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03-14-2005 CC MIN . . . MEETING OF THE ELK RIVER CITY COUNCIL HELD AT THE CITY OF ELK RIVER (UPPER TOWN CONFERENCE ROOM) MONDAY, MARCH 14, 2005 Members Present: Mayor Klinzing, Councilmembers Dietz, Farber, Gumphrey, and Motin Also Present: Planning Commissioners Dana Anderson, Pete Lemke, Leo Offerman, Kevin Scott, Brad Stevens, and Matthew Westgaard Members Absent: Planning Commissioner, Howard Ropp Staff Present: City Administrator Pat Klaers, Director of Planning Michele McPherson, City Engineer Terry Maurer, and City Clerk Joan Schmidt 1. Call Meeting To Order Pursuant to due call and notice thereof, the meeting of the Elk River City Council was called to order at 6:40 p.m. by Mayor Klinzing. 2. Consider 3/14/2005 Agenda MOVED BY COUNCILMEMBER MOTIN AND SECONDED BY COUNCILMEMBER FARBER TO APPROVE THE AGENDA. MOTION CARRIED 5-0. 3. Consider Consent Agenda MOVED BY COUNCILMEMBER FARBER AND SECONDED BY COUNCILEMBER GUMPHREY TO APPROVE THE FOLLOWING CONSENT AGENDA: 3.1. 3/07/05 COUNCIL MINUTES 3.2. CONSIDER MASSAGE THERAPIST LICENSE FOR CLAUDIA ETHERIDGE 3.3. CONSIDER PROMOTION OF POLICE CAPTAIN MOTION CARRIED 5-0. 4. Open Mike Noone appeared for Open Mike. 5.1. Council Open Forum Mayor Klinzing stated that The Tinklengberg Group will be setting up meetings to talk to legislators for both April 13th and April 14th in Washington, nc. and asked if any Councilmembers were interested in attending. She is planning to attend. Councilmember Gumphrey stated that he would check his schedule and let the Mayor know on Tuesday if he is able to attend. City Council Minutes March 14,2005 Page 2 . MOVED BY COUNCILMEMBER MOTIN AND SECONDED BY COUNCILMEMBER FARBER TO AUTHORIZE UP TO TWO MEMBERS OF THE CITY COUNCIL TO GO TO WASHINGTON, D.C. FOR MEETINGS WITH LEGISLATORS. MOTION CARRIED 5-0. Pat K.laers stated that he and City Engineer Terry Maurer would also be available if they needed to attend. Mayor Klinzing distributed an invitation from the County to attend an open house of their facility on March 21 st and 22nd. 5.2. Discuss Extension of the Bailey House Lease City Administrator Pat K.laers reviewed with the Council the lease agreement for the Bailey House, which will expire May 15, 2005. Councilmember Dietz stated that he had heard concerns from the Library Board and that they had been taken aback by the expenses allocated to their budget since acquiring this property. He inquired if assessments for the 5th Street Project would be assessed to this property and if property taxes are still being paid on this house. Mr. Klaers stated that special assessments would be assessed and paid by the City or the Library and that property taxes are being paid. He stated that $5,100.00 will be received in rent after one year. Revenues and expenses for the Bailey property are allocated to the Library's budget. Next year's rent will be $5,400.00. . Councilmember Dietz felt it would be good to continue with this lease agreement for another year. Councilmember Morin stated that the lease keeps going unless either party takes action to discontinue it with written notice of 60 days. No action is needed at this time. City Administrator Klaers will bring this item back to the Council in 2006. 5.3. 185th Street Sidewalk Director of Planning Michele McPherson reviewed with the Council that staff was to investigate the issues relating to installing a trail or sidewalk along a 185th Avenue from Fox Haven to Pascal Street in order to allow residents access to Riverplace Park. The following information was found: ~ There is right-of-way available to construct a trail or sidewalk. ~ 185th Avenue currently does not have curb and gutter, therefore, storm water sheets off of the driving surface onto adjacent properties. ~ The estimated cost of constructing a 6 foot wide path 1,200 feet long is $8,900.00. City Engineer Terry Maurer recommends that a bituminous trail 6 feet in width be constructed. This would eliminate concerns associated with storm water runoff. To construct a trail from Naples Street on the east end to the edge of the Riverplace development on the west would cost $8,900.00. . Mayor Klinzing stated that she felt that this amount was not too much for the safety of the residents and would like the project to go forward. City Council Minutes March 14, 2005 Page 3 . Councilmember Motin asked if other than the cost, was there a reason not to do this. City Engineer Maurer stated that this would be as cost effective as possible. If the road is widened, with the grade change, the trail would have to be redone. He also stated that he would like Council to realize and to direct staff to let the homeowners know that this will be in their front yard. Some of the homes will be rather close to the trail. Council concurred with this suggestion. The funding source identified could be the liquor store, street reserve or park dedication fund. City Administrator Klaers suggested the liquor store fund. MOVED BY COUNCILMEMBER FARBER AND SECONDED BY COUNCILMEMBER GUMPHREY TO CONSTRUCT FOR $8,900.00 A 1,200 FOOT - 6 FOOT WIDE, 2 INCH BITUMINOUS PATH WITH FUNDING TO COME FROM THE LIQUOR STORE FUNDS. MOTION CARRIED 5-0. 5.4 Natural Resources Inventory Task Force . Director of Planning Michele McPherson stated that the Parks and Recreation Commission had adopted a list of implementation strategies in regards to the Natural Resources Inventory. A recommendation is to form a task force to implement the recommendations of the Natural Resources Inventory. It has been suggested that the composition of this task force be two Parks and Recreation Commission members, two Planning Commission members, and a Councilmember. This task force will move towards implementing strategies that will be market based. Once a task force is formed, staff will work on scheduling the meetings. MOVED BY COUNCILMEMBER GUMPHREY AND SECONDED BY COUNCILMEMBER FARBER TO AUTHORIZE THE FORMING OF A TASK FORCE WITH COUNCILMEMBER FARBER PARTICIPATING AS A MEMBER. MOTION CARRIED 5-0. 5.5. Community Development Director Update City Administrator Klaers gave a follow-up to the discussion of February 14, 2005 wherein the City Council decided to hire a professional executive search firm for the Community Development Director position. He explained that he had received information from the League of Minnesota Cities on executive search firms, and that he had contacted Personnel Decisions, Inc., Sathe Executive Search Firm, and Springsted for proposals. The Council discussed the three groups stating their concerns, discussing the firms' experiences and giving their overall impressions of these three groups. MOVED BY COUNCILMEMBER FARBER AND SECONDED BY COUNCILMEMBER GUMPHREY TO MOVE FORWARD WITH THE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR SELECTION PROCESS BY HIRING SATHE EXECUTIVE SEARCH FIRM. MOTION CARRIED 5-0. . City Council Minutes March 14, 2005 Page 4 . 5.6 Transportation Priorities City Engineer Terry Maurer explained the State of Minnesota's Professional and Technical Services Master Contract. This contract allows the City to prepare work orders for items that are relatively small that MnDot can help to finance. He is hoping that this process will work well for the potential Trunk Highway 10 access closings that have been discussed with the 2005 Street Reconstruction Project and the King Avenue Parking Lot Improvement. Councilmember Motin asked if this would change our procedures and bind the City in any way. City Engineer Maurer explained that it would bind us to wage requirements only. MOVED BY COUNCILMEMBER MOTIN AND SECONDED BY COUNCILMEMBER FARBER TO APPROVE RESOLUTION 05-20, A RESOLUTION ENTERING INTO A PROFESSIONAL AND TECHNICAL SERVICES MASTER CONTRACT WITH THE STATE OF MINNESOTA. MOTION CARRIED 5-0. City Engineer Maurer explained that Sherburne County had prepared a right-of-way map for County Road 40 in 2003. The City Council approval of this right-of-way plat was delayed as the discussions of the roadway turnback proceeded. The turnback agreement will be written based on the right-of-way plat for County Road 40. The County Attorney is recommending that the City Council act on the plat of County Road 40 at this time. . MOVED BY COUNCILMEMBER FARBER AND SECONDED BY COUNCILMEMBER GUMPHREY THAT THE CITY HAS REVIEWED THE RIGHT -OF-WAY MAP FOR COUNTY ROAD 40 AND IS GIVING THEIR APPROVAL FOR THIS PLAT AND AUTHORIZES THE MAYOR AND CITY ADMINISTRATOR TO SIGN THE PLAT. MOTION CARRIED 5-0. City Engineer Maurer explained that he prepared three lists of transportation projects. The first list is projects that have been completed that past several years; the second list is projects that are currently being worked by city staff; and the third list is projects that have been discussed or mentioned in the Transportation Plan. On February 8th these three lists were presented to the Planning Commission with significant amount of discussion taking place regarding the third list and what should be the priority for transportation projects going forward. The four top items based on weighted scores were: · Elk Hills Drive Corridor Study · 193rd Avenue Corridor Study for Easterly Section · Corridor Study for School Street Alignment West to Upland Avenue · County Road 44 (Meadowvale Road) Reconstruction. . Mr. Maurer is looking for direction as to what are the top priorities that the Council would like to see taking into consideration the recommendation of the Planning Commission. After the priorities are chosen he will put together a detailed work plan and tentative schedule for each of the priorities that will then be presented back to the City Council. Once these are approved staff will begin working on the future transportation project priorities. City Council Minutes March 14,2005 . Page 5 . The following information came out of the discussions: It was suggested that the fIrst and second items should be done at the same time but as two distinct projects. After further discussion it was decided that items one, two, three and four all need to be paired up. Mayor Klinzing stated that because of the impact on the property owners, the City needs to make a statement and stick with this statement. She felt the City needs to have sufficient east/west routes to maintain the whole area and to do this in 10-12 years. Councilmember Motin disagrees because he feels we cannot wait and have this done in 10- 12 years. He feels that it is closer to two to three years. Councilmember Farber stated that we are adding more homes and we need to be looking at the east/west corridors much sooner. Councilmember Dietz stated that why should we wait, we need to decide what we want to do, get going on this and be aggressive and before the developers come forward, we need to have this done. He stated that whatever the City does will affect someone's property, but we need to move forward for the betterment of the City. Council needs to make a decision and stick with it. . Mr. Maurer stated that the next step would be to have staff put together work plans. The Council can then choose to go forward with all of them. Staff will come back with specifIc work plans with timeframes and then Council can direct what they would like to do. He can ballpark the cost, but the biggest expense is the land acquisition. He will put together construction costs and time frames and arrange to have public meetings. He stated Council also will have to consider dealing with properties that have to be purchased or condemned. Councilmember Farber asked that all four of these areas be mapped out and then Council can look at them and prioritize. Mr. Maurer stated that he will put together a timeline and layout for all four and Council can decide if they wish to move forward simultaneously or individually. . Mr. Maurer stated that City staff is working with County staff and looking at the northern part of the City. They are working together dealing with access points and will continued to have staff conversations and quarterly meetings. Councilmember Dietz inquired as to County Road 33 through the gravel pit. Mr. Maurer stated that the county was still planning to close Proctor (CR77) in the spring of 2005 to allow the gravel companies to mine under the old roadway. After mining is complete the gravel companies will be building the new roadbed followed by the county paving. This work should be done in the next 24 months Councilmember Farber asked about the east/west corridors and County Road 12. He stated the County cut this road down to two lanes and he feels that it will need to go to four lanes. He inquired if there is any thought of the County flnishing this job. . Mr. Maurer stated that the City would have to make that happen because the County won't want to spend money to make a relatively new road larger because of development. Councilmember Motin asked that when the City Engineer is looking at the road connections to consider having a tunnel (large culvert) so that people can get from one side to the other. . . . City Council Minutes March 14,2005 Page 6 Mr. Maurer stated that, yes, this is a less expensive way to build a pedestrian crossing rather than a bridge. He stated that he would be back to Council in a few months. Barb Barandt, 19118 Tyler Street, in the audience inquired as to why the City does not expand current corridors like County Roads 12 and 13 rather than to have traffic go through residential neighborhoods. She stated that 193rd Avenue would be diff1cult to develop. Her property looks to be an easy part to go through and she stated that if the City cuts through her property, that it would change their home, their heritage. She stated that the west side and east side has never been disturbed. She stated that if the City wishes to go through, that she would hope that they would work with them to preserve some of that heritage and undisturbed quality on their property. Planning Commissioner Peter Lemke asked about designating and/ or constructing frontage roads to the trunk highways. Mr. Maurer stated that he is very hopeful that MnDot will proceed with the study of the scope on 169 and how the City road system is going to connect to make all these roads operate. He stated that it does no good to build interchanges if we cannot get to them. 6. Other Business There was no other business to discuss. 7. Staff Updates There were no staff updates at this time. 8. Adjournment There being no further business, Mayor Klinzing adjourned the meeting of the Elk River City Council at 8:12 p.m. ~~ / J ojn Schmidt L.:e1ty Clerk