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City Council Regular Meeting Minutes January 8, 2002 Page 5 1 Ken Solie, owner of the property, came forward and indicated that he and 2 Essenco did not feel that the 120-day period was enough time to run the business, 3 discover a problem and take care of the problem. He indicated that.Charles 4 McGinley, McGinley and Associates, was present to address the Council and 5 related concerns. 6 7 McGinley stated that the Metropolitan Council has been running an odor 8 laboratory at which odors are measured and quantified for over 20 years. He 9 continued that St. Croix Sensory Laboratories,the laboratory to which he is 10 associated, could assist the City of St. Anthony in developing an odor ordinance, 11 if they chose to do so. 12 13 McGinley continued that several types of establishments emit odors of some sort. 14 He stated that he has been working with Essenco for seven days and has 15 established a couple of ways that they could improve the ventilation from within 16 the building. 17 18 McGinley reviewed the different elements of odor measurement. He stated that 19 whether an individual likes, or dislikes an odor is the only subjective parameter of 20 odor. . 21 22 Councilmember Horst expressed his concern with the difficulty of guaranteeing 23 that Essenco follows through with their promises to fix problems associated with 24 odor. 25 26 Councilmember Sparks asked what level of smell was acceptable,and when that 27 line may be crossed. McGinley responded that there are two ways to measure 28 acceptability standards. He indicated that they were able to limits on the length of 29 time that the smell was accepted (e.g.: 98%acceptability rate means that the odor 30 cannot be smelled more than 2% of the time through the.course of a year.) 31 32 Councilmember Sparks confirmed that if the City chooses to set standards,it was 33 possible. McGinley concurred. 34 35 Mayor Hodson stated he felt it was a difficult standard. He indicated that, 36 although he was struggling with the issue, he felt that they have a considerable 37 amount of options for the space that would be much more objectionable. 38 39 The Council discussed the situation related to the nature of businesses and zoning, 40 as well as their desire to be sensitive to residents. 41 42 Councilmember Faust mentioned the training from Metropolitan Council. 43 McGinley stated that the inspectors who are trained to quantify odors are trained 44 in different ways. He continued that frequency of odor could be far more 45 important than strength of odor when assessing an odor.