CC 2015 09 28
CHANHASSEN CITY COUNCIL
REGULAR MEETING
SEPTEMBER 28, 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, Councilman McDonald,
Councilwoman Tjornhom, Councilwoman Ryan, and Councilman Campion
STAFF PRESENT:
Kate Aanenson, Paul Oehme, Todd Hoffman, Lt. Eric Kittelson, Fire Chief
Don Johnson, and Fire Marshal Mark Littfin
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you and welcome to this council meeting. Those of you that are
present in the chamber as well as those of you who are watching on Mediacom Cable Channel 8
or 107.2 at home. For the record let it be note that all of the council members are present.
Absent this evening are City Attorney Roger Knutson. Also City Manager Todd Gerhardt is on
assignment in Seattle at the International City Manager’s Association so we’re going to an
exemplary job tonight. We’re going to be very efficient. First of all council members are there
any modifications to the agenda? If not we will then proceed with the agenda as printed.
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS:
None.
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 September 14, 2015
2. Receive Planning Commission Minutes dated September 15, 2015
3. Approval of Fireworks Display Permit for Chanhassen High School Homecoming
Celebration, October 9
Resolution #2015-58:
4. Lake Lucy Reservoir Reconditioning: Approval of Consultant
Contract
5. Approval of Extension of a Variance Allowing a Third Floor Expansion in the BN
District, Park Nicollet Building, 300 Lake Drive East, Applicant: Frauenshuh
Commercial Real Estate Group
th
Resolution #2015-59:
6. Reject Bids: West 78 Street Water Main Extension, TH 41 to
Beacon Court
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
Chanhassen City Council – September 28, 2015
VISITOR PRESENTATIONS:
Mayor Laufenburger: At this time anyone wishing to address the council on a matter that is not
on the agenda for this evening you may step to the podium stating your name and your address
for the record, and I think we have one scheduled visitor presentation. Dr. Bauck are you here
this evening?
Dr. Jim Bauck: I am.
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright, would you please step up to the podium. Simply identify yourself
and tell us what you’re here about tonight.
Dr. Jim Bauck: I’m Jim Bauck. Superintendent of Eastern Carver County Schools and I want to
thank you for the invitation to come and present to the whole council. The Mayor and one other
council member sits on the Community Leaders Group and we talk about city issues and school
district issues. Things of that nature and I’ve been before you before in the last 4 or 5 years on
some different topics and tonight I’m back in front of you I think a second time now in regard to
a school district referendum that’s coming up on the Eastern Carver County side of your
illustrious city and I know that Minnetonka also has a referendum this fall so.
Mayor Laufenburger: Dr. Bauck could I just stop you for a second? Nann can you confirm that
you’re able to display the presentation to viewers at home? Okay, thank you very much. You
can continue.
Dr. Jim Bauck: Are we good to go?
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay we’re good to go.
Dr. Jim Bauck: Okay, good. The City Managers voted for the councils. You’re the fourth City
Council I’ve been in front of, to not have the cliff note version of the referendum presentation
but to have a full meal deal so you can blame Todd who is now absent tonight from your
meeting.
Mayor Laufenburger: Or thank him.
Dr. Jim Bauck: Or thank him, one of the two and proceed from there but I just want you to know
I did give them a choice and so we’ll go through the presentation. It’s got a number of slides. A
number of videos and what we’re going to try to convey tonight is: What is the referendum
about? What does it cost? Why do we need it now? What happens if it fails? All good
communities have lots of different pieces of excellence to them and I think our area is no
different than any other. If you look at Carver County it’s one of the healthiest counties in the
State of Minnesota. It’s highly educated. It’s obviously fast growing. In addition to that if you
look at our cities, our major 4 cities in our side of the school district, all of them have won
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Chanhassen City Council – September 28, 2015
various awards over the year. Most recently you again as great places to live, work and raise a
family and I think from that we end up getting good solid support in our school district. Most
recently in a referendum in 2013 to improve security in our buildings and to add technology tools
for teachers and students to use in the classroom. It’s from that kind of foundation that I think
really good things happen in the school district and I want you to listen to a couple high school
students. Both of these students went through our school system, preschool all the way through
Grade 12 and just graduated last spring. About what they say about the school district. Oh I
forgot, I’ve got to show some other things first. Good things happen as I said. Athletic or
academic teams. Seven knowledgeable state champions. Eight Quiz Bowl. We had several
students place in the National Speech and Debate Tournament last year. Both of our robotic
teams have been to the International World Competition. The Chanhassen Art Group to the
International Thespian Festival last year. National History Day, not just participants but place
holders in the national contest out at D.C. and also if you look at last year some athletic
championships also. Our State softball team. Adapted softball team won. That young man there
in the orange shirt, Dallas is quite an interesting young man. He now works in our school district
from our transition program. And then Chan’s baseball team and Chaska High School volleyball
team. Now onto those two students and what they talk about.
A video was shown at this point in the presentation.
Dr. Jim Bauck: These kids talk about caring deeply for them. For the staff caring about them
while they’re in school and we think that helps them when they leave our school system at the
same time. There’s an old adage that people need to know you care before they care what you
know and I think that exemplifies our school district. So how do we build on that? How do we
get our schools ready for the challenges that they’re going to face in the future? The Board has
two questions in front of the public this fall. One is to revoke and replace the 2006 referendum
levy that will sunset with taxes payable this coming year and add $450 of additional revenue to
that and I’ll come back and explain that. And the second question is for facilities. We’ve been
working on a facility plan, a 5 to 10 year plan for a long time. There’s been tremendous public
input. We probably had about 5 to 6 community surveys. Listening sessions. Focus group
sessions. Three or 4 different task forces. We came to the cities to help plan out what should we
be doing with our facilities? How do we work in conjunction with all 4 cities in our community
and this plan that you’ll see tonight is what came out of those discussions. First let’s focus in on
the operating question and some background data on the operating question. Right away when
you start asking for additional operating dollars people like to know where do you spend your
money now? Former Governor Tim Pawlenty came up with a system about 8-9 years ago where
he said 70 cents of every tax dollar spent in the school district should be spent in instruction and
instructional support. Those are your teachers in the classroom. Your vocational ed. Your
special education. Your curriculum work. Your professional development. Technology. All of
those type of things that are directly in the classroom and we’ve been above that 70 cent mark at
least in my short tenure here which is now going on year 6 but before that also. How do we
compare to area districts when you look at the operating side of your budget? These are 14
districts that our school board chose 5 years ago to benchmark from test scores to cost on a per
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student basis. This is the last audited data the State has. They’ll have new data come about
March of actually ‘16 for the ’14-’15 school but now if you look at those 14 school districts there
are 10 of them that spend more on a per student basis and there are 4 that spend less. Actually if
you look at the metro average, our district is a little over $700 below the 7 county metro average
and greater Minnesota actually, the state average is, we’re about $800 below the state average.
So how about the return on investment from 2006, the last referendum? First and probably
foremost curriculum and we’ll come back to ACT scores but we really narrowed the focus of our
curriculum since about 2006 and at the same time we’ve added some things. A number of AP
classes. We have a number of students who take AP. We have I think 22 AP offerings now and
in our elementaries we’ve added the science technology of a stem effort and La Academia for
immersion so lots of curriculum work and then obviously our technology here in the last couple
years. The second piece though that I wanted to emphasize with you is when our community
decided to build a second high school we immediately created two football teams. Two choirs.
You know two girls basketball teams and we doubled the opportunities for high school students
and one might say well what’s important about that. A college board had commissioned a
couple people a few years back to do an empirical research study on the impact of student
activities on success later in life and here’s what they found out in that research. One, kids who
are involved in at least one activity, one high school activity are more likely to have a higher
GPA than their counter parts in high school. Are more likely to graduate from high school but
more importantly they’re more likely to graduate with a bachelor’s degree at the end of that
college term so pretty important I think to provide kids opportunities. 70 percent of our high
school students participate in at least one high school activity and we’re probably right around
about 50 percent participate in 2 or more. So both on the curriculum side and the activity side I
think some good return on that investment in 2006. ACT scores, if you go back to 1999 and you
look through about 2006-2007 we hovered right around the state average. In 1999 we tested
about 70 percent of the kids. 2014 and 2015 we’re right at 24 as a composite average and we’re
testing, last year we tested 92 percent of the students in our school system. The other variable
that’s not there that’s really important on testing is your student demographics. Kids of poverty
tend to be kids who then drag down your test scores. If you go back to ’99 for our school district
we were at about 8-9 percent kids of poverty. Today we’re right between 18 to 21 percent in any
one of the last given 5 years so we’ve doubled the rate of poverty, and those kids are taking the
ACT and we’ve increased the number of kids taking the ACT by 20 some percent. 24 is better
than 75 percent of the kids who take the exam across the United States. If you look at our top 25
percent it’s 30 and that’s better than 95 percent of the kids who take the ACT and if you go up to
our top 10 percent of our kids you’re looking at a 31.7 for the last year. Was a little higher the
year before and that is better than 98 percent of the kids who take the ACT. So what have we
been doing? In the last few years if you talk about living within our means, we’ve been doing
that. We have not asked for any increase in operating dollars for 9 years now and we basically
have lived off of what the State has given us, which has been less than the rate of inflation. If
you look at that same period of time, actually Governor Pawlenty gave us our best increase in
funding back in ’06, ’07, and ’08. Since then we’ve been below the rate of inflation until the
next 2 years. This year and next year so what have we done then to balance the budget?
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Chanhassen City Council – September 28, 2015
A video was shown at this point in the presentation.
Dr. Jim Bauck: Like any good business organization you cut your budgets then. You live within
the dollars that you have. This is that same dollar bill I had up earlier and the red percentages
show you in fact where those reductions have occurred over the years. Yep, we’ve reduced some
teachers. Some classroom teachers. Yes we reduced some administration and you can see the
other cuts and the other major areas plus we spent about $1.44 million of fund balance. This
year we’ll spend about $1.5 million of fund balance to make sure the budget expenditures,
revenue meets expenditures, excuse me. Why is needed now? First of all we need to renew that
referendum that’s currently in place and the second reason is to operate those new facilities. If
we look at just the new money, the $450 that we’re asking for new money, a little over a third of
it is needed to operate the facilities that would be built if question number 2 is successful so
you’re looking at principle, custodians, clerical, snow removal, utilities, heating, cooling, you
know maintaining the grounds, things of that nature. Those overhead costs. About a third of
that, a little over a third of that $450 is for that. The second piece, the budget gap. What we call
the budget gap. We need about two-thirds of that $450 dollars for it. The first piece, which is an
investment in curriculum and teacher expertise, which is to continue what we started with the
2006 referendum. It’s also to maintain our current class sizes and to hire the additional teachers
that we’ll need as our enrollment grows. State aid. It’s been less than inflation so just a little
less than a third of that $450 is to make up for the last 7-8 years of getting State aid increases less
than an inflationary amount. It’s not going forward. It’s really in arrears to make up that
difference. How do we compare to other districts? This chart has multiple colors. I can come
back to it. The blue really represents a change in legislation where that now has become local
authority. We added it all in there this time because that change just happened a couple years
ago and all our residents are still being taxed for that full amount so if you look at Eastern Carver
County it’s $1,247. If we were to be successful it would move up to $1,697. If you look at if it
was not to be approved we would drop to $868 on a per pupil basis and those are most of the
schools in the 7 county area. The chart gets too big to get them all in there but that covers most
of them, if not all of them. What happens if question 1’s not approved? Well the Board asked us
to put together a preliminary list of reductions. It’s preliminary. It’s not final. If the referendum
isn’t successful this fall then the Board will go through its normal budget process which includes,
whenever we do a major reduction like this we have a couple, 2 or 3 public input sessions.
There’ll be a couple work sessions much like you do as a City Council and then you arrive at that
list that you’re going to put into place to make sure that again that expenditures don’t exceed
revenue. That gives you a little flavor of what’s on that list. The complete preliminary list is out
on the website. Question 2 is for new facilities. The first 5 pieces are all for additional space
and the last piece is what I call a little tender loving care that’s needed for buildings that are 20 to
40 years old in our district. In order for question 2 to pass question 1 has to pass. Several years
ago in our district when we built Chaska High School the two questions, the operating question
and the building question were not contingent on each other and the building question passed.
The operating one did not and for those of you who lived in the community at that time, we
shoved everybody into a smaller Chaska High School than we have today. Closed West for 1
year and then went back to the public because the public saw the need, the space needs and then
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voted for the operating question to be passed. I don’t know of a district today, at least in the last
decade or so who does not tie the 2 questions together because you can’t afford to operate the
new buildings without having operating dollars available. So why do we need more classrooms?
Our elementary enrollment continues to grow and that’s where the issue is. We will grow about
400 elementary students. If you start back about a year ago and work up to the fall of 2018 we
will grow at least 400 elementary students over that time period. We added all day every day
kindergarten a year ago and we did not add any space. We have no more space. We hired a
teacher a few weeks ago at Bluff Creek and we put that teacher in the last little cubicle we had.
There’s not enough space in there to run a full classroom and that’s where we are at with
Victoria, Bluff Creek and almost all of our elementary buildings right now. Secondary
enrollment will stay pretty stable to maybe growing 150 or 200 over that same 4 or 5 years so the
secondary enrollment is not going to be jostled around very much over that same period of time.
A video was shown at this point in the presentation.
Dr. Jim Bauck: So what’s driving this is growth in our elementary enrollment, particularly on
our west side. You still have residential property to be developed in Chanhassen also. When I
bring that up to the residents of the other pieces of the community they kind of look at me and go
really? Oh yeah. There’s still land to be developed on this side of the district down the road too
but right now it’s our west side that is growing leaps and bounds. Talk a little bit about
elementary capacity. We have a building in our district called the Kindergarten Center La
Academia. La Academia takes up the majority of that space. We have Clover Ridge
kindergarten there also. That’s the last kindergarten class that is not in its neighborhood school
and Clover Ridge has never had kindergarten at its school yet in the 13-14 years it’s existed. If
you look at our capacity 1 through 5 and just leave the Family Learning Center or excuse me. La
Academia and the Kindergarten Center alone, we have room for about 3,600-4,500 elementary
students. We build a new school for 720. We put additions on at Clover Ridge and Victoria to
help with that growth. Our new capacity’s about 4,665. Our enrollment which has been within 8
tenths of 1 percent on projection right now the last couple years would be right around 4,621.
This growth is really being caused by housing development and it’s very different than when you
have child birth type of growth. That has a different flavor to it. That’s pretty steady. Our child
birth rate actually in Carver County during the great recession dropped, okay. Which is pretty
typical of a major economic recession but our housing growth is what’s filling this in. What
would take place at La Academia, the kindergarten center is we’d move the Family Learning
Center which is our preschool programs. Not out of Chan Elementary but the other ones are over
at Chaska High School on one wing of the high school right now. We would move those
programs into the Kindergarten Center La Academia so that’s where those programs would be
housed. That’s why those, that space is not counted in our capacity for K-5 elementary students
down the road. What happens then? We will then take a school and have La Academia have it’s
own school in our district. Right now La Academia is capped at 3 sections per grade. We could
have added a fourth this year. We had to turn down 25 parents who wanted their children in that
program because we did not have space for them so you’re looking at a program that within a
couple years will be a 4 or 5 section elementary, which will be about 500 students. Early
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Chanhassen City Council – September 28, 2015
childhood as I said earlier would move over to where the Kindergarten Center is right now and
La Academia and they would take over that entire space. That program right now is capped also.
You don’t want to cap programs and close them to open enrollment because then families make
other choices and they don’t come back. Once they make a choice early on or either preschool
or elementary they tend to stick with that choice no matter you know the outcomes for their
children because life’s kind of centered around that choice. And then we would provide
adequate space at Chaska High School because they’re in need of that classroom space which
they gave up. They had to give up in order for us to have room for the early childhood program.
Where would the new school be located? We worked very closely with all 4 cities and I need to
convey that and I know Todd’s not here tonight but Todd was part of those discussions starting a
year ago and we worked with all 4 city managers and taking a look at development and growth
and numbers. We stayed on top of those numbers with all 4 cities and eventually narrowed it
down to really Chaska and Carver as the right place to build the next new school given current
development and anticipated development in the next few years. This is out in Carver. It’s on
Jonathan Parkway. If you’re going out 212 it’s south of that. If you think of where that
Southwest Transit station is, it’s right across the road from that is where the site is. It’s 30 acres.
We would just like our other partnerships with our cities, we would purchase 15 acres from the
City. The City has a tentative agreement with the landowners right now. We would purchase 15
acres. The City then would develop the other 15 acres which are the fields. There’s not a, right
where it says preliminary drawing there’s nothing situated there right now but the City would
develop that quadrant also. We’d be responsible for the school and the parking and the bus
entrance in and out of that. It’s a shovel ready area. Sewer, water, utilities. Two entrances for
the school which is just fabulous. Sometimes it’s very difficult to get that and to be able to
separate out busing and parent parking is a real plus there. The second site which is part of the
referendum is a site in Chaska. If you go down 212 and you can see 140 there. There’s about
250 houses that have been developed in the, it’s the old Chaska Heights area that’s been kind of
recommissioned into a new development and right now platted in that little southwest corner is
another 1,545 homes to be built. That would generate for our district, should that come to
fruition about 1,000 students and so we felt, and the Board felt and our various task force felt we
needed to have some land in that area so that we can minimize transportation costs. Purchase
land when it’s reasonably priced versus later on. The City is going to buy about 52 acres in that
area. That little gold kind of square piece would be the piece that we would purchase for about,
it’d be 15 acres again and again the City would develop all the fields. We would just build the
school and the parking lot. Things of that nature. Actually on this site it’s kind of interesting.
Just south of there where you see that light green in those kind of scattered areas. I think that’s
called the Big Woods which is some original woods for 200 plus years and can’t be changed for
environmental reasons so a great need to have some additional land. This would position us well
for the future. We’d have 15 acres in the Chaska on the west side and we’d have 20 acres in
Victoria also. Clover Ridge, going onto that addition for those of you who have been to the
building you can see where the main entrance is marked. It’s a cluster of classrooms. That
building was designed for that cluster to be added. It’d be about 5 classrooms. 10,000 square
feet and then that would, the building was really built for 585 students. This would bring its
capacity to just under 750 so very similar to the new building that would be built and that
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Chanhassen City Council – September 28, 2015
cafeteria would allow us to get kids through lunch in less than 2½ hours at the elementary level
and not have to start them an hour and a half after they’re in the building to make sure they get
through lunch and recess. Same thing at Victoria. Victoria right now sits at about 630. They’re
right at capacity and these 5 additional classrooms would add about 10,000 square feet. Same
thing with the cafeteria and it would fill their capacity to be around 700 some students and by fall
of 2018 if we stay on projections they will be probably over capacity by then. Middle school.
What do we need at the middle school? What we need there is physical education space. Not
traditional classroom space and so therefore we have 2 pieces we’re going to add. One would be
a pool over at Pioneer Ridge Middle School and that would be not only used during the day for
instructional purposes but then after school for our high school swim and dive teams and then
obviously by the community youth association and community people afterwards. This is a
rough drawing of what the pool would look like. It will meet all the new standards with 8 lanes.
It will have a separate diving well and seating capacity for 300 spectators. Right now if you’ve
gone over to Chaska Middle School East recently that pool was built about 40 years ago. It’s 6
lanes. A diving well is part of the swimming area. It’s a little bit quadrant off and you can only
seat about 125 people in the stands. Even for a dual meet it’s tough to get all the parents from
both teams in there to watch.
A video was shown at this point in the presentation.
Dr. Jim Bauck: In addition we will do water safety but we’re not going to teach swimming
lessons. Our communities have great opportunities for kids to get basic swimming lessons in a
pool. Gym space. Gym space at Middle School East is half of what the other 2 middle schools
are in our district so the co-curricular task force and the board facility task force, knowing that to
be true took a look at what kind of space do we build and what’s being recommended on the
referendum isn’t your traditional 4 block walls and maple floor with 8 basketball hoops in it.
They really felt something more flexible and I think that flexibility, and you’re going to hear the
different uses that will have will allow that place to be used almost 24/7 but first and primary it’s
for physical education space during the day at Chaska Middle School East.
A video was shown at this point in the presentation.
Dr. Jim Bauck: It’s not a great space and it’s going to be not enough space right now already
and as that enrollment increases that will take place. We got some pictures from the City of
Savage about their dome because ours would be very similar in nature so we thought you know
people would like to know what it would look like. Like the Savage dome too they throw down
a net so when other groups are using it in the evening you can still have walkers in their dome
which is kind of a nice dual purpose then and we would take it down in the late spring and it
would become a field at that point to be used in the summer. Lots of other uses though besides
instructional day. For co-curriculars the swimming pool is needed. Already talked about that.
We have 2 girls’ teams. One boys team that’s ready to split into 2 and we can’t hold more than
dual meets at Chaska Middle School right now and it will be used by West Express but in
addition to that when we look at the dome there’s some additional uses.
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Chanhassen City Council – September 28, 2015
A video was shown at this point in the presentation.
Dr. Jim Bauck: So instructional first. Our co-curricular team second. The third use would really
be the community then. We see as I said a walking opportunities in the dome. Lap swim
possibilities with have 2 pools available. The youth associations have really stepped forward.
CC United which you’ll hear from Jonathan Tudor here in a few seconds spends $130,000
outside of our community renting some space and they would bring those type of rental fees back
to our community and help the rental and the operating cost of the dome. West Express has
talked to us about spending an additional $20,000 to $30,000 in rental fees for the second pool so
they can expand their program which has been capped right now the last few years. And
interesting Laurie Anderson mentioned to us one day that she could see the Southwest Metro
Chamber using it also for things like the Home and Garden Show and they do use that over in
Savage for that so we’ll listen to a couple people now.
A video was shown at this point in the presentation.
Dr. Jim Bauck: Football, baseball, softball, lacrosse and soccer youth associations have all
talked about using the dome. We’ve been meeting with those groups since April. We even have
an exploratory schedule out there how they would use it when the district is not using it during
the instructional day or after school for co-curriculars and most of the time is already filled and
CC United, the soccer group which is actually the third largest soccer association with
participants in the state of Minnesota. The other 4 groups are worried that CC United is going to
consume it all and actually Jonathan Tudor told me they could use every minute that we’re not
using it but our message to him was, we’re going to have all our user groups have access to it
and then if there’s time left after that Jonathan CC United can snarf up what’s left after that
which they probably will do. Okay tender loving care.
A video was shown at this point in the presentation.
Dr. Jim Bauck: So what type of repairs are we talking about?
A video was shown at this point in the presentation.
Dr. Jim Bauck: 45 years on that Chanhassen Elementary roof. That’s pretty dog gone good for
flat roofs in the state of Minnesota. But you know the bottom line here is we need some repairs
and they’re major repairs and if you do them in a timely basis then you forego those emergency
repairs that cost you a lot more and as Joe said in the previous video you can also address some
energy efficiencies then too. So what types of things are in that 7½ million dollars as part of the
referendum? You can see most of it is roofing. The second is HVAC. None of these things
people really notice much but if you don’t have those good foundational pieces and their
function in your building, your teachers and students will notice it right away because their space
is not functional and it’s not usable for instruction. And then you can see hardscape would be
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Chanhassen City Council – September 28, 2015
things like parking lots, curb, gutter, sidewalks, things of that nature. There is the full bond issue
then with its various components. A new elementary school. The additions. The multi-purpose
dome facility. The pool. Deferred maintenance. Purchase the 2 land pieces. One for the new
elementary. The future site in Chaska. Equipment and then capitalize interest and bonds. Good
time to be out in the market. I’m glad the feds didn’t move the interest rate about a week and a
half ago, or 2 weeks ago. Even a half a percent increase in the interest rate right now and that
$66.7 million would cost taxpayers another 4 ½ million dollars over that 20 years of that money
being borrowed so we’re primed if the community says yes to the, both questions. We’re ready
to move in the market and sell bonds appropriately and get it done before the feds meet in
December for another go around about interest rates. And then you can see what some area
districts have done with some investments recently. A second reason for timeliness of the
investment is we have some debt coming off. Paid off debt. Some of the bonds from the
Chaska, Bluff Creek building projects in the last 20 years will all be paid off. We drop about 3
million one year from now taxable 16 and a million and a half the year right after that so, and
then there’s a drop off later on down the road and we’ve structured the bonds so that we don’t
increase the taxes due to the bonding piece of these 2 questions. So what happens if question
doesn’t 2 doesn’t get approved? Well in addition to the operating costs increasing class size, we
just don’t have enough space at elementary so our elementary schools are going to feel that pinch
of 2 to 4 students within a year or two because they’re, that’s the area that’s growing. We’ll also
have to make some decisions because we’re going to have to put kids someplace and I think I
told one of the councilors that means we’re going to stuff them in. We’ve got to find a place.
They’ve got to go to school. We’re not unobligated not to educate them so we have to find an
alternative. We have looked at leasing spaces, whatever. There’s just not much available and
what is available is in an industrial area where we’d get limited time usage. Make a major
investment. Owe nothing when we walk away from it so, and I really don’t have an answer for
La Academia and early childhood or Chaska High School right now because they’d probably
stay where they’re at. Stay capped and we’re going to continue to lose students. So what does it
cost? That first column shows the sun setting or the revocation of the levy that’s currently in
place for 379. Replaces it. It is a tax increase. Both these questions are a tax increase and they
will say that on the ballot. The third column coming from the left to the right underneath the Q1,
Q2 is that expiring debt. Then the fourth column is the new debt with the $66.7 million.
The average price home in our school community right now is $302,000. That’s why you’ve
seen the district information we’ve talked about the average price home would pay about $13.80
a month. You can go out to our website and we have a tax calculator out there. People can put
their Ag property in there. Retail. Commercial. Industrial. Houses, whatever and it will do a
quick calculation for the owner. And provide adequate and appropriate facilities for teachers,
staff and students so that learning takes place in a safe and secure environment. The decision to
build a strong future is now in the hands of the voters. We missed a little of that but you don’t
need to hear more of me.
A video was shown at this point in the presentation.
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Chanhassen City Council – September 28, 2015
Dr. Jim Bauck: So I just want to thank you for your time this evening. I know it takes you a
little off course from your normal agenda but I really appreciate it here. I’m only here tonight as
an informational source for you so that you have some good background on this question.
Council members, mayors get asked questions frequently just like we do about in the school
district about what’s happening in your city or the other 3 cities that are within our district
boundaries and it’s just nice to have that information. And again I want to commend the
community leaders group. I know your mayor and your former mayor have sat on that group
along with now a council member and that group has been really a good group to work with the
last year as we’ve shaped these 2 questions to bring out to our public. And with me tonight on
behalf of the school district we have 2 board members. Fred Berg is back there in the orange
shirt and a resident of Chan and Lisa Anderson our board Chair who is a resident of Chaska so
I’ll stand for questions right now if you have any. Otherwise I’ll get out of the way. You have
other agenda for the evening but again thank you for your time.
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright, thank you Dr. Bauck. We appreciate the time that you and your
entire staff and school board have put into researching and preparing not only for tonight but for
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the referendum vote on November 3. Let me just pause for a moment, anybody have any
questions of Dr. Bauck? Okay. I thank you very much. I would also mention that I know there
may be some other people present tonight that would like to address the council, either on this
topic or other topics present so thank you Dr. Bauck.
Dr. Jim Bauck: Thank you.
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Mayor Laufenburger: Good luck with your referendum on November 3.
Dr. Jim Bauck: Thank you.
Mayor Laufenburger: And by the way, what was the, if citizens want to know more detail about
this, what is the website?
Dr. Jim Bauck: Yeah that got cut off on the video too. It’s, now I’ve got to look at it. It should
be right on the handout. Vote, 2015vote.org.
Mayor Laufenburger: 2015vote.org.
Dr. Jim Bauck: Yeah and if you go to our district website that will come up as a place to click
on. When they click on it brings you to all the referendum information including the background
work from the last 2 or 3 years so.
Mayor Laufenburger: Sure. And do you, we probably know this already but what is the voting
site for the City of Chanhassen?
Dr. Jim Bauck: It’s Bluff Creek Recreation Center.
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Chanhassen City Council – September 28, 2015
Mayor Laufenburger: So it’s the Chanhassen Recreation Center there and that’s on Tuesday, the
first Tuesday in November is that correct?
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Dr. Jim Bauck: November 3. Polls are open 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay, thank you very much Dr. Bauck.
Dr. Jim Bauck: Okay, thank you much again for your time. Appreciate it.
Mayor Laufenburger: Let me just restate if there’s anybody else that’s present that would like to
speak during visitor presentations I would invite you to the podium at this time. Okay. That was
a lengthy presentation. Let’s just bring this back to the council. Is there anybody on the council
who would like to make comment or anything? Good luck with your leg there Lisa. I would just
like to say this, we, I think that we in Chanhassen, the community of Chanhassen we certainly
have been the recipient of numerous recognition awards from people, from agencies outside of
the community of Chanhassen as well as the confirmation we’ve got from many of our residents
regarding the importance of institutions like our schools. Our churches. Our civic groups. Our
organizations and there’s no question that all of these organizations contribute to the quality of
life in Chanhassen and I would just say too that I believe that the opportunity for education that
we give our citizens is important and foundational for their success not only in their employment.
Their future contribution to their family. Their contribution to society but also life achievement
so I think that there is a, there is great support for the education system and other institutions
within our district. I also want to say too that the, we as a city are pleased to provide this
supportive and critical communication opportunity for Dr. Bauck and the school district and the
school board for communicating and educating the people of Chanhassen about this referendum.
Councilman McDonald: Mr. Mayor?
Mayor Laufenburger: Yes sir, Mr. McDonald.
Councilman McDonald: There was a proposed motion in our packet and I guess at this time, you
know after hearing all of this I would like to propose a motion for the City Council if you’ll
accept that at this time.
Mayor Laufenburger: I will accept that motion and that motion is approve the language of the
resolution that’s provided in the packet, is that correct?
Councilman McDonald: Right, yeah. The City Council approves the attached resolution which
was part of our packet encouraging the residents of Chanhassen to research the proposed School
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District 112 referendum and to participate in the process by voting on November the 3, 2015 at
the Chanhassen Rec Center.
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Chanhassen City Council – September 28, 2015
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay, thank you. That’s a valid motion. Is there a second?
Councilwoman Ryan: Second.
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you Councilwoman Ryan. Is there any further discussion?
Resolution #2015-60: Councilman McDonald moved, Councilwoman Ryan seconded that
the City Council approves the attached resolution encouraging the residents of Chanhassen
to research the proposed School District 112 referendum and to participate in the process
by voting on November 3, 2015 at the Chanhassen Recreation Center. All voted in favor
and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
LAW ENFORCEMENT/FIRE DEPARTMENT UPDATE.
Mayor Laufenburger: Let’s start with Eric Kittelson. Good evening Lieutenant.
Lt. Eric Kittelson: Good evening Mayor, council members. I’ve got the August law
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enforcement update for you. A little recap. We had the public safety forum on September 16
at the Chanhassen Rec Center. Was not highly attended but I think those that were there found it
very informative and we reached out to a couple groups that we plan on scaling down and doing
another version of a shorter version of that and we’d be willing to try to reconvene and host that
again if the interest should increase. We concluded the DUI education enforcement initiative
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with the Towards Zero Death from August 21 to September 7. During that time there was
1,513 arrests statewide for DUI. There were 13 arrests in Carver County and 6 of those by
Chanhassen deputies. We’re now moving towards our October seat belt mobilization and that
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will be October 10 through the 26 where we’ll have enhanced education enforcement of seat
belts and child seats. I started to think about what to say tonight and we, I looked back and we
had a really busy month in September so I just wanted to bring that up and announce that we had
either a part in either planning or attending or working at a number of events in Chanhassen over
the last month. We had 2 events at the Auto Motorplex. We had the Summerwood 10 year
anniversary. St. Hubert’s Fall Festival. The public safety forum. The Star Legacy 5K at Lake
Ann. We had 2 additional events at Minnetonka Middle School West which actually required
additionally staffing to come in and work for some traffic control. I attended the Aging
Commission at the Arboretum. We had all the back to school events and the Chapel Hill 5K and
carnival and we had all those went off with the assistance of the fire personnel and staff with no
issues so that’s a lot going on for the month of September so I just wanted to deviate from the
normal a little bit and bring that up. Staffing updates. Sergeant Mike Moline is currently at
Camp Ripley for SWAT training so the sheriff’s office is a member of the Tri City SWAT team
and that’s special because it’s not just SWAT training. We activate the SWAT team for
personnel resources so it’s for instance would be something like the 35W bridge emergency. We
can mobilize that entire team in about 2 hours and what’s special about this training is it’s not
just our SWAT team but the entire south and west metro SWAT teams go up there to coordinate
training so that in the event of a regional emergency they work together and we do have another
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Chanhassen City Council – September 28, 2015
SWAT team on standby should the issue arise while they’re gone. Also staffing, we have
Deputies Andrew Burt and Charles Possard pending successful completion of their final
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evaluation this week will begin working in the city of Chanhassen October 5 and Andrew will
be working during the days and Charles will be working at night. As far as calls for service for
the month of August, we had 97 citations for traffic violations. 385 warnings for violations.
1,313 total calls for service. Of those 25 Part I crimes and 42 Part II crimes and I did look back
at the numbers, this represents a decrease in every category from August of 2014 and it’s also the
lowest arrest totals of every month this year except for February so that’s good. And business is
good meaning its low. And other than that we have the homecoming parade. Just wanted to
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announce that on October 9 and so that follows kind of a shorten version of the 4 of July
parade but in this instance there are no barricades and there will just be a number of police and
fire personnel out there directing traffic so please exercise patience and caution when navigating
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that area at about 4:30 p.m. on October 9.
Mayor Laufenburger: So when you say, thank you Lieutenant. When you say there are no
barricades you will have cars and traffic management personnel in place. It’s just there won’t be
a physical barrier so as soon as the parade passes then traffic can go again.
Lt. Eric Kittelson: Yes and we may even have traffic cross in-between floats depending on
traffic volume at the time.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. Alright anything else Lieutenant?
Lt. Eric Kittelson: That’s it. I’ll stand for questions.
Mayor Laufenburger: Any questions for Lieutenant Kittelson? Or comments. Well, all of those
events that you’re participating in, two good things. Number one no incident. That’s great. And
also you’re in the community and I think it’s important that this community see that the public
safety personnel in our community are far more, responsible for far more than just giving tickets
for traffic or anything like that. It’s you are, you present this community as a safe community in
which to live and this is certainly reinforced in what we hear from the citizens too so thank you
Lieutenant and appreciate to your entire staff as well. Thank you.
Lt. Eric Kittelson: Thank you.
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright thank you. Chief Johnson.
Chief Don Johnson: Mayor, council, thank you. Contrary to my council packet this is the report
for August and not July so I apologize for that. We do have our 44 staffing. We lost another fire
fighter. We have folks moving out of the city on us.
Mayor Laufenburger: Wait. Wait. You lost a fire fighter.
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Chanhassen City Council – September 28, 2015
Chief Don Johnson: We lost a fire fighter off of our rolls. Not like lost, couldn’t find them but
lost.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay.
Chief Don Johnson: Had one resign. We do have our 2 new fire fighters and our cadet that did
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start the academy finally September 14 so we won’t see them. They’ll be busy Mondays and
Wednesday nights now from now through March and hopefully be on our trucks sometime in
March to fulfill their duties and our cadet as well so we’re really looking forward to that
graduation next year and having a third fire fighter on our rolls. We had 55 calls for service
during the month. Our average for this year is up. It’s up about to 59 a month so we’re just
under our average but we’re still predicting our counts going over 700 for calls. Significant calls
during the month. We did have a fire on at the Powers Ridge Apartments on the third floor
which was basically discarded smoking materials thrown on a porch. Homeowners had left and
the fire started after that. Luckily there was a new homeowner moving in above them which
noticed the smoke and was able to extinguish it from their balcony shooting the water
downwards so luckily we didn’t have a major incident but another good reminder for us as a
major cause of fire is discarded smoking materials so we’d like to caution everybody to be
careful and make sure things are out and maybe not just discard big, large piles of them on your
patio. We did have a car fire at the Chan Village Apartments. No building damage but the car
was a total loss and during the month we had 31 responses to medical calls that included 5 motor
vehicle accidents with injuries. Our monthly training was basic fire fighter skills. We also had
our second live burn training of the year which constitutes our entire department going over to
the Edina Burn Tower and running through cycles of live fire burns and that’s a requirement for
NFPA for us so that’s training that we have to do and we were covered by Victoria for that
incident that night and emergency medical skills was just held with our Auto Pulse. A couple
months ago I believe I was here and Mdewakanton had donated money. We did actually
delivery of that machine. It is now in service as of last Monday night so we have 2 Auto Pulse
machines in town now. One in the west station and one in Station 1. Activities as the sheriff’s
office was busy, as well were we. Attended the Carver County Joint Chiefs Operations meeting
for our mutual aid partners. We’ve also got the Southwest Metro Chiefs Joints Operations
meetings. We assisted with an engine at the Lifetime Fitness Safety Day Camp. We’ve assisted
the Carver Sheriff’s Office with 2 fire fighters and our boat for a detail on Lake Minnewashta.
We assisted the Fire Academy, Carver County Fire Academy with an engine and operator for
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training in Watertown and also assisted at St. Hubert’s 150 Anniversary Celebration. We also
did just work with Premiere Pools that had a benefit for their employees and their company on
Sunday and their proceeds were going to go to the memorial so we had a tanker out, or our I’m
sorry, our ladder out there and auctioned off a silent auctioned off a ladder ride for that event,
which was well attended so still hoping to work with the community on the memorial funding.
That is actually it for my technical report. I’ll stand for questions on that. I do have one last
presentation.
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Chanhassen City Council – September 28, 2015
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay first, thank you Chief. Any questions of Chief Johnson? Mr.
Campion.
Councilman Campion: How is the memorial fundraising going?
Chief Don Johnson: Right now we’re doing very well. I don’t have a total number for you. It
ranges in about the $30,000 mark. We met with Mark Wilkins from Farber, Damon Farber and
to get the actual construction plan built so we know what we’re dealing with and what our actual
costs are going to be. That doesn’t include in kind donations of the granite. We do have a local
community member that’s willing to assist with the project management of the construction as
well so Doug unfortunately had to leave town. Wanted to be a little further along so I could give
that report to you tonight. He had a family emergency and had to go to Chicago so I hope to
have our site up with where we’re at with our total donations and give a little bit more detail on
that report but we’re doing well.
Councilman Campion: Okay.
Mayor Laufenburger: Before you make your final, you said you had a presentation, is that
correct?
Chief Don Johnson: Correct.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. I just had a question. I noticed that yesterday was the Fallen Fire
Fighter Memorial in St. Paul.
Chief Don Johnson: Correct.
Mayor Laufenburger: Now is it a year ago that Chanhassen was participant in that in that we
identified or identified some fallen fire fighters from Carver County, is that correct?
Chief Don Johnson: Yes. We had one of our line of duty deaths was on that wall that was
identified after the fact so it was years past but as the fire fighter memorial service in Minnesota
represented by the Minnesota Chiefs, they go out and try to find.
Mayor Laufenburger: That was my other comment is I heard there was description that the next
thing they need to do is continually look for the names of people who have fallen but perhaps
have fallen through the cracks so to speak.
Chief Don Johnson: Correct. Correct. Go back into the 1800’s.
Mayor Laufenburger: So Chief do we need to do a similar due diligence on that or are we
confident that we’ve identified those people specifically in the Chanhassen area?
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Chanhassen City Council – September 28, 2015
Chief Don Johnson: We’re starting right now trying to determine who we’re going to be putting
on our memorial. Obviously we want to get this right. We don’t want to leave anyone out and
we will look for it then but I believe we’re okay as far as the line of duty deaths that would go on
the wall in the State. And that is actually part of the memorial here as well is identifying line of
duty deaths significantly for Chanhassen so obviously it’s important to us.
Mayor Laufenburger: And including them on the memorial wall, is that correct?
Chief Don Johnson: Correct. Correct.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay, perfect. Is there were no other questions you had a presentation
you wanted to make?
Chief Don Johnson: Correct. In my report I usually put in things about the Fire Marshal’s report
and those are commercial inspections and things like that. As you know we are embarking on
our very important fire prevention week so rather than me standing up here babbling about what
we do, I thought you know it’s been about a year since Mark Littfin has been in front of council
and I believe it was his retirement but he is the back bone of our fire prevention program. Mark
does all the planning for the prevention week. Mark does all the planning for the open house and
I think I’d like to have him come up and talk a little bit about what’s coming here for
Chanhassen in the next coming week so Mark.
Mayor Laufenburger: Perfect.
Mark Littfin: Good evening everybody.
Mayor Laufenburger: Nice to see you Mark. We’ve kind of wondered where you’ve been for
the last year.
Mark Littfin: Working days. I don’t come unless there’s a fire at night and we’ve been good on
that. As Chief commented fire prevention week and actually it’s almost weeks if not a month
that we’re going to be starting up next week. We’ve been doing this event for 20 plus years
where we have the 4 elementary schools in Chanhassen, instead of us going to the schools we
have the schools come to the fire station. A couple of the schools walk up there because of their
proximity and the other schools bus the first and second graders to the schools where we have
almost up to 30 fire fighters who volunteer their time. They take time off of work and they’re
the presenters to the students. They’re more comfortable in our surroundings than when we go
into a classroom. The biggest thing I tell our men and women is just tone it down a notch and
just pretend you’re talking to your own kids at home. You know this is a truck and this is a hose
and this is a nozzle and leave it at that so we don’t, we try not to get too technical. We’ve had
great success with this. I talk to other fire marshals in other cities and they’ll get a handful of
fire fighters that donate time and we get upwards of over 30 and we even get some of our retired
fire fighters that will come in and help out. And for that they get a shirt and little breakfast and
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Chanhassen City Council – September 28, 2015
little lunch, and a lot of them have kids in the schools that will come up and participate as well.
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The open house for the fire department is Sunday, October 11 from 1:00 to 4:00 and we invite
outside participants. The sheriff’s office, Ridgeview Ambulance, CenterPoint, Xcel Energy,
Hennepin County Burn ward, DNR and they participate and we give fire truck rides and food
and beverage and a bounce house and all kind of events so we’ll get upwards of 700-800-900
residents and kids for that and it goes over very well so please join us if you can. What am I
forgetting? We still need volunteers. Even if you just meet and greet, that always goes over very
well. And then we also for fire prevention week or month a lot of our licensed daycare centers,
Children of Tomorrow, Children’s World Learning, they will do something similar where they’ll
have their buses bring the kids up and we visit them so in addition to the schools we do most if
not all of the licensed daycare centers scattered throughout the city so the phone’s ringing off the
hook and we’re doing our very best to accommodate them which works out very well so.
Mayor Laufenburger: Good.
Mark Littfin: And that’s the plan. Hopefully it’s quiet so we can attend to all the kids’ needs
during that time so. We always have Plan B and C if we get a station full of kids and we get a
call so we anticipate that.
Mayor Laufenburger: You don’t take the kids on the call too.
Mark Littfin: No. No not at all.
Mayor Laufenburger: Any questions for Mark Littfin? Just to state that again the open house is
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Sunday, October 11.
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Mark Littfin: October 11, yep.
Mayor Laufenburger: From 1:00 to 3:00 is that?
Mark Littfin: 1:00 to 4:00.
Mayor Laufenburger: 1:00 to 4:00 and it’s at the main fire station?
Mark Littfin: Yes.
Mayor Laufenburger: Kids welcome.
Mark Littfin: Absolutely.
Mayor Laufenburger: Bounce house. I expect you’ll have a little, who’s the mascot?
Mark Littfin: Oh Sparky the Dog?
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Chanhassen City Council – September 28, 2015
Mayor Laufenburger: Sparky the Dog, yeah he’ll be there.
Mark Littfin: We’ll have Sparky there. The Carver County Sheriff’s Posse will have a horse or
two there. Fire truck rides go over very well. We have a long line for those. And like I said
food and beverages and it’s a lot of fun so.
Mayor Laufenburger: Fun for everybody.
Mark Littfin: Absolutely.
Mayor Laufenburger: And all for good reason.
Mark Littfin: You bet.
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright, thank you Mark.
Mark Littfin: Okay, thanks.
Mayor Laufenburger: Appreciate not only your involvement with this but your serving the City
too. Thank you Mark. Alright that concludes our public safety and fire updates. We have one
item of new business tonight.
AWARD OF BID: BLUFF CREEK DRIVE AND MAYAPPLE PASS PEDESTRIAN
MEDIAN.
Paul Oehme: Thank you Mayor, City Council members. I’d like to just talk briefly about the
improvements that are being proposed for this intersection. We have received over the last
couple years some comments and some concerns from the residents in the Pioneer Pass area
concerning traffic on Bluff Creek Drive and the pedestrian movements across Bluff Creek Drive
from their development. Pioneer Pass was originally platted in 2010 and has since fully
developed. There’s 94 houses in this development here on the east side of Bluff Creek Drive and
back in 2010 as well the City did purchase 8.7 acres for Pioneer Pass Park over here which is,
has a totlot , baseball field, some other basketball court and some other amenities too. Pioneer
Pass again it’s kind of in the southwest corner of the city so based upon some of those concerns
staff did look at what the concerns are and what potentially could address those. We did
complete a traffic study back in June of this year and pedestrian movement evaluation for this
area as well. The average speeds that we took or collected were at 30 miles an hour on Bluff
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Creek Drive. The 85 percentile which is 85 percent of the speeds are going less than 33 miles
an hour and that was documented as well for this speed study and then also posted speed study
which the road is designed for is at 35 miles an hour. We did also have Carver County sheriff’s
department stop out here and patrol the area as well and take observations as well. We did look
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at traffic movements again like I said across the intersection. The, and again the 85 percentile
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Chanhassen City Council – September 28, 2015
that’s basically how MnDOT sets the speed limits for residential and other streets that they
manage. The City does not set speed limits. It’s completed by the State of Minnesota. Other
factors we looked at too were like sight distances and geometrics of the road. The road is 35 feet
wide. It’s built to state aid standards. It was built in 2006 so it’s a fairly new road. Good sight
lines and so based upon the study MnDOT, we don’t think that MnDOT would allow the speeds
to be lowered at this intersection or along Bluff Creek Drive in this location here. We also
looked at a 4 way stop at Mayapple. Right now Bluff Creek Drive is a through lane. Mayapple
T’s into the park and that’s at the side streets do have stop conditions on them but Bluff Creek
Drive does not and we looked at you know the traffic counts at this intersection and based upon
the information that we’ve gathered we did not feel it’s justified to put a 4 way stop in at this
intersection either. When you put in 4 way stops when they’re not warranted they can cause
more problems than they’re worth as well. So with that staff is proposing a pedestrian
enhancement project improvement at this intersection. Currently there is a pedestrian crossing
on the north side of Bluff Creek Drive. This is to the right is to the north so the park is on top
over here so the improvements would be to move the pedestrian crossing just a little bit north of
where it is today. We would put in a, propose to put in a raised median. Concrete median. 6
foot wide on Bluff Creek Drive and then also make improvements to each side of Bluff Creek
Drive to accommodate the new crossing. New crossing would be ADA compliant as well to
meet federal guidelines. The median also would have enhanced pedestrian signage out here for
better visibility for pedestrians or for the traveling public. We feel that you know by putting the
median the traffic in this area would be also calmed because it would have to slow down
somewhat to get through the intersection. At least have a more heighten awareness of the
pedestrian crossing at this location so again the center median would create a safe zone for
pedestrians crossing from the residential Pioneer Pass development and into the park and the
enhancement would also be additional signage to heighten this area for pedestrian movements as
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well. With that staff did take quotes for these improvements back in September 17. We did
receive only 2 quotes. DayCo Concrete Company was the low quote. They are a local
contractor and they have worked with the City in the past. Funds, funding for this project would
come out of the pavement management CIP funds that have been budgeted for 2015. So with
that if there’s any questions I’d be more than happy to try to answer them.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay, thank you Mr. Oehme. Any questions for Mr. Oehme on this?
Councilwoman Ryan.
Councilwoman Ryan: Well I’d like to say as much as I, and you know Mr. Oehme as well as
Mr. Gerhardt this was something that was very important to the residents there. We heard a lot
about that a year ago during campaign season and even after election the Pioneer Pass
neighborhood you know emailed us a lot about getting something done and as great as it would
have been to have a lower speed limit and a stop sign, I want to thank you for doing this. This is,
was a huge concern to them and to be able to have that connection, that safe crossing from the
neighborhood to the park is something that I think will be very beneficial to the neighborhood
and to the safety of the trail crossing so it’s not really a question. More than a thank you for
following through on behalf of the neighborhood of Pioneer Pass.
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Chanhassen City Council – September 28, 2015
Paul Oehme: Thank you. And just a real quick comment. On National Night we did visit with
the neighborhoods too and visited with them on this proposal and they all seemed fairly
supportive of it. I know they put it on their Facebook page and we had some nice comments
about the improvements as well.
Mayor Laufenburger: Good.
Councilwoman Ryan: So thank you.
Paul Oehme: Thank you.
Mayor Laufenburger: Any other question or comment? Mr. Campion.
Councilman Campion: I would second those comments. I applaud this as doing something
proactive before there’s an injury. You know I understand what the speed study that was done
and all that but just to give a safe crossing point for all the kids from that neighborhood is a good
step.
Mayor Laufenburger: Good, any other comment? Mr. Oehme I just have a couple questions.
Could you go back to the picture that has the red on it? So that’s, all of that is new concrete is
that correct? The red is new concrete?
Paul Oehme: So the, this is all new concrete. Yeah this, the development side is all new
concrete. On the north side the pedestrian ramps are concrete. This is concrete. This is a
bituminous sidewalk.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay but the, it’s the ADA which is the ramps that you’re really making
this conforming. We’ve done this, similar to this elsewhere in the city is that correct?
Paul Oehme: That’s correct.
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Mayor Laufenburger: Was it at Galpin? Galpin and 78.
Paul Oehme: Very good point, thank you.
Mayor Laufenburger: Is that, is the distance of the width of Galpin similar to the width of Bluff
Creek Boulevard? Is it similar or are they not the same?
Paul Oehme: They’re not the same. Galpin is a little bit wider than this intersection. I believe
there’s a right turn lane on Galpin so the southbound lane there is a little bit wider than we’ll see
here. But it’s basically taking the same approach.
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Chanhassen City Council – September 28, 2015
Mayor Laufenburger: Sure. Will this pose problems for us when we plow snow and stuff or
not?
Paul Oehme: We’ve looked at that and I think the turning radiuses on both directions are, or
should be adequate. We moved the center median a little bit farther back than originally
proposed so I think the turning room should be fine there so I don’t foresee any problems.
Mayor Laufenburger: Good. Very well. I’m looking for a motion if somebody’s willing to
make one.
Councilwoman Ryan: I’d like to make a motion Mr. Mayor.
Mayor Laufenburger: Councilwoman Ryan yeah.
Councilwoman Ryan: The City Council awards the construction contract for the Bluff Creek
Drive/Mayapple Pass Intersection Improvement to DayCo Concrete Company in the amount of
$23,000.
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you Councilwoman Ryan. We have a valid motion. Is there a
second?
Councilman Campion: Second.
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you Mr. Campion. Any further discussion of the motion?
Resolution #2015-61: Councilwoman Ryan moved, Councilman Campion seconded that
the City Council awards the construction contract for the Bluff Creek Drive/Mayapple
Pass Intersection Improvement to DayCo Concrete Company in the amount of $23,000. All
voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
Mayor Laufenburger: When do you think that will be put in? Any guess?
Paul Oehme: So we’re going to visit with DayCo this week. I think they’re at least a couple
weeks out last time I talked to them so I envision mid-October at the latest so the city staff, I
should have pointed this out earlier. The city staff is going to be helping out. Remove some of
the concrete and some of the sidewalk that’s out there and I know they’re going to come in and
just pour the concrete so we’re saving a little cost there by partnering with DayCo on this one.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. Alrighty. Well thank you Mr. Oehme and echoing what
Councilwoman Ryan said, I know that the residents will be pleased to have this in place. Thank
you.
ADMINISTRATIVE PRESENTATIONS.
None.
22
Chanhassen City Council – September 28, 2015
COUNCIL PRESENTATIONS.
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Mayor Laufenburger: I just want to make a couple comments. First of all on Friday, October 2
from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. at the Chanhassen Rec Center the City of Chanhassen and the Carver
County Public Health Department will be offering a seminar called Act on Alzheimer’s and this
is intended to be a way for, let me read my notes here. Act on Alzheimer’s is a volunteer driven,
statewide collaboration preparing Minnesota for the impacts of Alzheimer’s disease and related
dementias. Under one of its goals the group is helping communities become dementia capable.
Dementia capable community is informed. It is safe. It respects individuals with dementia and
their families and care givers and provides options that support the best quality of life so I would
encourage citizens that are interested in this or that have perhaps have individuals in their family
or in their neighborhoods that are impacted by the effects of Alzheimer’s or dementia participate
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in this. This is Friday, October 2. 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the Chan Rec Center. And also I
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wanted to highlight October 3 is the Annual Cemetery Walk at Pioneer Cemetery and St.
Hubert’s and you can learn more information about that on the City website but that’s exciting.
It’s an exciting event as we determine former citizens come to life in the dramatic presentation of
the cemetery walk. Not current citizens, former citizens and just one last comment to those in
attendance here as well as watching at home, I’m reminded always when I go to the City’s
website that the City Council and the commission agendas and minutes are available on our
website. There’s a new website portal called the transparency area so if you’d like to see agenda
and commission, council and commission agendas and minutes you can see them there. Also if
you’d like us to send you the City Council agenda via email you can sign up for that via email
right there on the transparency website. Let us know and we’ll add you to our list so any
comments on the correspondence packet?
CORRESPONDENCE DISCUSSION.
Mayor Laufenburger: I just have one. Governor Dayton appointed Todd Gerhardt to the Water
Control Board and even though he’s in Seattle, he should be regarded as somebody who got the
Governor’s attention. He’s actually replacing former Mayor Tom Furlong on that Water
Resources Board or whatever it’s called. That being said do we have a motion to adjourn?
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 8:20 p.m.
Submitted by Todd Gerhardt
City Manager
Prepared by Nann Opheim
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