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ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL — July, 11, 2011 14 6.A. Highway 96 /TH 10 Interstate Project — Public Hearing (continued) when they are warranted, and cost effective. Along Lake Shore Drive they will be loosing a visual buffer that can be replaced using a fence and vegetation. Mayor Grant closed the public hearing at 9:31 p.m. Mayor Grant stated the items brought up that are City related include: the Lake Shore walkway, a fence or trees along Lake Shore Drive, a blind intersection sign for the Keithson neighborhood, and looking at jake- braking in residential neighborhoods. Other issues that were brought forward include: the property at 1857 Todd Drive. The City is not in a position to provide or deny Municipal Consent at this time. Public Works Director Maurer clarified Staff was looking for direction. Councilmember Holden stated she would like to have the right off northbound Highway 10 to Highway 96, the roadway surface, noise ordinance enforcement, and a discussion on the speed limit for this section of Highway 10 added to the list of items that need to be resolved. It was the consensus of the City Council to continue discussions of the Highway 10 /Highway 96 Project at a work session. City Administrator Klaers stated the City has 90 days to approve or disapprove Municipal Consent now that the public hearing has been completed. 7. NEW BUSINESS None. 8. UNFINISHED BUSINESS A. Consider Purchase of New Water Meter Readers Public Works Director Maurer stated the City's commercial /industrial water meters and readers were replaced in 1997/1998 and the residential water meters were replaced in 2001. They were replaced with Badger water meters and Trace readers. The meters were expected to have a 20 to 30 year life and are still functioning well. The readers were expected to have a 10 to 11 year life, which is currently at its end. The Trace reader is no longer produced having been discontinued in 2005. New Trace readers are not available and replacement parts are very difficult to locate. As the original batteries begin to fail, replacement batteries can be found but replacement batteries have had a severely shortened life and many of the actual readers have started to fail. The City has 230 commercial /industrial meters and 2,422 residential meters. Currently there are 20 commercial /industrial meters and 8 residential meters that are read manually due to failed readers. That number is expected to continue to grow. The current system is remote reading, meaning a Public Works staff member simply drives the street with an electronic reader, which remotely reads the meters. Once the meters are read, a disc of information is provided to the Finance Department for billing purposes. One other issue that has come to Staffs attention is the FCC has