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Administrative Section Administrative Section Hoffman. Todd Subject: Oehme, Paul Wednesday, March 15,20069:11 AM 'Victor Vasas' 'David Herzog'; 'Joey Lundquist'; 'Lisa Freese'; 'Lynn Clarkowski'; 'Michael Beer'; Hoffman, Todd RE: Walking Path Along Hwy 101 From: Sent: To: Cc: Victor, If MnDot moves the barriers the City would be willing to place wood chips as a temporary measure were the pavement has been removed or damaged. We have used this type of application successfully on other trail segments. We would also offer to put up hazard signs if required. I think the barrier setback requirement can be addressed to meet the Bicycle Transportation and Design Guidelines. Paul Oehme, P.E. Director of Public Works /City Engineer City of Chanhassen 7700 Market Boulevard P.O. Box 147 Chanhassen, MN 55317 Ph. # 952-227-1169 Fax. # 952-227-1170 -----Original Message----- From: Victor Vasas [mailto:VICTOR.VASAS@DOT.STATE.MN.USJ Sent: Wednesday, March 15, 2006 9:00 AM To: FKamps@mammoth-inc.com Cc: Oehme, Paul; David Herzog; Joey Lundquist; Lisa Freese; Lynn Clarkowski; Michael Beer Subject: RE: Walking Path Along Hwy 101 Hi Fred I am the design project manager on the TH 101 road widening and realignment project. Please allow me to give you some background information on the trail. As much as we would have liked to keep the trail open, we needed the stockpiling space to keep construction cost low. Also the old abandoned houses needed to be demolished. The soil stockpile and concrete barriers, which are required by the erosion control rules, are covering the trail today. Also, sections of the trail pavement have been removed during the house demolition and creek realignment work last fall to make space for the construction access road. Therefore to reopen the trail we would need not only to move a significant part of the stockpile and relocate the concrete barriers, but also would need to clean and rebuild the bituminous trail. The Contractor has demobilized from the site, before the resident request of reopening the trail came to our knowledge. Therefore remobilizing them for this comparatively small amount of work would be very expensive, which was not budgeted. Also at this time of the year with the frozen soil and stockpile, and low temperatures, bituminous trail pavement could not be constructed. This work would need to wait until May, and by October the trail would be closed for good for the road realignment and widening project. Another problem is that putting the concrete barrier right next to the bike trail is unsafe and against the Bicycle Transportation and Design Guidelines. However we are keeping communication open with the City of Chanhassen, and MNDOT Construction Management is looking into finding a cheaper and safe solution for possible reopening of the trail for the summer. Please email me or give me a call if you need any more information. Sincerely 1 Victor E. Vasas PE MNDOT - Metro Division Design - Waters Edge 651-634-2312 Victor.Vasas@dot.state.mn.us >>> "Kamps, Fred" <FKamps@mammoth-inc.com> 03/10/06 1:29 PM >>> Lynn, I would like to formally and kindly ask you to read through this correspondence and reply to this request. If there is anything else you would like to know or investigate with respect to this feel free to contact me. Thanks Fred From: Kamps, Fred [mailto:FKamps@Mammoth-inc.com] Sent: Friday, March 10, 2006 1:05 PM To: Oehme, Paul Subject: RE: Walking Path Along Hwy 101 Paul, Thanks for the response. Perhaps you could direct me to someone at the state level who's making this decision. It's hard to understand that walking next to a static pile of dirt is more dangerous than it is to have people walking along the highway under the dangerous conditions I've indicated below. The reality is people will generally not use the alternate route as it's not marked and it's quite out of the way for those in need of a direct route. Fred From: Oehme, Paul [mailto:poehme@ci.chanhassen.mn.us] Sent: Friday,March,10,2006 12:36 PM To: Kamps, Fred Cc: Lynn Clarkowski; Hoffman, Todd; Generous, Bob Subject: FW: Walking Path Along Hwy 101 Fred, Thanks for your email. The City has discussed this issue with MnDot several times since the creek realignment project was complete. The trail section of trail is closed for now and pedestrians should be using the Mission Hills trail that crosses is concerned about pedestrian safely do not want the trail reopened until TH 101 project is scheduled for fall Riley Creek east of TH 101. MnDot next to the stock pile of dirt. MnDot TH 101 is widened. The completion of of 2007. has stated they the widening of Sincerely, Paul Oehme, P.E. 2 Director of Public Works /City Engineer City of Chanhassen 7700 Market Boulevard P.O. Box 147 Chanhassen, MN 55317 Ph. # 952-227-1169 Fax. # 952-227-1170 -----Original Message----- From: Kamps, Fred [mailto:FKamps@Mammoth-inc.com] Sent: Friday, March 10, 2006 9:16 AM To: Generous, Bob Subject: Walking Path Along Hwy 101 Mr Generous: Please feel free to redirect this as necessary, I checked the state site on the widening of 101 but no contacts are listed. My understanding of this project is that there will be very little construction activity in the area near lake Susan along 101 while the new creek bed stablizes. My request is that you temporarily "open" the walking path in this area until construction begins again this fall. It seems to me that the all it would take is that a couple of the concrete barriers be moved at either end of the dirt pile and the path scraped clear of mud. This path is important to many people as it connects us to our excellent trail systems. The alternative of walking along the Hyw is quite dangerous as there is little shoulder on the road and the traffic sightlines are short. I believe many people would appreciate this little extra effort. Thanks Frederick Q. Kamps 8410 Great Plains Blvd. Chanhassen <blocked: :mailto:fkamps@mammoth-inc.com> w- 952-361-2838 h- 952-906-7633 3 GOOSE PROGRAM NEWS March 2006 Geese return-The first Metro Area Canada geese arrived from the south over the past two weeks, joining the thousand or so that over-wintered on open water areas. The next warm period with strong south winds will bring the bulk of the Twin Cities birds back and they will disperse to nesting areas where there is open water. While returning honkers are the still the best indicator of spring, they are also a reminder of need to manage them. Program changes-Since the beginning of the gosling relocation program in 1982, it was clear that if the relocated birds were as successful as those released in Twin Cities in 1950s and 1960s, eventually there would be no more "gooseless" wetlands. True to the prediction, Iowa, the last state willing to take relocated goslings, announced last summer that it was ending its Canada goose relocation program. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MNDNR) also indicated that with state Canada goose population 100,000+ birds above the long-term goal, there were few if any places needing additional geese in Minnesota. Good management is the anticipation of problems as well as solutions, and the MNDNR has been on top this situation. In 1999, a white paper was prepared on the disposal of goslings if they could not be relocated. Using their own and Goose Program research on gosling disposal options and costs, two options appeared feasible-gosling pasturing and the use of the geese as animal food. A third option-killing and landfilling or incinerating was discussed and rejected. In 2002, the Goose Program explored gosling pasturing further by surveying the availability of rental goose pastures and costs by contacting Minnesota elk ranchers. Survey results showed no individual properties large enough to take the 2,500:1: goslings trapped each year and the costs to be in the $5 per bird range. Combined with processing costs, labor, and transportation, the pasturing option would increase the program cost about $25 per gosling. Holding the goslings in pens and feeding them grain until they could be processed in September was cheaper, $18 per gosling, but this option would require construction of new pens. The use of the goslings for animal feed remained hypothetical until the Wildlife Science Center, a non-profit education and research program, indicated interest in using the birds as feed for captive wolves and bears. Under the animal food option, the goslings will be humanely killed and frozen for use by the Wildlife Science Center. There will be additional cost of $4-6 per gosling. Because no goslings will be released to benefit hunters, the MNDNR cannot justify expenditure on pen maintenance and bird care, and these costs will be assumed by the Goose Program. u.s. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) completes a resident goose environmental impact statement-After four years of input, deliberation, and 23 years after the initiation of MNDNR'S urban goose management program, the USFWS has published a final EIS on resident goose management. The options selected in the EIS included those already in use in Minnesota. Copies of the EIS can be found at: www.fws.gov/migratorybirds/issues/cangeese/finaleis.htm Avian Influenza-The expansion and potential health threat of the avian influenza virus (H5NI) has received much press lately. While not wanting to be alarmist, it is good time to consider what might happen here. There appears to be three likely scenarios for bird flu. From worst to best they are: the virus will mutate and be transmitted human to human, the virus will remain as it is and be spread widely by migratory birds, or the virus will loose it virulence and while still spreading be less of a threat to both humans and birds. The first scenario could produce a worldwide pandemic and can only be addressed by the development of effective rapid quarantine methods and the production of a vaccine. The status quo scenario is and will continue to require managing birdlbird and bird/human contacts and will be important here if the virus reaches Minnesota. The later, however, is highly likely because the prevalence in Eurasian migratory birds and the mixing of breeding Eurasian and North American migratory shorebirds and waterfowl in Alaska and Siberia. The loss of virulence scenario three is hypothetical, based on changes between strains found in past and the current ones. There is a high likelihood that H5NI will be brought to Minnesota by migratory birds. The Tundra swan is a likely vector candidate. Tundra swans breeding in the western Alaskan arctic migrate eastward to Canada and then diagonally across the continent to the mid-Atlantic coast. Their migratory route includes Minnesota in both spring and fall. Wrangle Island (of the coast of Siberia) breeding snow geese fly along the west coast in fall, winter in California, and then turn inland and pass through Montana in spring where they mix with migrating tundra swans. Ducks may also carry the virus to the Midwest. Many male pintail ducks from the mid-continent prairies fly to the north slope of Alaska to spend the summer, particularly in dry years. So it is likely that bird flu will arrive in Minnesota within the next year or two, and if so what are the concerns? First, it is important that monitoring for the virus be done. Recently MNDNR and the Goose Program agreed to cooperate with University of Minnesota's H5NI monitoring program beginning in summer 2007. Next is to determine where human would contact infected birds. Unlike the current situation in Asia, Africa, and Europe where human contact has been primary with infected domestic poultry and waterfowl, North American exposure is likely to come from wild bird populations because most domestic North American fowl are raised indoors. Top among the wild birds that have the potential to transmit the virus to humans is the Canada goose. This is because the virus is shed in the droppings and Canada geese concentrate droppings in numerous city parks, beaches, golf courses, etc. used by people. At this time, the Goose Program recommends preliminary planning for a massive goose reduction program ifH5NI is detected, and drastic human-goose dropping contact restrictions in parks, beaches, etc. Additional information can be found at the following web sites: U.S. Center for Disease Control www.cdc.gov/flu/avian! U.S. National Wildlife Health Lab. www.nwhc.usgs.gov/research!avian_influenza! avian _influenza.html U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration www.osha.gov/dts/shib/shib121304.html U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service www.fws.gov/migratorybirds/issues/AvianFlulWBAvianFlu.htm University of Alaska www.alaska.edulinbre/avianflu/overview.html World Heath Organization www.who.int/csr/disease/avian influenza! Duck Unlimited www.ducks.orglbirdFlul Health risk assessment-When the processing of adult geese for human consumption began in 1996, a consumption advisory for pregnant women and children was put on the label as a precaution. Cooperative goose meat contaminant research between the MNDNR, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, and the Goose Program was initiated in 1997. The initial focus was on geese trapped at known pollution sites and included lead, PCB, mercury, and organochlorine pesticides. The second phase randomly sampled birds from all Metro trap sites. Finally, the research results were summarized and sent to the Minnesota Department of Health for review. Because of the extremely low contaminant levels found, last week, the Health folks approved dropping the consumption advisory. CITY OF CHANHASSEN 7700 Market Boulevard PO Box 147 Chanhassen, MN 55317 Administration Phone: 952.227.1100 Fax 952.227.1110 Building Inspections Phone: 952.227.1180 Fax: 952.227.1190 Engineering Phone: 952.227.1160 Fax: 952.227.1170 Finance Phone: 952.227.1140 Fax: 952.227.1110 Park & Recreation Phone: 952.227.1120 Fax: 952.227.1110 Recreation Center 2310 Coulter Boulevard Phone: 952.227.1400 Fax: 952.227.1404 Planning & Natural Resources Phone 952.227.1130 Fax: 952.227.1110 Public Works 1591 Park Road Phone: 952.227.1300 Fax: 952.227.1310 Senior Center Phone 952.227.1125 Fax: 952.227.1110 Web Site WIIw.ci .chanhassen.mn. us REGIONAL POND CONSTRUCTION WORK TO BEGIN SOON To: Neighbors of Power Hill Park From: Lori Haak, Water Resources Coordinator Date: March 1,2006 Dear Power Hill Park Neighbors: As you are likely aware, there is a new subdivision proposed near your neighborhood. Grading for the Stonefield subdivision will take place beginning this spring. As part of that subdivision, there is going to be some work done on the existing ponds in Power Hill Park. The maintenance and improvement of the three storm water ponds will begin on or about March 6. The goal of beginning the pond work at this time is to attempt to construct and stabilize the regional ponds and drainageways before the potential for heavy spring rains increases substantially. This project will be a joint effort between the developer of Stonefield and the City of Chanhassen in order to improve the quality of the water that runs off from the Lake Susan Hills, Shenandoah Ridge and Stonefield subdivisions. To ensure safety throughout the construction process, the Power Hill Park sledding hill and trails within Power Hill Park will be temporarily closed. This notice, the grading plan for the regional ponds and other related information are posted on the City's website (www.ci.chanhassen.mn.us). Follow the "Quick List" links to "Projects" and scroll down to "Stonefield Regional Ponding Project." Both before and during construction, please feel free to contact me by phone at 952.227.1135 or by email atlhaak@cLchanhassen.mn.usif you have questions regarding the project. The City of Chanhassen · A growing community with clean lakes, quality schools, a charming downtown, thriving businesses, winding trails, and beautiful parks. A great place to live, work, and play. G:\ENG\Lori\SWMP\Goers Property\Stonefield Regional Pond\BC-P4-IO Neighborhood Construction Notice.doc