CC PACKET 01061998 - Laserfiche WebLink

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MEMORANDUM • DATE: December 1, 1997 TO: Mayor and City Council FROM: Michael J. Morrison, City Manager ITEM: Sump Pump Ordinance As recommended by the Storm Water Advisory Task Force, please find enclosed a new sump pump ordinance requiring inspection and removal of all sump pumps draining into the sanitary sewer system by October 1, 1998. The proposed ordinance and supporting information is from a review of several suburbs throughout the Twin Cities. A summary of issues that I have for the City Council is as follows: 1.) Do we want to have City-wide neighborhood meetings prior to the adoption of the proposed ordinance or simply conduct the public readings at the January 13, January 27 and February 10 Council meetings? 2,) Do we want to give everyone one (1) year after the City's inspection to make the disconnection or select a date such as October 1, 1998? Remember that some property owners may not get inspected until July, 1998. Again, the number of sections the City is divided into may have an impact on enforcement efforts of the deadlines. 3.) What are your thoughts on doing the inspections in-house with the Public Works Department or contracting it out to an engineering firm, such as WSB, to do the actual inspections and re-inspections? I have asked WSB to put a proposal together to do these inspections. I have also talked with Jay Hartman to think about what it would take to do these inspections in-house. All the cities that I contacted contracted their inspections out. Their reasons for contracting out this work are: a) they couldn't afford to give up the 2 or 3 Public Works employees for the year; and b) having the consultant at the neighborhood meetings was helpful in explaining the reasons for the proposed ordinance. The process would work as follows: There are approximately 2,300 residential and commercial property owners in the City. We would divide the City into four sections to facilitate neighborhood meetings and sump pump inspections. This would mean about 575 property owners in each neighborhood section. The neighborhood meeting for Section 1 could be scheduled for March, with the inspections for this Section beginning in April; Section 2's neighborhood meeting would be in April, with its inspections • scheduled for May; Section 3 would have its neighborhood meeting in May and inspections in June; and Section 4 could be scheduled for its neighborhood meeting in June and the inspections scheduled for July. Before the inspections begin, a one time meeting with area plumbers should be