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Regular City Council Meeting Monday, March 24, 2014 Page 35 At the request of Mayor Roe, Mr. Schwartz confirmed that some design consider- ation needed to be given for materials to be used and methods for installation. By consensus, Councilmembers spoke in support of staff's recommendation sub- ject to individual projects. Financial Participation Mr. Schwartz sought further discussion and reconsideration as a carryover to ini- tial discussions from the February 24, 2014 City Council discussion regarding fi- nancial assistance. As noted previously, Mr. Schwartz reported that costs varied widely on a case by case basis and based on the amount of staff time and equip- ment and how difficult the lines were to reach. At the request of Mayor Roe, Mr. Schwartz estimated the cost for digging up a line to thaw it could range from $2,000 to $3,000. At the request of Councilmember Willmus, Mr. Schwartz reported that in survey- ing other communities related to this issue, they were all over the board, and since staffs last report to the City Council, he had spoken with other communities; and they ranged from no financial participation by the city to partial reimbursement by the city, to the City taking full responsibility by hiring private contractors or rent- ing equipment(e.g. welders). Mayor Roe reported that the City of Shoreview had established a reimbursement for private welders, but were not performing the work, and only reimbursing a nominal cost. Councilmember McGehee provided anecdotal information she'd received from a former City of St. Paul resident regarding them regularly and frequently thawing water lines; and now as a resident of the City of Roseville was frustrated when calling and being provided only one private contractor who found the line frozen in the right-of-way, and after several hours of work and a $1,300 charge, they still couldn't open the line, and the resident still had no water service. Councilmem- ber McGehee related that she was aware of a number of people who had attempt- ed a fix, but to no avail, and remaining without water. Councilmember McGehee referenced a document as part of another discussion indicating that when the sys- tem was installed, ownership of laterals was defined differently than the current interpretation and situation with the City not taking any responsibility for laterals. Mayor Roe agreed that this was part of a later discussion and refocused discussion on this area of potential financial participation. Councilmember Willmus expressed his interest in seeing specific and hard data from neighboring communities before making any decision on this.