work staff or hired by our public work staff to come in and do crack feeling and things like that that is not charged to the homeowner it is part of something that Mr Lynwood had indicated earlier is is a is a is levied right it is something that the city does have to
expend funds to preserve the condition of the roadway and and extend the life of the roadway and so those are activities that Public Works employs uh to make sure that these roads do last so but when you guys do the seal coding and stuff like that as you're trying to tell me that if my road gets seal coded then we would actually have to pay extra for
that or I'm sorry not at all okay that was great to know um so then once should we expect another assessment to be done on our property once then it's completed so will this make our taxes and increase so then obviously then our streets going to look a little better it's going to
say because we're going paying this money to have this road done will that then in increase the the value of our house which then again increases our taxes again we don't assess your house that's County so that would be something you'd have to talk to County about or the state but we do not the city does
not assess your house we don't value your house if that makes sense so that's not something that city does that's uh County and state and so then when I was he on the five s meeting is going to say I saw that there was a surplus at the end is going to say think so what happens with that Surplus money is that
something that then can be redirected to the road projects knowing that you're hitting the customers or your property owners up is going to say with additional charges is that something that you're going to try to push back it's going to say into the I don't know if we understand the additional charge part do you what are you talking the interest you're you're planning to
charge a $6,500 that's an additional charge let me just explain when we were here at 527 that was the annual budget for City Council annual audit the annual AIT yeah so we saw a surplus sure so of course you wonder where your Surplus
goes just like your snowf Surplus for this winter you had a snowf flow Surplus you didn't follow the roads once on any of the backrounds so you had to have a surplus a fuel charge Surplus I mean I'm sorry I've been in construction 30 years and asphalt don't hold 30 years I don't
care where youa it's not going to last 15 is Max St should have done studies on that you should have all the evidence to back that all up soil Wars you talk about soil Wars you say it's Sandy I'm on
Clay six inches of black Sandy dirt and then I'm in clay so there I'm kind of curious to know what the soil bars are because soil bars but that's kind of the question is you know we know the things aren't going to last we understand we have to pay for this and we're not
arguing the pay factor it's just that everything is acre our property taxes are ACR now we're getting the street we've only been here four years that Road's 24 years old how can this happen to people who move in to a new community and get get
like this we personally know person in our neighborhood is because say they are selling their house because they can't afford the taxes anymore and they were hoping to get out before this assessment and unfortunately they are not so luy I going to say it's just when I'm familiar with that other people can do that we
all have budgets as to live I think I'm just frustrated that that you guys don't have a budget that you have to live within too and having to assess other property owners that make them pay above and beyond for stuff to me that should be something that you add other things into so I'd like to okay you brought up
surpluses so uh before this meeting we had our budget meeting for next year so anytime we don't use up funds that gets rolled into that general fund if I'm not mistaken and then we apply that or project to next year so we don't have to plan for as much money so if there is an
overage if I understand everything correctly that would be applied to next year's costs so then we don't have to have as much if we had Levy as much if we had that Surplus in items yeah we essentially a city actually being a government entity that we are responsible to run a balanced budget
it's necessary for us unlike some of the other forms of government so if we do have a excess amount of that often we have minimum Reserve standards that we have to do by the office of the state auditor that we need to be required to have so 55% is what our city council's policy is and that is essentially what
the state auditor recommends so we have to have a Reserve balance that's just a requirement of the city but if we do have reserves those will go back into our Reserve funds or potentially into a capital revolving fund we can be used for different projects amongst the city so it will be used back within the
community it's just a matter of we look at all you know it might be I know you identified single line line items in budget it's not going to you know we're not going to look year toe most likely and say it doesn't work we're we're carrying over a fuel line item from year to year essentially it goes back in one
Clump and then we evaluate next year for the cost of that you know this year example in 2023 into 20 excuse me into 2022 into 2023 our plowing operations exceeded extremely we were we were over in our audit if you were here for that and that was a large point due to the necessary patching due to that bad
winter and then also to the amount of snow events that we had we almost had double that we usually have so that it es and flows with that budget so our Public Works budget line item exceeded that year but as you would had identified this year there were very few snow events so in regards to that those
fuel the time that our our staff may inur in regards to Overtime or coming in that was down so we try to when we budget we try to look at um that forecast and do um you know budgets based on some of what we see in the past so we're try to try to be strategic and
make sure that we have enough to keep ey even when we do have es and flows throughout the year well something that you know that that is going to be Doney I really feel that if you you guys don't have a strong line that eventually I think it you guys's goal should be not to be charging
people's good they having to ask for more money on top of everything else I'm sure that there's some families that are so tight with their money that they're going to have to get like a second job is because they to be paying for these things and then having 5% interest that is very high and so it's just I find it very
frustrating and I'm glad that you give giving us a chance to talk and thing but it's I don't really feel like it goes anywhere I was going to say so you guys want to do what you want to do and you guys are going to spend all this money but I guess I I think differently and if
you don't you know if there is there is this is part of the public hearing if you don't want the project you can certainly state that and if there are other individuals in the neighborhood that don't want the project we we can always we've done it in the past where we have had things where we can shelf a project and we can always come back to it but that is um if the neighborhood
and the public hearing say we really don't want this project we don't have to go for with it so that is your as a public hearing you you do have that opportunity as well no we we know we need the project we understand that it's as as my wife trying to point out is it's the cost it's it's the occurring
cost since we've been here four years my taxes have increased so much $1,200 and we're trying to figure out four years $1,200 is what my taxes have increased for the city of Wyoming I went through my tax payments before I came um and the
assessments and I understand taxes go up I understand the value of houses go up but my pay don't go up like these junks are going up and I'm a single income family I'm raising three kids and my wife homeschools so every time something like this comes up I'm not saying I'm
not smart enough with my money that I can't budget but it's it and when you're trying to look at retirement I'm 10 years away from retirement I'm looking at my funds are draining from biomics and everything else that's going on and then I get hit by the city so that's on
our we understand the road needs to be done but there's 24 to 25 years other residents have lived there and they're not getting stuck with a bill and now I'm getting stuck with a bill and we all know asphalt and I'm sorry Mark I hope you understand I'm not picking on you
but asphalt does not last 20 years no even 15 years I I I think I mentioned and if I didn't I apologize but it it will not last that long without efforts right so included in that is a Mill and overlay right so when we talk a 30-year lifespan it you know your your pavement curve if you're familiar with those the
the condition starts to go like this and then at some year 15 year or 20 year you do a a Mill and overlay and it spikes back up and so if we were to not do anything with that roadway it would not last 30 years but we're talking about you know pavement preservation maill and overlay it won't last 30 years without a
Mill and overlay uh we're going to do crack filling and things of that nature and so it you're you're exactly right just leave it as it is it would not last 30 years so and how thick of a layer of because we all know you're going to get better asphalt if you do it lifts and they have to be small lifts not one 3 in
lift and one in and a half has yeah so no we when we do this we actually go through and we actually meet men. standards on all compaction and densities and we have material testing present on site for all of this and so they are um they are two twoin lifts is
what our our city standard is else thank you you're welcome you're welcome who else would like to come up come on up state your name address anybody else no I see head shaking okay all right
then we need a motion to go um uh out of public hearing uh do we have a motion to close the public hearing so moved we have a motion to close by member Luger do we have a second second second by member Schilling all in favor I I opposed so approved all right so we have
um number two again to consider resolution 2465 5 a resolution ordering the project and authorizing the preparation of plans only plans and specifications right um for the 2024 Street Improvement project so any other
questions from Council if there are none we need a motion to approve resolution 24650 so moved motion to approve by member Schilling do we have a second second second by member Luger all in favor I opposed so approved consent
agenda number three four five six seven and eight does anybody wish to pull an item from the consent agenda hearing none uh we do need a motion to approve number three four five six 7 and eight on the consent agenda do we have a motion so motion by member Luger do we
have a second second second by member Schilling all in favor I opposed so approved uh knowledge receipt of reports of officers boards commissions and department heads 91 11 12 13 and 14 does
anybody wish to pull an item um further for the reports seeing none we'll move on to new business number 15 to consider Revol sorry resolution 24656 a resolution governing wrin vote
counting so Mr Erikson no sorry Mr Li Mr McFarland okay I'll hand this I'll just count I'll just go everybody right on down all right so we've got Mr Farin that's going to go all right awesome thanks honorable mayor and uh members of council uh Mr Lynwood and I were able to
attend a meeting with the Chago County elections office last week as we begin to gear up for the August 13th uh presidential or no I'm sorry just primary election um one of the topics that was covered during this meeting was new legislation that was passed by the Minnesota legis legislature uh over the
past two years and one of the topics or one of the U new laws that was passed is um that cities are now able to uh adopt a resolution that states that writing candidates will only have their individual votes tallied if the total number of writing votes for the contest is greater than or equal to the fewest numbers of votes cast for a non-writing
candidate what that basically means is that if there's someone who's actually on the ballot that receives 500 votes uh rtin wouldn't have their votes individually cast unless there were 500 or 51 um that's an important distinction because currently shago County election officials uh during election night uh
count every single right in tally uh that would include the ones that mostly they state are mostly written as Mickey melis ronal McDonald things like that sort um this would be big for them to save time so that we're not waiting as long um for election results um so it's just a possibility we want to put in forth in front of you as as a a thing
that we can look at as the the city so the resolution before you just states that they would no longer have to do that unless those tallies uh are more than the lowest amount for a actual candidate on the ballot okay questions from council member shell uh no questions member jer no so I looked up
how many W in votes we have so I saw in in 2022 there was 73 writing votes uh 2020 2020 24 W in votes for mayor 44 W in votes for
Council 2018 42 writing votes for mayor and I mean Council rather the mayor was an anomaly at 106 writing votes so if you're looking at 75 vots Tops on a you
know how much time would be saved by not tabulating them I I can't speak specifically to the amount of time saved there but I can share that this was um shared with all the municipalities within Chisago County and I want to say that that might Encompass and and each Precinct within those and so any any
Precinct in any other also any when any not just city council and not just mayor it would be for anything on the ballots from our from our from our precincts so it would be much more than just the city council and mayor votes it would be all the differentiating um right as Mr Rick Farin said it was a
request from the con Otter's office um it's you know something that they asked to bring forward to the city councils okay how will voters be informed that their right and votes won't be individually tabulated I mean when they come to vote they expect and they and they write in
they expect their vote to be tabulated how how will they be know that they're not I I would specify um so the right in vote tally will still show up in the the final election results it's just rather than it won't be reported now that 10 went to Ronald McDonald five Mickey Mouse you know 12 gr McFarland
thank you um and so forth it would just State the total number of of wrin votes okay how many of those wrin votes are for Mickey Mouse or Ronald McDonald or anything that the of a nature that the staff considers frivolous uh that's a that's a great question I don't have an
exact number but I can state that it was high enough that the county officials felt it was pertinent to to bring this to our attention Okay I mean well I am if a person cared enough to write in a candidate for an election that vote should be individually tabulated what
one person considers frivolous may be somebody else's political statement and that deserves to be heard especially when you have get out the vote uh efforts why discourage them if if it if
the vote doesn't count enough to be individually tabulated um when I look at the numbers at least in our Council and our mayor votes with all those right in votes if there I mean the difference between
frivolous and non-frivolous votes it's just a matter of numbers and I can't see less than 75 votes taking up so much time that uh you can't individually
tabulate them and still get results on a timely basis and I would just State once again it's for all and maybe that's including your number but it's presidential Senate anything that's on the ballot um that is receiving a right in vote would be something that applies to this resolution not just city council
or local elections okay I stand corrected all right uh member ler um I have no questions actually no I take that back so um this is something that shago County would like us to
pass have other news pass in the county passes as well do we know it was just we just received the the the information last week at a at a meeting so I can't say if any others have they were all asked the county asked them Regard in regards to it that they didn't have to I
think like they said the um if there was a right-in candidate that you know did receive the appropriate amount of votes over another one it would be you know tabulated and it would be it would go forward it was just the the request from the auditor um if there is more information that the council wants from
the auditor certainly we could ask that or if there are other questions um on that I'm sure we could get them but um just something that they brought forward that they asked us to bring to the council so then my follow-up question is um
hypothetically everybody else in shago County passes this every other municipality in Wyoming says no what are the implications like I mean just like logistically what is that I think we just have to count for you know the Wyoming precincts so you have Precinct A
and B um if the other ones did you know I don't when it was brought up within the election judges I guess there really wasn't um I can't can't say that there was much discussion on it other than it was just an ask from the the county auditor office so it sounds like this is something that obviously was passed at
the state legislature level and that the example has been um pushed out W Wen excuse me far and wide so I think it's something that you're seeing other communities um and other counties look at um you know in regards to how you how you may feel about it it's just
something that the state looked at and said to try to I guess use the with all the the additional things through elections now um different criterias different security measures different um times open I'm assuming the legislature has looked at this is one less thing maybe for some of that staff to have to handle but um it is a community by
community so you know if it's something you don't feel um fits Wyoming it's the the council's ability to to go forward with it or not go forward with it and to be clear it's not that the right in votes however we decide whether they're frivolous or not aren't tabulated they
still count every person still gets a vote it's just that they're not identified as Mickey Mouse got two votes Donald Duck got three correct correct so I mean you still even if there if there was a large right-in campaign and that were to um go forward over and above someone on the ballot that would still
be counted and that would still which time to time that can happen or else no right in there's a a strong right in push and that can happen so they would still be tab ated appropriately and correctly um through that it just wouldn't be to your point that it wouldn't be you know 17 for Donald Duck or whoever whoever else may be those are
some of the common some of the silly ones you see and there can be not silly though too thank you all right uh Mr lywood Wyoming tends to have a really high voter turnout shago County does actually
um it's proven Statewide um with Wyoming can you because you run the election part of it can you um answer about how many votes are cast typically I mean you have the off year and then you have the presidential year so um can you maybe
give kind of an idea of what those numbers are if you remember well I think registered within mying I think we have approximately Mr McFarland I don't know if you can help me I think we have about 54 or 5,500 registered voters right now in the city of Wyoming um is that does that mean that they're all turn out for
the election no not necessarily but that is a very large amount as you just stated we have a very strong voter turnout in Wyoming and the county so that's something that we can be very proud of but um as far as that number on voting day I mean obviously we had very
low numbers for the presidential primary um the primary historically we don't have um real significant voter turnout on that but then obviously this year being a general election we have good turnout and then a presidential election we have extremely strong turnout so we would anticipate that this year and
we're um gearing up a really for that and anticipated amount of people yeah definitely and the ones that are written in are those hand counted or how does that we have bot The Ballot Box but are those hand counted then correct by the
county staff okay and um I know in several years sometimes election results from the county or the city of Wyoming can be 11 12 o'clock at night because you're doing those hand countings for the Donald Ducks or the poor Donald Duck on this one but Mickey Mouse whatever you want want to put in there right we
don't we would not do that but yes the county would so we we essentially once the election's over we have closing duties as a staff to do in regards to the reconciliation of um the the polls so um but then that then from there then all those items go up to the the county
which at that time we essentially hand off to them and then they go through the dissemination of um the ballots and the different electronic the voting machines Etc and then they're certified two weeks later or something I've been on that you have preliminary results correct and then right then they go through and have
you have your your formal okay certif certified votes or certified results excuse me okay any other questions from councel all right um we need a motion to approve resolution 24656 a resolution govering right in
votes counting do we have a motion to approve so moved do we have a second second we have a second all in favor I opposed nay so approved number 16 last on the agenda consider a work session on
June 18th 2024 at 5:30 p.m. um I would say Mr lunin because I haven't asked him to talk yet but we'll go with Mr lywood I can handle it you true thank you mayor members of the council um this is a request from staff we have a couple
different concept plans that have gone before the Eda uh for some multif family housing um one being for senior housing and then another one for multi regular multif family housing so um we'd like to have a work session with the council to go through those Concepts um that would
be prior to our um June 18th council meeting at 5:30 and so we're requesting the council set a work session um at 5:30 p.m. on that dat okay I'm going to ask councel like I usually do to everybody check those dates yes I will not be an attendance I'll be in grind Rapids for a conference okay so you
cannot be here Linda I'm fine okay so uh we need a motion to approve the work session on June 18th 2024 at 5:30 p.m. I'll make that motion do we have a second second all in favor I opposed and
we'll see you at 5:30 so Council reports um the best part of the night I think Council reports we'll start with um member lcer um I have no report thank you all for attending and thanks for watching right member Shilling uh no report thank you all for showing up
voicing concerns have a great night thank you member jger oh I went to I st a touch of truck towards the end of it it was cool and thank you all for coming and voicing your opinions and thank you all for watching all right um I also attended
Touch a Truck and I'd like to thank all the vendors that came out it was big it was really big there was a lot of people it was exciting to see that um I've also attended the Eda yesterday um and then hearing obviously what we're going to be talking about is some new projects that
are coming to Wyoming which again is very exciting Workforce housing which is what we need um based Bas on all the manufacturers that we have here in the county um or in our city actually and then two super fun things I want to talk about the
ms150 um the uh State chair actually reached out to me the ms50 is this coming Saturday and Sunday it's usually over a thousand bikes that run through they come right through our city and they're looking for volunteers I am
always there with um a cowbell and shering them on but they're also looking for help in the tent for the hydration tent they're looking for anybody certified in um first aid to kind of follow the writers at as they go along
so um looking for anybody wants to come down cheer on the writers honestly I just got an email from one of the writers that I've talked to every year and he's asking me if I was going to be there and I'm like I sure will be there so um anybody has any questions with that check out my Facebook page or get a
hold of me the other thing that I'm um attended today which I don't think a lot of people know and that's called project search Project search is um is a project that's done at Fairview currently it has
seven interns every year it changes over the seven interns eight in uh interns could be up to 10 they do have disabilities but it's uh internships that uh will show them or teach them how to work within a hospital system or how
to work a um cash register how to build different things they learn how to use tools they learn how to greet people and come out of their shell and talk to people so second year attending this year I got to go to their graduation I want to say congratulations to Robert
Tori Libby Emmanuel Andrew Maria and Charlie great job that you guys did this last year so um with that I think uh touch truck vendors are on the website right so we'll be able to thank them all right all right so with that thanks everybody for being here we do
appreciate you coming and talking to us about your concerns we do need a motion to adjourn we have a a motion to adjourn for from Member Luger do we have a second second second for member Schilling all in favor I anyone opposed
and we are adjourned at 7:57 okay for