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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2013-09-04 PACKET 04.A.i.R�QUEST O�' CITY COUNCIL. ACT(ON C�UNCIL AGENDA MEETING 1TEM # � DATE 9/�l13 • � ! • PREPARED BY Pubfic Worlcs Les Burshten ORIGlNAT1NG DEPARTMENT STAFF AUTHOR �*��*�**�*���*****����*�*�*���:�:�:��*��*�����:�:���* CC}UNCf L ACTI�N REQUEST Acc�pt and place on file the minutes of the July 15, 2013 Public Warks Commission meeting. STA�F RECOMMENDATION Approve ths July 15, 20�3 minutes of the Pub[ic Works Commission. BUDGET 1MPLICATION $ $ BUDGET�D AMOUNT ACTUAL AMOUNT ADVISORY COMMISSION ACTION ❑ P�ANN[NG ❑ PUBL[C SAFETY � PUBLlC WORKS ❑ PARKS AND.R�CREATION ❑ HUMAN SERVICES/RIGHTS ❑ ECONOM[C DEV. AUTHORITY ❑ SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS �: � 8/19/13 REVI�WED ❑ ❑ ❑ ❑ ❑ ❑ ❑ �UNDING SOURCE APPR�VED ❑ ❑ � ❑ Q ❑ ❑ ❑ MEMO/LETTER: ❑ RESOLUTION: ❑ ORDINANCE: ❑ ENGIN�ER[NG RECOMMENDATION: [� I..EGAL R�COMMENDATION: � UTHER: Approved minutes of the July 15, 2013 PWC Meeting ADMINISTRATORS COMMENTS DEN[ED ❑ ❑ ❑ ❑ ❑ ❑ ❑ �. - �:��:��****����**,�***��*�**�,�������***��������**�* C�UNCIL ACT10N TAKEN: [� APPROVED ❑ DENfED ❑ OTHER ���� �� ������� ����� PU����'11V�RK� �C�1V�N�t��1��V J u ly 15, 20'� 3 Pursuant to du� call and �iotice thereof, a meeting of the Public Works Commission of �ottage Grove wa$ duly held at Cottage Grove Ci#y HaII, �2800 Ravine Parkway, Cottage Grove, Minnesota on Monday, July 15, 2013 at 7:00 pm. �I. CALL T4 OF�DER Commission Chair Tony Jurgens called the meefiing fo arder a# 7:00 p.m. 2. ROLL CALL Members Present: Members Absent; Membars Excused Tony Jurgens, Jeff Podoil, Michael Smith, Andrea Clouti�r Pefier Black, Matthew Forshee Michael Edman Staff Pr�sent: Les Burshten, Directar of Puhlic Works Harry Taylor, Public Worlcs Supervisor Rick Alt, Utility Department Foreman Gary Orloff, Sfreet Deparfinenf Foremarr 3. APPROVE MINUTES Motion made by Jeff Podall, seconded by Michaef Smifih, to approve the June 17, 2d'1� minufies. Motion was unanimously carried, 4. ADDITIONAI� AGENDA ITEMS None. 5, NEW BUS[NESS A. Consider Expanding the Number of Solid Waste Haulers Les Burshten explain�d fihe City Couneil requesfed the Public V1lorks Commission look at the possibility of expanding the number of licensed residential solid wast� h�ulers. There are curr�ntly three haulers in town -- Tennis, Ter�nis Brothers and Waste Public Works Commission July 95, 2013 — Page 2 Managem�nt. The City at on� time had six haulers in fiown and a number ofi years ago a policy was put inta effect fihat allawed lust thr�e haulers. [n arder for a trash hauler to be licansed in the City of Cottage Grave, they are required to have 200 acfiive accaunts. This ordinance is sfiifl in existence today. Burshten indicated the reasan the ordinance was put into effect a number of years ago was to limifi the number of haulsrs in town. Generally speaking, most cities tried to minimize the number of trash hauiers for a variety of reasans: Garbage trucks are heavy and the fewer haulers, fihe b�tter off the City may be. That was the City Councif's concept a few years ago. "Mr. Padoll was on the committee a number of years ago and probabfy has much more knowledge about this issue th�n ( da." Councif Member Justin 41sen stated, "l want to briefly add, for the purposes of this conversation, it's probabfy worthwhile to note a number ofi communities are going to single hauler environments. And the r�ason they are doing that is two-fo(d. First of al(, as Les mentioned, less wear and fear on the raads. Secondly, it tends to be less expensiv� far the residents when a City actually cantracts with a single haulsr to do both trash and recycfing. When you look at the cammunifiies in Washington County that we work with on our Environmenfal Cammission, you'll find that a numb�r of those cities rec�nfily, within the last 4 fo 5 years, have gone to a singie hauler situation and they find it to be much more effective. Th�y also find it to be much more cost effective. What essential[y occurs is the billing wor{cs through the City and then the City bills the resident. B�cause of confracted service, it tends to b� much less expensive. 1'm cErtainly nat advocating for that, I'm simply giving you the information that is something that seems to be a going trend. ln fact, the Mayor and one af aur s#afF people will be attending a 1.eague of Minnesota Cifiies seminar wifihin the next few w�eks to #alk further abou# that because of some changes in State law that actually bode we11 for future movement to a single hauler environment and most communities within fhe State of Minnesota.° Cammission Chair Tony Jurgens stated, "Thank you, Jeff do you want to give us a little background of your experi�nce on th�t committe�?" Commission Member J�ff Podoll said, "First, 1've got a question for Council Member Olsen: Why did you second Councilman Lehrke's motion to look at more than �ne hauler after what you just said? 1 don't und�rsfiand that." Olsen responded, "The motian was fia actt[ally have a conversafiion about th� issue and 1 always thinfc it's warfhwhile to have the conversation. l fry to be respectful o�F my Council colleagues and if som�one has an issue they think is important and they want a particular commission to have a conversation, Pm al[ in favor af that and 1 hope that my Counci[ calleagues would repay that favar if I ever had samething 1 felt was important enaugh to push down to a commission level and have the commission membars Public 1Norks Commission July 15, 2013 — Page 3 take a deeper look afi ifi. That was the reason that I supparfied it bu# certainfy Pm not advocating one way or the other. I'm simply saying it's warthwhile to have the dialogue and if the Commissian in fiheir wisdom se�s it's not necessary or votes fio make other changes, f'm absolute[y supportive of that". Jurgens commented, "For clarification, fihe infarmation we have reads that the motion was to consider expanding the number of solid waste haulers and you're saying the infient was more fia look at the whole situation, maybe expanding, maybe single haul, maybe a variety of things." O[sen responded, "Yes, that's carrect. f think the intent was #o simply have #he dialogue, are we happy wifih the way things are now, or do we,think there's some sort of change thafi needs to take place � whether fhat means adding haulers ar subtracting haulers, Again, I have my awn personaf opinion but that's not fior me ta share at this point. I'll have my fime at the Council meeting". Jeff Podoll explained, "1 was chair of th� Public Works Commission when we first initiated recycling back in the [ate 80's. At that point in fiime we kind of delved into the solid waste fiaulin� business so to speak, lt was our thought, and at that time, s#aff's recommendation to limit the amount of trucks because of the damage they did to the roads, Alsa at thafi poinf in time, we were just starting the pavem�nt rnanagamenf program in the City af recfaiming and rebui(ding the streets as they need be. At that paint in time, it only made sense to Iimit the number of (icenses that were available to keep the amount of trucks down. About 'f 0 years ago, th� third license came up for gra�s and Tennis Brothers got it at.that point in time and this was brought up. Da we wanfi to keep it at fihree haulers? At thafi particular time there were some sfudies done and some people from the Public Works contacted other cites to see if rates would gefi any better i� we had a bigger pool ta pull frorri. At that point in time, we had realfy good rafes, even �ett�r than Woodbury had and they were looking at single sort then. The main thing I would be against is apening it up to more haulers and to go to single haulers that would be by far the most perFect situation. As Les can tell you, we went fhrough this a couple of decades ago. P�ople and their firash haulers are people you don'f want to cross. They are so a�amanfi as to whom #hey have tiaul their trash it's unbelievable. I woufd be apen to se� if Council tries to go fo a single hauler situation but [ wouldn't want to be in their position to da it, that's for sure." Tany Jurgens asked, "Would it be passible for us to get some numbers? Right now, we've gat the three haulers with Tennis Brothers primarily in the� rural area and Tennis Sanitafiion in fihe residential area and Waste Management in both. So right now we have competitian. Resid�nts naw have a choice, at least betw�en the two haulers, or three, d�pending on how you want to [ook afi it. How do we com�are, how do the rates we have compare with ather cifiies? Could we maybe take a laok at that at a future meefiing to get same comparisons? Because if w� already have competition and if we find ouf we're still lower than other communitie� in our area, then maybe nothing is broken." Burshten stated this topic can certainly be brought back to the next meeting. Pubiic Works Commission Jufy 15, 2013 — Page 4 Commission Memb�r Michael Smith had a questian, "If in the event there's a delinquency of payment, if we were to go to a single hauier system, would ifi be similar to a delinquent water bill in which the fe�s would be assessed to the homeown�rs' property taxes or would the City have to coliect fihem fhrough a different mefihod?" Bursht�n respand�d, "There woufd be a couple of options that could be reviewed. 1 would imagine if #he City w�re to do th� billing, I'm quite sure a non�payment coL�ld b� assessed, put on. taxes. There's a process fh�y would have fio follow, but Pm quite certain fhat could be accomplish�d". Chair Jurgens indicated "if we are making any kind af recommendation, something else we wauld want to find out is if we went �o single haul and the City took over the billing, there wauld be a cost associated with that. What is that cost? So, my persanal opinion is I like the fact we already hav� competi#ion. i think the serviCe is good, by having the competition or at le�st the choice between a couple of haulers. lf, for whatever reasan, I have a bad experi�nce with one, f have an apportunity to ga to the other on�. If we wen� to a sing{e hauler, it might be cheaper but what if I have a personal problem with that hauler? f don't have any ofiher choices, I have to just deal with who we have. So, i have to be convinc�d if was enough of a savings ta mak� that worfihwhile. On fihe other hand like you mentioned Les, with each h�uler, there's a potentia( af fhree trucks going up and down th� roads. Starting at the very beginning af th� roufe wher� ( five, sfiarting at 6:00 in the marning 1've got trucks cnrning by my house. That's three haulers and thre� tru�ks, regular garbage, recycling and then grass clippings. For any haulers we have, if we are to expertd it, ifi's times three, three trucks for every hauler potentially. With the wear and fiear on the roads, 1 don't know... I guess I woufd lik� fia s�e some more informatiQn on that if we have it and what that does to th� roads. Do we have something like that a[ready — some prior studies?" Les replied, "There are studies fihaf wi11 show exactly what you are looking for and we can certainly bring those and put together information so we can have a more in-depth conv�rsation." Jurgens indicafied a motion isn't necessary now, and this issue is for informafiion only. He added thaf at the last Counci( meeting fihere was same discussion on code enforcement and nofes had been [eft for residenfs who I�ave their trash bins out in the op�n, and tha# this is against policy. He would Iike some feedback. ls thafi something we shauld expand whil� we're looking at that part of the ordinance as well? Councif Member Olsen, I would like to hear your feedback on that too." Olsen stated, "My feedback is you're talking apples and oranges, you`re talkmg #wa different things. With respect to trash hauling, I think that's one issue you wiIl wanfi ta tackle, and if you feel ther�'s a n�ed to have a canvarsation about the code as it relates Public Warks Commission July 15, 2Q13 — Page 5 to having your trash cans visible. l thinK fihat's a worfihwhile conversation to have as welL The way I look at it, this is my opinion only and 1'm ane person who sits on the Council, you know we run a v�ry tight ship with respect to our City stafF and our budget. V1te have a code enforcement ofiFicer, we don't hav� mulfiip(es_ Granted, some af our inspectors can do code enforcement when they are not busy with ins�ections bu� we contract our inspection services to other communities in addition to our own so they stay pretty busy. We also have community service oifieers with our Police De�artmenfi who can do some rudimentary code inspection if we need them to. Again, they are pretty busy with their regular jobs. Emify works very hard a� doing a nice job with cocfe inspecti�n. illly apinion is fih�re are bigger fish fio fry with people's tr�sh .cans out in front of their garag�. [ think that's probably the direction she should go, you know, create a hierarchy of whaYs most importanfi to what's least impor#ant and try to work on the bigger issues. 1 think there are a lot of ways we can talk about home and yard maintenance and maybe park of that conversati�n but 1 think ifi's a different conversation. Bufi if it's something you want to talk about, piease make the recommendation and bring it to the next meeting. Jeff Podoll added, "As far as the garbage cans sitting out in plain view, this was brought up by Kim Lindquisfi, former �ommunity Development Director. Thaf ordinance never was brought before this commission at all." Q�p BUSINESS � a, Snow Removal Winter P�rking Ordinance Tony Jurg�ns stated, "[f you r�call a coupl� months back, we talked about this ordinanc�. Last month we had a full agenda so it was scheduled fior tonight`s meeting." Les Burshten stated that a recommendation was put tagether with the agreed upon wording from this commission. The Pub{ic Safety Commission wi11 also be reviawing this topic before sending it on to the City Council. Tony stated it was not recommended any changes be made to how the snow parlcing ordinance was handied, #he only change was shortening the duration, to be in eff�ct from I�ovember 1st to Aprii 1St (star�ing a month later and ending a month soaner). 1f no one has a problem wifih thaf, he recommends changing the end date to March 31 sa it ends at the end of the month. He aske� if anyone eise had any questions or comments and looks for a motion or a recomm�ndation ta send the changes to Councii for adoption. Commission Member Andrea Cloutier asked what the mntivation was in ehanging the ordinance. Tony responded there is very little snaw in October and April and residents feft it was not convenient to have to mnve v�hicles from the street when no snow was present. There are times wY�en it snows in late April, hawever, those snowfalEs melt very quickly. Public Works Commission July 15, 2013 - Page 6 Motion made by lUlichael Smith, seconded by Jeff Podoll, to change the dafies of the UVinter Parking �rdinance to he in effect from �k�ebe�-��-Navember 'Is fo �►��r-%��g�a iV(arch �'I llllotion was unanimously c�rried. B, Updat� on Water Tower Rehabilitation Process L�:s Burshten sfated, "As most of you are aware, we had a presentation at the last Commission meeting regarding a coupl� of different aptions as fio an approach we may be willing to take an the painting of water towers. Staff hasn't really made a decision or doesn't have a recommendation yet today because we don'fi have enough information. We wanted to look at a couple other things befnre we came back with a firm recommendation, howeuer, we may be looking for a recommendation firom you afi the next meeting." "lt was suggesfied", indicated Burshten, "at the [ast meeting #o hav� some sor� of a walk- through or fie(d firip fo the water tower that we fe�f may be prematurely eroding. I'm ofFering an invi�ation for Thursday evening, July �8th at 3:30pm if any of you are wi1[ing or can make the trip. We're going to meet at the water tower on 70 and Meadow Grass, The water tower is abouf 13 years old. The City will be painting two water towers -� one in 2014 and one in 2�15 and it's just a matfer of which one first and we're looking �For more information from the engin�ering firm whether or nat this could take precedence over the other one. Some of the commission members wanted to take a look at it firsthand. We'll bring back more information for the next meeting. We haven't had an opportunity to check with Finance on some of the numbers given at the !as# meeting". Chair Tony Jurgens inquired if staff intended to come back to the Commission with a recammendatian at the nexfi meeting? Burshten responded staff will likely have additianai informatian for the feedbac6c of the commission rather #han a recommendafiian. 7. PUBLIC W(�RKS UPDAT� Public Warks Director L.es Burshten summarized: • Crews are out patching and sea( coating and areas ha�e been swept. o Deuelopmenf work is beginning • Meter replacement wi(I commence in about a month or so onGe the meters are received I'ublic Works Commissian July 15, 2013 -- Page 7 o Antenna project work is taking place on some of the water tawers m The new street sweeper has arrived � The new trash truck is expected to be delivered �his week Tony Jurgens suggested the currenf policy far storm clean up be dsscussed. 1Nith the rec�nt storms, there were � few trees down and some nearby suburbs had much more damage, A copy of the policy was disfiributed to the commission. Bursht�n stafied the recent storm damage we experienced two or three weeks ago was very widespread throughout the Twin Cities Metro Area. Some Xcel Energy customers in other cities were without pow�r up to 5-6 days. The current storm policy stat�s. "In the event of a severe storm, the Public Safety �irecfor will determine the extent of fhe damages and wh�fher fhe need exisfs to d�clare an emergency condition. Upon declaration of an emergency, residenfs will be notifi�d to contacf their fnsurance carr'ier to conduct individuaf site clean up or clean fhe area themselves aj�d coordlnate ma�erial pickup with �heir contractual refuse hauler. Upon exhausfior� of these fwo efforts, residents will be it�sfructed fo place sform damage de�ris af fhe curb for t'emoval by fhe City or instructed to p/ace maferial in Ci�y�provided dumpsters. 7'he Public Works Direcfar wiU defermine, based on extend of the damage, an appr'apriate amount o� time resic�ents wifl hav� the Cify�provided services made available to them. The City wi11 remove or trim damaged boulevard trees thaf are located in their roadway right-of way. Residenfs with damaged private trees rn fhe groamed or mowed area of fhe properfy wil! be respansible far removing fhe trees frona fheir �roper�y or placing them at the cunb for disposat by the City. Tr�es cfamaged in other areas af the proper�y wil! nofi be disposed of by the City and should not be placed at the ccarb. The Director ot Pubtic Works will determine an appropriate amounf af time for residents to fake advantage of the City—provided service. The City will make al/ reasonable efforfs to solicit volunteer services and donat�d equipment from i�7tlepender►f services or other governmental agencies," The City wili make available to property owners any information it has available regarding contractars who may be able to assist in th� clean-up activities. Burshten indicated the last storm was not declared an emergency due to only about $ baulevard #rees that were b(own ov�r. Th�re w�re a number af branches down, however, and thase were picked up along with any damaged trees fihat fell onto the roadway. Public Works Commission July 15, 2013 — Page 8 8, ENCtNEERS REPORT Les Burshten summari��d: � Work along 70 Street and County Road 19 is moving along with the water main now mstalled � Woodridge Park Pond improvements are wrapping up, An insp�ction was dane recently and some tr�es needed to be repiaced, however, all in all, the job is pretty much comp(�te. * The lights have been installed in the underpass o� fhe 80� Street Box Culvert. • There were some failures in the crack filling materia! used last year in the Pin� Cliff 3 and 4 addifiians. Fahrn�r Asphalt will be replacing th� material this y�ar. $ Curb and gutters were installed in the Mississippi Dunes Developmenf an Wednesday, July 10 Midwest is backfiilling the curb and Tower Asphalfi wiil be insfalling th� C(ass 5. e The Pavement Management Project is moving along well. The fiirst lift has been installed in some areas with reclamation still being completed in ather areas. Milling wi11 b� c�one on Wednesday with Tower back this week to complete more paving. • E. Point Dauglas Road (area in front of the new Wal-Mart) was officially clos�d today until mid-September. 9. CITY COUNCIL UPDATE Council Member Justin Dls�n indicated h� would briefly run thraugh a few items and encouraged the group to ask questians at any poinfi. "I was r�ot at the last City Council meeting, I was out of town for a ma�datory work meeting, but ! do know the City Council took under consideration a recommendation by our finance staff to look at the apfion for this year's budget of bondin� for the remaining portian of this facility. 7o give you a liftle background, when this facility was built, fihe City Counci( at that time chose to finance the construction af the building utilizing an- hand cash via in��r�fund loans and one of the things our finar�ce staff is charged with is each year during budget time, th�y are expected to bring a menu of items to the City Council for ways in which we can manage our budget. One of the options they brough� #orward is whenever you build a public building, ydu hav� an 18-month time fram� in which you can change your mind and consider the bonding aption and so they wanted to at least presenf that option to the City Council and say, if it was some#hing they wan#ed to do, �his is how that wauld look, The City Council vated unanimously, 4 to 0 fio at least have the dialogue and to at I�as# have #he conversation. My understanding from looking at the Council Agenda for #his upcoming Council meefiing is that there was a public h�aring fihat was to be schedu(ed that the staff is recommended we delay and I P�abfic Works Commission July 15, 2093 — Page 9 think th� reason they are recommending we delay that public hearing is #hey've received additional infarmafiion since they made that initial recommendation from bofih the State and the County refative fia valuations ofi commercial and residential proper�y in the Ci#y and I believe th�y are going ta give the Cauncil some further infarmatian about what they think would be the best choic� moving forward and my ex�ectation is bonding is not gaing to be the one they ar� going to recommend. But f did wanfi to let you know the Counci) did vote unanimously Q�-0 with me being the absent vote to at least hav� the dialogue so staff did their job and presented Counci! with the option, Olsen cor7finued, "Due to Wal-Mart construction, Les mention�d the road in frant of the Wal--Mart facilify is closed as of today. lf you have driven by in the last week or #wo you wili see that the walls have gone up. They've been making very good progress es�ecially considering that they had a rea(ly wet spring and l know fihey are on target right now for their completian which they expected ta be done somewhere in Iate fiall or early spring of next year so they can get up and running for business. I'il keep you apprised of that as things gd an. If the weather stays halfway �ecent obviously that bodes wel( for continued fiorward progress." "I also wanted to remind everyone", stated Olsen, August 6 Tuesday night, (as it is every year), is Night to Unite in the City of Cottage Grove and nationally. Same of you sitting th�re acfivaliy have parkies each year but if yau are interesfied in having a Night fio Unite party this year you can reach out to our Public lnformation Officer, Gail Griffith. She wou(d love fa talk to you and you can call City Half at 458-28Q0 and tafk to her about setting up a party and scheduling and arranging for Public Saf�ty p�rsonnel fram fh� Fire Department, Police Depar�men#, EMS and you could even get a visif from on� of your highly esteem�:d Council members to sfiop by and visit with you and your neighbors". Tony Jurgens mdicat�d if residents are hosting a Night fio Unite party, Public Works will drop off barricades to bloc{� ofF the street. Ols�n went on to state, "With #he onset of the summer heat, we have certainly seen significant use of our Highlands F'�rk Splash Pad. If you have driven by, it's pr�tty busy from 9 in th� morning till 9 at nighfi. One of the things o«r Park and Rec Depar�ment is realfy excited about is not only is the splash pad facility busy witii the facility being utiliz�d, and renked out for birthday parEies and things of that nature, but the actual park itself is getting a significant amount of usage, much more #han it ev�r has and 1 think it's partly due to the fact that people can go and have a famify picnic ar a bask�tball game and then when they are hot they can ga cool off in the splash pad. 1 wanted fio share thafi with you, just like last year, it's been a v�ry positive addition to #he community at leasfi thus far." Pubfic Works Commission July 'i 5, 2013 — Page 10 "I want to share as well", noted Justin, "Les touched on �his briefly that we've got a number of new home dev�lopmen�s coming on I[ne for the City of Cattage Grove, f exp�ct Michael knows more abaut this than ( do but we've got two developers building side by side near Rose afi Sharon Church and they are Newland Homes and D R Horfion Homes. UVe'v� also got a development that is on line at the intersection of Mili�ary and Jamaica, Reiland.Hom�s. Of course we are seeing the completion of the Mississippi Dunes Develapment so lots of exci#ing things are h�ppening naw that the economy is turning around a Iitfile bit. Home develop�rs are bacic at it and I think that bodes well far our fu#ure Gommercial growth in the City as well. There are some exciting things on that firont but I don't want fio jinx any�hing so 1'm not going to talk too much aboufi it," Olsen concluded, "And the last thing 1 wanted to touch on briefly is ('m not sure if Les wants to take fihis or not but we do as a City have a waf�ring �an and I think it's impartant for peopie to understand why we have a watering ban and not just what the watering ban is, we're not trying to be wafier Nazis, that's really not the int�nt. This is actually driven by the Met Gou�►c�l and the Met Council is fihe governing body for the metro area and one af th� thing they loak at very closely in conjunction with municipai governments and watershed districts is the water usage from the various aquif�rs and we try very hard to make sure we work in unison with the various governing bodies on being good stewards of the environment, 'sn parficular, the water, and so the City of Cottage Grove received some recomm�ndations that these are same things you could do to control your water usage and so w�'ve implemented some of those things. Do you want to briefly run through what thase are?" Les Burshten responded, "We stifl have, and have always had in existence far tha last 20 years ar so an odd(even water restricfion which me�ns based an your house number, whether it's an odd or even number you can water on those given days and the 31 is open to both odd and even addresses." Olsen added, "The DNR and Met Council are actuaily holding a series of community conversafions about water usage in fihe Twin Cities Metra area and they've b�en doing this for about the last 6 weeks or so and they have them all over the Twin Cities. You can �o to the DNR website and they have some infarmation, as does the Met Council website. Again, what they are talking about is you know the current state of the aquifers and how water usage is impacfing things. Tony Jurgens added there's been an odd/even ban far as long as he's fived here, however, didn'� realize there was a time of day na watering cou{d occur (between 12 noon and 4:Q0 pm), Jurgens commented that Council Member O(sen and Council Member Thiede held a Town Hafi Meefiing on a recent Sat��rday. Olsen statad, "l won'f take up tod much of your time, bu� this is the third time l've persanally had a town hall meeting and this one is #he first time Pve ever done it wifh �nother councif inember, Council Member Thiede Pubfic Works Commissian July 15, 2013 — Page 11 and I held a tawn hafl meeting with cofFee and donuts, where Dave rented the room over at P�rk High School, the lecture hall and fih�n he bought the donuts and I bought the coffee so there were no City funds exp�nded on this venture. This was our way to r�ach out to the community and following through on our commitment to be engaged and �ngaging as Council m�mbers fio try and get some feedback from the community as we move through our budget period for this year. It is summer in Minnesota and as a lot of peaple know, an a Saturday on a nice day, fafks are at the cabin or at the lake so we didn't haue a ton of p�aple there, we had 12 to 15 roughly. A few people had to leave a little early and that's the lowest attendance I've experienced. Typically I've had 30-40�50 people come but I've always done fihem in the winter. Long story short, we had some good feedback from the community on a coupl� of d`sfferent things. The first question out of the gate was on the b4nding issue, #hat's th� reason I broughfi that up. We also talked a 1ittle about Police and Fire response times, we talked about what's happening in terms of development in the City, a little bi� of conversation abou# just City budget in general and there were a few people fhere who felt w� shouldn't be spending money an anything. You kr�ow there were aiso peaple who had the counter argument that amenities are what makes the City go round and that's how you draw people fio your community, efc. so there was some conversation there. Dave and I try to engag� with the community and then really Iisten to their feedback. We taok same notes and [ passed fih�m onta our City Administrator. There were a number of littl� th�ngs that came up. We started at 9:00 and fiinished a liftle after '11;00_ Even with the small number of people there, there was a lot of diaiogue generated. Your Chair happened to be at the meeting. Was there anything you wanted to bring up #o talk about that f didn't menfion that yau felt was important?" Tony responded, "No, I think you menfion�d it. There was a fair amount of discussion especialiy on the splash pad. You mentioned that as one of the amenities. Some peopfe don't want fio pay fior amenities and some people don't mind paying for them." Oisen added, "Right, so we talked abouf the fact when w� closed our pool, some of those funds were diverted to actually pay for the splash pad and the splash pad is less expensive to o�erate than the swimming pool. That's not to say thaf we don't think a public pool is an impor�ant piece af the cornmunity. ilVe put forth a question to fhe voters last year on p�tentially putting in place a water parklpoa( and the voters d�cici�d that that was something th�y were nofi interested in at this point sa if we are going to move forward with a public pool amenity at another time, that's samething that wiil have to work inta the regular budget or come back for another referendum at a later time. But yes, that was a�opic o� conversation." 10. CUMMiSSION CQMiVIENTS AND REQUESTS Commission Member Michael Smith stated that the projecfi on 80'" Street, right off Jeffery, appears to b�en fhe final stages. "They haven'fi begun the work of paving the Public Works Commission July 95, 2013 — Page 12 pafihways there, buf there's a fair amount of canstruction debris, PVC, sitting out there the entire spring and summer. There's gravel going across the walk path and also in fih� street. Is that being used by a contractor to access those trails? Seems to b� a potenfiial traffic danger/ hazard, �s well for jogg�rs. l think it's ra�her unsightly to have construction debris out as Iong as it's been sitting there". it was noted this is part of the b�x culver� project and Eureka Cor�struction is still working to the north of the area Public Works Supervisor Harry Taylor not�d the items wil( be removed soon and damaged sidewalks will also be replaced, Jurgens stated "This has nothing fo do with us, but a citi�en did ask m� if I knew what was going in r�ext fo the BP. For whoever is wafiching, that is a faundramat. 01sen responded, "That is correct. It's a property owned by the �.inn Companies, who owns the BP and they are franchising a laundromat operation, Tumble �resh. Pm not sur� what the opening date is going to be but f know they've been making some good progress". '11. AD.IOURNMENT Motion to adjourn was made by Michael Smith, seeonded by Andrea Cloutier. IVlotion was unanimously carried and meeting adjourned afi 7:51 pm. Respec#fully submitted, �at��c�a s�o�b�