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.. . Minutes of the Arden Hills Special Council Meeting, February 22, 1989 Page Two SEH CONCERNS Mr. Don Lund, President of Short-Elliott- Hendrickson. Mr. Don Christoffersen, and Mr. Barry Peters were present to respond to the City Council's concerns addressed in a letter to SEH of January 27, 1989. Mr. Lund gave a brief history of SEH's background and relationship to the City, noting that he had been with the firm from 1960 to 1975, when Mr. Christopherson took over, until just recently. There were nine specific areas of concern that he wanted to address. . The first was the driveway erosion at 1680 Oak Avenue. Mr. Lund noted that when this property was developed. the drainage was supposed to be carried through a 10 foot wide drainage easement between Lots 5 and 6, but due to the topography, the drainage flowed between Lots 6 and 7, along a 40 foot wide private driveway. He noted that the City Attorney had been negotiating with the property owner for the last two years, and that negotiations are still going on. Public Works Supervisor Raddatz commented that whoever engineered the road is responsible for the problem, since the grading was incorrect regardless of where the driveway at 1680 Oak Avenue is located. He said the water just will not run down the proposed easement. Councilmember Hansen stated she would like to see this matter cleared up before Summer. Barry Peters felt the best solution would be to install a sewer pipe in the property owner's driveway. . Mayor Sather directed Public Works City Attorney on the status of the should proceed with this problem. in the homeownerts driveway, or is Supervisor Raddatz to check with the negotiations, and decide how the City Should they do nothing, install a pipe there another proposed solution. The second problem addressed was the concern over utility easements being in residents' rear yards and nearly impossible to reach for maintenance. Mr. Lund noted that when the City was developing, most of the homes were constructed around the lakes, with homes very low with respect to the level of the public roads, thus constructing a sanitary sewer along the roadway would have been very costly for the City. When easements were acquired. the home owners were told not to build or plant anything on the easements. He noted that homes changed hands and the new owners were not advised of this. Council questioned if this was the right decision regarding easement placements. Mayor Sather noted that it was economical for the residents, but cost should not have been the only factor taken into account in utility easements. He noted that the Stowe Avenue/Katie Lane area is a relatively new area and you can't get to the easements. Council concurred that the City's maintenance workers should be given enough clout to go into these problem areas for maintenance work, that the existing Ordinance should be enforced and those problem easement areas should be cleaned up. It was noted that the newly hired Building Inspector/Code Enforcement Officer Dave Kriesel, would be doing code enforcement work, and that perhaps as CounciImember Hansen noted, the City should send a letter to the property owners first, advising them to clean the easement area, that the City has the right to perform maintenance work there, and that during a certain time period. the crews will be in their yards for maintenance work. & Public Works Supervisor Raddatz suggested that Dave Kriesel should be advised of where these easements are and Mayor Sather noted that all future utilities must be in the streets, not in backyards. The third area of concern was the water valves and water connection leaks in the Colleen/Briarknoll area. Mr. Lund noted that corporation stops used in the pipeline at each service location until the early 1980's required a locking nut to be tightened to assure leakage would not occur. There were instances where contractors forgot to tighten the locknut, which then allowed leakage to occur. A new ball-type corporation stop became available in the early '80's and SEH specified their use which eliminated the locking nut and therefore eliminated the potential for leakage. . The second part of this concern dealt with the fact that two different contractors worked from opposite ends on this project. When they were to join up, the pipes did not meet either horizontally or vertically.