CC 2012 11 26 CHANHASSEN CITY COUNCIL
REGULAR MEETING
NOVEMBER 26, 2012
Mayor Furlong called the meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. The meeting was opened with the Pledge to
the Flag.
COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Furlong, Councilman McDonald, Councilwoman
Tjornhom, Councilwoman Ernst, and Councilman Laufenburger
STAFF PRESENT: Todd Gerhardt, Laurie Hokkanen, Roger Knutson, Todd Hoffman and Greg Sticha
PUBLIC PRESENT:
Greg Fletcher 7616 South Shore Drive
Steve Donen 7341 Frontier Trail
Joe Shneider 1035 Holley Lane
Tom Devine 7640 South Shore Drive
Ron Kleve 7307 Laredo Drive
Beth Peta, Bountiful Basket Food Shelf 1065 Trails End Road
Mayor Furlong: Thank you and good evening to everyone here in the council chambers as well as those
watching at home. We're glad that you joined us this evening. At this time I would ask members of the
council if there are any changes or modifications to the agenda. If not we will proceed with the agenda as
published without objection.
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: INVITATION TO TREE LIGHTING CEREMONY.
Mayor Furlong: At this time I'd like to start with an invitation to the City's park tree lighting program.
Ceremony this coming Saturday. As the holiday season approaches I'm excited to invite everyone to the
annual Chanhassen tradition. It's the 2012 Tree Lighting Ceremony presented by the City of Chanhassen
and by Chanhassen Organization. I invite all area residents, their families and friends to join me and my
family on Saturday, December 1s 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. in the plaza at City Center Park. People of all ages
will enjoy activities including the official lighting of the Chanhassen park and trees, refreshments,
caroling, gingerbread house displays in the senior center, live reindeer and a special visit from Santa. The
event is free. Registration is not required so please come and join us. They're talking about a warm day
potentially on Saturday but should be a fun event for all so please come and share some holiday cheer
with everyone at our City Center Park on Saturday, this coming Saturday, December 1 at 5:00 p.m.
CONSENT AGENDA: Councilman McDonald moved, Councilwoman Ernst seconded to approve
the following consent agenda items pursuant to the City Manager's recommendations:
a. Approval of Minutes:
- City Council Work Session Minutes dated October 22, 2012
-City Council Verbatim and Summary Minutes dated October 22, 2012
- Canvass Board Summary Minutes dated November 13, 2012
- City Council Work Session Minutes dated November 13, 2012
-City Council Verbatim and Summary Minutes dated November 13, 2012
b. Resolution #2012 -64: Approve Resolution Certifying Hookup Charges to Property Taxes.
Chanhassen City Council — November 26, 2012
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
VISITOR PRESENTATIONS.
Steve Donen: Good evening. Steve Donen, 7341 Frontier Trail, Chanhassen.
Mayor Furlong: Good evening Mr. Donen.
Steve Donen: Good evening. First of all thank you very much for the pre- session today where we were
able to review the AIS program that we put on last summer. It was a combination of the City, the
watershed, the DNR and the Lotus Lake Conservation Alliance. Greatly appreciate it and it was a good
start and I'd like to compliment Todd for his efforts on that whole program. Helping keeping all of us
stray dogs kind of in a line here. Sometimes that cannot be so easy but as with any good program it's a
good start and we need to learn from how it went and we're starting to. We've been analyzing the data
that Todd put together but I want to remind everybody that the lake is really, all the lakes in the area are
what I always quote one boat away from being infected. It's water. It's a plant. It's the water that's left
in a boat. Any boat. Any watercraft can do this. Can carry it so we're one boat away. And you know
when we learned, I've learned that we started the program on fishing opener around the middle of May
and we ended it towards the end of September. I can promise you all that boats don't start coming on
Lotus Lake in the middle of May and they don't stop going on the lake at the end of September. Also the
boats that come on before May are probably no more, had the same possibility or odds of having an
infection, making an infection on the lake as well as anybody that comes before or after so what we would
like, what we would recommend from the LLCA is that we would like to see the program expanded.
We'd like to see the City, the Watershed and the Lotus Lake Conservation Alliance get together and try to
develop an expanded program because again we're one boat away. I know this involves more funds.
This year we had $30,000 in the general fund put towards the program. We spent $10,000 on inspections
from the City. We spent a few more thousand on the, some of the improvements that we made but we
had $30,000 in general fund this year. If we were to spend, go ahead and allocate that same funding this
year to this year's program, we work with the Watershed and get their funding increased, the Lotus Lake
Conservation Alliance stays where we are, which is a lot of money for a group of people there, then I
think we could really expand the program well and we wouldn't, and the watershed I think would work
with us on getting those funds and it wouldn't affect the budget more than you had last year. So I
recommend that you again we in January when we all come back from the new year and that the different
groups get together and try to work out a program that could be more inclusive. More encompassing.
Again we're one boat away but again thank you for the good start. We had a good program last year and
appreciated everybody working together to get it done. Thank you very much.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Anyone else visitor presentations?
Joe Shneider: I'm Joe Shneider, 1035 Holly Lane in Chan. First of all thanks for giving me the
opportunity to speak. I want to bring just a few points to your attention, recognizing that you just had a
working session about aquatic invasive species. So the data that you saw tonight as well as the data that
I've seen from the DNR on other lakes and Lake Minnewashta specifically, our lakes clearly are at risk of
getting additional aquatic invasive species. Whether it's one boat that's carrying a zebra mussels or
whether it's a lot of boats that are carrying zebra mussels, the lakes are clearly at risk and the DNR cannot
protect the waters in Chanhassen. As much as you'd like to believe that they can, they simply are not
available to do that. The data points again from the DNR's own data, own published data is the list of
invasive species infestations keeps climbing. This has not been stemmed. This is not been stopped. It is
getting worse so please if you see DNR data and it only stops at 2009, recognize there's another few years
and we're at the beginning of a hockey stick so it's, it's not very pretty. And the DNR can't do this work.
I think it's clear to you hopefully now after a year of spending some of your own money from the coffers
2
Chanhassen City Council — November 26, 2012
of the City as well as the watershed districts, the DNR can't do it without significant investments from a
lot of other groups. Whether that be counties, cities, watershed districts, lake associations, you name it.
It's going to take a bigger effort from a lot of people. Now I am absolutely thrilled that you acted in
2012. You put together a program that made a first good first start. Steve Donen just outlined some of
the things that they'd like to see different. I'm just glad you acted. I would also say that before you do
any end zone dancing about protecting the waters in 2012, that you need to recognize there's a 2 to 3 year
gestation period so you hope that you have stopped everything in 2012 but you will know if you stopped
it from zebra mussels and other invasive species unfortunately about 2 or 3 years from now. So you have
to remain vigilant. You have to understand that you're doing the best you can on an annual basis but you
won't know for a while and that's, you know that's just a reality of the science. I'd also like to highlight
some points from an editorial that Steve Gunther, a Chanhassen resident who lives on Lake Minnewashta
penned last year and it was about the AIS threat list and the reality is that most of us today think about
AIS and we think about Eurasian Water Milfoil, and we think about zebra mussels and now we're starting
to think about Asian Carp, right. That's been a wonderful way that the DNR has been able to personify
the risk of aquatic invasive species. But what's not visible, what most people don't know and
unfortunately most elected officials don't know is that the AIS threat list is very long and when you go to
AIS conferences and you hear the experts around the state and around the country talk about the AIS
threat list you find out that what we have today, what we recognize as aquatic invasive species, zebra
mussels and Eurasian Water Milfoil are not the worst things that are coming and the worst things that are
coming include things like Hydrilla and Hydrilla is a plant. So it's vegetation coming in from the south.
It's already as high as Indiana and they call it milfoil on steroids so you have to remain vigilant. I
applaud you for doing what you did in 2012. I encourage you to keep doing more. I encourage you to do
as much or more than the Lotus Lake Conservation Alliance has asked you to do but it's, it's really a long
term risk. It doesn't go away if you get zebra mussels because the things that are coming are worst.
Thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Others. If there's someone else on this topic let's have everybody on this
topic talk and actually let's, since we're getting kind of the same thing over and over, let's keep, we don't
need to keep repeating I guess but good evening sir.
Ron Kleve: Good evening. My name's Ron Kleve, 7307 Laredo Drive.
Mayor Furlong: Good evening Mr. Kleve.
Ron Kleve: I am a board member of LLCA. I am also a member of the Sunrise Hills Association and I
am a boat owner, waterskier so I believe I represent a lot of people. A lot of, this topic is very interesting
to me. Been a resident since 1984. We bought a boat in 1996. We bought it one month before we moved
to Sunrise Hills. When we decided to buy the house we were really concerned about being able to afford
this boat and what it turned out to be was the best decision we ever made. We loved it. We could go up
to the corner, make a right, go down about 10 homes, turn right into the Sunrise Hills beach area and
launch the boat and we just loved it. The LLCA approached Sunrise Hills this spring about using the
public boat launch instead of the boat ramp at Sunrise Hills and you know there was, there were 55 homes
as part of Sunrise Hills and the majority voted to close the boat ramp for inbound traffic and use the
public boat ramp. There's maybe 7 lakeshore owners that are members so the group is more of non -
lakeshore owners than Lakeshore owners and that to me proves that this is more of an interest of the group.
And so what we did, you know 2 years ago I self imposed some restrictions because I also go to Lake
Minnetonka. I wouldn't put my boat into Lotus Lake until 3 days after I went into Minnetonka. When I
pulled out of Minnetonka I would go straight to the car wash and wash off my boat. With an 18 year old
boat user I wasn't the biggest fan when I told him that he couldn't use the boat at Lotus until Thursday.
So there's been some personal sacrifices that I've had to do. My family's had to do to approach this AIS
species problem but you know it's a sacrifice that I've had to make and I don't think it's too much to ask
3
Chanhassen City Council — November 26, 2012
other people to make. So when I'm up here talking about it and thinking of imposing restrictions on
people, I'm not saying it should be for somebody else. Myself is included on this. I feel strongly about
this. I think it's a no brainer on tightening things up. And you know it's really not that bad if we have to
go down and make some restrictions. I think minimal is adding a gate to the boat launch and enforce the
park hours. I think that's minimal so thank you for your time.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you Mr. Kleve. Anyone else on this topic? No. Alright, that's fine. And I do
appreciate and I'll be right with you ma'am. I know you're on the, Ms. Peta. We did have a discussion
on this in the work session. We got the year end report. We've had multiple meetings and discussions
over the years and I think you know the nature of this program was one that really did pull together not
just city and residents together to work for a common goal, but also watershed districts were strong
participant in the program. The DNR provided funding and training and actually grant dollars, actual
inspection time as well as funding towards, to offset some of the funding from the City. The City acted as
the overall administrator but it was a program that I think while it was a voluntary inspection program, in
other words there was no mandate that inspections take place, there were no refusals for inspections either
and I think that's a very positive sign that the users of the accesses and people who use the lakes are
learning about this issue and are understanding the importance to make sure things are done right. The
other thing that I thought was good about this program that we don't talk much about is that it was, while
there were inbound inspections, there were also outbound inspections and as much as we don't want
invasive species coming into any of the city lakes, we also don't want any invasive species that are in our
lakes already going to some other lake and so I think that's an important aspect of this program that
perhaps doesn't get as much weight because of the, some of the comments that were made but
nonetheless it's there and I think the public education piece of our program was also high. While the
inspections provide both a compliance check, it also provides an education opportunity and there are a
number of other vehicles used, The Connection, the Villager and the City's website and other ways to get
the word out there. We did see a very high compliance rate. It's much higher than those published by the
DNR in terms of some of the other statements as well and we heard from the DNR representative this
evening, Mr. Japs that some of their, some of the non- compliance numbers in the newspaper are the
roadside compliance and therefore might be a little bit higher in terms of failure to comply than what the
DNR's actually seeing at it's inspection sites at boat ramps, which is also a positive statement that for
whatever reason they're not compliance driving there. Maybe the plug's in but by the time they get there
they, the user's figured it out and come into compliance so I think there are a lot of positives with the
program and I think it's really a credit to our residents and the other organizations that worked with us to
help put a program together that I think was successful by most every measure. Can you do more? You
can always do more so I think let's not diminish what we've done by assuming that it's not enough. We
may not know for a few years the success rate, as was mentioned this evening by Mr. Shneider but you
know we put this program in place last year not knowing if the lakes were already infested anyway so I
think what we've tried to do is move forward. I think we've done that and this has come up a number of
times. I'd certainly, if any other council members want to make any comments before we move on. I
don't want to take a lot of time tonight but this has come up. We had it on a work session and if others
would like to make any comments you're certainly free to do so. If not we'll move on. I'm sorry.
Councilwoman Ernst: We can move on as far as I'm concerned.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. That's fine. We do have a presentation tonight from a representative from the
Bountiful Basket Food Shelf. Beth Peta is here this evening. Good evening Ms. Peta.
Beth Peta: Good evening. Good evening. My naive is Beth Peta, 10065 Trails End Road in Chanhassen
and I am here tonight representing the Bountiful Basket Food Shelf. I sit on their Board of Directors.
There's actually been a lot of changes taking place over the last year with the Bountiful Basket. It's a
food shelf that's located right here in Carver County, specifically serving eastern Carver County so I've
4
Chanhassen City Council — November 26, 2012
got a power point presentation tonight that I'd like to walk through and then at the end I'd be more than
happy to answer any questions that you might have.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you.
Beth Peta: Now we did get this working before. Okay, so we can go onto the next one. So some hunger
facts just to share with you. Many of you are probably very well aware but there are thousands of
Minnesotans that are struggling with hunger. They're hard working adults, that children, families, seniors
that are forced to do without food for several meals or even several days. Here's one of the facts.
Minnesotans in need missed an average of 10 meals per month and specifically with Bountiful Basket
they have served on average about 380 plus eastern Carver County households monthly between 2011
and 2012 and that number is actually up 10% from the prior year. In 2011 Bountiful Basket began a
process of reorganizing it's volunteer efforts. Prior to that it was actually underneath the CAP Agency
but in 2011 it came out onto it's own. One of the things it did was appoint a 13 member Board of
Directors. It created a mission, vision and value statement. It was seeking a permanent location to be
housed and it entered into a fiscal agent agreement with the CAP Agency and it has been creating and
implementing a community outreach effort and that's one of the reasons why I'm here tonight. Here we
go. I won't necessarily read through them but this is the mission, vision and values but I think one of the
things that I do want to articulate is that with the food shelf we really want to assist and empower people
in times of need to achieve social and economic well being by providing food in partnership with the
communities that we serve, and that was the mission statement. Here we go. Bountiful gasket is a 100%
volunteer operated. Every person there is volunteering their time. There is no paid staff. Food and
money donations are the financial source for the operation and as I mentioned they are affiliated with the
CAP Agency that acts as a fiscal agent specifically around contracting for insurance and food
procurement. If someone needs assistance from Bountiful Basket food assistance, the way that they can
do it is they can register and literally shop on the same day. There's no waiting. They need to bring in a
valid picture ID, proof of residence that they are living in eastern Carver County and then a utility bill will
work just fine and they're allowed to come in and shop once per month, and the way that they approach
this is they have what they call a choice shopping approach. Patrons actually walk around the food shelf
with a cart and choose items from particular areas, and they're able to choose things that they like and
they will use and we think that that's the most effective way to do that and then we ask them to schedule
appointments and they're available and they're encouraged going forward again they can come in
monthly. So it's been serving eastern Carver County for the last 4 years and specifically the cities of
Chaska, Chanhassen, Carver, and Victoria and as I had mentioned earlier approximately 400 families by
the end of this last fiscal year are relying on the Bountiful Basket Food Shelf. That number continues to
grow literally each month as the year progressed. More than 25,000 pounds of food are distributed each
month and this is a really compelling fact. For every dollar that is donated Bountiful Basket can turn that
into $9 worth of food. And so some of the things that we're doing as a part of our community outreach
and partnership, we're looking to build and as I said there were a lot of changes that took place over the
last year and I'll say one specifically was the more to a permanent location. The food shelf actually twice
last, this last year and so we're now in the final permanent location. So we want to build community
awareness and so we're going out and we're giving presentations at community and civic events. We
have signage and tables at community events. We're asking for links to websites. Mentions in
newsletters. We want to make sure that anyone in need of food in eastern Carver County knows about us
and knows where to find us. We are also working in partnership with the community to do donation,
fundraising and food drives as well as volunteers. As I had mentioned it's 100% volunteer organization
so we're always looking for volunteers to help. And I wanted to share one thing that we have going on
right now specifically. It's our first annual fundraising campaign. It's called Neighbors that Care Share
and 100% of the donations are going to help purchase food and over the last 12 months we've actually
handed out over 300,000 pounds of food to individuals in the communities that we serve and I had
mentioned that every dollar can be turned into $9 worth of food and that really equates to 3 meals and so
5
Chanhassen City Council — November 26, 2012
we're looking to get the word out on how folks can help so one, we're looking to get awareness out
around this campaign. Is there a newsletter or a regular communication that goes out, especially in this
month of December where the campaign might be mentioned. Or raise funds or make a donation. The
Bountiful Basket is a 501c3 non -profit organization and all contributions are tax deductible. And as I had
mentioned this is the first annual fundraising campaign. Again we intend to repeat this year after year.
It's similar to the Give Where you Live and those other types of campaigns or Live United for United
Way. This is going to be our campaign going forward. And just to share with you where that new
permanent location is. The Bountiful Basket Food Shelf is located in the city of Chaska. It's at 1600
Bavaria Road but as I had mentioned it actually serves all of eastern Carver County. There is a website,
BountifulBasketFoodShelf.org where individuals interested in donating, volunteering, contributing can
learn more about what's going on at the food shelf or what items are needed. We'll post out there what
are items that are needed most often, or folks that are interested or in need of help can certainly learn
more about it. The hours, open every day except for Thursday and on Saturdays, the first and third
Thursday of each month. 9:00 a.m. to noon to make it convenient for folks to come in and either donate
or use the food shelf for their services. And just to let you know who some of the folks that I work with,
on the board of directors, Tom Redmond is our Chairman and he is a person to reach out to if folks are
interested in learning more about how to partner with the food shelf. We also have a Volunteer
Coordinator who's at the Food Shelf. Her name is Linda Frey and if anyone was interested in either
having a group of folks come volunteer or they personally want to volunteer they can reach out to Linda.
In terms of food or monetary donations, at the food shelf either food or monetary donations can be made
and in additional monetary donations can be made online at BountifulBasketFoodShelf.org. We're
utilizing Pay Pal as a way to make credit card donations to the food shelf. So that's pretty much it that I
wanted to share tonight. As I said lots of changes going on now into the permanent location and really
wanting to reach out to the communities that we serve.
Mayor Furlong: Very good, thank you. What's, thank you very much. What's your relationship now
with the CAP Agency? I think a lot of people are familiar with the agency or the CAP Agency as a name
and so what is your ongoing relationship with them?
Beth Peta: Well previously they used to literally be, have an office right near the food shelf which was
the old location so no longer are we affiliated in that way. The CAP Agency is our fiscal agent for
insurance and for food procurement so through, you know through our ways of obtaining food, other than
that we are out on our own as a separate and distinct food shelf. No longer sharing office space. No
longer doing any of the things that they previously had done when they were physically in the same place
so it's just a financial or a fiscal agent.
Mayor Furlong: And how do you leverage the dollars contributed? I think at one point you said $1 dollar
contributed equates to $9 dollars of food. How do you do that or what is the mechanism to leverage that?
Beth Peta: Well basically you know we have a way of obtaining food through, gosh now I'm blanking on
what it's called. One of the large food shelves within the Twin Cities area and so basically in doing so we
can purchase food from them and are able to take that $1 dollar and turn it into $9 dollars worth of food.
And so that's really how that works. It's through the sources for obtaining food that the Bountiful Basket
Food Shelf has.
Mayor Furlong: Okay very good. Any other questions?
Councilman Laufenburger: I do have a question.
Mayor Furlong: Councilman Laufenburger.
6
Chanhassen City Council — November 26, 2012
Councilman Laufenburger: Beth, thanks very much not only for what you're doing with the Bountiful,
what Bountiful Basket is doing but to you and the other volunteers that are making this part of the passion
that you live out. There are other food shelves in the area. Can you talk a little bit about how Bountiful
Basket, you say your distribution policy of food versus say ICA or Prop or some of the other ones. Can
you talk a little bit about that?
Beth Peta: Sure. Sure. Well I think you know first and foremost you're right. There are other food
shelves in the area. I think from an eastern Carver County standpoint there is a food shelf out in Waconia
which serves that particular area but I think in eastern Carver County Bountiful Basket is you know.
Councilman Laufenburger: You're it.
Beth Peta: One of, yes. Yes, is the one representing that area but you're right for folks that live in the
City of Chanhassen they do have the option to go to Prop. That is something that is available to them.
We service those areas that we spoke to and the way that we validate that is through that you know utility
bill.
Councilman Laufenburger: Right.
Beth Peta: And so those are the areas that we want to focus on. Those are the areas where our clientele
come from and so from a distribution standpoint, again we allow them to come in once a month. I'm not
quite sure what Prop's frequency is. I think it might be similar to that so I don't know that we necessarily
have a different distribution policy other than the real focus on the eastern Carver County area and
insuring that we are able to meet the needs of those clientele. I do know going forward we have identified
what we call a list of core food items that we as a food shelf want to make sure that we always have
available to our clientele. Those are the things that are key for you know a diet. Sources of protein,
vegetables, you know those sort of items and those are going to be core areas where we focus going
forward so when we reach out and purchase food we're going to make sure that those areas that are
covered first and we think that, from a food sourcing and a food distribution standpoint is also going to
make you know what we do more effective.
Councilman Laufenburger: Thank you Beth.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. Any other questions? Thank you very much for coming and thanks
for the service you provide.
Beth Peta: You bet, thank you for your time.
Mayor Furlong: Anyone else for visitor presentations? Thank you to everyone. Let's move on now to
the next items under our agenda.
LAW ENFORCEMENT/FIRE DEPARTMENT UPDATE.
Mayor Furlong: Good evening Lieutenant.
Lt. Jeff Enevold: Mr. Mayor, council. Good evening. I also have a short power point presentation for
you tonight. It's to update you on the Citizens Academy that recently wrapped up here. We started on
September 1 I and it ran through October 30` I'm just going to give you a few updates on some of the
things we did and show you some photos and first thing I'd like to do is say thank you to all of you for
your support of this program. It's a great program to reach out and connect with our citizens and I've got
to tell you I really had a lot of fun doing this thing. I really enjoyed it so thank you for your support. Is
7
Chanhassen City Council — November 26, 2012
this like a taser? No, no. Okay. Here's kind of a breakdown on what we did. Week 1 we took a tour of
the jail and the dispatch center. I gave them a little breakdown of the contract policing and how that
works. Week 2 we had the narcotics. We had our Drug Task Force Commander come in and kind of do a
little show and tell. Pass around some of the drugs that they've confiscated. We then had the drug canine
come in and talk about his dog and we hid some drugs in the senior center and I hope we found them all
but he sniffed them out and we found them all and they enjoyed that. The last thing we did Week 2 was a
taser demo and we actually brought in a target and had them fire at the target and you could see the sparks
flying and their eyes lit up and they really enjoyed that and I'm glad they didn't point it at me and shoot
me but, Week 3 we did some crime scene processing. There was a vacant house in the community that
we went out there and we set up some actual crime scenes and they had to go in there and sketch it and
collect evidence, and had evidence bags and we actually had them lift some finger prints. Showed them
how to do that and they really had a blast doing that. Week 4 we went out to law enforcement training
facility which is out in Jordan and we'll see some photos of that. We got into the driving simulator and
the shooting simulator. They had a blast doing that. Todd came out and supported us there so we
appreciate that. Week 5 we had juvenile crimes. We had Bob Zydowsky, our school resource officer
come in. We talked about some domestic violence. We actually ran through some scenarios with them.
Traffic safety. Traffic stops. We did DUI training. We actually brought in some goggles that they had to
wear that simulated .10 and .20 and had them go through some field sobriety tests and you'll see some
photos of that too. That was a lot of fun. Then the last week we talked about crime prevention. Beth
came down and talked about that. We talked about volunteers and then we had a graduation. We actually
had one person from our group sign up for our reserve program so that was kind of neat to see. And
here's our training facility. You see the group here. We kind of gave them a tour of the long gun range.
This is 200 yards. Right next to that we have one that's 25 yards and it's an outdoor range that's covered.
That's obviously for snipers and long rifles so. Next one. And then this is inside the facility. It's the
scale facility out in Jordan. We actually have rooms set up in there and this one simulates a bar. You can
go in there and we can set up scenarios where there's an unruly person and we can go in there and
simulate that. We actually have rooms next to that to simulate an apartment. They have washers and
dryers and couches and chairs and stuff and it's really a great training facility for us and they enjoyed
touring that. This is the shooting simulator. The guy there may look familiar to you. He's kind of sitting
up there with you.
Councilman Laufenburger: I recognize the gun but not the operator.
Lt. Jeff Enevold: And what we did here is, you can see there's a pumpkin floating around on the screen
there. It floats inbetween the walls and the ceiling and the floor. We kind of got him used to shooting,
how the simulator works and the gun shoots and I think Todd actually got, like shot 93% so very good
shooting there Todd.
Todd Gerhardt: They didn't start me off with the small pumpkin like that one now.
Lt. Jeff Enevold: That's right. That's right. So if the City ever comes under attack by pumpkins, that's
the first guy right there is Todd.
Todd Gerhardt: You're covered.
Lt. Jeff Enevold: And then this is, actually what, this is Karen here and the second scenario we ran
through is a real live scenario where you would actually walk up to the car and she has to converse back
and forth with these folks and tell them you know let me see your drivers license. She's got to watch their
hands and if they make any movements or grab a gun she's got to make the decision to shoot and not
shoot and some made the right decision. Some made the wrong decision but they had a lot of fun doing
that. This is the driving simulator. You can Sergeant Pete Anderley there who took care of that. It's kind
8
Chanhassen City Council — November 26, 2012
of a, it's a really neat deal. You can get in there and you can, you set up a scenario where you're going to
track down a car and stop them and it's, you know they've got 3 screens, one in front of you and two on
the sides and so it's pretty realistic. I think Todd even took a drive in there and it's a lot of fun. They
really enjoyed that. Here's just another one of how you can see that he's trying to pull this car over here.
He's got his lights. He's got a little radio here you've got to talk on and stuff so it's realistic and you can
control the weather conditions. You can add rain and snow and so you've really got to watch what you're
doing. I think they even let some of the folks drive buses and trucks so. Here's what we did out in the
parking lot. We did some traffic safety. We kind of showed them things that we do to stay safe by
spotlighting and how to approach a vehicle and make sure you stay safe. And then the next one we kind
of showed them you know what to watch for. What to say. What to ask for. Things to cue you in on if
the driver's going to be cooperative or not so that was a nice night out that night. DUI training. You can
see Sarah here in the middle here. She's got the DUI goggles on and Pete's giving her the Gaze
Nystagmus test and these particular goggles simulated a .10 and the Gaze Nystagmus is it just follows
their eyes to see if they're smooth tracking and then if they get out to a 45 degree and they flutter a little
bit that tells us that they may be under the influence of alcohol so they enjoyed this too and I enjoyed this
too. There's Mitch. He's got the .20 goggles on. We're giving him the walk and turn test. You can see
he's a little wobbly there so, so he enjoyed that. This, we showed him how to use the PBT, the
Preliminary Breath Test. Take a deep breath and you blow into there and it gives you a preliminary
reading of what their blood alcohol content was and I'm happy to say that nobody, everybody blew zeros
that night so that was good to know. Then here's our graduation. We were honored to have the Mayor
there and the Sheriff there. Everybody received a Certificate, a Citizen's Coin. 'We got them a
Chanhassen mug and a t -shirt so everybody walked away happy there. And I just wanted to say you
know thanks to everybody who helped with this. There's no way I could have done by myself. Pete did a
lot of work here. We've got a lot of dedicated employees who put this program on and they did a
wonderful job with this so. I've got one more. There's the group right there. Motley crew. They had,
started out with 12. 11 of us graduated. Or 11 of them made it through the graduation so. I actually had,
the last day of the graduation I had them fill out an evaluation form and I said don't be shy. You know
tell me what we can do to improve this and what we did right and I'll just share a few of them with you.
Some of them said great experience. I hope it continues in the future for others. Huge success. Thank
you. Wonderful opportunity, thanks. Great community outreach. I'll miss our weekly get togethers as
well as the interaction with my fellow classmates so that was nice to see that we kind of bonded there.
And I've got one final one here. And again I just wanted to say I really, thanks for your support of this
program. I really believe in this program and I think it's a great way to reach out and connect with our
citizens in the community. I've got a tentative date set for next year, April through May. Check the City
website after the first of the year. I'll have additional information. You can contact me at that number or
there's my email address and with that I'll conclude with any questions or comments you may have.
Mayor Furlong: Well first of all thank you for doing this and organizing this. This was the first one and
from the comments I heard, and just from watching it here it's a very hand's on program.
Lt. Jeff Enevold: Yes.
Mayor Furlong: It isn't a classroom program but go out in the field and try some things and do some stuff
which I'm sure added to the enjoyment and the learning experience for all involved so thank you for
doing that.
Lt. Jeff Enevold: Absolutely.
Mayor Furlong: And I know everyone really appreciated it.
Lt. Jeff Enevold: Good, thank you.
9
Chanhassen City Council — November 26, 2012
Mayor Furlong: Any other questions for the Lieutenant on any of the report? Information in the report or
anything else on this program?
Councilman Laufenburger: I think it's pretty neat that your by product is you had somebody who's
interested in participating in the reserve program.
Lt. Jeff Enevold: Right.
Councilman Laufenburger: I mean that's, recruiting wasn't necessarily part of your original plan, was it?
Lt. Jeff Enevold: It was not.
Councilman Laufenburger: Yeah, so that's pretty cool.
Lt. Jeff Enevold: It may be now. Great.
Mayor Furlong: Very good.
Lt. Jeff Enevold: Thanks Mr. Mayor, council.
Mayor Furlong: Chief Wolff is here this evening with the Chanhassen Fire Department. Good evening
Chief.
Chief John Wolff: Good evening Mayor, good evening council. Last report for 2012. Year to date calls
are down 10 %. First quarter, into the first quarter we were down 25% so we've been sort of gradually
kind of finding normal. Overall our training commitment's up almost 80% though in terms of just the
time that our fire fighters have put into training and safety programs so that's a real positive for this year.
We appreciate all the support we get from the City to be able to provide that excellent training. As you
know key, one of the key financial strategies for 2012 is hiring a consultant to do the fire study work and
with the help of Todd and Laurie and Greg we kicked off the study about the third week of October and
then also did the site visit portion which is part of the data collection process so as they develop and help
us develop a master plan they spend a lot of time meeting with key staff. They spent one day with me
where we toured the city. We looked at some of the target and obvious exposures we have. Some of the
larger companies and schools and hotels and so forth so they get a sense for what Chanhassen's all about
and also just spent a good deal of time learning about the fire department. Our resources. How we
manage the fire department, etc, etc so I was pretty impressed with the folks that came out to visit with us.
I think the City's hired a real good firm here and looking forward to what they come up with. Targeting
mid -2013 is what they're saying but that may change depending. We did have a call for a house fire on
November 4` Early morning hours. It ended up being an outside fire on the deck with substantial
damage to the deck and when our crews initially arrived they had flames showing and when they did the
walk around they realized that the fire hadn't yet advanced into the home but the slider door had already
broken from the heat so by the time we got there people were out of the home and this occurred at about
3:30 in the morning on a Sunday morning and fortunately for them someone driving up Powers
Boulevard noticed the fire. Stopped. Called 911 and actually I've listened to the tape to hear this whole
thing happen. It's pretty remarkable. They were knocking on the door talking to 911 and screaming for
these people to get out of their home so a really, if really if that hadn't happened who knows really where
that one would have gone because it was clearly, as I said the slider had just broken but by the time we
got there it was, we were able to put the fire out pretty quickly and we cleared that one within a couple
hours. But that event just sort of as a reminder I think for our citizens to be very careful with candles.
That ended up being the cause of the fire. An unattended candle. They had had an event earlier in the
10
Chanhassen City Council — November 26, 2012
evening out on the deck area. But whether it's in the house or outside of the house, unattended flame is,
and I think this time of year with the holidays candles are more prominent so just be very, very careful
with candles and making sure that they're extinguished, especially around holiday decorations. I know
we're going to be taking up the item of reserve pumper Engine 22 in a few moments here so I'll reserve
my comments until that time.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you.
Chief John Wolff: You bet.
Mayor Furlong: Any questions for Chief Wolff currently on the report?
Todd Gerhardt: John, you want to give a little update on the chlorine spill at Foss?
Chief John Wolff: Yeah. A week ago, or actually not quite a week ago, Saturday. No, actually it was. It
was a week ago Saturday we had a call for a chlorine spill, or chlorine leak. 3 or 4 of their customers
were complaining, they were being overcome by chlorine gas, or at least that's what they thought and
there's two, there's a large pool area which is the competitive swimming pool and then there's kind of a
kiddie pool in a separate room adjacent to that and it was in that room where folks were having problems.
We responded. Chanhassen Fire responded and we immediately dealt with the folks that had been
overcome. They ended up being very minor injuries with no one being hospitalized but 3 or 4 people
were sent to the hospital and the Ridgeview Ambulance service sent out their hazmat response. We called
in the County Hazmat Team. Contacted the State Duty Officer to alert them of the event and the folks
from Foss right from the owner Mr. Foss himself, their entire management team, they were there by the
time I got there and I probably arrived 20 minutes after the call and they were very, very helpful and
cooperative in terms of just trying to figure out what had happened and I think the long and the short of it
was, it wasn't a problem with the chlorine system but there was a problem with the HVAC system and
inside of a pool environment there's some special considerations around HVAC and they suspected that it
might be that and I did a little research after the call too and this apparently does happen once in a while
and it's something that can be fixed and mitigated with some, I think really just some cleaning of that
particular unit so I think the long and the short of it is that fortunately no one was injured and there
definitely was a hazmat environment there and it was very, very high chlorine but we were able to clear
the air and also determine the cause so it helped them keep their business running.
Mayor Furlong: Very good, thank you for that update. Anything else Mr. Gerhardt?
Todd Gerhardt: No. Thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you.
CONSIDER APPROVAL OF RESOLUTION DONATING A FIRE TRUCK TO BROAD
CHANNEL, NEW YORK VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT.
Mayor Furlong: Let's start with a staff report please and then I would be interested, or Chief Wolff.
Chief John Wolff: Back up.
Mayor Furlong: You're back up, alright.
Chief John Wolff: Yeah this was really, I think this is sort of the new world we live in. Social media is
what happened here and I'm not a Facebooker but a lot of my younger members on the fire department
11
Chanhassen City Council — November 26, 2012
are and I got a call from Captain Cory Wallis and he and some members of area fire departments noticed
that Broad Channel Island, which is a part of Jamaica Bay, just east of where Kennedy Airport is, if you
can think of the geography. I'm sorry, it's just west of Jamaica. Just west of Kennedy, just east of the
city and it's really in the barrier island area there. Was inundated by the water and they lost 4 out of 4
vehicles. The City of New York allows, there are still 9 active volunteer fire departments that serve the
city of New York and this is one of them so this is sort of the backdrop. Another part of the backdrop is
that Assistant Chief Siems is a member of the Minnesota Disaster Medical Assistance Team which is a
FEMA funded, health and human services funded team and he, every other month he's on call to go to
major disasters. He went to Katrina. They sometimes stage for large events like national conventions.
Democratic /Republican Conventions in case something on tour happens or major tornado. Major kind of
Mother Nature events so he actually got called out the day before this thing hit to go to New York to be
staged there so just it happened that he was deployed to Queens, New York which happens to be, he was
like 10 minutes from this. From this fire department so he's in the area and he's doing his thing and these
are just some pictures. What they ended up doing just as a side bar. They ended up taking care of 750
- - displaced special needs people at Queens College so these are folks that lost their housing, either group
homes or otherwise and so the team is set up as really like a MASH hospital. They can handle all kinds
of medical things and they have nurses and etc, all kinds of staff. So I mentioned Cory Wallis and the
social media impact. He notified me and said Chief, hey I know we're going to be selling Engine 22 at
the end of the year. Would you consider donating it to them and I said well I don't have a problem with
that but that's not my truck to donate so I contacted Laurie and I know Laurie worked together with Todd
and some of you folks to work out, really to try to find a solution in the short term because they needed
vehicles immediately. They lost all of their trucks and we came up with the concept of the loan and so,
these are just some pictures of what Broad Channel Island looked like almost immediately after the storm.
I work out in the New York area for my day job when I'm not fighting fires and I was actually heading to
see family in New England last week on Wednesday and I actually drove by this area and stopped in to
see these folks and the devastation's amazing and it really, it really is incredible what they've sustained.
This was one of, this was their number one, kind of first new engine. It shorted out and caught on fire so
it was sitting in about 6 feet of water when they lost power. It eventually shorted out. Caught fire so
they've Lost that truck. That was one of their prime trucks. The one in the lower right was damaged by
the salt water and they had 2 ambulances that they can't get rolling either so they went from basically
having 2 fire trucks, 2 ambulances to having nothing overnight. They lost a lot of their equipment. All
their pagers, radios, self contained breathing, and so forth so they put out the help sign on Facebook. In
fact it was the only way they could communicate with anyone. We tried calling them and you know the
phones were out. The power was out so, so we were communicating with them via Facebook. They said
yes, we could use it. You folks did a great job of coming up with a solution to lend the truck to them, and
I know we're going to consider donating it tonight. The other thing that happened was some of the area
fire fighters were working on, okay if we get a truck how do we get it there and someone from
Mdewakanton Sioux, Nate Crooks, he's a fire fighter there. His family is one of the major tribal leaders
down there also. They had agreed to actually donate the cost of transportation but when they were
negotiating the costs with ATS out of St. Cloud, ATS agreed to just donate it once they found out that it
was going to help a volunteer fire department. So we loaded up Engine 22 onto one of those low boy
trucks there on, I can't remember was that the 2 " of November? And they had it a few days later so.
Mayor Furlong: I think it was a Monday, yeah.
Chief John Wolff: On the receiving end was Jeff Siems. He's the second from the left so he's in Queens
and I said hey Jeff by the way how close are you to here and to this Broad Channel place. He said I'm 10
minutes away so that's when we made the connection for Jeff and Jeff drove down during one of his
breaks and actually helped on the receiving end. Trained them. Showed them how to use the vehicle.
Little nuances for that so Engine 22 made a long call but they got to Queens, New York and really it's a
pretty amazing story and my compliments to all of you that were involved for just making, just finding a
12
Chanhassen City Council — November 26, 2012
way to make this happen for them so. They were very, very happy when I was there last week so special
thanks to these folks that were kind of the movers and shakers behind it so thank you very much.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Questions of Chief Wolff or for Ms. Hokkanen or anyone? Okay, thank
you. Comments.
Councilman McDonald: Mayor, I guess I do have a question.
Mayor Furlong: Mr. McDonald.
Councilman McDonald: How often do these types of opportunities come up?
Mayor Furlong: To donate a fire truck?
Councilman McDonald: Yeah, welt you know to help out another fire company with something.
Chief John Wolff: Yeah the fire service, and probably like a lot of smaller you know institutions, there's
this sort of loyalty, brotherhood, sisterhood sort of thing that has always been there. You know
opportunities to help out like this, the one that immediately comes to mind is post 9/11 this community,
you know fire fighters kind of led it but the community made it happen, donated $65,000 to the 9/11 fund
which is you know just an extraordinary amount of money in 3 or 4 weeks. You know it's interesting.
We get a lot of requests for my volunteers to volunteer and it's an amazing group of people. I mean just
the folks here that work for the City of Chanhassen and there's probably a half dozen organizations that
on a regular basis we're putting time into.
Councilman McDonald: Well I guess the reason for my question is that I realize that, I mean I thought
we were kind of a small town fire department and you've got that one picture there where it shows their
fire station so there's a lot of I think fire departments out there throughout the country that are probably
again getting by with very little and doing a good job doing it just because of the people but I guess I
would say you know maybe this something we ought to look at you know more on an official basis with
some of our equipment. I'm sure other companies could use it and it would be of great benefit to them so.
Chief John Wolff: You know that's actually now I better understand your, we probably, a couple times a
year are asked to contribute to, whether it's a fire department up north or something down like in a
disaster area. Overseas and when the equipment we have that's no longer NFPA approved or it's just not,
it's past it's service life, that's usually what we're, there's really not a lot of value there so we're
typically, instead of throwing it away we're looking for places to donate it and I know that a bunch of
stuff just went to El Salvador I believe from kind of the Hennepin County sort of metro area. A bunch of
gear went down for some drive that was going on so it actually happens more often than you might think.
Councilman McDonald: Okay well I was just going to say I would encourage you to keep doing that and
if that's you know part of what social media does today, I think that's great.
Chief John Wolff: That's a good thing.
Councilman McDonald: Yeah because you never can tell when we may have to reach out and ask for
help too.
Chief John Wolff: Yeah, absolutely.
Councilman McDonald: So thank you for bringing that forward.
13
Chanhassen City Council — November 26, 2012
Chief John Wolff: Certainly.
Todd Gerhardt: John, wasn't it Pennsylvania that donated another fire truck to Broad Channel?
Chief John Wolff: Yeah they actually 2 additional trucks and I was talking to their chief engineer out
there and he said the other 2 I don't really want but I love your truck. They're very happy with Engine
22. The other two are open cab and their insurance carrier won't even let them go into them so they're
just a little bit older and.
Mayor Furlong: And are they able to shut the garage door?
Chief John Wolff: That's, I tell you when I saw pictures of it on Google Earth I was wondering if it
would fit in but they can shut the doors.
Mayor Furlong: And they don't have to lower the tire pressure to get in and out.
Chief John Wolff: It gets in and out amazingly. Yeah, I was worried about that.
Todd Gerhardt: And we'll get the same architect for Station #3.
Mayor Furlong: What the consultant's study is going to come back with. Now that we know what works.
Any other questions for Chief at this point? Other discussions. Comments. Again the initial action here
that took place was the lending of the vehicle to get it out there quickly and tonight the council is being
asked to formalize that with an outright donation so others questions or comments, or comments I should
say. Councilman Laufenburger, anything?
Councilman Laufenburger: I just think that while we applaud the entire department Chief, those people
who initiated the discussion, whether it was Cory or Nate, they're to be especially encouraged that they
would do that. I liked your comment about the fact that there's a brotherhood and a sisterhood of fire
departments and that the people who stepped forward to put themselves in harms way, and I recall 9/11
that there were a lot of fire departments and police departments all over the country that rallied to be
additional arms and legs so I am assuming that you would appropriately acknowledge folks like Cory and
the others for their stepping forward and even coming with that suggestion so.
Chief John Wolff: Absolutely. All the credit's there.
Councilman Laufenburger: Thanks Mayor.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any other comments or discussion? No I would echo that. I think thanks to
everybody involved, especially those who came up with the idea and the rest of it was just finding a way
to get it done so appreciate that. Please extend our thanks and appreciation for all involved. If there are
no other comments, is there a motion to adopt the resolution?
Councilwoman Ernst: I'll make it Mayor.
Mayor Furlong: Councilwoman Ernst.
Councilwoman Ernst: I make a motion that we approve the donation of Engine 22 to the Broad Channel,
New York Volunteer Fire Department.
14
Chanhassen City Council — November 26, 2012
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Is there a second?
Councilman McDonald: Second.
Mayor Furlong: Motion's been made and seconded. Any discussion on the motion?
Resolution #2012 -65: Councilwoman Ernst moved, Councilman McDonald seconded that the
Chanhassen City Council approve the donation of Engine 22 to the Broad Channel, New York
Volunteer Fire Department. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5
to 0.
COUNCIL PRESENTATIONS.
Mayor Furlong: On Wednesday I'm going to be giving a brief update to the Chamber of Commerce.
Southwes -Metro Chart. f Commerce along with my counterparts in Victoria, Chaska and Carver so I
think that's been posted if other council members are interested in attending and I know it's always fun to
hear the updates from the other cities so.
Todd Gerhardt: Yeah, just let me know. We can register council for that. It's $25. It starts at 11:15 and
ends around 1:00 if we can keep the mayors short on their presentations.
Mayor Furlong: Once you give them an open mic.
Councilman Laufenburger: Good luck with that.
Todd Gerhardt: Not Chanhassen we have to worry about.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you.
Todd Gerhardt: It's some of those other cities.
Mayor Furlong: Any other council presentations? If not administrative presentations Mr. Gerhardt.
ADMINISTRATIVE PRESENTATIONS.
Todd Gerhardt: Just a reminder, next Monday we have our Truth in Taxation hearing in the council
chambers at 1:00.
Mayor Furlong: Excuse me? What time?
Todd Gerhardt: 7:00. Did I say 1:00?
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Yeah.
Todd Gerhardt: Well, 1:00 we'll be prepping for the 7:00 so, 7:00 here in the council chambers and then
the council go into Executive Session after that to work on my performance review and work on telling
time so. And our last meeting of the year is December 10 and wrap things up on that meeting.
Mayor Furlong: Sounds good. Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Gerhardt or his staff? If not, any
discussion on the correspondence packet?
15
Chanhassen City Council — November 26, 2012
CORRESPONDENCE DISCUSSION.
Councilman McDonald: I have a question. I see in there that we've got something about this new routing
of the high voltage line. What input do we as a city actually have on that or is that something that
residents would be concerned of? Is there a public meeting for that or what's the next steps in all of that?
Todd Gerhardt: Yeah, the next step right now is for them to complete their environmental assessment of
that route and there'll be a public hearing into the future. They haven't published that yet. They have to
complete the environmental review but it's an interesting route. They're basically following the existing
transmission line that runs along Highway 5 from the Eden Prairie substation and then crossing down by
the railroad tracks and follow out to the high school and then down to the Chaska substation just south of
the high school.
Councilman McDonald: Because yeah, during the campaign I got a lot of questions about that and you
know how could citi s have any inpufnd - did quite know how to answer it because knew it wasn't
really something the City was going to get a chance to kind of weigh in on so that's why I was wondering
about it.
Todd Gerhardt: Yeah, the last public hearing was in July and that's how they came about for the
suggestion of the, we'll call it the second alternative route that would have followed the existing line and
then drop down to Highway 41 and then down along Highway 5 and then cross Highway 5 at Bluff Creek
and follow the rest of the transmission line to the substation. As far as I know I think they abandoned that
option.
Mayor Furlong: Which option?
Todd Gerhardt: The Highway 5/41 option and now are looking at this alternative.
Mayor Furlong: The Highway 5 alternative
Todd Gerhardt: Yeah. So, and I don't know what happens with the Highway 5 alternative. You know
the existing line, if that would even stay is kind of a question so we'll have to get an update from them to
see.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any other questions on the correspondence packet? No? If not, we will be
continuing our work session item immediately following our meeting so if there's nothing else to come
before the council meeting this evening is there a motion to adjourn?
Councilman Laufenburger moved, Councilman McDonald seconded to adjourn the meeting. All
voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. The City Council meeting
was adjourned at 8:10 p.m.
Submitted by Todd Gerhardt
City Manager
Prepared by Nann Opheim
16