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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCCWS 03-14-2005 . ~ ~HILLS Approved: April 11, 2005 CITY OF ARDEN HILLS, MINNESOTA CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION MONDAY, MARCH 14,2005,7:29 P.M. CITY HALL COUNCIL CHAMBERS, 1245 WEST HIGHWAY 96 CALL TO ORDER Mayor Aplikowski called the meeting to order at 7:29 p.m. Present: Mayor Beverly Aplikowski, Councilmembers David Grant, Gregg Larson, and Brenda Holden. Absent: Councilmember Lois Rem (excused). Staff Present: City Administrator, Michelle Wolfe; Director of Operations & Maintenance, Thomas Moore; Finance Director/Treasurer, Murtuza Siddiqui; Community Development Director, Scott Clark; Assistant to the City Administrator Schawn Johnson; City Engineer, Greg Brown; and Recording Secretary, Kathleen Altman. . DISCUSSION REGARDING THE PROPOSED LEXINGTON AVENUE STREET LIGHTS Ms. Wolfe stated several months ago, during discussions regarding the Lexington Avenue project, the Mayor and staff noted that the City of Shoreview had approached the City of Arden Hills regarding the possibility of installing streetlights along Lexington A venue as part of the 2005 reconscruction project. The Council indicated a willingness to discuss this as an option. Councilmember Larson stated he personally did not think the City had made it a habit of putting street lights on the streets and he believed in this case he was not sure, other than the fact that Shoreview wanted to do it, they wanted to get involved in this and set precedence. Also, he stated the design of the street lights, in his opinion, was out of character for this area. He indicated he was not in favor of it because the last time they discussed the MN State Aid Funds, there was a question if the fund was appropriately funded for future projects. Councilmember Grant slated he had a different opinion. He noted Lexington Avenue was a major thoroughfare. He stated he was not opposed to installing street lights on Lexington Avenue as this was adjoining a neighboring City and he did not believe this would set precedence. However, he concurred with Councilmember Larson that he believed the light fixture fit more of a historical district and he preferred something more modern. He stated he was in favor ofthe street lights. . ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORKSESSION MINUTES MARCH 14,2005 2 . Councilmember Holden agreed the street light fixtures did not fit this area. She asked if the street lights would stop at Victoria and if so, she believed it would not look good. Mayor Aplikowski requested they not do what New Brighton did on 5th Avenue by having too many poles too close together. She stated she liked the light fixture design. She asked if this was the only design they looked at. Ms. Wolfe stated they had also looked at the hat box design light fixture. She believed that they would be a cheaper design, but she did not have those figures. Councilmember Holden asked how long of a strip down Lexington Avenue was being proposed. Mr. Brown replied it would cover 100 feet, but wire could be run to 694 if they wanted. Councilmember Larson stated cutting the lights off at Victoria did not make sense. He indicated if they extended it up to 694 then why shouldn't it be extend it down to County Road E. He stated if they were going to start putting street lights in, they needed to make a systematic decision about this. Mayor Aplikowski noted the policy now was that if a resident wanted a street light, they had to pay for it themselves. . Councilmember Holden asked what the annual cost would be for electricity. Mr. Brown replied he believed it would be around $500.00 annually. Ms. Wolfe noted they were discussing this because Shoreview was inquiring about this. She stated if they had any interest in street lights, this was the time to do it for Lexington Avenue and there might be a possibility of extending this down the road in the future, but with the road being under construction, now would be the time to do this section. She stated staff could look at the entire City to see ifthere were other locations where it might make sense to add street lights also. Mayor Aplikowski asked what Lexington Avenue would look like if there were lights on one side of the street (the Shoreview side). She noted there would be no light on the sidewalk if they did not do this. Mayor Aplikowski asked if they should stick with the current light policy, or change the policy. Personally, she believed they should start making the change. She noted the City was entering a whole new era and people were more safety conscious. Councilmember Grant noted once TCAAP developed, he could not imagine they would not be putting lights on Highway 96. Councilmember Holden stated she agreed with Councilmember Larson and she was not ready . to put lights in. 2 ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORKSESSION MINUTES MARCH 14,2005 3 . Councilmember Larson noted the only reason they were discussing this now was because Shoreview wanted lights. He believed they needed to be more deliberate about how they were going to do street lights, if that was what the decision was going to be. He stated there were operating and capital costs involved and they needed a discussion as to where they wanted to do this and how. He noted they needed to look at designs also to come up with an Arden Hills look. Mayor Aplikowski stated there were three selections of street lights now and if the residents wanted a street light, they paid for it themselves. Councilmember Grant noted this policy worked for a neighborhood, but Lexington Avenue was a County Road so who would step up and pay for the street lights. Councilmember Larson stated if the Council believed they should look at this lighting project, they should review the existing policy. Councilmember Grant suggested getting a task force together to look at this. Councilmember Holden noted if they had a task force, it would be important to have a resident living on Lexington A venue on the task force. Mayor Aplikowski asked if they wanted to put street lights on Lexington Avenue. . Councilmember Holden stated she wanted more time to think about this. Councilmember Grant noted in general, he believed the citizens liked it dark, but Lexington A venue was not a neighborhood street. Mayor Aplikowski asked if they did not put lights on Lexington A venue, were they prepared to answer the questions as to why Arden Hills did not do it when Shoreview had. She indicated if they were going to do this, they needed to do all of it at once. Council member Holden stated she was not in favor of doing this because they were not doing the entire length of Lexington Avenue. Ms. Wolfe noted ifthey might ever want to see street lights on Lexington Avenue, this would be a good time to discuss it so that Arden Hills could participate in the selection of fixtures. Mr. Siddiqui asked would the cheaper hat box lights affect the Council's decision. Council member Larson noted the lights being proposed were more decorative lights, rather than lights to light the road. Mayor Aplikowski stated it appeared they needed more time to think about this. . Councilmember Holden stated ifthey did this, they should do the entire length. Councilmember Holden asked if what would happen ifthis did not qualify for MSA funding. 3 ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORKSESSION MINUTES MARCH 14,2005 4 . Ms. Wolfe stated they would need to look at another fund and evaluate its use. Mayor Aplikowski stated what they needed to decide on was if they wanted street lights or not. Councilmember Larson noted right now there were two people who were for it and two who were not for it and so they did not have the support to move forward with this, but he was not opposed to looking at the street light policy. Ms. Wolfe asked if there was consensus to have staff look at the existing policy and compile information, such as financing, and come back to the Council for a future meeting. Councilmember Larson replied this was a good suggestion. Mayor Aplikowski stated whether they went forward or not, the Council did not like the light fixture they were proposing and it was a maybe or maybe not with adding lights on Lexington Avenue. Mayor Aplikowski asked if the Council was or was not interested in even looking at street lights. Councilmember Larson stated he did not know how to answer this question because he did not have any costs or options. . Mayor Aplikowski stated if they wanted to do this, then staff could get the information, but if the Council did not want lights, then she did not want to waste staffs time researching this. Councilmember Larson stated he was comfortable with leaving the policy as it was. Councilmember Grant asked if they even knew what the policy said. Mayor Aplikowski requested staff locate the policy to see what it said. SUB-GROUND INFRASTRUCTURE SYSTEM FOR THE CITY Mr. Brown stated at the February 28, 2005 Council Meeting, the Council requested that staff provide detailed information regarding the City's underground infrastructure and the processes used to determine which facilities are included in the CIP. They have completed the aIlliual update of City watermain, sanitary sewer and storm sewer system maps including annotations of pipe materials and initial construction year (for sanitary and watermain) as requested by Council. He gave a general overview of the current system condition, potential problem areas and rehabilitation techniques and strategies for sanitary sewer and watermain. Councilmember Holden asked what areas had been televised. Mr. Brown replied all areas had been televised except the area around Hamline and 694. He noted that Arden Manor was not the City's responsibility, but they had televised the trunk. He noted televising would need to be an ongomg process. . 4 ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORKSESSION MINUTES MARCH 14,2005 5 . Mr. Moore noted staff kept videos with voice over for each area televised that could be reviewed at any time. He stated by the end of this summer the entire City will have been televised. Mr. Brown stated he felt comfortable with their knowledge of the sanitary sewer system. Mayor Aplikowski asked if they had experienced any savings when they did the sump pumps. Mr. Brown replied he could not say precisely, but he believed there was some savings. Mr. Moore noted staff was very diligent in maintaining the lines in certain problem areas in the City and there was a cost savings by doing this. Councilmember Grant asked on a scale of I to 10 with ten being the highest, where did the City rate. Mr. Brown replied in general, there had been a few areas he would rate one and two with Edgewater being a one. As a general grade on the pipe, looking at the structures, probably 7s and 8s. He noted he was not as certain with the water line because that was buried and was less accessible. He stated he would be more concerned with the southern part of the City because of the materials used. He noted with watermain, corrosion was an issue and one way to combat that was to use plastic, which was not available until a few years ago. He indicated he . could not assign a grade to the water system. Mr. Moore noted claims tended to be in sanitary sewer and the Minnesota League of Cities had policies regarding televising the sanitary sewer lines. He stated after this summer, there would not be a single line in the City that had not been televised. Mayor Aplikowski asked what the City should tell the residents who had breaks in their line as to how they could maintain the line. Mr. Moore replied they needed to be informed to have good insurance. He noted a lot of tree roots get inside of homeowners lines and recommended a routine jetting and having roots cut out. Mayor Aplikowski suggested an article regarding how residents should maintain their lines be placed in a City newsletter at some point in the future. Council member Larson stated one of the purposes of this discussion was to decide if the Capital Improvement Plan had the right set of priorities with the sewer and water system. He indicated the next step should be looking at the Capital Improvements Plan again and determining whether or not they had the appropriate items listed as to what needed to be done in the next five years. Councilmember Holden stated she would also like to see what the proposed costs would be. . Councilmember Grant asked if staff had looked at doing three lift stations instead of two lift stations for a cost savings. Mr. Brown replied they had not, but this was a possibility. 5 ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORKSESSION MINUTES MARCH 14, 2005 6 . Councilmember Grant suggested waiting a year and then replacing three lift stations at once. Ms. Wolfe asked what Council wanted staff to do at this point. Councilmember Larson stated he would like to look at the Capital Improvement Plan. Mayor Aplikowski stated ifby doing three lift stations in one year and not doing something that needed to be done, she would like to not jam everything together. Mr. Brown noted a lift station could cause the most problems ifit went down and that was why they were in the schedule now. He noted the new stations were also more efficient and less maintenance intensive. Mayor Aplikowski suggested they obtain the price of getting three lift stations instead of two lift stations. Mr. Brown stated the real issue was if a pump seized up and the pump was no longer made and therefore parts were not available. Mr. Moore noted if an older pump went down, they could not find the parts and therefore, they had to rig up parts. Ms. Wolfe asked if they wanted to continue this discussion and also look at the lift stations at the same time. She asked if they wanted this presented to them at a work session. Councilmember Larson stated he would like a recommendation come back on the lift stations and then have a . recommendation on the Capital Improvement Plan at a work session. Councilmember Grant stated he would be in agreement to having another work session. Mr. Siddiqui stated there was the opportunity to be more aggressive in putting in more lift stations because of the reserves in the fund balance; assuming that everything else came in at or below projection. Councilmember Larson stated they had a good staff and they should look to their recommendations at the Council meeting. He stated he wanted the lift stations to come to them as recommendations at a Council meeting. He noted unless they had a good reason to not go with the recommendation, they should go with staffs recommendation. Councilmember Holden stated she would like to see additional figures with respect to the fund balances. Councilmember Grant stated if staff came back to Council with options that would be sufficient. Councilmember Larson stated he wanted staff to make a recommendation and not give Council options without recommendations. Mayor Aplikowski stated she did not want to table this again for further discussion and she wanted them to either approve or deny the recommendation at the Council meeting. She noted . they always had the option of calling a staff member with questions. 6 ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORKSESSION MINUTES MARCH 14,2005 7 . Mr. Siddiqui stated Council would need to be comfortable dipping below the fund balance the Council had established of $500,000. Ms. Wolfe noted the dipping below the fund balance would be looked at as a temporary measure with the plan to get the fund balance back up after a certain period of time. Councilmember Grant stated he did not want the fund balance to go below $500,000. Council member Larson stated he wanted staff to make a recommendation as to whether Council should go below $500,000 in the fund. He stated he could not make that determination tonight because he did not have enough information. Councilmember Grant stated they had established a policy that the Council would not go below $500,000 in that fund balance. Mr. Siddiqui stated it was an informal, unwritten policy that was used as one of the basis for determining the utility rates and that the Council had not adopted a formal fund balance policy. Mr. Moore noted the fund balance would be under $500,000 after five years. Mayor Aplikowski asked if staff had enough information to come back to Council with a recommendation. Ms. Wolfe replied staff had enough information to develop options, but she . did not know if staff had enough for a recommendation. Mayor Aplikowski asked if they discussed this again at the next work session, would there be enough time to obtain bids. Mr. Brown replied timing was an issue if they were going to accept the bids already prepared, but if they were looking at late 2005 or 2006, there would be sufficient time to rebid the project. Councilmember Larson asked if they were closing any options they had for this year if they let the bids lapse. Ms. Wolfe stated there was a chance they could make timing work, but staff needed to discuss this tomorrow and determine ifthis would work. DISCUSSION REGARDING WORK SESSION MEETING PROCEDURES AND HISTORICAL PROCEDURES Ms. Wolfe stated during the 2004 and 2005 City Council retreats, the topic of Meeting Procedures was discussed. Various aspects of meeting procedures have also been brought up during the past year or so. In addition, the topic of Historical Procedures was brought up at the 2005 retreat. Councilmember Holden stated it was tough getting to a work session meeting by 4:45 p.m. and she would prefer to have the meetings start at 5:00 p.m. . Councilmember Grant stated 5 :00 p.m. was good for him. Councilmember Larson agreed. 7 ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORKSESSION MINUTES MARCH 14,2005 8 . Councilmember Larson stated it needed to be understood that all Council meetings started promptly at 7:00 p.m. as long as there was a quorum present. Councilmember Grant stated the Planning Commission meetings should also start at 7:00 p.m. because they were televised. Councilmember Holden stated if there was a meeting before the Council meeting, they needed to be conscious of ending the pre-meeting early in order to have a small break in between the meetings. Councilmember Larson stated he wanted all meetings to end at 10:00 p.m. and not have a motion to extend the meeting. He noted people at public hearing would need to limit their remarks to five or ten minutes. He indicated it was the Council's responsibility to limit the remarks made. Mayor Aplikowski stated as long as she was Mayor, she would not limit resident comments. She recommended they have a future discussion regarding the rules and procedures for public participation in Council meetings and work sessions. Ms. Wolfe stated staff needed direction as to how much notice to give to the residents and the . procedures they should follow. Mayor Aplikowski stated they would need to have another discussion on this. She noted the standing rules they were discussing was for this Council only and when the next Council came in they could change the rules. Councilmember Holden suggested the City be more consistent with putting the agenda on the web site. Councilmember Larson stated he did not believe the work session items needed additional notification. He noted they did not make official decisions as work sessions. He stated they had an obligation to inform people when they were making decisions, but residents also had an obligation to stay well informed. Councilmember Grant noted Council used work sessions as part of their decision making process. Ms. Wolfe stated they could take the approach that work sessions publicly noticed by law, but if they needed neighborhood input, then they should have a neighborhood meeting. She indicated staffs concern was when to guess if something should be more widely noticed/publicized. Mayor Aplikowski indicated work sessions did not need to be publicized, and if they felt public comment needed to be heard, they would direct staff to have an additional meeting. . Councilmember Larson stated he would like to see the work sessions televised. 8 ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORKSESSION MINUTES MARCH 14,2005 9 . Councilmember Grant replied there should be some time Council had with staff that was not televised. Council member Holden stated if any controversial issues came up those items should not be on the consent agenda. Councilmember Larson stated he believed the Minutes were too long. Councilmember Holden stated people had a lot more access to the Minutes than they do the tapes and she liked the longer Minutes. Councilmember Larson agreed the Minutes were more convenient in a written form. Councilmember Grant stated they were going to be making some major decisions in the next couple of years where future Councils might want to know why those decisions were made and it was important those comments were reflected in the Minutes. Mayor Aplikowski stated they could discipline themselves to say what they mean and be more concise in their comments. . Mayor Aplikowski stated in the future she would not poll each member of the Council for agenda and minute corrections. Councilmember Larson stated they needed to come up with a better understanding of what people could and could not do under the public participation section. Mayor Aplikowski stated they would discuss items I, 8 and 9 at a future meeting. The meeting adjourned at 10:23 p.m. . !1L~~ ~~. Beverly , lik wski Mayor City Administrator . 9