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CC 2010 01 25 CHANHASSEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING JANUARY 25, 2010 Mayor Furlong called the meeting to order at 7:10 p.m. The meeting was opened with the Pledge to the Flag. COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Furlong, Councilman Litsey, Councilwoman Ernst, and Councilman McDonald COUNCIL MEMBERS ABSENT: Councilwoman Tjornhom STAFF PRESENT: Todd Gerhardt, Roger Knutson, Laurie Hokkanen, Paul Oehme, and Todd Hoffman PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: Mayor Furlong: Thank you and welcome and we appreciate your patience as we start a little bit late here. We had our work session off site at our new public works facility. Just took us a little bit of time to get back here to city hall. At this time I would ask members of the council if there are any changes or modifications to the agenda. Otherwise without objection we’ll proceed with the agenda as published. We’d like to start now with a couple public announcements. I’m going to take things a little bit out of order here for public announcements just to save the up and down. We’ll start with the invitation to February Festival. The City of Chanhassen is proud to th announce our winter event, which is a 17 annual February Festival. This is the first of a year long series of special events that are sponsored by the City in cooperation with our local th businesses. February Festival will be held on Saturday, February 6. At this time I’d like to invite all residents, their families and friends to join me and my family out on Lake Ann for ice fishing and a variety of other activities. The event will begin at noon and includes skating, sledding, hayrides, bonfires to warm you up and $3,000 in various door prizes. Hot food and concessions will be sold on the ice by Chanhassen Rotary and Culver’s as well as the Boy Scout Troop 330 will be selling their s’mores kits again. Ice fishing contest will run from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m., including $6,000 of prizes this year. The Friends of the Chanhassen Library are also offering bingo on the ice and are sponsoring their medallion hunt again this year in the city. That st medallion hunt will begin on January 31. The person who finds the medallion will receive a prize of $750. Each Feb Fest attendee will receive one free door prize ticket to the event and you should be present to win. Must be present to win. Ice fishing tickets are $10 for all ages. It is a fun event. The holes are pre-drilled. A lot of activity. A lot of people out on the ice. Tickets are available at City Hall, the Chanhassen Rec Center and at various local businesses. For more information please check on the City’s web site. I look forward to seeing everybody there. It is th a wonderful event. If you’ve never been out to Feb Fest, take the time that Saturday on the 6. Come out and you’ll see a lot of friends and neighbors out there. Have a lot of fun so I look forward to seeing a lot of people out there this year. Let’s move on now. We’ll pick up item D with Visitor Presentations if that’s okay with everybody. Let’s move onto our consent agenda. Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2010 CONSENT AGENDA: Councilwoman Ernst moved, Councilman Litsey 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 11, 2010 -City Council Verbatim and Summary Minutes dated January 11, 2010 Resolution #2010-05: b. Well No. 14, Project 10-03: Award Construction Contract. Resolution #2010-06: c. Audubon Road Reconstruction Project 10-03: Accept Feasibility Report; Call Public Hearing. rd Resolution #2010-07: d. Frontier 3 Addition: Accept Streets and Utilities. Resolution #2010-08: f. Resolution Approving List for 2010 State Bonding Projects. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS: PRESENTATION OF EAGLE SCOUT PROJECT, CONSTRUCTION OF WOOD DUCK NESTING BOXES, STAN ROJINA, TROOP 347. Stan Rojina: Good evening Mr. Mayor, members of the council. My name is Stan Rojina from Boy Scout Troop 347 and for my Eagle project I constructed 10 of these wood duck nesting boxes. With help from my troop and the wood was donated by Fullerton Lumber Company and I’d like to donate them to the City of Chanhassen to go into the inventory to help with the wood duck population in the city. Mayor Furlong: Very good, thank you. How many, you said you made 10 boxes? Stan Rojina: Ten, yep. Mayor Furlong: About how many other scouts or other people did you have help out in the project? Stan Rojina: We had 10 volunteers come and go throughout the day. We started at 8:00 in the morning and we finished by 3:00 so. Mayor Furlong: Okay, good. And are there, why did you pick this project in particular? Stan Rojina: Because I’m interested in wildlife. As a boy scout we do a lot of outdoor activities and I thought it was a nice thing to do for the environment. The wood ducks generally have a hard time finding nests sometimes so. It’s nice that they like man made nests like this and I think it’s a good way to help out. 2 Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2010 Mayor Furlong: Sounds great. And this is your last project? Last step then before Eagle scout or do you have some merit badges yet? Stan Rojina: I have a couple merit badges. They’re almost done so. th Mayor Furlong: Very good. 18 birthday coming up soon? Stan Rojina: Pretty quick. Mayor Furlong: Okay. But I’m sure you’ll get it done. Why don’t we come down and Mr. Hoffman here is with, Director of Parks. Maybe we can have you present to the City and we’ll take a picture. Stan Rojina: Sure. Mayor Furlong: Let me go ahead at this time and invite a couple other young men in our city here. Residents. Brett and Blake Szalapski. Did I get that correct? Great, thanks. Come on up here with me. The reason these two guys are up here tonight is we’re making a presentation for our park and recreation volunteer and service awards. We presented a number of them at our last meeting in January. Because of scheduling conflict we wanted to present the award for Brett and Blake tonight. The Chanhassen Recreation and Volunteer Awards are presented by the City of Chanhassen to recognize individuals, businesses, civic and school groups for their service to others in our city. Chanhassen’s become nationally known as a great place to live and raise a family and such a reputation is only possible through the efforts of many people and groups such as those that we recognized at our earlier meeting and these guys right here. These awards are designed not only to recognize achievement but also to let others know about some of the great activities that are going on in our city and to encourage them to get involved where they can. For the resident group nominees it was the JuggBros, Brett and Blake here who were the award recipients. The JuggBros are, main focus is teaching kids how to juggle and entertain crowds of people. During the past year the JuggBros voluntarily taught classes for children and performed th at the Summer Discovery Program, playground program, the Penny Carnival, the 4 of July celebration and the Senior Center Picnic. Their performances have been enjoyed by a large number of residents and staff and the city appreciates, and appreciates the ability of local performers to provide these recreation programs. Brett and Blake on behalf of the City thank you for the volunteer service and for helping Chanhassen be such a great place to live and raise a family. Congratulations. Did you want to demonstrate real quick? As long as I’m not involved, absolutely. Todd Gerhardt: I think we’ve got some future mayor and council members there. They know how to juggle things. Mayor Furlong: What are you implying? Councilman Litsey: It’s a juggling act right? Todd Gerhardt: It is. 3 Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2010 Mayor Furlong: What I’d like to do now is continue our visitor presentations and invite any other residents or guests to come forward at this time to bring issues forward to the council. This would be for items that you want to discuss that are not on our agenda this evening. If there’s anybody else that would like to present this evening or talk about any issues for visitor presentations? Alright. Very good. Thank you very much. We’ll move on now to our monthly updates from our law enforcement and fire departments. LAW ENFORCEMENT/FIRE DEPARTMENT UPDATE. Mayor Furlong: Good evening Lieutenant. Lt. Jim Olson: Thank you and good evening. I gave the council an end of year review middle of December last month and just to kind of give an update on that for the month of December. Through the month of December. Our reductions in crimes continued for the year. Our non- criminal did go up a little bit for the month of December. 7% but was still down overall to the year and the bulk of that increase last month was in traffic stops and there was other, a few miscellaneous calls that went up. Open doors went up quite a bit and a couple other things but nothing real major with that at all. Were there any questions at all on the end of the year or any of the numbers in the packet for this month? Mayor Furlong: Any questions for the Lieutenant on the numbers or the report? No? Okay. Lt. Jim Olson: I also talked last month a little bit about the County making some changes in how we clear calls out to calculate our clearance rates. Some of those changes have been made and we’ve had a preliminary new rate for Chanhassen for 2009 that’s done. We’ll have the final numbers next month probably the middle of the month but the early numbers show a 55.2% for clearance rate for the month of December, which is around 25% higher than what we had initially had for last month so those changes are working. We’ll continue to tweak those a little bit but right now that’s certainly having a big impact with us. Beginning of January, in fact over the new year’s weekend we had 3 business burglaries that occurred in one of the business complexes here. In the office complexes here in the city and this is a good reminder for businesses to evaluate their lock systems. Evaluate alarms. Security cameras and also their money deposit procedures. It’s always good to take a look at that every now and then and see how you’re doing with that. Either Beth Hoiseth, the Chanhassen Crime Prevention Officer or myself will certainly come out and help you with that as well so feel free to give us a call here at City Hall. The Carver County Sheriff’s Office now has it’s own facebook page that they can get to and with that we’ll be posting safety information as well as highlighting specific laws that people may be familiar with. Things like the Ted Foss Law and Passing on the Right and we’ll probably even have something in there about red lights and yellow lights and how yellow doesn’t mean floor it for folks coming up to intersections. We’re excited about this and encourage people to log on and become a fan so that they’ll get regular updates. Another thing we’re going to do with that is we will put regular crime updates on there. With crimes that we’re highlighting, looking for information from the public on so we’ll have photos and information on different crimes that have occurred county wide as well as within the city. And there will be links on the city web page initially to get to that as well. We’ve had a very nice stretch weather 4 Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2010 wise. For a couple of weeks it got warm but it was starting to feel a little bit like March. Well winter returned and we had a number of accidents this morning around the county as well as a couple here in the city and I would encourage people to slow down a little bit. The streets are icy again. In fact just to the west of us there are blizzard warnings out in McLeod County and Sibley County which are just on the other side of the county line so I would encourage folks again to slow down a little bit and be careful on the streets. Any questions at all for the sheriff’s office? Mayor Furlong: Any questions this evening? Councilman Litsey. Councilman Litsey: I just want to thank you for the upgrades in the data that we’re getting and look forward to receiving that information and the facebook and those kind of things to get the information out so staying on top of things and I appreciate that. Lt. Jim Olson: Thank you councilman. Okay. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Lt. Jim Olson: Thank you and have a nice evening. Stay warm. Mayor Furlong: Chief Roger Smallback is here with the Chanhassen Fire Department. Good evening Chief. Chief Roger Smallback: Good evening. Month to date for the month of January so far we’ve had 43 calls. That’s slightly above average. Of those calls, one was a fire. Very minor. It was a chimney fire that started to extend into some roofing material but very minor in nature. We did have 2 calls that resulted in damages to businesses. Those were the result of frozen sprinkler systems that burst and those happened early in January. We were called once mutual aid out to Victoria for a house fire that they had. Some year, annual statistics. For 2009 the total number of calls were 536 and that is pretty consistent with historical averages. Also in January we did have a special election for an First Assistant Chief to be a one year term to fill in the vacancy when I moved up to Chief. Any questions? Mayor Furlong: Any questions for the Chief? No? Again welcome. I know we confirmed you at the last meeting. It’s nice to see you back at this meeting. Chief Roger Smallback: Thank you. Mayor Furlong: Very good, thank you. Move now to next item on our agenda which is, will include a public hearing. 2010 STREET IMPROVEMENT PROJECT 10-01: PUBLIC HEARING; CONSIDER AUTHORIZING PREPARATION OF PLANS AND SPECIFICATIONS FOR ERIE AVENUE AREA. Public Present: 5 Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2010 Name Address Jaci Parsons and Ryan Benson 8101 Dakota Lane Jessica Boevers 8113 Erie Circle Rick Uglum 8016 Erie Avenue Jon & Kathe Held 8114 Erie Circle Robert Lund 8023 Erie Avenue Kathie Nelson 8025 Erie Avenue Connie Hatton 8018 Erie Avenue Mel Lenander 8103 Dakota Lane John Cherico 8054 Erie Spur Roger & Jeanette Schultz 8041 Erie Avenue Mayor Furlong: Let’s start with a staff report please and then we’ll proceed with comments from the public. Paul Oehme: Thank you Mayor, City Council members. Staff again would like to review the feasibility study for the Erie Avenue reconstruction project tonight and also hold that public hearing. The streets in this area can no longer be maintained cost effectively with preventive maintenance techniques or simple overlays. We also have identified several utility issues that we’d also like to address in conjunction with this project. Neighborhood meeting for this project th was held on November 11 to discuss the proposed project with the residents. For this public hearing 71 notices have been sent out. Written comments that the staff has received were included in your packet and staff did receive an additional comment from a resident that I handed out before the meeting for your review. But at this time I would like to invite Kevin Kawlewski with WSB and Associates who assisted staff in drafting the feasibility study to give just a brief presentation on the scope of the project at this time so. Kevin Kawlewski: Thank you Paul. Good evening Honorable Mayor, members of Council. Appreciate the opportunity to be with you again tonight. Tonight we’re looking at the proposed improvements for the 2010 street reconstruction project for the Erie Avenue neighborhood, designated City Project 10-01A. Project location, essentially south of Highway 5 off Dakota Avenue. It includes Erie Avenue extending west and south and Dakota wrapping around. We’ve got Erie Spur, Dakota Lane, Erie Circle and a portion of Cheyenne Avenue. As Paul indicated the streets are in poor condition. We do have a high number of curb line and street settlements due to poor underlying soils. We’ve got a high number of documented watermain breaks. It’s all cast iron. As cast iron ages it tends to get brittle which contributes to all the breaks. We have televised and reviewed tapes with the I/I program. We have found an extensive I/I problem out here. We also have underutilized storm water management facilities in the area. To give you an idea of some of the street condition indices, you see the numbers 20, 18, 41. That’s the actual pavement condition index for each street project. Overall for the neighborhood the average pavement condition index is 28. Per the city standards, the threshold is 45 which constitutes street reconstruction. In this case we’re well below that, that threshold. What these numbers are showing you is there has been some maintenance done and you can see the high rate of deterioration following those. Those improvements. Looking at the utilities in the area, we’ve got sanitary sewer. We’re proposing to replace the majority or basically 6 Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2010 everything as far as the watermain and the sanitary sewer out here. We’ve got high I/I. Brittle watermain pipes. We’re proposing to reconstruct the streets to their current existing widths and geometries. We’re not looking to change anything. The street construction will include sand sub-grade. We’ll be taking out approximately 18 inches and replace it with sand section. A sub-grade and drain tile. It’s going to help us get the water away from the pavement and protect that frost heave situation. Proposing to replace the existing surmountable curb with a B style curb. It gives us a little better drainage characteristics. Little deeper flow where it doesn’t get back out into the street. This is consistent with what the City’s done other street reconstruction projects. It’s also consistent with the project that was done, the Cheyenne area. The Cheyenne Avenue area to the east. We’re proposing to replace all the cast iron watermain services and curb stops that are within the right-of-way. Looking at complete reconstruction of the sanitary sewer system. Be looking to extend the storm sewer system where it’s feasible. It will get the water off the street a little bit faster and direct it to the storm water management facilities that are out there that we’re currently under utilizing right now. Here again this shows the improvements, the extent of the watermain and sanitary sewer improvements. We’re looking at extending from Cheyenne, this area basically flows to the south. There is an MCS trunk that flows under the trail to the southeast of the project area. You can see it there. We’ll be looking at realigning some of this. It’s not in the center of the street as is typically the case with sanitary sewer. It’s usually the deepest. You want it in the center where if you have to go back and reconstruct, you’re in the center of the right-of-way. We’ll be looking to get that back into the center right where it should be. The watermain will be tearing out and replacing in it’s current condition, or it’s current location. Excuse me. Street and storm sewer, we’re going to be tearing out the pavement. Excavating to a depth of 18 inches below the current street section, again with the sand. We’re looking at a geotextile fabric. Separating our sand section from the underlying soils. You see the storm sewer extension down on Erie Circle. We’re looking to put that in to capture storm water coming from the, it’s northwest and northeast and redirect that to the pond out to the east of the project site. This is our typical section. We’re looking at 3 1/2 inches bituminous pavement. 6 inches of Class V over an 18 inch select granular which is our sand. Looking at a geotextile fabric again to keep the soils from migrating. The purpose of the sand section and the drain tile is to get sub-surface water out of our roadway. Typically what happens when you get water in that top foot or so you get frost heave. That’s the most significant cause of damage in our pavements in Minnesota. Construction itself. It will have to be phased. Access is limited. The roads are fairly narrow. We will not be, we will not be disrupting all streets at one time so it’s going to be staged. We’re going to move around the project in a methodical manner giving residents the most access as we can. Open cut installations will be occurring with the sanitary sewer and the water. There will be times that the project may not be accessible during the day but the specs will be set up that it will be accessible before and after normal working hours. There are some significant trees in the right-of-way. Some of these will be impacted. We haven’t identified them completely. We don’t know where all the services are. If they’re in the right-of-way and they’re in the way of construction they’ll have to be taken down. If we can work around them we will try to do that and preserve that as much as we can. There will be temporary sewer and water during construction. This will have to be set up and tested in accordance with Minnesota Department of Health standards so everything will be safe and potable. There won’t be any issues there. The City will have a construction observer on site at all times during the construction. He’ll be there to work with the residents, notify them of upcoming schedules. There’ll be weekly meetings making sure that we’re aware of what’s going 7 Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2010 on. We’ll have web sites, newsletters and a person on site that’s available. Mailboxes will have to be relocated during the project. That will be coordinated by the City. That will be communicated with residents so they know where to pick up their main on a daily basis. Garbage collection will continue much as it does. The City again will work with the garbage haulers to ensure that that service is not disrupted. Looking at the project costs for the surface improvements which is curb and gutter and the streets, we’re looking at $1,011,400. For the watermain replacement, $293,900. $396,900 for the sanitary sewer replacement. Storm sewer, $244,000. That’s a total project cost just over $1.9 million dollars. These costs do include a 15% construction contingency. 15% indirect costs. The cost as presented represents the total project. Not the construction. Total project. Everything associated with it. We do not anticipate that easements will be necessary. There may be one with the extension of the storm sewer down to the pond. I do want to point out that all the bids that we’ve received in the last year have been running 15 to 20 percent below our construction estimates based on final design so if the council decides to move forward, we’re going to come back with a final cost of construction. That’s going to be what the assessments are based on. As we look at the assessments, we do have 71 single family residences in the area. The assessments are calculated at the City’s typical practice 40% of the surface cost. The surface improvements. Does not include storm sewer. Does not include watermain. Does not include sanitary sewer related costs. It is only the cost to reconstruct the road. The single family residential assessment based on the feasibility costs $5,698.03 per unit. Again these are proposed at a 10 year term based on a 6% interest rate. Revenue sources, as we look at the surface improvements, the $1,011,000, 40% of that through the City’s assessment policy will be recovered through assessment. That represents $404,560. The City street fund will cover the remaining $606,840. Storm sewer improvements will come from the storm water fund. Sanitary sewer and watermain from the appropriate funds. Again showing the total project cost $1,946,200. As we look at scheduling, should the council decide to move forward with the preparation of plans and specs, we’ve got the th assessment hearing tonight on the 25. We’ll be looking to bring back the final plans for your thst approval and authorization and advertise for bid March 8. Looking to open bids April 1. th Again having the award and the assessment hearing on April 26. There is a notification and advertisement period for the assessment hearing so residents can get a chance to voice in before anything else moves forward. Assuming that the contract is awarded, be looking to begin construction in June with having the majority of the work completed by the end of August prior to school starting again with substantial completion in October. Final completion of the wear course next spring. That concludes the presentation. I would turn it over to questions. Public input. Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. Any questions of Mr. Kawlewski? Mr. McDonald. Councilman McDonald: I have a question and this is something that kind of bothers me on all of these. Part of your presentation, we talk about how bad things are. The streets. You know the levels that they’ve gotten down to. The fact that the sewers have had numbers of problems. Breakage. You tell us that it’s cast iron. It’s old. It’s brittle and it’s breaking. And then I get emails from residents telling me it isn’t that bad. You know I can easily live with it and one of the things I guess I struggle with is, how bad is it? And is there some quantitative way of maybe assessing that from the standpoint of, I know you can tell me how many times you go out there to fix things. You know that’s pretty easy. Is there something you can tell me that again because 8 Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2010 of the history of these, the age, the wear, it’s just going to continue to get worst and we’re going to continue to see big projects because of breakage or those types of things. How do I balance all of this? Paul Oehme: I can try to answer that first. In terms of the street condition. I mean the, we can go out there and keep patching potholes but I mean it’s going to improve the situation and we’re going to have to be out there yearly, annually, monthly sometimes fixing those potholes and patching the streets. The curb line is sinking. I mean there’s areas where it’s ponding water right now. It’s not draining very well. There’s really no improvement that we can take to undertake that without you know tearing up the street basically so. For the watermain, that, I think we’ve identified at least 9 watermain breaks here in the recent past. Those are nuisances I would say to the property owners out there. It’s our estimation that as that cast iron pipe continues to degrade with the hotter soils in this area, more corrosive soils, that we’d anticipate seeing more watermain breaks as well and Mr. Kawlewski alluded to the I/I issue that’s out here. There is a lot of ground water and potentially surface water that we know that gets into these pipes. There are settled pipes in this area that we’ve identified and if you get too much infiltration, too much ground water, clear water basically entering these pipes, you have a potential, a tendency potential for that sewer system to back up into people’s properties too so that’s a concern of our’s as well. We do jet these lines out but as the pipes fail more and more every year, it’s a greater likelihood to have more significant problems down the road so you know just, to put it quantitatively it’s something that this neighborhood ranks high on our to do list we feel just because of the problems that we’ve identified in this neighborhood. Councilman McDonald: Well part of what I think I’m hearing you say, and correct me if I’m wrong in this but evidently the infrastructure, the road bed, the things that make up the road, there’s quite a few areas because of water over the years and those types of things, it isn’t going to last much longer and there is no quick fix for that at that point. I mean we would be looking at, you can’t just throw gravel unless we want to go to gravel roads or something and continue to do that in order to I guess keep the costs down. I’m not sure what that really does. Is that where we’re at? Paul Oehme: Well I mean it’s, the streets are a little bit better than just gravel but I mean eventually if we leave the streets go, they will more or less turn into aggregate so it’s, you know it’s a level of service. What’s the level of service, what quality of streets do we want to provide for our residents in the community? It basically comes down to that and the nuisances and the potential problems down the road with some other infrastructure. The streets have basically reached their design life and really should be replaced at this time. Councilman McDonald: Okay. Todd Gerhardt: Paul, Kevin, can you go to the PCI test results in your slide and just explain what the PCI testing results are and how you come about that. Kevin Kawlewski: Certainly. Pavement Condition Index is a result of measurements, actual field measurements of various types of distresses. Edge failures. Alligator cracking. Severe longitudinal cracking. So it’s an actual measurement of a condition of the road and that is, the 9 Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2010 measurements are done objectively based on criteria established and generally accepted by MnDOT and Federal Highway Administration and that’s what they use to monitor the conditions of their roads. When we start getting high enough numbers, it drives that condition index down. So when you start getting down to values of 18, you’re distresses are severe enough that you’ve got very little time left on the actual surface that it will start pulverizing with complete failure here ending up with potholes, aggregate surfaces. So it’s an actual measurement of the condition of the road based on just the surface, just the pavement condition. It doesn’t factor in curb line settlements. It doesn’t factor in boulevard issues. It’s strictly the condition of the pavement. So when you go through a pavement rating system like this, the first step is to measure the condition of the pavement. Once you’ve done that, you’ve got a value that sets priorities on different areas. Then you go back out and you start assessing one of the peripherals. Okay now we’ve got curb line settlements. We start looking at what’s underneath. We televise sanitary sewers. It’s a visual inspection of the condition. You can see sags in it. You can see water coming in through joints in the pipe so it’s a quantitative method of actually determining what that condition is. The watermain, when you’ve got significant breaks, you can identify what the source is. Is it corrosive soils? Is it eating the joints? Is it destroying the thing holding the pipes together? Cast iron in corrosive soils like that tends to weaken faster. You have to take special precautions with what you put in there. Whether you’re using stainless steel bolts and fittings. If you have to wrap it in plastic to keep the soils away from the pipe and the fittings themselves, so there are methods of measuring the things you’re asking about. But what this tells us is that based on the overall condition of the street, based on criteria for rating, these streets are nearing the end of their cycle. Does that answer your question? Todd Gerhardt: How can you have a 20, an 18 and then jump up to a 41 and 64? What causes that? Kevin Kawlewski: It can be sub-grade conditions. Primarily that’s what it is. Sub-grade conditions. If you’ve got soft soils. If you’ve got high ground water. Increased axle loadings. The traffic it’s receiving. It’s a general conglomeration of things. Generally it’s the soils and the water within the pavement zone. Once you get into frost cycles it’s moving continuously and if you get heavier loadings when it’s soft and the frost is coming out, that’s going to damage your surface. Paul Oehme: And Mr. Gerhardt, one other thing regarding those two numbers. Those areas were down to 29 and 30 respectfully. City crews went in in 2000 I believe and did an overlay of those areas. Just to keep that street together because that is a pretty significant steep hill and I think that areas of that roadway actually washed out in particular so those areas were maintained by the City and that’s why they rate just a little bit higher. Todd Gerhardt: And so it was 2000 you did the overlay and then. Paul Oehme: Right. It jumped. Todd Gerhardt: And then in 2001 it started coming down that quickly already? 10 Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2010 Paul Oehme: Right, yeah. And so it came down. We rated that area again in 2006 and it basically dropped 40 points. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any other questions for staff at this point? Councilwoman Ernst. Councilwoman Ernst: So Paul why did it drop 40 points? What was the cause of that? Paul Oehme: Again it’s just a surface patch. It’s not a structural improvement. All we did was basically overlay the road with it and bituminous surface. Just to keep the, resurface that area because of the potholes and the wash out areas. Just to produce a new riding surface basically so. It wasn’t anything structural. We didn’t really rip up the road at all. We just wanted to patch it. Councilwoman Ernst: You know I typically ask this question for every project like this that’s introduced and can you give us, and those that are listening, some kind of an idea of what has been done to conserve the financial piece of it in terms of completing the project, but yet looking at ways to do this in a conservatively way. Kevin Kawlewski: The biggest thing we’ve looked at again is the pavement section. The geotechnical engineers have come out recommending a 2 foot section of sand without a geotextile fabric so we’ve looked at reducing the amount of excavation. Reducing the amount of material we have to haul back in and putting that layer of geotextile in. That’s probably the most significant. If when we look at, at sags in the pipes, as Paul indicated, those can’t be fixed with the trenchless system, such as a lining or piping situation so here we’ve got room to dig and it’s the most cost effective means to do it and the improvements that we have to make can’t be done without digging the pipe out and fixing it. So the most economical thing we can do is adjusting the pavement section. The other improvements are necessary. As far as the sanitary sewer and the water, it’s simply just the most economical means that we can do. Now we could look to go a little bit further with the pavement section but I would not recommend that. We’ve already come up a little bit from where the geotechnical engineers are recommending but we’re looking at it from kind of a compromise between what they want and what’s going to be economically feasible. Councilwoman Ernst: And what is that cost versus one or the other? Do you know what that is? Kevin Kawlewski: I don’t have that number off the top of my head, no. Mayor Furlong: Any other questions at this time? Okay. Mr. McDonald, did you have any other questions at this time? Councilman McDonald: I’m fine. Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. Thank you. Then what I’d like to do at this point is open up the public hearing and invite people to come up and ask questions. Provide comments. Ultimately what we’re looking for as a council is your thoughts on whether or not, just first of all this project needs to be done. And second of all, if you have comments with regard to how it’s 11 Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2010 proposed to be funded we’d appreciate seeing those. Anything with regard to the scope of the project or the proposed design or changes or improvements. Any questions on those or comments or suggestions are always welcome as well. What I’d like to do, we have a number of different, as is typical of the neighborhood, different streets so what I’d like to do, just to make sure that we have a chance for everybody to be heard and if there are common interests on the same streets, I’d like to have those at the same time. So if everybody’s willing, I’ll call you up by streets and we’ll start with Erie Avenue and invite any resident on Erie Avenue to come forward. We’ll work through with Erie Spur, Dakota Lane, Cheyenne Avenue and then Erie Circle at the end, and then have time for anyone else that would like to speak, or if someone missed their street, there’s time. We’ll be here to listen to everybody. So with that let’s go ahead and invite anyone on Erie Avenue to come forward and address the council with questions or comments on this project. Jeanette Schultz: Good evening Mr. Mayor and City Council members. Mayor Furlong: Good evening. Jeanette Schultz: My questions are. Mayor Furlong: And I’m sorry, I’ll interrupt because it was my fault for not saying it. If you could when you come up, state your name and address for the record. Jeanette Schultz: Oh sure. Mayor Furlong: We would appreciate that. Jeanette Schultz: Jeanette Schultz, 8041 Erie Avenue. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Jeanette Schultz: Our home happens to be located where there’s a fire hydrant on the corner situated. I have one question. Or I have a few questions really. First of all has any study been made to the fact that there are natural underground springs in the area? Because there are. I mean you drive up Erie and almost year round you see some of the sump pumps pumping out into the street so I mean is that, has that been taken into consideration with the road construction? Paul Oehme: It has. Jeanette Schultz: The reconstruction. Paul Oehme: Right, yeah. Jeanette Schultz: Okay. Mayor Furlong: Mr. Oehme maybe you want to. 12 Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2010 Paul Oehme: Sure, I’ll address that. We deal with natural occurring springs all the time. The last reconstruction project we did on Laredo Drive had the same situation so. And the pavement design, what we have is a drain tile on both sides of the street to take care of some of that. That naturally occurring ground water and what the drain tile also allows us to do is have the property owners, they can tie into that drain tile system so it doesn’t dump over on top of the road. We can actually tie into that drainage so it’s underground and then that tile system connects onto our storm sewer system to take the water. Jeanette Schultz: It’s not that we personally have a issue with it but it’s an issue in the area. Paul Oehme: Right. Jeanette Schultz: Also with the new, new street per se, we notice in driving on Cheyenne that there are crackings in the road already occurring. Now to the best of my knowledge, and I could be stand to be corrected, I believe that was done approximately 15 years ago? Paul Oehme: 1995. Jeanette Schultz: Okay. Now I mean is that, what would be causing that and is that subject, something we would be subject to in that length of time? Paul Oehme: Bituminous pavement will always crack over time so you don’t want the natural, or the longitudinal crack, that shrinkage crack that you’re seeing out there, that’s naturally occurring. There’s virtually nothing we can do to stop that but what we do, as a regular maintenance, preservation program we have here in the city is to crack seal those cracks as best as we can with a tar more or less product. Try to keep the water out of that sub-grade so it doesn’t expand farther than it is. Jeanette Schultz: Yeah. At the last time this was brought up when Cheyenne and part of Dakota was redone, it was brought up to the fact because I lived in another part of town prior and there was never an issue with the streets and I was questioning why then in the Estates did it become an issue and I was informed that at the time they weren’t really city when they were constructed back in, I will assume 70’s. And prior to. I don’t know. Is that part of the reason that we’re having the problem we are? Paul Oehme: No, I mean I believe the streets were, in this area were constructed to the best practices that they were, that they had back in the 1970’s so the cast iron pipe, that was just standard pipe that they used back then and the pavement section was the same. Jeanette Schultz: Okay but then why in, why? I mean I lived previous on Chan View and that was constructed in the late 50’s, early 60’s and there wasn’t that issue. They didn’t have the same issue so I’m still back to that fact. Was there something that wasn’t done correctly? Paul Oehme: I mean it’s a 40 year old street almost. Jeanette Schultz: I understand that. 13 Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2010 Paul Oehme: Yeah it’s, and these streets, you know typically you’ll see them deteriorate within that timeframe. Jeanette Schultz: Then my last concern is about these trees on the boulevard because if you drive down Erie’s street, the trees are ridiculously ugly. There isn’t anything beautiful about those trees. I’m sorry. Well they’re dirty year round. They’re shedding year round and they have been trimmed and there are limbs that are literally just virtually hanging across the street. I mean a lot of the trees are leaning. I don’t know, maybe some people think those are beautiful. I guess I can’t see it but you know that’s my personal opinion. Is that a consideration and at what time will it be determined which trees are going to be removed and which aren’t? Paul Oehme: Yeah we, we’ve preliminarily determined that I think between 40 to 50 trees along the boulevard will have to be removed. Jeanette Schultz: On Erie? Paul Oehme: Well on. Jeanette Schultz: Or throughout. Paul Oehme: Throughout the project locations so if, we can provide that information for you at a later date if you’d like us to. Jeanette Schultz: I guess being that there’s a water hydrant on the corner, there is an ash tree sitting next to it. Would the chances that that ash tree being removed be probable? Paul Oehme: Yeah, if there’s trees next to hydrants or water services, the private properties, the residents, those typically would have to be removed and, to get that service replaced. Jeanette Schultz: Okay. And lastly, we have put in a concrete driveway. How far up do you anticipate that you’re going to have to cut into our driveway for this project? Paul Oehme: Yeah, driveways are typically between 5 to 10 feet we’re have to cut. But if you have a concrete driveway what we’d like to do is take it back to that first concrete joint. Typically your driveway would have a, it would be jointed so we’d like to saw cut at the first concrete joint. Remove those panels against the, against the street or against the curb and then pour back a new concrete driveway in your case so. Which is included in the project cost. Jeanette Schultz: Okay. And how thick is that concrete to be? Do you know that? Paul Oehme: We typically match what’s out there. I think our standard design for driveways is about 6 inches. Jeanette Schultz: Okay. I’m just, I was just wondering. Well thank you very much for your time. 14 Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2010 Mayor Furlong: Thank you. And the one thing I would suggest too, if there are specific items such as that individual tree, Ms. Schultz that you’re interested in, if we can try to get back specifically there because sometimes we can talk in generalities here but we can’t be specific. Staff doesn’t have the plans in front of them to say yes, this is in or this is out so I don’t want to leave any false impressions but if any residents have specific questions on that, I would suggest they contact, or staff if we can somehow make sure that we get back to those people with those specific questions on the project. Yep, thank you. Others from Erie Avenue that would like to address the council this evening. Rick Uglum: Hello Mayor and council. Mayor Furlong: Good evening. Rick Uglum: My name’s Rick Uglum. I’m at 8016 Erie Avenue. I just, the question I have has come to the more of a financial perspective is how did you come to the quantitative breakout for each, you know for the people. It looks like you just split it out evenly across rather than proportional to the street section that he might have associated with that. I’m speaking personally because I have about 20 feet, at the most and so for that to be close to someone that’s got a corner lot that’s got, or further into the neighborhood, it just doesn’t seem proportional in nature to other projects that I’ve been familiar with in other neighborhoods and stuff. Paul Oehme: Sure. Our standard assessment practice here is that if your driveway affronts the project in question to be reconstructed or improved upon, proposed to be improved upon, you’d be considered in that assessment roll so the City does not have a front footage assessment practice like some other cities do, or it’s just a per lot per parcel assessment. Rick Uglum: So it’s just a city practice, is that what it is? Versus other, I mean. Mayor Furlong: And I think some cities do it by frontage. Paul Oehme: Front footage. Corner lots are handled a little differently. Rick Uglum: That’s what… Mayor Furlong: Some cities do it by square footage. So different size lots have different. I think historically what the practice has been is doing it by lot. The assumption that people driving a car in and out of a driveway are using it whether their front footage is a corner lot or at the end of a cul-de-sac. That’s another issue that we have in some neighborhoods. I know we have a few here where you have a very narrow front footage and maybe more of a rectangle or triangular lot shape, so that has been our practice over the years is to do it by lot. By driveway access. Rick Uglum: So it wasn’t something that you guys chose to do just, I mean it’s just something that you do general? 15 Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2010 Paul Oehme: That’s correct. Todd Gerhardt: Well of the last 3 reconstructions we’ve done it was based on a per lot basis. I would say a majority Kevin, you tell me if I’m wrong, WSB is a consulting engineer that we’ve hired and work in a variety of communities and I would think a majority of the practice is a per lot versus front footage basis, wouldn’t you say? Kevin Kawlewski: That’s what I’ve seen. I’ve been doing these for 15 years. Generally when you’re doing a reconstruct like this, the premise is that everybody uses the street the same, as Mayor Furlong says. Now typically if you’re getting more into commercial where there are other uses, where there’s more traffic generated, things like that, it’s a front footage is a more practical way of doing it. But where you’re in a residential where everybody is pretty much using the street the same, it’s more common practice. Mayor Furlong: Any other questions? Rick Uglum: No, that’s it. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Rick Uglum: Thanks. Mayor Furlong: I guess one thing if I could Mr. Uglum. Should the project go forward or not, do you think there’s a need for it? I think I forgot to ask Ms. Schultz that but what are your thoughts on that. Rick Uglum: Yeah well I know where, the cul-de-sac right where I live is pretty bad so. I mean it’s, it doesn’t drain well and, I mean it drains into the driveways so it’s really, really bad around the edges. But there’s more dirt gathering there just from the soil or from the soot from the streets and it’s gathered in front of our driveways and stuff more than anything so. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Very good, thank you. Anyone else from Erie Avenue? Yes, Ms. Schultz. Jeanette Schultz: I would agree. I think it is high time that that street get fixed because it is ridiculous. Every spring the pot holes are terrible. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Jeanette Schultz: I’m for the street being done. Mayor Furlong: Very good, thank you for clarifying that and my apologies for not asking while you were up at the microphone. Anyone else from Erie Avenue that would like to address the council? 16 Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2010 Connie Hatton: Connie Hatton at 8018, next door. I do agree the street is not very good. I didn’t quite understand what you were explaining to him. If you live on a cul-de-sac, am I charged more for that or not? Todd Gerhardt: No. Connie Hatton: Okay. Todd Gerhardt: There’s two approaches that you can use when assessing for street improvements. You can do it on a front footage basis. Typically, as Kevin mentioned, that’s done in commercial, office-industrial areas. We do it on a per lot basis. We’ve done 3 to maybe 4 reconstructions in the last 10 years and we want to stay consistent with our assessment practice and it’s always been a per lot basis. Connie Hatton: Okay. That’s what I was wondering. And I didn’t quite also understand if a tree’s torn down, does the homeowner pay for that? Or is that included in the assessment? Paul Oehme: That’s included in the project cost. Connie Hatton: It is, okay. And are these roads going to be a little more, what am I trying to say? Sturdy for, we have a lot of garbage trucks and Schwann trucks and I mean are they going to be not falling apart as fast with all the heavy trucks going through all the time? Paul Oehme: That’s the intent, yeah. 9 ton road so it’s, it’ll be a lot heavier pavement section than currently. Connie Hatton: Okay, then like 40 years ago or whatever? Paul Oehme: Exactly. Connie Hatton: Okay. That’s all I was wondering then. Thank you. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Thank you. Todd Gerhardt: Mayor, council members, I’d just like to add one comment. There is life expectancy to streets, curbs, gutters, and we typically like to get 30 to 40 years out of a street so you know in another 30-40 years if God willing we’re all here again, we may be talking so there is a life expectancy to this. Jeanette Schultz: I guess I have one other. Mayor Furlong: That’s fine. If you can come to the microphone Ms. Schultz. Jeanette Schultz: Let me ask you the trees that are going to be removed, will they be replaced with something other than maybe green ash? 17 Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2010 Paul Oehme: Yeah, our practice for these reconstruction area is that, if we take a tree down we typically don’t replant a tree in the boulevard. That’s the homeowner’s responsibility if they so choose to replant. Jeanette Schultz: Okay, so whatever tree comes down it will be void. Paul Oehme: Right, what we’ll do is re-sod that area. Placing top soil, re-sod it for you. Jeanette Schultz: Okay. Alright, thank you. Mayor Furlong: Yep. Mr. Gerhardt. Todd Gerhardt: We do have a tree boulevard program. If you contact City Hall here and talk to Jill Sinclair. If you’d like a boulevard tree other than an ash, we have a variety of different makes where the City would come in, plant the tree in your front yard and then we’re responsible for the maintenance of that tree. So if you’d like a boulevard tree, just give Jill Sinclair a call here at City Hall or myself and I can get you in contact with Jill and put you on the list for a boulevard tree. Jeanette Schultz: Okay. Audience: I’m sorry, are we able to get a copy of some of this information tonight? Todd Gerhardt: There should be copies over on the table if somebody didn’t get one of the report. Mayor Furlong: While she’s getting that is there anybody else from Erie Avenue that would like to address the council this evening at this time? Let’s move on then to Erie Spur. Is there anyone from Erie Spur? Good evening. John Cherico: Good evening everyone. Mayor Furlong: Good evening. John Cherico: My name is John Cherico. I’m on 8054 Erie Spur. I have 3 questions and then some comments. First question deals with the 5 to 10 foot tear out that’s going to be on the driveways. Will that be consistent on all the property? Mine is on a cul-de-sac and a corner lot. Does that mean that all of my property at that length or distance could be cut out? Paul Oehme: Typically I would say at least 5 feet in back of the curb. In order for the contractor to replace the storm sewer system, the watermain, the sanitary sewer, and then put the curb machine back in, we typically need at least 5 feet in back of the curb. Depending upon the grades in the area, we might need a little bit less or maybe a little bit more, depending upon the slopes. So it’s going to vary a little bit but we’ll be, and before the contractor starts digging in the front yard we typically mark the driveways and how far back we need to go with those so, 18 Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2010 and in final design we should have a pretty good idea of how much boulevard is going to be disturbed during the construction process. John Cherico: Okay. Second question is, are you going to remove street lamps and if so will they be replaced? Paul Oehme: The street lights in this area are, I think they’re owned and maintained by Xcel. We pay for the power and some maintenance but Xcel typically handles the overall maintenance of those street lights. We are not proposing to replace those street lights at this time but we have contacted Xcel letting them know about the improvement project and if they so choose to replace them at that time, they may choose to but we haven’t heard if they’re going to or not. John Cherico: Well is there a chance that we might not have street lights? Paul Oehme: No, you’ll always have the street lights there. We’re not proposing to add any more. We’re not proposing to take any more out. But Xcel might choose to replace the street lights if they so choose at this time. We also have talked to Mediacom and Centerpoint, the gas company to let them know about the project that potentially it will be forth coming this summer if council approves it and they potentially would be replacing some of the other infrastructure in the, their private utilities in the area in conjunction with our project too. John Cherico: Okay. Third question. Maybe this gentleman would field it. This is concerning the 5698 estimate. You said that the bids are coming in 15 to 20 percent lower than the estimate. Does that mean we can anticipate a 15 to 20 percent decrease in this number? Kevin Kawlewski: Yeah. John Cherico: So it would be closer to $4,900 roughly? Kevin Kawlewski: Again that’s going to vary. That’s going to vary with the actual bids received but I would anticipate that number will come down. John Cherico: Yeah I think it would be good if folks knew that. It’d sure save us some money. Okay, those are my last questions. My last comment is, I’ve only lived in this area about 4 years but I can tell you that I’ve seen a rapid deterioration of the road. If you look at your diagram there up on Erie Avenue, that little, that first turn there, there’s a cul-de-sac there. Mayor Furlong: If you want to point Mr. Cherico right on that map there. I think it will come up. No, no. If you left it where it was. John Cherico: Oh that’s… Okay, right here. This area. Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. John Cherico: That’s the turn. During the springtime I completely avoid that area. I take the long way around to get to my house, which is on Erie Spur because that road is in such bad shape 19 Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2010 and most of the roadway is that way. Right here on Erie Spur where I live, right on the corner here, with the runoff and the melt there is a pond that’s growing and forming. I thought maybe we could get one of those wood duck boxes and put it up here because it just expands every spring and the entire area, the roadway really is, whoever says I can live with it must not go out of their house because the road is dangerous. For joggers. For walkers. A lot of people walk their dogs. It’s for your car. Like I say I avoid certain areas in that area because it’s in such bad shape. I’m not thrilled about paying $5,000 but somebody’s got to do it and this was on the docket I think several years ago and was tabled and now we’re paying more than should have been paid then so if we don’t take care of it now, it’s only going to get pushed onto somebody else so I’m in favor of it. I hope you do it. Mayor Furlong: Very good, thank you. Others from Erie Spur that would like to address the council this evening. Let’s go to Dakota Lane then. Anyone from Dakota Lane? Good evening sir. Mel Lenander: Mel Lenander, 8103 Dakota Lane. I’m the second house down from Cheyenne. Mayor Furlong: If you’d like to just, if you could point on the piece of paper. Mel Lenander: Okay. This lot here. The one with the crooked line on the north side. Mayor Furlong: Very good, thank you. Mel Lenander: I have a storm drain right along, between my lot line and the one on the north side of that and what will happen to that particular drain? Paul Oehme: Sure. If you want to bring that… The drainage map. Kevin Kawlewski: The plan is to, there’s an existing culvert down here at the bottom. That would be replaced. Are you referring to the existing ditch in here correct? Mel Lenander: (Yes). Kevin Kawlewski: The plan currently is not to do anything with that. Now if that’s something that you would like to see done we could address that during final design but right now we’re planning on putting new pipe down in this location and leaving the ditch there. It’s fairly steep. It’s almost a ravine as opposed to a ditch. Mel Lenander: Yeah it is. Okay. So that would just, you’d plug it up. Kevin Kawlewski: We would, it would pretty much stay untouched unless you would prefer to see something done with it. We’ve talked about it at a staff level. There is a high amount of material that would be coming out of the streets for the pavement section. It would be a place that it could be suitable for fill from the street. It’s handy. It’s close. Could eventually lower costs if it’s something that you would like to see done. That’s something that we can certainly talk about. 20 Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2010 Mel Lenander: But you would be plugging that drain…? Kevin Kawlewski: We would not be plugging it. Mel Lenander: Oh, you would still. Kevin Kawlewski: It would still function as it does, yeah. Todd Gerhardt: So Kevin if I understand right now it is sheet draining down into Rice Marsh. Kevin Kawlewski: Yes. Todd Gerhardt: And we’re putting in a new catch basin and then piping that into a storm water pond? Kevin Kawlewski: Yes. Todd Gerhardt: So, and one suggestion would be to fill the ravine in. Bring that back up to grade. Seed it and then let the property owners maintain that area. Kevin Kawlewski: Correct. Paul Oehme: We looked at that preliminarily. It’s a very deep ravine. Steep grades on each side. Lots of trees in the area. We looked at it and when we set the budget we never considered addressing that issue with this project. There might be a project down the road that, if we wanted to look at that in the future. Otherwise you know there is a lot of material that’s coming off the project. We can talk to the contractor and if he gives us a decent price on it and it meets our budget, we can look at that. Todd Gerhardt: Could you do it as a bid alternative and then bring it back for council to consider if they want to? Paul Oehme: Absolutely. We can take a look at that, yeah. Because it is, it is, it’s a nuisance out there. There is a lot of erosion coming off that area running down into our, into the pond area back in there. Todd Gerhardt: Do you think the neighborhood wants that filled in or do they like it the way it is? Mel Lenander: Well I guess I wouldn’t mind if it was filled in back in a little further. Todd Gerhardt: How about your neighbors? Have you talked to them or? Mel Lenander: I have one neighbor on the other side also. 21 Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2010 Audience: I don’t know, the ravine’s kind of nice… Mel Lenander: I guess I would, you know the storm sewer, the pipe, the concrete just goes down so far and would you be extending that somewhat or, we do get a lot of wash? Erosion and that. Dirt. Paul Oehme: We’re trying to eliminate as much water from that ravine as we can and that’s the impetus for adding that secondary outlet pipe to the south there. Between the other lots. Kevin Kawlewski: By redirecting we would take away some of the water that’s contributing to the erosion in this area. Now if it’s a case where we can do something with this ravine, make it less deep. Make it a little easier to maintain. That’s certainly something that can be considered. Mel Lenander: Now I wouldn’t propose filling it in all the way down or anything like that. Just you know, leveling it off a little bit where that, up to where the pipe comes out. Kevin Kawlewski: Certainly. Mayor Furlong: Take a look at some options. Paul Oehme: We don’t have any easements out there or any rights to go onto that. That’s private property so if any work would be done out there, we’d definitely have to get some right of entries or temporary easements to construct whatever improvement it needs. Mayor Furlong: Well at least it sounds like it makes sense to talk to the property owners and look at some alternatives. Paul Oehme: Absolutely. Mayor Furlong: If there’s a way to. Paul Oehme: And if it makes sense for us. If it fits our budget, by all means. Mayor Furlong: Yep, okay. Alright. Mel Lenander: You mentioned the storm, or the, the sewers in the street there. Cast iron you said and you’re going to use cast iron again? Kevin Kawlewski: Well for the watermain we’d look at ductile iron pipe, which is less, or is more tolerant to corrosion. We’d look at stainless steel fittings and we’d also look at probably a polyethylene plastic wrap around the pipe. It’s also going to prevent some of that corrosion. Paul Oehme: Our typical standard is PVC pipe too so for the watermain and then the ductile iron fittings and we always wrap that so the PVC pipe is something that we’ve gone to. It seems to be working well for us so. Probably end up using that here. It’s about the same cost as the ductile iron but it seems to, it’s a little bit easier installation. 22 Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2010 Mel Lenander: Probably last longer too. Paul Oehme: It could. Mel Lenander: That’s all I had. Mayor Furlong: Okay Mr. Lenander, before you go if I could ask as far as the overall project. The street project, do you think it needs to be done or not and the other… Mel Lenander: Well I voted against it last time but I guess we’re getting to the point where it probably needs replacing. Mayor Furlong: Alright, very good. Thank you. Before we go on, if I could beg everybody’s indulgence. On this picture back up here and we talked about the new storm water piping and that existing pond down there. Is that, is that the pond that the staff report says has some excess capacity in it that we could do a better job managing some of the storm water in this area? Paul Oehme: Yeah, absolutely. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Currently it sounds like some of the area just sheet drains directly towards Rice Marsh Lake. Kevin Kawlewski: This area down here all tends to get over here. This area washes down into this area. We’re trying to capture a lot of this water up in here and get it over here so it doesn’t continue on straight to the south. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Thank you. Others from Dakota Lane that would like to address the council. Okay. How about Cheyenne Avenue? Anyone from Cheyenne Avenue? Erie Circle. Jessica Boevers: Hi. Good evening. Mayor Furlong: Good evening. Jessica Boevers: My name is Jessica Boevers and I live at 8113 Erie Circle and I will start by answering your first question, if I think it should be done and I’m going to give you a yes and a no. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Jessica Boevers: I would be honest because some of the people who live on Erie Avenue have been honest. I think it is pretty bad up there but my no comes down to now where I live on Erie Circle and we talked about this a little bit earlier when we were talking about the PCI score. You brought up the 64 and that’s where we’re currently at and it seems to be we have a little bit of ways to go before we get to that, I think it was 45 you said as kind of a key number. It looks like 23 Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2010 we have leveled off since about ’06 so I am wondering why, with us being at 64, why we are being considered for this. Mayor Furlong: Fair question. Paul Oehme: Sure. It gets back to the maintenance of the street. I’ll just put up the PCI ratings again. For Erie Circle, and it was down to 29 at one time in 2000. We put that small overlay over the street and it has gone down approximately basis points. But the issue here again is, it was more of a cosmetic fix. It’s not a long term fix we feel. It’s, you know it’s lasted for you know almost 10 years now but eventually it’s going to deteriorate to the same level as the other streets on top of that. On top of the hill there and so it makes sense, since the streets were constructed at one time, the same time basically, to do the entire neighborhood at one time and we look at an average street condition. There’s going to be some sections of streets that are going to be over that 45 number. There are some sections that are under 45 so we look at an average for the neighborhood. We don’t want to go in and reconstruct say one cul-de-sac or a section of street at one time and not address the overall street network or the street system because we still know that there’s storm sewer problems down here we want to address. We know that the sanitary sewer leaks. The infrastructure still needs to be improved. Doesn’t make sense we feel to take you know some streets in a neighborhood and not address the other ones. Then we’re going to have a gap left over if we only do certain streets here and there. Come back into the neighborhood. Disturb the neighborhood again. Potentially impact the street conditions with all the heavy truck traffic that will have to go in the near future with reconstructing these streets so from my perspective it makes sense to do all the streets at the same time. Jessica Boevers: Can I continue? You mentioned some of the problems. Have we experienced any of those specifically on Erie Circle? The leaks and. Paul Oehme: It looks like there were 2 breaks that we had back on Dakota Lane. Nothing on Erie Circle at this time but again the pipe is in a condition where potentially it could cause problems in the future. Jessica Boevers: You, I’ll agree there’s a lot of runoff down our street and down our circle but if you’re going to be doing some of the repair a little bit up on Dakota Lane, that will hopefully lessen what we see on Erie Circle which should continue to extend the life, shouldn’t it? Paul Oehme: It could but again it comes down to you know the heavy garbage trucks that are coming on the roads and the small, you know the thin overlay that we put in a couple years back, it’s not going to last forever I guess is what it really comes down to. It really should be done all at the same time. Jessica Boevers: Well no street’s going to last forever but we did see in ’06, well when you did that overlay a lot of the streets dropped really fast. Their PCI. I can see the 20, 18 but we’ve leveled off so we’re not digressing or going, getting as bad as they are. Paul Oehme: And the reason for that again is that the overlay has lasted for a good many years. I think it was well worth the money to get in there and treat those streets because they were down 24 Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2010 in the 20’s and the 30’s, but now you know looking at the whole street network, in our estimation it makes sense to get in there and do all the streets at one time. Jessica Boevers: Okay. Thank you. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. I guess follow-up question Mr. Oehme. Do you know when, was this street, this Erie Circle, was that constructed at the same time as the other? Paul Oehme: Our records show that it was 1972. ’71, ’72. Mayor Furlong: Okay. So the same timeframe. Paul Oehme: Same timeframe. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Others from Erie Circle who’d like to address the council. Jon Held: Good evening. I’m Jon Held from 8114 Erie Circle. I guess to start off, I’m 85-90 percent for the project. My wife and I have just bought our home roughly 14 months ago. First home so just going through this whole process of figuring out what this is going to be, mean for us. Sounds like it’s going to be worth it. Obviously the streets need it to the north. Down in Erie Circle I think our neighbor Jessica made a good point. That they aren’t quite to the place where we’re going yep, this makes sense for us. However for the neighborhood, the community it definitely makes sense. I know we’d like to see the movement of you know re-vitalizing the neighborhood, which includes the streets, the homes, the exteriors, everything that that would entail. With the financing, where’s the loan originating from? Mayor Furlong: It’s basically the City provides the financing. Mr. Gerhardt, do you want to address the issue on that? Todd Gerhardt: Typically what we do is assess back against your property so it will show up on your tax statement. Jon Held: Okay. Todd Gerhardt: And there’ll be a line on your tax statement that says special assessments and we’ll certify that every year, and I think Paul is this one scheduled for 2011 would be the first payment. Paul Oehme: First. Todd Gerhardt: And right now we’re proposing 10 years at 6%. There’ll be another hearing, public hearing on the assessments. At that time we’ll get into more detail about the interest rate. You know if you wanted to pay it off early. Take a home equity loan out or whatever it may be, but typically it gets assessed the next year onto your property taxes. 25 Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2010 Jon Held: 6% is a, I guess what? The public maybe should expect but it seems like a lofty figure for a city proposed project. Given the incredible achievement, funds available currently. Todd Gerhardt: Yeah, and that’s something we’ll talk about at the assessment hearing. Right now preliminarily we’re talking about 6%. I think last year we dropped it down to 5 and so my guess we may end up that way. It’s up to the City Council to decide that, but right now staff was recommending the 6%. Jon Held: So you moved from 5 last year initially to 6? Mayor Furlong: No, I think initially at this stage of the process a year ago it was also at 6%. I think the 6% was as much a placeholder as anything else. A few years ago that was a rate that was being charged. Again the City financial as a practice for the City is there as an alternative to property owners if they want to defer over time. The assessment, but in the past year or so as rates have changed, that interest rate, ultimate interest rate has moved down with the rates so my recollection is I think last year we were somewhere between 1 and 1 1/2 percentage points above the estimated borrowing cost so. That rate likely will move down, would be my guess. Following past practice but for right now it’s more for information purposes I think would be a good way to look at that. Jon Held: Okay. And I could, I mean you’re talking point, point and a half. That’s a large difference. Mayor Furlong: It is and that’s why we took a look at it last year and we made that change and to make sure that the rate was fair to all concerned and that’s what we’re looking at is trying to find that best rate. I don’t think it was the council’s position that we should be the low cost lender or the lender of choice necessarily. That we’re not here to compete with banks or other things. It is strictly to be there as an alternative for taxpayers to choose if they want to extend the assessment over time. If they want to pay off the assessment in full at the time of the project, they’re free to do that, whether they just use savings and funds to do that. Whether they use other sources of financing. So the purpose of that really was to put in place something, some alternative for those who may not have had other alternatives. Okay? Jon Held: So is there, for the people that do not have an alternative, is there interest in making profit off that financing? Mayor Furlong: That’s not the purpose. Jon Held: But it would be included. Mayor Furlong: Well there are added costs that the City occurs because of assessments. There are administrative costs and so we want to make sure that we cover those as well but in the past as I said the rate was about 1 to 1 1/2 percentage points, 100 to 150 basis points that we want to look at it above the estimated borrowing cost at the time, that the City would incur. Jon Held: So point and a half premium is what the City’s charging. 26 Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2010 Mayor Furlong: Yep. Now again whether the City choose to go out and bond for this project or we have funds in our street, our street and road account. We have funds available to fund this so we’re not necessarily going to be borrowing but that’s the process by which we’ve done it in the past. Jon Held: Okay. Mayor Furlong: Every City charges usually some type of point to point and a half above whatever their borrowing rate is for administrative overhead. There’s bonding costs. We have to certify each year down to the County those assessments and title checks, all that. Jon Held: In the 5 foot easement on the front of the properties, any landscaping that’s there currently, would that be replaced or would it be our choice to say please don’t replace it? Paul Oehme: I mean yeah, that’s always the option of the property owner. Jon Held: Sounds cheaper. Paul Oehme: Exactly. Typically I mean if there’s a nice landscaping area that the property owner wants to keep, we would replace it in kind typically, so that’s included in the project costs as well. Councilman Litsey: But if homeowners prefer something else Paul then they can work with you on seeing if that’s. Paul Oehme: Right. Sod is the standard. Jon Held: There’s one curious, I’m located, if I can figure out which lot I’m looking at here. Down here, the second house on the right entering Erie Circle. My neighbor and I share, my neighbor to the left facing the street, we share kind of a dividing landscaping with a large boulevard tree. Is he impacted? The corner lot there by this project. His driveway isn’t. Paul Oehme: Yeah, his property’s not proposed to be assessed for this project because he does face Dakota Lane. Kind of out of the project limits of this project so he’s not proposed to be assessed. When Dakota Lane west of here gets improved, he would be considered for that assessment. Jon Held: Thank you. Appreciate it. Mayor Furlong: Very good, thank you. Appreciate your comments. Todd Gerhardt: Paul, is the reason for that is that, is it when Hidden Lane came in they tied back into the neighborhood more? Paul Oehme: That’s correct. 27 Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2010 Jessica Boevers: Hi, I’m sorry. We brought up the subject of garbage trucks, large garbage trucks coming down the streets and I’m wondering what the City’s opinion is on just contracting with one hauler and maybe that’s not for this meeting but I’m just trying to think how we can protect our investment you know going forward. We don’t have as many trucks. Mayor Furlong: You’re right, it’s not for this meeting. It’s a question that has come up. I guess I’ll just respond to it and Mr. Gerhardt if you want to. Todd Gerhardt: Sure. Mayor Furlong: It’s a discussion that has come up in the past and to this point there hasn’t been desire to move forward with the City contracting for a single hauler throughout the city. So some cities have looked at that and. Todd Gerhardt: Yeah. About 10-12 years ago we did an extensive study in looking at a variety of different options for waste collection. We looked at dividing the community. We looked at one hauler and the feedback that we got from most of the residents in the community was that some neighborhoods had worked out deals with garbage haulers to serve their neighborhood and they felt that you know they could do a better job in negotiating than having the City as one large collection. And at that time it was decided to keep it as a free enterprise system. An open system is what they call it and that’s where we got today. Jessica Boevers: Thank you. Mayor Furlong: No, it’s a fair question. I didn’t mean to put you off. It’s probably a longer discussion than what we’re looking at here but. Todd Gerhardt: I think we spent a year and a half studying it if I remember right. Mayor Furlong: Others from Erie Circle. Connie Hatton: I just had one question. Mayor Furlong: Sure, why don’t you come back up to the microphone so people at home can hear you as well. Connie Hatton: Are you, are we having another meeting on this thing? Mayor Furlong: Mr. Oehme, why don’t you bring up the schedule there. Paul Oehme: There’s a, this is a schedule or proposed schedule if the project moves forward. Again if the project moves forward tonight we’d like to try to finalize that the construction plans we’d have at least one more neighborhood meeting to talk about the project and the assessment thth hearing would be April 26. So sometime inbetween March and April 26. 28 Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2010 Connie Hatton: So is that when you can find out what it’s going to cost and how it’s going to help you, how you’re going to pay for it? Paul Oehme: Right. Absolutely. Yeah that’s, once we receive the bids, bid opening we recalculate the assessment amount and at that time we send out another letter notifying you of another neighborhood meeting and then the assessment hearing as well. Connie Hatton: And then do they give you any, what am I trying to say? Are there certain organizations or people that help you figure out how you’re going to pay for it? In that, what am I trying to say? I mean I can see you can pay it throughout the years but, oh god what am I trying to say? Will they help you figure out financially budget wise at all how you can figure that out or not or you’re just putting it into your property tax assessment? Paul Oehme: Yeah. If, you know you always have the opportunity to take out a home equity loan or line of credit or some other financial. Connie Hatton: What if you can’t do that? Paul Oehme: Right, and then it typically could go on your property taxes at that time. Connie Hatton: And if you don’t plan on living in the house for another 10 years, how does that affect? Paul Oehme: Well in that, it comes down to with a new property owner that purchases the property, you can work out a deal or whatever. Connie Hatton: You can, okay. Paul Oehme: I mean I think those things are negotiated but I don’t know, you’d have to check with your realtor. Connie Hatton: Okay, that’s what I wasn’t sure. Paul Oehme: Your realtor or your accountant and try to figure out those type of questions I guess. Connie Hatton: Okay. But there is another meeting? Okay. Paul Oehme: There will be at least another one more. Mayor Furlong: And just to clarify. There will be a neighborhood open house. Paul Oehme: Right. Mayor Furlong: As you’ve had a couple of those already and you expect that sometime in late March. 29 Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2010 Paul Oehme: Yep, late March or early April sometime. Mayor Furlong: Likely after the bids have come back so you have more accurate numbers… Paul Oehme: Yeah, at that next neighborhood meeting we would definitely know the exact dollar amount that would be proposed for the assessments. Mayor Furlong: Okay, and that would occur prior to the, at this point on the schedule, the th proposed public hearing on April 26. Paul Oehme: Right, exactly. th Mayor Furlong: And then on April 26, that would be the time at the public meeting where we would also get that same information. We being the council and staff would, we can talk about that same information but the actual construction costs is based upon the bids and changes in the scope and alternatives that might be in place based upon our discussion here tonight and other comments that neighbors have brought up so there will be one more public hearing. The purpose of this meeting is really to say is this a project that makes sense to move forward on. Is the scope reasonable? Are there some, as we’ve already heard tonight, some possible alternatives. That’s what we’re trying to gather here this evening. Anyone else on any of the streets that I’ve named? Erie Avenue, Erie Spur, Dakota Lane, Cheyenne Avenue, Erie Circle or any and all other interested parties that would like to address the council on this matter? This will be the last call for this public hearing then. If there’s nobody else. I want to make sure everybody has an opportunity to be heard. If not then is there a motion by the council to close the public hearing? Councilwoman Ernst: So moved. Mayor Furlong: Motion’s made. Is there a second? Councilman McDonald: Second. Mayor Furlong: Made and seconded. Any discussion on that motion? Councilwoman Ernst moved, Councilman McDonald seconded to close the public hearing. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0. The public hearing was closed. Mayor Furlong: Any, members of the council, any follow-up questions of staff? At this point for clarification of items or questions. Councilwoman Ernst. Councilwoman Ernst: Paul can you tell me, I’m glad that, I mean the citizens, the residents came out here today and asked a lot of really good questions and I really appreciate the fact that they came out to do that. I am wondering when you had the neighborhood meeting were there any other concerns that were mentioned outside of what was talked about here tonight? Or were most of those residents for the project. Can you speak to that a little bit? 30 Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2010 Paul Oehme: To my recollection most of the questions brought up tonight were talked about at the neighborhood meeting as well so I can’t recall of any other major issues that were coming up. I think more of it had to relate to construction staging and access. Kevin Kawlewski: That’s correct. Most of the opinions that we got were in favor of the project at the time. A lot of the questions, how does it affect me personally? What’s the inconvenience going to be of digging up the street? Those types of questions but nothing that was really in opposition to the project. Councilwoman Ernst: So when our, when the residents actually have some concerns or questions during the project, do they have an outlet for, what is that? Paul Oehme: Yeah, well before the project even begins we’ll hand out or mail out a notification of the, what we get from the contractor, the proposed schedule. Where the project’s going to start. What the phasing of the project’s going to be and on that notification there’ll be a construction inspector’s name and phone number, mobile number that’s going to be on site during the construction so they’ll always have access to that person. We’ll give them city staff names and numbers that you can contact if they need something from us, and then also we’ll give them notifications of, on the staging of the project to try to give them at least, you know between 48 hours and, or 24 and 48 hours before you know water interruptions or sewer interruptions that take place as well. Or access issues. So we try to at least notify the property owners, long term what the project staging’s going to be and then short term what potentially going to happen in the next day, two days, week type of thing so try to get as much information out there as we can. Councilwoman Ernst: Okay. I just wanted to make sure that they had. Paul Oehme: Yeah, last year we did have a web site that was up and then we also did have a hotline too that they could call and the construction inspector to update that hotline on a daily basis, kind of letting people know what’s going on. Councilwoman Ernst: Okay, thank you. Mayor Furlong: Other questions for staff. Mr. Oehme I guess I’d like to follow up and Kevin as well with regard to the questions raised on Erie Circle. I know you tried to address that to the resident that posed those. Ms. Boevers, I think I pronounced your name correctly. Help me understand again. Visually the street looks better than the rest. Help us understand why the need is to do it now rather than deferring it to a later date. What are the, I want to be very clear on why we need to do that now. Paul Oehme: Sure. Again the streets were built at the same time so that basically has the same sub-structure, the same pavement section that was built throughout the other neighborhood areas. The city staff did go in there and do a small overlay of those streets back several years ago, which is more of a cosmetic fix than anything else. It did help hold the streets together potentially longer than we expected, but overall that pavement section is weak. We anticipate it to deteriorate fairly rapidly now once it gets down between the 50’s and 60’s PCI ranges. You 31 Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2010 know typically pavement sections do decrease or deteriorate faster when they get down because the water, the surface water, the ground water, freeze-thaw cycles typically break up the pavement section a little bit stronger, or a little bit faster than when they were higher in the 80’s and 90’s. So we would anticipate that the pavement section deteriorate faster. Typically we do not like to leave gaps in neighborhoods for streets. When you have a new street on one section of road and, neighborhood a newer sectional street on another section of road, we typically do not like to leave weaker, non-improved areas left because eventually those areas are going to have to get redone anyway and that causes disruption of the neighborhood when we have to redo those streets in the future so just inconvenience for the neighborhood again and down the road you know cost for street reconstruction is going to go up. Typically, historically have always gone up so yeah granted right now the streets potentially look halfway decent but you know 5, 10 years down the road again where we’d have to look at redoing the streets because the watermain’s bad. The storm sewer’s bad. We’d like to make some improvements out there and the cost and the assessment amounts if the City keeps the assessment practice intact would definitely go up. For example in 1995 when the Cheyenne neighborhood was done I think the assessments in that neighborhood I think were right around $3,000. Now same basic concept that we’re doing here, they’re $5,600 so we’re anticipating costs to be, you know go up in the future as well so. If that addresses your question. Mayor Furlong: Yeah, I think it does. The utilities underneath the street. The watermains, the sanitary sewer, are there issues there that we know about? Paul Oehme: Yeah. Again we televised this whole neighborhood and I can’t speak specifically to those two streets. I don’t have that documentation in front of me but overall the system, the sanitary sewer was fairly consistent deteriorated throughout that neighborhood so you know we want to address those I/I concerns that we have. Storm sewer. Mayor Furlong: I/I, can you explain for others? Paul Oehme: Inflow, infiltration. The ground water that’s getting into the sanitary sewer and the surface water that potentially is getting into the system as well so we want to address that. It’s an overall city use standpoint so. It costs money when that clear water gets into our city’s system because it has to be treated and Met Council then charges more or less per gallon to treat that flowage so. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Alright. Any other thoughts? Kevin Kawlewski: The only other thing I would add, as you look at this area you’ll notice that future construction as it may occur here, if you leave this gap out, there’s a chance that you’re going to have construction traffic running through here which is something you want to prevent on your newly constructed roads. Now there is another outlet over here, but it’s less direct than going back out on the roads that we’ve just reconstructed. When you take a neighborhood approach like that, everything gets back onto the same cycle then. That’s one of the big premises behind taking neighborhoods at a time. Everybody gets on the same cycle. Everything deteriorates the same. 32 Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2010 Mayor Furlong: Alright, thank you. Any other questions? If not, I’d be interested in everyone’s thoughts and comments from the council. Who’d like to go first? Councilman Litsey: Sure, I’ll go first. Well first, it’s already been said but I appreciate everybody showing up and giving us their feedback. It always helps to hear from the people that are actually going to be affected by the project and it’s also good feedback to hear that although no one like to pay assessments, basically everyone’s in agreement the project needs to be done and we should move forward with that and we can take a look at our assessment practices and interest rates and stuff down the road to see that those are fair and equitable for everybody. The thing here too is it’s not just what’s above ground but what’s below ground too that needs to be addressed so some areas may be a little better than others in terms of pavement. It seems to be that the system overall in terms of water and sewer really does need to be taken care of now, which means having to tear up the pavement which is bad already so I’m in favor of moving ahead with the project. I appreciate, I know in past road projects, if it helps people in the audience that are residents, boy staff really I think goes out of their way. Being on the council I’ve really seen that. Make sure that you’re inconvenienced as little as possible. There will be inconveniences obviously when you take up a road but they really have bent over backwards to help accommodate people and I have no doubt that will continue with this project as well so be interested to hear your feedback as the project moves along and after it’s completed too. If there’s anything we could have done differently but like I said the feedback I’ve seen on the council has been pretty positive. Very positive actually in terms of how the project’s have been managed through the city so. Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. Other thoughts. Councilwoman Ernst. Councilwoman Ernst: Well I am happy to hear that, with the neighborhood meetings that for the most part the residents are in favor of it. It sounds like for the most part the residents are in favor of it that are here tonight and again I think there was some very good questions raised in regards to the street lights. The, you know the trees. The things that really matter, you know and I’m glad that the mayor asked the question in terms of the road that is rated at a 64 right now because that was a concern to me but now understanding what’s underneath the road helps really convince me that that the project will be a good project to move forward with so I would support the project. And again thank you all for coming here tonight. I really appreciate hearing your questions. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Mr. McDonald. Councilman McDonald: Well I kind of led it off with a question about you know this balancing act we always do and so again I think all the residents who did show up and speak, it is your neighborhood that we’re trying to work on and I guess I would just reflect again what Councilman Litsey has said. You know I do appreciate staff’s work. I think you know you’re very well prepared for all this and I think part of that goes to what Councilwoman Ernst has said, that there’s been a number of public meetings. I think that you’ve listened and that helps to prepare you for our questions. I’m in favor of going forward tonight. I think we’ve all said that there’s another stage in all this and that we are very aware of looking at how the residents pay for this so I think that’s the next step in the process but the first thing is we do need to get an idea 33 Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2010 about the cost and whether or not we’re going to be able to take advantage of the economy the same way we have the past 2 years so I’m in favor of going forward. Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. Appreciate those thoughts and I too am grateful for everyone who came out tonight. Winter’s back and I appreciate you coming out on this evening to share with us your thoughts and ideas. These projects are, they do affect entire neighborhoods, as has been addressed from a construction standpoint as well as we find, they tend to bring neighbors together too to talk about you know how do they want their neighborhood to look. Time and time again people are looking for improvements to the neighborhood. Cost is always an issue and that’s clearly an issue with this council and it has been since I’ve been here and I know I speak for everybody. Nobody’s looking to waste money or spend money that’s not necessary and that’s why some of the questions you heard tonight are related to need. Does this need to be done? Is the need really there and that’s where I value hearing from people who live in, in the neighborhood telling us whether or not these projects, these street proposed projects, these proposed improvements need to be done. I took advantage of the thaw that we had here these last weekends and drove through the neighborhood and have driven through the neighborhood before last fall when we were first looking at this and the roads are in pretty tough shape and I think we heard tonight from everybody that that’s true. So how do we, and then on top of that when we hear from staff that the utilities underneath the roads are also in tough shape. They need to be improved. You know you put all of that together and while it may not be perfect for everybody at this point in time, it seems to make sense to move forward for all concerned for the benefit so I think it makes sense to move forward. The next steps obviously will be to finalize the plans. Look at some alternatives as we talked about and then let’s see what the actual costs are. Then once we get that information we can all come back together and figure out if this really makes sense based upon the better information we have at that time in a few months so. These street projects are, have been in the planning stages. Have been identified as a potential neighborhood project for a number of years. Our, as a city planning tool we look out 5 to 10 years and have identified neighborhood streets that we think 5 to 10 years from now might need these same types of improvements or something similar so this has been in the works and it’s one way that we can try and stay ahead as a city and as residents of that city of some very expensive costs down the road and keeping our city looking good, but doing it in a cost effective manner. So I think it does make sense to move forward. Do appreciate everyone being involved. I would certainly encourage you to call Mr. Oehme at city hall. Ask any specific questions you have such as an individual tree or an individual street light or something specific to your property, feel free to do that here this week or between now and as the plans are getting done. To the extent there’s some flexibility in the plans they can try to take care of that and try to meet your needs and so I would encourage you to do that and they can answer some specific questions as well. But thank you again for everybody coming out. At this point I would ask if the council would like to make a motion. Councilman Litsey: I’d be happy to make the motion. Mayor Furlong: Mr. Litsey. Councilman Litsey: Make the motion the City Council order the preparation of plans and specifications for the 2010 street reconstruction project 10-01A, Erie Avenue neighborhood. 34 Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2010 Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Is there a second? Councilman McDonald: I second. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Motion’s been made and seconded. Any discussion? One thing I will add, as much as I said contact Mr. Oehme. If you have comments or thoughts that you’d like to share with any members of the council, feel free to contact us as well. I don’t want to exclude us as that source but if you have specific questions on the project, you can contact us but we’re going to be calling Mr. Oehme anyways so you might as well go straight to the source. Any other discussion on the motion? If not a motion’s been made and seconded. Resolution #2010-09: Councilman Litsey moved, Councilman McDonald seconded that the City Council order the preparation of plans and specifications for the 2010 Street Reconstruction Project #10-01A, Erie Avenue neighborhood. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0. Mayor Furlong: Thank you everyone. Audience: Thank you council for listening to our concerns. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. You’re very welcome. Thank you. It’s our pleasure. COUNCIL PRESENTATIONS: Mayor Furlong: Let’s move on to council presentations. Any council presentations this evening? As was mentioned, I’m sorry. Did you have something Councilwoman Ernst? Councilwoman Ernst: I just really wanted to say thanks to staff for, during this icy storm that we had, they were really out on the roads and taking care of the city’s roads so that people could get around and I just really appreciate that and I know that our neighbors do too so it was, it was a treacherous drive just about anywhere you went and I just want to say thank you. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Todd Gerhardt: I’ll pass that onto the public works department and everybody that plows. They do a great job. It’s difficult when you get rain and then the snow on top and that’s what causes that build-up but they did a great job prior to that. Scraping up the neighborhoods, especially the heavily treed neighborhoods. We saw a lot of build up there so, but thank you. I know they’ll be glad to hear that. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any other comments this evening for council members? Mr. Gerhardt. 35 Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2010 ADMINISTRATIVE PRESENTATIONS: Todd Gerhardt: At our last work session we talked about key financial strategies and one was doing the cooperative agreement with our like communities in Carver County and I met last Thursday with the Carver County administrators. I meet with them on a monthly basis and Paul was helpful in giving me a joint powers agreement that Burnsville had and shared services for sealcoating and handed that out and was one of the projects that the Xcel group was going to work on and this kind of helped spearhead that project along and I got an email today from Cologne and they’re very excited about it. They think they’re going to save about 30% on their sealcoating bids over last year so. Mayor Furlong: Now are we going to take a commission for the services being provided Mr. Oehme? Todd Gerhardt: Paul’s got profit in there. Paul Oehme: We’ll be covering our costs let’s say. Todd Gerhardt: If any of the other cities want to take on and take that project, they can do that too. That’s what I offered up. I said if anybody else wants to coordinate it they can and we’ll definitely join in but somebody needs to share the administrative expense of taking it through the process so that was included in there. So the group’s excited. I think that’s something we can carry through yet this year. That’s all I have. Mayor Furlong: Okay, very good. Any questions for Mr. Gerhardt or staff? Okay, very good. CORRESPONDENCE DISCUSSION. None. Mayor Furlong: There was one item unfinished on our agenda this evening from our work session. Discussion. Given the hour and given that Councilwoman Tjornhom is sick this evening, I failed to mention that at the beginning. I know we all wish her well. I would, if we have time Mr. Gerhardt on our next work session agenda, let’s defer that. Todd Gerhardt: Sure. Mayor Furlong: So we have a full compliment of the council and we’re not discussing it late in the evening. If there’s no objections to that we’ll defer that item. Table that to a future date. With that if there’s nothing else to come before the council this evening, is there a motion to adjourn? Councilwoman Ernst moved, Councilman Litsey seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0. The City Council meeting was adjourned at 9:00 p.m. Submitted by Todd Gerhardt City Manager Prepared by Nann Opheim 36