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CCM 02/24/2014 CITY OF COUNCIL MEETING CITY OF FRIDLEY FEBRUARY 24, 2014 ________________________________________________________________________ The City Council meeting for the City of Fridley was called to order by Mayor Lund at 7:03 p.m. ROLL CALL: MEMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Lund Councilmember Barnette Councilmember Varichak Councilmember Bolkcom MEMBERS ABSENT: Councilmember Saefke OTHERS PRESENT: Wally Wysopal, City Manager James Kosluchar, Public Works Director Darin Nelson, Finance Director/Treasurer Jack Kirk, Director of Parks and Recreation Connie Bernardy, State Representative Barb Goodwin, State Senator Bill Morris, The Morris Leatherman Company Peter Leatherman, The Morris Leatherman Company th Mary Anderson, 77 and Osborne Ken Belgarde, Springbrook Apartments th , Carol HoganMain Street and 78 Clayton Randall, 7421 Commerce Lane Mike Maher,Springbrook Nature Center LEGISLATIVE UPDATE: Connie Bernardy , State Representative, stated she represents all of Fridley, half of New Brighton, and Spring Lake Park. She grew up in the community and is really proud to represent Fridley. Barb Goodwin , State Senator, stated she represents all of Fridley, Columbia Heights, St. Anthony Village, New Brighton, a little bit of Spring Lake Park, and Hilltop. Representative Bernardy said they are working on some things that are going to happen in Fridley this year. They will be meeting with representatives from the City, area businesses and MnDOT about the Highway 65 reconstruction. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 24, 2014 PAGE 2 Representative Bernardy stated they are happy with what happened last session and are hoping the City was happy with the Local Government Aid the City received which was about a 59 percent increase. Representative Bernardy stated, also, she is guessing the City is happy about not having to pay sales tax on purchases; and she would like to know how much that has impacted the community and whether that has been asset to them. They have heard it has had a positive impact throughout the community. Representative Bernardy stated Fridley schools got over $2 million in new money over the biennium which was over a 4 percent increase, which will help create opportunities for students and help them have a lot of success in life. Representative Bernardy stated the other thing that may be of interest to people in Anoka County is they will have over $26,000 for the homeowners towards the property tax refund, an increase of over $227 from what they had received before. Representative Bernardy stated looking forward, she will let Senator Goodwin talk about the bonding bill; however, one of the things they are really hoping to get through this year is the funding for Springbrook. They have had a lot of support over the years. It is never easy, but they always work hard, and the community really makes a difference. They see the Mayor and other people from the City down there working on trying to make that happen. Senator Goodwin stated, yes, Springbrook is looking pretty good this year. She thanked the Mayor and Malcolm Mitchell and others, including Siah St. Clair, and the new director of Springbrook. They are really hoping to get the money for Springbrook out of the Legislature this year. There is a lot of support this year among the chairs of the bonding committee and both the House and Senate. The Governor did not have it in his bonding bill, but he did not really have too many local projects. He did promise Senator Goodwin the year before last if they could get it to the Legislature, he would sign it. They have an advocate there as well. Senator Goodwin stated they had a really good session last year, and it was the first time in a decade they did not shift money around in order to balance the state budget. They balanced the budget honestly and openly, and they did have to raise some revenue at the top end of the earners’ scale. By doing that, they were able to do a number of things to help city and county services and local taxpayers and give property tax relief to homeowners and renters as well. It was a good session. The state has gone from $5 billion in debt to $1 billion in a surplus reserve; and she is hoping they can hang onto most of that money so that if they have a downturn it does not hit them like it has for the last decade. They want to be as conservative as they can under the circumstances and hold onto the good things they got in the last session. The majority of this session will be the bonding bill. It is going to be a very short legislative session and it starts on February 25. The purpose this time is to get the bonding bill through, and there will be a lot of other small bills. Also, she has some issues she would like to have addressed. There is the Springbrook bill, and they are both the authors of that bill. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 24, 2014 PAGE 3 Senator Goodwin stated it will be a good, fairly quick, session without a lot of problems or confrontations, although there will be a couple of controversial issues. Minimum wage will come up and other things that have some controversies surrounding them. Overall, they have done a good job of turning things around, and the economy has helped by giving them more funding to work with. Senator Goodwin said she talked to Senator Stumpf who is the bonding bill chair in the House and reminded him how much they want Springbrook. He said, yes, he was disappointed they could not do his presentation last Friday because of the weather; but he definitely planned to come back and still see another. If he does not get a chance to do it, that is fine, because Springbrook really has a good presentation they can do in their committee. As long as they get a chance to do that they will be happy. Senator Goodwin stated the Highway 65 project includes resurfacing some of the roads on rd Highway 65 from 53 Avenue NE to West Moore Lake Road. That project is going to take 10- 12 days to resurface that but, what is going to take time is, from West Moore Lake Drive to Highway 10 which will take about four months. She, Representative Bernardy, the Mayor, and City Manager are pushing to try and get two lanes to stay open so businesses can operate still— not only Shorewood Inn, but Target Distributors, Capitol Beverage, and some of the other places along Highway 65. They are very concerned about the fact that they are going to have to run 180 rd trucks a day down 73 instead of Central. City roads are not made for weight like that. They are really working on trying to get the two-lane highway open. She thinks they can turn this around and make sure they are able to do the project as smoothly as possible. Senator Goodwin stated another issue is I694 is not completely done. There is a little bit more to do on that. They discussed that in their meeting, because they did not want them working on I694 at the same time they were working on Highway 65. Last year, the I694 project was not a well-planned project at all with several exits/entrances of the freeway cut off at the same time in a row and there was not much signage. They are looking at much better signage for this project. Representative Bernardy said they are going to really work hard for this. They want to close Highway 65 from I694 to Highway 10 for a long period of time. Therefore, even if they can shorten up the segments that are closed, that would help. They are going to try and get something better than what they have now. Councilmember Bolkcom said at the meeting when they were talking about what they were going to close, there was frustration because there was no input. MnDOT said it is our way or no way. At the meeting at the Community Center, people asked why there was going not going to be a right hand turn lane. MnDOT replied because there had been two accidents over ten years. It is so different than how things are handled in Fridley for street projects. They at least have meetings with people, talk to them and ask them about impacts. There was no discussion at the meeting. It was just, this is how it is going to happen. Representative Bernardy stated that is kind of how they operate. It would benefit the community if people were more involved. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 24, 2014 PAGE 4 Councilmember Bolkcom stated over time, people will not go to those meetings anymore thinking, why waste their time. Several people had legitimate questions and comments, and they just said “Okay, thanks.” Representative Bernardy stated there is a pedestrian and safety concern as well on that road. It is not just cars. There is a lot of movement of pedestrians along that roadway especially near I694, and a lot is because of the schools. Councilmember Bolkcom said part of her frustration is she could care less if you can speed through her community. It is giving them noise, traffic, and air pollution. If they have to slow down then they do. To her they are just making it more and more like a freeway by doing some of these things they say are for improvements and safety. Senator Goodwin said a couple of years ago, Arden Hills had the issue with MnDOT because they were working on I694 and Highway 96 and the surrounding area, and it was affecting Arden Hills. MnDOT was really stubborn about how they were going to do it. It got to the point where Arden Hills had to bring a lawsuit against them. They brought them all into the Capitol and talked to them. Eventually Arden Hills did get everything done in a different way; however, it took a lot of pressure from a lot of people. Senator Goodwin stated she was at an Anoka County meeting last week, and they are now ready to help push MnDOT in the right direction. That should be helpful, and she told them they could send someone to this meeting, write letters to the Commissioner of MnDOT to make sure the businesses can be kept open. Sometimes it is just plain stubbornness. Sometimes it is a matter of dollars, but they can spend those dollars somewhere else or spend them on the project. It does cost a little more to do things differently, but sometimes it is really for the best of the community. Councilmember Bolkcom asked about liquor sales on Sunday. Senator Goodwin replied a lot of them who have municipal stores in their district. Every city she represents except for one has a municipal liquor store. She cannot support it on Sunday. The municipals are against it. A lot of the private liquor stores are against it, too, because sometimes they are sole proprietors and then they have to work on Sunday besides the other six days of the week. They do not have a lot of support among the liquor stores for it. There are the border liquor stores who are for it because Wisconsin has their liquor stores open on Sunday; however, even all of them are not unified on whether they want to stay open. She cannot really see it passing. Councilmember Varichak asked whether there was any word on better transportation with the Northstar, especially with the lateness of the timing of the trains and other issues. Councilmember Bolkcom said and lack of communication or anything else. Senator Goodwin replied she talked to someone today who is on a group to study that. She does not know the results of that study, but they are taking a look at some of the issues. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 24, 2014 PAGE 5 Councilmember Barnette stated he is on the Northstar Committee. They just had a meeting last week, and they were talking about this. It has been just a disaster. Most of it has to do with Burlington Northern Santa Fe. It is a problem that is being looked at to resolve the issues. He does not know if there is an easy solution to it, but he knows there are a lot of critics out there on how this is operating at this time. There were two accidents in Big Lake where the trains hit cars and that delayed everything. Today there was an hour delay and people were getting off and wondering how they were going to get to work. Representative Bernardy stated they would be happy to write a letter and participate in those meetings or in any other way they can. PRESENTATION: Citizen Survey Results. Bill Morris and Peter Leatherman from The Morris Leatherman Company gave a presentation on the results of the 2014 Fridley Citizen Survey. In three to four weeks, the City will receive the results, graphics and an executive summary that will be put on the City’s website. APPROVAL OF PROPOSED CONSENT AGENDA: APPROVAL OF MINUTES: City Council Meeting of February 10, 2014 APPROVED. NEW BUSINESS: 1.First Reading of an Ordinance Amending Fridley City Code, Chapter 602, 3.2% Malt Liquor, by Repealing Section 602.08.12.A(3), Social Card Game Tournament Fees; Fridley City Code, Chapter 603, Intoxicating Liquor, by Repealing Section 603.10.23(3), Social Card Game Tournament Fees; and Fridley City Code, Chapter 606, Intoxicating Liquor On-Sale Clubs, by Repealing Section 606.10.11.A(3), Social Card Game Tournament Fees. WAIVED THE READING OF THE ORDINANCE AND ADOPTED THE ORDINANCE ON FIRST READING. 2.Resolution Scheduling a Public Hearing on March 24, 2014, on a Proposed Amendment to Fridley City Charter, Chapter 3, Procedure of Council and Directing Publication of Ordinance in Full as Required by Minnesota Statute, Section 410.12, Subd. 7. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 24, 2014 PAGE 6 ADOPTED RESOLUTION NO. 2014-23. 3.Resolution to Approve Maintenance Agreement 01566 with the Minnesota Department of Transportation for the Maintenance of Pedestrian Trails/Walkways Located on Trunk Highway 65. THIS ITEM WAS REMOVED FROM THE CONSENT AGENDA AND PLACED ON THE REGULAR AGENDA. 4.Resolution of Support for Anoka County’s Riverfront/Islands of Peace Master Plan Amendment. THIS ITEM WAS REMOVED FROM THE CONSENT AGENDA AND PLACED ON THE REGULAR AGENDA. 5.Receive Bids and Award Contract for the 2014 Miscellaneous Concrete Repair Project No. 453. Mr. Wysopal statedthis is for Ron Kassa Construction in the amount of $50,820. THIS ITEM WAS REMOVED FROM THE CONSENT AGENDA AND PLACED ON THE REGULAR AGENDA. 6.Claims: 1402 (ACH PCard) 162809 - 162966 APPROVED. 7.Licenses. APPROVED THE LICENSES AS SUBMITTED AND AS ON FILE. APPROVAL OF PROPOSED CONSENT AGENDA: Councilmember Bolkcom asked that Item Nos. 3, 4, and 5 be removed and placed on the regular agenda. MOTION by Councilmember Barnette to approve the consent agenda with the removal of Item Nos. 3, 4, and 5. Seconded by Councilmember Varichak. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, MAYOR LUND DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED ON A 4-0 VOTE. ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA: MOTION by Councilmember Bolkcom approving the agenda with the addition of Item Nos. 3, 4, and 5. Seconded by Councilmember Barnette. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 24, 2014 PAGE 7 UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, MAYOR LUND DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED ON A 4-0 VOTE. OPEN FORUM: Councilmember Bolkcom asked Mr. Kosluchar about the green mailer that was mailed related to frozen water services. James Kosluchar, Public Works Director, statedsince the start of this year there have been 57 frozen services which is pretty unique. Since he began working with Fridley seven years ago, they have only had 1 prior. Obviously, the frost condition is really severe. The card that went out encourages households, particularly if there is a one or two-person household, or those who are going out of town to make sure they have someone checking and running the water at a modest amount. They recommend doing so in the laundry tub as there is not an aerator or screen on that and it will not clog up. They can call Public Works if there are questions. Those 57 owners who have had freeze-ups were out of water for several days before they could have a contractor come in and fix the problem. It is not a unique problem only to Fridley. It is happening metro-wide and actually out-state as well. Typically the City coordinates with the contractors to pull meters so they can do a pulse jet to get up the line and open it. Councilmember Bolkcom asked what the citizens and the City are responsible for in paying for this. Mr. Kosluchar replied, as far as the maintenance or the service, the main connection is the point at which the homeowner is responsible. Out of the 57, they have had one main freeze which obviously is handled by the City of Fridley. However, by and large these have been services freezes. The service pipe a lot of times is three-quarter inch thick, maybe one-inch if you are lucky, but not a lot of diameter when the frost gets down around it. There is no pattern with the problems. In the past, the City has had some areas where the mains were relatively shallower and more susceptible to this, but the City went through a program about ten years ago and insulated service lines and has not had freezing since in those areas. The current problems have been random around town. Councilmember Bolkcom asked is it also fair to say that some people think it is only to the curb cut but sometimes your service connection can be all the way across the road. It just depends on how your home was built. Mr. Kosluchar replied the sanitary sewer lines are typically on the center of the roadway. The water mains are usually on one boulevard or the other, underneath the curb. Basically, half the homes are going to have a long tap that goes across the roadway. Those are most susceptible because the snow gets cleared because they have to keep the roads open, and frost goes lower there typically. Mr. Kosluchar stated there is more information on the City’s website. Metro cities are handing this a little bit differently depending on their policies. Some cities actually do maintain up to the curb stop. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 24, 2014 PAGE 8 Councilmember Bolkcom asked how long they need to keep their water running. Mr. Kosluchar replied, particularly for people whose lines have frozen up, basically about until mid-April. Councilmember Bolkcom said she learned this year that when the frost does go out it goes deeper, is that correct? Mr. Kosluchar replied, yes. When we had the warmer temperatures about one and one-half weeks ago, they had one unfortunate resident who had a frozen service. It thawed out during the warmer temperatures, and she turned off the water thinking it would be okay. However, it froze up within an hour and she had to have it redone. Councilmember Barnette stated one woman had a problem with a frozen line. The first indication she had was she noticed the color of the water in her toilet all of a sudden was black and the tap water was brown. She asked if this was a pretty good indication of any problems. Mr. Kosluchar replied yes. That is actually a sign that before you do anything, you should turn on your taps kind of full blast, because you are probably within hours of freezing from what they have seen this year. Another indicator is to take a thermometer that goes down to 35 degrees and check the cold water coming out of your faucet and see how cold it is. If the cold water is below 35 degrees, that is a danger point, and you should be running your water to keep it from freezing. Councilmember Varichak asked if the water should run constantly. Mr. Kosluchar replied, yes. It is best to have a steady stream to keep the water moving especially at night when you sleep. It keeps things open. PUBLIC HEARING: 8.Preliminary Assessment Hearing on 2014 Street Rehabilitation Project No. ST2014-01. MOTION by Councilmember Bolkcom to open the public hearing. Seconded by Councilmember Varichak. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, MAYOR LUND DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED ON A 4-0 VOTE AND THE PUBLIC HEARING WAS OPENED AT 8:32 P.M. James Kosluchar , Public Works Director,stated the City developed a pavement improvement plan based on rehabilitating pavement in the City with intermittent sealcoating and resurfacing. The City’s goal is to provide maintenance improvements at regular intervals that create the lowest cost maintenance. On a residential road, they typically sealcoat on 8-year intervals and will mill and overlay on something like every 24 years. They do not just watch the calendar and just go out and resurface based on time. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 24, 2014 PAGE 9 Mr. Kosluchar stated their goal is to provide satisfactory pavement and minimize costs. One of the ways to do that is to do intermittent rehabilitation. The pavement improvement plan is in the City’s ninth year, and they developed it to rehabilitate deteriorated asphalt surfacing on the City’s recurring schedule and they target pavement where pothole patching, cracksealing, and sealcoating (normal maintenance) is no longer efficient or effective. Mr. Kosluchar stated this is an annual City program which is based largely on the condition rating of the streets. They group streets into project areas. They obtain pricing advantage that way with volume in one location; otherwise, they are able to bid out a contract with multiple streets in an area where a contractor can work. Mr. Kosluchar stated the planned project for 2014 was developed under a 5-year street program. They also have what they call an extended plan or 10-year plan. These are neighborhoods they designate that they are watching to see if they are normal or average pavement quality. They will rotate these neighborhoods around and this is where they try and focus their efforts in different project years. Mr. Kosluchar stated poor condition rating of streets gives initiative to rehabilitation of a segment in one of these planned areas. These are the factors that go into their condition rating: surface wear, crack size and condition, weathering, skid resistance, uniformity, and ride quality. Mr. Kosluchar stated other factors that affect the prioritization of projects or segments in projects is if a street does not require reconstruction to meet standards. In other words, the base is there, the curbing is acceptable, etc. They look at the times since last major maintenance. That is not really a green light necessarily just because it is old, but they do look at that. They look at the interim maintenance work they have performed or what is required to be performed. They look at adjacent project activity and sources of available funding. Mr. Kosluchar stated the project areas are identified in the City’s 5-year capital improvements program. In the next 5 years, the City is projecting $5.6 million in street rehabilitation projects. An estimated 66 percent of this construction is funded from special assessments. The City’s 2014 proposed work is in the north industrial area, Ward 3. As far as the recommended work, the City has minor underground utility repairs to precede mill and overlay. That includes private utilities. There is some minor CenterPoint work that is going to happen, and they are meeting with Xcel right now. Mr. Kosluchar stated the City also has watermain replacement on Main Street from Osborne to st 81 Avenue NE. This is a major project for the City and is something they want to have done prior to the street being redone. Mr. Kosluchar stated there are 12 street segments with sufficient existing pavement sections which will receive a 2-inch mill and overlay. Also there are 5 street segments that will receive a 12-inch reclaim and 4-inch asphalt surfacing. Those are deficient segments are far as a section of the roadway. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 24, 2014 PAGE 10 Mr. Kosluchar stated they do have some drainage improvements which are expected to be mainly outside the project, downstream. They did some analysis on the drainage, and it is very difficult to find opportunities within this area that are going to have a real big impact on flooding. They know they need to deal with kind of the extreme events, so they are looking at downstream improvements and will be meeting with the Watershed District this week. Mr. Kosluchar stated as far as the construction timeline, once construction started, the pavement rehabilitation should be complete within 10-12 weeks. If the contractor starts June 1, 10-12 weeks later it should be all wrapped up. They expect construction sometime in the window of mid-May to mid-September. They allow a little bit of slack in there, so the contractor can move around to fit their schedule. It also provides better pricing for the City. Mr. Kosluchar stated the project will be divided into three or four phases, and each phase lasts 2 to 3 weeks. Mr. Kosluchar stated when doing the reclaim process, the mill and overlay process does leave a remaining thickness of pavement to make it a little more drivable. They will plan a strategic reclaim sequence so someone does not have a long travel down a dirt street. Mr. Kosluchar stated they expect to have street and access closures, particularly on a day of paving. There will be minor access closures prior too for utility work and for milling. They try and keep traffic off the new mat for up to 8 hours, and they work with owners on the access. Mr. Kosluchar stated when they reclaim, the driveway will not be accessible as the machine goes by the driveway and it is usually a few minutes. They understand businesses may only have one driveway which can make things difficult, and they want to make they know about when that will happen. Likewise, when paving a street that has a longer term restriction of access, parking might be restricted as well. They have done night paving in some of the commercial areas, but that does cost a little bit more. The impacts are reduced, however, for some businesses if they do not run 24/7. Mr. Kosluchar stated they have received 25 responses to their questionnaire. He said he thinks only one person supports having the extra charge for night paving. They may do an alternate bid with night paving included and see what that amount might be. Mr. Kosluchar stated the owners are encouraged to complete a survey (mail or on-line) and provide an e-mail contact. At a minimum it provides them with a point of contact, and they can provide the property owners with a point of contact if the project goes forward. Mr. Kosluchar stated if the project goes forward, there would be a kickoff notice in April which would be provided to all the affected parties in the project area and include the contractor’s schedule information. They do project updates on a regular basis and those are phase-specific. Therefore, depending on what phase they are on, they might get those early on or later in the project. They try to apprise the owners as soon as they know about the access limitation schedule, immediate work, if there are contacts they can provide, and other specific information. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 24, 2014 PAGE 11 They typically hand-deliver yellow sheets for residential areas just because there are a lot of residents who may not get e-mail. The City is expecting to get better responses via e-mail with the businesses this year. Mr. Kosluchar stated there was an open house held in July 2013, and a project questionnaire is located on the website, under engineering projects. The City mailed a notice of public hearing and included in there estimated special assessment based on the policy. Mr. Kosluchar stated if they go ahead with the project they could open bids in April, begin construction in May or June, complete in September and have a public hearing to set the special assessment in October. Setting the special assessment hearing typically happens after the project is over but can happen anytime after the project is basically awarded on through substantial completion. If Council were to set special assessments in October, the payments would begin sometime in 2015. Mr. Kosluchar stated the overall project cost is $1.749 million. This includes a contingency, so they do have a little bit of buffer. There is a small amount of Fridley MSAS dollars that go into that. There is about $1 million in special assessments to benefited properties that are projected. There is nearly $500,000 from the water utility fund, $30,000 for minor sanitary sewer improvements, and about $160,000 from the stormwater utility fund. Mr. Kosluchar stated there are two types of assessments under the City’s policy, there is a non- LDR (low density residential) assessment (this sequence seems counter-intuitive but most of the properties will be subject to that type of assessment) on commercial, industrial, and multi-family properties. Under the City’s assessment policy, 100 percent of the pavement-related costs adjacent to their property frontage is assessable. That does not include corners so there are some pieces the City shares but, typically, for commercial the asphalt pavement goes to the centerline, along their frontage, and that is assessed against benefited property. They have 94 parcels that are subject to that special assessment under the City’s policy. Mr. Kosluchar stated as to historic costs, the width of the streets in the north industrial area, are 40 to 64 feet wide, so they are very wide. The estimates are pretty well in line with the last commercial assessments over the last five years. Again, for the 2014 project, those are estimated. Mr. Kosluchar stated as to the LDR assessments, he believes there are two properties. Basically, properties are assessed when accessing the rehabilitated street. The assessment is determined by dividing the pavement-related cost by the benefiting properties. For low density residential, everyone pays the same amount under the assessment policy. Mr. Kosluchar stated for the LDR assessments, the corner lots are assessed on one side only. Oversized lots that may be split are assessed for additional benefit. There are no multiple units on this project. They had two parcels subject to the low density residential special assessment on this project. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 24, 2014 PAGE 12 Mr. Kosluchar stated there are three options for repayment of the assessments: (1) a lump sum payment within 30 days of the assessment hearing after construction; (2) assessment can be added onto property taxes that are paid (Council typically sets a term over 10 years) and the interest rate is prime rate plus 2 percent (5.25 percent). The extra 2 percent goes to the City’s debt cost as needed; (3) low density residential, senior citizens, and disabled individuals can have a deferment under City policy. None of these things need to be decided at this point. This is just for the property owners’ information. If they project repayment of assessments at a 10-year repayment plan at 5.3 percent for $10,000 which seems to be around the area of these commercial properties’ assessments, on average the principal stays the same and interest diminishes over time. One good thing with the way the City and County manage the assessments, if you prepay or pay it off after a year or three, you pay no extra interest other than what you have accrued to date. Councilmember Bolkcom stated as to flooding, the City has had some issues even with some small rain events. What do they anticipate changing in that one area where the City has had some flooding that has gone into a couple of those properties along this reconstruction project? Mr. Kosluchar replied, the preliminary analysis shows for the short-term what they should do is increase capacity across East River Road. It is a little counterintuitive with what was done downstream, but they do have some larger pipes downstream and think that East River Road, after the hydraulic analysis was run is the real choke point for those extreme events. Over the long-term, Fridley and Spring Lake Park need to look at diminishing or reducing those peak flows in whatever way they can. He believes that over 50 percent of the watershed area is actually in Spring Lake Park. They do know that between the two communities there is not a lot of development that has high capacity ponds. They know there is a lot of pavement in that area, and they are getting some very high peak flows on higher rain events. Councilmember Bolkcom stated those pipes he is mentioning, that is not something that is in the horizon soon? Mr. Kosluchar replied, it may be. They are kind of looking into that which is why they are pursuing a plan this spring. It may not be something that is ready for construction in 2014, but they do know they want to pursue it as aggressively as they can. Councilmember Bolkcom said they are going to rehab this street, but the City may not take care of some of flooding issues it has. Mr. Kosluchar replied the City has done some minor control tweaks. When they get a 100-year kind of rainstorm or even a 50-year rainstorm it is a little bit touch and go with the system that is there. That is why they would like to provide an additional capacity across East River Road. Councilmember Bolkcom asked and the improvement on Oak Glen Creek will not help this area at all. It is far enough up in the watershed that it does not really impact this area? Mr. Kosluchar replied some of the project area is in the Oak Glen Creek watershed, south of Osborne Road. The project link there is fairly short, and there really is no good place to do FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 24, 2014 PAGE 13 retrofit control. They have been doing the downstream erosion control project, and hopefully they will be doing a ponding project on Oak Glen Creek. Councilmember Bolkcom asked since the public notice went out, have they received any responses from anyone who could not attend tonight. Mr. Kosluchar replied, he did not. He did not receive a call from anyone who could not attend the hearing. Councilmember Bolkcom said with respect to milling down to 2 inches, have they gone deeper on some of the properties where the City knows there is a fair amount of truck traffic, buses, etc.? Will there be a thicker layer of new asphalt than you would normally see on some of the other street projects? Mr. Kosluchar replied where they are milling and resurfacing the 2 inches, they are seeing 4 ½ inches, 5 inches, even a 9-inch section of pavement. It would be extremely costly to re-lay that 9 inches. They want to make sure they do that where the pavement section is the thinnest. Where they have 4 inches or less is kind of the cutoff on the asphalt. He explained that if the asphalt is basically 4 inches or less, they are going in and reclaiming because what happens is if they mill and overlay that 2 inches they will get cracking showing up because the remaining 2 inches are not strong enough to prevent that. If it is thicker, then they are actually putting thinner overlay on, but the section should be much stronger and perform well. Councilmember Bolkcom stated when they had the street project meeting, there was some discussion and some of the business owners were concerned about this huge assessment in an area that is a little depressed. They know that some business is coming back; but has there been any more discussion about anything else they could do? The property owners were wondering if maybe they could have it spread over more years. It is not something the City has done in the past. At the public hearing it was mentioned that the City would get back to them. Has there been any more discussion on this at staff level? Mr. Kosluchar replied he knows they have discussed it and there are some ideas. They would want to bring them to Council’s attention, through a workshop, and discuss them. Darin Nelson, Finance Director/Treasurer, replied, the terms and conditions of the assessment are at the will of Council, and the length of the assessment can be lengthened if the City needs to. As to the vacancy rate, etc., he cannot necessarily speak to that specific area; but they have seen vacancy rates across the north metro at least, in talking to the assessing department, rebound now in the last year. Actually the north metro has been outpacing the rest of the metro as well, too. He cannot speak to specific businesses; but vacancy rates are starting to decline a little bit. Councilmember Bolkcom stated some of the discussion at the neighborhood meeting was that there are vacancy rates, and it is maybe little higher. Even if they are coming back up, it is going to take some time for them to rebound. She wanted to make sure they keep that on the radar. She wants to make sure the City continues to see if there is something else they can do as far as maybe make that assessment period a little longer than it has been in the past and determine what FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 24, 2014 PAGE 14 impact that might have. th Mary Anderson, 77 and Osborne (behind Dairy Queen),stated her concern is access. When thth you look at the drawing the only access is Osborne or 79 Avenue. The only way to go to 79 Avenue by going south on University. With all those streets that will be blocked off, how is she going to get customers in and out of there unless they cut through Bob’s Produce. Mr. Kosluchar replied there are a couple of things they can do. Obviously when that segment th of Main Street is done, they can try and get access either from 77 or Main Street to the south, to the corner. There may be a trick to get the customers into Ms. Anderson’s site. For that 8-hour period that is kind of a worst case scenario. A couple of things they have done is, again, the night paving. That seems to work well. What they had done on the west University service drive in 2009, he believed they typically started the work around 8 p.m. and the work was typically wrapped up by 5 a.m. The contractor was out of there by 7 a.m. Ms. Anderson asked if they can do it on Friday going through the weekend. Mr. Kosluchar replied, they will work with the businesses. They know that all these businesses have different hours of operation. Ms. Anderson said it stated in the mailing it would be done in phases. Does that mean some of these access roads will be available? Mr. Kosluchar replied that is what they try to do. The west side of Main is going to be affected and what they try and do is chop these into workable segments. It can be difficult, and there will be inconvenience. Ms. Anderson asked how much notice they would get. She has tenants in the building. The big thing is the auto mechanic and the other auto businesses are open on Saturday. Mr. Kosluchar replied usually their target with the contractor is a week. The bad part of that is they will plan a week a head sometimes and it will rain. They may be on a continuous basis trying to update the businesses within a couple of days. Usually when they get to within 2 to 3 days, the forecast looks pretty static. Even if it rains a day prior and they lose a day, it may push everything back in their schedule. They try to alert a business owner at least a week in advance of any kind of paving or any kind of real impacts, and they keep in communication over the next few business days. The staff does go to pretty good lengths to try and keep the businesses informed. Ms. Anderson asked if anyone has talked to Bob’s Produce telling them they may be getting cut-through traffic. Mr. Kosluchar replied they have not. Ms. Anderson asked if that could be an issue with them. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 24, 2014 PAGE 15 Mr. Kosluchar replied once Council orders the project, the City would do a larger notification, just kind of generally on this project. Traffic may be re-routed in a different way. Councilmember Bolkcom asked Ms. Anderson if night paving would help. Ms. Anderson replied, yes, definitely, because all those businesses are open six days a week; and they are down there sometimes seven days a week. However, there again you are talking extra cost; and it is already tough enough coming up with the 100 percent assessment. Councilmember Bolkcom stated they can also go out with that contingency and see how much more it is, because it ended up not being that much for the last project. Mr. Kosluchar replied he wants to say it was not as much as they expected. It was less than 10 percent, around 5 percent. st Ken Belgarde , Springbrook Apartments, stated they are at 81 Avenue, how long will it take them to do just their road? Mr. Kosluchar replied, they are talking about 10-12 weeks of pavement for the entire projects. They try and break it up into 3 or 4 major phases, and each of those phases will usually two to three weeks. Mr. Belgarde stated for eight hours the City will try and keep traffic off. There are two access points into their property. st Mr. Kosluchar asked whether both of the curb cuts are off of 81. Mr. Belgarde replied, right. Mr. Kosluchar stated they will do what they can. Mr. Belgarde sated they have 361 units, with maybe 1,000 people who are going and coming. Mr. Kosluchar stated they may be able to do one side of the road at a time. th Carol Hogan stated she owns property on Main Street and 78. As to the watermain reconstruction, she asked whether the City is going to do that first. What is that going to look like? Will it be in the middle of the street? Will it be at one access point in the street? Mr. Kosluchar replied, he did not remember on Main Street if they are typically on the east side. Ms. Hogan replied, yes, they are on the east side. Mr. Kosluchar replied, they will either do open cut or directional bore. Open cut is the traditional way of digging a trench. The contractor digs a trench, pulls it up, and places it as he FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 24, 2014 PAGE 16 goes. There is a span of 100-200 feet where it would be open and it may not be resurfaced. That can kind of be intrusive and difficult for the accesses on that side of the roadway. Another option they found successful is directional bore where they actually dig pits about 500 feet apart and then they drive the pipe between those pits. Ms. Hogan stated but then it will have to come up to the building. Mr. Kosluchar replied, right, what they do then is they actually connect at the main. They reconnect the service. They are not going to run the service all the way up to the building. Ms. Hogan stated and obviously they will not have any water. Mr. Kosluchar replied the water will be shut off for a period of time. Ms. Hogan asked and they would know when that would happen. Mr. Kosluchar replied absolutely. Ms. Hogan asked if they would let her know by e-mail when the water would be shut off. Mr. Kosluchar replied, typically for a water shut-off, they knock on doors and hand out notices to people. Just in case they are on vacation or something and they do not get the message in time, they do not want anybody to be out of water. And particularly with these businesses, there may be sprinkler systems there tied in, some other processing impacts, etc. Ms. Hogan stated, when they are digging up the middle of Main Street and 78th, how will she have customers come in? There is an alley there. They do a lot of work with municipalities for drinking water analysis. If she does not have water, she does not have customers. Mr. Kosluchar replied, right, so the water interruption will be earlier. They will try and minimize it. As to the location interruption, they are going to have to work with the owners and look at each physical segment of the construction and determine how best to proceed. Ms. Hogan said if they came down Osborne Road over to East River Road and then come up th 78 through the alley, that might be possible. Mr. Kosluchar replied and they might be able to take them around on Beech to the opposite end. Ms. Hogan asked if the City will be telling them just where they will be Main Street and when they can expect to be disrupted? Mr. Kosluchar replied they do not dictate phasing. They use their own means and methods to come up with a good price. What they do say is they are going to limit them to this much footage per phase, and then you are going to have to coordinate and work with the City. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 24, 2014 PAGE 17 Clay Randall, 7421 Commerce Lane, stated he was curious if there will be any road restrictions once the roads are milled? He does not want to bring in a full steel truck if it is going to degrade the street. Mr. Kosluchar replied after milling as to whether there would be limitations and what kind of load can be hauled, he does not think there would be anything other than what you would encounter getting into the area. He asked if he has special trucks. Mr. Randall replied just full steel trucks that are 80,000 pounds. Mr. Kosluchar asked how many axles are on them. Mr. Randall replied they are not his. Mayor Lund stated in past experiences there are some inconveniences, but he also has found staff has been very good in trying to work with the owners’ individual issues. They are not always successful and there is a little bit of give and take, but by and large they work very well with property owners to try and minimize the negative impacts and the duration of time to keep it as short as possible. Councilmember Bolkcom stated if there is something that is going on that does not seem right or the owners need more help than they think they are getting, make they should make sure they call. MOTION by Councilmember Bolkcom to close the public hearing. Seconded by Councilmember Barnette. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, MAYOR LUND DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED ON A 4-0 VOTE AND THE PUBLIC HEARING WAS CLOSED AT 9:15 P.M. NEW BUSINESS: 9.Resolution Ordering Final Plans, Specifications and Calling for Bids: 2014 Street Rehabilitation Project No. ST2014-01. MOTION by Councilmember Bolkcom to adopt Resolution No. 2014-15. Seconded by Councilmember Varichak. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, MAYOR LUND DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED ON A 4-0 VOTE. 3.Resolution to Approve Maintenance Agreement 01566 with the Minnesota Department of Transportation for the Maintenance of Pedestrian Trails/Walkways Located on Trunk Highway 65. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 24, 2014 PAGE 18 Councilmember Bolkcom said she knows this resolution is related to a maintenance agreement. The project is paid for by taxpayers. This is a pretty significant increase to maintenance. Does the City foresee a large increase or do they think the City can do it with the staff and equipment it has at the present time? Mr. Kosluchar replied with the equipment the City outlines for trails and doing this kind of wintertime work, they are really in good shape. As a matter of fact, it makes a connection for the City for its equipment, because right now they have to double back on Seventh Street in order to get to locations south of I694. It is not only going to connect for the pedestrians but will connect for the City’s equipment. It is actually a very minor amount of work now. Councilmember Bolkcom asked how much it costs a year for the City. We have asphalt all over the community. How long does this last? Mr. Kosluchar replied according to this arrangement, they have to commit to routine maintenance that is a little different from the roadways they were just talking about which is non- routine. Therefore, if there was to be a resurfacing that was needed, his expectation is that MnDOT would perform that. He said they tried to clarify this as best they could. Councilmember Bolkcom asked but does MnDOT put these things on a resurfacing schedule? Mr. Kosluchar replied he guessed they would look at it at the same time they come back and resurface Highway 65 which they are doing this year. Councilmember Bolkcom asked and how long has it been since they resurfaced Highway 65? Mr. Kosluchar replied he does not know. Mr. Wysopal stated one comment about those assets MnDOT owns are primarily for vehicle traffic. What the City has been responding to is an increase demand in pedestrian and bicycle traffic, and this traffic is no different than what any other city is experiencing in the state with MnDOT. That is, if the City wants to make its community more livable and connectible, it has to pay the price for it and the maintenance. It goes onto talk about specific potholes, etc. but major resurfacing would be MnDOT’s responsibility, outside the definition of this; however, unfortunately, he thinks they would do it the next time they resurface the highway as well. It is a tradeoff. Councilmember Varichak stated it is just not a safe environment, and she is glad the City is doing something about that. MOTION by Councilmember Bolkcom to adopt Resolution No. 2014-24. Seconded by Councilmember Varichak. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, MAYOR LUND DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED ON A 4-0 VOTE. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 24, 2014 PAGE 19 4.Resolution of Support for Anoka County’s Riverfront/Islands of Peace Master Plan Amendment. Councilmember Bolkcom said she is concerned that she does not know enough about this item. She understands there was a presentation at the Parks Commission meeting which Council did not receive any handouts themselves. This is different from the previous plan. She needs more information personally before she can support this resolution. She would like to see it continued until the next meeting. Jack Kirk , Director of Parks and Recreation, stated he did get a copy to Mr. Wysopal today and knows Council did not have time to review it. He can have copies of the master plan amendment to everyone tomorrow. Councilmember Bolkcom stated she knows Mr. Kirk stated there was some urgency to this and it related to the session starting tomorrow. Mr. Kirk stated he believed they are applying for regional park funds. There are two separate parks, and together they form a regional park that is in Fridley’s community. Riverfront Park is entirely Anoka County park land. The Islands of Peace is Fridley park land, and under an agreement signed in 1981, the County operates and maintains that facility. Together they are looking at going through the Met Council’s regional allocation. In the long term, not just next year, they are looking at about $5 million worth of improvements in the two parks combined. That is what they are applying for. They hope to get enough funding to actually start within the year on the southern part of Riverfront Park. Mr. Kirk stated one of the things they want to do there is add some new trail connections. They just had a meeting with John VonDeLinde, the Anoka County Park Director, and Scott Hickok, and they were talking about some of the improvements going on across the road, some of the redevelopment, and getting a new trail connection from some of that new development. A disc golf course is something that has been popular in other communities. Also a number of other things outlined in the memo. Mayor Lund stated they certainly do not want to come off as not being supportive of Anoka County aiding the City in making these improvements. He is just not sure what their timeline is with sessions starting tomorrow. His first thought is that tabling this for two weeks until the next Council meeting would not adversely affect their desires to have the City’s support, because usually legislators do not operate that quick. He is not completely against approving this tonight because he does not think there is really anything negative in here. However, he certainly would like to see what it really all entails. Mr. Kirk replied he does not believe the timeline for the amendment had to do with the legislators. He believed it has to do with the Met Council. The Met Council would include Anoka County’s plan in the regional park system’s request that goes to the legislature. That is where he thinks the timeline was an issue. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 24, 2014 PAGE 20 Councilmember Bolkcom stated she is not against the project either. Riverfront Park has come a long way and Islands of Peace has, too; but she has a problem supporting an amendment when she does not know what the master amendment is. It is not any different than anything else that comes before them. MOTION by Councilmember Bolkcom to continue the Resolution of Support for Anoka County’s Riverfront/Islands of Peace Master Plan Amendment to March 10, 2014. Seconded by Councilmember Varichak. Councilmember Barnette asked Mr. Kirk if he thinks this will affect it. Mr. Kirk replied he knows that Karen Blaska, the County planner, really wanted the City to get it on tonight’s agenda. He did not know some of the questions until the workshop meeting tonight, and he did not have an opportunity at that point to call her. The best he can do is call her in the morning and find out what kind of an impact it will have. Councilmember Barnette stated so she felt there was some urgency. Mr. Kirk replied that his reading of it, yes. Mayor Lund stated his feeling is he would vote for this tonight, but he would want to clearly have them understand they would like to see more definitely what exactly they are planning on doing. The information does not tell him they are going to do anything negative that they would not want, but he did have several questions. He does not know how it affects the Met Council’s timeline. Councilmember Bolkcom asked how long have they had a master plan and when did they start working on an amendment. The first time they heard about it was when she received her packet at 9 p.m. on Friday night. Her issue is she does not know enough. If it was that urgent, they probably should have had more information in front of them before today. Mr. Kirk replied, in hindsight he probably should have included the entire amendment with the information he sent out. That is his error. He did try to highlight. The Community Development Department did look at it. The things they were putting in all seemed positive. He knows the City Council would support those as well. His memo highlighted what those things were, and they brought forth the resolution. He thinks it is about a 30-page document, and it pretty well lays out where they are going to make the changes and what things are going to be. UPON A VOICE VOTE, COUNCILMEMBER BOLKCOM, COUNCILMEMBER BARNETTE, AND COUNCILMEMBER VARICHAK ALL VOTING AYE, MAYOR LUND VOTING NAY, THE MOTION WAS DECLARED CARRIED ON A 3-1 VOTE. 5.Receive Bids and Award Contract for the 2014 Miscellaneous Concrete Repair Project No. 453. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 24, 2014 PAGE 21 Councilmember Bolkcom stated in the agenda packet it says the City thought they were going to have $45,000; but it looks like it will look at awarding the bid at $50,000. There is a difference of $5,000 and she knows the City often has change orders. Mr. Kosluchar replied this is kind of different than our ordinary contract in that it is like an at- will contract. They estimate what they are going to have throughout the year for concrete work. In all honesty they are doing a projection based on where they were at a couple of weeks ago. They do estimate on quantities based on past history, and they had these a little bit just because they have been getting so many water and utility issues. A lot of those require curb repair. What Mr. Otteson’s memo is alluding to is that the City will control the budget and make sure we are on budget. If they have to do repairs for a watermain, they have to do them, and if they exceed the budget, it will come out of the water utility fund, which is more discretionary and used for those purposes for emergencies, etc. Councilmember Bolkcom stated it was just the sentence in the second to the last paragraph stating, “slightly above. . .but will prioritize and control the quantities. . . .” but then the City has it in at $45,000 but will award the bid at $50,000. Mr. Kosluchar stated what they are really awarding is the unit prices. Whenever they award one of these contracts, a unit price contract, the unit prices dictate what the amount of payment is going to be. They can regulate quantities. For instance, they have some walk repairs in there. They can forego those walk repairs if they need to. Mayor Lund stated the thing that really stuck out with him are the three bids and how there was such a discrepancy from a $50,000 low bid to a $142,000 high bid. Mr. Kosluchar replied they had one late bidder. They met the timeframe but acquired their packet very late in the process. MOTION by Councilmember Bolkcom to receive bids and award contract for the 2014 Miscellaneous Concrete Repair Project No. 453 to Ron Kassa Construction, Inc., in the amount of $50,820.00. Seconded by Councilmember Barnette. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, MAYOR LUND DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED ON A 4-0 VOTE. 10.Approve Agreement between the City of Fridley and Split Rock Studios for Schematic Design for New Exhibits at the Springbrook Nature Center. Jack Kirk, Director of Parks and Recreation, stated several years ago they divided the SPRING project into phases. The third phase is the largest part of it and actually includes an addition and renovation to the interpretative center building. One of the key components to any nature building, interpretative building, even the building they have today, is having interesting, exciting, and educational exhibits. If the City does get funding through the state bonding which has been applied for, then they will be moving ahead with some design on a building. They wanted to make sure they already gave some thoughts and some planning as to what kind of FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 24, 2014 PAGE 22 exhibits would be most appropriate and would be exciting and educational components to a new building. Mr. Kirk stated City staff talked and worked with the Springbrook Nature Center Foundation who have agreed to fund all of this design work, and along with Mike Maher, and staff put together a request for proposal. They had five consulting firms that asked for information, and they received two proposals. One was from Split Rock Studios, a local Twin Cities company, and one was from another Twin cities company called “KidZibits”. A committee of staff and the Foundation reviewed the proposals. They also had presentations by both KidZibits and Split Rock Studios. The consensus was that Split Rock had the type of exhibits and what they were looking for. Mr. Kirk stated Split Rock Studios proposed a cost of $19,400 for the scope of the work they would do. If the agreement was approved within the next couple of weeks, they would commence work with Split Rock Studios. The Springbrook Nature Center Foundation will pay all of these costs and are ready to submit the money to the City of Fridley and would then enter into the contract. If there were any additional costs above that, they would make sure that before any of those were incurred, the City could go back to the Foundation and make sure they were willing to pay for them. They actually had their eye on a couple of these companies when they went out with the proposals, hoping they would get good ones from them, and they did. Councilmember Bolkcom asked Mr. Kirk if he would put the map of Springbrook up on the screen and go through the phases. Mike Mayer, Nature Center Director, stated the project was specifically designed this way so that each phase could sort of be a stand-alone feature. What they are looking at right now is part of Phase 3. The rationale is if the funding comes in through the State bonding process, Phase 3 actually becomes the top priority because the building component is by far the largest part; and is one that they have identified as not being able to be funded exclusively through local sources and local fundraising. Phase 3, the interpretive center building, the outdoor classrooms, the east side and the parking would be their focus if the state bonding money comes through. This is the rationale behind the exhibits is that if they receive that funding in July, they will be well into the process of knowing what their exhibits will be and what features they want them to have. If they want to design the building around those exhibits, they will have that luxury. The other th phase, Phase 1, is landscape berm parallel to 85 Avenue which for all intents and purposes completed. The remaining parts will be the outdoor pavilion and celebration plaza. Phase 2 is primarily outdoor classrooms and an outdoor amphitheater, Councilmember Bolkcom stated even if there was no bonding, there might be some other opportunities and this design work could be done. It could be built on as far as fundraising, etc. It always helps when you have a plan on paper. Mr. Kirk said one of the ideas behind it was to be able to use the design and get some potential donors excited about it. Right now they tell them there are going to be some exhibits in the building, but to be able to actually show them several different exhibits they can put their name on and contribute toward, yes, it would be used for fundraising. If the building does not get FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 24, 2014 PAGE 23 funded, it is possible that one or more of these exhibits could replace something in the current building. They do need to continually refresh exhibits and what you are offering the public to get people coming back. MOTION by Councilmember to approve an Agreement between the City of Fridley and Split Rock Studios for Schematic Design for New Exhibits at the Springbrook Nature Center. Seconded by Councilmember Varichak. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, MAYOR LUND DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED ON A 4-0 VOTE. 11.Annual National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Review of Fridley’s Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP) for 2013. Mr. Kosluchar statedthe current NPDES permit was established by the Clean Water Act. EPA delegated to MPCA who now permits the City of Fridley. Fridley is an MS4 municipal separate storm sewer system which includes all of the City’s facilities, curbs, ditches, gutters, storm sewers, etc. The City has its own permit. Mr. Kosluchar stated in 2008 the City received a reauthorization of its MS4 permit, and the heart of that is its SWPPP. The year 2013 is the completion of the City’s 11th year under the NPDES program. The City has always been pretty proactive. Mr. Kosluchar stated the City has been meeting the six requirements of its former permit for a number of years. The six minimum control measures that are included in the City’s permit, are: (1) Public education outreach. The City puts programming on Channel 17. It also hands out printed materials to the public to try and educate them about stormwater. The Mississippi WMO and Rice Creek Watershed District provides the City with newsletters which the City either prints or distributes at City Hall. The City also has its own brochure and pamphlets and recycling events. The City also has a continuing education program for Public Works staff. Mr. Kosluchar stated he does not know of other MS4’s that really have that kind of connection with a real educational facility such as Springbrook that actually has an educational mission. He displayed statistics received from Mr. Maher. They have over 13,000 volunteer hours with summer camp attendees and students are over 12,000. Mr. Kosluchar stated the second MCM is public participation and involvement and actually those Springbrook Nature Center activities go towards this as well. Last year, Fridley’s Environmental Planner, Kay Qualley, spearheaded a seminar, “Raingardens, Shoreline Restoration, and Summer Turf BMP’s.” She had over 40 attendees at the seminar. As part of public participation, the City allowed construction of raingardens, and there were 11 new raingardens constructed in 2013 which is a record. The City completed three at Community Park. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 24, 2014 PAGE 24 Mr. Kosluchar stated this meeting is another chance for public involvement. There are a total of 52 citywide. Fridley does maintain a map. They are located in the City’s three watershed organizations. They are spread around pretty well. Mr. Kosluchar stated our MCM3 is illicit discharge, detection, and elimination. This is keeping bad stuff out of stormwater. The City needs a map to do that to know where its stormwater system goes and to monitor it. Staff has been adding to that map over the years. They are adding water quality elements now. The City has the illicit discharge ordinance the City Council passed in early 2012. Also, the City has its program for reviewing municipal facilities. It also does outfall inspection and cleaning on a five-year rotation. The Mississippi River outfalls were done last fall because it was relatively dry. The City identifies non-stormwater flows and enforces its ordinance. The Anoka County Wellhead Protection group, which the City is a member, does presentations to businesses on hazardous waste, handling, and storage and kind of has a tie-in with stormwater as well. Mr. Kosluchar stated as to the MCM4, construction site runoff control, the City has an erosion control ordinance updated by Council in 2006. In addition, the City has ordinances to protect shoreland areas and require control of parking areas. It also does construction compliance on private projects, making sure that silt fencing is up, there is temporary ponding, and that they have concrete washout areas. There were 14 reasonably large projects last year. The City did not have to issue any notices of violations last year. Mr. Kosluchar stated with respect to post-construction stormwater management, the City has been requiring addition of BMP’s that function long term on development projects for the City. Staff actually did a pilot sediment removal project on one of its own ponds in 2013. The City found out that the sediments contained high levels of PAHs in this pond. Mr. Kosluchar stated the City requires stormwater management agreements to be filed. Basically those allow the City access for inspection and maintenance. The City and the watersheds share responsibility so it allows at least one of them to access to get in and maintain when needed. It varies by watershed organization how they do that. Mr. Kosluchar stated as to municipal operations, the City does device cleaning every year. Staff only had to clean 2 structures out of its 13 this last year. They monitor them all. As to street sweeping, they were within 22 cubic yards of what the City collected in 2013 versus 2012. They narrowly surpassed it. The City has also been working on alternative de-icers to try and help salt go a longer way. Chloride in our waters is tough to get out. Mr. Kosluchar stated as to other events, the City has a surface water management plan coming. In 2013, the Coon Creek Watershed District and Mississippi WMO updated their plans. As a result, the City has to update its plan within two years. Rice Creek has had their plan in place for a while. The Oak Glen Creek project is under construction. The City also had Conservation Corps of Minnesota and Iowa help the City tremendously again last year. In 2012-13, they helped the City with some tree removal. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF FEBRUARY 24, 2014 PAGE 25 Mr. Kosluchar stated as last year the City has its new MS4 permit. The City is right on schedule with other MS4s. There are a lot of activities that are going to be required in 2014 under this permit. The City will be doing a thorough update of its stormwater ordinance, and there are some requirements for the City to modify and upgrade its ordinance. The City needs a more detailed storm sewer system which is a just a map and is already under production, but it has to show inventories of public and private BMP’s because the next cycle of the permit will probably require the City to go out and inspect those private systems. Mr. Kosluchar stated the City tries to incorporate new training and recordkeeping requirements, and then it has to develop formal procedures for inspection and enforcement activities. He does not see the last two being too much of a hardship, but the first two items are going to be difficult. Mr. Kosluchar stated the City also has to address future TMDL’s. It is not under a TMDL yet. These are total maximum daily load which take a pollutant, such as chloride, and take a large watershed area or what have you, and they look at what can be done for treatment, what is the exceedence to water quality standards, and then set a standard that everybody has to meet. The City does not have that requirement yet in place. Mr. Kosluchar stated as a tradeoff for all this work, this is going to be the final MS4 stormwater presentation that is required to be given. Mr. Kosluchar presented some resources, MPCA, EPA, City of Fridley, and citizens can certainly call Public Works, Engineering Division phone number is 763-572-3552, and ask about stormwater if someone is interested. 12.Informal Status Reports. There were no informal status reports. ADJOURN. MOTION by Councilmember Barnette, seconded by Councilmember Varichak, to adjourn. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, MAYOR LUND DECLARED THE MEETING ADJOURNED AT 10:12 P.M. Respectfully submitted by, Denise M. Johnson Scott J. Lund Recording Secretary Mayor