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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2009 01-20 CC MINUTESCITY OF GEM LAKE 4707 Hwy 61 #253 White Bear Lake, MN 55110-3227 Yazd &wag Magog Minutes of Gem Lake City Council: Meeting 20 January 2009 PRE -MEETING SWEASRING IN CEREMONY At 6:50PM tonight, Representative Bev Scaize swore in Mayor Bob Uzpen and city councilmen Jiro. Lindner and Tom Rasmussen to their respective oaths, of office. REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING. The regular meeting of the City Council of. the City of Gem Lake was called to order by Mayor .Bob Uzpen. on Tuesday, January 20, 2009 at 7:00PM at the Gem Lake city hall. Mayor Uzpen, Councilors Gretchen :Artig- Swomiey, Tom Rasmussen, Chuck Watson, and Jim Lindner were present. Alsopresent was City Attorney "Trevor Oliver, Engineer Justin Gese, and Paul Emeott. APPROVAL OF CITY COUNCIL MINUTES AND AGENDA Minutes of City Council meeting of December 2008: Minutes from the: December 2008.City Council meeting were reviewed by. Council members. Motion by Watson, Second by Artig-Swomley to appr.ove the December 2008 City Council meeting minutes was approved by voice vote 4-0. Lindner, who was not present at the. December 2008 aneeting,. abstained. City Council. Agenda. for this meeting: Mayor Uzpen: called for additions; deletions and corrections to the agenda. Changes were. made to the agenda as follows: Under Old Business,' addition oftieighborhood watch update. No motion was made but. the addition was placed on.the:agenda. PUBLIC NOTICES None PRESENTATIONS FROM THE FLOOR None COMMITTEE REPORTS Planning Commission January 2009 meeting. report (Jim Lindner): Mr. Lindner summarized the minutes of the January 6, 200.9. Planning. Commission. meeting. Under discussion was an update of the comprehensive plan, the mixed use zoningdistrict, the Waldoch parcel, and Lindner's resignation. Lindner stated SEH has agreed to address those comments made by the Metropolitan. Council. SEH will cover the costof those items they neglected to include in the original draft, and for any miscalculations SEH staff made in preparing the various sections of the plan they. worked onwith little or no input. from Gem Lake staff. SEH. will require additional payment for those items Gem Lake personnel insisted be incorporated into the plans that werecontrary to the Met Council's prepared System Statement for Gem Lake. The Planning Commissionalso discussed how the mixed use area should be written for inclusion into the zoning ordinance. The Waldoch parcel becamean illustrative example for how .mixed use will allow for businesses to operate in. Gem Lake. Mixed use will not discriminate between retail business or general business but rather set theoverall tone foran area based on theconceptual guidelines established by Marc Putman. A result of our conversation was a recommendation that the city council grant Waldoch permission through an interim use permit for the propsed changes to their building they introduced at the December 2008 Planning Look for us on the World Wide. Webat gemlakemn.org Commission meeting. Note that no representative from Waldochwas present, and no formal application for an. interim use permit was .made, but rather the Planning Commission was acting in good faith that such a gesture:. as presented in the Planning Commission motion would break down some ofthe existing barriers business owners have encountered when doing business in Gem Lake in the past. Lindner added some infonnation that had occurred since. this Planning Commission meeting that Waldoch did not intend to pursue any interim use or any other proposed changes to their parcel and was simply willing to rent their building as is to a willing tenant. The final order of business at the January 2009 Planning Commission meeting was .Lindner's resignation as chair. Upon a motion by Artig-Swomley and a second by Lindner, the January 2009 Planning Commission minutes were unanimously accepted. OLD BUSINESS A) Newsletter: Gretchen presented several possible newsletter topics. She would like to interview out -going councillor Hutch Schilling, and then councilors Rasmussen and Watson in upcoming editions. She also wants to explore a. proposed mixed use zoning district for Hoffman's Corners from 1958, review tonight's swearing in ceremony, look at how the economic downturn is impacting Gem Lake residents, discussa red fox seen about town, detail the neighborhood watch program, and interview: various business owners. The Trike Shop received special discussion. B) City MS4 report for 2006 (Watson): Councilor Watson saidthe application is in to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and that the next phase is to develop the Storm Water Management Plan. SEH engineer Jeremy Walgrade is assisting Watson. in this endeavor. Chuck briefly discussed how the MPCA's web=based. MS4 form allowscity's:to update forms without needing an engineer to assist inthe process. The final item discussed was the community education requirement of a completed MS4. C) Driveway payments: Mayor Uzpen attempted tofind the driveway that was repaired as a result of road maintenance but the snowcover prevented him from locating the exact driveway. Bob will resume his search this spring. D) Neighborhood Watch: Stemming from the August 2008 National Night Out event atcity hall, more than 30 people expressed interest in establishinga neighborhood watch program in Gem Lake. As a result of conversations with the sheriff's office, Gem Lake will be considered one neighborhood. Chuck Watson is willing to serve as the neighborhood watch captain. We reviewed potential duties of the captain, which mainly is a corrdinator between the. people and the sheriff's office. As apart of this topic, we next discussed:AED/CPR training offered through the American Red Cross, Gretchen said the cost is approximately $35/person forthis training and we are considering offering it free (paid for possibly through charitable gambling funds, which city attorney Trevor .Oliver will confirm) with non-residents being responsible for their own payment. Bob Uzpen moved that the city offer AM/CPR training for free (class size participationlimited at the discretion of the Red Cross trainers) Rasmussen seconded the motion which was then unanimously approved. We also discussed obtaining six "neighborhood watch" signs which Lindner said he would .install on each of.the .Gem Lake boundary signs, NEW BUSINESS A) 2009 Appointments (Resolution 2009-01): We reviewed the final copy of resolution 2009-01 with all city appointments for 2009. The Planning Commission will be expanded from three to five members and at the February 2 city council workshop, those interested in joining the planning commission will introduce themselves and provide reasons why they should be considered for the commission. We reviewed several potential names and many an the councilwill contact these peopleand inform them of this: opportunity in February. Upona motion by Artig-Swomley to accept resolution 2009-01 which was seconded. by Rasmussen, this resolution was unanimously approved. B) Ordinance 105:. Language incorporated into Ordinance 105 is required by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (13CA) if the BCA is going to perform background checks on potentialcity employees and those wishing to be licensed by the city. Trevor Oliver explained how White Hear Townshipat its own discretion omitted Look for us on the World Wide Web at.gemlakemn.org some of the language included in both section I and section 2 and wondered if Gem Lake wished to do the same. We discussed the technicalities of omitting the language and retaining it. The main part of the language the Township chose toomit involved informing a city employment applicant or a license applicant in writing if the BCA background check revealed information that would be cause for denial of employment or a license. After the. discussion, Lindner offered a motion to accept Ordinance 105 as it was presented to thecouncil without removing anyof the language. The motion was seconded by Artig-Swomley then unanimously approved. C) Joint Powers .Agreement Amendment one: The Gem Lake/White Bear Township jointpowers agreement (JPA) needsamending due tothe use of Gopher State. One Call as the official locate service for all utilities owned by the city (sewers). Because we will be using as-builtdrawings of all city sewers, and White Bear Township staff to oversee the locates, there needs to bein place an insurance policy thatwill hold the Township harmless in the event any error occurs in which a locate is not precise and a contractor damagesa city sewer pipe, In the past; Paul Emeott served as thecoordinator who worked with Gopher State One Call staff inlocating city sewer pipes. Justin Gese offered some engineering insight into this process. Attorney Trevor Oliver believes we do notneed a new insurance. policy, but can add a rider toan existing policy. After discussion, Rasmussen offered a motion to accept the JPA amendment. Artig-Swomley.seconded the motion which passed unanimously. D) Audit services: Motion by Artig-Swomley, seconded by Watson to accept Larson Allento conduct audit services for theyear ending December 31, 2008. The motion carried unanimously. E) Robb Olson fee schedule: No action was required on this item as the city has already voted to retain Robb Olsonas the city prosecuting attorney. As a courtesy, Robb Olson provided a fee schedule. F) December 2008 claims: The councilreviewed the December 2008 claims. Lindner moved and Artig=. Swomley seconded that the claims. be approved for payment. The motion carried unanimously. G) December 2008 Financial Report: No action was taken on. the December 2008 financial report. Lindner. asked if the council wished for him to authorize additional money for SEH. to continue work on the comprehensive plan. The council decided to wait until all comments from other government agencies and entities have been received. Mayor Uzpen also wants to review the SEH. contract for the comprehensive plan. H) Infrastructure improvements: Justine. Gese reviewed seven infrastructure projects from a prioritized list. These include storm sewer repairs on Haven Lane, sanitary sewer repairs throughout the city, the SWMP component ofthe comprehensive plan, annual MS4 updates, annual sanitary sewer maintenance (flushingand periodic filming), storm water drainage. at Schueneman Road at County Road E, and repairing the stone water ditch along Scheuneman. Road near Barnett Chrysler. He listed on his sheet construction cost estimates (engineering fees were excluded) to illustrate the cost of each project. He then added five projects that would be nice to do but are not mandatory as were the seven listed first. Paul. Emeott discussed possible matching funding from VLAMO and Ramsey County. Mayor Uzpen requested the council come to the February 2009council workshopwitha prioritizedlist of the seven project cited by Gese. I) SEH rates for 2009: Justin reviewed the SEH ratesfor engineering services for 2009..No action was taken as this was a courtesy from a previous council action. PRESENTATIONS FROM THE FLOOR None. FUTURE CITY COUNCIL MEETINGS Next City Council Workshop -- A City Council Workshop Monday, February 2, 2009 at 7:00PM. Bob will. prepare an agenda for this meeting. Next City Council Meeting — Tuesday, February 10, 2009 at7:00PM (note the date change). Look for us on the World Wide Web at gemlakemn.org ADJOURN:.. The January 2009 regular meeting of the City Council was adjourned at 8:50PM upon a motion by Lindner anda second byArtig=Swomley. Thecouncil congratulated: Mayor Uzpen for conducting his first. City Council meeting. AUTHORIZED: January 2009 APPROVED: February 2009. ATTEST: ATTEST: Jim Lindner, Recording Secretary Robert Uzpen, Mayor Certified Copy. Look for us on the World Wide Web at gemlakemn.org Attendance List for Gem Lake City Council Meeting: December 18, 2007 Trevor Oliver City Attorney Robert Uzpen. Big Fax Road Jim Lindner Planning Commission Tustin Gese SEH Ken Lorenz Goose. Lake Road Craig Rafferty Look for us .on the World Wide. Web atgemlakemn.orb