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HomeMy Public PortalAbout03/17/98 CCM53 MEDINA CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES OF MARCH 17, 1998 The City Council of Medina, Minnesota met in regular session on March 17, 1998 at 7:30 p m. in the City Hall Chambers. Mayor John Ferris presided. Members present: Ferris, Zietlow, Hamilton, Thies, and Johnson(7:35 p.m.) Members absent: None. Also present: Police Chief Ed Belland, Attorney Ron Batty, Public Works Director Jim Dillman, Zoning Administrator Loren Kohnen, City Engineer Glenn Cook, and City Clerk - Treasurer Paul Robinson. 1. Additions to the Agenda A. Discussion about the intersection of County Road 29 and Town Line Road. B. Information on Mooney Lake. Moved by Ann Thies, seconded by John Hamilton, to approve the agenda as amended. Motion passed unanimously. 2. Approval of the Minutes from March 4, 1998, Regular City Council Meeting A. Correction on Page 3, issue number 11, second paragraph, there should have been a period after $128,130. B. Correction, last sentence, Item Number 10, Page 3, "Glenn Cook said "..no, they should be included. The engineering..." Moved by Phil Zietlow, seconded by Ann Thies to approve the minutes as amended. Motion passed unanimously. 3. Consent Agenda Moved by Ann Thies, seconded by Phil Zietlow, to approve the consent agenda as presented. A. Engineering Standards. B. Road Material/Equipment Bids. C. Resolution 98-18 Granting Preliminary Plat Approval for Thomas A. Debrowski and Vickey R. Debrowski. Motion passed unanimously. 4. Comments from Residents in Attendance on Items Not on the Agenda Ken Ferguson, of 307 Cherry Hill Bay, said he wanted to bring to the council's attention damage that had occurred to his mailbox from a city snowplow. There was some discussion about the city's policy regarding damage to mailboxes. The policy was driven by the city's limited staff time and desire to keep a small staff. The city's policy considers that some damage to mailboxes is part of the normal snowplowing routine and they not typically repaired by the city. There was some discussion about how Mr. Ferguson's repair could be done. Phil Zietlow volunteered to work with Mr. Ferguson to repair his mailbox. Medina City Council Meeting Minutes March 17, 1998 54 5. Park Commission Comments - There were none. 6. Planning Commission Comments Loren Kohnen said there will be the bus tour on March 28'h. Kohnen said he and Jim Dillman have set a route with a number of stops for the tour. Kohnen said that the next planning commission meeting will be addressing the sign and septic ordinances. He said at the last planning commission meeting there was a lively discussion on the tree ordinance. Kohnen said another item on the upcoming agenda will be a proposal from a company called Flagship for commercial development on County Road 116. He said this proposal includes a lot combination, rezoning, and a conditional use permit. John Hamilton asked what was addressed specifically during the tree ordinance discussion. Loren Kohnen said that a number of the concerns were raised and they are looking into further development of this ordinance. OLD BUSINESS 7. Log Cabin Proposal by West Hennepin Pioneers Association Bob Gasch and Tom Turnham, representatives of the West Hennepin Pioneers Association, were in attendance. Tom Turnham said he sent over a letter outlining the Association's ideas about the log cabin. He said, basically, the Association is in possession of logs from the log cabin built by Charles Wolsfeld. He said the original plan was to erect the cabin on the museum grounds, but, because of the expansion of Highway 12, it's not possible. Trunham said if the city council was willing, they were in favor of having the cabin placed in front of Medina City Hall. Ann Thies asked how the Pioneers Association planned to use the log cabin. Tom Turnham said there would not be regular staffed hours. They can foresee a fairly simple display of pictures inside and have a key available at city hall for people to check out if they were interested in viewing the cabin. They would also consider having special events, such as an ice cream social. For such events, they would have guides available to give tours of the cabin. John Hamilton asked how much the project was going to cost and if there would be enough space available for the cabin in front of city hall. Jim Dillman said there would be enough space. Tom Turnham said the estimated cost was around $40,000 which included reconstructing the cabin, putting on a new roof, and, he believed, a cement slab. Currently, they have around $3,000 and they're expecting to have a fund raiser to raise the remaining amount. John Hamilton asked what the West Hennepin Pioneers Association time frame was for this project. Medina City Council Meeting Minutes March 17, 1998 55 Tom Turnham said hopefully they will be able to complete it this year. Ann Thies asked about electric service. Jim Dillman said they will be able to use the electric line used to light the city sign. Dillman asked the city council for approval of this project, including a donation from the city for $2,000 plus the $634 left over from a previous tree fund, for a total of $2,634.00. Moved by Jim Johnson, seconded by Phil Zietlow to approve locating the Wolsfeld Log Cabin on City Hall ground and to allocate $2, 634.00 towards the project. Motion passed unanimously. 8. Garage Addition Ed Belland said last Friday they completed a walk through and final inspection of the project. He said the building inspector put together a list of issues that needed completion. He said final payment will be held until those items can be finished. John Ferris asked if there was anything major. Loren Kohnen said they needed to reroute the heater vent and redo some flashing. Belland said, basically, they're up and operational. 9. Phosphorous Resolution Jim Dillman said at the previous meeting they discussed an ordinance limiting phosphorous use in the city. Dillman said in the mean time a resolution was put together summarizing the intent of the council. He said this resolution was open for council discussion. Phil Zietlow said he was in favor of the resolution. He said he met with Diane Lynch of the Minnehaha Creek Watershed district and used this resolution as a bridge to work with the watershed district. Zietlow said that Diane Lynch was happy to hear the city was considering such a resolution. John Hamilton said if the city council were to pass a resolution, enforcement would be done on an honor system. This would basically be an educational tool. Ann Thies said the city could publish this resolution in the city newsletter as well as other publication sources. Jim Dillman said he would include the resolution with the spring clean-up information. Ron Batty said the last time this issue was discussed the council was talking about adopting an ordinance. Batty said since the council does not intend to use direct enforcement the council could adopt a resolution that expresses the same intent without creating an ordinance. This would eliminate the need for codification, etc. Batty said he would recommend changing the wording "shall become unlawful." He believed the city council would not be able to deem this unlawful without making it an ordinance. Medina City Council Meeting Minutes March 17, 1998 56 There was some discussion about rewording the resolution to take out unlawful. Moved by Phil Zietlow, seconded by John Hamilton, to approve the resolution banning phosphorous use in the city of Medina. Motion passed unanimously. 10. Public Hearing Concerning Vacation of Drainage and Utility Easements Between lot 1 and lot 2 & lot 2 and 3 of Block 1, Tuckborough Farm on property owned by Thomas and Vicky Debrowski. Loren Kohnen showed affected easements on an overhead and explained that these easements were being vacated as a part of a lot combination. John Ferris opened up the hearing. No one spoke to the issue. Moved by Ann Thies seconded by Jim Johnson to close the public hearing. Motion passed unanimously. 11. Resolution Vacating Drainage and Utility Easements Between lot 1 and lot 2 & lot 2 and 3 of Block 1, Tuckborough Farm on property owned by Thomas and Vicky Debrowski. Moved by Ann Thies, seconded by Jim Johnson, to approve vacating the easements. Motion passed unanimously. 12. Mooney Lake Loren Kohnen said he recently attended a meeting between the city of Medina, Plymouth, Orono, the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District, and Department of Natural Resources to to discuss the increasing water level at Mooney Lake. There was some discussion about the potential flooding of homes in Plymouth. The DNR representative said there was three to four feet of room before that would become an issue. Tom Hovey of the DNR said in the 1970's the lake level was four feet higher than it currently is. Loren Kohnen mentioned the different options available for lowering the lake level, including pumping out the lake into a yet to be developed storm sewer or creating a drainage ditch between Mooney Lake and another nearby lake. The conclusion of the group was that a study needed to be done to determine the best method for reducing the lake level. The Minnehaha Creek Watershed District(MCWD) requested that the effected cities surrounding the lake pass a resolution requesting that the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District pursue this study. The MCWD representatives said if any solutions were used from the study the benefiting property owners should be assessed for the cost of the study. If no actions were taken, the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District would cover the cost of the study. There was some discussion about this. Phil Zietlow said he would rather have Medina wait for Plymouth and the other cities to pass a resolution before having the City of Medina pass one. Medina City Council Meeting Minutes March 17, 1998 57 The consensus was to wait until other cities had passed a resolution. 13. Metropolitan Council Environmental Services(MCES) Letter Jim Dillman said the letter included in the packet showed the 1997 monthly sewer flows for the city of Medina. Dillman passed out additional information with the amount of sewer usage per employee for businesses in Medina. He said there were certain businesses that appeared to have potentially excessive sewer usage. He and Loren Kohnen were planning to visit some of these businesses to see if something could be done to rectify the situation and/or see what was causing the increased use. There was some discussion about the new MCES billing practices. Jim Dillman said that the new MCES billing system meant the city would be not be billed based on an annual estimate, but on actual usage on a quarterly basis. There was some discussion about upcoming projects to reduce inflow and infiltration in the Hamel sewer system. Dillman said in the long run this will help to reduce the cost for the city of Medina on those systems. Jim Dillman reminded the city council about the application for the inflow and infiltration reduction loan from the Metropolitan Council for $40,000. He said this loan will be forgiven if the infiltration was reduced to the amount expected. Dillman said the city's portion of this project was $60,000. Phil Zietlow asked if this was just a fix for Hamel. Jim Dillman said that yes, it was just for Hamel, and that other systems such as Medina Morningside seem to be very tight and don't seem to have the same problems. He said that they're looking into some potential problems in the Independence Beach system especially with some flows coming from Baker Park. 14. Spring Hill Golf Club Letter There was some discussion about the money Spring Hill Golf Course was giving to the city for trees. Phil Zietlow said this was based on a gentlemen's agreement. At that time the city approved the CUP for the golf club, the city had no ordinances requiring Spring Hill Golf Club to pay any additional amount for the trees removed. John Hamilton asked if this was basically a donation. Jim Dillman said that yes, basically it was. Phil Zietlow said they estimated that $20,000 would cover the cost of replacement trees. He said this has worked out great for the city since it will keep the city's tree program going for around four years at around $5,000 per year. Medina City Council Meeting Minutes March 17, 1998 58 There was some discussion about whether or not the city should write a letter to Spring Hill Golf Course thanking them. John Ferris said he would write a letter. 15. Street Light at Maple and County Road 19 John Hamilton said the history of this issue was laid out in his memo. He said, basically, the residents of this area would like to have a street light on the corner of CR 19 and Maple St. for safety reasons and to increase the usability of the park. He said the park commission recommended the city council place a street light on the corner to light the parking lot at the park. Ann Thies said at some of the community meetings residents mentioned how much they did not like lights in the city, especially along Trunk Highway 55 corridor. John Hamilton said most of the intersections in Independence Beach are currently lit. Moved by John Hamilton, seconded by Jim Johnson, to approve the street light with the cost being split between the park fund and the general fund. Phil Zietlow said that since the city did not have a policy of providing street lights and since this light seemed to have more of a park purpose, he would be more comfortable if the city designated 100% of the funds for the street light out of the park fund. The motion was amended to have the park fund pay for 100% of the street light. Also added was that the street light should cast light as much as possible downward and not broadcast widely. Motion passed unanimously. 16. County Road 29 and Town Line Road Jim Dillman said the City of Maple Plain would like to have a signal placed at the intersection of County Road 29/Town Line Road and U.S. Hwy 12. To do this MnDOT would like Town Line Road to be permanently closed south of U.S. Hwy 12. Ann Thies said she had spoken with the mayor of Maple Plain about the possibility of having a gate at Town Line Road to allow emergency vehicles to pass through. Glenn Cook said MnDOT would like to close off Town Line Road. Cook said it would be cost prohibitive for MnDOT to provide a safe enough entrance to the signal light to keep Town Line Road open. Cook said he and other city staff members believed they should meet with the property owners of the affected properties to see how they felt about closing the road. He said if the property owners thought it was okay, that would provide the information the city would need in order to make a further decision. It was agreed that the city engineer, and public works director would meet with the property owners of effected parcels. Medina City Council Meeting Minutes March 17, 1998 59 17. Hamel Emergency Siren Ed Belland said last fall he received calls from residents requesting a siren for weather alerts in the Hamel area. He said this has been an ongoing issue for a number of years. He said they received a bid for $500 for an activation system that would use the siren currently on the fire station. Brandon Guest of the Hamel Fire Department said the city could use their siren, however, the Fire Department was not interested in paying the $500. There was some discussion about the weather alert radios. Ed Belland said that the sirens are for people who are outside. John Hamilton asked if they were using the same siren as the fire department how would they distinguish between a weather alert versus a fire alert. Ed Belland said that a different tone is emitted for a fire calls versus weather alert calls. Phil Zietlow said $500 would be well spent for protecting the people at the park. Jim Dillman said that in addition to the $500, there would be a $30 a month fee for upkeep and monitoring. John Hamilton asked how much it would cost if they were to place a siren on its own tower/pole. Jim Dillman said that using the newer 110 decibel type siren on an antenna would cost around $12,000. Moved by Phil Zietlow, seconded by Ann Thies, to approve $500 for the activation system for the siren at the Hamel Fire Department. Motion passed unanimously. 18. Tobacco Ordinance Paul Robinson said he modified the tobacco ordinance based on the discussion at the previous meeting. He said the only comments he received from businesses about the increased penalties was from Randy Mayer. Mayer stated that a 10 day suspension for the first offense seemed severe. Mayer said he sells $1,000 a day in tobacco products, which would amount to a $10,000 penalty for him. There was some discussion about the penalties. The city council decided to amend the penalties to allow for up to 10 days, up to 20 days and up to 30 days respectively for the 1s1 through 3rd offences. There was some discussion about whether or not the city council could adjust the penalty for each incident. Ron Batty said the city could adjust the penalty amount on a case by case basis. Medina City Council Meeting Minutes March 17, 1998 60 Robinson said that this would mean the first offense would consist of a $500 fine and/or up to 10 days suspension of the cigarette license. Jim Johnson said because of the current job market businesses need to use 15-18 year olds as clerks. Johnson said even if business owners were diligent about training their clerks it is still possible for children to receive tobacco products. There was some discussion about allowing vending machines at businesses for access by employees only use versus public access. After some discussion the city council decided to keep the statutory language of having all vending machines banned except in areas where minors are prohibited. Paul Robinson stated that since some corrections had been made and since the city was required to do a 30-day notification, he would like to re -notify all of the license holders that the city council would be once again addressing the tobacco ordinance issue. Ron Batty said he would suggest the city council address this issue two meetings from now. That would allow staff to codify the ordinance and for him to review any additional information that may be needed. 19. Pay the Bills Moved by Jim Johnson, seconded by John Hamilton, to approve the bills, order check numbers 18171-18226, for $49, 319.36 and payroll check numbers 15567-15581 for $12, 658.75. Motion passed unanimously. 20. Adjournment Moved by Jim Johnson, seconded by Phil Zietlow, to adjourn the meeting at 9:05 p.m. Motion passed unanimously. /4;7.8 John B. Ferris, Mayor Paul Robinson, City Clerk -Treasurer Medina City Council Meeting Minutes March 17, 1998 61 ORDER CHECKS - MARCH 17, 1998 18171 Air Touch Cellular $136.26 18172 American Express 638.30 18173 B & B Products 80.00 18174 Edgar Belland 80.37 18175 Bonestroo, Rosene, Anderlik 11,205.29 18176 Boyer Truck 4.26 18177 Bryan Rock Products 3,692.89 18178 Budget Printing 484.55 18179 City of Champlin 10.00 18180 Classic Cleaning 571.91 18181 Communications Services, Inc. 6,940.68 18182 Comp USA 384.18 18183 Counter Tops & What Not 750.00 18184 CSC Credit Services 15.00 18185 Custom Rubber Stamp Co 30.57 18186 Cy's Uniforms 807.41 18187 Des Lauriers & Sons 112.00 18188 Fortin Hardware 68.42 18189 G. L. Contracting 2,896.86 18190 Gary's Diesel Service 19.46 18191 Genuine Parts 121.9" I Si 92 Gienwood ingiewood 35. i 18193 Great West Life Assurance 875.0 18194 Hamel Building Center 57.39 18195 Hawkins Water Treatment Group 228.93 18196 Hennepin Cc. Treas., Acctg. Svcs 1,899.29 18197 Hennepin Co. Treas. 83.73 18198 Hennepin County Support 565.00, 18199 Scott Kroeger 60.09\ 18200 Lake Business Supply 232.97 18201 Lake Productivity Training 63.25 i azoz Lakeshore weekly News 104.00 18203 Sandra Larson 109.00 18204 Law Enforcement Labor Services 66.00 1 R705 1 lucent Te hno!nniac 17 RR 18206 Mayer Mobil 10.62 18207 18208 18209 18210 18211 18212 18213 Metropolitan Council 3,960.00 Midwest Automotive 356.43 Minn Comm 46.60 Minnegasco 325.93 Minnesota Mutual 205.00 Minnesota State Retirement System 130.00 Mound Medical Clinic 440.00 Medina City Council Meeting Minutes March 17, 1998 62 ORDER CHECKS — MARCH 17, 1998 (CONT'D) 18214 Municipals 69.00 18215 Northam Statac Powar 3,421 .88 18216 P.E.R.A. 2,619.56 18217 Postmaster 85.00 18218 Jon Priem 59.04 18219 Randy's Sanitation 81.27 18220 Tallen & Baertschi 1,976.85 18221 U.S. West Communications 34.60 18222 Cec Vieau 89.55 18223 Warning Lites 157.72 18224 Westside Wholesale Tire 19.75 18225 Wright -Hennepin Electric 1,636.69 18226 Wright -Hennepin Security Svcs. 76.14 $49,319.36 PAYROLL CHECKS —MARCH 17, 1998 15567 Paul A. Robinson (Replace Check #15554) 935.17 15568 Paul A. Robinson 390.24 15569 Steven T. Scherer 961.06 15570 Christopher McGiII 624.03 55I1 Mlcnael J. Koulllara ii:35.y4 16572 Scott W. Kroagar 1,010.29 15573 James D. Dillman 1,116.20 15574 Robert P. Dressol 991.47 15575 Edgar J. Selland 1,494.87 15576 Martha C. Lundell 100.74 15577 Cecilia M. Vieau 717.32 15578 L aura L. Si ilanrIer 930.97 15579 Sandra L. Larson 768.46 15580 Jon D. Priem 1,098.38 15581 Jeremy L. Christenson 883.61 $12,658.75 Medina City Council Meeting Minutes March 17, 1998