CC 2012 04 23
CHANHASSEN CITY COUNCIL
REGULAR MEETING
APRIL 23, 2012
Mayor Furlong called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. The meeting was opened with the Pledge to
the Flag.
COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT:
Mayor Furlong, Councilman McDonald, Councilwoman
Tjornhom, and Councilwoman Ernst
COUNCIL MEMBERS ABSENT:
Councilman Laufenburger
STAFF PRESENT:
Todd Gerhardt, Laurie Hokkanen, Paul Oehme, Kate Aanenson, Todd Hoffman, Jill
Sinclair, and Tom Scott
PUBLIC PRESENT:
Matthew Myers 7421 Windmill Drive
Terry North Minnetrista
Lisa Clausen 8381 West Lake Drive
Roger Robinson 6300 Fir Tree
Kevin Kawlewski WSB & Associates
Tom & Rose Ruhland 6211 Greenbriar
Tim Litfin Tour de Tonka
Mayor Furlong: Thank you and welcome to everybody here in our council chambers this evening. We’re
glad that you joined us, as well as those watching at home. At this time I would like to start by asking
members of the council if there are any changes or modifications to the agenda. If not, without objection
we’ll proceed with the agenda as published. We have some presentations to make this evening so I’m
going to come down to the front and welcome some people up.
PRESENTATION OF CERTIFICATES OF APPRECIATION AND MAPLE LEAF AWARDS TO
OUTGOING COMMISSIONERS.
Mayor Furlong: What we’d like to do this evening is to present some Certificates. Start our presentation
with some Certificates and some Maple Leaf awards to members of city commissions that are retiring so
at this time I would like to invite David Christianson to come forward. There he is. David was appointed
to our Environmental Commission in 2010 and brought creativity and knowledge to the commission.
While serving on the commission he contributed to a number of different accomplishments including the
recognizing of environmental stewardship in our community with the Environmental Excellence Awards,
promoting the Arbor Day Poster Contest to local fifth grade students, revitalizing our annual Arbor Day
celebration with tree plantings in honor of the spirit of the day, helping to create public education pieces
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for our July 3 and July 4 events and developing Chanhassen’s Sustainability Report for 2011. David
on behalf of the Chanhassen City Council and all the residents thank you very much for your service. We
really appreciate it. We have a couple members of our Planning Commission that weren’t able to be here
this evening that will also receive Certificates. Tom Doll and Kevin Ellsworth. Tom was appointed to
the Planning Commission in 2009 and Kevin in 2010. During their tenure the commission accomplished
a number of projects including Pioneer Pass, Reflections on Lake Riley subdivisions, also the downtown
Southwest Transit park and ride facility. Both Tom and Kevin brought unique perspectives and ideas to
the Planning Commission. Their passion for the City was evident in the decisions that they made so I’d
like the public hearing to show our appreciation to both Tom and Kevin for their service as well on the
Chanhassen City Council – April 23, 2012
Planning Commission. At this time I’d like to invite two members of our Senior Commission to come
forward, Virginia Prior and Pat McGough. Both Pat and Virginia are receiving Maple Leaf Awards.
Virginia, if you want to come stand this way and turn around so people at home can see you. We’ll start
with Virginia here. Virginia Prior was appointed to the Senior Commission in 2006 and has been an
instrumental member of the commission. A number of her many accomplishments include volunteering
as a representative of the Senior Commission on our Senior Advisory Board. She also was instrumental
in bringing the Carfit program to our community. A program that has been successful initially here in the
city of Chanhassen but was expanded across Carver County and it’s a great program that helps seniors
and others learn how to fit better into their car and make their car fit them so that they can drive safely.
Virginia always gave of herself and was very involved in the commission. The seniors of Chanhassen are
very fortunate and honored to have you and all that you’ve done so Virginia thank you very much.
Virginia Prior: Thank you.
Mayor Furlong: And Pat McGough has been a member of our Senior Commission since 2003 and has
been a very active and participatory in the commission as well. She served as Vice Chair of our Senior
Commission and representatives of Carver County Health Partnership and also to the Strive program
which is a Rotary program in our high school. Chanhassen High School and Chaska High School as well.
Volunteered to start the Chanhassen High School program to enable seniors and high school students to
work more closely together and has also been a volunteer in many, many city functions. Pat, again the
seniors and all the residents of Chanhassen really appreciate your service over the years so thank you
very, very much.
Pat McGough: Thank you.
Mayor Furlong: We have four commissions in the city. The Senior Commission, Planning Commission,
Park and Recreation Commission and Environmental Commission. All the members of those
commissions are residents. They serve on a volunteer basis. Put in a lot of hours and members of the
council, I know I speak for them and all of our residents really appreciate their service so tonight we have
a few members of those commissions that are leaving and we really appreciate their service as well as
those who are continuing to serve on those commissions.
INVITATION TO ARBOR DAY CELEBRATION AND PRESENTATION OF ARBOR DAY
POSTER CONTEST WINNERS.
Mayor Furlong: I’d like to move now to an invitation for our City’s Arbor Day celebration. Since 1876,
or in 1876 Minnesota became the fourth state in the country to adopt Arbor Day as an annual celebration.
This year, and each year Chanhassen celebrates Arbor Day in order to set aside time to consider our trees
and the value that they provide to us as individuals and as a community. Planting trees adds beauty and
character to our neighborhoods, reduces energy costs, increases property values, reduces pollution, and
helps to replace some of the trees we’ve lost through development. Elton Trueblood said it best when he
said a man has finally discovered the meaning of human life when he plants a tree under which he knows
full well he will never sit. So this year, as well as years past, we’re going to plant some trees in
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Chanhassen at our annual Arbor Day celebration on May 5 out at Lake Ann Park. I invite residents and
their guests to come and join us at 9:00 a.m. at the park maintenance building out at Lake Ann to help
plant 18 shade trees in and around the ballfields 1 and 2. Refreshments and other activities will be
available and the event is held rain or shine so we’re going to hope for shine, right Jill?
Jill Sinclair: Yep.
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Chanhassen City Council – April 23, 2012
Mayor Furlong: Yep, it’s always shining in Chanhassen and so if you’d like to help, bring some gloves to
shovel something to help with or just your positive attitude and we’ll be there. Free event. An Arbor Day
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out at Lake Ann May 5 at 9:00 a.m. so look forward to seeing people there. And tonight as part of our
Arbor Day celebration we are going to be awarding and presenting some certificates to some great
students here in town who participated in our annual Arbor Day Poster Contest. What I’d like to do is
invite 3 members of our Environmental Commission, Bob Kircher, Matthew Myers and Denny Hansen to
come join me as well. Gentlemen, thanks for coming tonight. On behalf of the Chanhassen City Council
and the Environmental Commission I would like to congratulate this year’s winners of our Arbor Day
Poster Contest. The City has been sponsoring a contest for 13 years in order to express our commitment
to trees and our urban forestry in our community. Every year local fifth graders are invited to submit their
drawings based upon the annual theme. The theme for this year was Trees are Terrific in Chanhassen.
As a city we’d like to thank all the fifth graders at St. Hubert’s school and Bluff Creek Elementary for
their wonderful drawings. The City would also like to thank The Garden in Chanhassen for their
generous donation to the grand prize winner of a potted tree of their choice. The framed winning picture
will hang in City Hall along all the winners from prior years. So what I’d like to do is I’m going to
announce some participants and this year’s runners up. I’d like you to come forward. We have I think
certificates for each of them, is that correct? And also a copy of the picture, okay so they’ll be able to
hold that. I’d like you, when I call your name to come up here and say congratulations to you. Shake
your hand and I’d like the children to stay up here as well and then we’ll take one group picture and
moms and dads there’ll be time to take pictures as well. So at this time, in no particular order I’d like to
invite Abbie Docter to come forward. Abbie’s here. Sophia Duffy. Why don’t you just kind of fill in
right there Sophia Duffy, congratulations. Elise Krauska is here. Caitlin Maloney. Riley Palattao. Did I
get that close? Palattao, close. I apologize in advance. Congratulations. Luke Puklich. Is Luke here?
Puklich. No, okay. Alright. Elle Risch. Lauren St. Martin. Abby Steffen. Back up a little bit. There’s
room for more. Always room for more. Katie Stohlmeyer. Is Katie here? Lizzie Williamson. Lizzie.
And this year’s grand prize winner, and there’s a copy of the framed picture that will hang in city hall is
Maggie Erpelding. Congratulations Maggie. Very well done. Alright. Thank you everybody and for
The Garden, which is a new business here in town, we’d like to thank them again for the certificate.
Children, why don’t you kind of move around this way. We’ll let everybody get some pictures and let’s
give them a good round of applause. That’s a great program. Thank you to our members of the
Environmental Commission that were involved in that and of course all the families and again I will
express thanks and appreciation to our outgoing commission members. We appreciate their hours and
hours of service and dedication to the City. At this time I’d like to move forward with our agenda and
cover the items under our consent agenda.
CONSENT AGENDA: Councilwoman Tjornhom moved, Councilman McDonald 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 April 9, 2012
-City Council Verbatim and Summary Minutes dated April 9, 2012
Receive Commission Minutes:
-Planning Commission Summary Minutes dated April 3, 2012
-Park and Recreation Commission Verbatim and Summary Minutes dated March 20, 2012
Resolution #2012-24:
b. Kerber Pond Slope Stabilization: Approve Quote.
c. TH 5 Underpass Improvements at Minnewashta Parkway, PW067B2b:
1) Approve Cost Share Agreements with the University of Minnesota and City of Victoria for
Pedestrian Underpass.
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Chanhassen City Council – April 23, 2012
Resolution #2012-25:
2) Approve Limited Use Permit with the Minnesota Department of
Transportation.
Resolution #2012-26:
d. Approval of Arbor Day Proclamation.
e. Approve Request for Temporary On-Sale Liquor License, Camp Fire USA Minnesota Council
Annual Meeting, May 7, 2012.
f. Approve Extension of Final Plat, The Arbors.
Resolution #2012-27:
g. TH 101 Improvements Between Lyman Boulevard and Pioneer Trail:
Approval Funding Agreement with the Minnesota Department of Transportation Agreement No.
00789.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0.
VISITOR PRESENTATIONS.
Mayor Furlong: This evening we do have a representative from Minnetonka Community Education. Tim
Litfin is here to talk to us about the Tour de Tonka again this year. Good evening Mr. Litfin, how are
you?
Tim Litfin: Hi Mr. Mayor. I’m just fine.
Mayor Furlong: Welcome.
Tim Litfin: Thank you very much for having me here tonight Mr. Mayor, council members.
Mayor Furlong: Sure.
Tim Litfin: City staff. Community. Thank you for having me. I’m here to talk about Tour de Tonka.
My annual visit to Chanhassen. I wish it was more often. You guys run such a good show over here.
There’s no doubt about it. Thank you for allowing me to be here tonight and thank you for allowing Tour
de Tonka to roll through your streets on the first Saturday in August and so with the presentation tonight
I’ll look back a little bit with some data and photos for you and then also look forward to the 2012 year
and take your questions and answers at the end, or questions at the end if you would please so there’s a
shot of the start last year and we had a great year of participation. You can see from the first slide that in
just 6 years we’ve grown quite a bit and that’s thanks to a lot of Chanhassen participation as well so
we’ve done pretty well. 5 to 82 is our span last year. I think everybody in this room qualifies so I’ll look
forward to seeing many riders from this room partake this year. Last year, and it amazes me every year
where the riders come from and why they come but they do and I talked to a few people myself last year
from Arizona, Texas and the State of Idaho and they came just for Tour de Tonka. Many people are here
for vacation with family, etc but it’s kind of fun every year to see that they do come just for the event
which means we’re reaching a little bit beyond our borders that’s for sure as you can tell from that screen
right there and we’re pleased about that. Top 10. Chanhassen is doing very well and I think you’ve held
the number 2 position since year 1. That dog gone city of Minnetonka just keeps edging you out but, so
there’s a challenge out there city of Chanhassen if you’re listening, but very well represented with 192
participants just last year, and again they’ve been in the top 2 every year. There’s the top 40 in case
you’re wanting a little bit broader reach and this is just last year. This is last year’s participation and
we’re very well saturated in the region around us but as that screen a couple ago did say, we have 160
some communities so they’re coming from all over the state and the upper Midwest to participate. We’ve
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Chanhassen City Council – April 23, 2012
kind of trended east a little bit the last few years picking up more of the Eagan’s and more Woodbury’s
and more Oakdale folks so it’s really become a metro event in the last few years. The distances we rode
last year, and there are the participation numbers from just last year and last year was the second year of
the 100 mile ride so that has done quite well and obviously it’s something we can’t let go because that
crowd is perhaps the most vocal on making sure that, don’t drop that 100 and so we definitely will not do
that for those folks. Last year those rides, every one of those rides came through the streets of
Chanhassen. This year it will be a little bit different but I’ll talk about that in a minute. The ride benefits
two groups primarily, ICA Food Shelf and then also Community Education youth programs so there’s a
shot of what it’s done for the last few years and a shot at the start on the right hand side and there’s some,
one of the rest stops a little bit. We also started a youth ride a few years ago and that helps you know
bring in those future riders and they came pretty well last year. You can see a couple shots of them.
That’s on a different night than Tour de Tonka. They have their own little Miles of Smiles that they
partake in. The event lives on volunteers. It really does and anybody out there tonight that’s watching or
in the room, if you want to be a volunteer because you’re not able to ride for whatever reason this year, let
us know. We have many volunteers from Chanhassen and other communities around us and we need
them guarding and directing at corners, as you can see these families doing so well. This year we have
different distances again. Other than that 100 mile staple event, 16, 26, 43, 77 and 100 and all of them
except the 16 come through Chanhassen or parts thereof so Chanhassen again is well served and they see
it and they love it that’s for sure. Rest stops are throughout and we have 10 of them and they’re spread
out across the way. We have nothing in Chan but we are near Chan with rest stops that’s for sure. Those
are our major sponsors. As everyone in this room knows, we can’t do any event without sponsorship and
sponsors right there are just very much valued and they are just very helpful in all ways. Little sneak
peak at what your t-shirt might look like this year and people always want to know, and believe it or not
that’s probably the first question in September is what’s the shirt color going to be next year so we tell
them, if we know, and there’s the artwork so. Anybody out there wanting to ride or volunteer,
Tourdetonka.org. There’s some information for you in this room as well. A couple more photos from the
start and from the ride last year. We built that new wall up on the upper right last year at the start. We
have two walls. You’ll see the first wall in this next photo and that’s the wall that is right off of
Minnetonka High School’s entrance. The ride starts and stops at Minnetonka High School and that bike
right there, the motorcycle starting it, what we do is we lead and follow each group of riders with
motorcycles and we have some motorcycles inbetween going back and forth. In this room tonight are the
Carver County Sheriff’s and also Chan Fire and both groups helped with this event. The event can’t go
forward quite frankly without those two groups. Chan Fire and Carver County Sheriff’s, awesome
support. The motorcycle groups, there was 25 of them last year involved in the event to make sure it’s a
safe event. We don’t stop roads or shut off roads and it is a ride not a race. Make sure everybody out
there knows that. You can’t, you couldn’t buy, tell these people in the front row on the bottom left, they
think it’s a race. They’re about the only ones in the group that do. Most everybody else out there is to
have a good time, and those race typers are having a good time too but they think it’s about time. It’s
about the event, that’s for sure and Chanhassen is a huge part of that so I thank you very much for
allowing it to happen and I thank you for your time tonight so if there’s any questions I’d be glad to help
you if I can.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Litfin? No? Very good. Thank you for your
continued service and for working with our staff and our different departments to make sure it continues
to be a successful event in our town.
Tim Litfin: Your city staff are just top notch.
Audience: Who are the motorcycle guys?
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Chanhassen City Council – April 23, 2012
Tim Litfin: Who are they? Hey, it could be you. No, those are 3 different motorcycle groups that we
work with.
Audience: And they are where? Do you know?
Tim Litfin: A couple of them are based out of the Eden Prairie Wild Hogs.
Audience: Oh, Wild Hogs.
Tim Litfin: Yep, and there’s another group that we work with that’s from a different area. We need you
as well this year sir. Alright, thanks everyone. Appreciate the help.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Anyone else under visitor presentations this evening?
LAW ENFORCEMENT/FIRE DEPARTMENT UPDATE.
Mayor Furlong: Lieutenant Jeff Enevold cannot be with us this evening from the sheriff’s department but
Sergeant Peter Anderley is here. Welcome back Sergeant. Good to see you again.
Sgt. Peter Anderley: Thanks Mayor, council. I believe Jeff said you had the packet of the numbers, if
there are any questions I can certainly answer that. The thing I guess I really want to talk to about tonight
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was, our distracted driver awareness campaign that kicked off on the 19 of April here. It’s a statewide
campaign that we’re trying to really focus on distracted driving of the motorists as they’re in and around
Chanhassen. Some real quick facts on it. In the last 3 years they’ve ruled 208 people have died because
of distracted driving and 26,000 have been injured so it is kind of a big deal as far as the motoring public
goes and the safety issues with that. Kind of going along that, the texting is the biggest thing right now.
The texting while driving using electronic communication devices. Basically they are illegal to use in any
motor vehicle to read, write, create, exchange emails, text messages or use the web based service.
Commercial vehicles, school buses and children under, or young adults under 18 driving are not allowed
to use cell phones or anything. Cell phone use is still allowed in Minnesota but not the texting and the
emailing, and that includes everything from when you’re stopped at the red light. You’re in bumper to
bumper traffic. Anytime your car is on the public roadway that entails. You know there is some
exceptions. If you need to make an emergency 911 call, you know to report an accident or some other
kind of incident that’s happening, and also you know law enforcement, firemen, an ambulance and that
type of thing are exempt from that part of it when officially performing their duties. That’s basically what
it is. There’s extra law enforcement out in the next week or two just enforcing and trying to crack down
with distracted driving and get the message out that our roadways need to be a little safer and you know
leave the phone. Shut it off. Wait til you get home. Give it to a passenger to you know do your
communicating while you’re driving. Same thing with the whole distracted driving goes to reading a
book to putting your make-up on to you know eating a bowl of cereal. We’ve seen it all out there. You
know all of that takes your eyes off the road for a split second where some tragedy could happen. That’s
all I have.
Mayor Furlong: Appreciate it. You weren’t necessarily talking to any of us.
Sgt. Peter Anderley: No, not that I’m aware of. No really it does, and it is increased over the years. You
would think more maybe as more of it got out that there would be less of it, and actually the citation
numbers, if you look at the statewide citation numbers, the citations keep going up every year so it’s
something that people are really taking seriously as far as the law enforcement and the enactment of the
law recently in, I think ’08 when it went into effect and it is a fine up to $300 fine if you are caught using
the mobile device.
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Chanhassen City Council – April 23, 2012
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Thank you for sharing that Sergeant. Councilwoman Tjornhom, please.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Tell me how you can tell if someone’s distracted you know so you can pull
them over? What’s your criteria for that?
Sgt. Peter Anderley: You know I guess if they’re doing something in the vehicle that appears to be
distracting them from the roadway, the text messaging and you know using the web and stuff on your
Smartphone or anything like that, yeah is a little difficult sometimes for us to tell. A lot of times I guess
we’ll just visually see it. If I see you over there you know on the phone at the red light or evening driving
alongside you in a 4 lane road, that’s usually how we can kind of catch them a lot of times. You know
like I said I’ve seen people driving down the road with a book on the steering wheel. If you’re paying
attention to a book that close that you’re reading a book, you’re probably not paying attention to what else
is going on. Like I said, eating cereal. Bowl in one hand, spoon in the other, you know that type of thing.
It does happen out there. Unfortunately those are the things that cause some of our accidents. 1 in 4
they’re saying of all crashes are due to some sort of distraction.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: One last questions, this is just for my own curiosity.
Mayor Furlong: Please.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: So I’m driving along, and I would never do this but if I was reading my email
from the City because there was some important message I got as a council member that I had to read
right away, you saw me do it and so you pull me over. So then do you ask for my phone or how does that
work?
Sgt. Peter Anderley: We can. You know we can.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: And so then do I have to show it to you?
Sgt. Peter Anderley: You know that’s kind of out there. No, you don’t have to show it to me and that’s
your.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: I don’t mean…I just was curious.
Sgt. Peter Anderley: No, it is your thing. You know there’s always, I always say with one thing of
electronic communications is it’s recorded somewhere.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Yeah.
Sgt. Peter Anderley: In an incident, you were in an accident and we really wanted to find out you know,
we can subpoena your phone records because it’s guarantee it’s probably sent somewhere in your phone
company that a text message or a phone call is sent at this date and time. It might not be in your phone
anymore.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Probably from the Mayor right?
Sgt. Peter Anderley: We can still get it though from wherever and those are things that you know with
technology there’s, people don’t realize that but if you’re involved in an accident where we’re going to
really investigate it, we can usually get that information through a search warrant or court subpoena and
that type of thing.
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Chanhassen City Council – April 23, 2012
Councilwoman Tjornhom: No, and it’s so important to tell our teenage drivers you know don’t do it at
all. Put the phone in the back seat in your purse or something you know and so I totally agree. It’s a
great thing to do. I just was curious as to how you go about actually giving someone a ticket.
Sgt. Peter Anderley: It’s difficult. It is a difficult thing for law enforcement to actually capture. You
almost have to you know see them and witness it for more than just a second because you’re allowed to
make a phone call. You know if you’re dialing the phone to make a phone call, that’s perfectly
acceptable but if you’re exchanging text messages back and forth then that’s, and that’s like I said it’s real
hard for us to find them but you know we do occasionally get them. More so in an accident. You know
most people will be witnessed by other drivers and said you know I seen him doing this for you know
until he crashed or. The teenagers is a big one too and they can’t use any cell phones, whether they’re
driving or not and you know the biggest distraction for them is just ultimately more kids in the car and
that’s a huge distraction as a teenage driver and got 3 or 4 kids in the car with them and they’re all
talking, playing music, whatever they’re doing. That’s a big distraction and it’s really obviously there’s
no way of controlling that but we encourage parents and that to really watch that and monitor that
themselves.
Mayor Furlong: Good. Any other questions? Thank you for sharing that. We appreciate it.
Todd Gerhardt: Shouldn’t you always pull over and give the Mayor 100% of your attention?
Mayor Furlong: Moving on with the rest of our agenda. Chief John Wolff is here this evening. Good
evening Chief.
Chief John Wolff: Good evening everyone.
Mayor Furlong: Are you going to tell us not to play with matches too?
Chief John Wolff: That was the whole point. Mayor, council. Just a couple of updates from our last time
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together. We had a big pancake breakfast on April 1. Some of you made it and it was our biggest crowd
ever. We actually ran out of everything but pancakes so, by the end but it was well attended and it kept
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the firefighters and the folks from the Lions Club very busy with serving people. May 5 of 2012 is our
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46 anniversary and we celebrate that with an annual banquet which will be out at the Oakridge in
Chaska. Tomorrow night the Historical Society is doing a presentation on the history of the fire
department and one of our Assistant Chief’s Rick Rice is actually going to make the presentation at 6:30.
It’s over at the Legion before their official meeting starts at 7:00 so if you can make it we’d like to have
you there. I think we’ve talked before about this, very mild winter and a pretty early spring. It’s affected
our call volume in a positive way. Calls are down. We just haven’t seen a lot of weather related calls for
you know sprinklers that have gone off or car accidents and so forth so we’re down about 25%. One of
the concerns we had was just how dry it was because it had been extremely dry and we, the statewide fire
folks were forecasting a really big brush fire season and not that we’re out of the woods but certainly this
last week and a half has been very beneficial. It’s greened up nicely so I’m not concerned in the
immediate future about fire exposure. Commercial inspections, plan reviews are up year over year. Our
training commitment is significantly up, which is a part of our overall management program improving
our operational capabilities and trying to minimize risk on the fire ground and other calls that we manage.
Our customer service feedback which we share with you folks on a monthly basis remains positive. We
did have a house fire on Saturday night and we station a fire company at the station on Fridays and
Saturdays so we had a very quick response time and it was a similar kind of fire we had a month ago
which ended up being a total, totally destroyed home. This one, because we were out the door quickly we
were able to make a quick stop and the damage is probably in the $10,000 to $20,000 range. There was a
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Chanhassen City Council – April 23, 2012
civilian injury for attempting to put the fire out. There was some second degree burns there which we
treated on the scene and I think that person was ultimately transported so, so the fire department was out
on Saturday night for a call and we called in some mutual aid for assistance for that too. Any questions?
Mayor Furlong: Any questions for the Chief?
Councilman McDonald: Well I’ve got one question for you. In looking through the packet I noticed how
you started to include these customer comment cards and everything about service and stuff. That’s very
interesting to read. I appreciate that and hope you’ll go ahead and continue it. Thus far it looks as though
everybody’s pretty happy with the service. I’m glad to hear that.
Chief John Wolff: Yeah, we send those cards out to people that, where we have an address so like if it’s a
person coming through the community we may not have their home address. If it’s a car accident or
whatever but anybody with a residence or a business where we have a name and an address we will send
the cards out. We did this program probably 10-15 years ago and then it kind of for some reason fell off
but we’ve recently started it up again and hopefully you’ll be starting to see more and more of those
because they seem to sort of trickle in. We send them out usually within, I think it’s the Monday
following the week where we have the situation.
Councilman McDonald: Well it’s good to get that kind of feedback.
Chief John Wolff: Yeah, it is. It certainly reinforces things that we’re doing and we do learn sometimes
if there is a customer issue then I’ll get involved and call that person to see if we can help.
Councilman McDonald: Thank you.
Chief John Wolff: Very good, thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Other questions? Chief, glad to hear that the fire danger is down because of the rain. As
we get into the spring phase here there’ll be people having campfires at their homes. Any comments or
words of caution on recreational fires?
Chief John Wolff: Yeah just you know, obviously anytime the winds are over 15 miles an hour you know
we really don’t want folks having those kinds of fires. Keep them inside you know a either a brick or
stone or something that you can buy so that when you leave the fire that the embers don’t you know catch
anything on fire. Keep it away from the home. I think it’s 25 feet, might have to double check the city
ordinance on that but it’s you know put them out in the backyard. Make sure the fire’s out when you’re
done but it’s a 3 foot maximum also, and only just normal products like firewood, that kind of thing.
Mayor Furlong: Very good. Thank you very much.
Chief John Wolff: Thank you. Thanks for your time. Take care.
Mayor Furlong: Move now to the next item on our agenda.
PUBLIC HEARING: 2012 STREET RECONSTRUCTION PROJECT: ASSESSMENT
HEARING AND AWARD CONSTRUCTION CONTRACT.
Mayor Furlong: Let’s start with a staff report please. There will be a public hearing this evening and we
will probably hear this a couple times for residents but prior to the completion of the assessment hearing,
any property owner wishing to object to the assessment should file with the City in a written form their
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Chanhassen City Council – April 23, 2012
objection. I think giving it to our City Attorney or staff would suffice with that so, with that Mr. Oehme,
why don’t we start with your staff report and explain the project and then we’ll go to a public hearing.
Paul Oehme: Thank you Mayor, City Council members. I’d like to just take a few minutes and review
the project for this year’s street improvements. This year we’re considering, we would like to consider
reconstruction of the Minnewashta Heights neighborhood, and again tonight we’d like to have the council
consider award of a contract, hold the assessment hearing and consider approving the assessment roll as
well. So the project in general is residential street reconstruction. This is a photo of the project area.
Minnewashta Heights is basically just south of Highway 7, north of Lake Minnewashta, and then also east
of Minnewashta Parkway. Street proposed for reconstruction under this project include Maplewood
Circle, Greenbriar Avenue, Shore Drive, Fir Tree Avenue, Elm Tree and Dogwood Avenue as well. The
project in general is a full reconstruction. That means removing all the asphalt and the subgrade
underneath the streets. The streets proposed are a little over 1.1 miles. The street geometrics are more or
less going to be try to keep the same width as more or less the same as it is currently today. We are
proposing to add a subgrade section to the road. This helps with the drainage. Drainage in the soils.
Keep that water away from the pavement section and also we are proposing to add draintile. This helps
both for the drainage of the pavement section and then also this allows residents to hook up their sump
pumps to the draintile so it doesn’t discharge onto the roadway section as well so we’re offering that as
well. We’re also proposing to get curb and gutter, concrete curb and gutter to the area. Currently there is
limited curb out there. There is some bituminous curb but to improve the drainage of the area we’d like
to add that feature as well. Watermain, again full replacement of the watermain curb stop boxes within
the right-of-way as well. Reconstruction of the sanitary sewer system. We are looking at replacing some
sections of the sanitary sewer in this area. I’ll get to that a little later and then I’ll also cover some storm
water collection and management improvements as well so this is a drawing of just basically showing
where the watermain, which is shown in blue here. It will be replaced and more or less put back in in it’s
current location. The area shown in red here is the areas that we would like to replace or remove and
replace the sanitary sewer pipe in the ground. The City staff did televise those areas and there’s
approximately 1,600 feet of pipe in this area that we would like to consider replacement at this time. The
remaining pipe in the project area appears to be in good condition and we’d like to proposing to leave that
in place. There are some joints that should be grouted at this time so no ground water or surface water
can get into the pipes and then also some manhole lining as well so. Watermain replacement is also like I
said proposed in this project area. The watermain in cast iron. It’s over 40 years old. We have
documented 11 watermain breaks in this area. Most recent one just happened last month and again the
services in the area will all be replaced up to the property lines and curb stop boxes. Storm sewer is a big
component of this project. Staff did spend a lot of time reviewing the alternatives for treatment and
collection and volume control in this area. One of the key components of the improvements is to add a
curb and gutter so we can construct a new storm sewer system in this area. There are currently 6 rain
water gardens that are proposed to be included in the project that were bid out. There are some property
owners that we’ve talked to that are interested in adding that feature to the project as well and this is a
voluntary program so we’re still talking to those property owners. Seeing if it’s worthwhile to add those
features into the project as well. The area here in orange currently drains to the south, which is
Greenbriar, or I’m sorry Maplewood Circle. That area will be picked up, the storm water and redirected
onto Highway 5 through a pipe system and then into storm water system to the west of here. Into a pond
for treatment as well. There are, we have talked to MnDOT about closing off or bulk heading some
culverts that are under Highway 7 at this time to redirect the water north of 7 to the west. That allows for
additional capacity of those ponds to the south to address the drainage from Maplewood Circle so, we
also are looking at infiltration basins within the park. I’ll show you a drawing of that and then also iron
filing system on Shore Drive as well so rain water gardens again, we have currently bid out 6 locations.
Working with the property owners for these type of features. It’s infiltration of the runoff from the streets
with a curb cut in here. We would ask that the property owners maintain those systems for weeding and
mulching and replantings as necessary so there is, we’re working with the property owners on an
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Chanhassen City Council – April 23, 2012
agreement for those improvements. In Minnewashta Heights Park we did work with the parks
department. Originally when we had talked through improvements to the Minnewashta Park we had
thought about a dry pond system. In discussing the maintenance of that system with the parks department
it seemed more appropriate for the City to go to a infiltration system where we’re more of a rain garden
where we have more plantings. Less maintenance for the crews to maintain. Less steeper slopes in the
park as well. We try to eliminate or reduce as much tree loss for the system as we could and we also try
to place the 3 cell system that’s shown in the drawing here in locations where it’s more a passive area.
Not an active park situation so we try to utilize the park as much as we can for and keep the features and
the use of the park as much as we can. The iron filing system was discussed at length as well. This is
proposed over on Shore Drive. It’s a new system that’s, new technology that’s come up in the last I’d say
10 years. This helps treat the water and under this situation treating the water up to a half inch rain event
so water would flow into the storm sewer system. Here be captured in an environmental manhole. The
larger particles and debris would be captured in this manhole for a future, sump manhole for future
removal. The water would then end up in a drainage or a filter system here with iron filings and a system
for percolation and eventually down, drain down to the lake itself. This system has been utilized and has
been successfully utilized in other communities and watershed districts over the year and it seemed like a
good application for us to treat the water, especially for phosphorus removal since there is limited
opportunity for this section of street to be treated in a normal pond situation so we are anticipating a 20 to
30 year life expectancy of the system with normal maintenance and we have worked through the design to
make sure that our maintenance crews can easily, cost effectively maintain the system over the years.
Construction. Big component of the project is how to stage it and how to communicate with the property
owners and just the coordination between all the activities that go on in the neighborhood on a daily basis
with the construction of the project so. We did bid out replacement of the watermain as a directional bore
type of application. Not the open cut. That system did come in significantly higher than the open cut
bids that we received so staff is recommending that we just go with the water, installing the watermain
with the open cut system. We have to open cut the sanitary sewer systems anyway so it’s basically the
same crews that would be installing that, those improvements. Temporary water and some sanitary sewer
services would have to be addressed during the project so what that entails is that a temporary water
system would have to be hooked up to the properties through basically a, their spigot system and back fit
into the house so it’d have to be coordinated with the property owners. The City’s construction
inspection we’ll be working with a contractor supporting all this work and with the residents and we have
criteria and notification set up to address that. Mailboxes, we’ll have to work with, will have to be
removed from it’s current location and placed at a different location in one area for easy access of the
postal service. We’re working through the post office and the contractor on finding the best location for
that. And then also garbage collection, we’ll have to work with the contractor and make sure that garbage
collection is handled on as need be and on a timely basis as well so make sure that property owners
garbages are collected on a weekly basis and recyclables. So resident communication, a key component
of this project. We’ve identified and have used successfully in the past several communication
techniques. One is a door hanger and knock and just basically knocking on people’s doors. Letting
people know what’s happening on a day to day basis or weekly basis. We also have a project website that
we’ll keep up and running. With the new City’s website we’re anticipating that potentially that emails
can be sent out when the website is updated on that particular page so, and then also we do work with the
property owners or send out email notifications as need be as well. Postcards, we send out postcards on a
regular basis to make sure people are informed and have the contact information. Who to call if they have
problems with the contractor or the inspector. And then also we have a hotline set up where we update
the hotline, give the property owners that specific number and let the property owners know what’s
happening on a weekly basis and give them kind of a look ahead of what will be happening on the project
site. Construction phasing. Staff does not want to, since this project is fairly significant we don’t want to
rip up all the streets at one time and basically create a mess so we want to phase this project in as best as
we can. We did work with a contractor on phasing issues and talked to several people about it.
Contractors and residents and the most feasible, well organized phasing plan seems to be from working
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Chanhassen City Council – April 23, 2012
from west to east so the area in pink, we’re proposing that area to be reconstructed first and then working
rd
west to Elm Tree Avenue and Dogwood Avenue as well. So last March, or this March, March 23
specifically we did open bids for this project and we did receive 9 bids. The low bidder on the project
was Northwest Asphalt with a bid of a little over $2.2 million. Northwest Asphalt has worked in the city
before and specifically, and in other communities in the area. We have called for references too and their
work has been acceptable for us and for other communities so we would recommend moving forward
with Northwest Asphalt under this contract if council so desires. The project cost and funding are shown
here. This column shows what was budgeted for 2012. The engineer’s estimate is here and then also the
project cost including contingencies and indirect costs are shown here so we are on budget for this project
at this time. Assessment methodology is shown here. The City’s assessment practice is to assess 40% of
the street construction cost to the benefiting property owners. The improvements to the watermain, the
sanitary sewer and the storm sewer system, that would be paid out of the appropriate enterprise fund.
Those costs are not assessed to the property owner so it’s basically 40% of the street cost and that’s
shown here. There are 91 properties within the project area so the proposed assessment under this
formula is $5,974.47 which is slightly under what our engineer’s estimate. The terms of the assessment
are proposed at 10 years at 5.25% which is our typical assessment terms for these type of larger projects.
rd
So project schedule is shown here. Assessment hearing and award of contract, April 23. The project
would move forward. We’re anticipating to try to get up some erosion control, temporary water
removals, start looking at some storm sewer improvements in May but really getting going in the first
th
phase of the project in June. Under June 4 and have that phase, try to have that phase wrapped up by
mid-July then we can roll into Phase 2 mid-July and most of that work would be completed we’re
anticipating by the end of the summer. There will be some work anticipated to be, cleanup work and
th
some work potentially that would be going on til August or October 12 and the majority of the work
we’re anticipating to hopefully be wrapped up by the end of the summer, weather permitting so. And
then come back next year in June, 2013 with that final wear course and make sure that there’s no
settlements in the roadway or nothing that we need to address prior to that final wear course so with that if
there’s any questions I’d be willing to try to answer them for you. Otherwise at this time I’d like to
request that an assessment hearing be opened at this time and like the Mayor mentioned, we have not
received any written objections of the assessments at this time.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. And those just need to be, if there are any. Not that we’re asking for
them but if there are any then they need to be submitted in writing to you or to Mr. Scott before the end of
our public hearing.
Paul Oehme: Correct.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Questions for Mr. Oehme at this time prior to the public hearing.
Councilwoman Ernst: I have a couple questions.
Mayor Furlong: Councilwoman Ernst.
Councilwoman Ernst: Paul so, in the documentation it states that the watermains are 40 years old. I’m
curious as to how the sewer pipes are. I know that we’re replacing some and some we aren’t but, and
there was some sagging but how old is the sewer pipes?
Paul Oehme: The same age as the watermain so I think our records show it’s about 1971. Most of the
improvements in this area were originally constructed so a little over 40 years then so.
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Chanhassen City Council – April 23, 2012
Councilwoman Ernst: Okay. And then can you explain the open cut versus the directional because it
was, I noticed that the directional was less money than the open cut and I’m just curious what the
difference is.
Paul Oehme: Yep, actually the directional bore, yeah the directional bore was higher. The open cut
method is your typical backhoe excavation of the soil. Digging down to the prescribed elevation where
the pipe goes in. Laying the pipe in prepared bed for, soil bed and then covering the soil back up to its
proposed elevation so directional bore is where you, there’s limited excavation. You basically dig a pit in
the ground and then there’s, it’s kind of what you see on the highways nowadays with utilities, private
utilities where they can drill in a pipe instead of going in and removing all the soils. It’s less evasive. It’s
actually quicker than open cut method but it is more expensive so. Under this scenario we wanted to bid
out and give directional bore contractors opportunities to take a look at this project. We think it’s a great
product and a great application for these type of projects but it is a little bit more expensive.
Councilwoman Ernst: Well I’m just looking at the, it says here that the GM Contracting Incorporated bid
for directional boring was about $5,000 cheaper than the open cut.
Mayor Furlong: Where are you? What page number in the staff report?
Councilwoman Ernst: 146.
Mayor Furlong: What that’s page number?
Councilwoman Ernst: Oh sorry, page 3.
Mayor Furlong: Page 3 in the staff report.
Paul Oehme: Oh, GM Contracting. I’m sorry, let me go back up to the bids here. So GM Contracting is
a directional bore contractor. Their price came in at $3.2 million dollars, okay. They specialize in
directional bore type of application so the watermain portion of their bid was $5,000 less than Northwest
Asphalt but their street improvements, their storm sewer was significantly higher than Northwest so we
have to take.
Councilwoman Ernst: So Northwest was higher in the directional versus the.
Paul Oehme: Correct. They weren’t using GM. I don’t know what sub-contractor they were using but
they were higher than GM.
Councilwoman Ernst: Do you remember how much they were. How much higher they were than GM?
Paul Oehme: In the background they range from a little over $100,000 to $260,000 but I do have the bids
here.
Councilwoman Ernst: Yeah.
Paul Oehme: So Northwest open cut cost was roughly $400,000. $398,000 versus Northwest’s
directional bore contract was $516,000 so about $116,000 more for the directional bore than for the open
cut.
Councilwoman Ernst: Okay. And then the total cost of the project was shown as $2.5 million roughly
and that versus the $2.2 million. Is the $2.5 with the contingency or?
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Chanhassen City Council – April 23, 2012
Paul Oehme: That’s yep. There is indirect cost which include engineering fees, plans and specs. They
have a consultant put the plans and specs together for us. They help us out with the storm sewer design
and the analysis associated with that. There’s some survey costs associated with that to make sure we get
our grades correct. Soil testing and construction observations as well too.
Councilwoman Ernst: Okay, thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any other questions? Mr. Oehme, a couple questions. With regard to the
iron enhanced storm water portion of the project. I think you said that you’re expecting a 20 to 30 year
life on that by design. What are the, what’s the ongoing maintenance requirements to that?
Paul Oehme: Yep. Let me try to bring up that drawing here real quick. So the ongoing maintenance is
pretty easy.
Mayor Furlong: I’m sorry, is this a cross section vertically of the system?
Paul Oehme: Exactly, so you’re looking at the roadway section here so basically taking a slice through
the road and then looking down basically to this elevation here so it’s rocks and there’s sand, as you can
see here in the upper left hand corner. Sand mixed with iron filings and there’s a chemical process that
basically breaks down and takes out the phosphorus but there is maintenance associated with this.
There’s the system. We did meet with our consultants and did talk to several other communities about
this. Basically there’s, where the system breaks down is where is in the draintile. The system. The pipes
that are shown here, they tend to clog up with material and debris and sand in the pipes themselves so in
order to address that issue all the pipes, all the draintile pipes are connected to manholes on each side of
the system. I don’t have a plan view of it handy but it’s basically the system takes up one-half of the
street section. It’s about I think 300 feet long and there’s manholes on each end of the iron filing system.
These drain tiles are connected into those. Our crews are able to jet those lines out with our current jetter
for our normal operations. Sanitary sewer, we jet our sanitary sewer. That’s the same machine that we
can use for this system and we intend to maintain the system or clean out the, those pipes. Make sure that
the system flows as it’s intended. There is an overflow system here as well. I don’t think it’s shown on
this drawing but after that half inch rain event there is an overflow that, it still goes into the environmental
manhole and takes out those bigger particulates but is discharged down to the pond, or to the lake.
Minnewashta Lake for discharge so the system should never back up but the, it’s the jetting operation
that’s the maintenance issue associated with this. The iron filings, they’re anticipated again to last 20 to
30 years but it’s the routine maintenance of making sure the pipes are cleaned.
Mayor Furlong: And do you have any sense from other cities that have used this type of system before
the frequency with which those pipes need to be jetted?
Paul Oehme: Yeah, we’re anticipating maybe every 2 years so. We monitor, we’ll be monitoring the
environmental manholes twice a year. Making sure that system’s all cleaned out because that system
breaks down and the other systems would break down very soon but 2 years we’re anticipating.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, and if there’s any, what about any winter issues or wintering issues in terms of
freezing?
Paul Oehme: Yeah, this system is well below the frost line. It’s over 5 feet deep so we’re not
anticipating that this system would freeze up or have any issues in the wintertime.
Mayor Furlong: And is there any need for recharging of the iron filings during the life expectancy?
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Chanhassen City Council – April 23, 2012
Paul Oehme: No, and again it’s you know 25 to 30 years we’re anticipating. That would be the intended
life so in 30 years, 25-30 years we’re looking at having this, potentially doing something to the streets
again.
Mayor Furlong: And you’ll be here then?
Todd Gerhardt: Don’t look at me, I’m not going to be here.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Mayor, will you be here then?
Mayor Furlong: I don’t know. We all look around don’t we. Okay, but serious question. This system
has been used by other cities in and around the area.
Paul Oehme: Right, yeah. And I mean.
Mayor Furlong: With success or?
Paul Oehme: Kevin Kawlewski with WSB has worked with other cities on these type of systems and
from their recommendations is where we’ve talked to and seen, it seems like a good fit for us in this
application.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Storm water runoff during construction. What do we have in place for that?
And that’s just, we’ve got, especially since we’re doing the open cut, there’s going to be piles of dirt and
there’s going to be people’s driveways and what are we going to be doing there?
Paul Oehme: Yep. The areas we have to have silt fence up and to address runoff onto people’s property.
There is some steeper grades out here. Obviously it’s next to a lake, we definitely want to protect the lake
as much as we can so there are, under the roadway system there are some check dams that you typically
put in there. Larger rock to try to slow that water down. There will be pools of, you know where water
will collect not in front of people’s driveway but to get it off of the side of the road and off of people’s
property. One of the first things we’d like to do is try to utilize that existing storm sewer system as best
as we can so any of those inlets, which few there are, you know we typically would put silt fence around.
Bag those areas and then have some bridge chambers within those systems to collect that material before
it ends up in the lake as well too so you know it’s all weather dependent. It’s tough. You know those,
I’m not saying it’s not going to be a cake walk out here both when we do have those larger rain events
you know we want to try to be prepared as best as we can for those type of contingencies.
Mayor Furlong: And with regard to the Northwest Asphalt and the work that we’ve had before, have they
been successful in managing the storm water issues during the project?
Paul Oehme: You know from our, the City has worked with, Northwest Asphalt it’s primarily a paving
contractor. They do have utility crews on board. The City specifically has not had a utility crew work for
the City but WSB has worked with Northwest Asphalt, specifically in Excelsior on more difficult projects
than this is my understanding so maybe Kevin can address that issue. That question.
Kevin Kawlewski: Certainly. The last 2 years we’ve had Northwest Asphalt on street reconstruction
projects in Excelsior. Same type of work. Watermain replacement. Sanitary sewer replacement. Much
worst soils. Much narrower streets. They hit their target dates. Residents were very pleased, as was their
council so we’ll give them a strong recommendation.
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Chanhassen City Council – April 23, 2012
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Alright. And the, thank you. And the practices that you described in terms of
storm water management during the construction project, are those part of the bid package and the
expectations of.
Paul Oehme: Absolutely.
Mayor Furlong: The contractor’s aware of that and will be held to the standards we expect.
Paul Oehme: Absolutely. It’s part of the contract documents. It’s part of their NPDES permit so there
will be Carver County Soil and Water Conservation and our staff will be inspecting their system and
making sure that they’re doing the best we can.
Mayor Furlong: That’s all we ask, very good thank you. Any other questions?
Councilwoman Ernst: Just a comment. So if I remember correctly they, and maybe you mentioned this
before but this same contractor did Erie Avenue right?
Paul Oehme: No, it did not.
Councilwoman Ernst: It did not, oh okay. So we’ve never done a project with them before?
Paul Oehme: Well they have been subs. Northwest Asphalt has been subs within our city on paving
projects. They paved Audubon Road for example and they’ve done some other street improvement
projects within our community as well but they have not primed the project out or led the project.
They’ve just paved portions of our city before.
Councilwoman Ernst: Okay. Thank you.
Mayor Furlong: For a follow up there, they have primed or been in the same role that they’re proposing
to be in here in Excelsior and other cities that you’re aware of?
Kevin Kawlewski: Yes, that’s correct. They were the prime contractor the last 2 years. They were a sub
on Erie Avenue.
Councilwoman Ernst: Oh okay, that’s where I got that, okay. Thanks.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, great. Thank you.
Councilwoman Ernst: I know the residents were very happy with that project so.
Paul Oehme: Paving wise.
Councilwoman Ernst: Since they didn’t have to pay for it. Thanks.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any other questions for staff at this time? If not then what I’d like to do is
open up a public hearing and invite any interested party to come forward and address the council. Again I
would just as a reminder, if you do have an objection to the assessment please submit your objection in
writing before the close of the public hearing so if anybody would like to address the council or ask
questions of the project of staff, I would invite you to come forward to the podium at this time. Please
state your name and address and do we have a map of the project that we could put up there so that
people, if they choose to, want to show their home or their area of concern within the project area, we can
16
Chanhassen City Council – April 23, 2012
use that. Whichever is going to be the easiest to see. While he’s getting that out, if anybody would like
to come forward, I’d invite you to come forward at this time. That will work well, thank you. If anybody
interested in speaking this evening at the public hearing?
Bill Finlayson: Well just a question about the.
Mayor Furlong: If you could come forward to the podium, and the only reason I ask sir, one is so that
people at home can hear you. Sometimes the microphones don’t pick up.
Bill Finlayson: Just Bill Finlayson from Fir Tree Avenue. A question about our access to our beach. Is
that going to be dug up or is there a new pipe going in there or what?
Paul Oehme: There’s, let’s see if I can get a map of that. The access to the beachlot, I think it’s right
here.
Bill Finlayson: Right.
Paul Oehme: That’s in the general vicinity of where the iron filing system is and we also have a sanitary
sewer system. New sanitary pipe going in that location too so at times it would be problematic to access
the beachlot during construction. The contractor is responsible for back filling all the excavated areas on
a daily basis so in the evenings you potentially will have access to the beachlot but during the day,
especially in that first phase of the project it’s going to be a little more problematic to access.
Bill Finlayson: That’s not my main concern. A few years ago they resurfaced that and put new culverts
in top and bottom.
Paul Oehme: Okay.
Bill Finlayson: Redesigned that that we were losing our beach in a heavy rain from time to time and since
the new construction of that access, that really hasn’t been much of a problem anymore. Now you’re
going to put in a new system for, and if that fails are we in danger of losing our beach again? I mean see
the overflow and that rushes down that, I mean if it’s not, I mean is it going to be as good as what we’ve
got or, I mean you know we don’t want to lose our beach.
Paul Oehme: Absolutely. Absolutely, and we’re not here to do that so there are, there is a lot more storm
sewer that is going to be constructed within the project area so right now I think there’s only a half dozen
storm sewer catch basins on Shore Drive right now. We are anticipating, under this design we are
extending storm sewer all the way back up to Greenbriar Avenue. We’re extending it up to Fir Tree
Avenue. We’re extending it up to Elm Tree and then also up to Dogwood Avenue as well to try to
capture that water into the storm sewer system and not having it sheet flow over the roadway system so
we’re trying to limit the amount of water running down the gutter as much as we can and so it and the
capacity is a lot more than it is currently today so actually on a normal rain event there will be less water
running down that beachlot access road.
Bill Finlayson: Okay, good. Sounds good. On the subject of rain gardens, I have had people out to my
house to discuss rain gardens. I haven’t heard anything more about it. Are they going to re-contact? I
mean it was preliminary talk about it but no designs. No I mean just whether or not I was interested and
of course I said I was but maybe something I was interested in but are they going to re-contact me or?
Paul Oehme: Yep. They will. We’re working with Terry Jeffery and there’ll be some more discussions
about what potentially those rain garden features would look like on your property. Like I said, I think
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Chanhassen City Council – April 23, 2012
there’s a little over, I think there’s about 15 property owners that have expressed interest in these rain
water gardens. We do have some budget allocated to those improvements. There’s already I think 6 rain
water gardens in the contract already so the next step is to, after tonight if the project moves forward is to
contact those property owners and start working on a final design and making sure that they’re aware of
how that system would function. How it would look and moving forward.
Bill Finlayson: Okay, that’s all I have, thanks.
Paul Oehme: Okay.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you sir. Anyone else who would like to address the council this evening? Good
evening.
Tom Ruhland: Just a couple probably obvious questions. Tom Ruhland, right on the corner of
Greenbriar.
Mayor Furlong: And what’s your street address sir?
Tom Ruhland: 6211.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you.
Tom Ruhland: When they hook up the temporary water, how does that, is that going to be connected
somehow or does the existing underground? So it’s going to eventually still go through the water meter
and everything?
Paul Oehme: No, it actually does not go through the water meter. What we have to do is back feed it
through your house so basically the spigot on your house or the hose for your lawn system, we would
hook up a temporary water pipe basically, PVC pipe to that spigot and back feed it through your house so
there’s a lot of coordination that goes along with that. Our utility department typically handles a lot of
that coordination but it does not, it bypasses your meter.
Tom Ruhland: So then it’s going to bypass the water softener too.
Paul Oehme: We ask that your water softener be shut off for this short period.
Tom Ruhland: How long is this?
Paul Oehme: Well it’s about 6 months I think to get the watermain in. Or 6 weeks, I’m sorry.
Tom Ruhland: So we won’t have soft water for 6 months?
Paul Oehme: No, for 6 weeks, I’m sorry. 6 weeks. So you know just for that first phase and you know I
think that that first phase 6 weeks but you know typically we try to have that water system up and running
before the streets are paved and storm sewer system goes in there so you know it all depends on how the
project goes. What the weather, how the weather’s treating us. You know how many delays we have but
I think 6 weeks is a pretty good estimate at this time.
Tom Ruhland: And then a question about the boulevard. Obviously they’re going to be tearing up some
of the boulevard to put the curb in I would think. I don’t know how far back they’re going to have to go
in there. So then are they going to be responsible for re-leveling and are they going to sod it?
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Chanhassen City Council – April 23, 2012
Paul Oehme: Yeah, absolutely. The contractor’s responsible for placing topsoil in the back of the curb
then. Re-leveling everything out. Re-shaping your lawn and typically that stays within the right-of-way
and then also sodding back your lawn as much…
Tom Ruhland: Because I know they put in some fiber optics and they made kind of a mess down in the
corner there and just threw a few seeds in there and called it good you know.
Paul Oehme: No. No, we always spec out sod.
Tom Ruhland: Okay, thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Anyone else this evening that would like to address the council? If not,
we’ll close the public hearing. Is there anyone else? Okay, with that is there a motion to close the public
hearing?
Councilwoman Tjornhom: So moved.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Is there a second?
Councilwoman Ernst: Second.
Mayor Furlong: Any discussion on the motion to close the public hearing?
Councilwoman Tjornhom moved, Councilwoman Ernst 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: Let’s bring it back to council then for any follow-up questions or comments and
discussion? Councilwoman Tjornhom.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: I have one little question. There were some good questions raised here
tonight, especially about water softeners and practical day to day things that will be, could be a nuisance
or a hindrance to people’s lives and so on the postcards that we send out, is it going to talk about that or
how will they know?
Paul Oehme: Yep. Yep, absolutely. That first postcard that we send out, it has the construction
inspector’s cell phone number. Also the contractor’s contact information. The contact information for
engineering department as well and then also kind of identifies what the process is for that temporary
water system as well. That’s the initial notification card. When the temporary water system is ready to
be installed, there’s another notification that goes on after that and then our utility department typically
would meet with, or schedule an appointment with each of the property owners that kind of explains
what’s going to be happening out there. We’ll also bring the contractor along at that time to show them
where the connections are if something fails so it’s, we try to visit or meet with the property owners on an
individual basis to let them know what’s, how the system’s going to work. What we need to do to
temporary hook up the water to their house and for this short time period.
Mayor Furlong: Any other questions? Comments, discussion on the project as a whole or the proposal in
front of us. Mr. McDonald, thoughts?
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Chanhassen City Council – April 23, 2012
Councilman McDonald: Well I mean it sounds as though it’s going to be a pretty involved project. As I
said back in the work session today with the Environmental Commission, we’re trying a lot of new things
so be interesting to see how all this works out. There’s a lot of new technology going into this that could
be of great benefit going forward so I’d be interested to see how this comes together.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. Councilwoman Tjornhom, any thoughts?
Councilwoman Tjornhom: My only thought is, once again I remember 8 years ago, 7 years ago when I
was on the council and these assessments were really rough. You know there wasn’t always a lot of
communication with residents and city staff and once again I think this process has been smooth and I
think most people agree that it’s a project that needs to be done and so I think it will hopefully, it will be
beneficial to the neighborhood and it will be beneficial to its residents so thank you everybody. Residents
and staff and contractors.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Councilwoman Ernst, any comments?
Councilwoman Ernst: Yeah I agree with Councilman McDonald. I think we have some new technology
going into this and I think it’s going to be interesting to see what the results are. I’m anxious to see it. I
do agree it’s a project that needs to be done so I will support it.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. My comments would be similar. I think that this is one street project,
reconstruction project that has been on our plans for a number of years. I remember calls I received from
residents in this neighborhoods 4, 5, 6 years ago saying that their roads need to be done and while we
haven’t been sitting around doing nothing for that time period, we were working on other parts of the city,
I think this does speak to having a long term plan and letting people know that this neighborhood was
scheduled for 2012 and we’re moving in 2012 and we have other neighborhoods scheduled going forward
so I commend staff for their ability to plan long term and then to execute against that plan. I think there’s
credibility there. I think there are some new features going into this neighborhood, specifically with
stormwater management. More of an emphasize on rain gardens. While we’ve done those in the past on
some projects, Laredo Drive comes to mind, there’s a little bit more opportunity for a few more of those
in this neighborhood and I think it’s great that some of the residents have expressed interest in doing that
and if we move forward with this project, which I expect we will tonight, we’ll be able to get into some
more of those details and make sure that that’s going to work for everybody. The iron system for taking
out phosphorus is new. It’ll be interesting to see how it works but I also give staff credit for looking for
new ways to do what needs to be done. This is a neighborhood that was built and created before we had
the current expectation with regard to treating stormwater before it goes into our lakes and creeks and
streams and rivers and so there’s a new expectation now and when we complete these reconstruction
projects it’s the opportunity to update not only the utilities underneath the ground but also those utilities,
stormwater utilities that deal with water running across the top of the ground so thank you again to staff
for doing that. And for their efforts I know earlier on there was some efforts in terms of redesigning the
project in terms of the street construction materials and such like that and that ended up saving money.
Not just for the City but for the residents too so thank you for your continual desire to look for ways to
get us good products at the lowest possible cost and get the best value for City taxpayers and the residents
who are picking up a significant portion of this project as well, so overall my thanks to everybody. The
residents, the staff for working together on this and hopefully you continue to work together throughout
the project. Anytime we’re doing a project like this, there will be inconveniences and I know staff has
done a good job, and to Councilwoman Tjornhom’s comments, they’ve learned over the years too to be in
ways to help everybody so take advantage of their expertise. I would encourage residents to do that and
seek their guidance if you have some questions because they’ve been through these projects year after
year and know what’s worked well for other residents so we certainly hope that everything will work out
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Chanhassen City Council – April 23, 2012
well here. With that, if there are no other comments, again thank you to everybody involved and I would
certainly entertain a motion at this time.
Councilman McDonald: I’ll do the motion. The City Council accepts the bids and awards the contract
for the 2012 Street Reconstruction and Utility Project #12-01 to Northwest Asphalt Incorporated in the
amount of $2,238,857.15. And then the City Council adopts the assessment roll for City Project #12-01,
Minnewashta Heights Street and Utility Reconstruction and the attached resolutions.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Is there a second?
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Second.
Mayor Furlong: Motion’s been made and seconded. Is there any discussion? Seeing none we’ll proceed
with the vote.
Resolution #2012-28: Councilman McDonald moved, Councilwoman Tjornhom seconded that the
Chanhassen City Council accepts the bids and awards the contract for the 2012 Street
Reconstruction and Utility Project No. 12-01 to Northwest Asphalt, Inc in the amount of
$2,238,857.15 and adopts the assessment roll for City Project 12-01, Minnewashta Heights Street
and Utility Reconstruction and the attached resolution. All voted in favor and the motion carried
unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0.
Mayor Furlong: Look forward to hearing how the project proceeds. Thank you everyone.
PUBLIC HEARING: REQUEST FOR OFF-SALE INTOXICATING LIQUOR LICENSE,
CROSSROADS CENTER AT THE NORTHWEST QUADRANT OF CR 101 AND LYMAN
BOULEVARD; NORTH BY NORTH, LLC DBA THE VINTAGE.
Laurie Hokkanen: As you covered it’s a request for an off-sale intoxicating liquor license. The store will
be called The Vintage located in the to be constructed retail center at Crossroads at Chanhassen. Staff did
conduct the required background checks on both the owner, Terrance North and the store manager,
Michael Clausen. Other than driving violations that have been satisfied, no outstanding issues were
found. The owner does have another location in West St. Paul. We did a check and found no violations
at that location. A public hearing notice was sent out to all the property owners within 500 feet and we
have not received any public comment to date. We would recommend approval following the public
hearing.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any questions for staff by members of the council?
Councilwoman Tjornhom: I just had one clarification.
Mayor Furlong: Councilwoman Tjornhom.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Sorry. This license just stays with this project correct, so if they decide not to
put a liquor store there, or have a license, another person can’t come in without going through the same
process.
Laurie Hokkanen: Absolutely.
Mayor Furlong: It stays with the applicant, is that right?
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Chanhassen City Council – April 23, 2012
Todd Gerhardt: And location.
Mayor Furlong: And location? Okay. And location both, okay. Good question. Any other questions?
Hearing none, let’s go ahead and open the public hearing and I would invite any interested party to come
forward and address the council on this matter. Please come forward to the podium stating your name
and address. Seeing nobody, without objection we’ll close the public hearing. Bring it back to council
for discussion and a motion. Any discussion? I would just add that, I think it was our last meeting or the
meeting before where we approved the site plan for a new building, the Primrose in this area and now to
see another application, to see Kraus-Anderson as the developer of this area around Kwik Trip to have
more activity, I think that’s just a great sign for Chanhassen and for everyone in and around the area so
this is going to be a multi-tenant building as I understand it. Is that correct?
Kate Aanenson: That’s correct.
Mayor Furlong: So that would imply other businesses as well, businesses that don’t need the same level
of permitting as this business would so I think this is a positive step forward and thank staff for their
diligence in doing the research but we certainly support the approval of the liquor license. If there’s no
other comments would anyone care to make a motion please.
Councilwoman Ernst: Sure.
Mayor Furlong: Councilwoman Ernst.
Councilwoman Ernst: I make a motion that City Council approve the request for an off-sale intoxicating
liquor license from North by North, LLC dba The Vintage contingent upon receipt of liquor liability
insurance and the license fee.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Is there a second?
Councilman McDonald: Second.
Mayor Furlong: Motion’s been made and seconded. Any discussion on the motion? Hearing none, we’ll
proceed with the vote.
Councilwoman Ernst moved, Councilman McDonald seconded that the City Council approve the
request for an off-sale intoxicating liquor license from North by North, LLC dba The Vintage
contingent upon receipt of liquor liability insurance and the license fee. All voted in favor and the
motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0.
COUNCIL PRESENTATIONS.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: I attended the District 112 Teacher Appreciation Dinner last night and it was
inspiring to see the good quality of education we have in this district. I was impressed with every story
that was told about the teachers and I wish I could grab all them up and teach my children. Unfortunately
that probably isn’t going to happen but I just want to thank all the teachers in this district for the sacrifice
and the commitment they have to their job and our children because it’s a tough job and they do a really
good job at it so. Our applicant did not win, Angie. Coach Angie. She’s the girls basketball coach but
she was certainly honored and certainly deserved to also win so while she didn’t win she’s a winner in my
book.
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Chanhassen City Council – April 23, 2012
Mayor Furlong: Alright, very good. Thank you. And thank you for being there in my place. Any other
council presentations?
ADMINISTRATIVE PRESENTATIONS.
Todd Gerhardt: Just a couple things. Councilmember Laufenburger and myself attended the Tree House
program and they’re just doing a great job over there and helping some at risk teens work through some
of their issues. Giving them a place to hang out. Get some counseling and to stay active. It sounds like
they have a great time there and I look at some volunteering opportunities, not just for City staff but
anybody that might be interested. They’re looking for volunteers. They’ve got a variety of different
activities that they need help with but every Tuesday and Thursday they provide meals to the group and
always looking for servers and preparers to provide those meals to the group so just a fun luncheon and to
learn about their program so. And then the last item, we did receive a grant from Minnegasco to go
towards the purchase of a thermal camera and you’ll probably see that on our next consent agenda for
council consideration so we’ve been pretty successful with those grants in the past and we were
successful again.
Mayor Furlong: Good, thank you. Any questions for Mr. Gerhardt?
Councilwoman Ernst: Mayor I do have a question. Well actually it’s in regards to the correspondence
packet.
Mayor Furlong: We’ll get there in just a second.
Councilwoman Ernst: Okay, sorry.
Mayor Furlong: No, that’s fine. Anything else?
CORRESPONDENCE DISCUSSION.
Mayor Furlong: Councilwoman Ernst, anything?
Councilwoman Ernst: Just a question. I’m wondering on the correspondence packet, particularly under
those ACH payments if we can get just a brief description as to what the payments are. Or what they’re
for.
Todd Gerhardt: Those are our health savings account. That’s where employees put money into health
savings.
Councilwoman Ernst: So, okay. Maybe we can discuss a couple of those, the questions I have offline
then.
Todd Gerhardt: Sure.
Councilwoman Ernst: Okay.
Mayor Furlong: Any other comments on the correspondence packet? There was a handout in there, a
presentation in there from MnDOT regarding the Highway 5 project. I think most members of the council
saw it. This is something, Highway 5 project that has been in the planning stages for a number of years
and construction I think is going to start at the 41 and Highway 5 intersection. Mr. Oehme this month
still or early next? We’re almost done with this month so.
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Chanhassen City Council – April 23, 2012
Paul Oehme: I think it’s the first of May. First week in May now.
stth
Todd Gerhardt: Stage 1 May 1 through the 15.
th
Mayor Furlong: First through the 15 so, that’s only a week or so away right now so there will be limited
movements. Limited turning possibilities for people at Highway 5 and 41 and then later in May more
work is going to be done on Highway 5, even to the point of come summer, complete closure of sections
of Highway 5 towards Victoria as well so, if people are interested in getting more information on this,
MnDOT website would be a good place to go, is that correct?
Todd Gerhardt: Yeah. The www.dot.state.mndot.us and then go under metro projects and then Highway
5 Victoria is the title of the Highway 5 improvements.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. And I think they can, people can sign up for email notification at that site as well,
is that correct?
Todd Gerhardt: That is correct.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, and that would be regular emails on the project with, as changes occur and such
like that. This is a big project. As members of the council and staff we’ve been dealing with it for a
while, and while we’ve been talking about it I think as construction starts it’s going to affect people that
use Highway 5 on a regular basis. Also I would encourage people, not that regularly patronize businesses
in Victoria as they do here in Chanhassen, to continue to try to patronize the same businesses. Especially
in Victoria with the closures that are going to happen there. The business owners are very concerned
about the effect on business that this project will have so if there’s an opportunity to, I would ask people
to make the extra effort necessary to continue to patronize those businesses as well and we have worked
very well together and the City has worked with us on this project and so I certainly hope that we can
maintain that relationship and encourage people to patronize those businesses if they regularly do so
currently. Any other comments on the correspondence package? If not, City Council will be completing
its unfinished business in our work session immediately afterwards continuing that. If there’s nothing
else to come before the council this evening, is there a motion to adjourn?
Councilwoman Ernst moved, Councilman McDonald 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 8:35 p.m.
Submitted by Todd Gerhardt
City Manager
Prepared by Nann Opheim
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