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CC 2009 02 09 CHANHASSEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING FEBRUARY 9, 2009 Mayor Furlong called the meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. The meeting was opened with the Pledge to the Flag. COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Furlong, Councilman Litsey, Councilwoman Ernst, Councilwoman Tjornhom, and Councilman McDonald STAFF PRESENT: Todd Gerhardt, Roger Knutson, Laurie Hokkanen, Greg Sticha, Paul Oehme, and Todd Hoffman PUBLIC PRESENT: Tony Hallen 7764 Village Street PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: Mayor Furlong: Thank you and welcome to everyone and those watching at home. We’re glad that you joined us this evening. At this time I’d ask members of the council if there are any modifications or additions to the agenda. If not, without objection we’ll proceed with the agenda as published. CONSENT AGENDA: Councilman Litsey moved, Councilwoman Ernst seconded to approve the following consent agenda items pursuant to the City Manager’s recommendations: a. Approval of Minutes: -City Council Work Session Minutes dated January 26, 2009 -City Council Verbatim and Summary Minutes dated January 26, 2009 Receive Commission Minutes: -Planning Commission Work Session Summary Minutes dated February 3, 2009 Resolution #2009-06: b. 2009 Street Improvement Projects: Approve Plans and Specifications; Authorize Advertising for Bids. th Resolution #2009-07: c. 77 Street Utility Project: Approve Plans and Specifications; Authorize Advertising for Bids. Resolution #2009-08: d. Lift Station No. 24 Rehabilitation: Approve Quote. e. Approve Extension of Lease for Old Village Hall, Distinctive Ventures, Inc., dba Seattle Sutton. City Council Meeting - February 9, 2009 f. Approve Temporary On-Sale Liquor License, April 24 Fund Raiser, St. Hubert Catholic Community, 8201 Main Street. Resolution #2009-09: h. Call for Sale, Crossover Refunding of $3,965,000 G.O. Library Bonds, Series 2009A. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS: None. WEST CENTRAL LOTUS LAKE PROJECT: AWARD CONTRACT. Paul Oehme: Thank you Mayor, City Council members. I’d like to just briefly review the West Central Lotus Lake drainage improvement project for you. The city did take bids in January on this project and we’d like to have the council consider award of contract tonight for the project. So basically the project is a storm sewer improvements along, basically from Kerber Boulevard, which is shown here. Some storm sewer improvements here, as well as a new structure, flared end section and skimmer structure. We’re trying to improve the berm along the drainage channel here, including check dams along the steep slope here. Meadow Green Pond which is shown here, there’s some significant improvements that we’d like to address there and some, also some wetland improvements in this area as well, so I’ll go into a little more detail in each of those areas further along in the presentation but basically the background of the project is, several things the city would like to address is, one is to reduce erosion that’s in the drainage channel of Lotus Lake. We identified several areas that have eroded over time and can potentially wash into Lotus Lake so we’re trying to address that issue. Provide water quality benefit as much as possible through this area. We’ve identified some areas we would like to pond water. Slow down the water as much as we can before it enters Lotus Lake. We have in the plan items to reduce the surcharging of storm sewer system at Kerber Boulevard. Right now during high, or large rain events the system here can potentially back up onto Kerber Boulevard and surcharge over the street and create problems in this neighborhood. We’re looking at reinforcing the berm as it goes down the hill east and south down to Meadow Green wetland area. This is again, it’s a scouring issue and it’s a potential erosion issue we’re trying to address there. Improving the configuration of the outlet of the wetland down at the southeast corner of the wetland. I’ll show you drawings on that. And then improve sanitary sewer system and reduce potential surface water inflow into the existing sanitary sewer system that’s down at the bottom of the toe of the slope there. So basically this is a drawing of a plan that, right at Kerber Boulevard. The item I just mentioned was a structure, call it 501 where we had an apron and a trash guard. Right now there’s potential, or a tendency for this structure to plug with debris coming down this steep hill here. This is all heavily vegetated and steep slope so there’s a lot of debris that potentially runs into this area and clogs up our system. Another improvement that we’re looking at is replacing a 12 inch corrugated, or a concrete reinforced pipe that’s shown here with a 24 inch reinforced concrete pipe and this is to increase the capacity of this line so it doesn’t, the system doesn’t have a tendency to surcharge as much. And then also adding ditch checks along the steep slope as we go down there to reduce the chances of this area eroding in the future. 2 City Council Meeting - February 9, 2009 Councilman Litsey: Is that, if I might. I just had one question there. Would that, that rock berm that’s there, would that remain or would that? Paul Oehme: Actually we’re going to reconfigure that. Councilman Litsey: Okay. Paul Oehme: We’d like to change the design of that a little bit. It’s a little bit too high we think for it’s intended use right now so we’re going to leave it there but we’re just going to re-grade it out a little bit. Councilman Litsey: Okay, thanks. Paul Oehme: So this is down at the, more of the toe of the slope coming down the hill. Down to Meadow Green wetland area here so there’s some storm sewer improvements that we’d like to address here. There’s a settling basin as we move down the hill, re-grading this area and trying to reduce the velocity and the energy of the surface water coming off the hillsides before it ends up in the wetland complex. And then also some re-grading as we get down to the toe of the slope here and any additional rip rap. Increasing the size of the storm sewer pipe as it ends up in the wetland complex as well so. Here’s a picture of the wetland berm, south of Meadow Green Park. The berm is intended to be built up a little bit and the existing outlet pipe will be removed at this location and reconstructed at the southeast corner of the pond. Or the wetland area. Additionally there’s the emergency overflow from this area if you get say a large rain event. Say 100 year rain event. The water needs to go someplace so we designed an overflow at this location where the water can over land flow out of the pond without eroding the banks. And that is made out of the rip rap stone material that is up at Kerber Park Pond. Or up at Kerber Boulevard so it’s just a rock overflow that will take the energy out of the surface water as it goes over the berm there. And then also improvements to the outlet of the pond and the configuration of the storm sewer system in this area. Currently there’s two flared end pipes, culverts basically and we want to connect those pipes, those systems together. They have a tendency to plug and cause problems for maintenance and we want to increase the capacity of this area so we don’t have the problems like we did in 2005 in this area. Here’s a drawing of some of the improvements to the Meadow Green wetland complex. This area where there’s standing water currently really not going to be changed all that dramatically. We’re, again we’re going to increase the berm or re-grade the berm out here. Maybe make it a little more structural. This area down here, south of the wetland currently is designated a wetland but we want to improve the characteristics of this wetland and try to capture and store more water in this area and dissipate the energy as it flows through this area. So there’s some wetland improvements. Some revegetation of this area. Some grading that’s going to, we want to take place out here and so this area will have a tendency to bounce more, store more water and have a better ecological system as the water flows through this area. One additional improvement is improvements to a flared end section here. An outlet to the wetland just north of here. We’re looking at, we’d like to lower that outlet about a half a foot and replace the flared end section there that allows that wetland to bounce a little bit more than it is right now. We had some concerns from some property owners in this area regarding that issue so we try and address that under this design as well. So that’s basically the scope of the project. The bids that we did receive for this project 3 City Council Meeting - February 9, 2009 th were very favorable in our estimation. We did receive bids on January 29 at 10:00 and we did receive a significant amount of bids. 12. 12 bids were submitted ranging from $261,000 all the way up to almost $600,000. The engineer’s estimate was $234,000 approximately so again we think that we did receive very favorable bids based upon the market that we’re seeing right now. We did, and staff did check with references for Minnesota Dirt Works and they all checked out. Their work has been acceptable based upon comments that we received from other communities and other clients that they have worked with so. And if the project were to move forward, here’s the schedule as we see it starting work in the end of this month and substantial completion we th would hope by January 30 and then restoration you know in May, June and July timeframe so. This is somewhat of a time sensitive project. There is a lot of dirt movement in this area. Working in wetlands. There, we’re trying to work the site when the soil is still frozen as much as we can. That allows the equipment and the dirt movement to take place a lot easier than it would if say we were in the spring timeframe or even summer timeframe when the water levels in this area are higher so that’s the intent for the project to move forward at this time period. So and then there is some wetland restoration in this area and the staff is proposing to monitor that and we do have that in our scope of services so. With that if you have any questions regarding the project itself or the bids that we received, I’d be more than happy to try to answer them. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Questions for staff. Councilman McDonald: I’ve got a question. I guess when I look at these bids there’s a significant difference in the low bid to the engineering estimate and then we look at the rest of them. I know you say within the report that you had checked them out and everything but I guess I’m a little concerned with that. How well did you check them out and what’s your confidence level that they can complete this project on time and within the scope that we’ve called out here? Paul Oehme: Sure. Yeah, Minnesota Dirt Works, they are I want to say a subsidiary of another company but they work hand in hand with one of the largest excavator contractors in Minnesota so our feeling is that they have partnered and have pricing based upon what larger, what that larger company can obtain so their cost per unit of pipe or moving dirt is potentially could be substantially less than some of these other contractors that have to get the work themselves or, they don’t have the volume that potentially Minnesota Dirt Works can get from their suppliers. Basically working through a larger construction contractor so that’s one aspect of it. I think the Minnesota Dirt Works, they are working in the area right now. Not in our community but in the area so this project in their estimation ties well into what, after they finish up that project can start on this one so there’s some mobility aspects of this that potentially would save them some money as well. And again the market I think is really helping us right now in terms of the bids that we received. Getting back to your question about the references. You know we did check 3 or 4 references and, including I think Prior Lake was one of them and they rated them very high. They’d actually like to work with them on smaller projects down the road too so when we heard that, that they’d like to work with them in the future, you know I think that really helped us become, a greater comfort level in terms of awarding a contract, or recommending awarding a contract to them. 4 City Council Meeting - February 9, 2009 Councilman McDonald: Okay, well let me just ask you a little bit about the project. I mean they would want to work with them in the future but how does this project fit? Is this considered a small project within that kind of community or is this a little bit larger, more involved project than what they would have done at Prior Lake? Paul Oehme: Well I think this is really similar to what their forte is in their level of work. I think they do well, and from what I’ve heard of pond clean-out’s and storm sewer improvement projects and those type of things so those are the projects that they seem to focus in on and it’s very similar to what we’re trying to accomplish here. Councilman McDonald: Okay. No more questions for me. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Other questions? Councilwoman Ernst: Paul, I just have one question. When you put the scope of work out to the bid, are there, did everyone bid identical, I mean did they all bid on the identical scope of work or were there alternatives submitted in the scope of work? Paul Oehme: Now under this project, there wasn’t, I don’t think there was any alternates that we had included in this project. The project was pretty straight forward. There wasn’t any alternates so we didn’t feel that we needed any. Councilwoman Ernst: Okay. Thank you. Councilman Litsey: Would you mind just going back to the time table a little bit please. So th substantial completion is April 30. You are a little bit into the thawing so there’s a little concern at all about you know erosion during that period or? I mean I don’t know, there’s no ideal time… Paul Oehme: Yeah. We’re envisioning that the contractor try to get in there and work on the lower areas down by the wetlands right now as soon as he can, and then work up. Up to the top of the hill where potentially it’s drier. Our biggest concern is just getting the dirt work done at this point in time. I mean that’s one thing I think you want to focus in on right now is to try and get the wetland area graded out and that berm re-established and that whole area addressed as soon as we can so, I mean that’s probably 3 to 4 weeks of work right there so, and then there’s probably another month and a half of piping and what have you. Other work associated. Councilman Litsey: Otherwise I think, just as a comment, and I know we’re going to comment afterwards too but I just really appreciate the effort that’s going into this. I think this is a needed project obviously and I think it will do a lot to keep you know kind of keep that more stable along there and help with the erosion and stuff so good job. Paul Oehme: Thank you. And it’s, this project’s really been on our books for several years. At least 4 years. We’ve identified this as being needed and proven to our Lotus Lake Watershed. Mayor Furlong: What prompted it being identified? 5 City Council Meeting - February 9, 2009 Paul Oehme: Well 2005 when we had that large storm event, we had some problems down at the pond area. The wetland area. We had some erosion. Actually the berm blew out and we had to go in there and fix that. And from that event we knew that something really should be done here permanently. We temporarily fixed it. Put it back to it’s original condition but we thought we really needed to address this on a bigger scope and a more larger project to address those larger rain events that potentially could damage the system as it did in 2005. Mayor Furlong: Well that year we had two large rain events back to back as I recall. Paul Oehme: Right. Mayor Furlong: As well and it caused damage didn’t it to property owners further down south, below the pond? Paul Oehme: That’s correct. Yep. And once the pond blew out and over topped the trail around there. Eroded the creek as it went into Lotus Lake and then did damage of property basically at the end of the, right on Lotus Lake. Mayor Furlong: So ultimately the anticipated benefits here are to improve storm water runoff before it goes into Lotus Lake. Paul Oehme: Absolutely. I mean that’s one of the main criteria’s here is to try to improve the water quality as much as we can in the system before it ends up in Lotus Lake. And then again it’s a stabilization project as well but water quality is kind of our number one thing that we’re trying to look at. Mayor Furlong: And the water’s really two factors, as I recall. It’s the quality of the water that eventually gets there but really is the rate at which it gets there too. Paul Oehme: Exactly. Mayor Furlong: And so I assume this pond is going to be sized such that it will retain water from a storm event and more slowly let it into the lake? Paul Oehme: Right, exactly. Mayor Furlong: …the quality of that water has been improved? Paul Oehme: Absolutely, yeah. Right now there’s basically a creek that meanders through this area. Looking at the overhead here. But so, and we’re trying to make this area more of a wetland complex. More of a ponding situation where it has a tendency, or has the tendency to bounce. Right now it just flies through. The water just flows right through here without any retention so we’re trying to improve that situation and try to pond as much water as we can. 6 City Council Meeting - February 9, 2009 Mayor Furlong: And we saw those two great events, I know Lotus Lake especially we saw a significant increase in the water levels and very slow drain out through, is it Purgatory Creek that Lotus Lake drains into over by 101 over there and then on into Eden Prairie? Paul Oehme: I believe you’re right. Mayor Furlong: I think it is but the water levels bounced up very quickly and then stayed there and came down very slowly and caused a lot of problems so this type of project is intended to address that type of issue. Paul Oehme: Absolutely. I mean there’s a big water quality and quantity benefit for the whole Lotus Lake watershed and the property owners along Lotus Lake have complained about that high water level being in that lake for such a long period of time and having to reduce the speed of the boats I think. We had to reduce the speed of, so. Mayor Furlong: Right. We went forward then and organized a, as I recall, a task force to look at the no wake ordinance on Lotus Lake. Any other questions at this point? Councilwoman Tjornhom, do you have any at this time? Councilwoman Tjornhom: Yeah, I guess. No one’s here from I guess the properties that will be affected from the work but have you talked to everybody and? Paul Oehme: Yeah, we had… Councilwoman Tjornhom: Litsey is here tonight. Is he okay with the? Councilman Litsey: I was hoping for some increased lake shore there but. st Paul Oehme: Yeah, we had a neighborhood meeting on December 1 of last year talking about the project and we showed them drawings of the improvements that potentially would take place, and then I know we had several additional meetings with several property owners along the project area that would be more impacted by the construction. Councilwoman Tjornhom: And they’re comfortable and understand what to expect and? Paul Oehme: Yeah. I have not heard from anybody that would significantly oppose what we’re trying to do out here. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Okay. Mayor Furlong: The report talked about the neighborhood meeting back in December. Do we have, to Councilwoman Tjornhom’s point, do we have some residents in this area come and talk and what were their concerns at the time? 7 City Council Meeting - February 9, 2009 Paul Oehme: I think yeah, I think they, to summarize it, I think they see the need for the project and they were more concerned I think about the constructability of the project and getting equipment in and out and disruption during construction is what I recall. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Paul Oehme: Again there was I think a couple properties up here north of Meadow Green wetlands that had talked about the high level of the wetland and see if we can address any of that. That issue under this project. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Paul Oehme: So there was, but overall I think the project has been received positively by the neighborhood. Councilman Litsey: Is most of the construction equipment going to come off Bighorn Drive through that right-of-way there and behind there? Paul Oehme: You know what, we leave that to the contractor but I think you know Carver Beach Road is a good access point. You know Kerber Boulevard might be another access point. We’re going to try to limit the traffic or kind of reduce the traffic or eliminate the traffic off of Bighorn Drive so I don’t think we’re going to recommend that as an access. Councilwoman Tjornhom: And they have to still follow you know, if the construction vehicles are coming in and off to clean the streets up and stuff like that still. Paul Oehme: Yeah, our ordinance does not change in these type of contracts. And then the working hours are still the same too. Councilwoman Tjornhom: The same. Mayor Furlong: I have a question about the funding on this. Price obviously came in below the engineer’s estimate, which was in our CIP plan so that’s certainly a benefit to us but the city is, under the current proposal would be funding 100% of this project, is that correct? Paul Oehme: That’s correct. Mayor Furlong: Did we petition the watershed district, the Riley-Purgatory-Bluff Creek watershed district to work with us on this? Paul Oehme: Yes we did and we, back in, I have a letter right here. We submitted an application or funding request back in October 4, 2007 to Riley-Purgatory-Bluff Creek Watershed District and for partnering with us on this project, and other projects in the Lotus Lake area but, and I did receive back a letter from the watershed district on December 17, 2007 stating that basically the, they would have to do minimal research and see if this project would, in their minds, would benefit the overall storm water system in Lotus Lake. You know they 8 City Council Meeting - February 9, 2009 actually requested that they take over this project. The watershed district would manage the project. Bid out the project and work with the city and that the city would, they would like to see us take on several of their projects basically. One being the restoration of the shoreland at Lake Susan, so working through those issues it just didn’t seem that the benefit and our priorities were being met with what the watershed district wanted to do in this area. We did have at least, we did attend at least 3 additional watershed district meetings in 2008 talking about this project as well, and I do believe that the city manager met with one of the commission members as well to try to work together and try to figure out a way we can work together on this project but at this time we don’t, the watershed district really hasn’t budgeted any money for this project in this year and subsequent years they haven’t budgeted any money for moving forward with this project. It’s, I think it’s a needed project that really needs to move forward and that’s why I think at a staff level we would like to make this project, or move the project forward at this time. Mayor Furlong: I guess if you could clarify a portion of the, or just so I heard you correctly. Did you say that one of the things that they wanted to do was study as to whether or not this would improve water quality in Lotus Lake? Paul Oehme: Right. Yeah, they basically back in 2007 they were working on a model, an XP SWM model and studying the whole storm water system in Lotus Lake, or watershed district of Lotus Lake and they completed that model. I think you know based upon what my, what I’ve seen and what I’ve talked to the watershed district about it. They see the need for this project. I think, how should I say this? Their priority list is a little bit different than what we’re trying to accomplish. We’re looking at. Mayor Furlong: As far as Lotus Lake? Paul Oehme: Well as far as the watershed district in general I think. We’re trying to address water quality and water quantity issues before they end up in the lake. I think the watershed district, I’m just from my personal view, is they’re addressing some of the water quality improvements in the lake. You know the carp study and the removal of carp and some other items that they’re working on right in the lake so that’s, you know that’s some of their improvements. And if you look at their CIP, I think that reflects some of those priorities. Mayor Furlong: Do they have money in their CIP’s set aside for Lotus Lake… Paul Oehme: I don’t have it in front of me right now but it’s my understanding that they don’t have any capital improvement projects lined up for Lotus Lake for several years. They had looked at, and they were considering a bacteria, what is it called? Just a bacteria study of Lotus Lake next year, or this year. Summer of 2009, but besides that they don’t have any actual capital improvement projects identified in the next several years. Mayor Furlong: Is it your, is this going to improve water going into Lotus Lake or reduce water going into Lotus Lake and improve what does go in? 9 City Council Meeting - February 9, 2009 Paul Oehme: Yeah, I definitely, strongly believe that this project does address water quality improvements for Lotus Lake and water quantity improvements addressing some of the high water issues that have been experienced in Lotus Lake in the last couple years. Councilman McDonald: Could I just follow up on that? Going back to the event we had a couple years ago, with this improvement, would that, would something such as this mitigate those kind of problems so that we wouldn’t be looking at kind of catastrophic water conditions downstream into people’s yards and homes? Paul Oehme: Right. I mean that’s number one. That’s one of the main priorities here is to address that large water quantity issue. You know again back in 2005 we had a breach of this berm of Meadow Green wetlands someplace in this location here so basically this whole wetland complex drained out back at that timeframe so we’re trying to address that. We know this wetland here is going to overflow in the future if we have another large rain event like we did in 2005 so we’re addressing that by making an over land flow area for the water to drain out without scouring or washing out that berm in the future so there’s a lot of other improvements like that associated with this project to address the scouring and the potential erosion and sediment washing into Lotus Lake as we did see in 2005. Councilman McDonald: Okay, thank you. Councilwoman Tjornhom: I have a question. Mayor Furlong: Councilwoman Tjornhom. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Getting back to the watershed district. It’s always kind of been a mystery to me I guess. You know we do something and they do something and maybe it’s not supposed to be a collaborative effort. I’m not sure. It would make sense most of the time for these things I think to be partnered. And maybe Terry should be here to answer these questions and not you Paul, I don’t want to put you on the spot but they said that their CIP didn’t cover any improvements for Lotus Lake. Is that what I heard you say? Paul Oehme: Well I don’t have it in front of me but, I don’t have it in front of me but. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Right, and that’s what I’m saying. Paul Oehme: But from my recollection in the next couple years I don’t think they really have any capital improvement projects identified. I know they’ve got some lake water quality improvements. Removing of carp or some bacteria testing or they wanted to do maybe some more modeling but in terms of actual pipes in the ground or wetland complexes, wetland improvements or storm water improvement projects, it’s my recollection they don’t have anything identified. Councilwoman Tjornhom: So do we ever get together and say this what we’re doing? This is what we’re looking for in the future. And this is just really, I’m being very honest in saying you know it makes sense to me that’s how these two agencies should work, or we should work with 10 City Council Meeting - February 9, 2009 them where there’s communication and they’re helping us because I think I heard in the letter their response to us was well, we can’t help you but we’d like you to help us basically. In the very beginning you were talking about the request and that their response back was you know we hadn’t planned to do this project but we’d like your funds to help us do this project. Paul Oehme: Yes. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Is that correct? Paul Oehme: In so many words, yeah. Councilwoman Tjornhom: And you’re just helping me figuring this out. Paul Oehme: There is a little bit of that and there’s, I don’t know, I can’t really talk for the watershed district. I wish they were here but. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Me too. Paul Oehme: You know it seems like they would like to do a project and we to do another project and not really combining our efforts you know in a project basically so. At least that’s what I’ve seen. I mean we’ve talked to the watershed district numerous times. We try to go to as many of their watershed district meetings as we can. We put forth our CIP. We’ve given them our CIP for the next 5 years and identified projects, say we’d like to partner with you x, y and z projects. And I think we’ve done as much as we can to try to partner with them on joint projects together. Councilwoman Tjornhom: And what do we hear back from them when they see our CIP? And our plans for the next 5 years. Paul Oehme: Well you know. Councilwoman Tjornhom: And I’m sorry because this is probably not a discussion because it’s a good project we’re doing here but. Paul Oehme: Right, I mean and again I think you know from a water sense, watershed district standpoint you know they have changed engineers from one engineer to another and a new engineer’s kind of gearing up and providing input and recommendations to them for future projects down the road. They like to, they’re trying to do a modeling project, XP SWM model for this entire area to try to better get a grip on what the needed improvements are. You know from the city’s standpoint, from staff’s standpoint, I think we know what the issues are. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Right. Paul Oehme: And we’ve talked to them about it but I think from their standpoint they would like to get that information documented. 11 City Council Meeting - February 9, 2009 Councilwoman Tjornhom: For themselves. Paul Oehme: From themselves and then work out from there. Mayor Furlong: Councilwoman Ernst. Councilwoman Ernst: You know I think this is one of the things that we have in our key initiatives is to build on those partnerships, one of them being the watershed district and how can we become more of a collaborative partner on both sides and how can we work together so I think that there’s something in place that we’re going to try to improve that relationship and I hope that that’s going to be encouraging for us to go forward but, with this project obviously it’s one of those where. Paul Oehme: And we’re more than willing to, you know we’ve been meeting with them or trying to work with them as much as we can. I think it’s just going to take you know probably a little time and encouragement for them to work with us jointly on projects instead of them doing a project and we’re doing another project type of thing so. Councilwoman Ernst: Right. Councilwoman Tjornhom: And that just makes so much sense I think, you know especially since everybody’s budgets are stretched at this point. Paul Oehme: Right. Councilwoman Tjornhom: At this point yet somehow Mother Nature doesn’t care about finances. You know cleaning up water is important no matter what the year is and I would think it’d be in everyone’s best interest to partner together and get as much done as possible with kind of sharing each other’s, not only engineers but finances also. So I guess that’s something we need to work on maybe a little bit more is finding those projects that they will partner with us, with. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Alright. Any other questions at this point? No one here from the public so public comments will go quick this evening. Any comments or discussion from council members? Councilman Litsey you started a little bit earlier… Councilman Litsey: Yeah I do. I like the project. I think a lot of work’s gone into it. I think we’ve made some great suggestions here and I think it’s going to really be of great value to that whole system, the wetlands down to the lake. I understand the partnerships. I think that’s important to bring up and we really need to work hard towards that but I think this project needs to go forward irregardless so we need to go ahead with it. Mayor Furlong: Okay, thanks. Councilwoman Ernst. Thoughts. Councilwoman Ernst: Yeah, I mean it’s from everything I’ve seen and heard I think that it’s a good project. 12 City Council Meeting - February 9, 2009 Mayor Furlong: Okay, great. Councilwoman Tjornhom. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Well I’ll echo everything everyone said I guess. I mean the bid is obviously way better than we had anticipated so that’s good news and I think it’s good news for Lotus Lake that we’re taking proactive steps to slow that water down before it gets to the lake and hopefully improve not only the quality but the level and somehow help those people out that live on the lake so. Mayor Furlong: Excellent. Councilman McDonald. Councilman McDonald: I’ll just concur with what everyone has said. There’s no point piling on that this is a good project and should go forward. Mayor Furlong: Yeah I agree and I think the project on it’s merits alone makes sense from what we’ve seen historically. This is a, it’s been experienced that really demonstrate what the value of this project is going to be for the long term and I think clearly from a financial standpoint bids came in very well and we’ll certainly benefit from that and I think the issues, you know from working together with the watershed, we have to re-double our efforts that I believe because we could be doing more together than perhaps we’re doing independently and I think we’d all agree on that so. But the issues are beyond just you know a short delay in this. There’s, this project needs to go forward from a timeliness standpoint because of the need to be working on it while the ground is still frozen so we need to move forward and get this done. So Mr. Gerhardt, did you have a final thought? Todd Gerhardt: Yeah. Listening to the council on this matter, I would really like an opportunity to have at least 2 council members meet with maybe the Chairman of the watershed district or a couple of managers from the watershed district to sit down and talk about our priorities. I mean I understand I think where the watershed district’s coming from. They’re trying to do their due diligence, kind of the paperwork to justify making capital improvements. They’re going to check to see if there is bacteria in the lake. They’re going to determine where all the water flows into the lake through the SWM modeling. We need to do maintenance of our storm water system and this is Phase I of a three phased project that we presented to you a couple of months ago, and I mean this is their role to work with us on these types of things and maybe if I had 2 council members to sit down with them and tell them from your perspective how important this project is, you know maybe we’ll get some leeway towards moving this on their schedule and seeing the same priorities that we do. But I hate to do that to bring you in on this but I think, I think they’ve heard Paul. They’ve heard me. They’ve heard Terry. I think maybe if they heard from the City Council or you hear from them where their priorities are, there’ll be a better understanding of how we move ahead in this. Mayor Furlong: Todd, I think that makes. I’m sorry. No, I said I just, I think that makes sense. To try to do something and to try to move this forward eventually perhaps with, start with representatives for both of the boards and then move forward with joint board meetings as well so Councilwoman Ernst. 13 City Council Meeting - February 9, 2009 Councilwoman Ernst: This is one of the things that you and I had a conversation Todd and I had actually suggested that we sit down and I would be more than happy to be one of those volunteers because I think it would be a great start to start building on those relationships and let them know where we’re coming from with some of our projects, so I’d be more than happy to do that. Councilwoman Tjornhom: I guess I was going to say, suggest, I think a couple years ago we sat down with some of the representatives from our area. I guess I kind of like it if we could all sit down with someone from the watershed district because if only 2 people go, not everyone, the whole council isn’t going to get the feel of the tone of the meeting and this is a big, this is a big deal. I mean you know these, this is the time I think to figure out how we can all be on the same page and work together and so I guess I would prefer if we as a council would have them in for a work session. Mayor Furlong: Just have a joint meeting. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Absolutely. Mayor Furlong: Or a joint discussion. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Yeah. I just think that that would be more beneficial for the whole council because I, someone might have questions that wouldn’t get raised or thoughts that might be heard or suggestions that might not get implemented if we aren’t all there because like I said, this is one of our, the watershed district is, it’s a big entity and so I think it’s something that we all should be a part of and deal with and get to know everybody and see how everyone’s thinking and figuring out things. So that would be my suggestion. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Councilman Litsey: Yeah, I agree with that. I think initially at least let’s all get together. Sit down and kind of figure out where things are at. Which direction we have to go and then maybe perhaps it makes sense to have a couple people kind of carry it through maybe, but at least initially yeah. Mayor Furlong: See where it goes. Councilman Litsey: Yeah. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Alright. Mr. McDonald, you comfortable with a joint meeting? Councilman McDonald: I’m in concurrence with that, yep. Mayor Furlong: Maybe we should try to set up a joint work session discussion and see what we can do going forward. Okay. Todd Gerhardt: Alright. We can do that. 14 City Council Meeting - February 9, 2009 Mayor Furlong: Okay, great. I guess the question goes back to for the timing of this one Mr. Oehme, you said that timing is somewhat critical because of the weather. What sort of timeframe are we looking at? Is there any opportunity, if we don’t go forward this evening with this project, is there still an opportunity to fit it in this year? With the weather. And I’m asking this the construction time. Paul Oehme: Sure. Yeah. Mayor Furlong: At the earliest we can approve this, if we don’t do it tonight would be next week, assuming we have time on the bids, or excuse me, two weeks. But you know we just lost basically 2 weeks of frost and would that cause a problem? Paul Oehme: Again it’s all weather dependent. I mean we’re trying to hit the February, early March timeframe where typically there’s still a significant amount of frost in the ground so that two week window. Again we’re at Mother Nature’s mercy anyways. Mayor Furlong: Yeah suddenly you’re in March and into the middle of March. Paul Oehme: Exactly. And typically end of March that’s where you really see the frost come out. Councilman Litsey: Well I think this is a good thing to showcase is where we think we could have had more of a collaborative effort and that we’re kind of disappointed that it didn’t happen. I take a look at the time table here and the need to go forward but I wish we did have more of a luxury to hold back. Councilman McDonald: I mean if I could, I mean we’re saving $170 something thousand dollars here and I don’t think going forward on a collaborative effort we’re going to see that kind of savings plus the benefit of the project to the community. I think this one we have to shoulder and just go forward with. There’ll be other, there’s other projects out there that I think we ought to look at but just the savings alone on this I think makes it a very worthwhile to go forward with. Todd Gerhardt: Well and just because we move ahead tonight on this item doesn’t mean they can’t still partner with us in this project. We felt the need tonight to approve this based on a tight time table. That we have to get some of this work done as there’s still frost in the ground before road restrictions come out. Or come on and there’s no reason why you can’t ask them to still partner in this project. I mean we’re going to be the lead agency but you know they also could have partnered with Laredo. We spent substantial money on Laredo on a variety of different bio- swales, rain gardens, storm sewer, environmental man holes and we asked them to participate in that also and they didn’t so we’ve got a couple of projects that we can talk about. Bluff Creek, I can go on for a whole list here and so I think it’s careful how we have this meeting and talk about priorities. Not so much jumping on you know you didn’t participate in the project. You know where can we go into the future? 15 City Council Meeting - February 9, 2009 Mayor Furlong: Where’s our common ground? Todd Gerhardt: Yep. Mayor Furlong: And how can we work together? Get things done. Okay. Very good. Todd Gerhardt: We’ll set that up and we’ll post it as a special meeting and let you know what we come up with. Mayor Furlong: Okay, very good. Any other discussion on this project? Or the proposal before us this evening. We all seem to be in favor of it so at this point would there be a motion? There is a motion in our packet if somebody would like to make it. Councilman McDonald: I’ll. Mayor Furlong: Councilman McDonald. Councilman McDonald: I’ll do it. I would propose that the City Council approves a construction contract in the amount of $261,483 to Minnesota Dirt Works for work to be performed on the West Central Lotus Lake Drainage Improvement Project. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Is there a second? Councilwoman Tjornhom: Second. Mayor Furlong: Made and seconded. Any discussion? Resolution #2009-10: Councilman McDonald moved, Councilwoman Tjornhom seconded that the City Council approves a construction contract in the amount of $261,483 to Minnesota Dirt Works for work to be performed on the West Central Lotus Lake Drainage Improvement Project. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. COUNCIL PRESENTATIONS: Councilman McDonald: I guess the only thing I would say is you know we had Feb Fest this past weekend and it appears to have gone off pretty good. It looked as though we had a good turn out and everybody seem to really have a lot of fun. The ice was good and thick but the weather was nice and warm so I’m hoping that everyone within the city enjoyed themselves and my hats off to the recreation department. I guess it’s Todd’s group that puts all of that together. They had all the holes drilled on time. Everything was set up. You know they had concessions there. They had everything. It was a good family outing so it was a lot of good fun so hats off to the city for getting that all set up. 16 City Council Meeting - February 9, 2009 Mayor Furlong: Thank you. And I think the other groups to recognize, obviously the Chamber of Commerce, Southwest Chamber of Commerce who helps sponsor that event. Chanhassen Rotary Club was out there with concessions. Councilman McDonald: Boy scouts. Mayor Furlong: Boy scouts. Todd Gerhardt: Troop 330. Mayor Furlong: 330 was there selling bait. Friends of the Library were involved and they had their medallion hunt earlier in the week. Carver County sheriff’s department. Our fire department were out there…from public safety so a lot of groups involved. Who did I miss? Todd Gerhardt: Cabin Fever. Merlin’s Hardware. Sinclair Gas Station who donated prizes. The big one was. Mayor Furlong: American Express Travel? Todd Gerhardt: Yeah, that’s the one I’m thinking of. Mayor Furlong: Yep. Donated the grand prize. Todd Gerhardt: Grand prize, $500 travel voucher to go to any trip. Mayor Furlong: Went to a Chanhassen resident this year so that was good. Todd Gerhardt: Yeah, the winner was Steve Carlson of Chanhassen. He lives over here off of Flamingo and he was the grand prize winner out of the drawings and then Doug Schmieg from Victoria had the largest fish that fit between the slot limit. I’ve got to preference that because there were two fish that were larger than his but was outside the slot limits so Doug Schmieg from Victoria. Had a 2.46 pound northern and he won a Fish Trap fish house from Cabin Fever so, and then second place was Mike from Stillwater so it’s kind of interesting to see some of these names. I mean we’ve got people from Minneapolis, Roseville, Eden Prairie, Shakopee, Lakeville, Chaska, from all over the place and so it’s just a nice event. The mayor was out there participating in the program. I know Vicki was out there fishing and doing her darndest. Councilwoman Ernst: Thank you for letting me use your pole for an hour and a half. I did get some bites. I did get some bites. Todd Gerhardt: Yeah. And then Jerry was working with the Rotary so you know big participation from the council level. Beautiful day. Just great family event and talking to people out there that some of the other fishing contests in the area aren’t family oriented. There was hay rides that you could be on. There was sledding opportunities. S’mores. The bingo game that the Chanhassen Friends of the Library put on so it’s really a family event. You don’t have to go out 17 City Council Meeting - February 9, 2009 fishing. There’s a lot of other opportunities out there to embrace our Minnesota winters and have fun. Mayor Furlong: And this year was especially good because my youngest daughter did not step in a hole. Todd Gerhardt: Alright. Mayor Furlong: Last year she went up to her thigh in one of the fishing holes and had to call it an early afternoon so. Thank you to all. Thanks for bringing that up and for all who participated. We appreciate it. Any other discussion from council? ADMINISTRATIVE PRESENTATIONS. None. CORRESPONDENCE DISCUSSION. Councilman McDonald: I’d like to just say publicly what I said back in the work session. I want to thank Councilman Litsey for putting in the information about the social host. I mean there’s a lot of information there. I have to tell you I’m still trying to make my decision on the whole idea but I do appreciate the effort. It does answer a lot of questions so again thank you for your efforts. Councilman Litsey: You’re welcome. Yeah I think it hopefully provides some background information on it and I wasn’t going to talk a lot about it tonight at the council because we talked about it at the work session but it will be something hopefully that we can keep on the radar screen and something we should monitor and take a look at down the road hopefully so thank you for that. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Anything else? If not we have one item on our work session that we’ll pick up after our meeting as well as an EDA meeting, is that correct? So if there’s nothing else to come before the council this evening, is there a motion to adjourn? Councilwoman Tjornhom moved, Councilwoman Ernst seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. The City Council meeting was adjourned at 7:55 p.m. Submitted by Todd Gerhardt City Manager Prepared by Nann Opheim 18