01-11-2023 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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STAFF REPORT TO: Mayor Fischer and Members of the City Council FROM: Bill Dircks, Public Works Director DATE: January 11, 2023 RE: CIP Amendment for Stormwater Improvement at Aspen Pond ACTION TO BE CONSIDERED: Motion to approve amending the 2023 Capital Improvement Plan to include the stormwater work at Aspen Pond. BACKGROUND: Staff has historically worked with the Ramsey Washington Metro Watershed District (RWMWD) on pond cleanout projects in the City. The RWMWD gathers a list of ponds from all cities in its jurisdiction and then does all of the engineering and testing and adds it to its own annual CIP project set. The City then reimburses the RWMWD for the cost of the work and the testing. The RWMWD executes the contract and oversees and inspects the project at no cost to the City. It has been a great partnership that has allowed the City to have numerous ponds cleaned out. Most of the City’s ponds are relatively small and have not had large costs associated with them. The City typically budgets $15,000 per year for pond cleanouts. As the water levels of all ponds dropped this summer it became apparent that Aspen Pond needed to be cleaned out. Aspen Pond is located in Thunder Bay-Westwind Park south of County Road D and between Arcade Street and Labore Avenue. It was constructed as part of the Aspen Circle development immediately north in the mid-1980s. Along with taking on storm water from the Aspen development, it also takes water from Arcade Street and the surrounding parkland area. A lot of silt and other deposits have built up in the bottom of the pond and have reduced the capacity of the pond. This became apparent in 2018 and 2019 when water levels around the City rose dramatically. Aspen Pond overtopped and flowed through an overflow pipe and over a trial into the creek on the east side of the pond. When the RWMWD sent out a notice to submit ponds for potential maintenance in 2023, Aspen Pond was determined to be the best candidate in the City. The RWMWD did some engineering and took some samples and determined how much material would need to be removed. The RWMWD did not provide an estimate for the cost of the work but when the project was bid the final cost for Aspen Pond by the low bid contractor was $135,592.50. That is a very large number and in discussing it with my contact at RWMWD he said pricing for the work on all ponds was up by as much as 50% in some cases over previous years. So the size of the pond was one factor but the increase in the cost of the work was an even bigger factor.