04-22-2020 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES CITY COUNCIL APRIL 22, 2020 naturally occurring and was not engineered as a stormwater pond, and noted that most water bodies have not been draining as quickly due to several very rainy years. The City Administrator reported that this ditch and a majority of the wetland area is on private property, and the City has not been maintaining this area, although Ramsey County had attempted to clean it out in the early 1980's but the equipment got stuck. He stated that according to the legal opinion from the city attorney, the City has no legal obligation to deal with drainage issues that are naturally occurring. He noted that the City would only be responsible if it altered the natural flow of surface water and created the present problem. The City Administrator explained that even though the City does not have an obligation to address this situation, the City Council could direct staff to acquire a permanent easement or access agreements and move forward with repairs to the ditch. He explained that another alternative would be to have city staff to work with the property owners in this area to establish a maintenance agreement and share the cost of making repairs to the ditch. A third option would be to inform property owners that maintenance of the ditch area is ultimately a private responsibility. The Public Works Director clarified that he discovered it was actually a City led clean -out project around 1980, but the equipment got stuck because it was so wet, so some of the work did not get completed. McGraw stated that he understands that it is only the properties at the south end that are having problems, and it has only gotten bad in the last several years when the water table has gone up due to a lot of rain, so why would the City get involved to clean it up if it is all private property. He asked if the city owns and maintains the pipe that goes under McMenemy. The Public Works Director stated that it is in the regular monthly maintenance rotation and it gets checked after heavy rainfalls. McGraw asked if it has been maintained as expected. Bill stated that staff makes sure that the flared end section of the culvert is open and pulling any larger logs out of the east west portion, but no dredging has been done. Montour stated he assumes this is not the only area in the city that people call about water backed up in their yards, and if the city is going to do work here, a precedence is set that the city would do work in other places. The Public Works Director confirmed that other calls have come and they have done things on a case by case basis, but there is no time that a contractor has been hired, and all work has always been done by staff with existing equipment. Keis stated that initially this was going to be done by city staff, but then a contractor was considered but that cost was over $50,000, which is over 1% of the city budget, so the Council needs to be careful. Torkelson stated that he recalls hearing from some of the residents stating that the water level has gotten close to their house and asked if staff has ever checked immediately after a large rain. The Public Works Director stated he has not been there right after a heavy rain, but saw water was in to the manicured grass yard, beyond the wetland boundary. Keis asked where the silt 4