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10/25/2021 CITY COUNCIL MEETING October 25, 2021 7:00 PM Fridley Civic Campus, 7071 University Avenue N.E. MINUTES CALL TO ORDER Mayor Lund called the City Council Meeting of October 25, 2021, to order at 7:00 p.m. PRESENT Mayor Scott Lund Councilmember Dave Ostwald Councilmember Tom Tillberry Councilmember Stephen Eggert Councilmember Ann Bolkcom Walter Wysopal, City Manager Jim Kosluchar, Public Works Director PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE APPROVAL OF PROPOSED CONSENT AGENDA Motion made by Councilmember Ostwald to approve the Consent Agenda. Seconded by Councilmember Bolkcom. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, MAYOR LUND DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. APPROVAL OF MINUTES 1. Approve the Minutes from the City Council Meeting of October 11, 2021. NEW BUSINESS 2. Resolution No. 2021-99, Approving 2022 Agreement for Residential Recycling Program Grant with Anoka County. 3. Resolution No. 2021–101, Approving a Joint Power Agreement Between Anoka County and the City of Fridley to Allocate Costs for Elections Expenses 4. Resolution No. 2021-102, Designating Precincts and Polling Locations for the 2022 Election Year 5. Resolution No. 2021-103, Approving Civic Campus Settlement Agreement with BKV Group, Wenck Associates, and McGough Construction City Council Meeting 10/25/2021 Minutes Page 2 6. Resolution No. 2021-104, Approving Limited Use Permit with MnDOT for the University Avenue Trail Project. Mayor Lund asked why the trail is 10’ wide and not 8’ wide. Jim Kosluchar, Public Works Director, replied the development requires an 8’ wide trail but a 10’ wide trail is preferred because cyclists need more room, and we want to comply with modern standards where possible. Mayor Lund suggested changing the development standards to catch up with the 10’ modern standard. Mr. Kosluchar said that this will be an improvement for the City. 7. Resolution No. 2021-107, Approving Gifts, Donations and Sponsorships Received Between September 18, and October 15, 2021. CLAIMS 8. Resolution No. 2021-106, Approving Claims for the Period Ending October 20, 2021. LICENSES 9. Resolution No. 2021-105, Approving City Licenses. ADOPTION OF REGULAR AGENDA Motion made by Councilmember Tillberry to adopt the Agenda, Seconded by Councilmember Eggert. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, MAYOR LUND DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. OPEN FORUM, VISITORS: Consideration of Items not on Agenda – 15 minutes. Alice Schwantez said she has been a Fridley resident for 5 years. She has a concern regarding the growing costs of trash disposal. She has been shopping around to other garbage companies and is not finding lower costs. She also shared she lives on the corner of University and I-694 and the roadways that surround her home are not very safe and make it difficult for her to get to and from her home especially during rush hour. Mayor Lund replied that Fridley has an open garbage collection and other cities have organized garbage collection. We tried to have organized garbage collection but that failed and was a hostile issue. People did not want the City to infringe on their rights and wanted the ability to hire their own contractor to collect trash. The City does have a contractor for recycling. Regarding the street issue, Fridley takes care of the local streets and the State and MnDOT takes care of the other streets. There are plans for rd enhancements for 53 which is in the area you were talking about. City Council Meeting 10/25/2021 Minutes Page 3 Mr. Kosluchar said that project would establish a roundabout near the east Target entrance. Fridley and the City of Columbia Heights will share the project costs. This project has been moved to 2023 because we received additional funds to help with pedestrian traffic and transit. REGULAR AGENDA ITEMS 10. Resolution No. 2021-100, Approving Change Order No. 1 (Final) for Village Green Basin Expansion Project No. 603-60-15-475 Jim Kosluchar, Public Works Director, stated the project is in Ward 1 just south of Mississippi Street th between University Avenue and 5 Street. The project is in the 2020-2024 Capital Investment Plan, scheduled for 2021. The project was awarded to New Look Contracting in December 2020. The development changed the natural storage that existed. Sedimentation has occurred over time. Work is substantially complete. At the direction of staff, the contractor was directed to provide additional work. Most of this additional work was anticipated to be required. Change Order #1 included removal of unsuitable soils, addition of sand, reseeding, outlet modification, additional tree and debris removal and installation of gardens for Village Green residents. The total additions were $34,253.51 or 12.5%. Funding from Village Green (Dominium) was $50,000, funding from Rice Creek Watershed District was $100,000, funding from Met Council was $100,000 and the Storm Water Fund was $60,000. Staff recommends the approval of Resolution No. 2021-100. The project will be closed out, and reimbursements requested. The project cleans up the area and will enhance flood protection in the vicinity of Village Green. Mayor Lund said he thought that the area was looking much better. He was concerned about the weeds and the property owners maintaining their area behind the garages. He would like to see maintenance happening there instead of weeds growing and saplings turning into trees. When it looks bad, that aids people to dump stuff there. Councilmember Eggert asked what the maintenance agreement was on this project. Mr. Kosluchar replied that Village Green is responsible for vegetation. Community Development and staff will work as a team with Village Green to come up with good results. Mayor Lund said it is up to the residents to maintain the area and the apartments are responsible to maintain the gardens. Councilmember Eggert asked who owned the pond. Mr. Kosluchar replied that the property is theirs, not the City’s. We have a joint powers agreement with Dominium and share in the costs. Fridley contributes stormwater through that system. Councilmember Eggert said that Dominium is the new owner and has invested funds in the property. Someone has to watch these ponds and enforce maintenance on them. Mr. Kosluchar replied that private systems are inspected each year and we will continue to do that. We expect private entities to put investment into repair as needed. Wally Wysopal, City Manager, noted that code enforcement is not responsible to take care of the water and weed issues. The things Jim was talking about have more to do with staff needs and our ability to City Council Meeting 10/25/2021 Minutes Page 4 go out and enforce this. Staff will monitor and hold property owners accountable before it gets to the issue that we had before. We don’t have funding in our staffing budget right now and are asking staff to do added work but will figure out how to make that happen. There are laws in place that hold the City accountable and create unfunded mandates. Councilmember Tillberry noted that this project did come in under budget. The original bid was $400,000 and the project came in $100,000 under budget. Mr. Wysopal said that change orders of this amount do not usually come to Council, but this has been an issue in the neighborhood and staff wanted Council to know what was done. Staff took a lot of heat from the neighborhood and this was a difficult project. Mayor Lund said he is glad the project is completed. Flooding has been an issue in the area, and this will help. Motion made by Councilmember Tillberry to adopt Resolution No. 2021-100, Approving Change Order No. 1 (Final) for Village Green Basin Expansion Project No. 603-60-15-475. Seconded by Councilmember Bolkcom. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, MAYOR LUND DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. INFORMAL STATUS REPORTS Mayor Lund said that Pumpkin Night in the Park was a success and advance tickets were sold out in a few days. Councilmember Eggert added that the event was on Channel 5 news. Councilmember Ostwald announced the Fire Department will be holding a Trunk or Treat event at Commons Park on October 30. ADJOURN Motion by Councilmember Ostwald to adjourn. Seconded by Councilmember Eggert. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, MAYOR LUND DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY AND THE MEETING ADJOURNED AT 7:42 P.M. Respectfully Submitted, Krista Peterson Scott J. Lund Recording Secretary Mayor