February 24, 2014 Work Session

Attendance:  Reinhardt, Hughes, Bren, Sippel,  Williamson, Pearson, Beck, Tolsma, Lewin, Goman

 

  1. PUBLIC WORKS LEASE
    1. See attached staff memo –

Tolsma said the council direction was to pursue investigating whether it would work at Norling's.  Tolsma said Norling is very agreeable with this arrangement.  Tolsma said big ideas got thrown around but it was decided to start small and figure out what is needed.  Tolsma said a list was created including immediate improvements and a timeline.  He said some of the costs have been assigned between the city and Norling.  He said costs are around $10-15,000 and it includes mold mitigation at city hall.  Tolsma said he thinks the costs can be spread out to different departments in the budget.  Tolsma thinks Norling is looking at a three-five year lease.  Hughes asked about long-term improvements and drainage in the cold storage and he wonders if that’s at Norling's or City Hall.  Tolsma said the exterior drainage of city hall is under the immediate plan.  Hughes asks about the lift hoist and Tolsma said one is the overhead and the other is a floor hoist.  Reinhardt asked what the floor lift would be used for.  Tolsma said it probably wouldn’t be used but it’s already in place at Norling's.  Sippel said he had the same questions.  He said the pictures on the overhead help to explain things.  Tolsma said if the council is in favor, they’ll meet further with Norling and look for drafting a long-term lease.  Sippel said he thinks items need to be prioritized and what Norling is going to pay for.  Hughes thinks lighting upgrades should be sooner rather than later.  Beck said she thinks the list should be gone through to determine what’s wanted because now’s the time to negotiate the deal.  Things that stay in the building should be Norling's cost.  Reinhardt said maybe the list can be refined and some cost estimates gotten.  Hughes and Sippel would like to see the rent stay the same and stage the improvements.  Beck recommends better cost estimates and then amortizing the costs into the lease.

 

  1. WATER METERS
    1. See attached staff memo.  Coming on Monday. 

Goman apologizes the memo wasn’t in the packet but he was diverted to the snow emergency.  He said this would finalize the cross over from the hand-held system to a total radio read.  Goman said there are 345 services, commercial and residential.  He said some are done radio (216) and 129 have to be physically read.  He said of the 129 there are some that have multiple water meters (LF Apartment - two) but one radio read covers both meters.  Goman said they’ve been budgeting for this for several years.  He said a rough cost is about $14,000 to finish the change out.  Goman said right now, between the two systems, with good weather and no distractions, it takes two work days.  Reinhardt asked where the $10,000 allotted in this year’s budget is located and Goman said under the water department.  He said this has been factored into several past budgets and it includes meters and supplies.  Hughes asked Goman if he would still have to drive around versus having the system on the water tower and’ Goman said it would cost around $100,000.  Williamson asked where the power comes from and Goman said it comes from the hand held unit and it’s good for 20 years.  He demonstrates a radio read.  Reinhardt said this should go on a council agenda in order to vote on this.  Williamson asked about the age of the reader meter and the fact that it’s no longer supported.  He wonders how long this will last.  Goman said they’ve purchased a new hand held and the software that goes with it.  He said they are borrowing the equipment to ready the 129 units and they are local.  Goman said City of Mound, Tonka Bay, Minnetrista, St. Boni have this setup.  Reinhardt asked why we’re borrowing when we bought a new handheld.  Goman said because they’re not supported, they no longer have the machine to read.  Reinhardt asked so when this is changed over, Goman should be able to just drive around in about an hour and have all the meters read and he confirmed.  

 

  1. LIFT STATION #5
    1. See attached staff memo.  Coming on Monday. 

Lord Fletcher’s Apartments.  Goman said last fall during budget discussion and doing projects, LS #5 came up.  He said an engineering proposal feasibility was received to about $11,000.  He said life expectancy of the lift station was discussed and there are photos.  Pearson had an independent testing firm do a condition assessment of the existing structure.  Goman said the other LS’s previously done did not have the structural analysis done.  The new structure would be a concrete structure, precast and fitted together on the site.  Hughes asked about a permanent generator being installed and Goman said it’s being requested.  Sippel said he recalls soil borings were done for lift two and wondered if this was included and Goman said no, that was different.  Williamson said it’s worth getting the soil borings because of past experience with LS#6.  Sippel agrees that this should be done.  Goman said a feasibility study wasn’t done for LS#2.  Reinhardt asked for next step options.  Williamson said feasibility will help to figure out what to do.  He said if they are going to do the project it might not be necessary to do the feasibility study and instead start engineering it.  Timing and scheduling is discussed and August and September could possibly be the construction time.  Williamson is concerned about bid strategy and doesn’t want to pay if contractors aren’t hungry enough.  Sippel thinks it should be shovel ready and then go from there.  He said bids can be gotten and figure out from there.  Reinhardt said this should be put in front of the council at the next meeting for a vote to skip the feasibility and go to the engineering and move this forward.

 

  1. LORD FLETCHER’S MUSIC PERMIT
    1. For their 2014 live music permit Lord Fletcher’s is requesting the city to allow live music from noon – 9:00 p.m., a significant increase over last year’s permit which allowed live music from 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. Thursday & Friday (unamplified) and 3:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. Saturday & Sunday (amplified). Staff is asking the council for feedback on the 2014 permit application.  –

Reinhardt said they were surprised about the change in music hours and were concerned about this change.  Reinhardt said she talked to Tom Emer today and it was clarified it wasn’t an increase in amplified music hours.  Emer said he misread the form and quoted the wrong hours.  He said nothing is changing from last year.

 

  1. PRES HOMES CONDUIT FINANCING REQUEST
    1. Pres Homes is preparing to refinance the debt from the 2010 project at their Spring Park facility and have again asked if we would be interested in assisting with conduit financing for $9.3 million. Using the same fee that was used last year (1/8th of 1% the city would net $11,625. See the attached memo from Catherine Courtney of Briggs & Morgan. –

Reinhardt said Pres Homes is refinancing the bond for the SP property and asking the city to be a conduit and fees would be collected.  She said this was discussed at Admin Committee and it was decided to bring it to the council.  Sippel said the only concern is if the city was going to bond and the limits placed on that.  Tolsma said there are ways around that, if necessary.  Tolsma said this was recently done so it’s pretty fresh. 

 

  1. MISCELLANEOUS –

·         Reinhardt said she went to a meeting with local mayors regarding the proposed scenic byways.  She said this is very early and preliminary.  She said there were a lot of questions and not a lot of answers. 

·         Reinhardt said Rockvam contacted her asking about banner poles on Sunset Drive in front of his business on six power poles to extend the Spring Park banners down to his business area.  Goman said some cities have these already and pictures are requested in order to get an idea as to what they would look like.  Goman said for the six poles, banner price is $55 and mounting hardware not to exceed $1000 per pole so around $1,000. 

·         Sippel said too much salt and Williamson said he feels not enough.  Goman said they can’t get salt anymore.  He said he’s talking to others about salt/sand combination.  Sippel said he observed a heavy layer being set down, which was okay, but then they came by two more times.  He thinks it’s excessive. 

·         Hughes wonders about cost savings data for the new street lights. 

 

  1. INFORMATIONAL ITEMS
    1. Planning Commission Applications – Reinhardt said two applications came in and wondered about doing interviews before the next council meeting.  Reinhardt thinks about ten minutes each and schedule a 7 and 7:15 pm for the interviews. 
    2. Gillespie Center Financial Report -
    3. Mound Fire Department Press Release – Hughes said Pederson is good about getting extra funds and this application for Save the Lake was well written and efficient.  He said it was super thorough and congratulations should be mentioned.
    4. Mound Fire Department January Report
    5. Building Stronger Families & Community Relationships Public Forum – Reinhardt said this is about domestic abuse and will be at the Gillespie Center.

 

Reinhardt said because of the cancelation of the second meeting in February, there are some claims to be approved.  Hughes said going back to when he was on the Planning Commission he was concerned about the Planner’s charges of $800 for the Black Lake Road variance.  He said the city doesn’t recover their costs in these detailed analysis.  Sippel said if we were to exercise the option, there should be a limit on what the city would be charged back for planner fees.  Hughes makes a motion and Sippel seconds to pay the bills.  All votes ayes, motion carries.