CC 2016 01 25
CHANHASSEN CITY COUNCIL
REGULAR MEETING
JANUARY 25, 2016
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:
Todd Gerhardt, Chelsea Petersen, Paul Oehme, Kate Aanenson, Todd
Hoffman and Roger Knutson
PUBLIC PRESENT:
Kevin Kawlewski WSB & Associates
Jim Emmerid
Mayor Laufenburger: Well good evening and welcome to this council meeting. To those of you
that are present here in the chamber as well as those of you that may be watching on Mediacom
cable channel 8 or 107.2 at home. We have a full council chamber tonight based on some of the
items that we’re going to be talking about. First of all I want to make, I have a public
announcement to make.
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT:
Mayor Laufenburger: At this time I want to extend an invitation to the entire community to
February Festival, what we call Feb Fest. The City of Chanhassen is proud to announce the very
rd
first community event of 2016. This is the 23 annual February Festival. 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 6
and I invite area residents, families and friends to join me on Lake Ann. Events begin at 12:00
noon and they include ice skating, sledding, sleigh rides, bonfires, a medallion hunt, and an ice
fishing contest. Hot food and concessions will be sold on the ice by the Chanhassen Rotary Club
and Culver’s. Boy Scout Troop 330 will be selling live bait and s’mores kits. I caution you
don’t confuse the two okay. The ice fishing contest will run from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. and includes
over $6,000 in prizes and 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. Ice fishing tickets are $10 per person and
are available at City Hall. For more information watch the Chanhassen Villager or visit the
City’s website. I look forward to seeing everyone there and Mr. Hoffman doesn’t the Rotary
drill something like.
Todd Hoffman: Over 1,000.
Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2016
Mayor Laufenburger: Over 1,000 homes. Somehow those fish, you don’t hit the fish with the
auger do you? What was the prize winning fish last year Mr. Hoffman, do you remember?
Todd Hoffman: It was a northern. I don’t recall the size but probably a couple pounds.
Chelsea Petersen: 1.8 pounds.
Mayor Laufenburger: 1.8 pounds and I know in previous years the minnows could have won
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prizes so if you’re interested in ice fishing, February 6. Looks like the weather’s going to be
great so come on out to February Festival. First of all let me address the agenda tonight. We
have a few items change on the agenda. Item number H-1, New Business, that item for a request
for zoning ordinance amendment for Golf Zone, that item has been withdrawn at this time. Also
under agenda item F I will be adding a third agenda item. We have a resolution to consider
regarding a current employee so we will make those two adjustments. Council are there any
other modifications to the agenda? If not.
Councilman McDonald: I’ll make a motion to accept the agenda as amended by the Mayor.
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you very much Mr. McDonald. Is there a second?
Councilman Campion: Second.
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you Mr. Campion.
Councilman McDonald moved, Councilman Campion seconded to approve the agenda as
amended to delete item H-1 and add item F-3. All voted in favor and the motion carried
unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
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 9, 2016 and January 11, 2016
2. Receive Planning Commission Minutes dated Janu8ary 5, 2016
Resolution #2016-06:
3. Resolution Approving Joint Powers Agreement with Carver
County for Traffic Signal Retrofits to Flashing Yellow Arrow Operations and Shared
Costs
4. Award of Professional Services Contract for SCADA Improvements, Project 14-04
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Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2016
Resolution #2016-07:
5. Resolution Approving Cooperative Construction Agreement No.
1002075 with MnDOT for TH 5 Acceleration Lanes and Traffic Signal and Trail
Replacement
6. Approval of Temporary On-Sale Intoxicating Liquor License, Cana Dinner, February 13,
St. Hubert Catholic Community
Resolution #2016-08:
7. Mount Olivet Rolling Acres: Approve Resolution Approving
Conditional Use Permit to Allow an Adult Daycare in the Industrial Office Park (IOP)
District, 18976 Lake Drive East
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
VISITOR PRESENTATIONS.
Mayor Laufenburger: Let me just take a moment to talk a little bit about visitor presentations.
Our council meetings here at the City of Chanhassen are always open to the public. We
encourage people to address the council during visitor presentations. We also have a work
session which begins at 5:30 in the adjacent Fountain Conference Room so anybody in the
community who would like to come and either observe a work session or participate or have
comment about any other items, they’re welcomed to join us in the work session as well and of
course the agenda for all of our council meetings are available on the City website. You simply
select the Transparency page and you can sign up to receive the agenda electronically by email.
There being no visitors we’ll proceed to the next item on the agenda.
LAW ENFORCEMENT/FIRE DEPARTMENT UPDATE.
Mayor Laufenburger: With Chief Johnson’s permission I’m going to ask Lieutenant Kittelson if
he would like to address the council first with the monthly law enforcement update. Lieutenant,
you okay with that?
Lt. Eric Kittelson: Yeah.
Mayor Laufenburger: Like to keep our public safety officers on their toes.
Todd Gerhardt: Or on the job.
Mayor Laufenburger: Or on the job, yeah.
Lt. Eric Kittelson: Well good evening Mr. Mayor, council.
Mayor Laufenburger: Good evening Lieutenant.
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Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2016
Lt. Eric Kittelson: It’s feels like a while since I’ve been up here in front of all of you.
Mayor Laufenburger: Happy New Year.
Lt. Eric Kittelson: I think it would be Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Holidays and New Year all
in one.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay.
Lt. Eric Kittelson: So we’re going back to the Towards Zero Death impaired drive enforcement
which started on Thanksgiving and went through New Year’s. We had 5 DUI arrests in
Chanhassen during that period and the 2015 totals, we had 225 DUI arrests in Carver County and
81 of those in Chanhassen. Calls for service in December, we had 113 citations for traffic
violations which represents about 31 percent of the traffic stops resulting in citations. The
national average is 55 percent. We had 358 total warnings for violations during that time and
1,040 calls for service. 17 of those were Part I. 41 were Part II and we had 1,084 non-criminal
items which were traffic alarms, medicals, accidents, things of that nature. So just a quick
snapshot of the calls for service for 2015. We had 1,319 citations for traffic violations which
gives us a yearly average of 33 percent of our traffic stops result in citations and again the
national average is 55 percent which is because we’re really out there trying to change driving
behavior and if we can do that through dialogue and mutual respect that’s how we’re going to do
it. That’s our preferred method so 67 percent of the time it’s just going to be communication
between you and the officer about the violation. And again 3,913 total warnings for violations
throughout the year. We had 12,660 calls for service which means each one of these officers is
handling 1,150 calls per year so we get some calls, all of us but when you think about the
numbers we get 1,150 calls for each one of these fine folks and we get you know the occasional
person who maybe disagrees. I think overall when you look at that for over 12,000 calls I think
we’re doing pretty good.
Mayor Laufenburger: Wait. You get disagreement?
Lt. Eric Kittelson: Occasionally and usually it’s just a matter of re-education. And actually to be
honest with you a lot of times it’s just is why was that officer shining that bright light in my car
and so we explain that and so I call them concerns until they’re validated and at which point they
become complaints but overall over 12,660 calls, I think they do a fine job. And so with that I
want to give you a staff update of our night staff that’s been assigned to Chanhassen for 2016. If
you could just stand as I call your name. So first we have Andrew Burt. We stole him from
Bloomington. He was a CSO and we hired him as a full time licensed officer here. We have
Brady Hector who was an investigator with Wells Fargo Financial Crimes Unit. And we have
Adam Peterson who was one of our own. We hired him as a CSO and then he became a licensed
deputy. And then we have Adam Heitz which was one of our detention deputies in the jail and
he got hired on as full time. And I heard Carly was working tonight and so we called her in too.
Carly’s still in training so she’s in field training right now and she’s scheduled to be done some
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Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2016
time in March I believe and then she will be assigned up here as our power shift. Working at
night with both these teams so each of these 2 officers on each side of Carly are our night shift
team and then Sergeant Moline is their supervisor and Sergeant Beck couldn’t be here tonight so
at night you’ll have Sergeant Moline and 2 of these officers working or Sergeant Beck and 2 of
these officers. Then Carly will be working a little bit on both teams as a power shift when we
kind of look at the calls for service and when we need that extra car and then we shift that around
a little bit so, that’s all I have for you. I see we have a lot of fire fighters waiting and they did
say that there was some cake waiting afterwards so I don’t want to keep them waiting. I’ll stand
for any questions.
Mayor Laufenburger: See my plan was to get the police over to the fire station before they show
up. Just crowd control you know.
Lt. Eric Kittelson: Yeah.
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright. Any questions or comments for Lieutenant? Well let me say
welcome aboard. Glad to have you in Chanhassen and I hope you find your time here to be both
productive, rewarding and probably challenging and good luck with that education thing too
okay. Alright, thank you Lieutenant. Appreciate it very much.
(Applause)
Mayor Laufenburger: Chief Johnson, you have a couple items on your agenda here tonight.
Chief Don Johnson: Yes Mayor I do, thank you. Good evening Mayor and council. It’s my
report for December will be brief because we’ve got other meeting items to discuss. In
December we did have let’s see 47 calls for service which totals us out for 691 calls for 2015.
That’s about 11 percent increase over 2014. A lot of that was based on medicals. Our medical
calls increased by about 20 percent over the 5 year average. We are still on a prioritized medical
protocol with dispatch so we still only go on the ones that we’ve agreed to from our medical
director on down but we are seeing an increase in our calls for service for medicals. I have 40 of
45 fire fighter positions filled, paid on call with one fire fighter on leave and our probationary
fire fighters have now moved onto phase 2 of their training which will be about 6 weeks and we
hope to have them fully trained here in about 8 weeks. As I had briefed you previously we did
have captains interviews that were conducted at the end of December. I’m happy to report that
we did select some new captains and reappoint some other captains so I’ll read some names off,
if you could please join me. Captain Matt Keuseman and Captain Matt Warden were
reappointed to the position of captain. We had 4 new captains. Dan Eastman, Joe Enfield, Ray
Rindahl and Steve Smith that were appointed to the position of Fire Captain. And Captain Jeff
Galvin was promoted to the position of Acting Assistant Chief of Equipment and Compliance.
st
All those positions were effective January 1 so with that I’d like to congratulate our captains.
(Applause)
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Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2016
Chief Don Johnson: You can guys can take a seat, thanks. Mayor I hope to also, I’ll have a little
bit more of a detailed report for council and staff with our annual report for this year probably in
the coming months. I’ll get that out with our details.
Mayor Laufenburger: That’d be fine.
Chief Don Johnson: If I can move onto my next agenda item here. Chic you want to join me.
Tonight we gather to honor one of our fire fighters that, come on. That retired at the end of
2015. Charles Anding, or Chic as we all know him, served the citizens of Chanhassen for almost
25 years starting in March of 1991 through November of 2015. Chic is a true west ender serving
his entire career at Station 2 and living on Lake Minnewashta with his wife Vicky and raising 2
children Scott and Sherry. Chic’s file was basically empty. He’s never missed an call
percentages. Never missed any training percentages. Never got called into the Chief’s office.
Not sure if this is actually even possible but as you can see Chic will grin it off. Chic has never
been afraid to speak his mind. Chic told a story that he actually had to bully himself onto the
Chanhassen Fire Department. After he retired from Minnetonka there was a rule that you had to
be under 40 years old to join the fire service. Chanhassen hadn’t corrected their rules within the
relief and Chic reminded them that that’s probably something they needed to do and Chic is here.
When I asked Chic what his proudest moments were he had 2 examples. He managed 5 or 6 of
Chanhassen fire fighters that traveled nationally to compete in a rigorous fire fighter challenge of
course. Challenge course. Chic enjoyed traveling with the team. Fund raising and serving as
their treasurer. In Chic’s words I basically made sure the fund raising money didn’t make it into
the bar tab when we were out competing.
Chic Anding: That’s true.
Chief Don Johnson: Chic also takes great pride in chairing the truck committee that built Engine
11 and as I prepared tonight I talked with Chic about a little history. So Chic’s father-in-law got
him interested in taking him along on runs when he was at the house visiting Vicky in
Minnetonka. Vic’s dad was Ken Johnson. Vicky’s dad was Ken Johnson, Fire Chief of
Minnetonka at the time. Vicky’s grandfather was also on the Edina Fire Department and started
with Minnetonka around ’59. 1959. Chic joined the Minnetonka Fire Department in 1970 and
retired there in 1997. Chic said he was on 2 fire departments from ’91 and ’97 serving both
Chanhassen as a fire fighter and Minnetonka as a Battalion Chief. Chic describes those times as
crazy. Chic said all of Vicky’s brothers and many cousins have all served the fire service and
recognizes that they’re all fourth or fifth generation fire fighters. It doesn’t stop there.
Remember I told you Chic and Vicky raised 2 children. It only seems appropriate that both of
his children served Chanhassen as well. Scott his son retired after 10 years of service and is here
from Texas with his family tonight to join us. Sherry their daughter did 20 years and is living in
Carver with her fire fighter husband Tim. Both served as fire captains and assistant chiefs prior
to retiring. It appears that the Anding and Johnson family combined and just keeps out turning
fire fighters. Thanks to all of your family Chic for showing up and supporting you. Thanks for
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Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2016
the retirees that are here. I did get a message from John Vance, the Fire Chief of Minnetonka.
He can’t be here due to illness but sends his regards to you and your day today. Vicky thank you
for sharing us with Chic and your family’s influence to help him serve here. We do have some
flowers for you if you want to come up. Thanks for sharing him with us every time he went out
but it seems like you’re probably pretty used to that growing up with the business so. Scott and
Sherry thank you for sharing your time with Chanhassen and being here tonight to support your
dad. We appreciate that. And finally Chic on behalf of the City of Chanhassen and the
Chanhassen Fire Department I would like to thank you for 25 years of service to this community.
We have your helmet and shield signed by your brothers and sisters for you to keep to remember
us. Also on behalf of the Minnesota Fire Service I would like to congratulate you on 45 years of
dedicated service and wish you the best of luck and a well deserved retirement.
Chic Anding: Well thank you.
(Applause)
Chic Anding: Well actually you do have to thank your family an awful lot because the kids
didn’t see a lot of me when they were growing up because I was so involved with the fire
service. Of course my wife she’s dealt with it all her life so she could put up with it. How much
time do I get? You know I’ve been at this so long I can remember when Todd was a kid you
know. But really there’s a lot of fire history in my family and my wife’s family. Actually I
found out just a few years ago that my great grandfather Engle was a chief of the New Ulm fire
department. We didn’t know that until one of our cousins did some family research. My brother
Rick, he was involved with the sheriff’s office for numerous years as a deputy. And of course
the kids have been involved and we’ve had a lot of fun so I’m very humbled to have all you guys
here and all the friends and family show up. That’s just tremendous. I’m just humbled and very
honored by that so I’m still in uniform. He let me keep it. And there’s a reason for that because
I’m going to continue to represent the city and the fire department at funerals and special
ceremonies and so on. As a school bus driver I have those hours during the day that I’m
available so I’ll be wearing the inform now and then so thank you all. It’s been a true honor.
(Applause)
Mayor Laufenburger: Chic, don’t go away just yet. Chic just let me say a couple words.
Chic Anding: Oh sure.
Mayor Laufenburger: You know I am one mayor but I speak on behalf of not only the previous
mayors that observed you and what you did but also the previous City Councils and the current
City Council. You represent Chanhassen not only when you’re a fire fighter but whatever you
do so please continue to do so with pride knowing that you have the support and the
encouragement and the undying gratitude from all of us here in leadership as well as in the entire
community so Chic enjoy your retirement. Vicky make sure he enjoys his retirement.
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Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2016
Chic Anding: And I appreciate that Denny. There’s a lot of guys ahead of me that are retired
from the fire department doing the very same things that I do so there’s a lot out there, a lot of
guys out there still active. Come out and help support the fire department during the activities,
open house and so on so you’ll continue to see a lot of us around even after we retire.
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright, thank you Chic.
Chic Anding: So thank you guys.
(Applause)
Mayor Laufenburger: Chief did you have anything else?
Chief Don Johnson: No that concludes my presentations for tonight. I can stand for questions.
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright my only request would be, would it be okay if the fire fighters stay
here for just one more item on the agenda? Is that acceptable to take just a few more minute?
Chief Don Johnson: Yes. Yes.
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright.
Chief Don Johnson: And also Mayor we do have cake and ice cream over there so if you get
done in time and you’re all invited to come on over and celebrate with us.
RECOGNITION OF KAREN ENGELHARDT’S RETIREMENT.
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright, thank you Chief. Next item on our agenda as F-3, we at City of
Chanhassen are in the incredibly unique position of taking this time to recognize a very long
term employee with Chanhassen. I’m going to read this proclamation and when I complete the
proclamation I will ask for a motion accepting this. This is a proclamation declaring Friday,
January 29, 2016 as Karen Engelhardt Day for her 43 years of outstanding service. Whereas,
Karen Engelhardt honorably served the City of Chanhassen as office manager/city clerk from
1972 to 2016 and; Whereas, Ms. Engelhardt was instrumental in the development of the
Chanhassen Connection, management of the Pioneer Cemetery, coordination of the historic
cemetery walk, processing City Council and commission agendas and packets, coordination of
the Chanhassen’s Centennial celebration including the publication of the Centennial History
Book and the Centennial Quilt project, coordinating elections and all clerical and record keeping
for all city departments; and Whereas, Ms. Engelhardt is arguably the most tenured employee in
the City of Chanhassen working with 8 mayors and 6 city managers during her career; and
Whereas, Ms. Engelhardt prepared an estimated 1,032 City Council packets during her career;
and Whereas, the City of Chanhassen would be very different today if not for the numerous
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Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2016
contributions of Karen Engelhardt; and Whereas, the City of Chanhassen will miss Karen
immensely, not just for her institutional knowledge but also for her smile and positive attitude;
and Whereas, the City of Chanhassen would like to recognize and honor Karen Engelhardt for
her 43 years of service and contributions to the City of Chanhassen and that her retirement be
filled with fun and happiness. She will be greatly missed. Now Therefore, I, Mayor Denny
Laufenburger do hereby proclaim Friday, January 29, 2016 as Karen Engelhardt Day in the City
of Chanhassen. May I have a motion reflecting this?
Councilman McDonald: Mr. Mayor I’ll make a motion with great honor.
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you Councilman McDonald. Is there a second?
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Second.
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you Councilwoman Tjornhom. Is there any discussion about this?
Councilman Campion: Did she start when she was 2?
Chic Anding: I would like to say she’s invited over for cake.
Mayor Laufenburger: Very well Chic.
Todd Gerhardt: I’ve got the motions down Karen.
Karen Engelhardt: Alright.
Mayor Laufenburger: By the way if this motion doesn’t pass does she have to stay?
Todd Gerhardt: You know I think it is time that we take Karen Engelhardt and give her back to
her husband John Engelhardt. So he can enjoy her as much as we have 24 hours a day.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: He’ll have an agenda every morning.
Todd Gerhardt: Well I think Karen will. I don’t know about John.
Mayor Laufenburger: Any other comments? Councilwoman Ryan.
Councilwoman Ryan: Karen, I have had the privilege of working with you for just over a year. I
first came into contact with you a year ago when I started the campaign and no one knew more
about the process than you. No one made me feel more comfortable during a very stressful and
nervous time and you helped me, answered questions and you were a bright spot throughout the
election. We fast forward to now and I’m saddened to see you go. You are truly irreplaceable. I
know we have filled positions around you but no one can take your place. Your depth of
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Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2016
knowledge. Your remarkable organization and your get it done attitude is something noticed and
very much appreciated. However those are all job responsibilities but what I will most about
you, and it was mentioned in the proclamation is your very warm smile and your tender heart in
the ways about you and every time I walk into City Hall to see your friendly face is something
that I will greatly miss so thank you for all that you’ve done. That you’ve done to make
Chanhassen a great place to live and work and be a part of and I hope you enjoy your retirement
so thank you for all that you’ve done.
Karen Engelhardt: Thank you so much.
Mayor Laufenburger: Anyone else? Councilwoman Tjornhom.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: I’ll jump in. Karen I have to say that, and this is just between us now
in this room so don’t say anything anybody but there are times that I kind of wish, sometimes
like a council meeting would be cancelled and I just kept hoping that Todd would give me that
call that day that the meeting was cancelled so we wouldn’t have to say good-bye to you. I just,
but we’re here and we’re saying good-bye and it just seems so surreal you know. It was about 6
months into me being a councilwoman that I really figured out who really was the city manager
and mayor and.
Todd Gerhardt: Just a puppet.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: I always felt so much better knowing that. You really did bring an
integrity to City Hall and you really, look at you light. You still light up the room. You know
your presence and just your heart. Your heart and soul was given to this town and I can’t thank
you enough for that. They broke the mold, I know that’s a cliché saying but they certainly did
Karen when you came onboard. I’m not sure who hired you but they obviously did a really good
job and you stuck with it so, and I’ve always been wondering and because I’m going to keep this
light and not sloppy because I’ll start to get teary. Two questions, Karen who was your favorite
mayor you ever served with? And also city manager you know but we can talk later about that.
Mayor Laufenburger: I think we’re losing the connection. I’m not sure, Nann would you just
turn off the microphone for a while.
Todd Gerhardt: Mayor I’m sure it’s the only 2 in this room.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: So anyways thank you. Thank you and I’m so happy for you.
You’re going to enjoy this next time. This new adventure in your life but if you ever get the itch
to send me an agenda, I’m more than happy to still get one.
Karen Engelhardt: Alright.
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Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2016
Mayor Laufenburger: Anybody else? Let me just say that there will be a reception for Karen on
Wednesday evening. 5:00 is that correct Mr. Gerhardt?
Todd Gerhardt: That is correct.
Mayor Laufenburger: 5:00 in the senior center which is just adjacent here and there will be a
program at 5:15 and the public is invited to that. And then for city employees there will be a
potluck lunch at the public works building at 12:00 noon on Friday so city employees will have
an opportunity to have some great food shared and share some good stories. With that, if there’s
no further discussion.
Resolution #2016-09: Councilman McDonald moved, Councilwoman Tjornhom seconded
to approve a resolution proclaiming Friday, January 29, 2016 as Karen Engelhardt Day in
the City of Chanhassen. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote
of 5 to 0.
Mayor Laufenburger: Karen will you please join me here. I want to present this plaque to you.
Todd will you come down there also?
Todd Gerhardt: Yes I will Mayor.
Mayor Laufenburger: As is our custom.
Karen Engelhardt: Thank you.
Mayor Laufenburger: Now you hold those roses so, alright. We’re proud of you Karen.
Karen Engelhardt: Thank you so much. I’m honored.
Mayor Laufenburger: Now Chief if you want to take your fire fighters out to get cake, you’re
welcomed to do so. We’re going to pause for just a couple of minutes while the, while several
members of the council chambers leave so we’re in recess for about 2 minutes.
(The City Council took a short recess at this point in the meeting to clear out the room.)
2016 STREET IMPROVEMENT PROJECT 16-01: PUBLIC HEARING; RESOLUTION
ORDERING PLANS AND SPECIFICATIONS.
Paul Oehme: Thank you Mayor, City Council members. Tonight I’d like to briefly go through
the 2016 Minnewashta Manor street improvement project. Reconstruction project. Tonight with
me is Kevin Kawlewski with WSB. He’s the engineering firm that’s helping the City put the
plans or put the feasibility study together and go through the process. For tonight’s public
hearing 59 residents have been invited to the hear and just for reference we did have a
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Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2016
neighborhood meeting in November for this project. About 20 residents did participate in that
neighborhood meeting. So with that Minnewashta Manor’s street reconstruction project.
There’s approximately 1.1 miles of street proposed to be reconstructed in this neighborhood
which includes Minnewashta Bay Road, North Manor Road, Orchard Lane, about a block of that
street. Minnewashta Woods Drive, Sandpiper Trail and Tanager Lane. The streets in this area
are in poor condition and are recommended to be reconstructed. The streets were built originally
in 1971 so about 45 years old. Streets proposed cannot no longer be maintained cost effectively
with minor maintenance staff believes such as a sealcoat or just patching. The life of that, those
minor maintenance techniques would not be cost effective to put those down at this time. The
project area was selected based upon the pavement condition index and visual inspections. The
range of pavement conditions range between 8 and 41 with an average score of 29 so basically a
street that has 100 is right at 100 is a brand new street and with a 0 being a complete failure.
Streets in the range between 0 and 45 are considered for reconstruction projects. Here’s just a
couple examples of the streets on Minnewashta Manor and Orchard Lane. They’re heavily
patched. A lot of watermain break patches and alligatoring. There is, here’s an example of edge
cracking. Pavement falling apart on the edges and then alligator cracking in several locations
within the project area. Staff has taken soil borings, hired a soils engineer to take soil borings
and we also did, took ground penetrating radar to get an idea of what the consistency of the
pavement section is. Based upon that data we are proposing a 10 ton road. This is a pavement
section that we’re proposing which is 3 ½ inches of asphalt over 10 inches of gravel and 18
inches of select granular which is basically sand. We also are proposing drain tile on each side
of the road to capture any ground water that ends up in the pavement section. This is to prolong
the pavement life and then also we are proposing to install curb and gutter on the road as well to
capture that water before it ends up in people’s back yards or front yards and to improve the
water quality in the area. Staff has evaluated the watermain condition in this neighborhood as
well and we found it being in poor condition. The watermain is a cast iron pipe and again was
put in in 1971. We’ve identified 10 watermain breaks throughout the project area. Staff is
proposing to replace this watermain with PVC watermain and then also replace all the services
from the watermain to the curb stop box in people’s yards so new curb stop box. Not the service
to their house but basically the stop to their house. The replacement of the watermain, we’re
looking at several options to install the watermain. One is the open cut method which is
typically used where you dig up the old watermain. Replace it with new watermain. Another
option would be to directional bore the watermain which you see like private utilities doing for
cable and gas. We can do that with watermain now and then also our third option would be to
pipe burst the existing pipe in place and basically put a new pipe in it’s current location. We’re
looking at 3 different options for cost efficiencies and then time as well too. For narrower streets
out here the open cut method might be, might take a little longer in this neighborhood versus
some other neighborhoods so we would like to try to advance and try to put the watermain in as
quickly as we can. Also with these other options that we’re looking at it does help if there’s like
I say a storm event it doesn’t slow the project down. You can put watermain or the directional
drilling pipe in or the pipe bursting techniques in when you still have wet conditions. The
sanitary sewer in this area has all been televised and I’m happy to report that the sanitary sewer
is in fairly good condition. There are 3 locations in the neighborhood, in the project area that we
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Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2016
would like to replace. There are some bellies or dips in the pipe where it is holding some water.
These areas are more prone for back-up and some problems down the road so we’d like to repair
them at this time. There are some joints and some cracks in the pipe that we’d like to grout.
That would be handled through a different project that staff is proposing later on in the year and
then we also are putting I&I barriers in all the manholes so the ground water can’t get into our
I&I system. Clear water and get into the sanitary sewer which costs the City money when that
happens so that’s the sanitary. For storm sewer we are, we have talked to several, all the
property owners out here. We’ve identified about 4 areas where property owners are thinking
about putting in rain water gardens. These are gardens kind of shown up here, if you can see that
in the upper right hand corner where there’s a curb cut in the road. Water drains into the, into the
rain water garden and infiltrates into the ground water so it doesn’t end up in the lakes and
streams so it’s a water quality benefit and water quantity benefit too plus it adds aesthetics
component to the project as well. These improvements have been installed successfully in other
street projects, notably Minnewashta Heights which was done about 4 years ago. Other
improvements that we’re proposing are basically like bio swale in a right-of-way section of a
road down to Lake Minnewashta. City owned property there so it’s basically an enhanced rain
water garden as well and it’s more infiltration and for storm water quantity improvements as
well. There’s also a proposal for a wetland enhancement and cleaning out a storm water pond at
this location here. Staff is considering doing that project in-house next year to save on costs so
all the storm water pipe within the project area is proposed to be replaced with this project. Most
of the pipe in the project area is corrugated metal which has deteriorated over time and it’s
appropriate to place the pipe in conjunction with the road. There are several environmental
manholes that are proposed throughout the project area too. These manholes are to capture both
sediment that’s in the road and in the water. Smaller particulates and also floatable materials
such as pop cans and oil. These manholes would be cleaned out bi-annually with city forces.
Again that’s a water quality benefit so that material does not end up in the lake. Any questions
there? Otherwise there’s, this is the proposed budget and the feasibility costs that has been
identified for the project. The cost currently is a little over $2.8 million dollars and is shown
here with the revolving assessment fund paying for the street improvement portion of the project.
Storm water utility fund paying for all the storm water improvements. The sanitary utility fund
paying for the sanitary sewer improvements and the water utility fund paying for all the
watermain and service replacements in the project area. So again the assessments proposed for
the project are based upon the cost assessment that staff and the engineer has calculated and
again that assessment is based upon the street improvements. The curb and gutter and the
pavement section and not any of the utilities associated with the project. The staff has calculated
the total proposed assessment value of, for the street project is a little over $1.2 million dollars.
The City’s assessment practice is to assess back 40 percent of that amount to the benefiting
property owners. There are 59 assessable units within the project area which leaves a net
assessment per unit amount of $8,160. Again this is just an estimate of the assessment at this
time. If and when the project were to move forward and we get bids from a contractor, the
lowest responsible contractor, the numbers that we receive from that contractor would be used to
reassess and recalculate the assessment amount. The assessments would be proposed over a 10
year period to be put on the property owner’s taxes with an interest rate of 2 percent plus prime
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Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2016
which is about 5 ¼ percent which is our standard assessment terms that we use for, the City uses
for street improvements. So with that the schedule is here. If the project were to move forward
the next item that the council would see would be to approve the plans and specs. Order the
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advertising for bids on February 22. The City Council meeting. We would shoot for a bid
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opening of March 16 with a neighborhood meeting in early April. After that the assessment
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hearing would take place on or after April 25. We would propose to start the project in June of
this summer and then substantial completion, we would shoot for the end of August and that is
highly weather dependent. With that if there’s any questions I can answer I’d be more than
willing to answer them. Otherwise I’d request that a public hearing be opened for this item.
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright thank you Mr. Oehme. Before I open the public hearing is there
any questions from council to staff at this time? Alright at this time I will direct, we will now
open the council meeting for a public hearing on this project. If there’s anybody in the council
chambers that would like to speak or make a comment about this project you’re welcome to do
so. I’d ask that you simply step up to the microphone. State your name and address and your
comment. There you go, thank you. Your name and address please.
Nicole Nejezchledba: Good evening council members. My name is Nicole Nejezchledba and I
live on 2851 North Manor Road and I have a two part questions if I may ask. I saw on one of the
power points today that North Manor Road, it says there would be an additional cost covered by
the City because it’s such a short road, as well as Orchard Lane and my question was did the
$8,000 dollar amount you have up there does not include those specific properties then.
Mayor Laufenburger: Could you, Mr. Oehme could you bring on the screen and direct our
attention to the area that Nicole right?
Nicole Nejezchledba: Yes.
Mayor Laufenburger: Is that right?
Nicole Nejezchledba: Yes.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay.
Paul Oehme: So Mr. Mayor, City Council members. So the item that Nicole brings up is there is
I think 4 houses on North Manor Drive.
Nicole Nejezchledba: Actually only 3.
Paul Oehme: There is only 3? Okay, 3 houses on North Manor Drive and then on, I think it’s
Orchard Lane here there aren’t any frontages on the east side of that road there so what, typically
what staff, the practice is, is to assess all of the benefiting street improvement costs to the
residents of that particular neighborhood. Now there is a significant amount of frontage that is
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Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2016
not, that doesn’t have any benefit for the property owners along North Manor and along this
street here too so what City staff did was we looked at adding this roadway section as a City cost
instead of the benefit or cost to the property owners since there is no residential units associated
with that. So if we look back at the assessment amount you know typically we would be
assessing $1.4 million dollars for this project cost over the 59 units. That would leave us with
about $9,500 I think. If we were to add that into the project cost, what staff is saying is we’d like
to remove that frontage along North Manor Road and Orchard Drive and just assess for the
benefiting costs of that street on the residential side, which is $1.23 million dollars.
Mayor Laufenburger: So Mr. Oehme if I understand your answer what you’re saying is, that
portion along the, those 2 roads that you made reference, the cost of that street essentially fully
assessed to the City to the tune of about, it looks like about $200,000 or there about’s, is that
correct?
Paul Oehme: Right, right. We didn’t, the staff didn’t feel that that was a benefit for the property
owners so we reduced the assessment cost.
Mayor Laufenburger: In fact there is a benefit to the property owners since they’re going to be
driving on those roads but it’s not a street that’s directly in front of their property, is that correct?
Paul Oehme: That’s correct.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. Nicole does that answer, that first question?
Nicole Nejezchledba: It does. If I, I have one more question.
Mayor Laufenburger: Please do.
Nicole Nejezchledba: Regarding the curb and gutters, my question is if you would remove those
from the property would the project becomes significantly cheaper? Part 1. Part 2, I’m a bit
concerned about the curb and gutters just because in the future with snow plowing there will be
maintenance associated with the curb and gutter. I know that I’m on North Manor Road, the
plow hits our front yard all the time and we repair it and it’s no big deal but if there’s a curb and
gutter there that’s going to be cement, that will be chipped, cracked, damaged and so that’s an
additional cost for the City and it’s a long term cost and it’s quite substantial so I guess I’d just
like to ask maybe the City consider not doing the curb and gutter. And also it takes away a little
bit of the openness of the neighborhood in general with kids biking. Lots of kids bike through
that neighborhood. With curb and gutter my son taking a fall. The knee hitting the curb is a bit
more significant than the front yard of some neighbor.
Mayor Laufenburger: Sure. So two parts to this question Mr. Oehme. So the people that do the
plowing of the streets in the winter, are they aware of the presence of curbs? And does that
change their plowing strategy?
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Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2016
Paul Oehme: I wouldn’t say it changes their plowing strategy. I think it helps them in the field
because they can just feel that curb being there instead of just sod and lawn that they don’t notice
and that’s, snowplow drivers have a tendency to dig those areas up. They can’t see where the
lawn is so it helps. I think it helps the snowplow drivers in that respect. Stay within the road and
we haven’t had any major problems with chipping due to snowplowing issues.
Mayor Laufenburger: And then the question of is it effective? What’s the purpose of putting in
curb and gutter versus leaving it no curb and gutter? I heard you talk a little bit about water
movements. Specifically storm water movements. Can you speak to that?
Paul Oehme: Yep, so we’re trying to treat the water as best as we can through this area because
all of it drains to Lake Minnewashta so we want to treat the water before it ends up in the lake so
adding the curb and gutter allows us to direct the water to our new storm sewer system that we’re
proposing in the neighborhood and treat it in the environmental manholes or in the rain water
gardens or any of the other features that we’re proposing so it helps from a water quality
standpoint and quantity. But it also helps the road too because the edge, the road, more structural
strength. One of those pictures I showed you earlier in my slide is edge cracked along the
bituminous. Along the edge of the road there.
Mayor Laufenburger: When there’s no curb there.
Paul Oehme: When there’s no curb there so it just has a tendency to move easier and has a
weaker, the pavement has a weaker strength along the edge of the road there if it does not have
curb and gutter so it’s to help prolong the road. The pavement section and then also for water
quality benefits as well.
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright. A question Nicole did not ask but let me ask it. When we, we’ve
been doing street improvements for many, many years. Is it our practice to, if we repair a street
area where there is no curb and gutter present, is it our practice to put curb and gutter if we can?
Paul Oehme: That’s correct, yeah.
Mayor Laufenburger: And why is that?
Paul Oehme: And again it comes back to water quality benefits. We try to you know capture the
water. Put it into a pond or put it into other features to try to treat the water before it discharges
to a water body. Also like I said again it helps to lengthen, prolong the street roadway section. I
think it helps property owners too from a plowing perspective. You know we’re not tearing up
people’s yards and it delineates the roadway from somebody’s yard. It also, you know the last
neighborhood had a concern about vehicles speeding in the neighborhood. I think when the curb
is in place it kind of feels a little bit more narrow. It doesn’t encourage people to speed as much
as if it’s just a wide open area with just pavement as well.
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Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2016
Mayor Laufenburger: So when you think about, certainly you would agree that curb and gutter,
adding curb and gutter to a street it will increase the cost of the project is that correct?
Paul Oehme: That’s correct.
Mayor Laufenburger: It will increase the cost for that time but when you consider the life of the
road, extending the life of the road, is it your assessment that if we incur the cost of curb and
gutter we’re actually saving money in the long run?
Paul Oehme: I don’t know if we’re saving money in the long run. I have never seen any
documentation saying that that’s the case but I know it will prolong the length of the road but I
can’t give you a quantitative payback for that but again I think it mainly comes down to directing
the water into stormwater systems and trying to treat that water. That’s part of our MS4 permits
and that’s what we try to do here to try to improve the water quality.
Mayor Laufenburger: When you say the MS4, those are regulations.
Paul Oehme: Regulations, yep.
Mayor Laufenburger: That we have to follow in terms of the City and how dealing with storm
runoff right?
Paul Oehme: Storm runoff and then working with the watershed districts on these type of
improvements. Yeah that’s something that they’re really looking for.
Mayor Laufenburger: Those probably weren’t the answers you were looking for Nicole but did
you have any further follow-up questions?
Nicole Nejezchleba: I did. I would be interested to know how much it actually does add to the
project in numbers and I would like to say that in terms of making the road safer, when you’re
driving on a road with a car and there’s a biker on the side and there’s a curb, that biker cannot
get out of the way. If you’re a car and you’re trying to get out of the way of a kid running into
the street it’s really difficult to drive over a curb and accomplish that. You’ll be discouraged to
do that. Just instinctively you’re not going to do that so I don’t think it adds any safety. Again I
think visually it would take away from the openness of the neighborhood and I think with the
water runoff, though that is very legitimate, you’ve already talked about the neighbors. Some of
them agreeing to rain gardens. I would be open to that. I think most of our neighbors would be
open to something like that. There’d be a greater benefit to that I think than adding curb and
gutters which you’re directing the water but some of the water that would have been filtered
through the front yards also then will not be filtered. So it will just run into the sewer and the
storm runoff without being filtered so I don’t know if there’s really a true benefit to that versus
running through front yards where there’s plants and trees and so on so I would, from myself not
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Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2016
be a fan of the curb and gutter. Especially since it adds a tremendous amount of cost and I think
it will not be safe for the neighborhood and the children.
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you. Mr. Gerhardt.
Todd Gerhardt: Paul what type of curb and you planning in this? Is this a surmountable curb or
is this a B6 type design?
Paul Oehme: Yeah so we’ve, for our previous street reconstruction projects we’ve always
proposed the high back B6, 18-6 inch curb that comes up. That better delineates you know the
road. Our plows aren’t going to run over it. Jump that curb. It holds more water in the larger
rain events as well with that higher high back curb as well so. And that B6, I think 18 curb that’s
the last 2 reconstruction projects in Minnewashta Heights and then that Boyer development that
we finished up 2 years ago on Cypress, both of those areas included the high back curb.
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you for your comments Nicole.
Nicole Nejezchleba: Oh wait may I just ask, did you want me to email Paul regarding the
additional cost for curb and gutter?
Mayor Laufenburger: Yeah my only comment was going to be Paul is it possible for you to
separate out the cost of the curb and gutter versus the whole thing? Can you do that?
Paul Oehme: Sure, absolutely yep.
Mayor Laufenburger: Can you somehow make that part of the next presentation we see?
Paul Oehme: Absolutely.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay.
Nicole Nejezchleba: Thank you very much.
Mayor Laufenburger: Thanks Nicole. Is there anyone else present that would like to make
comment during this public hearing? Alright there being none I will close the public hearing and
bring it back to the council. Council, any questions or comments for staff?
Councilman McDonald: Mr. Mayor if you’re ready I’d like to submit a motion.
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright.
Councilman McDonald: I would propose that the City Council orders the preparation of plans
and specifications for the 2016 street reconstruction project #16-01.
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Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2016
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright, thanks for the motion. Is there a second?
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Second.
Mayor Laufenburger: Councilwoman Tjornhom, thank you very much. Any discussion? Mr.
Oehme just a thought. You talked about 3 different methods for replacing the watermain, is that
correct?
Paul Oehme: Yes, that’s correct.
Mayor Laufenburger: Did I understand this correctly that you will examine each of those
methods to determine which is the best method for that portion of the watermain, is that correct?
Paul Oehme: We’ll examine it for the best overall cost and time to put the watermain in for the
project area right so.
Mayor Laufenburger: So you’ll choose one of those methods, not necessarily 2 of them. You’ll
choose one method that is the best for efficiency, effectiveness and.
Paul Oehme: Cost.
Mayor Laufenburger: And cost.
Paul Oehme: Correct.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. Alright. And just again the assessments that you identified that’s
not final. That assessment is subject to the bids that come in as a result of one of the next actions
that we take as a council.
Paul Oehme: That’s correct. This is just the assessment that we talk about tonight is just an
estimate at this time.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. And then the only action we’re talking about tonight is ordering
plans and specifications.
Paul Oehme: Yep, all we’re asking for tonight is to allow the engineer to move forward with
finalizing plans and specs so we can get the project ready for bidding.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. Alright. Any further discussion?
Resolution #2016-10: Councilman McDonald moved, Councilwoman Tjornhom seconded
that the Chanhassen City Council orders the preparation of plans and specifications for the
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Chanhassen City Council – January 25, 2016
2016 Street Reconstruction Project No. 16-01. All voted in favor and the motion carried
unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you Mr. Oehme. Thank you public for commenting this evening.
ADMINISTRATIVE PRESENTATIONS.
Mayor Laufenburger: Mr. Gerhardt, anything?
Todd Gerhardt: I’ve got one item. The Mayor and I will be attending tomorrow morning at 7:30
at Carver County Courthouse. The easterly Carver County or the Carver County Leaders Group.
Not the easterly. It’s the entire county and the topic is the talk about how to maximize the usage
of the fiber ring throughout Carver County so look forward to that meeting.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay, anything else?
Todd Gerhardt: That’s it.
COUNCIL PRESENTATIONS.
Mayor Laufenburger: Any council presentations? I just want to have one, a reminder to the
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citizens that I will be conducting the Mayor Is In office hours this Thursday, January 28 from
9:00 to 11:30 at the Starbucks at Highway 5 and Dakota so if you’re interested in coming in and
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having a cup of coffee with the Mayor, I’ll be there on Thursday, January 28 9:00 to 11:30.
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 8:00 p.m.
Submitted by Todd Gerhardt
City Manager
Prepared by Nann Opheim
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