CC 2006 09 25
CHANHASSEN CITY COUNCIL
REGULAR MEETING
SEPTEMBER 25, 2006
Mayor Furlong called the meeting to order at 7:10 p.m.. The meeting was opened
with the Pledge to the Flag.
COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT:
Mayor Furlong, Councilman Lundquist,
Councilman Peterson and Councilwoman Tjornhom
STAFF PRESENT:
Todd Gerhardt, Roger Knutson, Laurie Hokkanen, Kate Aanenson,
Paul Oehme, and Todd Hoffman
PUBLIC PRESENT FOR ALL ITEMS:
Debbie Lloyd 7302 Laredo Drive
Janet Paulsen 7305 Laredo Drive
Glenn Stolar Park and Recreation Commission
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Mayor Furlong: Thank you and good evening to everyone. We're glad that you joined us
here in the council chambers as well as those watching at home. At this time I would ask
if there's any modifications or changes to the agenda? If not, without objection we'll
proceed with the agenda that was published with the packet.
CONSENT AGENDA:
Mayor Furlong: If there's a desire by members of council or others present to remove an
item for discussion, we can do that prior to that motion being made. So at this time I
would ask, Item 1(g)(2) is it Mr. Gerhardt? 1(g)? We'll pull that off on a single.
Todd Gerhardt: Yeah, we just want to add the language, not to exceed $218,550 for the
park dedication fee.
Mayor Furlong: And that's condition number?
Todd Gerhardt: (g)(1).
Mayor Furlong: Final plat approval. With condition on the?
Todd Gerhardt: 8. Sorry.
Mayor Furlong: 8? Okay.
Todd Gerhardt: Page 18 of the planning report.
City Council Meeting - September 25, 2006
Mayor Furlong: Was that clear to everybody? Okay? So that will continue on the
consent agenda unless there's a desire for separate discussion.
Todd Gerhardt: Staff talked to the applicant and they have accepted that condition.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Alright. Is there any other items on the consent agenda? Items 1
(a) through (n) as in Nancy. That anyone would like to discuss separately. Seeing no
one, is there a motion to approve items 1(a) through (n) with the added language for item
(g).
Councilwoman Tjornhom moved, Councilman Lundquist seconded to approve the
following consent agenda items pursuant to the City Manager's recommendations:
a. Approval of Minutes:
-City Council Work Session Minutes dated August 28, 2006
-City Council Summary and Verbatim Minutes dated August 28, 2006
Receive Commission Minutes:
-Planning Commission Summary and Verbatim Minutes dated August 15, 2006
-Planning Commission Summary and Verbatim Minutes dated September 5, 2006
-Park and Recreation Commission Summary and Verbatim Minutes dated August
22, 2006
b. TH 312/212 Project 03-09: Approve MnDot Change Orders with MnDot:
1) Turn Lane for Proposed Future Fire Station.
2) Changing Signal Lighting from Cobra Head to Shoe Box Fixtures
Resolution #2006-65:
c. Dogwood Road Improvements Project 06-06: Award
Consultant Contract to Kimley-Horn.
Resolution #2006-66:
e. Longacres Drive Stormwater Pond Outlet Improvement &
Lyman Boulevard Sewer Repair Projects 06-08 and 06009: Award of Contract.
f. Boulder Cove:
1) Final Plat Approval
2) Approval of Plans & Specifications and Development Contract
g. Pioneer Pass:
1) Final Plat Approval as amended in condition 8.
2) Approval of Plans & Specifications and Development Contract.
Resolution #2006-67:
h. 2007 Street Reconstruction (Koehnen & Yosemite Area)
Project 07-01: Approve Amendment to Consultant Contract with Bolton &
Menk.
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City Council Meeting - September 25, 2006
i. Marvin & Patricia Onken, 62221 Greenbriar Avenue: Approval of Variance
Request for Use of a Single Family Dwelling as a Two-Family Dwelling on
Property Located in the Single Family Residential (RSF) District.
Resolution #2006-68:
j. Appointment of Election Judges for the General Election.
k. Approval of Ordinance Amendments to Chanhassen City Code:
1) Chapter 18, Subdivisions (Including Summary Ordinance for Publication
Purposes) and Chapter 20, Zoning.
2) Chapters 1, 4, 7 & 13.
l. Award of Bid, 2006-2009 Audit Contract.
Resolution #2006-69:
m. Approve Resolution Authorizing Multi-Year Winter Trail
Activities Permit with Three Rivers Park District for Minnesota River Bluff LRT
Route.
Resolution #2006-70:
n. Accept Streets, Storm Sewer and Utility Improvements in
Fox Den, Project 05-10.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0.
VISITOR PRESENTATIONS:
Mayor Furlong: If you are interested in coming forward I would ask, we do have a
couple scheduled presentations this evening but at first I'd like to open it up for the, for
anyone else that would like to address the council so, if you'd like to address the council
during visitor presentations, this would be an opportunity to come forward at this time.
Okay, seeing nobody. We do have representatives here this evening from School District
112 that wants to make a presentation and discussion with regard to their upcoming
referendum so good evening.
Steve Pumper: Thank you Mayor, council members and city staff. I'm Steve Pumper.
I'm the Director of Finance and Operations with District 112 and along with me as well is
Michelle Helgen our Board Chair. Certainly thank you for this opportunity to give us a
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moment to talk about the referendum that will be coming up on November 7 with two
questions. One question to build a new high school in the city of Chanhassen and the
second additional dollars to operate that school as well. I'd like to take you through a
presentation if I could.
Mayor Furlong: Let's give it a minute and then maybe we can work on that and we'll take
the other presentation, if that makes sense. Let's just see if we can get it up and going.
That's going to take a couple minutes, maybe we should switch them, but stay right there
Steve. If we can get it up, we'll do it quick. I tell you what, if they get that running, you
don't have to necessarily switch to it right, so we can get that working. I'm wondering if
we try to move on and maybe invite Mr. Cummings up to do his presentation. Steve, if
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City Council Meeting - September 25, 2006
you can wait while we get the technical stuff worked out. Hopefully we'll have that in a
few minutes and we'll get you back on. At this time I'd like to invite boy scout Scott
Cummings to come forward. He is proposing his Eagle Scout project on a trail in this
city so. Good evening.
Scott Cummings: Good evening. Hello, my name is Scott Cummings. I live at 1570
Bluebill Trail and I'm a member of Troop 330 in Chanhassen. I'm a junior at Chaska
High School and I've lived in Chan for about 12 years. I'm here to talk about my Eagle
Scout project and this is it right here. I'm doing Carver Beach Park off Lotus Lake here,
and right in here. The place kind of, it hasn't been maintained for about 15 years. It's
kind of scenic, kind of pretty in here. It's got some nice pictures of the lake. Looks really
nice. The trail, it's about 500 yards long and about 2 to 4 feet. It varies from time to
time. It could use some nice touching up. On this, see this picture right here? This is us
right there looking down at this lake, so that's kind of what it looks like, if you can see
that. That's kind of how big the trail is and I have some plans for it. I'm going to, first
I'm going to wood chip the trail since some logs have fallen. Debris there. It needs some
nice touching up and I'm going to do that. And then I'm going to stop the erosion.
There's some erosion there that, from the lake side is going down in and I'm going to stop
that and it will make the trail last longer and keep the wood chips down there. I'm going
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to do this project November the 4 and a lot of you guys probably know what date that is.
That's deer opener so might lose some volunteers. Might not. I don't know, but I want to
get this done in one day. And maybe it will probably be 5, 6, 7, 8 hours. What we're
going to do is we're gonna take, we've got two dump sites. One here, one here and we're
going to dump the wood chips there and then we'll bring them in towards the middle.
We'll dump them that way and then we'll slowly spread out kind of like that. And it will
really make the trail last longer that way. We're not dumping it here and then we're
running back and forth, back and forth. It will make it last longer and that's going to add
some nice longevity to the trail. I'm going to make the boy scouts, they're going to
volunteer. There'll probably be providing some of the wheelbarrows and the rakes. A lot
of hard workers out there. It's a good place for some of the younger scouts to get some
opportunities and it's a good idea to do. Another thing, there's some vegetation is going
on here to the lake. We're going to get all the wood chips from the Arboretum and the
main reason, because it's free and that's always a plus for these projects. They're usually
tightly budgeted and that's a big thing. We're going to take 110 cubic yards of wood
chips and that's about 20 truck loads, which is a pretty big amount for this type of project.
We need people to dump, we have two candidates to do the trucking from the Arboretum
to Carver Beach Park, and that's ZRC Construction. Some of you probably know what
that is. That's the company, contractor that's doing 212 right now. They'll probably a
likely candidate. Also Mr. Gerhardt has a possible option as well. He has a friend who's
a contractor and also an Eagle scout so he might be able, we might split them. Haven't
gotten the details. I just found out that ZRC might work Friday so been pretty busy. And
that's about it. Mr. Hoffman, would you like to add anything?
Todd Hoffman: The other contact was from Councilman Lundquist and he might be able
to.
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City Council Meeting - September 25, 2006
Councilman Lundquist: Yep, I've got the card for you here Scott. Call that guy.
Todd Hoffman: There you go.
Todd Gerhardt: And that was my friend.
Councilman Lundquist: That's your neighboring troop in Chaska but I talked to him
today. He'll be more than willing to help, if he's not going deer hunting.
Scott Cummings: Any questions?
Mayor Furlong: Questions for Mr. Cummings.
Councilman Lundquist: Good luck.
Scott Cummings: Alright.
Mayor Furlong: No, I think it's great. Thank you for doing this. I know I had a
discussion with Mr. Hoffman, I know you sent those pictures ahead and appreciate that
but overall I think most importantly with Councilman Lundquist and myself as fellow
Eagle scouts, we appreciate the amount of time and effort it's taken for you to get this far,
and wish you the best of luck and look forward to hearing about that Eagle Court of
Honor coming up so.
Scott Cummings: Alright, thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Best of luck, thank you. Are we ready to go for the school district?
Why don't you come on up and let's see what we can do here.
Steve Pumper: I'm actually glad we're after this last presentation. I know now we can go
to the Arboretum and probably build our school a little cheaper if we get… And if
anybody has any business cards you want to…supply some supplies for cheap, that's
great. Well, while we're trying to get this, let me just speak to, I think I can get the
message out without having slides in front of us. I want to take just a minute before I talk
specifically about the referendum. Just to give people a quick background of District
112. There are a lot of new residents certainly in the community and I think those of you
who have been around for quite some time might be surprised at how quickly things
change around here. District 112 supports all or portions of the communities of
Chanhassen, Victoria, Chaska and Carver. We have 8,600 students right now enrolled in
the district. 570 of those have English as their second language, so a different language is
their native language. We're putting 41 different types of languages now that are spoken
by the students in District 112. Approximately 87% of the students that we serve go on
to post secondary education. We are the largest employer in the area, with over 1,300
employees. Nearly 600 of those are teachers. Right now we are a K through 12 student
oriented district but we certainly support life long learners. Our kindergarten children are
served in 3 different buildings. A majority of those are in our kindergarten center, and
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City Council Meeting - September 25, 2006
then we have kindergarten in 2 other buildings. Jonathon Elementary serves kindergarten
students, and for the first time this year, right across the street from here in this building
at Chanhassen Elementary we have 2 sections of all day kindergarten there as well. So
that's certainly a trend that's growing, all day kindergarten and going into our elementary
buildings. We have 7 elementary schools that serve grades 1 through 5. We have 2
middle schools that serve grades 6 through 8. One building, Pioneer Ridge Center that
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serves our 9 grade population. And then one high school that serves our students who
are in grades 10 through 12. What I'd like to show you, what I'll just give you verbally is
the capacity issue that we're facing right now. This referendum, as you know, is to build
a new high school. However our most immediate need is for space for our middle school
students, who again students who are in the grades 6 through 8. Right now we have 2
buildings. Chaska Middle School East and Chaska Middle School West, each with
roughly the capacity of 1,000 so 2,000 student capacity is our buildings for grades 6
through 8, and we have over 1,900 middle school students right now. Next year we'll
actually exceed 2,000 so we'll be out of room in our middle schools next year. The
reason that's important is, as we build the new high school, the plan is for the new high
school to be a 9-12 building and Chaska High School to be a 9-12 building. Oh, I can
actually, we'll get to this slide here then. No, that's not going to show too much there but
this represents what our capacity is at the middle schools with a referendum that would
be unsuccessful. The straight line around the 2,000 number would show our capacity.
That's our building capacity and this line right here shows our student growth, and again
if it's clear enough, you can see that we're almost at, our student growth and capacity is
almost at the same right here and by the year 2020 you'll see where we're approaching
3,000 students, so rapid growth at our middle school level. With no new buildings our
capacity would be certainly underneath what we need. This graph right here will show.
Mayor Furlong: Point down there because that's what everybody is seeing at home.
Steve Pumper: This graphic here will show what would happen if the referendum is
successful. Again we'll have capacity of 2,000 until we hit school year 2009-2010 when
the new high school would open and then Pioneer Ridge would convert to a 6-8 building.
Then our capacity jumps up to 2,700, and again if you'll see the line, it almost takes us
with enough capacity to the year 2020. And then at that point in time it looks like it will
be under capacity again. Here's what it looks like for our high school. Student
enrollment and building capacity. Once again with a referendum that is not successful,
we have capacity between Chaska High School and Pioneer Ridge, that covers all our 9-
12 students, of 2,700. Right now we're slightly underneath that but, and again it's been a
couple years we'll be exceeding capacity and again by 2020 we'll have roughly 1,000
students per class, so 4,000 students of building capacity of 2,700. If the referendum is
successful, we'll have 2 buildings that will have capacity of 2,000 each so you'll see that
and again as it opens in the fall of 2009, our building capacity will jump to 4,000 and that
should handle our 9 through 12 enrollment until we get to the year 2020. The process has
been a long time coming. Actually it began prior to this, the referendum that we held in
2003. If you recall in 2003, along with the addition to Chaska High School and opening
up Victoria Elementary School, we asked the voters for approval to purchase land in
Chanhassen, specifically for the construction of a future secondary school. At that point
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City Council Meeting - September 25, 2006
in time the Board hadn't made up it's mind whether it would be a middle school or a high
school. Since that time we have involved community members, leaders throughout the
community, parents, family members who don't have children in our schools, in
numerous public meetings and we asked them the question, is 1 high school and 1
campus, or 1 building and 1 campus to serve 4,000 students the right way to go? Or is it
to have a second high school so we have smaller schools with 2,000 apiece? We
conducted focus groups. We had surveys done. The Board reviewed all that feedback
and it was very, very clear by the community, listening to them, that they preferred that
we have 2 smaller schools and converting Pioneer Ridge into a third middle school. So
back to spring, that information was again discussed by the Board and the Board created
this proposal now to construct a second high school on the land that we already own
located at the Audubon and, Audubon Road and Lyman Boulevard intersection and then
convert Pioneer Ridge into a third middle school. Here is an aerial view of the site.
Right here is Audubon Road and right here is Lyman and then in this shaded area right
here is the land that we own that we plan on constructing a second high school. This is
Lake Hazeltine right here and here's industrial development right across the road. This is
a slide of the design right now with the school superimposed on that site. So again a little
tougher to see here on this display but again up on the higher area, and again I think
council is aware of the site. It's a very hilly site and we will have multiple levels to go
with the building but we have a building here. We have parking surrounding it. There's
over 1,000 parking spaces. We hope to have a separate bus access coming in from
Audubon, off of Lyman, and then we're still in discussion with city staff about having 2
more entrances off of Lyman Boulevard as well, again to access the site. You'll notice
that we have multiple fields around the site including a football stadium with track. A
baseball field. Several softball fields. Several soccer fields. Multi purpose fields as
well. Tennis courts. As many fields and activity areas as we can get in the site, we're
trying to develop right now. This is a preliminary design but I believe when it's all said
and done, the school will look more like this drawing then not like this drawing.
Certainly there's some changes and there's some things we're working through with staff
as well. The number of fields, the type of building, etc will be very close to what Chaska
High School has right now. The total cost of the referendum, we have two questions on
there. The first question is to actually build a high school, and based on our drawings and
our planning, the number that we need to get from the voters is $92.91 million dollars.
That construction cost of roughly $185 per square foot. When we just completed the
addition to Chaska High School and Victoria Elementary, it cost us roughly $165 per
square foot. Construction inflation over the last 2 years has run in excess of 7 1/2 percent
each year and if you take the 165 and multiply it by that inflationary increase, you'll be at
the $185 number so I think we're designing the facility at the same level as we've
designed our most recent buildings. The second question asks for operating funds to
open the building. These operating funds are for core costs which includes staff that are
not student dependent, such as principals and nurses and custodians. It also includes core
costs for maintaining the fields outside. For the utility costs of the building, etc.. The
numbers projected to operate the facility in the fall of 2009 are in excess of $3 million
dollars. We're asking for a per pupil increase of $285 which will generate approximately
$3 million dollars a year. These two questions are contingent upon each other. If one
fails, they both fail. And the reason we are asking and tying these two questions together
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City Council Meeting - September 25, 2006
is that we find it very prudent that we need operating funds in order to open the building.
We don't want to sacrifice from our current educational programs the dollars that we need
to operate what we currently have to operate this separate building. There's history in
District 112 when we actually constructed Chaska High School and converted Chaska
Middle School West, the old high school, and did some renovation there. We had an
operating referendum at that time and it failed and we were not able to have any funds
then to open that building, so that building sat vacant until an operating referendum was
eventually passed. The impact on individual taxpayer, if both these questions pass. If
you take a $300,000 home, which is the average value of a home in District 112, the
estimated tax increase in taxes payable in 2007 would be $377. To find that specific tax
impact on your home or farmland or commercial/industrial land, if you go to District
112's web site, so www.District112.org, there's a tax calculator right on line. You can
plug in the value of your property. Indicate what type of property it is and it will tell you
your tax increase for next year. When will the decision be made? On general election
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day, November 7 and once again both the building is contingent on the passage of the
operating referendum. The building would open in the fall of 2009 so at that time we
would have a new high school. Actually almost 2 new high schools because Chaska
High School would convert to a 9-12 building at that point in time, and then we'd have
another new building at Pioneer Ridge which would convert to a 6-8 building. What
happens if the referendum fails? Well we're out of space for middle school kids so
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immediately we need to start looking for space to house our 6th to 8 graders. Again
those of you who have lived in the area long enough know that that's happened to District
112 in the past and we've had students in shopping centers and some vacant retail space
and so we'd look for options like that again. Certainly secondary class sizes would be at
risk. We know students are coming. We have to find a place to put them. If we have a
limited number of classroom spaces, that means we have more students within any given
classroom. Why does this matter to me? Well there's a multitude of reasons. Continued
growth certainly beyond 2020 is expected in District 112. We have a reputation for high
education in this area. High quality education in this area. It attracts young families. We
need to provide adequate classroom space if we want to have quality schools, and
certainly quality schools have tremendous impact on the value of property in any given
area, and it has just tremendous value to support economic development and to continue
growth in the whole area and support the quality of life that residents of Carver County
have come known to enjoy. What we ask is for anybody listening to this presentation or
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who will be out voting on November 7 is become informed on the issue. There's
multiple ways. There's plenty of presentations been going on. The great sources of
information can be found on our web site, again www.District112.org. Our
superintendent has kind of ventured his toe into the technology world and he has an
information blog on that website as well. You can go there and be linked to that and
there's a lot of information on there. People can ask questions and get answers on that
site. There's a referendum hotline. If you call the number that's listed there, you'll get a
call back within 24 hours to be able to answer the question that you asked. And then we
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also have an information clinic on October 9 at 7:00 that's going to be held at Pioneer
Ridge Freshmen Center and our architects will be there. Our construction manager will
be there. District staff will be there. Board members will be there. Superintendent will
be there to answer any specific questions people might have. Again we want people to be
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City Council Meeting - September 25, 2006
informed to make their yes or no vote based on correct information. And with that I'd
certainly entertain any questions with you but I just wanted to thank you for allowing us
to come speak and have the time in front of you tonight.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. …the question I heard from a resident was a question
regarding, and understanding the timing and tying together the two questions of the
referendum but the question was on the timing when the taxes may be charged to the
property tax statement. Between the two and the question was on the operating question,
whether that would be, whether they'd start paying taxes for the operate away or if that
would wait until the school actually opened. Can you respond to that?
Steve Pumper: I can Mayor. The timing of that, it would be for a 10 year operating
referendum levy and that would start with taxes payable in 2007. So yes, they would feel
that impact before the school opens.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Is there a reason for that timing because the question was why
you need to start collecting the money before you have the increase.
Steve Pumper: Well…valid. It's important for us that we have the authority tied to the
piece of property so again we don't develop a building before we collect the operating
referendum.
Mayor Furlong: Understand.
Steve Pumper: And we only can ask that question on election day. No other time of the
year, and so before we'd start construction, we'd rather know whether or not we're going
to have an operating levy or not. And since it's tied at that point in time, then that's when
the 10 year starts, our 10 year compound starts clicking.
Mayor Furlong: Ms. Helgen, yeah.
Michelle Helgen: Yeah, the other piece I would like to mention is because this is
typically not with all referendums and what we've done in the past, there's always that,
there's basically this kind of a year lag where you're collecting the operating money, but
we have already hired the principal and we've hired the staff because what has to, the
administrative people ahead of time because what they have to do is put together
basically all the teachers and all the operational plan over the course of that year so that
they're ready to hit the ground running in the fall when the building opens. So you need
that now. On the other hand, what we have also done in the past, we haven't used all the
operating money that year prior to the school opening so we put some of that aside and
then used it for some of the start up costs which are inevitably greater when the school
first gets going that first year or two. So we've timed it based on that but they're
definitely costs before the building is opened that we will incur from an operating
standpoint. And the operating funds are really, they know that's not the teachers salaries
or anything like that. It's basically is all the administrative, the extra administrative
overhead to hire the principals and nurses and you know, all that kind of thing to operate
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City Council Meeting - September 25, 2006
the building and then once the students come and you've got the per pupil revenues, then
that's what pays for the teachers and other staffing and that kind of thing so. The only
other thing I'd add to what Steve said was, you know I've been on the board now for 6
years and I was here 3 years ago when we had the referendum, which is when we
purchased the land in Chanhassen for this secondary school, and at the time the board
was very clear that whatever the secondary school was going to be, it would be put on
that land. And I think the voters wanted to know exactly you know what our intention
was and so I think it's important that we follow through on that. More importantly
perhaps is at that time we talked about this secondary school, our current projections at
that point said our classes would peak out at about 800 students a class. So what we said
at the time was, if these projections stay as they are today, which was 3 years ago, at 800
students a class, then this site would basically become a secondary school that would
become a middle school and we'd stay with one high school. If the projections went over
800 a class, then we would move to two high schools, and that was the decision that we
had made 3 years ago. We now are looking at in 2020 in our high school classes being at
1,000 students with fairly conservative numbers. I mean you can look at our
demographers projections. She has about 3 levels of numbers that you can use to project
and this is we definitely used a conservative model. But the interesting thing is, not only
is it 200 students a class more at this point, we don't know when the growth stops. She
only projects as far out as 2020, but at this point she's not projecting that there would be a
decline at that time. There could be, you know the growth is definitely in this area at this
point. In 15 to 20 years there will also be significant growth out in the western part of the
county and you know at that point you may someday, who knows be looking at 3 high
schools. But at this point our numbers were such that it definitely tipped it in the sense
that we felt we had to go to 2 schools, 1,000 students a class is really bigger than most of
the districts, really all the districts even around us at this point. At their peak numbers
have not been 1,000 or more a class so, I just think that a history is important because we
have said that at the time and the board has basically followed through on those initial
plans that we put in place.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, good. If we can, because I don't even propose to know all the
questions that people have but can we repeat the dates of that informational meeting?
Steve Pumper: Yes.
Mayor Furlong: As well as how people can get more information if they're watching
because just these comments might have generated some more questions at home.
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Steve Pumper: October 9, which is a Monday. 7:00. It is an information clinic, and
that's at Pioneer Ridge. Our district web site pretty much will link you to everything else.
Will give you the referendum hotline number and the blog, etc is www.district112.org.
Mayor Furlong: Great. Thank you very much.
Councilman Lundquist: Mr. Pumper, a couple questions. As I've been out knocking on
doors, a lot of the questions I get I think are around the differentiation between the
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City Council Meeting - September 25, 2006
operating levy and the building piece of that, and of that 377 or whatever that number on
that average, how much of that piece is the operating levy piece versus the building?
Steve Pumper: The operating levy, and I'm sorry I'm not a little more prepared because I
can't give you an exact number but the operating levy is close to 150 of that 377.
Councilman Lundquist: Okay, so it's about 40% or 35% or something like that. And
that, how did the rest of the schools that are currently open, we have some operating
levies on those but the rest of those are funded on the per pupil?
Steve Pumper: To a point, yes. And it would take a long time to get through of course
the whole amount of educational funding, but for instance right now we have levy
authority for roughly $780 per student, and the reason that number has, or it wasn't
always that high was because of operating levies that we have increased as we go from
like Victoria Elementary. As we go from Bluff Creek and as we go from Clover Ridge.
So those stay in place then as we continue, so really this operating referendum that we're
asking for will stay in place for 10 years, and if that gets renewed, it will continue so
really those dollars per pupil are really what keeps the buildings open.
Councilman Lundquist: So that piece we should expect in 10 years from now that we'll
have another referendum to redo that?
Steve Pumper: Very possible, yes. That's typically what happens.
Councilman Lundquist: And all of that piece. And then one of the, on that operating
referendum I think one of the stats I caught when you were doing that is 1,300 total plus
employees. But only about 600 teachers. So you've essentially got less than half of your
total employment force is actually teachers that are there and the rest of that is other
support services and things like that.
Steve Pumper: Yes, and let me just talk a minute on that. Certainly some of that would
be administration and some would be custodians, service staff, etc. A large portion of
that, and I don't have the number in front of me though, is our community education staff,
and the majority of our community education staff are part time employees who teach,
you know the classes that you go to at night, or there's certainly LTGCFD classes in
preschool and other courses that we have but of the 1,300, I would say that we have
probably 800 full time employees and the rest are all part time staff.
Councilman Lundquist: And are those community ed programs generally self funded or
at least partially self funded?
Steve Pumper: Yes. There's separate funding for those. There's no, none of this
operating levy as an example would go to support any community ed programs.
Councilman Lundquist: Is that a pretty comparable number to other, at least the ratio,
comparable number to schools in the area? Comparable to Eden Prairie and that range?
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City Council Meeting - September 25, 2006
Steve Pumper: Yep. And actually I think our ratio is probably a little bit higher in
teaching staff versus total staff.
Councilman Lundquist: Okay, good. Thank you.
Todd Gerhardt: Mayor I have one question. Some of the concerns that I've been hearing
in the community is that the outdoor facilities and the indoor facilities with the high
school may be different than the current Chaska High School. I think during the
presentation you mentioned that they would have very similar type activities. Almost the
same or, can you address that?
Steve Pumper: Sure, the plan is to run in exactly the same co curriculum programs. The
spaces for those facilities might vary slightly but for instance we have 6 basketball courts,
or phy ed courts in the Chaska High School right now. The design for this school is 6
courts as well. We have one football stadium and we have one football stadium here. So
absolutely, they mirror each other as close as they can be. The layout will be different
because you know, as we built Chaska High School we just were limited as we added on.
You know time and time we'll see some efficiencies in this building actually how some of
that space is laid out, but this includes a theater that would seat the same number of
students, or similar patrons, that we have in the theater at Chaska High School as an
example. So the amenities will be nearly identical.
Todd Gerhardt: Thank you.
Councilman Lundquist: Good luck.
Mayor Furlong: Very good, thank you. Thanks for coming. And I guess I'll just make…
if there's anybody else for visitor presentations. I didn't see anybody earlier. I don't
know if anybody came in while we were talking. We'll move on now to the next item
that's on our agenda.
LAW ENFORCEMENT/FIRE DEPARTMENT UPDATE.
Mayor Furlong: Tonight we receive our monthly update from Carver County Sheriff's
Department and the Chanhassen Fire Department so Sergeant Gullickson. Had to make
sure it was still Sergeant.
Sgt. Ross Gullickson: Good evening Mr. Mayor, members of the council, ladies and
gentlemen, city staff. Sheriff's report and monthly statistics for the month of August,
2006. There were 148 criminal calls for service last month consisting of 44 Part I crimes
and 104 Part II crimes. Part I offenses for the month were broken down into the
following. We had 4 burglaries reported last month, all of which were to businesses.
Only 2 however were actual break in's. The remaining 2 were just an attempt. The
biggest decrease in August was in theft reports for Part II offenses with 36 reported last
month compared to 68 in July, and if you remember last month after taking into account
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City Council Meeting - September 25, 2006
the unfounded reports, the reports that had no basis, there were 45 actual reports of theft
this month, or I'm sorry, last month in August there were 36. There were also 4 vehicle
thefts reported in August. However through the course of investigation it was learned
that only 1 of those was an actual vehicle theft, which on a side note was recovered in the
city of St. Paul. The remaining 3 consisted of 2 wrongly quoted ICR's and 1 vehicle
repossession. Part II offenses increased slightly from July to August, from 80 to 104.
Property damage incidents rose from 31 to 44. Further research indicated that 37 of those
were actual incidents of property damage. There were 1,091 non-criminal calls for
service during the month of August. We were down 100 non-criminal calls from last
month. So grand totals for the month of August were 1,239 calls for service. We had
296 traffic stops within the city. 205 citations issued city wide for traffic, criminal
offenses, ordinance violations, so on and so forth. And although the next two items I'm
going to discuss didn't happen last month, I do feel that they're noteworthy. We did have
the Dave Huffman Memorial Race and the U.S. Nationals Marathon of over 800
participants between the two races and everything went very, very well, so that's all that I
have for the month of August. Any questions or comments or questions from council?
Mayor Furlong: Questions? On the property damage under the Part II crimes. Was there
any trends or was it, anything to talk a little bit about why the increase there? Is there
some commonality between them?
Sgt. Ross Gullickson: We did have some property damage to vehicles in August, and
also a few mailbox vandals…the only trends that we saw.
Mayor Furlong: Alright. With school starting, can that be an issue now as we get into
the school year that some of those things curtail or?
Sgt. Ross Gullickson: Be increased?
Mayor Furlong: With some of those property damages? Mailboxes and such doesn't
sound…
Sgt. Ross Gullickson: It's possible. Statistically and historically what we find is when
school starts and things start to cool down, crime rates do tend to go down because there's
not as many people out in the warmer months now that it's cooling off, and that's usually
associated with school being back in session.
Mayor Furlong: Alright, thank you. Anything else? Good report, thank you. Chief
Geske, good evening.
Chief Greg Geske: Good evening. And I'm still Chief.
Mayor Furlong: I have to check sometimes.
Chief Greg Geske: I guess I'd like to take the opportunity tonight to.
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City Council Meeting - September 25, 2006
Mayor Furlong: Of course they are meeting this evening, aren't they?
Chief Greg Geske: It took quite a while, I mean I was going to do a power point
presentation but…
Mayor Furlong: Tonight's not the night for that.
Chief Greg Geske: I guess I'd like to take this opportunity for the council update to invite
th
everybody to our Fire Department Open House, which is October 15 this year. It's at
the end of Fire Prevention Week and that gets a real good turn out. We usually have over
1,000 people that show up with, for our open house. We have people that are from the
sheriff's department. Mounted posse. We do extrication demonstrations. This year we're
going to cut up my son's car so that's what happens if you don't take care of your car I
guess. He's donated that to cut up for extrication. We also usually do a scuba demo. We
have food, ice cream and one of the biggest draws is our fire truck rides and that's usually
a pretty long line from the start til the end of that so, pretty excited about that again.
th
That's October 15 from 1:00 to 4:00 and we'll have that posted on the marquee sign out
in front of the fire station. Ed Coppersmith, our Assistant Fire Marshal does a good job,
I'd like to thank him. He does a good job of arranging all the people to show up for that.
Also during fire prevention week we do classes for our students in Chanhassen and I
guess we are the envy of a lot of departments, area departments. We get a real good turn
out for people taking off days. We have a couple people that take off the whole week to
teach classes to the students and Mark Littfin, our Fire Marshal does a good job getting
everybody to contribute and take off time during that so, appreciative for that and we get
excited about that too. You know we were talking tonight at our meeting earlier about
what motivates us and like I say, we're the envy of a lot of different fire departments
around. I don't think they're there for the shirt. It's a lot more to spend the time with the
kids… Also calls have been down again. They seem to be down locally. Not only
locally but county wide and metro wide but I do want to keep coming into the cold
weather months and we'll be doing some ice rescue training before my next council
update. We might have some ice so I want to caution people to, especially on the ponds
and stuff, to watch kids that are out there. Make sure they're not on the ice so we don't
have any reason to use our training. Other than that, that's all I have to report tonight.
Any questions?
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any questions for the Chief?
Councilman Lundquist: Chief Geske could you, one of the things I think this time of the
year as well, I see people turn on their fireplaces and furnaces and stuff for the first time
in a few months. Do you have, or sell any carbon monoxide detectors or anything like
that down at the station or any procedures or?
Chief Greg Geske: We don't. It's always good, and along with that, of course fireplaces
and such, we do occasionally get calls for chimney fires before, it's a good idea to get
your chimney inspected. There are chimney cleaning services out there. They sell some
products that are, you know burn up your fireplace. Of course I can turn on the light. It's
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City Council Meeting - September 25, 2006
not going to clean my house so, I don't put a whole lot of faith in the things that you burn
in your fireplace to clean your chimney. It's a good idea to get somebody that comes in
there and inspects it for creosol build up because that is something that you know we
have issues with. People start burning. Carbon monoxide detectors are a big thing. We
do start to get more calls for that in the winter months. One of the big things with people
starting up their cars and letting them run up or warm up in the garage. Open up the door
and that's all it takes sometimes. There are, you know if you're interested in a different
kind of carbon monoxide detector, feel free to call the staff, our fire marshal. He can
direct you to some of the ones that are better than others. Some of the ones with digital
read out's for example as opposed to others but they are getting better, the ones that are
out there. We used to get a lot of calls that were false calls but…and I think that goes
back to last Christmas. We had right before Christmas we had one that you know they
had carbon monoxide levels that were off the chart. We had to call the University and go
over some numbers to find out, because our monitors were pegged out so, and I think not
enough can be said about that one, having a working carbon monoxide detectors.
Councilman Lundquist: You're on pheasant opening weekend so you should have a
better turnout.
Chief Greg Geske: Our's is mandatory too. The fire ed week is an optional thing, if you
want to take the time off but the open house is a mandatory one so we usually have a
pretty good turn out for that.
Todd Gerhardt: And Chief Geske and I worked together in ordering the new pumper
truck so as we speak they're our constructing our new fire pumper.
Chief Greg Geske: Well it's in the time frame anyways. About 300 days or 260 days
now or so.
Todd Gerhardt: It's a long process.
Chief Greg Geske: Long process.
Todd Gerhardt: Hopefully they're thinking about putting a tire or welder together on it.
Chief Greg Geske: We'll be going to the first step is our pre-build meeting that they have
and we work out with the engineers and the apparatus builder so. I know that the truck
committee's pretty excited about it with all the work they went through and sooner or
later we'll get another truck for fire trucks rides and pretty proud to take to the parades
and everything else.
Councilman Lundquist: So for next year's open house we'll have the new pumper to run
around. Good.
Mayor Furlong: Good, anything else? No? Thank you. Appreciate all your efforts.
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City Council Meeting - September 25, 2006
APPOINTMENT TO THE PLANNING COMMISSION.
Mayor Furlong: We do have a vacancy on our Planning Commission, given the
resignation of one of our commissioners earlier, or I should back up. At the last Planning
Commission meeting the Planning Commission interviewed 3 individuals, residents that
submitted applications. Earlier this evening the council had an opportunity to meet with
each of them. As is typical, we've got more qualified candidates than we have positions
and that, I'm always appreciative of the interest that residents show. The Planning
Commission, all the commissions take a lot of time and effort. They are 100% volunteer.
Typically we, on a regular basis we make appointments in the spring of the year and we
will be making those appointments again, or consideration of appointments and making
those appointments in the March timeframe. For those that didn't receive the
appointment for the single opening that we have, I'd encourage them to consider taking a
look at the openings this coming spring as well. Those will be on the web site and I
guess in the January-February timeframe, which is typical. In any event, like I said, we
had more qualified candidates than we have positions but it, based upon our discussion,
interviews, we would propose, I would propose this evening to appoint Kathleen Thomas
to the remaining term of the existing vacancy and ask for a second.
Councilman Peterson: Second.
Mayor Furlong: And seconded. Is there any discussion on that motion or on the process
or any other comments? No? Okay. Again, very good candidates, as always. It's too
bad we can't get them all on there but if there's no discussion to the motion, to the
appointment of Ms. Thomas, we'll proceed with the vote.
Mayor Furlong moved, Councilman Peterson seconded to appoint Kathleen Thomas
to the Planning Commission. All voted in favor and the motion carried
unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0.
COUNCIL PRESENTATIONS:
None.
ADMINISTRATIVE PRESENTATIONS:
Todd Gerhardt: We have the Chamber luncheon tomorrow. Ed Coppersmith will be
representing the City on emergency preparedness. They're going to have a panel
discussion. Carver County Health Services I think is the organization coordinating that
and they're going to have a variety of different individuals sitting on the panel. Not just
cities need to be prepared but private businesses, residents, all of us should have kind of
an emergency preparedness package in the house somewhere. Potentially a back-up
generator. Flashlights, things like that and I guess it's emergency preparedness month so
the Chamber is sponsoring that as part of their monthly meeting. Other than that, I think
Kate took the Planning Commission on a tour of developments last week. I don't know if
the City Council members attended any of that but they had a great time. Very impressed
with Town & Country development. They toured some of the models that are open and if
council would like to do something like that down the line, just send me an email and I
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City Council Meeting - September 25, 2006
can try to schedule that up and take you through the models. Planning Commission was
very impressed with the tour that they were on. That's all I have.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Water treatment plant's coming along? Any update on that?
That's still on schedule?
Todd Gerhardt: Still on schedule. I would expect that we probably could set up a tour in
probably the next 2 to 3 weeks for the City Council. We'll have some sidewalks and
steps to get inside the building so you can see the spaghetti of pipes that go throughout
the building and but I'd say in the next 2 to 3 weeks, maybe prior to a work session we
could do a quick tour and get you through there and see it before all of the sheetrock and
everything goes up and hides everything.
Mayor Furlong: Good, okay. Any other questions for Mr. Gerhardt? No? Okay.
CORRESPONDENCE DISCUSSION.
None.
Councilman Lundquist moved, Councilman Peterson seconded to adjourn the
meeting. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously and the City
Council meeting was adjourned at 8:05 p.m..
Submitted by Todd Gerhardt
City Manager
Prepared by Nann Opheim
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