HomeMy Public PortalAbout11/04/98 CCM225
MEDINA CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES OF NOVEMBER 4, 1998
The City Council of Medina, Minnesota met in regular session on November 4, 1998 at 7:30
p.m, in the City Hall Chambers. Mayor John Ferris presided.
Members present: Ferris, Zietlow, Thies; and Johnson(arrived at 8:45 p.m.)
Members absent: Hamilton.
Also present: Police Chief Ed Belland, Attorney Ron Batty(left at 8:50 p.m.), Public Works
Director Jim Dillman, Zoning Administrator Loren Kohnen, and City Clerk -Treasurer Paul
Robinson.
1. Additions to the Agenda
A. Postage meter.
B. Discussion on contiguous soils and lot size.
C. Bow hunting.
Moved by Phil Zietlow, seconded by Ann Thies, to approve the agenda as amended. Motion
passed unanimously.
2. Approval of the Minutes from October 20, 1998
One correction, page 6, item 15, last sentence, change to read, "Loren Kohnen said that he had
already started working on this issue and that it is being taken care of."
3. Consent Agenda
A. Resolution 98-65 Granting a Conditional Use Permit To Suburban Hennepin
Regional Park District for Campground Administration Building.
B. Resolution 98-66 Granting a Variance to Michael Kerrision and Dawn Kerrision.
C. Resolution 98-67 Granting a Conditional Use Permit to Jeff and Chris Cates.
Moved by Zietlow, seconded by Thies, to approve the consent agenda as presented. Motion
passed unanimously.
Comments from Residents in Attendance on Items Not on the Agenda
There were none.
4. Park Commission Comments
Jim Dillman said that the trail in the park had been paved, the ballfield will be seeded this
weekend and that completes the summer plans for the parks.
5. Planning Commission Comments
Loren Kohnen said that there would be five more items on the next commission meeting.
Later in the meeting Susie Mackay added to the comments. She asked the council if they would
be okay with setting up a joint meeting to discuss the tree ordinance. She said that the planning
commission had a public hearing on the tree ordinance and nobody showed up. She said the
planning commission would like to meet with the city council before moving forward on this
ordinance.
The city council said to go ahead and set up a meeting.
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November 4, 1998
226
OLD BUSINESS
6. Lake Medina Lake Level Outlet Control
John Ferris said the issue this evening was a discussion about installing an outlet structure to
control the level of Lake Medina.
He said there was a petition before the council to lower the lake level by about two feet to 978.3
feet. Previously there was an application to control the lake level permanently at 980 feet.
Ferris said the current idea is being discussed is a compromise. It includes installing a non-
permanent weir that would allow the lake level to be controlled, lowering the lake level in the fall
and raising the lake level in the spring.
Ferris said that no action would be taken on this proposal tonight. He said another meeting
would be held to discuss a plan for raising and lowering the lake level. This meeting would
involve the department of natural resources, the city, and other involved parties.
Ferris said they would like to pursue this solution to see if it would work. This option would
lower the lake level year-round by six inches and hopefully take some of the water off of the
upstream properties limiting the cattail growth and resolving some of their problems. He said
nobody knows for sure if this will work and it may take two to three years before there are any
significant changes. Ferris said they would like to try this solution. He said it may be a win -win
solution for both the upstream property owners as well as those property owners who live along
the lake and would like to keep as much open water as possible.
Ferris said they are trying to come up with a solution that will benefit the greatest number of
people.
Becky Hoveida, 4375 Shorewood Trail, said that research she has read stated that deeper
water is the better than shallow water for restriction of cattail development. She said she had a
lot on the lake and was concerned that this proposal would increase instead of reduce the
number of cattails on her property.
John Ferris said they are hoping that reducing the lake level will have less impact on areas
along the lake where it is believed to be deeper, versus the upstream properties that have much
shallower properties.
Becky Hoveida said she was told that Lake Medina was once a lake. She said if you look at the
maps at city hall, they show the lake much larger than it is today.
Phil Zietlow said that it may have been a lake at one time, but many years ago, and that it filled
in over time.
John Ferris said the lake is there today because of a project done by Wally Doerr where he
dredged an area to create open water in the mid 80's. Ferris said that Mr. Doerr had a permit
from the DNR for that activity.
There was some discussion about whether or not the properties would become dry enough to
reduce the number of cattails.
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November 4, 1998
227
Becky Hoveida said there are cattails even in areas that seem dry such as in the culverts along
Trunk Highway 55.
Phil Zietlow said that cattails need water to grow. Eventually, if the property does dry out the
cattails would be reduced.
John Ferris said right now we need to create an operating plan so that all parties involved have
something to review. He said we need to work together with enough process to make sure that
all parties have some say in the creation of the plan.
John Shishilla, 4335 Shorewood Drive, said it was great to have the city working for everybody
on this issue. He just wanted to seek a better understanding of the entire issue. He said as he
understands it, the current proposal includes a plan to lower the lake level in the fall and then
raise the lake back up in the spring. He said this would fill the lake faster in the spring and
reduce the amount of water backing up on the upstream properties. He said this would not
significantly change the lake in the summer except for exposing a little more of the shoreline.
Timmie Andrews, 4290 Arrowhead Drive, said they used to get 1,000 bales of hay off of the
property that is currently cattails.
Dick Stone, 4557 Lake Drive, said he wants to understand how lowering the lake level in the fall
and allowing it to rise in the summer will stop cattails.
John Ferris said that the lake level itself will be dropped around six inches from its current level.
It is hoped over a two to three year period it will dry off a portion of the properties upstream.
Dick Stone asked how low they expect it to go in the fall.
John Ferris said it cannot go any lower than the lowest outlet point, or the culvert, which is at
978.63, or around 17 inches lower than the current lake level.
Leonard Andrews asked how much a weir would cost.
Jim Dillman said that it would cost around $5,000 at the most.
Mr. Andrews said it would be better to dig out the current obstruction and leave it at that.
John Ferris said in this case putting in an adjustable weir gives the city more control and allows
for a greater number of solutions.
Elaine Anderson, 945 Foxberry Farms Road, asked how much the DNR had been involved or if
the city had involved some experts concerning on the impact of the proposal on the environment
and on the current wetlands.
John Ferris said that representatives of the DNR were at the last work group meeting and will be
at the next meeting.
Dick Stone said currently there is around 200 feet of private property which includes wetlands.
He wanted to know what the impact would be if it was lowered by six inches. Would there be
significantly more wetlands or not.
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November 4, 1998
228
John Ferris said he did not know but that he would ask that question at the Tuesday morning
meeting.
Marc Anderson, representing Lundgren Brothers said evidentially they opened up a can of
worms with the request to place a permanent control structure at Lake Medina. He said that
Lundgren was not aware of the history of the lake and how the upstream property owners had
been affected over the years. Lundgren Brothers believes that this current solution of raising
and lowering the lake level is an opportunity to come up with a solution that will help solve a
problem that has evidently been going on for 20 plus years. He said this will also help to
maintain some usable open water for the homeowners currently living on or near the lake.
He said Lundgren would like the city to involve the homeowners association in these
discussions.
John Ferris said that Lundgren could bring a representative of the homeowners association to
the Tuesday morning meeting.
John Ferris thanked everybody for coming and encouraged them to keep up to date on this
issue and that it would be back on the next agenda.
7. Approval of the Loretto Police Contract
Ed Belland said that he and the City of Loretto have reviewed the police contract included in the
council packet. He said the City of Loretto was okay with everything except for the section
pertaining to liability.
He said that when he asked Ron Batty to review the contract, Loretto had also asked their
attorney to review the contract. Both attorneys work for the same firm and believe there might
be a conflict of interest in reviewing the contract.
Ron Batty said the potential for conflict has never come up before. He said that the chiefs
always dealt on business terms with the City of Loretto. However, in this instance there was a
potential for conflict. He said at 4:30 this afternoon he got the okay from his firm to review the
contract. He said the City of Loretto said they would hire an outside attorney.
There was some discussion about who would reword the liability section.
Phil Zietlow said that since the City of Loretto wanted this section changed, he suggested that
Loretto draft this section and give it to the City of Medina for review.
The consensus of the council was to follow that suggestion.
8. Safe and Sober Grant
Ed Belland said that the city was not awarded the safe and sober grant for 1998-99. He said
that he would like to use $4,000 from the forfeiture fund to run a safe and sober type program.
Phil Zietlow asked if it would be as effective as the previous safe and sober program.
Ed Belland said he believed it would be. He said during the previous safe and sober program
Medina worked together with several other cities and that they were usually only in Medina a
quarter of the time.
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November 4, 1998
229
Ed said in this instance the officers would be doing nothing but traffic enforcement in Medina for
the entire time and only answer emergencies outside of traffic issues.
There was some discussion about where fines are currently. Belland said that fine revenue will
exceed the amount budgeted in 1998.
Moved by Ann Thies, seconded by Phil Zietlow, to approve $4, 000 for the safe and sober
program from the city's forfeiture fund. Motion passed unanimously.
9. Bow Hunting
Phil Zietlow said at the last meeting the council said they would work on the bow hunting issue
raised by residents.
Ed Belland said he looked at the state statutes and also asked hunters for feedback. Hunters
said that if they were on the property line they would not shoot over the property line but would
shoot inward towards the interior of a property.
Phil Zietlow said that it is more an issue of nervousness of seeing a bow hunter on the property
line and not knowing where the bow hunter would be shooting.
There was some discussion about how far away typically a bow hunter shoots.
Phil Zietlow said that he had talked to some hunters who said they typically are only 20 to 30
yards away from their target.
There was some discussion about whether or not the city should require the bow hunter to be
off the ground.
Loren Kohnen said in Corcoran bow hunters are required to be six feet above the ground and
100 feet from property lines.
Ed Belland said he would collect some additional ordinances and information on this issue and
bring it back to the city council.
Phil Zietlow said he would like to get more input from hunters about the usefulness of these
restrictions.
10. Livable Communities Resolution
Moved by Ann Thies, seconded by Phil Zietlow, to approve the Livable Communities
Resolution 98-68. Motion passed unanimously.
11. Comprehensive Plan Deadline Extension
Moved by Phil Zietlow, seconded by Ann Thies, to approve the Resolution 98-69 requesting an
extension for the comprehensive plan. Motion passed unanimously.
12. Contiguous Soils
John Ferris said recently this issue came up on a property owned by Tom Tumham. He said
that Mr. Turnham has a 16-acre parcel with a lot of wetlands on it. He said he would like to
subdivide the parcel into two. However, if he were to subdivide the property the current
requirement for 2.5 acres of contiguous soils would render the parcel where the house currently
sits non -conforming. Ferris said this caused himself and Phil Zietlow to reconsider the
Medina City Council Meeting Minutes
November 4, 1998
230
ordinance requiring 5 acres of contiguous soils which would probably require a 10 to 11 acre lot
in order to build.
He said he didn't see a problem with a 7 or 8 acre parcel.
There was some discussion about the alternatives.
Phil Zietlow said after reviewing this issue, it seems like the requirement for 5 acres of
contiguous soils might have exceeded a common sense rationale. He said the goal of the
ordinance was to avoid septic problems and to have large lots.
Loren Kohnen said it would be better for the city to consider changing the ordinance versus
trying to establish some type of hardship for allowing less than 5 acres of contiguous soils.
Loren Kohnen said he could take a look at the impact of this change and the number of potential
lots that would be developable based on 2.5 and 5 acre contiguous soils.
John Ferris said maybe the ordinance would require 2.5 acres of contiguous soils and at least a
lot of 7 to 10 acres in size.
The council directed Loren Kohnen to calculate the impact of the change in the ordinance, then
present ideas for consideration to the planning commission for discussion at some point in
December at the earliest.
Moved by Phil Zietlow, seconded by Ann Thies to direct staff to research this issue and discuss
the impact with the mayor and to then direct this issue to the planning commission. Motion
passed unanimously.
13. Canvass the Municipal Election Results
Canvas of the City Election
Mayor
Votes
Tom Blanchetler 2
Jerry Brost 1
John B. Ferris 1547
Ann Heideman 1
Micka Johnson 1
Jim Johnson 1
Matt Johnson 1
Common Man 1
Mickey Mouse 1
Dave Penk 1
Dan Ripple 1
Tom Schock 1
Matt Smaciarz 1
Kevin Wagman 1
Tom Wakefield 1
Dave Wessin 1
A Yellow -Dog 1
Medina City Council Meeting Minutes
November 4, 1998
231
City Council (Top Two)
Dennis Anderson 1
Anybody 1
Gerald Brost 1
Gia DeYoung 1
Else 1
Dave Ferin 1
Steve Hammerschmidt 1
Steven P. Lundell 754
Keith Morical 1
Gary Petrucci 1
Ross Richey 1
Theresa Richey 1
Steve Scherer 1
Carolyn A. Smith 1057
Bill Wallas 1
Mike Wolff 1
Debbie Wolff 1
Philip K. Zietlow 771
Moved by Ann Thies, seconded by Phil Zietlow, to approve the election results. Motion
passed unanimously.
14. 1999 Budget
Paul Robinson said for review this evening were all of the budgets for the funds outside of the
general fund. He said this included the special revenue funds, the debt service funds, the
capital improvement funds, and the enterprise funds.
Robinson reviewed some of the larger issues with the revenues and expenditures.
Robinson said, on the revenue side, revenues in the debt service funds were decreasing
because of reductions in special assessment revenue. He said a number of people have
recently paid off deferred assessments when properties were purchased and other
assessments were reaching their term.
Robinson said revenues in the environmental fund come from antenna revenue. He said next
year the city should received around $45,000. He said the biggest increase in revenue from the
water and sewer funds were in the Hamel system. This was caused by an increase in sales of
water and a related increase in sewer usage. He said the increase in sales was caused by a
number of new homes in the Foxberry Farms development and from some of the newer
commercial/industrial developments.
On the expenditure side, Robinson said a number of funds do not have budgeted figures.
Monies in these funds are spent on an as needed basis with council approval. Robinson said
the debt service funds are basically paying off the bonds.
He said fund 303 will not have enough revenue to complete the bond payments for 1999 and
will require a transfer from the general fund in order to make those payments.
Medina City Council Meeting Minutes
November 4, 1998
232
Robinson reviewed the expenditures from the previous two years in the revolving capital fund.
He said no large capital expenditures were budgeted for in 1999.
Robinson said in the equipment replacement fund the public works department was budgeting
for a new truck for $110,000.
He said the largest change in expenditures in the water and sewer fund was for a new generator
and an increase in the cost for sewer service related to the increased sewer flows in the Hamel
system.
15. Purchase of a Postage Meter
Paul Robinson said that at the end of the year all of the postage meters will be required to have
electronic metering. He said we will be required to replace our postage meter. Robinson said
he compared a number of different companies for the postage meter and decided on an
Ascomb Hassler. He wanted to know if the city council would like to purchase this machine
using money in the contingency fund or to lease it as the previous machine had been leased.
Moved by Phil Zietlow, seconded by Ann Thies, to approve purchasing the postage. Motion
passed unanimously.
16. Septic Ordinance
Loren Kohnen said he was concemed about completing the septic ordinance. He said if the city
does not complete one by the end of the year, they will be required to use Hennepin County's.
He thinks the city would like to maintain more control over the septic ordinance. He said he has
asked the city attorney a number of times to work on this ordinance and has not yet received a
draft.
John Ferris asked if the city could use some type of model ordinance.
Loren Kohnen said he does have ordinances from Dayton and Orono. He described some of
the hoops in the approval process and some of the new requirements for the septic ordinance.
Paul Robinson asked who drafted the Dayton ordinance.
Loren Kohnen said that he did.
The city council directed Loren Kohnen to work on a draft of the ordinance and bring it to the
planning commission for discussion.
17. Approval of the Bills
Moved Phil Zietlow, seconded by Jim Johnson, to approve the bills, order check #s 18994-
19038 for $63,014.95, and payroll check #15832-15850 for $13, 845.37. Motion passed
unanimously.
18. Adjournment
Moved by Ann Thies, seconded by Jim Johnson, to adjoum the meeting at 9:05 p. m. Motion
passed unanimously.
o n B. Ferris,Mayor
a o
Paul Robinson, City Clerk -Treasurer
Medina City Council Meeting Minutes
November 4, 1998
233
ORDER CHECKS — NOVEMBER 4, 1998
18994 P. E. R.A. $ 2,955.27
18995 Great West Life 575.00
18996 Minnesota Mutual 375.00
18997 MN State Retirement Assn 205.00
18998 A T & T Wireless 36.51
18999 A T & T Wireless Long Distance 2.54
19000 B & B Products 41.54
19001 Batteries Plus 87.31
19002 B iff's, Inc. 365.59
19003-4 Bonestroo, Rosene, Anderlik 6,419.42
19005 Bryan Rock Products 10,063.32
19006 Classic Cleaning 191.70
19007 Delta Dental 648.35
19008 E-Z-Recycling 2,364.12
19009 Rolf Erickson Enterprises, Inc 3,022.36
19010 Gary's Diesel Service 1,388.09
19011 GE Capital Info. Tech. 497.36
19012 Goodin Co 2.36
19013 Gopher State One Call 218.75
19014 Hennepin Co. Treas., Acctg. Svcs. 998.75
19015 Hennepin County Sheriff 1,019.65
19016-17 Kennedy & Graven 5,691.20
19018 Kustom Siglans 3,525.15
19019 Lawson Products, Inc 115.76
19020 League of Minnesota Cities 204.00
19021 Medica Choice 2,782.75
19022 Metro Council Enviro. Services 10,953.75
19023 Minnegasco 77.50 \
19024 Minnesota Historical Society 44.45
19025 Northern States Power 2,338.98
19026 Perry's Truck Repair 271.92
19027 Postmaster 500.00
19028 Public Safety Equipment 88.20
19029 Randy's Sanitation 81.27 \
19030 Roto Rooter 256.25
19031 Steven Scherer 24.81
19032 Schoell & Madson, Inc. 271.92
19033 Streicher's 32.68
19034 Superior Striping 140.00
19035 Twin City Water Clinic 20.00
19036 U.S. Filter/Waterpro 3,554.41
19037 U.S. West Communications 486.36
Medina City Council Meeting Minutes
November 4, 1998
234
ORDER CHECKS — NOVEMBER 4, 1998 (CONT'D)
19038 UNUM 75.60
$63,014.95
PAYROLL CHECKS — OCTOBER 26, 1998
15832 John Hamilton $ 138.52
15833 Ann C. Thies 138.52
15834 John B. Ferris 207.79
15835 Philip K. Zietlow 138.52
15836 James R. Johnson 138.52
15837 Paul A. Robinson 925.76
15838 Steven T. Scherer 961.06
15839 Christopher R. McGill 867.54
15840 Michael J. Rouillard 562.51
15841 Scott W. Kroeger 1,143.95
15842 James D. Dillman 1,391.26
15843 Robert P. Dressel 903.29
158441 Edgar J. Belland 1,454.79
15845 Martha C. Lundell 294.66
15846 Cecilia M. Vieau 921.69
15847 Laura L. Sulander 930.97
15848 Sandra L. Larson 709.21
15849 Jon D. Priem 1,238.96
15850 Jeremy L. Christenson 777.85
$13,845.37
Medina City Council Meeting Minutes
November 4, 1998