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HomeMy WebLinkAbout02-12-2020 Council MinutesMINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING CITY COUNCIL LITTLE CANADA, MINNESOTA FEBRUARY 12, 2020 Pursuant to due call and notice thereof a regular meeting of the City Council of Little Canada, Minnesota was convened on the 12th day of February, 2020 in the Council Chambers of the City Center located at 515 Little Canada Road in said City. Mayor John Keis called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m. and the following members of the City Council were present at roll call: CITY COUNCIL: Mayor Council Member Council Member Council Member Council Member ALSO PRESENT: City Administrator Finance Director Public Works Director Parks & Rec/Comm. Services Mgr City Clerk City Engineer Mr. John Keis Mr. Tom Fischer Mr. Rick Montour Mr. Christian Torkelson Mr. Mike McGraw Mr. Chris Heineman Ms. Brenda Malinowski Mr. Bill Dircks Mr. Bryce Shearen Ms. Heidi Heller Mr. Mark Kasma MINUTES McGraw introduced the following resolution and moved its adoption: RESOL UTION NO. 2020-2-19 —APPROVING THE MINUTES OF THE JANUARY 29, 2020 REGULAR MEETING AS SUBMITTED The foregoing resolution was duly seconded by Fischer. Ayes (5). Nays (0). Resolution adopted. ANNOUNCEMENT Keis announced there were about 500 people at the LCRA Ice Fishing Contest and the Fire Department had another successful time selling booya at the fire station and the ice fishing contest. MINUTES CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 12, 2020 CONSENT Montour introduced the following resolution and moved its adoption: AGENDA RESOL UTION NO. 2020-2-20 —APPROVING THE CONSENT AGENDA WHICH CONTAINS THE FOLLOWING: *APPROVAL OF THE VOUCHERS *APPROVAA TEMPORARYLIQUOR LICENSE FOR ST. JOHN'S CHURCH ONMARCH27,2020 The foregoing resolution was duly seconded by McGraw. Ayes (5). Nays (0). Resolution declared adopted. UPDATE ON The City Administrator explained that there is a 43-unit single family FRATTALONE residential development proposed by Frank Frattalone in the City of DEVELOPMENT IN Vadnais Heights that is immediately adjacent to the City of Little Canada. VADNAIS HEIGHTS He stated that the preliminary plat was recommended for approval by the Vadnais Heights Planning Commission and will be before their City Council next week. The City Engineer stated that his biggest concern was on the wetland area on the west side of the development, which is in Little Canada. He explained that the new development needs to meet the Watershed District's rules, and work with the plan that the Watershed has proposed for the Twin Lake drainage improvement plan. He stated that there needs to be a ditch and outlet constructed to Waldo Pond so that water does not back up into Twin Lake and the City of Little Canada does not need to pump Twin Lake again, and the Watershed is aware of this. He suggested that Little Canada could send a letter to Vadnais Heights and Mr. Frattalone. There was Council consensus to inform the City of Vadnais Heights that Little Canada is requesting that construction of the ditch and outlet to Waldo Pond be a requirement of the approval of Mr. Frattalone's residential development project. AWARD BID FOR The City Engineer stated that three bid alternates for the Little Canada LITTLE CANADA Road streetscape project were opened on January 28. He noted that ROAD STREETSCAPE depending on which option is chosen, the low bidders are different. He PROJECT stated that after looking at the options and discussing with staff, they are concerned that the pavers and the concrete will settle at different rates, so they are proposing that the base bid be approved with a $6,500 change order. He stated that staff recommends the base bid but taking out a little bit of the pavers so there is more concrete, with the exception of at the intersection of Rice and Little Canada Road. He explained that the 2 MINUTES CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 12, 2020 Council wanted additional landscaping so they will add more plantings. He noted that there are problems with the mulch being built up higher than the sidewalk and spilling over. He stated that there will be more plantings in each bed, so there will be much less need for adding mulch, and there is a better plan for containment. There was discussion about whether rock or sod should be on the backside of the sidewalk area that slopes into the mall parking lot. Torkelson asked what the cost would be to add conduit in to the planting beds for running future electrical along the street. The City Engineer estimated that the additional conduit would cost about an additional $2,000 in the planting beds and to put frill electrical could be at least $50,000. He stated that the full electrical project should be competitively bid out and can be done later. McGraw stated he would like to see some holiday and special lighting along this corridor. Torkelson agreed. The City Engineer suggested that the full conduit lines could be put in. There was Council consensus to put all of the conduit in now. Montour introduced the following resolution and moved its adoption: RESOLUTION NO. 2020-2-21 —AWARD THE BASE BID OF $525, 020 TO CUSTOM BUILDERS, INC. FOR THE LITTLE CANADA ROAD STREETSCAPE & PAVERS PROJECT The foregoing resolution was duly seconded by Keis. Ayes (5). Nays (0). Resolution declared adopted. MORRISON DITCH The City Administrator explained that there have been additional CLEANING communications since Friday about this project. He noted that there is a PROJECT bid package submitted to clean out the Morrison Street ditch for $42,160. He explained that this project has been discussed for several years. The Public Works Director stated that this project was originally planned to be done by Public Works staff last February, but due to the continuous snow, staff did not have time in 2019. He explained that since that time, it has been determined to be a bigger and more difficult project than Public Works staff could do themselves. The City Administrator stated that staff looked into whether there are easements in place. The Public Works Director stated that he found easement documents but no record of them ever being recorded on the properties. The City Engineer stated that his surveyor did a search at Ramsey County and there were no easements records found. He explained that they did get Right -of -Entry documents signed by each property owner affected. The City Administrator stated that almost all of the problem area is privately owned. The Public Works Director explained that no 3 MINUTES CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 12, 2020 structures are threatened, but water is backing up into yards instead of draining like it is supposed to. Keis stated that he feels this should be considered more since it was not budgeted, and look at what the other options are. McGraw stated he was concerned about the information received tonight from the City Attorney. The City Administrator stated he had asked the City Attorney about whether the City was setting a precedence for doing work on private residential property. Fischer stated that he has walked through the area and agrees that something needs to be done, but he feels it should be looked at further before making a decision. Torkelson is concerned about postponing this work. Keis introduced the following resolution and moved its adoption: RESOL UTION NO. 2020-2-22 —APPROVE TABLING THE MORRISON DITCH CLEANING PROJECT IN ORDER TO DISCUSS AT FUTURE WORKSHOP The foregoing resolution was duly seconded by Montour. Ayes (4). Nays (1). Torkelson. Resolution declared adopted. WEBSITE The Parks & Rec/Community Services Manager explained that the city IMPROVEMENT website has over 1100 pages and over 400 PDF documents. He stated that PROPOSAL a great deal of staff time is needed to manually check each page to make sure it is free of errors and adheres to accessibility best practices, especially since content is continually being edited or added. He reported that staff has been talking with a local company, Siteimprove, which provides a service/platform that incorporates multiple website enhancement tools into one easy to use dashboard that also provides weekly reports to staff. The reports will include misspellings, broken links, readability, accessibility issues, errors, missing alt text, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) checks, and more. The Parks & Rec/Community Services Manager stated that staff is not aware of another all-inclusive premium product that will provide all of these services. Many other area cities are using Siteimprove and offered a lot of positive feedback on their experience with Siteimprove and how it has helped their organization. He noted that staff was able to negotiate a discounted price which will not change from year-to-year. Staff will evaluate the value of the software to see if the agreement should continue after this year, and would then be included in the 2021 budget. 0 MINUTES CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 12, 2020 The Parks & Rec/Community Services Manager stated that this item has was not budgeted in 2020, but proposes that the fielding come from the Cable TV (Fund 202) which has sufficient dollars available. STAFF RECOMMENDATION Keis asked if it would hurt the City to not do this. The Parks & Rec/Community Services Manager stated that the price will likely increase if the City does not go with their offer this year, and it could help prevent a lawsuit. He explained that there are groups searching city websites and suing for accessibility issues. Keis stated that if he were to support this, it would need a review before agreeing to another year. McGraw stated that he feels this is a good idea. McGraw introduced the following resolution and moved its adoption: RESOL UTION NO. 2020-2-23 — APPRO VING A 1-YEAR AGREEMENT WITH SITEIMPRO VE FOR $4,500 WITH FUNDS COMING FROM CABLE FUND 202, WITH STAFF AND COUNCIL REVIEW BEFORE RENEWING FOR 2021 The foregoing resolution was duly seconded by Torkelson. Ayes (5). Nays (0). Resolution declared adopted. RESOLUTION OF The City Administrator explained that the Community Development SUPPORT FOR Block Grant (CDBG) Program provides annual grants on a formula basis AEON'S CDBG to entitled cities and counties to provide decent housing and a suitable FUNDING living environment. The Ramsey County Housing and Redevelopment APPLICATION Authority (HRA) utilizes CDBG fiends & partners with multi -family residential rental properties to create or maintain affordable housing units. He reported that City staff has been in communication with Ramsey County regarding the availability of CDBG funds to assist with projects in Little Canada. The property owner of the Provinces Apartments, Aeon, will be submitting an application for $500,000 in CDBG fiends for window and patio door replacements, which the Ramsey County HRA will be considering on February 18. The City is asked to demonstrate our support for CDBG funding with a Resolution of Support for Aeon to include in their grant application. The City Administrator explained that Aeon is a multi -family residential housing provider in the Twin Cities. Since 1986, Aeon has built, purchased or renovated 4,440 apartments and townhomes that provide stability to over 9,000 people each year. He stated that Aeon acquired the Provinces Apartments at 155 East Little Canada Road in 5 MINUTES CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 12, 2020 2018, which is a 118-unit apartment building that is considered naturally occurring affordable housing (NOAH), and currently has several deferred maintenance issues. Aeon has made several major repairs, including major repairs to sanitary sewer mains and water mains. Fischer introduced the following resolution and moved its adoption: RESOL UTION NO. 2020-2-24 — APPRO VING THE RESOLUTION OF SUPPORT FOR AEON'S CDBG FUNDING APPLICATION The foregoing resolution was duly seconded by Torkelson. Ayes (5). Nays (0). Resolution declared adopted. ADJOURN There being no further business, the meeting was adjou ed at 8:52 p.M. '-J-olin . Keis, Mayor Attest: C Pist4brRHein—emia , City Administrator 6