CC 2011 02 28
CHANHASSEN CITY COUNCIL
REGULAR MEETING
FEBRUARY 28, 2011
Mayor Furlong called the meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. The meeting was opened with the
Pledge to the Flag.
COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT:
Mayor Furlong, Councilwoman Ernst, Councilman
Laufenburger, and Councilman McDonald
COUNCIL MEMBERS ABSENT:
Councilwoman Tjornhom
STAFF PRESENT:
Todd Gerhardt, Laurie Hokkanen, Kate Aanenson, Paul Oehme, and Todd
Hoffman
PUBLIC PRESENT:
Jim Wolf 8585 Chanhassen Hills Drive So.
Melissa Brechon Chanhassen Library
Jeff Kuderer 9543 Geisler Road
Sam Suek 16242 Edenwood Drive
Alec 18869 Vynnfield Road
Tim Litfin Minnetonka Community Education
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Mayor Furlong: Thank you and good evening and welcome to everyone here in the council
chambers and those watching at home as well. We’re glad that you joined us this evening. At
this time I’d like to ask members of the council if there are any changes or modifications to the
agenda. If not, we’ll proceed with the agenda as published without objection.
Councilman McDonald: Yes Mr. Mayor, I’d like to pull item 1(b) off of the consent agenda and
place it down for discussion.
Mayor Furlong: Very good. That will be our first order of business will be the consent agenda
items and if there’s a request for separate discussion on an item, such as 1(b), we’ll move that
down. Given the item there, would that go under Unfinished Business I would assume would be
the appropriate place for that. Does that sound okay Mr. McDonald?
Councilman McDonald: Sounds fine.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. We’ll take care of item 1(b) under Unfinished Business.
Councilwoman Ernst: Mayor I have one. G.
Chanhassen City Council - February 28, 2011
Mayor Furlong: Okay. We’ll take that under new business since that’s a new item without
objection. Is there anybody else?
CONSENT AGENDA:
Todd Gerhardt: Mayor I’ve got two minor changes that I’d like to address for the council.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you.
Todd Gerhardt: 1(c). Municipal Consent. Review plans for Trunk Highway 5 improvement
project call for a public hearing. I handed out a resolution to you and modified the sentence
under Now, Therefore Be It Resolved. Number 1. Just gave a little more detail in that sentence
than the sentence that was there before about the Trunk Highway 5 improvement project between
41 and the west junction of County Road 11 and Victoria Drive. So a little more specific than
just the general project description that was in there. That was included in your packet. So we
would ask that this resolution replace the one under 1(c).
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Todd Gerhardt: And then under 1(f), the motion reads trial where it should read trail and if the
minutes would just reflect that change. That the resolution is fine but in the proposed motion it
says pedestrian trial where it should say pedestrian trail.
Mayor Furlong: And that was 1(f).
Todd Gerhardt: 1(f).
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Todd Gerhardt: And that’s it for changes that I have.
Mayor Furlong: Any changes, clarifying questions on those changes from council?
Councilman Laufenburger: No question.
Mayor Furlong: If not then we’ll substitute the staff’s recommendation as Mr. Gerhardt has
described it. Anyone else? Either members present of the council or others in the audience.
Hearing none is there a motion to adopt items 1(a), (c), (d), (e) and (f) as modified.
Councilman Laufenburger: So moved,
Councilman McDonald: Second.
Councilman Laufenburger moved, Councilman McDonald seconded to approve the
following consent agenda items pursuant to the City Manager’s recommendations:
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Chanhassen City Council - February 28, 2011
a. Approval of Minutes:
-City Council Work Session Minutes dated February 14, 2011
-City Council Verbatim and Summary Minutes dated February 14, 2011
Receive Commission Minutes:
-Planning Commission Work Session Minutes dated February 15, 2011
Resolution#2011-10:
c. Municipal Consent and Review Plans for TH 5 Improvement
Project: Call for Public Hearing as amended by the City Manager.
Resolution#2011-11:
d. Approve Resolution Accepting Donations to the 2011 Sponsorship
Program.
st
e. Reflections at Lake Riley 1 Addition:
1) Final Plat Approval
2) Approval of Plans & Specifications and Development Contract
Resolution#2011-12:
f. TH 101 and Pleasant View Road Intersection and Trail
Improvement Project 11-05: Approve Resolution for a Limited Use Permit to Construct,
Operate and Maintain a Pedestrian Trail with the Right-of-Way of TH 101 North of
Pleasant View Road as amended by the City Manager.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0.
VISITOR PRESENTATIONS:
ANNUAL UPDATE FROM CHANHASSEN LIBRARY, MELISSA BRECHON.
Mayor Furlong: Good evening.
Melissa Brechon: Good evening Mr. Mayor and members of the City Council and city staff and
visitors. My name is Melissa Brechon. I am the Library Director for the Carver County
Libraries and I’m here tonight to give you an update on the Chanhassen Library. Kind of an
updated State of the Library. It’s been a while since I’ve been here so I’m glad to be here to talk
to you today. It’s been 7 years. 7 years since we’ve opened this library. It seems unbelievable
and for all the use that’s happened and all the excitement that it’s gained and the public that’s
drawn to this building continues every day and I’ll be updating you on the numbers that come in
that door but it’s been 7 long years since we opened the door and we are now a 7 day a week
library. We do have 6, and 7 libraries really within the Carver County system. We have a
library here at Chanhassen of course. Chaska. Waconia. Norwood-Young America and out at
Watertown and then this year, if you’ll see here and I’ll explain a couple new additions we have
this year. We put in here that your library card is good at over 100 locations. Because we are
part of a regional library system here in the state called MLSA and you might see MLSA if you
come into the library over at Chanhassen. MLSA does some of the visitor passes that we have
for our museum pass program and your library card is good throughout over 100 libraries in the
MLSA area and throughout the whole state of Minnesota and you can request a book at the
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Chanhassen City Council - February 28, 2011
Chanhassen library or from home. Have it delivered to you and it can come from Bemidji or
anyplace in the state so that’s a great thing that we’ve, has happened. In 2010 the highlights of
this, we established two express libraries in Victoria in the recreation center and in the City Hall
at Cologne and I’ll talk a little bit more about why we did that, that express library and what that
means in a few minutes. Our circulation exceeded over a million and it happened this year in
November. Last year it was the end of December and we were kind of waiting to see if it would
happen in 2009 at all but it did by the end of December and this year it happened in November.
Over a million served which is quite an achievement for us. We added a mobile computer lab.
That mobile computer lab goes to all of our libraries and does additional training that’s over and
above the regular computers that we have and that travels throughout the county. We added new
public computer and print management software so if you come into a library and want to use
one of our computers, you sign up and register and we have a new computer management system
that manages this in a very efficient way. And then we did this fall open the new Norwood-
Young America library. That was a library that we moved from about 2,000 square feet to 9,200
square feet. Kind of across 212 into a new part of Norwood-Young America. Let me tell you
about our Victoria express library. This opened over a year ago and what happened is the City of
Victoria had expressed an interest in having a bricks and mortar library but at the time with the
economy the way it is, didn’t have the wherewithal to put that bricks and mortar library together.
So an opportunity came for what we call a LSTA grant. It’s a federal grant and Washington
County Library and the Carver County Library applied for this LSTA grant to put express
libraries in and this Victoria express library is in the Victoria Rec Center. The ice hockey rink
that is co-owned by the schools. The District 112 and by the City of Victoria and what these are,
there’s an express library that has lockers. 20 lockers. There is a terminal and there’s a book
return on the other side that is not pictured. What happens, people can be either in the Rec
Center and walk to the terminal or in their home and order some books. The next day or in the
next couple days it is delivered to the library in these lockers. They’re notified by email. You
go out and there’s a, what do I want to say? An apparatus on it where you punch in the last 4
numbers of your bar code number with the pound sign and your locker opens up and the books
inside the lockers are already checked out to you. They’re checked out for the same period of
time that it would be if you went into the Chanhassen Library. It’s really an access point. It’s
not a library as such. It’s just an access point and people that use it, love it. They love the
convenience of it. It is serviced. Our staff in the Chanhassen library. We treat as circulation
issues so our staff go out 3 times a week to put books into the lockers for the residents of
Victoria. So it’s been a good thing for us. We just opened the Cologne locker system which is
in their City Hall. Again a city that has wanted a library but hasn’t had the wherewithal to be
able to build a bricks and mortar building but wants an access point so we’ve been able to do
that. And that, the lockers along with the drop box so you can return your materials there and we
have our delivery service pick that up. I wanted to show you some library activity measures so
you see. We’re open 58 hours a week at the Chanhassen library. Not nearly enough as you all
know. We look at our service area, including Chanhassen and the city of Victoria. We do look
at who borrows the most from our, from Chanhassen library and the city of Victoria is included
in that number, which is about approximately 30,000. There are over 29,000 library card holders
between the two. Annual visitors to the Chanhassen library, and this is 2010 numbers, are over
260,000. 260,000 people walked in this library last year. The circulation out of this library is
431,000 in 2010. The annual computer use is over 44,000 people are using the computers and
they are, and the annual information contacts and what those are, are people walking in the door
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Chanhassen City Council - February 28, 2011
asking for help. Either on the computer or asking for help with directional things or with
reference questions. So and you’ll see how it compares with the Chanhassen, Chaska, Waconia,
Norwood, Watertown library. The Chanhassen does approximately 41% of the business of all of
the Carver County libraries. The Carver County library strategic plan is focused, we’re in the
third year of our five year plan. We focused on collections, and I’ll talk about that in a minute.
Programs and services. Partnerships and our organizational structure. Within our collection we
want to make this library system a system of popular collections so we’re looking at the new hot
best sellers. We’re looking at what people want. What people walk in the door for and what
they want to take home. Popular authors. Childhood favorites. Award winning literature. Lots
of feature films. Lots of feature films. Lots of current and classical music. New and requested
genres such as mysteries, science fiction and some of that and increasing our early reader section
for our children and many more. And obviously it’s paid off because when you look at what you
put in a library for collection and what people take off, you know over a million for our size of a
county, it’s working so we really feel gratified that our popular collections are filling the needs
of the people here within the library system. Our programs and services. We continue to
provide programs and services that are valued and popular. We started at the end of last month
and will continue throughout the month of March offering tax help. We have computer classes
that I talked about. There’s a lot of activity going on with our programs and services. We have
author talks. We had one Wyonna Landbeck. Arty Zimmerman. Alison McGhee. Faith
Sullivan and many, many more. Because of legacy funding through the State of Minnesota,
we’ve been able to provide these authors to come out and do these dynamite programs for us and
talk on a variety of subjects. Talk on their book and also do book signing at the end. We worked
really hard when we developed this library to put up an area for art exhibits. Artists come in and
talk about their artwork. They also, we say that we have monthly rotations of art within the
Chanhassen library and we’re really pleased to have that. Always have information about the
artists and again have them come in to talk about their art. Story times and summer reading
program, if you’re around here at all in the summer you know what a challenge it is to find
parking because hundreds and hundreds of children walk in our door for those summer reading
programs. We’ve added new programs this year. We’ve added a writers club and a new thrift
club that we’re starting out, as well as the ongoing book clubs that we always have so that’s been
kind of fun for everybody and we’re always looking at new and interesting ways to add new
programs. We have special programs for younger audiences. This dog is part of our Tails for
Reading program and we bring service dogs in with dog volunteers who are licensed therapy
dogs and they’re trained to read. Children will go to the dog and read to these dogs and of
course the dog is non-judgmental and children really like that so we’re not saying, the dog is not
correcting the child as they go along.
Councilman Laufenburger: Is it because you can’t get adults that are non-judgmental, is that
correct?
Melissa Brechon: No. And it’s really helped with children that are having problems with
reading and we do have dogs and at various times we’ve had rabbits trained rabbits and that. We
do a Play and Learn. A partnership with the CAP Agency providing skill building activities for
children and their caregivers. We have lots of partnerships within the library system and
certainly here at Chanhassen. Our Master Gardner talks in the spring. They have a help desk in
the lobby all summer long to help people planting their garden. Great Decision Talks. We have
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Chanhassen City Council - February 28, 2011
8 per year. These talks are funded by the Friends of the Chanhassen Library. They’re organized
by the Minnesota International Center and Foreign Policy Association and we have those starting
this month in March and those have been quite successful programs. Not a huge attendance. 8
to 10 people but it’s 8 to 10 people that want to be there and there are readings that people do
ahead of time so they know. Our annual Hooked on Books program just ended. We had that
th
several weeks ago on February 19. It’s a joint partnership between the schools of eastern
Carver County and the library and we have this at Chaska High School and the Hooked on
Books this year, we figured about 1,700 families. Children and families walked in the door of
the high school. We have what we call Hooked on Books and the Arts Too. We have authors
and we have artist presentations. We also do a special history day presentation and that’s a
partnership with the school district also. We’ve looked at the library and our organizational
structure and I will be referring to that because I know you’re quite concerned about what’s
happening over there. We’ve looked at clarifying roles for our branch libraries over the last
several years. We’ve clarified responsibilities for our branch libraries. We’ve looked at team
development. We provided functional teams. We have teams that do collection building. We
have a youth services team. We have an adult services team and we’ve clarified how those
teams work. And looked at the responsibilities of those teams as we go along and as we move
our organization forward. This is a picture from our Norwood-Young America library of our
library board and I mean to introduce Mark Peterson here. Mark Peterson is a member of our
library board. Mark, stand up here. Mark represents the City of Chanhassen on our library board
and the other people you’ll see in there is Richard Kvitek from Chaska. Jim Weygand from
Chaska.
Mayor Furlong: Carver.
Melissa Brechon: He’s from Carver and Mark and Joanne Johnson. She’s out in Norwood-
Young America and Jim Dodson is Waconia and then our Commissioner Gayle Degler who
serves on our library board. So those are the folks that govern the library system. Now new and
coming attractions for 2011 at the Chanhassen library. We’ve just added a reading porch for
older adults. If you haven’t been there, you might want to take a look. We’ve added really
comfortable chairs. We had brought a variety of chairs in and asked older adults to come in and
vote on the chairs they liked and they did and the Friends of the Library provided the chairs and
we also have provided a collection of material. State legacy funding continues through July of
this year. We’re going to be bringing more award winning authors and we start this Sunday with
a Music in March series. That Music in March series starts, this is our second year to do it. It’s
something I’ve always wanted to do since this library opened is to have Sunday music events and
this will be happening at 2:00 every Sunday during the month of March and this is provided by
legacy funding. Very well attended. New services that are coming. We have homework rescue.
This is online tutorials. Homework for kids to be online with a tutorial at the other end with a
live person working on their homework and tomorrow there’ll be a rollout for Job Now which is
live job assistance which will be happening here at the library and to the computers. We have
continuing partnership with our master gardeners for programming and the summer help desk.
The Chanhassen senior center providing senior surf day and computer training and of course
pictured at the Friends of the Chanhassen Library who volunteer and provide financial support
for the library and it’s services. We’re preparing for another, as soon as one summer program’s
over we start planning for the next and we’ll have another exciting summer with all kinds of
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Chanhassen City Council - February 28, 2011
people. Bill the Juggler’s on the right hand side there. He’s always a popular fellow and the
magician comes in as well as various authors on literacy events. I wanted to talk to you a little
bit about Friends because I knew it was probably something you wanted to ask me about because
if I’m not asked once a day, at least once a week is are these libraries going away. And they’re
not. I mean they’re not going away. What I see happening are some changes and one of the
trends is certainly the library will continue to add electronic books. EBooks to our EStacks. The
EBook downloads across the nation rose by 200% nationally in 2010 and it’s happening here.
It’s not happening as fast here but more and more people, either purchase a Kindle, purchase a
Nook or one of the EReaders and they want to be able to download books from the library. For
free instead of paying for them on the Kindle. We’re working currently on contracts with a
company called Overdrive which we hope to roll out within the next month or so where there’ll
be more titles available for you to download on whatever mechanism you might have to the
library. IPhone and other mobile apps are going to be coming along with social networking
which will make libraries more accessible from your one apparatus. Libraries are going to
become more critical partners with other government agencies such as work force centers and
public health. The work force center here within the county has 8 computers I think and they
close, I think they are open one night. We’re open many nights a week, at least til 8:00 and have
many more computers. I see that as a natural partnership and certainly with the job now that’s
going to be coming online. We’ll be working more with them on public health. Use of the
library will increase with accessibility of the fiber that’s going through the county that you know
now and with the electronic formats. What will be happening and what will change within
libraries is within the future and might not be very far, you’ll be able to walk to a station with
whatever apparatus you have. An IPad, an IPhone or whatever. Download it right in the library.
Right now we don’t because we don’t have the band width to do that but that will happen
sometime. And of course the trends are funding, funding, funding challenges. They continue to
go on. They continue to go on. Now questions or comments. I will tell you a little bit. I know
that you’re concerned about the branch manager here. Branch manager position. That was
vacant last year when we had a retirement mid year. We had hoped to be able to fill that position
after the first of the year in 2011 but because of what’s happening at the State level and the way
libraries are funded through local government aid at the State coming down, we’ve decided to
wait until May to see what happens over at the State legislature. To see that we can hire
someone without the threat of having to lay them off. We don’t want to do that obviously so
we’re going to wait til the legislative session ends in May before we start advertising and looking
for someone. It certainly is our top priority. Out of the Chanhassen library last year we lost 2
full time people. The branch manager was one and we lose another employee who had over 30
years experience so out of that library alone we’ve lost 80 hours of staff time so when you walk
in the door what used to be years ago when we had two decks full of librarians that would help,
is now usually one, maybe two people on a desk and that children’s desk is very seldom staffed.
In the summer we try to keep it that way but it’s not ideal and it’s not really the way we want it.
So if you have any other questions that I can answer for you.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Questions for Ms. Brechon. Councilwoman Ernst.
Councilwoman Ernst: I don’t have any questions but I just have a comment. You know I love it
when you come in and give us these updates and I really like seeing what your 2011 plans are,
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Chanhassen City Council - February 28, 2011
and quite honestly I’ve been wondering about the EBooks myself and how that’s going to impact
the library so I really appreciated you giving us an update on that so thank you.
Melissa Brechon: Thank you. Thank you. Glad to do it.
Mayor Furlong: Just a couple questions, and first of all Mr. Peterson thank you for your service
and representing Chanhassen on the Carver County Board. We appreciate that. Number of
programs and services that you provide. You went through a lot of those. Explain a little bit
more about what services are available for people that are looking for work. That are job
seekers. You mentioned Jobs Now. Maybe a little bit more about what that is or where
somebody could find some information if they wanted to know a little bit more about that.
Melissa Brechon: Libraries and librarians have always been available to help anyone looking for
a job. Very often what’s happening now when you apply for a job you do it online so we’ve
been able to help people with that. Help them fill out applications online. What we’re finding is
a trend that at Jobs, sometimes you’re in a computer program that doesn’t allow you to use Word
so much. You work in a computer program that doesn’t allow you the visibility to do some
working with, to go online to do this so what happens if we do computer training. We bring in
our computer labs. We train people on basic internet. How to fill out a job application. How to
do this and then we also have one on one help that happens. Now Job Now is going to be
st
unrolled, like I said tomorrow, March 1. Going to be talking about it and that’s going to be one
on one help similar to our homework helper program and that homework help program is you
can go online during different periods of time and directly connect with a person at the other end.
Now I know that Job Seek Now people will, other people that are skilled in this will review your
application. Will review your resume and give you feedback on it. It will be a tremendous asset
for people looking for jobs and you’ll be able to do that from home as well as from the library.
So that will be a really tremendous service to have.
Mayor Furlong: Next question is not for me but for my children. This Homework Rescue
aspect, and actually for the parents out there who may need help to help their children. How
does one get more information about that?
Melissa Brechon: Well you can certainly come into the library. You can click on it and it’s
pretty self explanatory. It doesn’t start until later in the afternoon when kids are out of school
and it goes until I’m thinking about 10:00 at night so, when they should be in bed.
Mayor Furlong: Is it only accessible from the library itself?
Melissa Brechon: It is not. It’s accessible from your home also.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Melissa Brechon: There’s licensing agreements and we can have so many people on it. There is
times but it is accessible from your home and they’re talking back and forth. It also offers a
variety of languages so, and it has spontaneous feedback so if a child’s on it and clicks in then
you’ve got someone at the other end talking. Not actually talking but you know printing it out
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Chanhassen City Council - February 28, 2011
and working with you. It’s a tremendous asset and we’ve really promoted it heavily in the
schools and we see more and more students using it so it’s beneficial. We’ve got people that are
skilled with helping kids in their homework and various things that maybe parents can’t do is
some of the math and some of that. That has been quite beneficial and all of our input has been
quite positive and people have liked it and we use it all throughout. This is a service provided
through all 100 libraries in the metropolitan area.
Mayor Furlong: Good to know.
Todd Gerhardt: So Melissa you access that from the Carver County library website?
Melissa Brechon: Through the website.
Todd Gerhardt: There’s a link or something there?
Melissa Brechon: Yes there is.
Mayor Furlong: Great. And then one other question in terms of the numbers of visitors that you
said. 260,000 I think was a number that I saw of library visitors. People that visited the
Chanhassen library. Do you have any sense of the residency. How many, what percentage of
those visitors are Carver County and what percent are Hennepin County or somewhere outside of
Carver County?
Melissa Brechon: We keep numbers on who checks items out.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Melissa Brechon: We don’t ask people necessarily. Sometimes we do, if someone comes to a
reference desk 4 times a year we will ask them their zip code, of where they’re from and get a
sense of that. Usually we have a sense of who’s walking in the door to check items out. What
we’re finding in libraries now though, and we haven’t been able to capture it well is that very
often our libraries are used but people come in to use them for their small businesses. They
come in to use them with their laptops and they don’t check items out. So people walk in the
door can sit there all day if they want to. Don’t check anything out so we don’t have a sense of
that so we do have records, and I can certainly get you those numbers of who’s checking them
out through Hennepin and various zip codes.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. At least the information that you have. I think that would be interesting
to see how the library draws people in from outside.
Melissa Brechon: It does. It does and we hear all kinds of good things that people are coming
from all over the area. Of course it’s the work force who’s here working. It’s convenient.
Mayor Furlong: Very good. Thank you.
Councilwoman Ernst: Mayor I did have one.
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Chanhassen City Council - February 28, 2011
Mayor Furlong: Oh, yes. Councilwoman Ernst.
Councilwoman Ernst: Just one other question you know getting back to what the mayor, some
of the questions the mayor was asking for those that are looking for jobs. You know those that
I’m hearing that are more successful at finding jobs are those that are doing more of the online
networking and I’m wondering if you have coaching at the library on how to really get to those
tools and how to use those tools such as Linkedin and those sorts of tools.
Melissa Brechon: You know we haven’t done any specific classes on that but that would be a
good idea to do that because people are connecting and doing that so that, I will recommend that
because we haven’t, like I said specifically done that. I know one on one people will help with it
but as far as helping with a group or even having a job search group meet and network. I know
various organizations do have that and sponsor those and that might be something for us to do.
Councilwoman Ernst: Yeah, I know that there are a lot of people that don’t know how to use
those tools and even if they’re even tools that they should be using so…
Melissa Brechon: That is true.
Councilwoman Ernst: Thank you.
Melissa Brechon: I have to learn it myself.
Mayor Furlong: Very good, thank you.
Melissa Brechon: Okay, thank you very much.
Mayor Furlong: Have a good evening.
Melissa Brechon: Okay.
Mayor Furlong: Also this evening we have a presentation from Tim Litfin from the Minnetonka
Community Services regarding Tour de Tonka. Good evening Mr. Litfin. How are you?
Tim Litfin: Good evening Mr. Mayor and I’m fine. Thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Good to see you again. Thank you for coming.
Tim Litfin: Appreciate that council members, city staff, public, good evening. Talk to you a
little bit about one of this area’s fast growing, favorite events and that’s Tour de Tonka. Little
gift for the council members first. It’s not over.
Mayor Furlong: This is of no value correct?
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Chanhassen City Council - February 28, 2011
Tim Litfin: Yes. You can accept this. There’s no hidden dollar. There’s an aerial photo. Last
year we had a little plane that flew over and took several pictures and that shows you a glimpse
of the start of it. Most people if you’re watching at home or here in the audience and you
haven’t seen the start of the Tour de Tonka before, it’s quite spectacular and you can’t see all the
bikers lined up there. The upper right corner they go way back from there. There’s an artery
going way back on the west entrance of the high school. There’s 2,400 and I think 25 bike riders
lined up there. You can’t obviously see them all. This year’s there’s plans for a second arch in
there and a capacity of 3,000 riders so it’ll look even a little bit more festive than that this next
year when Todd flies over and takes a picture. Oh, we didn’t talk about that one yet.
Todd Gerhardt: Scary thought.
Tim Litfin: So a look back at 2010. I don’t know who’s running the controls.
Kate Aanenson: You’ve got a button right there.
Tim Litfin: I got it. There you go, thank you very much. Last year we had riders coming from
12 states and 170 communities and so we’re well represented. Chanhassen was very well
ndrd
represented. As you can see they fluctuated always between 2 and 3 place and that’s not a
bad place to be. All we need is 3 more riders from the crowd here and we could tie Shorewood.
I know we can do it. Right here in the front row and so you guys have been very receptive. The
city staff here with Todd and Todd and Jim, Sheriff Olson and others have just been fantastic to
work with so as a City Council and as a city you need to know that they’ve embraced this event.
They’ve been safety conscious with me and with each other and I think together we’ve helped
provide a quality event and that’s our goal of course every year so you can see that the
community’s been well represented in it’s ridership. We’ve had that many ride choices last year.
This was last year. You look at the bottom there and there were 94 people that have ridden all 5.
We’ve had 5 events. This coming year in 2011 will be year number 6 and going into that there’s
94 people who have ridden all events so that’s pretty cool so we always treat them with a little
something special and give them a break in their registration fee and let them do whatever they
want almost. Right Sheriff Olson?
Sheriff Jim Olson: Almost.
Tim Litfin: Almost, okay. We started something new a couple years ago and that is a little kids
ride, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 year old kids and it’s called the 2 Mile Smile. It’s just starting so participation
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is low but this year’s event, you want to mark it on your calendar will be Monday, August 1 and
that’s over at the Minnetonka Community Education Center. That’s where that ride will take
place. Success happens for many reasons. I talked about the support and the nice working
relationship with the City of Chanhassen, Carver County Sheriff’s but also we have many
volunteers. 394 volunteers were out on the route last year and above and beyond that is the
police departments, fire departments, sheriff’s departments, cities participating last year were 22.
This year it’s 25 and we’re in 3 counties so the event has grown into a big event and it’s done so
because people are responding to it and asking for a little bit more every year and through the
good help of these volunteers and cities like Chanhassen we’re able to do that and accommodate
that. New things coming your way in 2011 and the date this year is going to be Saturday, August
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Chanhassen City Council - February 28, 2011
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6. We set a capacity on it this year. That’s been the number one question we’re getting from a
lot of our volunteers. A lot of our committee members is what do you think? We’ve grown by
20-25% in participation every year and we don’t know where it will go but we want to be in
front of that number. Obviously we can park quite a few people at Minnetonka High School but
not all and we’re conscious of that. We’re trying to be helpful with that but right now we’re
setting a number of 3,000. Now that’s in front of where we’ve been in the past couple years but I
think it’s probably realistic this year but we don’t want to just leave it wide open and then end up
with 5,000 that show up. There’s a couple of other events in the state where they have that
happen and we aren’t geared for that so we want to have a quality event. Our number one goal is
quality and we think we can be quality, give them quality at that number and so that’s what our
hope is. We have new routes again this year. Every year we tweak a few things and go around
someone’s neighborhood that hasn’t been or add a new city or two and we’ve added some new
cities this year and I’ll show you those in a minute. Unique thing about this, there’s several
unique things about Tour de Tonka but you get a t-shirt. That’s one thing. Not a big thing
perhaps to some but it is what, the only ride in the state of Minnesota where you get a free t-shirt
so that’s I guess something we’ll claim to fame right now. And obviously the volunteers. I
showed you at the bottom there, 400 volunteers. That’s an amazing feat pulling that many
people together every year. This year our distances are 17, 23, 47 and 100 and all of them come
through Chanhassen so at one point or another in Chanhassen Tour de Tonka will ride through
and pass through your neighborhood. The 17 comes down from the north on Powers from
Excelsior as does the 40. The 23, 70 and 100 they come up from the south here and you’ll see
those maps in your future, Sheriff Olson and Todd and Todd as well. Those are all the
communities we ride through. New on that list this year is Mayer. Also Eden Prairie is new and
perhaps one more. I can’t recall it right now but there is a list of communities we’re riding
through this year. It’s quite a big list. Things our volunteers tell us. Excuse me, our riders tell
us every year. Last year we had a little rain. Didn’t dampen the spirits at all. They came
through pretty cool but they still commented. Here are some of the comments we get and every
year the comments come in praising several things. Number one comment we get is the
volunteers and they put police, fire inside that category. High marks for those folks every year.
They like the pizza at the end which is a treat. Some didn’t like the rain. Some liked the rain but
anyway it’s a great scenic ride. All rides are very beautiful. The long 100 ride which is what
these 3 in the front row are going to do next year, will go all the way out through New Germany
on that ride so. So that’s part of the 100 mile route this year. And again the date this year is
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Saturday, August 6 and it starts and ends at Minnetonka High School and you don’t have to
have a bike like that to ride in the event but it will get you a picture for sure if you do have one
like that. Again thank you City Council and the City of Chanhassen for your support of the
event in the past and if you have any questions I’d be glad to answer them for you.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Litfin? If a resident has a question with
regard to the routes that come through Chanhassen and how that might affect their neighborhood,
what would be the best way for them to get that information?
Tim Litfin: They can go to the Tour de Tonka website. It’s tourdetonka.org. They can also call
the Minnetonka Community Education. We have a website there for Minnetonka Community
Education as well. Good question Mr. Mayor and we do work with neighborhoods. There’s
many people calling and how long will my road be blocked off if you will. We shut down as
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Chanhassen City Council - February 28, 2011
Sheriff Olson would tell you, no roads other than the initial start road out of Minnetonka High
School. Other than that it is not a race. I have to emphasize this is a ride so we do not stop car
traffic. Bikes stop for cars so that’s the rules of this ride and it is a fun ride. It’s not a race.
There are the competitive types. There are the fun types obviously and there’s plenty of families
involved as well.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, very good. Thank you very much for coming this evening.
Tim Litfin: Appreciate your help, thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Anyone else for visitor presentations? If not we’ll move on.
LAW ENFORCEMENT/FIRE DEPARTMENT UPDATE.
Mayor Furlong: We have an introduction. New Deputy Chief for the Carver County Sheriff’s
Office. The Chanhassen City Council will welcome and I’ll start by introducing Sheriff Olson.
Good evening Sheriff.
Sheriff Jim Olson: Good evening and thank you. Mr. Mayor, City Council it’s wonderful to be
back before you again this evening. It has been a little while. However old habits die hard.
Coming up here I almost want to talk a little bit about garage doors being open and items in
vehicles and so on and so forth but I won’t.
Mayor Furlong: He’s taking your report.
Sheriff Jim Olson: Yeah I don’t want to talk anything away from Sergeant Anderley so I’ll hold
off on that. I look forward to working with you over the next 4 years cooperatively and
collaboratively and look forward to working with you over the next 4 years. The reason I’m here
this evening is I’d like to introduce the new Chief Deputy for the Carver County sheriff’s office,
William Blair Anderson and Blair comes to us from Dakota County where he’s serviced since
1995. Come on up Blair. Where he served since 1995. He was a Commander of Operations
there in Dakota County and we are absolutely thrilled that we were able to get here in Carver
County so with all that, Blair Anderson.
Mayor Furlong: Good, thank you. Welcome.
Chief Deputy Blair Anderson: Thank you Mr. Mayor, Mr. Gerhardt, ladies and gentlemen of the
council. I just wanted to express my sincere and heartfelt gratitude. I think I’m happier to be
here than they are to have me and I do second what Sheriff Olson says. I’m one of those corny
cops that really believe in the service aspect of this job and that’s what I intend on emphasizing.
I am pleasantly surprised to find that the Carver County Sheriff’s office is already doing a whole
lot of things the right way so you may not notice some of the changes because they need be
subtle and again the door is always open. If there’s something that we are not doing, please let
us know. If there’s something that we can do better and we’re always open for new ideas and
suggestions so with that I’ll, brevity is the soul of wit so I’ll get off now why you guys still think
I’m funny unless there are any questions of me.
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Chanhassen City Council - February 28, 2011
Mayor Furlong: Any questions?
Councilman McDonald: I just want to express welcome. Look forward to working with you.
We’ve always had a good relationship with the sheriff’s department and I’m sure that that’s
going to continue so I just want to welcome you to Carver County and Chanhassen.
Chief Deputy Blair Anderson: Thank you. It’s my pleasure to be here so again call on us if
there’s anything we can do.
Mayor Furlong: Indeed. I’ll say congratulations on your position and Sheriff Olson it occurred
to me now that this is your first time back as Sheriff and so congratulations on your election and
we look forward to working with you and your administration and Chief Deputy Anderson, you
have been replaced very well with Sergeant Anderley. He’s doing a great job so everything’s
going well here in Chanhassen but thank you and congratulations to both of you.
Chief Deputy Blair Anderson: Thank you.
Sheriff Jim Olson: Thank you very much. And I’ll turn the floor to Sergeant Anderley.
Mayor Furlong: Yes. Good evening Sergeant.
Sgt. Peter Anderley: Good evening Mayor, council. The latest I’ve got on some working here.
You look at the numbers and the month of January are right on track where they should be I
guess. No major events to speak of other than you know just kind of the same old, you know
some minor thefts and garage doors left open.
Mayor Furlong: Some things don’t change.
Sgt. Peter Anderley: I keep trying to remind people that you know just to still, we really got to
be, want to be proactive in preventing that theft instead of being reactive and coming out after
you’ve been a victim of things. One of the other things I do want to remind people do that we
have been seeing a lot this winter is the snow on the streets and the stand piles are getting big.
Driveways are getting full but really try to keep everyone safe and keep that snow off the street.
Don’t get it pushed out into the street where it creates work for the city or someone else and it is
an ordinance that we need to really maintain and keep away from fire hydrants, sidewalks and
just keep those routes open so everybody can get to where they are doing safely. The other thing
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is the winter parking. Just a reminder. Winter’s not over yet. It’s not over until April 1 for
winter parking issues. If for some reason you’re having overnight guests and things like that and
it’s going to be a problem, contact us and we’ll work with you on that but for the most part we
really need to make sure that the public is keeping the streets open so when there is a snowplow
or slippery streets, our plows can get through there and get it cleaned up as quick as possible.
And that’s all basically what I have for you today.
Mayor Furlong: Alright, very good. Thank you. Sheriff.
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Chanhassen City Council - February 28, 2011
Sheriff Jim Olson: Just one other thing real quick. You know with spring coming up here pretty
soon there is certainly a pretty high probability we’re going to have some flooding around the
county and around the metro area and I just wanted to encourage business owners and employees
and so on, the more that we can do to mitigate the number of cars that are on the roads during
rush hour, the better. They’re talking about Highway 25 bridge may close down as well and if
that happens 169 is going to be about it for getting across so if businesses could do any
alternating of schedules with you know modifying that proposed. If they can do anything with
carpooling with employees or if it’s a retail establishment that has locations on both sides of the
river, if they can do some job swapping a little bit with folks who live on this side can work at
the one here and you know vice versa for those that live on the other side of the river. But
something to start thinking about a little bit. Even deliveries for employees and for customers
and product, you know it’s something to think about as spring comes so I just wanted to.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you.
Todd Gerhardt: Mayor, council members, sheriff. The best source to keep updated on the flood
rate and the height of the river and which roads are open would you suggest the National
Weather Service website or MnDOT website as two of the key spots to go to?
Sheriff Jim Olson: Yeah either one of those or once it starts happening the Carver County
website would also have that information available, and that’s for roads closed within the county
itself. If you’re looking for a metro standpoint, National Weather Service or MnDOT would be
the two to look at.
Todd Gerhardt: And there’s limited information right now until we determine what the weather
is and the melt and how quickly it melts.
Sheriff Jim Olson: Exactly.
Mayor Furlong: Very good. Thank you. Chief Smallback from the Chanhassen Fire
Department’s here this evening. Good evening Chief. Welcome.
Chief Roger Smallback: Good evening. First some of the usual statistics. Ended the month of
January with 49 calls compared to 2010 we had 57 so they are down a little bit from 2010.
Certainly a good thing. Month to date for February, and this is pretty much the end of February I
guess is 41 calls. Year to date of 89 calls. In February we did have one structure fire.
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Residential structure fire that occurred on February 16. It was actually there were two houses
that burned on that fire. The addresses were on Degler Circle and the first house that caught fire
was unoccupied. It was under construction and that was where the fire originated and then in
turn spread to the house that was next door. The original, the house that was under construction
burned to the ground. Completely destroyed and that was pretty much all over even before we
got there. The house that it spread to was a brand new house. The homeowners were home and
got out safely. Husband, wife and one little child and they were able to get out safely but very
severe damage to their house. The fire spread to the side of the house. Went up and got into the
roof area and pretty much took the roof off of it. We got called to this fire at 3:05 a.m. in the
morning. We cleared the scene at about 7:00 a.m. We had mutual aid from Victoria and Chaska.
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Chanhassen City Council - February 28, 2011
An engine crew from each of those cities came to the scene and helped us out and then had Eden
Prairie with an engine crew standing by at our station. One, to cover calls for the city while
we’re out there. One other item that Sheriff Olson did touch on a little bit about the flooding.
There’s certainly been a lot of chatter about what people are kind of anticipating this year.
We’ve been, there’s been meetings with the Carver County Emergency Management and the
National Weather Service and the National Weather Service is providing us with a lot of
statistics and probability factors and stuff for the flooding and there’s a very high probability that
there will be some significant flooding. What does it mean for Chanhassen and the fire
department? From a fire department perspective we have to be aware of what roads are closed
so if we have to get someplace we know which routes and stuff there are. There’s a couple of
the frequent spots that flood pretty frequently and that’s 101 at the bridge on the Shakopee
border. As flooding gets more severe than occasionally it takes out Highway 61 and the
probably of that is pretty high that 61 will flood this year also. We are keeping in touch with the
weather service and Carver County Emergency Management in monitoring the situation very
closely. I was at a meeting with Metro Chiefs this morning and there’s, it’s pretty much
statewide great concern about flooding this year so. Questions.
Mayor Furlong: Questions for the Chief. Just a comment and that’s with regard to the structure
fire that occurred a couple weeks ago. A 3:05 call out is what I heard you say.
Chief Roger Smallback: That’s correct.
Mayor Furlong: And my understanding the response time not only in terms of the time on scene
but in terms of personnel responding at that time of the day was very good.
Chief Roger Smallback: Yes. Yes it was. We got called out at 3:05 a.m. I wasn’t even on the
scene and I could see that it was a confirmed fire and I, with dispatch I confirmed that it was a
working structure fire at 3:09 a.m. and on the scene shortly after that so we got there quick but
the building that was under construction, I’m not sure at what stage it was but when they’re
under construction they’re very vulnerable to fire and they go up real quick. Don’t have all of
the other fire protections and stuff completed in the building. They go up pretty quick so there
was really no hope of salvaging anything out of the, by the building that was under construction.
We focused our efforts on working on the house that was next door and trying to save what we
could of that house.
Mayor Furlong: Well thank you on behalf of the council and others, thank you for your quick
response and for the department for getting up at that hour of the day and getting out there and
doing everything you could to help the family so appreciate that.
Councilman Laufenburger: Mr. Mayor, I just have one question.
Mayor Furlong: Yes sir.
Councilman Laufenburger: Chief you, I read in the paper then you commented that Eden Prairie
fire department moved back to our main.
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Chanhassen City Council - February 28, 2011
Chief Roger Smallback: That’s correct.
Councilman Laufenburger: This sounds like this is a standard cooperative protocol between the
communities, is that correct?
Chief Roger Smallback: Oh absolutely.
Councilman Laufenburger: Can you just talk a little bit about that? How Chanhassen would do
the same for Eden Prairie or for Minnetonka.
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Chief Roger Smallback: Actually we’ve been to Eden Prairie twice since the 16 of February
when they helped us out. There’s an organization called Southwest Fire Department Mutual Aid
Association and all of the fire departments, all the cities in Carver County are part of this mutual
aid association as well as Excelsior, Minnetonka, Eden Prairie, the airport, and I’m sure I’m
missing a couple in there too.
Mayor Furlong: Bloomington.
Chief Roger Smallback: There are several, Hennepin County. Cities that are in there too and it’s
a cooperative agreement that these fire departments enter into and what it provides us is that we
can have the staffing and the equipment to take care of say the more routine calls but when you
have a more significant call that’s going to require additional help, then you can bring it in from
these other cities, and it’s a reciprocity. We go to the other cities too and help them. We say
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Eden Prairie, we’ve been back over there twice since the 16. I think actually Saturday, yeah.
Sunday night. Sunday night we were over covering Eden Prairie Station 4 while they were out
on an apartment fire so everybody helps out everyone else.
Councilman Laufenburger: Good fences make good neighbors.
Chief Roger Smallback: Absolutely.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Thank you Chief. That completes our update from law
enforcement fire department. Let’s move onto items of business under unfinished business.
1(B). 2011 STREET IMPROVEMENT PROJECT 11-01: APPROVE PLANS AND
SPECIFICATIONS: AUTHORIZE AD FOR BIDS.
Mayor Furlong: I’ll go to Councilman McDonald quickly. Or should we, why don’t we start
with just a background staff update. Just summary background just so people watching at home
will understand the issue before us.
Paul Oehme: Mayor, City Council members. Councilman McDonald. This is our annual street
improvement project. This year we’re looking at rehabilitating approximately three areas in the
community. We had a couple neighborhood meetings in conjunction with these projects. We
also had a public hearing earlier in January and we also did have a work session with the council
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on February 14 to discuss the access issue between Timberwood Drive and Stone Creek. That
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Chanhassen City Council - February 28, 2011
portion of the proposed improvements are not proposed to move forward at this time so with that
if there’s any specific questions that I could try to answer relating to the project.
Mayor Furlong: Mr. McDonald.
Councilman McDonald: Yes. The reason I wanted to pull this off is, yeah I’m not sure there’s
any questions that you can answer and I guess one of the things I pulled it off for is a number of
reasons, one of which it was brought for consideration to do the emergency connection by
resolution. We did vote on that. And then all of a sudden at the work session it just looked at
though well we could add a fourth option. I guess what I’m asking for tonight is I would like to
vote on that option as to whether or not we do nothing or we adopt one of the three that the City,
that Mr. Oehme presented to us. I bring this up because, and again I have thought about this.
Any time we get into these kind of debates with homeowners, the issue’s always raised about are
we doing this just purely for ego and power or are we really doing this for the betterment of the
community. Sometimes as you get into the heat of these debates it’s hard to tell who’s doing
what but after thinking about this and also after the comments that the mayor made I think back
in January at our meeting at that point, yeah we represent the entire city. It’s the policy of this
city that was put into our Comprehensive Plan that we would do connections of neighborhoods
wherever possible and whenever the opportunity came up and to date we have tried to follow
through on that policy and have done so in at least one case and another case I know we didn’t.
But my point in all of this is that if we have a policy such as this, I think that we should follow it
or we should change the policy. If our decision tonight is to do nothing, I think we ought to look
at the policy and re-evaluate what that policy is because if we’re not going to enforce it that
means it must be a bad policy. I do not want to leave this issue with what was left upon the table
from the homeowners. I would dispute their claims about home values being depressed because
the streets are connected. There’s been numerous studies and there’s been a lot of data done on
that. Home values are not affected. If we had gone in and put in a four lane highway or made
that into a major connector road, they would have a point. It would still have been a residential
street within a residential neighborhood. The other issues they bring up are crime within the
neighborhood. That we were going to increase crime. There have been studies again, there is no
conclusive data that just making a connection between neighborhoods increases crime. In fact
usually it’s the opposite because neighbors are now more involved within, in the communities.
Increase danger for children and residents walking on the roads. Again there is no data within
this city or any other city that doing something such as this has caused harm to residents, to
children walking on the roads or any of these things. It just doesn’t exist. Prior council actions.
Again there was cover trying to be made that the council back in 1992 I believe, or 96, I can’t
remember which. I think it was 92 agreed with the neighborhood. That is not what happened.
The council, what was before them was whether or not they were going to get a second
connection in and out of the development for I believe it’s Stone Creek and what the council had
said was, you may not use Timberwood Drive as your second egress or entry point. Find another
way and then we will readdress the issue of what happens with Stone Creek Court. And what I
point to is again the road was designed to be connected. There is no circle on Stone Creek Court.
It is a road, it is a stub road that goes nowhere except to a barricade. So that again would show
that what we were looking at in this case was eventually those roads were going to be connected
and people knew that back in the 90’s. It is again the policy of this council to do those things.
The other thing that I look at is, and why I bring up the policy issue is that we have 4 similar
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Chanhassen City Council - February 28, 2011
conditions within the city that within the next couple of years will probably come before the
council for some type of resolution as to whether the neighborhoods will be connected or not.
That’s why I’m asking that the policy either be looked at and readdressed, or we’re going to have
the same problem again. The other thing that really kind of bothered me about all of this is that,
again just because a neighborhood shows up, shows 100% of people coming in, that is not
indicative of what the City should be doing and when the City starts bowing to basically mob
pressure at that point, I think we give up our leadership position and that more than anything has
bothered me and that’s why I wanted to pull this off today so what I’m asking for is that we take
a vote on those options and that if the option is to do nothing, then so be it. Then we’ll do
nothing and we will move forward from there. Thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any other questions or comments? On this. Councilwoman Ernst.
Councilwoman Ernst: Yeah just to speak to some of Councilman McDonald’s comments that he
made earlier. In evaluating the policy you know that’s one thing that we’ve been doing and
that’s part of our strategic goals is to review our ordinances and our policies and we talked about
connections for emergency vehicles and we determined at that time there is no point to turn
around there but the trucks can still back up and I know they can still back up and they go
forward and I know, one of the major reasons that we decided, if I remember correctly, was the
cost associated with this. And if I remember correctly, Mr. Oehme can you, was it $62,000?
Paul Oehme: Yeah, approximately $60,000 to make a full access. That would be putting in curb
and gutter and a full 31 foot wide roadway section. There’s some grade challenges associated
with making that connection at this time so we needed to basically remove some of the south leg
of that road and re-grade the road to match into Timberwood Drive.
Councilwoman Ernst: Which is a significant cost to these residents and I disagree. We do need
to listen to our citizens. Granted we do have policies and we do have ordinances and they are
guidelines. They are not so black and white that we can’t look at the big picture and take other
options into consideration. And I would support doing nothing at this point.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. Mr. Laufenburger, any comments?
Councilman Laufenburger: I do. Mr. Mayor I have a question perhaps that’s a point of order.
For clarity I think it would be important for us to review exactly the resolution that we passed on,
thth
I’m not sure of the date. I think it must have been on January 14. Was it the 14? Was that
when we passed?
thth
Councilman McDonald: I think it was the 28. It the meeting of the 28.
Councilman Laufenburger: I think the resolution.
Councilman McDonald: Right.
Councilman Laufenburger: Yeah the resolution said that we would allow the City to go forward
so that they could let bids on the resurfacing and such and we would essentially interrupt or table
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Chanhassen City Council - February 28, 2011
to reconsider that option as to whether or not the connection would be made. I guess I would ask
that if this is, if we’re going to introduce a fourth option, option number one was, I think option
number one the, what did you call it? A hammerhead Mr. Oehme, is that correct?
Paul Oehme: That’s correct.
Councilman Laufenburger: And option number two was I think just an extension of the Stone
Creek a little bit further I think.
Paul Oehme: Right.
Councilman Laufenburger: And then option number three was the full, the full, or prepared for a
full connection which was the $60,000 or $65,000. So if option number four is do nothing, I
guess frankly I’d like to, I’d like to give that a little bit further thought without making that a
vote at this time. That would be my. If the resolution can stand. If the resolution which we
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passed on January 28 can stand then I think it perhaps deserves a little bit more dialogue.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Help me understand, the resolution that we passed back in, on January
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24?
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Paul Oehme: The 12 of January.
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Mayor Furlong: 12 of January. I’m just seeing if I can find.
Councilman Laufenburger: I don’t think that’s correct.
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Paul Oehme: Oh okay. You’re right the 26 I think it was.
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Kate Aanenson: 24. So it was the second, excuse me. It was the second Monday.
Mayor Furlong: I’m just scanning through the minutes here, which I know is dangerous.
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Councilman Laufenburger: Yeah it was on January 24 when we passed the resolution so it
would be the minutes for that.
Mayor Furlong: Yep. I’ll read the resolution as it’s in the minutes. Councilman McDonald
moved, Councilwoman Tjornhom seconded that the City Council adopt the resolution ordering
preparation of plans and specifications for the 2011 street improvement project 11-01 with the
exception of the connection between Timberwood Drive and Stone Creek Court. Staff is
directed to return with plans and options for an emergency only breakaway barrier to separate
Timberwood Drive from Stone Creek Court and a condition that the home addresses on the street
named for Stone Creek Court not be disturbed. All voted in favor and the motion carried
unanimously 5 to 0. As I recall in that discussion, and reading further in the minutes, a statement
made by me and it would also be my understanding that this motion, if approved, does not
require us to move forward with an emergency connection. The answer, response was no.
Mayor Furlong again right? That’s the way I think it is, right. So I asked I think for clarifying
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Chanhassen City Council - February 28, 2011
that so I think while the options were coming back it does not require us, I did not view that as
requiring us to move forward with an emergency connection. I think the issue here on
connecting neighborhoods and it’s one that I have had a record of supporting I think. Here, in
each case we need to look at the facts and circumstances as we apply our policies and practices.
If this was a new development going in alongside an existing neighborhood, that would be a
different situation. I have long supported those connections. We have some areas where there
are multiple, or existing neighborhoods next to each other with, where there is an extension or a
connections to be considered and I think we need to look back at how those, how those
developments were approved and conditioned at the time and what people were led to expect. I
think the time will come when these neighborhoods will be connected for the reasons Mr.
McDonald that you stated in terms of the current layouts and the right-of-way. I think, as I
expressed at that time, as the character of the neighborhood, of Timberwood changes. As
utilities are extended through there, or as subdivisions begin to occur in my mind at that point a
connection will move forward. I think at this point I’m comfortable going forward with not
making even an emergency connection in large part because that was one of the reasons, and I
believe one of the reasons to connect neighborhoods and the neighbors were comfortable not
doing that. There was I think one instance in the past however many years that the
neighborhood’s been in place where it was an issue because that access was blocked and had
something else happened it might have been more challenging getting to people there. You
know we’ve got a trail there. We’ve got right-of-way that extends beyond the curb. Knowing
people if they need a way to get in, they’ll find a way to get in. We may have to repair some sod
afterwards or a curb cut or something you know. Repair what became a temporary curb cut and
such so I think we’ll certainly respond. I think in this case the time is right to move forward as
staff is recommend the motion tonight evening and knowing that, and I think it’s fair for the
residents of both neighborhoods to know that eventually that will be connected but I think the
circumstances here might be a little different than some other areas that we have seen in the past.
That I’ve supported and that I will continue to support. Though I haven’t always been on the
majority side of those votes either so.
Councilman Laufenburger: Mr. Mayor if I can make another comment.
Mayor Furlong: Yes.
Councilman Laufenburger: As Councilman McDonald has brought up that, and I support many
of his comments regarding why a connection is in order. However I can understand the decision
not to make that connection at this time. Part of the thought process for me was, the original, the
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original resolution that was delivered on January 24 called for, the original work project called
for breaking down the barrier and the cost of making that connection was estimated to be around
$10,000. I think a fair and logical person would have assumed that if it takes $10,000 to make
the full connection, it would take something less than that to make a temporary connection. And
when I saw the cost of I believe it was between $17,000 and $25,000 to have a barrier in place
and then $65,000 to do the full work, that seemed, to me that seemed a little bit more than I was
prepared to accept for making that connection. I also think that one of the things we have to
remember is that today there is a, it’s a break away barrier. It may be hard to break away that
barrier but there is a break away barrier there. I think part of the problem is that there’s a fire
plug right there very close to the drive but in an extreme situation I believe that it would be
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Chanhassen City Council - February 28, 2011
possible for us to break down that barrier, lay down some planks or some sort so heavy
equipment could go across there. Certainly it would not be convenient but that would be an
inconvenient break away barrier. What I was looking for was a more convenient break away
barrier that would move that fire plug as well to ready that. But I’d still stand by what I said
before. I’m prepared to not have it be connected and not spend the money that was presented by
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city staff to make that connection. So as a point of order if the resolution of January 24 stands
and legally we don’t have to establish a vote of not doing anything, then I would say let’s not do
anything and not have a vote on that.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. What is before us this evening, Councilman McDonald.
Councilman McDonald: Well I guess what I would ask then, I would like us to ask the city
attorney if that is correct and we will abide by that.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Let me do this, Mr. Oehme, what’s our schedule on these projects?
Paul Oehme: Well we’re anticipating, we’d like to go out for bid right now so it’s about a
couple, or month and a half process to get through. We’re anticipating to have the assessment
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hearing on April 25 of this year and then start construction on the first part of May so you know
the plans and specs are done so we’re ready to advertise. You know if council so directs and
things change down the road we can either do a change order to the bid. However that does take
some time so the bid date might have to get pushed back a little bit. Depends upon how quickly
we can turn it.
Mayor Furlong: Here’s what I would recommend understanding your concerns Mr. McDonald
and while the city attorney’s not here this evening, what I would recommend is if the majority of
the council members present would like to move forward with staff’s recommendation, we can
do that. If the city attorney comes back and says that for some reason this action is in violation
of a previous action, that we need to reconsider this action at our next meeting, we can do that as
well but given the timeframe involved I think you know the, without getting into dicing that
original motion I believe, I’m comfortable moving forward this evening and evaluating any
inconsistencies and what those inconsistencies might be if they do exist between now and our
next meeting.
Councilman McDonald: Well I’m okay with going with that if it means we’re going to be taking
a vote on the motion, I’m fine with that. We can take a vote whether to accept or reject and
move forward from there and if there’s a problem, we have to go back and do something, fine.
Mayor Furlong: Now when you say take a motion on the motion. The motion before us this
evening is to approve plans and specifications and authorize advertising for bids.
Councilman McDonald: Right.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Alright. So at this point would somebody like to make that motion.
Councilwoman Ernst.
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Chanhassen City Council - February 28, 2011
Councilwoman Ernst: I will but I just want to make sure that this is not committing us to
something different other than doing nothing.
Mayor Furlong: The plans and specifications as I understand it as they are in the packet this
evening Mr. Oehme do not have a connection, is that correct?
Paul Oehme: That’s correct.
Councilwoman Ernst: Okay.
Mayor Furlong: It does not include any of the options that were presented.
Paul Oehme: That’s correct.
Mayor Furlong: At our work session.
Councilwoman Ernst: Okay.
Mayor Furlong: Councilwoman Ernst.
Councilwoman Ernst: I make a motion to approve the development and contract on the
construction plans and specifications. Is this the right one?
Councilman Laufenburger: 1(b).
Todd Gerhardt: 1(b).
Mayor Furlong: No, you’re on the wrong one.
Councilwoman Ernst: Sorry.
Mayor Furlong: No here. You want to do this one.
Councilwoman Ernst: I got it right here. I make a motion to approve the plans and
specifications for City Project Number 11-01, 2011 street rehabilitation project and authorize the
advertisement for bids.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Is there a second?
Councilman Laufenburger: Second.
Mayor Furlong: Motion’s been made and seconded. Any discussion on this motion?
Resolution#2011-13: Councilwoman Ernst moved, Councilman Laufenburger seconded
that the City Council approve the plans and specifications for City Project No. 11-01, 2011
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Chanhassen City Council - February 28, 2011
Street Rehabilitation Project and authorize the advertisement for bids. All voted in favor,
except Councilman McDonald who opposed, and the motion carried with a vote of 3 to 1.
1(G). APPROVE RESOLUTION EXTENDING WORKERS COMPENSATION
INSURANCE COVERAGE TO ELECTED OFFICIALS.
Mayor Furlong: Let’s start with a quick background staff report please and then I’ll give the
floor to Councilwoman Ernst.
Laurie Hokkanen: Mayor, council. The City is permitted and able to extend workers
compensation coverage to people other than our normal employees, including elected officials
and city commissioners. But in order to extend that coverage you do have to adopt a resolution
expressing a desire to do so. The cost of the coverage is less than $80 a year. It’s very minimal
and basically the intent is that if one of our council members was injured in the course of doing
something of their City Council responsibilities, that they would have access to medical
treatment for short term disability, depending on the situation through the City’s policy and it
would prevent us, absent of the coverage what you’re left with is one of the council members has
a serious injury and lost time from work, their only recourse would be to sue the City and so by
having this coverage in place we have other recourse available. And we also have a third party
that would be involved that could delineate the nature of your injuries that needed treatment, etc.
Just keep that eliminates between staff and the elected official so given the minimal cost we’re
recommending that we offer this coverage.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Councilwoman Ernst.
Councilwoman Ernst: So I had a couple questions with that. Have we ever had anything like
that happen before?
Laurie Hokkanen: Not, maybe Todd remembers something but not to my knowledge.
Todd Gerhardt: Of a council member getting injured? Not that I’m aware of. I can think of
incidents where it could occur. February Festival. You know it’s easy to step in a hole when
you’re ice fishing out there. Even when you’re doing ribbon cuttings and conditions and
construction zone, you trip and fall and those types of sites. Whenever you’re out inspecting a
project or meeting with a resident usually it’s, you know in Chanhassen’s case we have a lot of
new development. You’re out inspecting a development that might be going in and you want to
look and you slip and fall. There is the possibility. The likelihood of the risk is probably
minimal. That’s why the cost is so minimal. For $80 you know we thought we should extend
coverage to both the mayor and council members.
Councilwoman Ernst: Well as I was reading through this and I actually was reading the
comments in the background made sense to me but then I got to the actual language in Now
Therefore Be It Resolved. That was, that doesn’t say the same thing to me because it says by
the, Now Therefore Be It Resolved by the City Council of the City of Chanhassen that elected
city officials and city commissions and committee members appointed for a regular term of
office or to complete the unexpired portion of any regular term are hereby included in the
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Chanhassen City Council - February 28, 2011
coverage of Minnesota’s Workmen’s Compensation. However when I read it in the background
it sounded like the volunteers, the commission and the committees weren’t covered under
existing coverage.
Mayor Furlong: Ms. Hokkanen.
Laurie Hokkanen: Yes they currently are. Roger included all the groups in the resolution just to
have everybody covered but we have carried coverage on volunteers for a number of years.
Mayor Furlong: Historically and that did not require council action to do that.
Laurie Hokkanen: Correct.
Mayor Furlong: So this is just a more comprehensive resolution is what I’m hearing.
Laurie Hokkanen: Just to clarify…
Todd Gerhardt: So basically our commissions are covered to date. However the council never
formally approved a resolution recognizing that but our workers comp insurance company
accepted the EDA and the other Planning Commission, Park and Rec and Environmental
Commission with coverage. Because you think about it your Environmental Commission is out
there planting trees and Planning Commission is out at construction sites. You know it’s easy
for some of those individuals to get injured when you’re doing some of those.
Councilwoman Ernst: So does this $77.74, is that just the council member piece or is it all of it?
Laurie Hokkanen: The $77.74 is what it costs to cover just the City Council. The volunteer
coverage is separate. And I don’t have that number with me but I can certainly get it to you.
Mayor Furlong: Historically we’ve been doing that as a part of our normal budgeting expense.
Laurie Hokkanen: Correct and I can’t even venture to quote a number but I know it’s not as big
a cost of our workers comp coverage. We’ve not had a claim under it, as I say as long as I can
remember. Fairly typical for cities to offer this coverage as well. This isn’t anything unusual
that we’re blazing a trail on.
Councilman Laufenburger: Mr. Mayor?
Mayor Furlong: Yes.
Councilman Laufenburger: Is 2011, no what was the first year that this coverage for elected
officials began?
Laurie Hokkanen: I did look at the statute but I don’t recall the year that this went into place.
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Chanhassen City Council - February 28, 2011
Councilman Laufenburger: So it’s been in place in the past but it has been covered by
resolution, is that correct?
Laurie Hokkanen: We don’t have record that we ever passed the resolution. So it came to our
attention this year that we should pass a resolution.
Councilman Laufenburger: Clean line as I, clean line. Clean clarification.
Laurie Hokkanen: Yep.
Mayor Furlong: Other questions or comments? To me I think it makes sense to do it. The
biggest issue, well Mr. Gerhardt brought up some issues. A number of us travel to St. Paul or
someplace else to, on behalf of our roles and if one of us is driving in a car as a, and the purpose
of the trip was to represent the city on a matter and there was an accident, that’s where
workmen’s compensation comes in. I wouldn’t want to put any elected official in the position of
being uninsured and having to make a decision on whether or not to sue the City. It’s just good
practice I think and the cost is very reasonable. Your comments about the clarification of the
other ones, yeah there was a slight inconsistency with the background of the report but I think
it’s wise to make sure that, and I’m happy and believe it’s appropriate for the council to pass a
resolution making sure that all our commission members, committee members, whether regular
term or filling an expired term are covered as well.
Councilwoman Ernst: Yeah my whole point in bringing this, we’ve been talking and asking the
questions was strictly for clarification purposes so thank you…
Mayor Furlong: Would you like to make a motion then Councilwoman Ernst?
Councilwoman Ernst: I make a motion we approve the resolution for MnDOT limiting.
Mayor Furlong: No, 1(g).
Councilwoman Ernst: Sorry. I make a motion we approve a resolution providing workers
compensation coverage pursuant to law.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Is there a second?
Councilman McDonald: I’ll second.
Mayor Furlong: Made and seconded. Any discussion?
Resolution#2011-14: Councilwoman Ernst moved, Councilman McDonald seconded that
the City Council approve a resolution providing workers compensation coverage pursuant
to law. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0.
COUNCIL PRESENTATIONS:
Mayor Furlong congratulated Councilwoman Ernst on her
appointment to the Metro Cities Board of Directors and wished his son Happy Birthday.
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Chanhassen City Council - February 28, 2011
ADMINISTRATIVE PRESENTATIONS:
Todd Gerhardt: Mayor, council I just have one update. This past week we had a watermain
break that followed the frost line into a sewer manhole which caused a flooding of several
basements. A claim has been submitted to our insurance coverage company, Traveler’s and
we’re hoping to hear something back yet this week from Traveler’s on coverage of that claim
and I will keep the mayor and council informed on whatever that decision is.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Gerhardt or his staff? No?
CORRESPONDENCE DISCUSSION.
Mayor Furlong: There was a nice article written up on our Feb Fest and winter activities that we
have so that was nice to see. The City Council will be continue our work session items this
evening with the discussion on the interviews for the Planning Commission members. We’ll
meet, anticipate meeting in the Fountain Conference Room. If there’s nothing else to come
before the council this evening, is there a motion to adjourn?
Councilwoman Ernst moved, Councilman Laufenburger 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 8:30 p.m.
Submitted by Todd Gerhardt
City Manager
Prepared by Nann Opheim
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