CC 2015 01 26
CHANHASSEN CITY COUNCIL
REGULAR MEETING
JANUARY 26, 2015
Mayor Laufenburger called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. The meeting was opened
with the Pledge to the Flag.
COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT:
Mayor Laufenburger, Councilwoman Tjornhom,
Councilman McDonald, Councilwoman Ryan, and Councilman Campion
STAFF PRESENT:
Todd Gerhardt, Chelsea Peterson, Paul Oehme, Kate Aanenson, Todd
Hoffman and Andrea McDowell Poehler
PUBLIC PRESENT:
Laurie Susla 7008 Dakota Avenue
Randy Cantin 6694 Nez Perce
Stan Cronister 6730 Lotus Trail
Troon Dowds 6940 Lotus Trail
Ken Wencl 8412 Waters Edge Drive
Denise Gray 871 Nez Perce Court
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you and welcome to this council meeting. Those of you that are in
the present with us in the chamber and also those of you that are watching on cable channel 8 at
home or wherever you get cable channel 8. First of all regarding the agenda, council members
are there any modifications to the agenda as printed? If not we will proceed with the agenda as
printed.
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Mayor Laufenburger: Our first item on the agenda tonight is a public announcement. This is the
invitation to the annual February Festival. The City of Chanhassen is proud to announce the first
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community event of 2015, the 22 Annual February Festival or Feb Fest. This is the first in a
year long series of special events that are sponsored by the City of Chanhassen, local service
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organizations and the local business community. Feb Fest will be held on Saturday, February 7
and I invite area residents, their family, friends to join me on Lake Ann. Events begin at 12:00
noon and they include ice skating, sledding, sleigh rides, bonfires, medallion hunt and an ice
fishing contest. Hot food and concessions will be sold on the ice by the Chanhassen Rotary Club
and also by Culver’s and Boy Scout Troop number 330 will be selling live bait and S’more kits.
Don’t confuse those folks okay? The ice fishing contest will run from 1:00 until 3:00 p.m. and
includes over $6,000 in prizes. Each Feb Fest attendee will receive one free door prize ticket at
the event for a chance to win over $3,000 in door prizes and there’s some really exciting prizes
that they give away. For those of you that are brave enough to ice fish on Lake Ann at this time
tickets are $10 per person and are available here at City Hall. For more information watch the
Chanhassen Villager or visit the City’s website and I look forward to seeing everyone there.
This is a wonderful kick-off to our annual festival, cavalcade of festivals here in Chanhassen and
Chanhassen City Council – January 26, 2015
I think the weather is promised to be beautiful so good fish to be caught. Right there Mr.
Hoffman?
Todd Hoffman: Yes sir.
Mayor Laufenburger: So I invite all of you to that.
CONSENT AGENDA: Councilwoman Tjornhom moved, Councilman McDonald
seconded to approve the following consent agenda items pursuant to the City Manager’s
recommendations:
1. Approve City Council Minutes dated January 10, 2015 and January 12, 2015
2. Receive Planning Commission Minutes dated January 6, 2015
3. Wynsong Project 12-08: Accept Public Utility Improvement
4. Award of Quote: Neighborhood Picnic Shelters
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
VISITOR PRESENTATIONS.
Laurie Susla: Hi. My name is Laurie Susla. I’m at 7008 Dakota Avenue and I just had a couple
things that I wanted to mention. I’m wearing a couple different hats tonight. First of all I’d like
to thank you on behalf of the Lotus Lake Conservation Alliance and also for the folks that are on
Lake Lucy and Lake Ann and Lake Susan, that you all gave a high priority to keeping our lakes
free of AIS. We very much appreciate it’s still on your radar screen and that it’s still an
important item for you all. You may have heard, I talked with Todd Hoffman this morning that
Volt will not be hiring inspectors for the 2015 season so we’re going to be looking at a
dramatically changed program of some kind for this year which we don’t quite know what that’s
going to look like yet. I think Todd have, I’m sure Todd has shared with you all that he’s sent a
letter to Marty Walsh at Carver County to ask if they might be willing to take over the
Chanhassen program and there’s both pros and cons involved with that. The pros being that
Carver County does an excellent job. They hire in-house. Everyone who comes in contact with
their inspectors says they really do just a very wonderful job. The cons being that the program
they run is Memorial Day to Labor Day and we know, based on what we’ve seen in Christmas
Lake what one boat can do to a lake. Our program is currently running on Lotus, which is the
most visited lake in the Riley-Purg District as well as in Chan. We’re running that program to
mid-November so that would be a significant risk for Lotus but also for the other lakes after the
Labor Day holiday so just something to keep in mind as we go forward. Another thing the LCA
cannot hire inspectors. It’s, the DNR requires that inspectors can only be hired by cities,
counties, watersheds. Have to be a local government unit in order to hire inspectors so as much
as we might like to continue that season on our own, that’s not one of our options so we’re just
hoping as time goes on and things start to shape up that we, that we’ll be able to work with you
all to do the best that we can for all the lakes of the city. Eden Prairie and Minneapolis both have
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Chanhassen City Council – January 26, 2015
an in-house program. That’s something we may consider. I just at this point we don’t know
what the options are. And I also just wanted to mention, I know this is on the agenda coming up
later but as you all consider the road improvements around the Carver Beach area, the northwest
side of Lotus Lake, we’d ask that you do, Terry had made some, Terry Jeffery had made some
suggestions as far as stormwater management and we’d ask that you do as much as possible.
That’s an area where we see a ton of water just going straight into the lake so thank you for your
time.
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright, thank you Ms. Susla. She was referring to a, early in her
discussion ladies and gentlemen she was referring to a prioritization. Later this evening in an
extended work session we will evaluate the key financial strategies for 2015 and that’s, it’s that
document that she was referring to. And secondly, yes there is a, we have been informed by
Volt, Mr. Hoffman is that correct? And we are evaluating alternatives, one of which is engaging
with Carver County and I know that there’s a discussion that will take place with that tomorrow
morning and I know the members of city staff and some members of the council may choose to
be part of that so I would say that though this may be viewed as a blip that Volt is not going to
do this, it certainly by no means suggests that we’re going to abandon that program. We intend
to have it as robust, if not more robust in the coming year. Any other visitors that would like to
present? Okay, we’ll close visitor presentation at this time.
LAW ENFORCEMENT/FIRE DEPARTMENT UPDATE.
Mayor Laufenburger: This is the night for our monthly update from law enforcement and fire
department and we have with us Sergeant Anderley from the Carver County Sheriff’s Office.
Welcome Sergeant.
Sgt. Peter Anderley: Good evening Mayor, council. You have the December report with the
numbers. If there’s any questions I’d be happy to answer those. Nothing looked like out of the
ordinary on there. Everything looks like it’s running smoothly. We did have some car break in’s
one night last week, two weeks ago. Again I’ll just remind people, when the weather starts to get
warm those type of activities seem to increase for us so we encourage everybody to lock their
vehicles. Take their personal effects. iPads, purses, laptops and all that stuff inside at night.
Just prevents that from, yourself from becoming a victim. Tonight I brought in two of our newer
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assigned to Chanhassen deputies. After the January 1 we change our work calendar for the year
so with that becomes some new faces sometimes around town. In and out and some of our guys
stayed at night. Some are going back to days. I brought in, you guys want to come up here.
Pete Ekenberg. He’s worked for Carver County for about 7 years. Before that he was a
Pipestone County deputy for about 4. He previously was over at Victoria as their town liaison
and then most currently last year he was out west as a general patrol car working days. He is
currently assigned to Chanhassen on the Team 1 days which would be Sunday, Monday, and
Tuesday days and every other weekend. Pete’s been around a while. He’s got, he’s one of our
Explorer advisors. Works with the kids in our Explorer program. He’s also one of our field
training officers so you may see him training in a newer deputy in that time.
Mayor Laufenburger: Welcome Pete.
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Chanhassen City Council – January 26, 2015
Pete Ekenberg: Thank you very much.
Mayor Laufenburger: Is it Deputy Ekenberg?
Pete Ekenberg: Current.
Mayor Laufenburger: Is that right? Okay. Just trying to get familiar in case you see my face
somewhere on the road that’s all.
Sgt. Peter Anderley: You’ll see him around. He works days so you’ll see him. Then also I
brought Andy Hamilton. Andy’s been with us a little over a year now. Currently…before this.
Last year he worked up in the city of Watertown. Andy’s been assigned to Wednesday,
Thursday, Friday, every other weekend nights in Chanhassen so he, he’s looking forward to a
little closer commute to home. He lives over in Eden Prairie so he is looking forward to working
around here.
Mayor Laufenburger: Well welcome Deputy Hamilton too.
Andy Hamilton: Thank you.
Sgt. Peter Anderley: Any other questions from the council on staff or anything like that?
Mayor Laufenburger: Any questions from the council?
Sgt. Peter Anderley: Alright.
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you. Before you go Sergeant Anderley. There was a report of a
Carver County sheriff in an accident earlier. Maybe last week or something. Can you give us
any progress on how he’s doing?
Sgt. Peter Anderley: Yeah. Thursday night there was a squad car involved in a head on crash
down in the city of Carver on County Road 11. Our deputy is currently at HCMC. Last I was
told he was in serious condition so he’s still currently down there. I haven’t had any recent
updates on extent of injuries or anything but he’s pretty severely injured and we’re all hoping he
recovers quickly.
Mayor Laufenburger: Well we share that hope and wish him a speedy recovery so if you could
somehow pass that along through Sheriff Olson that would be great.
Sgt. Peter Anderley: Okay, appreciate it.
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you very much Sergeant. Welcome aboard gentlemen. And from
our fire department Chief Johnson. Do you have an update for us Chief?
Chief Don Johnson: I do Mayor. Good evening Mayor, council. Staffing levels in the fire
department are still doing very well. We have 48 fire fighters. One currently on leave. I’m
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Chanhassen City Council – January 26, 2015
happy to report that our 4 probationary fire fighters that are currently in training have been
released to go on trucks. It’s a very exciting time for them to actually start doing the work that
they came onto the fire department to do. They’re going on limited calls right now because they
haven’t completed their medical training yet so we can only use them for a few things but it is an
exciting time to have some new faces out in the community. I’m also happy to report that I’m up
to about 12 applicants for the next hiring group so again I hope to be talking with staff on that
very shortly. We would start our recruitment and training, or recruitment and hiring process
around March-April with anticipated hiring in July and about the same time we’re graduating
this group from probation so. In December, November-December we’ve been working pretty
hard on department policy so there’s some new policies that are working with the, going out with
the fire department. I’ve got a department policy team made up of officers and members that are
helping review those and staying with best practices and that’s going to continue throughout the
rest of this year and then continually on as the fire service change, we like to change to make
sure that we’re staying within best practices. We did end the year, this year with 621 calls. I
looked back with some history and only one other time since 2004 we went over 600 calls. Back
19, late 1990’s we were creeping near 700 and that’s when they kind of, they brought in the
prioritized medical dispatching so it brought our calls down but we’re starting to now to go back
up. The total for December, or through 13 was 573 so it puts us about 10 percent. A little under
that above for this year. We had 54 calls in December and our average for the year is about 52 a
month so we were right on par with that. Just some fun facts about that. That’s about averages
about 11.9 calls a week to keep up with that in 14. 44 of those were fire related calls which we
dealt with some category of fire. 19 of those were building fires so out of 621 we’re out the door
quite a bit and we do range, I have a slide later on that will kind of break that down for you. One
of the other things that I pulled out for this month was, that encompassed a year of how we work
with our partners and resources. As you know the fire department use mutual aid agreements,
both statewide and local to answer that mutual aid need within the cities and right now, with our
partners and our borders we provided 29 instances of mutual aid to our surrounding communities
and I broke that out into some of the cities that we worked with. We’ve also received 19
different instances and most of those are those fire type incidents where we actually start
bringing in other resources so if we were playing hockey I’m about plus 10 which is good so.
Our training hours.
Mayor Laufenburger: You’re getting more than you receive is that right?
Chief Don Johnson: Right. We’ve given more than we’ve received so I’m going to go plus 10.
Mayor Laufenburger: Yeah, okay.
Chief Don Johnson: The training hours are listed there. Again we did some, we did a
specialized training last year that had everybody go through 40 hours of specialized training so
you’ll see this year we didn’t use as many training hours. Our duty crew hours stayed about the
same. We didn’t make any major changes there and our staff time is comparable as well. Paul if
you could move to the next slide, the clicker’s not up here. I just broke down the monthly slide
you’re used to seeing that so again it just kind of shows our ebb and flow for this, from 14 to 13.
You can go the next one. In December there we worked at 5 different fire calls and what’s
interesting about those is we had one that actually came in as an investigation. They called and
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Chanhassen City Council – January 26, 2015
said we haven’t been to the house in 2 weeks. It’s a vacation home and it looks like we had a
fire so the Fire Marshal and I went out there and they did indeed have a fire. They had a small
mechanical fan that started on fire and luckily enough that where it was sitting and how it was
situated in the home it didn’t light the rest of the home on fire.
Mayor Laufenburger: It just burned out?
Chief Don Johnson: It burned out. Quite extensive smoke damage but yeah that was, it was
pretty interesting to get that call. Hey we just checked the house out and I think we had a fire so
the smoke detectors were inoperable which isn’t what we, we would like to see but that’s one of
the reasons the neighbors or some of the associated neighborhood didn’t hear what was going on
in the house so we, we’re very lucky in that one. We also had 3 mutual aid responses during the
month of December for, where we actually responded to their structure fires and worked their
structure fires and we had one cooking related fire. In January, now we’ll talk a little bit about
this when I do the January update next month. We’ve had several apartment buildings with
cooking fires. Luckily none of them have had the sprinkler system go off yet but we’ve had
quite a bit of smoke and fire damage in locals with consistently with what I’ve told you before in
kitchen fires being our number one culprit of fire in Minnesota and nationwide. In December we
also again our high call volume is related to our medical response and in that we’ve, luckily
we’re only on the roadway one time for motor vehicle accident with injuries. Going back to the
fun facts, the 265 medical responses that we did in ’14, there were 46 instances of being out on
the roadway. There were 46 motor vehicle accidents with injuries and that’s, along with fire
that’s probably one of our highest risks of somebody getting hurt, both from the public and from
fire EMS and law enforcement is being out on Highway 5 or 212 with some of these accidents
and folks ripping by us at highway speeds. Go ahead and put more up. That graph just basically
shows where we’re at in an upswing from the last 5 years and then one more Paul. And then this
graph breaks down the whole year so again we don’t have to talk quite a bit but we’ve got 43
percent of what we’re doing are still related to medicals. Our hazardous conditions would be gas
leaks and CO calls. Calls for service are assisting PD. We’re getting called to other cities to
stand by. We may end up not actually going to their fire but we stand by at their station and
cover calls while they’re fighting their fire and the good intent calls traditionally fall into those
categories where they don’t meet the other categories so somebody thinks their neighbor’s house
is on fire and it ends up just being the dryer vent, venting out. Those are the types of things that
go in there.
Mayor Laufenburger: But you’d rather go there for a dryer vent that’s putting out steam than
find a mechanical that burnt out luckily right?
Chief Don Johnson: Correct Mayor. The City Manager does call me the false alarm fire chief,
however I do remind him that if it wasn’t a false alarm it’s an actual real alarm so I’d much
rather go to those. Seems to be a lot less paperwork and a lot less loss.
Mayor Laufenburger: Sounds like that might be something that should be discussed in a
supervisor employee conference.
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Chanhassen City Council – January 26, 2015
Chief Don Johnson: Thanks Mayor. That would conclude the presentation for my monthly
update. I did bring also a guest along to introduce to the council. I can wait on that if there’s any
questions about.
Mayor Laufenburger: Let’s see if there’s any questions of the Chief.
Chief Don Johnson: Okay.
Mayor Laufenburger: Introduce away.
Chief Don Johnson: I’d like to bring up Assistant Chief Jim Van Asten. Jim’s been on the fire
department for about 9 years. He spent a year as a lieutenant. He spent 4 years as a captain.
The last part of that captaincy was based as the training captain for the fire department. Jim’s a
business owner. He owns Lotus Printing Group here in Chanhassen. He and his wife Denise
live off of Cimarron Circle and they have 2 children, Keegan and Liam. Jim was promoted
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December 1 to the Assistant Chief of Training. His responsibilities are to insure that we keep
our training up to where we need to be. We have a lot of certifications and things that have to be
maintained. Both medical and on the fire side and Jim’s the one that puts all of our training
plans together so very excited to introduce Jim to the council and have him as part of my
command staff.
Mayor Laufenburger: Wonderful. Jim congratulations. Nice to meet you.
Asst. Chief Jim Van Asten: Thank you.
Mayor Laufenburger: Assistant Fire Chief, right?
Asst. Chief Jim Van Asten: Yes.
Mayor Laufenburger: Congratulations.
Chief Don Johnson: That’s my report Mayor.
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright, thank you Chief.
Chief Don Johnson: Thank you.
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you Jim.
2015 STREET REHABILITATION PROJECT (CARVER BEACH AREA): PUBLIC
HEARING AND ORDER PLANS AND SPECIFICATIONS.
Paul Oehme: Thank you Mayor, City Council members. I’d like to talk about the proposed
2015 street rehabilitation project for this year. What I’d like to do tonight is just give you a brief
background on the project. The scope that we’re looking at for the project. Cost and financing
of the project. Schedule and then the public hearing as well. I’d like to encourage us to hold
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Chanhassen City Council – January 26, 2015
tonight. The proposed project, every year the City considers streets that are in poor condition to
be rehabilitated or reconstructed. For the 2015 street project staff is proposing to make
improvements to approximately 4.3 miles of streets in the Carver Beach neighborhood. The
street segments within the proposed project are identified by the City’s pavement management
software program in conjunction with site investigations, utility inspections as well. These
streets can no longer be cost effectively maintained with preventive maintenance techniques such
as sealcoating or patching or lower cost maintenance items like that. Carver Beach originally
was platted in 1927. The lots, the size at that time was approximately 20 feet wide by 100 feet
long. Since then the lots have been combined to facilitate single family homes. Road right-of-
way in this area is substandard. Typically, or typical roads in this area have a 40 foot wide
roadway section just for the right-of-way. Streets are a lot narrower. Sewer and water was
extended in this area in 1975. Staff preliminary discussed this project with the council back in
August of 2014 and had a neighborhood meeting to discuss the project with the surrounding
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neighbors on November 19 of last year. Staff has received some correspondences on the
project which have been included in the council’s packet. Staff also did receive additional
written comments after the council packet was printed and I have distributed those tonight to the
council. In all we have invited 232 properties to this meeting tonight. So with that I’d like to
just briefly talk about the streets themselves. This area is not a standard neighborhood. Streets
out here vary between 16 feet wide to 26 feet wide. Some of the roads have over growth on
them meaning the sod or vegetation has grown over the street pavement area as well so we want
to make sure we’re cleaning that area up and paving the road as it was originally designed.
Streets in this area are about 40 years old except for Nez Perce which is a little bit newer. That
area does have curb and gutter and the area has been sealcoated several times too as recently as
1998. Determination of the pavement condition, the City does evaluate our streets on a yearly
basis. What we typically do is survey about a third of our streets every year. The last time the
Carver Beach area was surveyed was in 19, or 2013. And our rating scale is between 100, which
is a new street down to zero which is basically a gravel street. Typical, what we do is survey is
look for alligatored areas as shown here. The asphalt is starting to ravel. Longitudinal cracks.
We look for rutting and any other pavement distresses as well. Put that into our, into the
pavement computer system and then that rates the streets for us and this is not the only tool that
we use, like I said for evaluating street conditions and when streets should be coming up for
reconstruction or rehabilitation but this is one of the components that we use. I just want to
make sure you understood that. So with that pavement management software that we have, we
do have, we have rated each of these streets and as you can see again zero being basically a
gravel street up to 100, most of the streets are below a 20 which indicates it’s in need for major
rehabilitation. So with that the streets are proposed in the Carver Beach area to be fully milled
up which means reclaiming the material or the asphalt. We use that for sub-base or if there’s soft
areas on the streets we use that to strengthen the streets. Dig out the soft areas and put that
material back in and compact it down. We are looking at replacing the road with a 4 inch mat so
two lifts of asphalt. Grading out the area obviously and addressing any drainage issues that are
out there. Roadway widths will generally, are proposed to stay the same. Like I said the
roadway right-of-way is very narrow. This area has a lot of mature trees and vegetation. We
don’t want to impact any more vegetation than we have to in this area. Installation of curb and
gutter behind storm sewer structures will help facilitate the drainage of the area and keep the
drainage system in good shape for many years. We also are looking at making improvements to
the drainage system in critical areas especially along Lotus Lake to try to treat the water before it
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Chanhassen City Council – January 26, 2015
runs off into Lotus Lake and pollutes the lake so making some improvements there. I’ll go
through that in a little bit. And then streets within, that already have curb and gutter which are
basically Nez Perce we’re looking at a 6 inch mill and a 2 inch overlay there so basically milling
out the first 6 feet of the asphalt that is adjacent to the curb and then paving 2 inches over on top
of that. The streets in this area don’t have a crown. They don’t drain very well so we’re going to
build that roadway up a little bit more than it is today. Storm sewer improvements. I just want
to highlight a couple areas that we’re looking at. Woodhill Drive. There is a, this is a low point
that has on occasion flooded. The drainage area off the road currently drains through a
neighbor’s property. We wanted to look at moving that low point off into the, to the City’s
property which is shown here and then also the storm sewer system, the pipes in this area are in
poor condition so we want to replace that pipe and rebuild some of the manholes that are out here
too. The sanitary sewer in this area, we did televise that last year and we are actually finding
more problems with the sanitary than we had anticipated. We televised the 4.3 miles of sanitary
sewer and found a lot of infiltration of ground water and surface water into the pipe. Here’s a
video showing basically one of the I & I areas that we want to address.
Mayor Laufenburger: While you’re talking about, why does, why does infiltration and inflow, I
AND I, what does it occur Mr. Oehme?
Paul Oehme: Well the ground water in the area finds its least path of resistance to the pipes and
will go into the pipes and.
Mayor Laufenburger: Do the pipes crack? Do they corrode?
Paul Oehme: Well they settle sometimes. They crack. They move so they can become
disjointed so we’re looking at, especially in this area some PVC and there’s some clay pipes out
there that over time roots can get into the pipe and cause movement of the pipes so those are the
type of things that we want to address under this project as well because with water intrusion into
the pipe it can cause back-up’s and other problems with service which you know now’s the time
to fix those problems if we can.
Todd Gerhardt: Mayor, council. One other thing on infiltration, as the ground water infiltrates
the sewer pipe that is non-metered. In your home when you use water we’re able to meter that
and we base that on your sanitary sewer usage based on the water used in your home. As it
infiltrates into the sewer line that goes down to Blue Lake where in Savage where the sewer is
treated. It’s a regional sewer treatment facility. Most of the communities in the southwest
suburbs have their sewer treated there but Met Council meters that I and I water and then charges
us for that. So it increases everybody’s sewer availability charge that they get at their home so as
a part of that we try to limit that much of I and I and correct the problem so the sewer bill isn’t as
large.
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you.
Paul Oehme: So we found several areas, just not in our main lines that are underneath the streets
but also in service lines, the laterals that go up to people’s houses so this is showing I and I off a
lateral and it’s about a 4 minute video but you can, we shoot up to, up the service and you can
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Chanhassen City Council – January 26, 2015
see the water coming in through the pipe. Not through the house basically. We identified 22 of
these issues that are in private service lines that connect to our sewer pipe itself so we’ve notified
these property owners specifically that, about the problem and that we want to televise their
service lines and it’s something, a free service that the City offers just because we feel that it’s in
both of our interest to reduce the I and I coming into the system. If we can fix the problem and it
offers the property owners’ reassurance or information that potentially their service has a
problem and potentially could cause a back up so we want to work with the property owners on
those type of improvements. The watermain in this area, we’ve investigated the water, potable
water too and the watermain is ductile iron and it appears to be in good shape. We haven’t
documented any watermain breaks out here. However we do have some hydrants out here that
we would like to replace at this time. They’re just hard to maintain and have caused problems in
the past so we want to include that improvement under this project as well. With that, that’s
basically the scope of the project. This is the cost and the budgets shown here. The project right
now we estimate at a little over $1.9 million dollars. The, we’re looking with the improvements
that we’re making with the project we are looking to request grant dollars from Met Council for
the sanitary sewer improvements as well. That’s, we included that in this investigation so
basically we’re looking at replacement of sanitary sewer and then we do budget annually for I
and I infiltration and inflow for annual projects and we’re looking at using all that money in this
project. We also have a 10 percent contingency and indirect costs included in the budgets right
now. With that the City does have a practice of assessing a portion of the project back to the
benefiting property owners. It’s 40 percent. That’s just the street cost so here’s the breakdown
of where we’re at today with the estimated costs and the assessment amounts that we’re looking
at and the assessment units that are associated or benefiting from the project so the Carver Beach
area where we’re looking at doing the full depth mill reclaim we’re estimating right now it’s
about $2,800. Little over $2,800 and in the areas where we’re just doing the edge mill, in the
Nez Perce area, that cost is $1,866 and a few change so with that the property owners do have an
option of taking, or letting the assessments on their property taxes. The terms of that currently
are proposed at 8 years with the interest rate set at 2 percent plus prime at the time of the bid
opening. That’s our typical practice. With that if the project were to move forward we were
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looking at having plans and specs ready for, to bid out on February 28. Bid opening in March
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of this year. Approving the bids in April 27 and starting construction in May and then
substantial completion, we would like to wrap up before or the end of August basically so with
that it’s a really brief description of the project. If there’s any questions at this time that the
council may have I’d be more than willing to try to answer them.
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright, thank you Mr. Oehme. Before we take this to a public hearing,
are there any questions that the council would like to ask of Mr. Oehme?
Councilman Campion: Not at this time.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay, Councilman Campion go ahead.
Councilman Campion: Not at this time.
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Chanhassen City Council – January 26, 2015
Mayor Laufenburger: Oh not at this time, excuse me. Anybody? Okay. I do have a couple
questions Mr. Oehme. How would you gauge the scope of this project as compared to other
yearly projects that we’ve done in the past? Just size wise. Big, little?
Paul Oehme: This is one of the bigger projects that the City has undertaken. The project that
we’re working on is designed in-house so this is, we have a lot of resources that we have to put
towards this project. I think this is the second biggest project in terms of linear feet or miles of
roadways that the City has done in the last 10 years. The only bigger one that I can think of is
Melody Hills area and the Sandy Hook street areas that we did, or reconstructed 2 years ago so
this is definitely a big project for us.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. And it is a big project but it makes sense to do all of this at one
time versus breaking it up into 2 years, is that correct? Could you just speak to that a little bit?
Paul Oehme: Sure. I think in terms of impacts and noise and just regular disruptions for the
neighborhood, I think it makes sense to try to or do the project all at once and to try to get it done
all in one summer just because the area, especially Carver Beach area there’s really limited
access points. You’ve got Carver Beach and Nez Perce and there’s maybe one or two other
access points but you’re kind of limited in terms of how you get in and out so if you break up the
project into two years, you know the construction traffic is going to, you’re going to be impacted
for that amount of time so it’d be nice to I think to limit that amount just to one summer and to
try to get it done.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. Then one last question and then I’m going to open the public
hearing. You just spoke to a key question. How do you manage the local access while you’re
repairing 4.3 miles of road?
Paul Oehme: Sure, that’s a great question. So maybe bring up a map here of the area. So what
we always work with the contractor on and we give the contractor guidance in the construction
documents is how to phase the project so we’re not going to be allowing the contractor to just get
in here and mill up all the streets per se all at one time and then come back and pave over time.
What we’re going to look to have a contractor do is stage the project or make improvements to
certain portions of the project area at one time before he moves on to another area so what
preliminarily what we’re looking at is say in the Nez Perce, we’re looking at starting in the Nez
Perce area and Yuma and Ponderosa Drive. This area here. We’re looking at maybe starting
that as one of the first areas that we’re going to be having the contractor work on so he’s going to
be working on the watermain. The sanitary sewer and then the streets right after that. Once that
area is done at least have the first lift of pavement on, then we’re going to allow them to move
onto the next area so we’re not impacting everybody all at once and causing disruption and
erosion and runoff issues so we’re going to definitely, that’s one of the things that we’re going to
be working on with the contractor the most is staging the projects and to try to reduce the
impacts to the neighborhood as much as we can.
Mayor Laufenburger: And you set the expectation with whoever it is that you, the contract is
awarded to that your, you know don’t bid based on easy for you.
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Chanhassen City Council – January 26, 2015
Paul Oehme: Right.
Mayor Laufenburger: We want to make sure we satisfy the citizens in terms of staging it that
way right?
Paul Oehme: Exactly, yep.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay.
Paul Oehme: And we’re going to have interim completion dates throughout the project.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay.
Councilwoman Ryan: Mayor I have one question.
Mayor Laufenburger: Yes, Councilwoman Ryan.
Councilwoman Ryan: Mr. Oehme you said that the, some of the roads are very narrow like 16
feet I think was the narrowest point. Are you widening the roads as well or?
Paul Oehme: No. So we’re going to be limiting the width of the road based on what’s out there
today. We’re going to be more or less be matching what’s out there. Might be wider in maybe
an intersection but overall the roads are going to more or less going to be staying the same width.
In order to really widen these streets you really need to create a lot of impacts and tree removal,
grading, those type of things. Front yards disruption. It’s not really feasible to do that out here
so, and we’ve heard from property owners that they like the eclectic mix that’s out here with the
roads so we’re not looking at making any significant changes to the roadway.
Councilwoman Ryan: Okay, thank you.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay, so at this time I’ll open the public hearing and before I invite
anyone to come up, I’m pleased to see that we have people in the, with us tonight. I’m assuming
that some of you want to speak to this so if you want to, if you would like to speak to this project
would you just raise your hand so I have a sense of how many people are going to be coming
forward. Okay, I see 1, 2, okay. 3. Alright perfect. In that case then I would just invite
anybody if they want to speak to this project, I invite you to the podium and state your name and
address and we’ll hear what you have to say. Don’t be bashful. We have a table between us so
we can’t bite okay. Your name and address please.
Randy Cantin: My name’s Randy Cantin. My address is 6694 Nez Perce.
Mayor Laufenburger: Ray Cantin.
Randy Cantin: No Randy.
Mayor Laufenburger: Randy, excuse me. Randy Cantin.
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Chanhassen City Council – January 26, 2015
Randy Cantin: Yep, okay. Test. Test. Okay, as far as controlling runoff, water runoff, if I can
go over here to the map.
Mayor Laufenburger: You’re welcome to do so. We’re following you. Or wait. Randy.
Randy Cantin: I’ve got a drawing…
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay we’re getting a real good view of your head. That was placed there
specifically so the camera can capture that if you wouldn’t mind.
Kate Aanenson: Can I just show you something?
Randy Cantin: Sure.
Kate Aanenson: Put it here and then they can see it on TV.
Randy Cantin: Okay.
Kate Aanenson: If you can find your house on here and then just point.
Randy Cantin: I’m on the corner of Nez Perce and Western, can you see it?
Kate Aanenson: Sure. Here’s Nez Perce.
Todd Gerhardt: Up to your left Kate.
Randy Cantin: Oh here’s Western. Right here. I’m on that corner right there.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. Okay, got it.
Randy Cantin: Now there is, there’s quite a bit of collection of water right on the very corner of
that easement that results from typical rains and so I was curious to know if that was ever
considered as far as doing something as far as that.
Mayor Laufenburger: Don’t go moving our map Randy. We can’t see it. You can point to it but
don’t move it okay.
Randy Cantin: Yep. So it’s right here on this corner right there. It comes down, it seems like
Nez Perce comes to a valley there.
Paul Oehme: Okay.
Randy Cantin: That it rolls into and I understand there’s an easement in that particular spot so it
creates a little pond. I mean I do have ducks that end up showing up there so we have enough
water there for that but just to consider that as far as.
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Chanhassen City Council – January 26, 2015
Paul Oehme: Sure. I know there’s curb and gutter that’s out there. I don’t know, we’ll have to
take a look at that area a little bit closer…
Randy Cantin: I have a background in road construction. There is no catch capability there. It
just ends up sitting there.
Paul Oehme: Sure, okay.
Randy Cantin: And then it tries to work its way through my property down to Western where
Western has a nice slope taking it down to the swamps down there.
Paul Oehme: Okay. Alright, we’ll look into that.
Randy Cantin: Thank you.
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you Randy. Anybody else? Your name and address please.
Stan Cronister: Stan Cronister, 6730 Lotus Trail. Lotus Trail’s going to be unique and when
you start that project down there I was just kind of concerned how we’re going to get in and out
of there and do you do it all at one week do you do it or does it take a month? And then the other
question I had, with the heavy equipment the construction people have down there, if they take
out part of the existing driveways that the homeowners have, do they do anything about repairing
that?
Paul Oehme: Sure.
Mayor Laufenburger: Could you just, maybe you did and I didn’t see it. Could you point to
your home there? Okay.
Stan Cronister: Down in this area here, yeah.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay.
Stan Cronister: And then when you’re down there doing that, you have a wilderness area across
the street. I believe that’s how the City refers to it. Do you clean any of the trees up in the
wilderness area that are dead adjacent to the road?
Paul Oehme: Okay, sure. I’ll just.
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you Mr. Cronister. Mr. Oehme.
Paul Oehme: I’ll take those one at a time. So the timing of the project. I don’t know when we’ll
be in Lotus Trail area but once we’re in we’re going to try to get in and out as much as we can. I
know there’s not that, there’s a little bit of, in his, in Stan’s area there is some storm sewer
improvements that we want to make to try to capture the water. Put it into an environmental
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Chanhassen City Council – January 26, 2015
manhole. Try to treat the water before it ends up into the lake so there is some utility work I
know that has to be done in that area. I don’t know exactly how long we’re going to be out there
but it’s going to be several weeks I know that but the property owners on any of these streets
they will always have access to their property at all times except when you know obviously the
contractor’s in front of their house so basically after the milling machine comes through, we’re
going to have the contractor grade it out and compact it so you can drive on that street. Even
though its gravel you still have access to your property so we’ll, during the construction process
we’d send out notifications and talk to the residents or do some door hangers. Let them know
you know the night before typically you know when, if there’s going to be construction in front
of their house. If you have, you know if we know there’s going to be some disruption or access
issues we’ll let them know. Try to at least let them know 12-24 hours ahead of time if that’s
going to happen. Now if the contractor comes in and damages a driveway we make the
contractor replace that driveway. Cut it out. Saw cut it out or what have you. We’re not
expecting like a reconstruction project, we’re not going to have to remove the driveways back up
into people’s property under this type of project scenario just because we’re not replacing the
sewer and the water. We’re not putting in curb and gutter either so there’s going to be limited
driveway repairs or replacements under this project. In terms of the trees that are out there along
the lake, that’s a natural area. We typically don’t get in there and remove any dead or fallen
trees. It’s pretty much a natural area. Todd Hoffman is here, he can answer any more questions
you have maybe about tree removals in that area. It’s more of a park issue.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. Mr. Hoffman, do you want to make any comment about the tree
action associated with the street improvements?
Todd Hoffman: I’m familiar with this area. Right along the road there in that park area which
would be Carver Beach, the wood lands, if there are dead trees that are causing a potential safety
issue to either cars or vehicles, pedestrians, we would take those out but other than that the trees
in this area are left to fall down and they become part of the natural resources.
Mayor Laufenburger: And to a certain extent Mr. Hoffman we rely on citizen input. If they’re
aware that a tree looks like it’s ready to fall over the roadway we would ask that they let city hall
know so that we can act on that, is that correct?
Todd Hoffman: Correct. That and our observations.
Mayor Laufenburger: Mr. Oehme.
Paul Oehme: Mayor one other comment too. The city staff has been out here. The street
department has been out here clearing trees. Canopies. Just preparing for this project over the
last couple months here too so we have been cleaning out the roadway. Vegetation along the
roadway as much as we can just to prepare for the project.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. And related to driveways Mr. Oehme, would you have advice for
the homeowners in this area that if they have plans to replace their driveway they should wait
until after the street improvement is completed, is that correct?
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Chanhassen City Council – January 26, 2015
Paul Oehme: I would recommend that because the, you know we try to match the roadway
elevation as much as we can with where your driveway’s at.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay.
Paul Oehme: In terms of getting access for contractor’s replacing driveways it’s just better that
we get in there and replace the roadway first so the driveway contractor has something to tie into
that is permanent.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. Alright, thank you. Good questions Mr. Cronister. Anyone else
like to address the council at this time?
Troon Dowds: My name is Troon Dowds. I’m at 6940 Lotus Trail. Just being a resident of this
neighborhood I’d like to state my support for moving forward with this. The roads are in
condition where repair is needed. My one worry is that the estimated cost that was sent out is
going to increase possibly dramatically. From what I’ve talked to other residents in Chanhassen
where this has happened to their neighborhoods and I hope that the council would look at maybe
a maximum contract bid as they bid this out to try to contain some of those costs that are going to
be passed along to the residents.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay, appreciate your comments Mr. Dowds. Mr. Oehme if you want to
speak to the manner in which you estimate the costs and your, perhaps your history of accuracy
in predicting or estimating.
Paul Oehme: Yeah, we do our best. That’s all I can say. So we’ve, the City has had annual
street improvement projects for the last 10 years. Over those 10 years we’ve hit our estimates or
had the estimates come in below most of the time. I can’t, I think there’s maybe one project and
maybe it was over by a little bit but typically we’re pretty close to what our estimates are. We
look back at specifically the year prior. One of the biggest drivers for these types of projects is
the asphalt cost so we look back at specifically last year’s project and then have an inflationary
cost associated with that. We do have a pretty good pavement management system where we
know fairly reliably how much pavement we need to replace out here so I think our estimates are
fairly accurate in terms of the quantities that we’re going to be needing so in terms of bid prices,
I think I feel comfortable with the number that we’re moving forward with.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. Good question Mr. Dowds. Related to that Mr. Oehme, I noticed
in your staff report you indicated that the condition of some of the sewer pipe was worse than
you had originally estimated so you were, you actually are thinking that now the final cost of that
is going to be higher than perhaps was in the CIP. Am I stating that correctly?
Paul Oehme: It is. That’s true so one of the things that we don’t know, we can estimate the
asphalt. You know how much that’s going to take. How much material we need to bring in for
the roadway project. One thing we don’t know is, you know how much pipe we have to replace
underground until we televise and get an estimate from that so the, typically we televise the
sanitary sewer the year, the fall the year prior to the road coming up for bid so at that time we,
you know when the CIP’s put out we really don’t have a good handle or we haven’t televised or
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Chanhassen City Council – January 26, 2015
had a complete scope of how much sewer we need to replace or make improvements for so other
years we’ve hit that estimate and specifically last year we were actually way under. This year
unfortunately we’re over on the sanitary sewer cost or the amount of work, the scope of work
that we think needs to be done out here. That project or that sanitary sewer work is not an
assessable cost.
Mayor Laufenburger: So that is not passed onto the citizens?
Paul Oehme: Correct. I mean indirectly.
Mayor Laufenburger: It’s a City expense.
Paul Oehme: It’s a City expense.
Mayor Laufenburger: It’s not assessed based on the property.
Paul Oehme: I’m sorry, yes. That’s correct.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay, alright. Anybody else want to address the council?
Ken Wencl: Ken Wencl. I’m one of the managers of the watershed and I live over in Lake
Susan.
Mayor Laufenburger: And your address is?
Ken Wencl: 8412 Waters Edge Drive.
Mayor Laufenburger: Ken, nice to see you here with us this evening.
Ken Wencl: Thank you Mayor, council people and Paul and Todd. The watershed has done 2 or
3 projects up there trying to slow the water down. As you know that area is Little Switzerland.
It comes, the water comes down some off these hills and right across the road and right into
Lotus Lake. I would like to have you invite our coordinator and our engineer to visit with you
about this thing and see if we can get some cost sharing going. Not with the City. The City’s
got all kinds of money but with some of the people.
Mayor Laufenburger: Wait a second Mr. Wencl. There are some that may not share that
sentiment but continue.
Ken Wencl: Okay, there are some people along there who, if we talked about cost sharing with
them they might chip in and we can come up with some rain garden projects or whatever kind of
projects to slow some of that water coming off of those hills. I know there’s 3 or 4 places right
off the bat that I was very concerned about but it takes the city and the watershed to get together
in order to get some of these projects done so when I go back I’m going to mention this to the
coordinator and to the engineer and ask them to keep me in contact with you and at least sit
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Chanhassen City Council – January 26, 2015
down for a little meeting and say this is what we’ve got going and maybe we could help out
there.
Paul Oehme: Sure, great.
Ken Wencl: Okay.
Paul Oehme: Thank you.
Ken Wencl: Thank you.
Mayor Laufenburger: Appreciate that Mr. Wencl. I think that that certainly is the kind of
cooperation that we’d like to see the City with other partners, especially in the area of treating
water before it gets into Lotus Lake so thank you.
Ken Wencl: Yeah.
Mayor Laufenburger: Good suggestion.
Ken Wencl: Yeah you could, I was over there one day and it was after a rain and right
underneath that one home’s summer porch there was that much water just shooooo, right down
through there and they had swales in there and there were ravines and there’s things like that so I
think we could probably help you out some. I’ll at least try.
Paul Oehme: Absolutely, thank you.
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you for that offer. Thank you Mr. Wencl. Anybody else who
would like to address the council on this matter? You’re welcome to return.
Stan Cronister: Actually I’ve got a follow up.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. We just ask that you speak at the microphone so the person who’s
recording these can get your words.
Stan Cronister: I wouldn’t want to miss out on that.
Mayor Laufenburger: Yeah exactly.
Stan Cronister: The cost of this project was looked at when? This last summer you put the
numbers together.
Paul Oehme: Well we looked at it specifically this fall when we drafted the feasibility study and
we’re always updating the numbers.
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Chanhassen City Council – January 26, 2015
Stan Cronister: Bituminous is, the product that goes in there is basically crude oil. It was a
hundred bucks a barrel. Now that it’s dropped down to 50 bucks a barrel is that going to affect
the price of the project? And will that be reflected to the people that are going to get that bill.
Paul Oehme: Yep, absolutely.
Stan Cronister: And when you get the bill was my next question. When do you plan on sending
us that bill so we can prepare to send you those funds?
Paul Oehme: Sure.
Mayor Laufenburger: Mr. Oehme.
Paul Oehme: Yep, so to his point crude oil has cropped and that is a big component of the
bituminous cost for the project. We are monitoring those costs with MnDOT. MnDOT has more
projects than we let annually so they have better data on those costs and we think that the price
of bituminous will drop. However there is a large amount of projects that we anticipate being let
this spring because of projects that weren’t awarded in the fall so we think that this project is
going to have some stiff competition with other projects which might you know balance out the
costs per se but we are looking at that. We still want to move forward with the project. The cost
overall, like I had mentioned is, once a project is bid out we look at the assessment costs at that
point in time and adjust the assessment amounts accordingly to what the actual bid costs are so
right now we have the estimated assessment amounts. Once we have the bid in hand in March
we would adjust those numbers to reflect the true cost of the project and base the assessment
amount on those numbers. Once we have that number, in April we’ll have the assessment
hearing and have the council consider award of a contract. At that time the assessments would
be locked in and we typically give the property owners 60 days to pay off the assessment in full
if they’d like to. Otherwise by the end of the year it would go to the Carver County and be put
on their taxes. So there is a timeframe in there that the property owner can pay off the
assessment amount without any interest.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay so, let me just repeat for the property owners in this area. There will
be an assessment hearing that really is the result of the final bid that comes in, is that correct Mr.
Oehme?
Paul Oehme: That is correct.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. So that assessment hearing then is when people can come in and
learn more about the final assessment. The project then is underway and when the project is
complete you said we give them 60 days, is that right?
Paul Oehme: Correct, yep.
Mayor Laufenburger: From the completion of the project or?
Paul Oehme: From the time of the assessment hearing.
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Chanhassen City Council – January 26, 2015
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright, so they have 60 days after once the assessment is determined too
if they want to pay it off in full and accruing no interest charge then they can do it.
Paul Oehme: Correct.
Mayor Laufenburger: If they choose not to do that then it will automatically appear on their
property tax statement as a line item that says assessment and that’s 8 years.
Paul Oehme: Correct.
Mayor Laufenburger: With interest of prime plus 2 percent, is that correct?
Paul Oehme: That’s our typical practice.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. And that will come to the City Council for approval before the
final word right?
Paul Oehme: That’s correct. And the property owner wouldn’t see the assessment amount on
their tax statement until 2016.
Mayor Laufenburger: Payable in 2016.
Paul Oehme: Payable.
Mayor Laufenburger: Begin to be payable in 2016.
Paul Oehme: Correct.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. Alrighty. Thank you Mr. Oehme. Good follow up question Mr.
Cronister. Anybody else who would like to address the council, please do. Step up to the
microphone. Tell us your name and your address.
Denise Gray: Hi, my name’s Denise Gray and I live at 871 Nez Perce Court and I was kind of
hoping more of my neighbors would be here tonight but I’m kind of asking a question that was
brought up or a thought that was brought up by my neighbor who lives behind me. He lives on
Kerber Boulevard and Nez Perce Drive. His name is Chris but I can’t think of his last name off
hand.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay.
Denise Gray: He does own the franchise for the Radio Shack in Market Square though so if any
of you ever get in there you can meet him that way. His question, his comment to me was, he
was wondering if, what is ground up off of the streets might be economically more worthwhile to
recycle and place back down than to purchase new. And the other comment he made to me was
regarding the equipment that was going to be used. He said well if the company they hire uses
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Chanhassen City Council – January 26, 2015
newer equipment to do this work there will be less a chance of a breakdown of the equipment
and an extension of the time it takes to repair the roads so that’s another factor to consider in the
costs as well. Certainly equipment breakdowns would extend the timeframe and also extend
probably the cost so that’s something I’m hoping that you would consider when you’re looking
at the different companies that put in bids as well.
Mayor Laufenburger: Did you have any other questions Ms. Gray?
Denise Gray: Just wondering which will probably be more feasible cost wise is to do the
recycling or not.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. Alright, good questions. Mr. Oehme do you want to speak to that?
Paul Oehme: So we are recycling a majority of the, or grinding up, reclaiming most of the roads
in the Carver Beach area and we do use that for aggregate base. We are not importing virgin
materials. We are using in place materials for soft spots or for other uses for the base so we do
have to truck in the new asphalt that’s brought in. That comes from asphalt plants in various
locations around the town. In terms of the Nez Perce area, if your question is just the 2 inch
overlay versus the grinding up the entire road you know it’s right about a thousand dollar
difference basically. We’re estimating with putting down the 2 inch mat versus a 4 inch mat and
grinding up the entire roadway so.
Mayor Laufenburger: And repeat Mr. Oehme, you said that in the Nez Perce area where there’s
curb and gutter you were going to do a 2 inch mill within 6 feet of the curb and gutter correct?
Paul Oehme: Correct.
Mayor Laufenburger: So that means you’re going to leave in place that which is already there
between the 6 foot intervals and then you will, you mentioned a crown. There is no crown so
you will create a milled on top of the existing bituminous that is in the middle of the road, is that
correct?
Paul Oehme: Right. So we’re going to be paving over the pavement that’s in the middle of the
road.
Mayor Laufenburger: Creating a crown that produces the water flow towards the gutter.
Paul Oehme: Correct.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. So you said we were recycling most of the material. Is it more
cost effective to recycle as opposed to bring in new stuff?
Paul Oehme: Absolutely. With the trucking costs stay the way they are, diesel costs, it’s much
more advantageous for us to use the material that’s on site versus trucking in more material.
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Chanhassen City Council – January 26, 2015
Mayor Laufenburger: And is that part of the specifications that you give to the people to whom
you present the bids?
Paul Oehme: That’s correct. We tell them exactly what we’re looking at. How far, how much
of the area we’re going to be requesting them or telling to reclaim versus just the 2 inch so they
know exactly how much to bid on those specific line items.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. Now when we build these roads in Chanhassen, are we building
them to our own guidelines or are there Minnesota statutes that we have to build roads a certain
way?
Paul Oehme: There’s no statute for road design. Typically there’s some standard practices you
use for local streets versus collector roadways, arterial roadways. You know there’s different
design criteria for each of those so we look at those but we base our design basically on what we
see as the sub-grade material that’s out there. How much traffic volumes will we be looking at
and drainage and those type of things so we factor our design into site specific requirements or
criteria that we use for each of these projects.
Mayor Laufenburger: What have you learned over the last 10 years of building roads Mr.
Oehme? Are there some things that work better than others?
Paul Oehme: Oh yeah. I mean I think the designs that we are using today are reflective of past
projects and past knowledge that we’ve accrued, especially in this area. You know within
Chanhassen and we always are striving to make projects even better every year so we always are
learning and trying to implement new technologies and those type of things so.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay, alright. Thank you. Good questions Ms. Gray. Thank you very
much. Anybody else to address the council this evening on the subject of this street
improvement? Okay, with that I will close the public hearing and bring it back to council for
questions or comment. Anybody?
Councilwoman Tjornhom: I’ll just start out here.
Mayor Laufenburger: Councilwoman Tjornhom sure.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: I just want to say what a pleasure it’s been tonight to be part of this
hearing. A lot of times I’ve sat here during street assessments and nobody wants their street
done and so it was actually a pleasure to hear tonight that you do believe that it should be done
and that it’s a worth while project and so thank you for coming out to ask questions and to be a
part of the discussion. These are your streets and I hope that we can all make sure that we get the
project done efficiently and cost effectively and quickly so your disruption in your
neighborhoods will be minimal and that things will go smoothly so just, I want to thank
everybody for just coming up tonight.
Mayor Laufenburger: Well said. Anybody else? Comment or questions.
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Chanhassen City Council – January 26, 2015
Councilman McDonald: I guess I’ll comment.
Mayor Laufenburger: Councilman McDonald.
Councilman McDonald: I would echo what Councilwoman Tjornhom said that this is, it’s nice
to hear that you know people are in favor of it and you’ve actually got some positive feedback as
to ways that we can do the project better and I’m sure that Mr. Oehme will take all of those into
consideration. Again what we’re trying to do is fix it up so you can get to your homes and also
fix it up so that water in the area doesn’t continue to be a problem. I mean this is an opportunity
for both you and the City to fix you know certain problems which are within the scope and reach
of doing a street reconstruction. So I think with that and one of the things I will say that we’ve
done a couple similar to this. I think when we were out on Lake Minnewashta, Red Circle and
those areas. We ran into the same problems about street widths and basically what we had to do
to maintain the neighborhood so I think that with some confidence I can tell you that we do have
experience doing this. Our engineering department does know what to look for and I think when
we get all done, like the residents of those communities, you’ll have a much better road and I
think you’ll be happy so again thanks for coming out and this is definitely a project I will
support.
Mayor Laufenburger: Any other questions or comments? Mr. Oehme I just have a couple
questions. You use the term two lifts. For the uneducated, non-engineer, what’s a lift?
Paul Oehme: So a lift is a pass or a placement of bituminous where the pavers goes by once so
that’s one lift. And then they come back and do a second lift so.
Mayor Laufenburger: Why do you do two lifts? Why not just one 4 incher lift?
Paul Oehme: Sure. So the rollers that we like to use on these projects do not compact the
asphalt as well as we’d like it to if we have a 4 inch lift so you might have good compaction up
on the top. One or two inches of the asphalt but below you’re not going to get the compaction so
over time during summer and freeze thaw the asphalt might move a little bit. It might not be as
strong over time. There might be, it has the tendency to have water that gets into it and break
apart the asphalt prematurely so.
Mayor Laufenburger: So I think what you were describing and you talked about the phases of
the project and you talked about completing one phase and putting down the first lift and then
moving on to the next phase. So that means that the second lift would be applied, can people
drive on the first lift?
Paul Oehme: Absolutely.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay, so they can drive on the first lift. Fully functional but you give that
first lift a chance to settle a little bit and then you put the second or the finishing lift. The finish
wear course is what you call it.
Paul Oehme: Wear course.
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Chanhassen City Council – January 26, 2015
Mayor Laufenburger: Another highly technical term. Then you put that on. Now will the
second lift go on next, this summer as well? So it will be completed or will you wait a year?
Paul Oehme: No, our intent is to do it all in one year. There’s not going to be that, typically
when we wait a year to put the final wear course on, that’s when we’re replacing some really
deep sewers or putting in a lot of watermain where the soil might have a tendency to settle and
we don’t want to put that wear course on if we have some problems with settlement so. This
area we’re not having very many digs so we feel comfortable putting that last wear course on and
just getting it done in one construction season.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. So those of you that are watching at home, as well as here when
you see that heavy equipment in front of your home and it leaves the first time and you look out
there and you see like, it looks like your road’s not finished. You’re right. They will come back
for that second lift. What about the Nez Perce? Will that be done in one lift?
Paul Oehme: That will be done in one lift. One 2 inch lift.
Mayor Laufenburger: Ms. Gray that’s in your case when they put it down they’ll be done. Let’s
see the other thing, you mentioned the service lines. So you offer to the citizens you offer the
opportunity to televise, great word. Televise or video the service line which goes from our pipe
into their home. That’s their service line correct?
Paul Oehme: Correct.
Mayor Laufenburger: So what do you tell them? You’ve got a leak.
Paul Oehme: Well we tell them, we can tell them a lot of things if you’ve got a dip in your line.
If your service line’s cracked. It has roots intrusion in it. If it had, if there’s some obstruction in
the service line we can tell them that so.
Mayor Laufenburger: If they want us to can the City repair it or is that up to them, their
responsibility?
Paul Oehme: Typically we don’t go on private property for those type of service. We would
request that they would contract that work out but it’s to their benefit to know that they have
potentially have a problem that can be fixed.
Mayor Laufenburger: Especially if there’s roots in there that could cause a big back up.
Paul Oehme: Exactly, yep. And we do have, I think there’s out of the 22 that notices that we
just sent out, I think we have 7 that responded back already and we have scheduled those already
so we’re in the process of going through those services right now.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. Alright. Any other question of staff? What’s the action that
you’re looking for Mr. Oehme?
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Chanhassen City Council – January 26, 2015
Paul Oehme: Just to order the preparation of the plans and specifications for the project.
Mayor Laufenburger: As is shown on the screen.
Paul Oehme: As it’s shown on the screen, yep. So for the public hearing, we opened the public
hearing.
Mayor Laufenburger: We opened. And I closed it right? Did I close it?
Paul Oehme: Yep. I just wanted to make sure. I didn’t have it. Thank you.
Mayor Laufenburger: I feel like Dave Letterman. Let’s open it and close that thing. Okay. Do
I have a motion?
Councilman Campion: I’ll make a motion.
Mayor Laufenburger: Mr. Campion.
Councilman Campion: So I move that the City Council orders the preparation of plans and
specifications for the 2015 Street Improvement Project 15-01, Carver Beach area.
Mayor Laufenburger: Perfect. Is there a second?
Councilwoman Ryan: Second.
Mayor Laufenburger: We have a valid motion. Is there any discussion?
Resolution #2015-04: Councilman Campion moved, Councilwoman Ryan seconded that
the City Council orders the preparation of plans and specifications for the 2015 Street
Improvement Project 15-01, Carver Beach area. All voted in favor and the motion carried
unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
PUBLIC HEARING: REQUEST FOR ON-SALE BEER & WINE LICENSE,
SMASHBURGER, 7905 GREAT PLAINS BOULEVARD, SUITE 130.
Todd Gerhardt: Mayor, council. Staff did a background check on Smashburger and it came
back clean. They comply with all city ordinances and at this time open up the public hearing.
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright. The public hearing is opened. Anybody present that would like
to make a comment or a question regarding the request for on sale beer and wine license by
Smashburger? There being none we’ll close the public hearing. Any questions or comments
from staff to Mr. Gerhardt?
Councilman McDonald: You mean from council.
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Chanhassen City Council – January 26, 2015
Mayor Laufenburger: From council to Mr. Gerhardt, excuse me. Thank you Mr. McDonald.
Todd Gerhardt: Or anything on 2 inch lifts or. I’ve learned something.
Mayor Laufenburger: With a 2 inch lift we would, you know they don’t serve those as
Smashburger I don’t think.
Todd Gerhardt: They smash though.
Bob Halberg: We might be able to come up with something.
Todd Gerhardt: Yeah. There is a representative here.
Mayor Laufenburger: Yeah, there’s an applicant here tonight. Would you like to address the
council? State your name and address please.
Bob Halberg: Good evening Mr. Mayor, council members. My name’s Bob Halberg. I live at
th
1335 18 Street West in Hastings, Minnesota. I am a district manager for Smashburger and we
th
are very excited to be in Chanhassen. Opening it up hopefully March 18 is the goal but I know
we’re excited. This is number 14 in the metro area for us so we’re growing quick.
Mayor Laufenburger: Well nice to have you here Mr. Halberg.
Bob Halberg: Thank you.
Mayor Laufenburger: Any questions for Mr. Halberg? We’re looking forward to your presence
in our community.
Bob Halberg: Thank you very much.
Mayor Laufenburger: I know there are a lot of citizens that are as well so thanks for making
Chanhassen, putting Chanhassen on your menu so to speak.
Bob Halberg: Oh we’re excited.
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright, thank you Mr. Halberg. Any questions or comments from
council to Mr. Gerhardt. How about a motion?
Councilwoman Ryan: Well I’ll gladly make the motion because we are so excited to have
Smashburger. The City Council approves the request for an on sale beer and wine license for
Smashburger Acquisition Minneapolis, LLC dba Smashburger #1460 at 7905 Great Plains
Boulevard, Suite 130.
Mayor Laufenburger: We have a motion. Do I have a second?
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Second.
26
Chanhassen City Council – January 26, 2015
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you Councilwoman Tjornhom. Any discussion?
Councilwoman Ryan moved, Councilwoman Tjornhom seconded that the City Council
approves the request for an on sale beer and wine license for Smashburger Acquisition
Minneapolis, LLC dba Smashburger #1460 at 7905 Great Plains Boulevard, Suite 130. All
voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
Todd Gerhardt: Welcome.
Bob Halberg: Thank you very much.
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you very much Mr. Halberg. We had some new business that was
on the agenda. Those items were deleted and they will come back at another time, is that correct
Mr. Gerhardt?
Todd Gerhardt: That is correct Mayor.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. Now time for council presentations.
COUNCIL PRESENTATIONS.
Councilman McDonald: Mr. Mayor.
Mayor Laufenburger: Councilman McDonald.
Councilman McDonald: Thank you. This morning, as part of my duties for handling Southwest
Transit, I’m also a member on the Suburban Transit Association and we do an annual breakfast
with all the legislators who are able to come by and talk with us and today I’m happy to say we
had about 17 show up. Quite a few off the Transportation Committee and what I’ve got is
basically the handout that we gave to everybody. I’ll pass it out for members of the council to
look at. We’ve actually come up with some new ideas as to how transportation should work
within the metro area and I think we got a very good reception for all of that. One of the things
that we’re looking to do is to create kind of more intra district, or inter district travel instead of
having to go to downtown Minneapolis and then back out to the suburbs and catch 2 or 3
different providers. We’ve asked them to put forth a pilot program that they would fund and
then what we would be able to do is go between the basically suburban providers and you know
get people to like the Mall of America. Over to Shakopee. Down to Burnsville. You know
places where jobs are at and then from there the local providers would provide a bus service to
you know certain employers so that was met with I would say quite a bit of enthusiasm. Will it
happen this year or not? I don’t know but at least they’re very receptive to us and they’ve asked
us to come down and present before the legislative committee. The Transportation Committee
and such so we will be doing that. But all in all it was a very good breakfast and like I say a very
good turnout and I think there’s a lot of enthusiasm for again the suburban transit providers
working together.
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Chanhassen City Council – January 26, 2015
Mayor Laufenburger: Very good.
Councilman McDonald: You’re welcome.
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you for representing Chanhassen in both those roles. The
Southwest Transit and also the Suburban Transit Association. Any other council presentations?
ADMINISTRATIVE PRESENTATIONS.
Todd Gerhardt: Mayor Laufenburger and I had the opportunity to go to an open house last week
to celebrate Camp Tanadoona’s Phase 1 capital campaign. They raised $1.5 million dollars for
their Phase 1 improvements. The Camp Tanadoona had a little celebration for that achievement
and it was nice to meet some of the donors and see their excitement and appreciation of what
Camp Tanadoona has done for them or their families so it was a really nice, well attended and
Chanhassen businesses are contributing. The Rotary’s contributing to it so it’s a real gem in the
community and one of our two longest or oldest businesses in Chanhassen is Camp Tanadoona
so.
Mayor Laufenburger: And the impact that Camp Tanadoona has had over the 90 plus years that
it’s been present in Chanhassen is quite remarkable when you think of all of the young people
that have gone through there. Eventual leaders in business and industry and government that
have come out of there so it’s really a great testimony to what Campfire Minnesota has done and
their CEO Marty Wells is very interested in inviting members of the council over to Camp
Tanadoona once they get some of their, some of the other projects completed. They will
continue their projects through 2016 I believe and so I would, perhaps Mr. Gerhardt we can
arrange a field trip when the weather gets nicer.
Todd Gerhardt: Sure. I don’t know, it’s pretty nice this week.
Mayor Laufenburger: It was very nice. Anything else Mr. Gerhardt?
Todd Gerhardt: Just Mayor Laufenburger and I will also be attending the Carver County
Leaders Group tomorrow morning at 7:30 down in the courthouse. Talking about collaboration
and establishing programs for the 2015 year so.
Mayor Laufenburger: Actually related to that Mr. Gerhardt or I represent Chanhassen in a
number of partnership meetings. There’s one that Chanhassen’s included with the Minnetonka
School District mayors. There’s also a mayors breakfast for all of Carver County mayors.
Todd Gerhardt: Can’t have enough meetings.
Mayor Laufenburger: It seems unending. You can’t get enough of it, that’s exactly correct.
Alright, thank you very much Mr. Gerhardt.
Todd Gerhardt: That’s all I have.
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Chanhassen City Council – January 26, 2015
CORRESPONDENCE DISCUSSION.
None.
Councilwoman Tjornhom 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 8:25 p.m.
Submitted by Todd Gerhardt
City Manager
Prepared by Nann Opheim
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