##VIDEO ID:xpblvFT3z3w## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e good evening and welcome to the Newport city council meeting today is Thursday October 17th 2024 we'll begin the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance I alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God isible with liy and justice for all will staff please call the role council member suner here council member Taylor here council member Ingam here council member chapalain here and mayor Elliot here um next on our agenda is to adopt the agenda do we have any changes to the agenda this evening hearing none I'll make a motion to accept I'll second I have a motion from council member chapelain and a second from council member ingan to adopt the agenda as presented all those in favor say I I those opposed the agenda is adopted um next on our agenda we have a presentation from the Ramsey Washington Recycling and energy center it's an update and an introduction of the new executive director or new executive director Tristan Maron so I would like to call um Washington County Commissioner Carla bigam to the podium oh thank you mayor and Council as you could tell from my voice I'm probably not the the best person to be speaking tonight so I will be brief but I just wanted to uh say thank you for allowing us to present uh tonight uh we are a proud partner in this community with you um and I could not be more excited about everything we are doing at the recycling and energy center uh under the leadership of uh the new executive director Tristan Martinson who I'll get to in a second and the plant manager Sam Hall along with the incredible uh staff that we have uh working very hard every day there uh at the recycling Energy Center um uh recently we hired uh trist Martinson to be our executive director uh who's a one a personal friend of mine an incomparable leader uh she is a former Ramsey County Commissioner but also served in three branches of our military and uh it's just an amazing leader uh and has done uh so much uh in this realm of recycling and energy and has incredible passion uh for this industry but also was really an instrumental leader and where we are today in in this program and so uh I'm not going to spend any more time on my voice so uh I will I have Trista come on up uh and uh introduce herself and then uh plant manager um Sam Hall will be doing the presentation uh the annual presentation but thank you again for letting us be here today thank you Carla wow with an introduction like that I should got this job sooner hello I'm Trista martinon as uh commissioner Bingham said I'm the new executive director of the recycling energy this is a new role at the recycling energy it previously was a joint leadership team of two counties it is now grown and matured at the recycling center um we still are governed by two counties but um we know that we need one leadership so that we can go with Direction and the counties now trust each other Ramsey and Washington have been working together for a long enough that we trust each other um and to know that this work is really great it's also great to finally meet uh council member ingin in person because you know I've served on the on the I served on the board at Arne for the last five years while I was a commissioner before I took this job and he's always just been a voice in our meetings on zoom and it suddenly appears like God and so uh so it's great to meet him in person and know he's real and he's been a great partner on the recycling in energy too always has great things to say that's scary um and it really is a great opportunity as uh commissioner Bingham said I formerly was a Ramsey County Commissioner and the board chair and I resigned that seat in August to take on this role and uh as fellow elected officials I can my joke is that I gave up politics for trash and it's a much cleaner business um and it really has been a great opportunity for the work that we're doing at the recycling and energy center uh just today we were touring taking a tour with one of our partner um facilities uh Walter's uh trash service right up in Blaine but actually will be one of the sites for additional um food scrap sorting sortation sites and so they were coming here to take a tour of our site as they're looking to expand and check out our odor system um you know because of course their city is concerned about odor and smell and I said oh you got to listen to what we're seeing in Newport and they've been great partners with us to both help us get better but hold us accountable as well um Sam Hall our facilities uh director will uh give our presentation our annual odor report but it's been really great to be here with you all and to meet you in person and of course you're always welcome to come anytime to the facility whether you want to hold a meeting or just stop by for a visit we've got great things going on so thank you with that I'll turn it over to Sam Ho thank you well good afternoon mayor council members Joe I think I'm ready for the uh presentation if you can put it up there oh all right great what's that oh well uh good afternoon again um I'm going to go ahead and just give a a brief update on the r& center on our food scrap program then I'm going to transition to the highlights from our 2023 annual order report and then just transition to 2024 activities next slide please so here's the r& center it's been there for 37 years it's it's growing a little bit as far as some enhancements and additions um as a reminder the C's purchased the facility in 2016 and we've took taken over ownership and operations since 2018 so I kind of compare it when I'm giving tours or telling the stories that we're kind of a a Brady Bunch or a Frankenstein of an organization I have a great number of employees that have been there for 37 years and I have their kids that are working there now and I also have we've grown on a lot because um the r& from a Personnel view it's 116 people on paper but that includes three different departments so we have the joint activities Department that works within the two counties to help reduce reuse recycle you know they they're often the ones out here promoting the food scrap program the the ones um working with the bis recycling events and the working with the businesses and how to reduce their trash bill and reduce their trash footprint and then we also have uh administrative department so we have you know a core Department that just keeps the business running so our our admin HR accounting and a payable and so that uh of that and I'll I'll be proud to say that 75 Union staff with the ibw Local 23 that we've had a great relationship in fact there um we had the contract negotiations about a month ago that last the whole two hours and the the the union ratified their um contract on Monday that we submitted it to our facility and finance committee on Monday as well and it'll go to our full board for approval in November so I think that's a just a great Testament and example of how well this this organization is running and then uh by the way we we make rdf every day all day 364 days a year we're not we're not here to make money we're here as an environmental health tool and so we're proud to say that we divert 88% of the materials from landfill and with that we're sending um refu derived fuel to homes or to plants and Redwing man and we're also collecting recyclables on top of that and maximizing the environmental health benefit from the the two counties and just as a kind of a fun fact um you know all of the waste from the two counties comes to Newport or should come to Newport and that's 14% of the state's waste and so just from an envir environmental health benefit that's a great tool that uh your neighbor just north of here is providing so next slide please so this is just our our wacky footprint of the all the the lanes and Logistics that's going in and out of the facility I'll highlight the light blue Lanes that's the um the trucks that are coming in from the transfer stations so right now we contract with five transfer stations um that's about to go down to two in the next couple years when we install robots with two new partners half the trash comes directly to the r center from the hollers um that's the dark blue lines and the the light green lines that represents the Organics that we're separating and collecting so that food scrap program is live and it's working and we're every week we have a a shipment of organic food scrap bags are going down to the Shaka metak Su Community Compost Facility and guess what they're accepting it and it's making um food derived compost material and then the the orange lines are really our transportation Lanes to the Excel waste energy facilities in Redwing and man and we have trucks delivering fuel uh day and night seven days a week so next slide um now just drop into the food scrap program real quick next slide please and this is just kind of a highlight of phase one and phase two um the first phase was included the City of Newport happy to say there's 11% participation within the residents here and that was April of last year and then uh let's see here October of last year if I'm correct me and then April of this year we went to phase two and then uh those are the communities that were included in that roll out in the next slide please and then as of October 1st we launched phase our phase three and our Final Phase for the r& center for the communities that are will be participating to with the food scrap program so all these communities now and all the Direct Delivery communities that go to the RNA center now have the ability to um Vol or to participate in the food scrap program uh next slide please so I will transition into the I have all I'll stop at the end for questions and if there's any clarifications needed but I'll transition to the older report update next slide please um so so odor monitoring review so we do weekly monitoring uh 52 weeks a year during the summer we're doing two two days two random odor visits uh per week and then one weekend per um one weekend per month during the summer and the winter month starting in November we're going to one one day a week and then one weekend in the month and then there's also a pwn request so every morning I'm I roll down the window usually drive around the city of Newport see if there's any smells and if there's either a northwest wind or something I detect that may be trash then I'll I'll request our engineering firm F to come out and do a bar or a nasal Ranger test um so the the kind of the middle bolt there Summer of the Capital Improvements and investments just want to remind we've made significant deliberate investments into this facility since we purchased this and began operation in 2018 it's approximately about $2 million worth of expenditures as far as Capital Improvements and operating expenses we've since we've purchased the facility we've installed three different or three of the same Odor Control units from Omi and that's the the units that pump out the juice or the vapor that you know basically attacks the odor molecules and it's not a masking agent you know we're not trying to cover it up it actually attacks and you know eliminates the odor molecules that exit exits the vehicle or the the building um we also extended our load out in uh 2021 it was I think from February to March it was three of the coldest weeks of the year but we dug up concrete poured concrete and and um erected a steel building during that time and so that's really helped with the odor and the litter um because that's our where the loadout trailers were that were they were previously sticking out of the building but now they're they're enclosed and if you see the blue uh garage doors are typically closed when the trailers aren't moving in or out and then operating expenses and Engineering service we actually have annual operating expenses to include the omai the 55 gon Drums of the juice then we also have pay for the engineering service they they uh they do a great job they they help us they keep us honest and they have you know documentation of that we aren't an odor generator we're a good partner we're a good neighbor and that's the way we want to be it and and you guys keep us on our toes I mean you know you guys are pretty close but there's two apartment buildings even closer so it's it's I would say you know we try our best to be a very good neighbor and I I hope we look like that in the community um and it's it's a great example of what can be done differently to be a good neighbor not everyone in this community is and there's still maybe some not so good PR in the community about being an order generator um and I I'll in the next slide I'll go over some of the events but since I've been in I've been at AR for 5 years I've been in the seat for three years I haven't had an odor complaint in the last three years not to say that we haven't had odor detects but they've been minor and on the delution threshold of you know I think our limit is is a far is being a reportable event with a City of Newport is a delution threshold of seven and the highest we've had is a two or lower and uh next slide please um so this is kind of the these are the kind of the the history of what we've done as far as evolving in odor um our engineering firm in 2016 did a study we started order monitoring in 17 we've added locations and and adjusted our locations through actually up until this year next slide please uh yep so the odor monitoring that we're doing that's a nasal range I don't have one it looks as about as fancy is that one looks up there it's nothing too fancy but it is a scientific approach to measuring and detecting odor um we'll do we conduct it at six different locations each time we go out I mentioned the summer versus winter and we we're also cognizant of the wind and which way you know what direction we are from the City of Newport so when there's certain wind directions we come out automatically to you know be proactive if there's any odor potential odor gener generation events from the wind next slide please um here's the sites uh they're still current the only recommendation you know this is this study report was actually done in SE March um but we were just getting late to present this to you guys but so we're already doing what was the the what we've changed from there and what we've changed from last year to this year is we changed from the cold stored location to from a monitoring spot to actually we're monitoring orders here at the city hall um next slide and here's kind of here's here's proof in the pudding right here so here's our our 2023 numbers for older inspections so you can see the number from first quarter second quarter third and fourth quarter total of 702 modering events of that we had eight detects of MSW or trash um and that was as I said stated earlier that was a delution threshold of two or less and are for it to be a recognized order event it has to be seven or higher and just to highlight on here um next slide please I'll go back a slide so I don't have it on this slide but there was 26 other non mswd detex so when we go out there we'll document even if it's not mssw so if it's burning wood if it's a rendering plant we'll document that as well to say hey there are other orders out here and here's the the frequency of those when we're out and visiting so we also have that in our order report um but yeah of the of the detections that we had it was eight during the whole year and there were a two or less each time that we did it and there was 26 other non mswd texts from that we did during our our visits next slide and so our recommendations from 23 to 24 as I highlighted earlier was just moving the detection location from the cold storage to the um City Hall here that way it's you know more accurate as far as anything that you guys may perceive so and next slide so that's it so thank you and I guess available for there's any questions or comments but you know it's been a great partnership we we like being here we provide a lot of good jobs I mean the we we have you know it's great to see a Workforce where I have people that have been several people that have been there for 37 years and you know our maintenance supervisor both of his kids are working there now and and one is in the mechanic apprenticeship program and one's about to enter into the uh processor apprenticeship program so that's you know not only you know our employees trust this place to have their kids there but there's also uh Union advancement as well so well thank you for that presentation always interesting to hear about the things going on over there and and what's new and and some of your reports and stuff any questions from the council at all no share that is that full report shared with our staff I'm just if I just want to sit there and browse it on a yeah I will I will as a follow-up item I can share the actual report um it's that it's got all of the the monitoring dates and times and weather conditions and and it's a full read but yeah I'll share it out with the the mayor and councel thank you and I know commissioner bam uh talked a little bit about the center and also you know people can come in and stop in and say hello um I see online as well any Resident or anybody within the counties can sign up for a tour and so those are open to the public it looks like you do probably two days a week uh that those slots are open for people if they want to learn more about what's going on there how the composting works when you throw that green bag into your garbage bin um so uh just want to let the public know about that as well I do want to thank all three of you too just for being so responsive to the community and uh for your commitment to Solutions and not just kind of nodding and saying yes there's a problem with the odor that's it's bad you know really you know financially you made the commitment um to pay for those kinds of solutions so that the whole thing can move forward because that's easily something people could have gotten stuck on and so I appreciate that in particular with you located right in Newport so um and we you're right about the uh Northwest winds those are the ones that that blow the odors in so so thank you for all the things you're doing over there and the really good work and again just a reminder out there to everyone please pick up a compost starter kit at City Hall um about 20% of the waste that's going into the landfill is composted compostable food and um it turns into methane gas which is not good because it's not something that we can breathe so we want more oxygen and they'll take the compost and turn it into a usable into usable soil so um please do that it's it's fairly easy you talk to anyone who's done it you get your bag get your bucket throw it in I don't always have to put my trash out every week but every week I tie up that bag it goes into the freezer because it will start going through the bag after uh 7 days so then on garbage day I can take it out and it's all set to go so uh it's a it's a pretty really simple option for people to use so thank you so much for coming out tonight thank you mayor next on our agenda is public comments and as I see the chambers clearing of members of the public uh we'll move on uh they were apparently all here to learn about Recycling and energy center so after that we have our consent agenda is there the consent agenda all items are approved in a single uh motion they're considered to be routine by the city council and there is no separate action unless a council member or someone so requests is there anything that someone would like removed from consent I'll move the consent agenda I'll second I have a motion from council member ingan and a second from council member chap delain to adopt the consent agenda any discussion all those in favor say I I those opposed the consent agenda is adopted next on our agenda is the Washington County Sheriff's Office report and Sergeant Harold is with us this evening good evening May mayor Elliot members of the council I don't have anything formal to report I would like to introduce you to our newest Deputy Dylan Jong he's been with us since the end of June early July unfortunately his schedule he normally works three nights uh Power afternoon and an afternoon shift so this was the first opportunity I had to bring him here to introduce you but he's been here with us for a couple months now um he wants to be here and I picked him to be here because of his personality and his work product so he's a good addition to our our deputies and just wanted you to put a face to the name so okay you won't to see him too much CU he only works one afternoon rotation but okay he's protecting you at night so um I'll stand for questions for me or if anybody has a question for Dylan feel free okay thank you for coming in so we could we could meet you that's always kind of fun to know who's out there thanks for working that overnight shift I know that not an easy shift to to typically work but for new people that's where you are Hy council member suner I'd be curious why you chose Newport other than working with the sergeant yeah so the reason I chose Newport is uh you know the calls down here are great um the community down here is awesome I once lived in St Paul Park so it was very close to home Okay and like I said I I enjoy being down here I felt like this is home and I mean although we're not at St Paul Park it is still home to me yes we're two pretty small communities for sure for sure thanks and welcome yes thank you have a good night thank you thank you next we have the uh fire chief's report I see Sergeant or Sergeant Chief Wy is unable to be with us this evening so we will move on to the uh Engineers report Mr heran good evening mayor members of the council I have a handful of items this evening uh starting with our 2025 Street and utility improvements project uh in your packet is a uh copy of the feasibility study that the uh Council ordered uh back on September 5th uh we have uh we've completed the feasibility study and it's uh presented to the council uh for your acceptance and then ultimately if the CH Council uh decides to move forward we'd be looking for a motion to uh proceed with a Improvement hearing uh uh later on likely next month uh a couple highlights of the uh of the feasibility study uh we had uh also completed a storm sewer capacity uh study in conjunction uh to verify if the existing storm sewer uh corridors uh going east to west to the river had sufficient capacity to take on the uh proposed improvements along second and third Avenue Unfortunately they do not uh we looked at the uh 21st Street Corridor which is already probably close to if not at capacity uh we looked into 16th Street which takes on most of the storm water from the east side of 61 as well as a lot of the storm water uh from the highway itself uh so that is a pretty large piping and already pretty close to capacity and as well as 15th Street um that is that's close to capacity and couldn't accept the additional flow um we chose or the uh the feasibility study uh identify 17th Street as the uh the most cost effective uh storm sewer or storm sewer uh Corridor for a few reasons one because it is uh generally in the center of the project so we can minimize the amount of collection piping that's needed north and south to collect that storm water um unfortunately we do I mean we have curban gutter on that street now um so that part of that curban gutter is going to have to be removed we're likely going to work on on the south side of the street we are going to have some challenges with the mellan pipeline going through that Corridor as well but uh we're confident that we can work through those um those challenges in the uh uh in the design process uh we had originally hope that we could utilize some of that uh uh some of the existing infrastructure and we will to a certain extent but we do need this additional Corridor so the overall cost of the or the estimated total project cost cost for the improvements which include Second Avenue between 17th Street and 15th Street thir Avenue between 21st Street down to 16th Street and with the inclusion of 17th Street between 3rd Avenue down to Cedar Lane the total cost for uh replacing the street uh and adding curban gutter to those sections a complete replacement of the sanitary sewer a complete replacement of the water M and then the addition of storm sewer uh as well as uh contingency inflation and overhead costs is just over $8 million 8,318 uh we do have a few sources of funding for this project uh that we plan to use the uh the $2.75 million grant that we received from the mech Council for inii reduction we're estimating around 1 .6 million or so in private property assessments we'll have a little bit more on that in a moment and then using a combination of Enterprise funds from the from water sewer and the storm water uh utility that is approximately uh it's uh the uh the full 8 uh 8 million amount uh staff is also looking into some other opportunities including some resiliency grants for storm water uh through mpca uh we do have a a bonding bill um uh through the state legislature that we're still pursuing and potentially some uh Congressional directed funding so while we don't have the complete picture yet we uh we feel we're pretty close to that uh uh to fully funding that project and uh we can scale this project uh primarily on Third Avenue we could you know perhaps um adjust the full scope of that street section if needed um as we kind of work through the design and uh and getting the the funding picture a little clearer uh I mentioned assessments uh we did uh um look at our past uh assessment rates uh typically we have provided four separate assessment rates one for the street one for water one for sewer and one for storm and this kind of enables us some flexibility that if you don't have a water service but you are AB budding the street we can proportion that you know fairly across all the different uh uh benefiting properties uh for the uh using the uh rates that we used on our most recent construction project which was 12th Avenue and 12th Street improvements back in 2020 uh the total assessment if you received all four was around $99,000 uh our uh local Improvement policy uh uh suggests that at at least 20% of a a project like this should be assessed to the benefiting Property Owners so long as that assessment doesn't exceed the amount of benefit that the property owners receive if we were to use that 9,000 um or assessment uh and apply it to this project we would come up with about 11% of the total project costs uh a lot of that cost is due to storm sewer and then the uh as well as the Bedrock that needs to be removed to install new storm sewer most of the water and sewer are in its own trench the Bedrock has already been removed so we can we don't have that uh or additional cost the storm sewer is a bit of a different uh situation where we're going to have to put that into new Bedrock so that's one of our primary goals for the project is to minimize that uh Bedrock excavation um we and I can I can share this if uh this is why I brought this with uh in on uh page 11 of the of the feasibility study uh tables 81 and 82 uh lay out the proposed oh well the the current assessment rates as I mentioned the uh the 9,000 uh per per unit gets us to be just shy at 12% of of the uh total project cost we suggest uh some addition or uh a revised assessment amounts which get up to about 15,900 that puts us at just over that 20% uh we are recommending that the city um uh or complete a benefit appraisal or hire a a qualified firm to complete a benefit appraisal to make sure that these rates are appropriate and reflect the benefit that a property owner would receive from this project uh that is one item in the uh in the in the packet that we're in the uh in the packet that we're requesting your approval for uh but before we before we do that we also um on our 2020 Improvement project we had assess some property owners that weren't immediately uh adjacent to the improvements for a storm water benefit uh if you recall 12th Avenue is kind of up the bluff line from 11th Avenue but by installing the cban gutter and the storm storm sewer we we uh believe that that provided a benefit to those Property Owners Downstream on 11th Avenue and those property owners were assessed for uh just a storm portion of the assessment we believe this similar case case uh for property owners on 17th Street as well as some on 4th Avenue and in other areas and actually why don't I show that map for reference my computer will catch up forgive me uh that again that aren't immediately on the project area but the addition of storm sewer will provide an outlet to backyard so the areas that I'm referring to are shown with these uh purple purple dots is Storm sewer only so when we bring storm sewer up 17th we can provide a storm sewer outlet for backyards along Fourth Avenue as well as uh bringing storm sewer and uh into that 3dr Avenue 12th Street intersection will will um alleviate some localized flooding in those areas um I guess the staff is looking for Council uh concurrence that we should at minimum invite these uh Property Owners to an improvement hearing solicit their feedback and then um potentially uh potentially include them on the on the project so with that uh let me jump to the uh uh my portion of the packet here we have uh two proposals that uh Council received for benefit appraisal um uh one was from uh BR KW appraisals uh and that was for $111,000 and one uh for vebridge property advisers for 16,000 uh bkw uh actually completed the city's last benefit appraisal back in 2013 which set our rates from uh for that Year's project and the and the rates before so we're we're very comfortable working with them and it is our recommendation that uh that Council accept that quote uh and and direct BR kW to start that benefit appraisal uh Unfortunately they are uh well I think the entire uh appraisal industry is uh is rather busy uh so they uh uh they would complete that benefit appraisal by the end of uh January um next year uh we would uh um in addition to the Improvement hearing we would likely hold a public informational meeting when we get our plans um to a point where we can share those with the property owners and at that time we can provide a little bit more information as to where the the results of that study and maybe um refine those or the range of Assessments so with that I'm happy to answer questions uh and I guess my first uh request for formal action is to accept brw's uh uh proposal to provide a benefit appraisal for the city okay so um then let's uh start with that any questions on this benefit appraisal we've talked about it at a couple of other meetings to really just establish uh the ceiling of what the assessment could be and have some legal in uh for that number so any no questions at this time make a motion we accept the proposal for vkw as described by John okay second have a motion from council member chap Delan and a second from council member ingan uh to accept that proposal for $111,000 fee any discussion all those in favor say I I those opposed uh that is approved so then accept yeah it I don't know that I need a formal motion but maybe concurrence that the approach of having or uh inviting property owners that aren't necessarily adjacent to the improvements uh to the Improvement hearing should the council order one is the appropriate uh is the appropriate approach and they potentially could be assessed for a storm water Improvement yeah I think I'd rather error on the uh side of caution and make sure that they get invited and then if in the final final analys is I mean this is all very preliminary at this stage so so I think yes invite them great everybody can come so then the formal action is uh resolution 2024-the uh I will mention that we have about 120 properties that are impacted by this uh or that are will be invited to this Improvement hearing uh so I would leave it up to council discretion if that November 7th date is appropriate or if you wanted to hold a special meeting for the purpose of this Improvement hearing alone okay I'm going to defer to staff what else do we have on that agenda um there are a number of items for the work session uh I can't think of anything else off the top of my head for the regular agenda so the work session might be a a little heavy um but that there will be at at least three items I can think off the top of my head for the work session okay um council do you want to schedule another separate meeting for this or would you like to do it on November 7th same day if we can November 7th is the answer all right then uh looking for a council motion to uh uh on resolution 20247 to accept the Improvement or accept the feasibility study and order the Improvement hearing I have uh resolution 20 2474 did I to 74 was the number that I was supposed to read I apologize that's okay I'll make a motion to accept that said resolution number 74 number 74 I'll second number 74 I think suar got in before you over there he was doing the quiet uh I'm in okay so have a motion from council member chapalain and a second from uh council member suar in resolution 20 24-24 74 74 sorry thank you oh my gosh I'm not helping myself I numbers yes4 okay thank you any further discussion all those in favor say I I those opposed and the resolution is adopted unless there are any other questions on the 2025 Street improvements I'll move on to the sanitary sewer manhole and leral replacement project got kind of general questions if I can can we get a key for the colors that are on that one map oh yeah with all those dots yeah it's on the bottom right corner but it didn't show in his blown up today and I didn't think I saw it so yeah I looked for it specifically the blue dots were water the red dots were Street purple was storm water something like that yeah I'll I'll dig deeper on it green is sanitary sewer okay okay yeah down there in the corner but you had to find glass yeah okay all right and then just a general question is in the city as our home values are going up is it reasonable that the benefit is going to go up are they going to find the benefits going up and is that also mean the assessments are going to go up for these homeowners well I I would like to defer to the appraiser uh but what I what I know what I can say is that the the assessment or the the the benefit for the Improvement is to the land that that is AB budding the Improvement it's not necessarily to the to the home uh and so if the home values go up that has less of an impact on the benefit than the land value does and that's and and the appraiser will do a good job of explaining that in in his report okay didn't we have a upper limit on how much the assessed value could be on previous uh assessment amounts the the upper limit is always what the benefit we can exceed the benefit that the Improvement provides to the uh property yes so that's the upper limit it is gener generally speaking that's you know not going to be more than like that 25 to 30% of the project cost so it's you know that 20% is usually pretty close to that benefit is theoretically these people could see a $9,000 assessment if that's the expected benefit is that what we that's what we have assessed in the past so I I think that would represent probably the low end okay and the upper end would be that 15 to 16,000 okay I think we're going to have a lot of people attending these meetings do you know John do we typically uh do assessments over a 10e payback correct okay thanks and we can provide what that uh not NE usually not well and we could I take that back at the Improvement hearing we can lay out what that kind of that uh annual payment would be uh if it is spread out over the 10 years at the at the effective interest rate and that's put on the property taxes correct do you know we were able to get some money from the Met Council to help even up the assessments on this most recent uh lateral lining project do you know if there's any met Council money to provide some relief to Property Owners um so the we have the Met Council Grant the 2.75 uh the Met Council we we were're able to receive a private property owner uh Grant uh that helped uh the property owners on the on the lining project reduce that assessment that fund is or that pot of money is funded by the the state government so it's always it's never assured that they'll have that year to year so they get a sum of money and then it's up to the uh to the Met Council to distribute that out to the qualifying um communities and Newport is always going to be a qualifying Community uh there's also some public uh inii Grant funds out there as well uh that Newport should be uh qualified for if that if that um funding source is funded by the uh by the state legislature we don't know that yet right uh and it likely will not be uh known until the close of the next legislative session which is in May and we probably will have already started this project yeah so it's it's likely that met Council uh will help us in addition to the grant that we already have so I was going to talk about this a little bit during my Council comments but we uh had a meeting yesterday with senator papis who chairs the Senate bonding committee one of the comments she made is it is her goal that early in the session to get the bonding bill passed and not to wait till the very end and we were talking about this project and really the questions were did we need it you know what was going on with it I talked about the half a million dollar increase in cost I talked about the high assessment numbers and that that really was not affordable to people in our community and that our average uh household income is about $30,000 less than the metro area average and that this was you know this was a was a pretty big bite and she understood really all of that and um I told her we were proceeding forward as if we were getting the money that's my bottom line I said we are moving forward and I said you know I said it's not going to get any cheaper and the problem's not going to go away and and she acknowledged that that was absolutely true and that we did need to proceed forward so I am hopeful um that uh something will get done earlier in the year so that we can uh include that in our cost analysis so and and I should also mention that we will be we'll work with South Washington Watershed on if there's any partnering opportunities uh for storm water treatment as well uh perhaps doing a similar uh grit chamber uh that the Watershed is done on 15th and 16th do one of those at at 17th and see if there's a cost participation um opportunity there there was another one coming to Newport and I don't know what this location was it down by the elementary school correct okay so this would be an addition to that correct okay well yeah follow through with that yep I'll help when I get there that's good thank you council member Jeff other questions on this at all okay we'll move on to uh sanitary sewer manhole and lateral replacement so all the excavation work is completed they uh they finished up last week over on 9th Avenue uh in tibits area uh the contractor is now working on getting the remaining patch areas prepped uh for uh Paving next Thursday and Friday uh they'll be also in town tomorrow doing some repair work to the damaged uh blacktop we went through and documented all of the areas uh that sustain damage uh we well we documented anywhere that we saw metal tracks in the in the payment and if you know they were if they were just on the surface they were cosmetic we didn't necessarily uh expect that to be replaced where we where we made the line of Distinction is where that surface tore or you know sheared and there are there are several areas so binus roadways is the uh Paving subcontractor they've actually done some work in Newport in the past as well so they're coming in uh tomorrow uh they're bringing in their infrared heater that can heat up the the underlying pavement that'll have a limited degree of success with older pavement it'll be the newer pavement such as out on on uh First Avenue here U may may react a little better to that uh and they're bringing in their Mill so they'll do some Edge Milling they'll clean out that uh that damaged area uh and then put tack down and then put kind of a Sandy uh M or bituminous mix in there that uh that will hopefully adhere to the uh to the underlying pavement uh if that isn't something if that doesn't work then we will uh Mill out a sufficient amount to get a uh a patch machine laid patch placed so we have uh uh my representative from MSA is going to be uh working hand inand with the with the p and kind of moving from area to area um likely going kind of north to south like we did with the project so we will uh we will be interested to see at the close of the week here uh how that works and see what uh uh and then get the patching completed at the uh end of next week uh restoration work has has started and probably will go through here the end of the month so we were uh we'll be hopeful that we'll have close to a a final payment uh less retainage for you to consider at your uh November 7th meeting uh we do have a couple items for consideration tonight uh one or the first is uh change order number two I think I mentioned this at our uh meeting last uh uh the first meeting in October uh we have uh three items make up the change order um we had added two Services uh on 9th Avenue that couldn't be lined uh the contractor require that's 10in Main and so they required some additional uh materials and uh and honored their price to do just a regular saddle but given that they had um additional materials they uh we thought it was warranted to provide the compensation for that we also had to make some adjustments to the manhole at the corner we had to cord new um penetrations into that manhole to accommodate the the larger pipe size and then uh we uh for manholes that were not replaced but were within a patch area we had the contractor adjust those manholes and put an infa Shield or a water watertight seal around the casting since we already had the payment removed uh it was a pretty minimal cost I think 450 bucks a piece that will make a tremendous benefit so the the total cost of the uh of the change order yeah it's in here sorry the total cost is $1 14,846 and I'd be looking for uh Council to uh to consider that change or consider approving that uh change order I'll make that one thank you I have a second sure thank you so motion from council member chapain and a second from council member inamin um to approve change order number two counil member suar sorry apparently I'm I'm having a hard day today um council member seconded by council member suar any further discussion all those in favor say I I those opposed change order is approved and then we have uh uh we're nearing the completion of the project we think that we are able to hold the assessment hearing uh we don't have all the final costs but we are we we're pretty confident that we can uh have a very close approximation so there are two resolutions for consideration uh resolution 2024759147 [Music] assessment hearing uh this uh resolution uh uh identifies an assessment hearing date of November 21st which is your next uh uh is your council meeting following the uh November 7th meeting uh this uh we we sorry uh it'll be November 19th did I have that no no it's we've moved it to this Tuesday just clarify so everybody so we know can you be here on the 19th Absol absolutely okay yes uh but we will we have to do without you feel free but I'm happy to be here uh so yes and and that works obviously with the noticing requirements uh given that it's uh more than a month out um so if you would make that friendly Amendment uh when considering that uh that assess or that resolution that would be appreciated otherwise I'm happy to answer questions no questions I move to adopt resolution 2024 75 a resolution declaring cost to be assessed and ordering preparation preparation of the proposed assessment rule second second have a motion from council member Taylor and a second from council member ingan and that includes the friendly amendment of that hearing being on a Tuesday November 19 that's the next resolution I'm sorry what that's the next resolution that's the next one not this one oh this just okay just the assessment role okay thank you okay all those in favor say I I those opposed the resolution is adopted I'll make a motion on resolution 2024762327 [Music] I I those opposed the resolution is adopted thank you for bearing with a lengthy Engineers report I happy to stand for other questions that's why I was so confused it was a long report just kidding um really yes I just I just want to make a comment that I thought the presentation was exceptionally well done so much information in there and the writing it was understandable and it covered so many aspects I was I was very favorably impressed who in your office did that well I'd have to I'd have to claim responsibility for that so I I appreciate the feedback thank you council member suer he's got some AI tool what was that AI heard again yeah he writes the resolution they just fill out the back report after that okay thank you council member suar um moving on to our superintendent of Public Works uh good evening mayor Elliot and council members uh tonight I have the uh annual ms4 public hearing which is a requirement of our storm sewer permit um having trouble getting that U open up here but um basically what we're required to do is kind of give uh Council an update every year and give the public an opportunity to comment on what we are doing to improve our storm water situation in the City of Newport and so as soon as I can get that to pull up I will be happy to go through it you like you try it it worked he just doesn't like this one oh there it goes all right thought yeah all right so um if we can go to the next slide um basically we prepare an annual report um for the mpca um we have requirements for pond inspections catch Basin in inspections and also how we deal with construction projects and the requirements um on how we keep silt and other pollutants out of our storm water so um so um like I said each Community um was brought into this program at one point or another and it's uh nothing new to us but it is important as um we are obviously right on the river and uh that kind of guides our our decisions on on how we deal with storm sewer and what we're trying to avoid so elicit discharge is anything essentially going into the storm sewer or river that uh that isn't intended to so between washing washing cars on your driveway you know allowing the soap into there uh blowing lawn out onto the onto the street which goes into a catch Basin um essentially anything other than storm water that makes it into our storm water sewer storm sewer system is in elicit discharge so thanks um we do inspections for it all our staff are on the lookout for anything that looks suspicious you know on their day-to-day jobs and and tasks and anytime that they see anything like that they basically report it back to Derek and I and we kind of follow up on on what uh what's going on and try and diagnose where it's coming from luckily we haven't had uh any cases other than um you know like smaller uh construction related ones with sediment making it into the street so um we do use GIS um to track all this stuff it helps with our paperwork and keeping everything kind of organized and uh readily available if we were to get audited so um the next portion of this is the public Outreach and education and we do a few different things um one of them being the public hearing uh the next one uh East Metro Water Resource education program um through the Conservation District um has a lot of programs they put on um demonstrations and just address different groups whether they're lakefront properties Realtors um farms uh you name it they just try and reach out to all these different groups that uh have ways that they could improve uh the environment and try and educate him on on what's available um we also put together newsletters and post information on our website and just um try and address issues with people if they are uh you know blowing their lawn out into the street or leaves that type of that type of uh deal we just try and deal with them on a one- onone just explaining how much extra effort and where where that uh organic material and up next slide um these are a couple typical methods that you'll see on a construction job just for keeping sment on the job and out of the street um and then we also have some um methods for uh dealing with um pollutants after the construction is done um Raiden Gardens um the grit chambers that we put in are are very effective um they they drop the grit out of the storm water and then we go take our vac truck and and clean out the grid Chambers so next slide please um some of the ways that the city and Public Works is uh really focusing on improving is reducing our salt use for winter um snow removal um The Watershed um joined us and split the cost of outfitting two of our plow trucks with a pre-wedding system which puts salt brine on the salt before it hits the street what that does is activates the salt faster and it also helps hold the salt on the street where we place it since it's wet it doesn't Just Bounce and make it out to the curb and down the um and that allows us to use less salt because it is more effective um we're also um sweeping streets more often and the Watershed has expressed interest in working together on a program to increase that even more and uh would would basically partner with us to to update our sweeper to uh allow for that so um and uh we like I said we have the the grit Chambers to maintain with the with the vac truck but those are the the major changes that we've been making in the last year or two so um the last part is public participation um the big things they can do is kind of adopt your catch Basin if you have one in front of your place um like you said just uh keeping leave and and all the organic material out of the storm sewer helps uh keep the uh the river clean um cleaning up after your pets um and also uh just directing like your gutters back onto the lawn instead onto your driveway where it comes directly down into the storm sewer all of all of these uh help to reduce the the water going into the storm sewer and and reduces the pollutants that it carries to it so um with that that's the end of my uh presentation this is nothing new to you guys but it is a requirement that we do it every year so um like I said we are actively pursuing ways to reduce our salt use and clean up our water and uh so if anyone has any input we would be happy to hear it and uh um even though we don't have anyone in the audience at the moment I think we still have to open the open it for public comment and uh and then I'd be happy to answer any questions you have okay council member suar how would you prefer the comments from myself written um bro directly to you and Derek uh yeah you can email me that's fine or or you can bring them up here if you want the public to hear them okay so I know that a lot of times I see the guys driving from Public Works coming down this direction I don't know if they're going to the service station on Hastings or if they're coming to City Hall and when I walk around Newport I'll often see debris collecting on the the drains the storm drains I would suggest that the guys have in the truck a 5 gallon or larger pale and when they're coming down change their route just a little bit that they're not always coming down Hastings but come down 8th Avenue come down 9th and so forth and just check and if there's something in the gutter at those at those uh storm drains just scoop it up get it out of there because the next big storm a lot of that stuff gets washed into the storm system it's they don't have to spend a lot of time doing it but I just think if they're if they're out and about that's an opportunity for them to pick up debris that can go down those storm drains I know there's a dozen reasons not to do it or maybe even one but it's something I've observed and it's a comment I'm going to share with you tonight sure yeah thank you Bill um I think with that uh the time is 6:34 so I will open the hearing uh on our storm water pollution prevention plan and ms4 permit would anyone in the audience like to speak seeing no one in the audience I will close the hearing at 6:34 p.m. I'd be happy to answer any other questions on that otherwise I will move on to my next item okay all right um so for my next item um we have uh snowplow um truck in the CIP for replacement this year uh or for 2025 excuse me um and we've been uh working to price that truck out ahead of time because of the uh kind of the supply chain issues and what we found is that uh um the the truck and plow is coming in um at about 245,000 the budgeted Mount was 250 and um we felt that uh we did a little checking around and we can get a uh chipper box built for the single axle plow truck instead of putting it on our onton pickup a dump pickup um which gives us about three times the capacity so we don't have to unhook and dump so often um also if a if a storm comes through you know we can chip longer without having to stop what we're doing and it also gives us uh an opportunity to utilize that truck for more more jobs than just plowing um I anticipate with the uh reimbursement from The Watershed for the pre-wedding kit that I mentioned earlier in the ms4 that will be right around that 251,000 if we buy the the chipper box as well um but we cannot uh I can't guarantee our 2025 price for the truck yet they adjusted uh 5% for um inflation but they haven't gotten their hard numbers yet so um what I would like to do is request a motion to increase the CIP amount to 255,000 just a guarantee that we can cover um whatever may happen and that would allow us to buy that that uh chipper box for that truck and also um approve the signing the purchase agreement on the truck so hopefully we can get that truck uh delivered first quarter and give tow Master uh time to have it built in anticipation of the 2025 26 uh snow season so okay this seems pretty straightforward any questions on this at all I love the idea that we can be more efficient at uh following storm cleanup and get to homes and Roads a lot faster council member suar well that also be adaptable so when you're going out with the street sweeper can you blow the stuff from the street sweeper into the same no that we need an open top for we typically use the the tandem dump truck for that you've already got that covered correct correct otherwise I think this is an excellent idea and whatever if you need a motion on this I would y i yeah okay I'll put you down have questions how old is the current truck and how many miles and what will happen is it going to be traded in the the truck is a 2001 um it will be traded in uh on this on this purchase um the trade in value is uh $122,000 and I don't know uh I don't know the mileage off the top of my head what what that's at but 2001 mhm correct that's a long time yeah I know we've traded them in or sold them traded them in before and you said that they were so Rusty underneath that there was nothing to even weld anymore is similar condition on this one or are we getting it earlier um it's I think they've done a better job of maintaining it but it's still getting to the point where uh like the tailgate is rusted out a fuel tank is rusted out so so um you know ideally we would have replaced it say 3 years ago four years ago and you know saved those maintenance costs um but it's still relatively valuable and helps you know helps make the overall purchase work so okay mayor if we need a motion yeah with that I have a motion from council member suar to increase the CIP allotment for this purchase to 255,000 dollar and to approve uh a purchase order for said uh plow and attachment I'll second thank you I think I got everything finally finally I got it together thank you redeeming myself um any further discussion all those in favor say I I those opposed you're getting yourself a new plow thank you um one other uh bit of info uh fire hall demo was scheduled to start today but with the high winds they opted not to with the potential to spread you know dust and debris all over town so they will be starting tomorrow and then just a reminder to Residents the last scheduled day of the compost site being open is November 9th the 2 Saturday in November so just a heads up I know leaves are dropping fast but uh just keep it on your radar with that I'd be happy to stand for question thanks um has the Watershed District talk to you about um grit being available in Lou of salt yes they have and and we're we're working out a way to get it uh here or available they were talking about maybe your your location or something yeah either that or here at City Hall so we're uh we're digging into it but we don't have a have a set program yet it's a program the AED district is funding for try to get people to use something other than Salt for like your sidewalks and your driveways and stuff so it's just basically Rock that's ground into very small pieces and it's grit and you can throw it out and not fall nearly as often as you would on SP ice let's hope and it's yeah it's a paid for things so you'll basically just grab a bag and bring it over okay we'll be nice to see those fire stations come down council member s in the past people have used Ash for slippage reduction is that possible is it just hard to get uh that I have no idea I haven't seen any information as far as that being recommended I can see walking in the house with ashy feet well KY and your dog with ashy feet I use kitty litter right now not as bad as salt I think for destroying house yeah I just wanted to mention the free program coming at us and how much how much grit are we getting out of those two Chambers had a sufficient 16th will be kind of the pioneer run here cuz it was only on a partial season and we're we've got that scheduled for this fall yet so I thought we were early on reporting on that so yep so if you've been monitoring it is it a quarter full a half full it's hard to tell without actually backing it out you know because it's in the water and oh it's okay it's suspended in there no but the water level hides the you know 16th Street storm sewer is always running regardless of whether it's rain or not so from the from the springs underground Springs yeah it drains the ponds on the east side of 61 okay so yeah once we clean them out we'll uh provide some some info yeah thank you okay uh we're moving on to the administrator's report mayor members of the council a couple items uh for the council tonight first uh and most importantly um once a year we do some employee recognition and also public officials recognition and we have a number of folks we want to recognize tonight um you know first off uh we have uh some full-time service here we have Paul greton and he's got five years of service in the public works department Jason joa with 20 years of service in our public works department it's uh it's kind of hard to believe um and then Jill teld with five years in the administration department and then uh also some part-time paid on call service and some of our our volunteer and elected folks uh Maria Bonia with 5 years on the Planning Commission David Castillo with 35 years of part-time service in the public works department which is extraordinary uh we really can't do all the things we do without folks coming out and helping out um and of course our mayor laori ellot five years uh year so is it just because we're it's not December is that why it's only five oh we're we're just counting backwards this is uh next year it'll well we I think we only do the 510 and so on uh Tom ingan uh he's been on for the past five years and I think it says uh 81 total years of oh 18 total years of service on the city council uh Jeff lrin with 20 years of of service on the as a paidon call uh firefighter Luke men 20 years as a paidon call firefighter Anita Perkins with 15 years of service on the Park Board that's extraordinary and then Christina Ram with five years of service on our library board so just wanted to uh put that in the public record and and let Council know about that thank you and congratulations to all of our volunteers and our and our staff um as well for their service to the community uh next item here is I do have a resolution uh 20 24-7 um of course Deb scholes uh the city accountant is retiring um she has put her notice in and that's created an opening uh we have posted for the position of accountant we've done two rounds of interviews and uh we did uh we did select a candidate um nav and uh we wanted to get authorization from the city council to offer the position um this is a a grade 10 uh step two at 3250 per hour um so looking for uh Council authoriz authorization on that I'll make that motion resolution 2024 authorizing hiring of a new accountant a second so a motion from council member suar and a second from council member Chapan any discussion on this when we'll start dat uh we're thinking October oober 28th which will give us a good amount of time for for some transition and training there and uh yeah we're we're very very excited for that opportunity so thank you Council for that support okay any any other discussion okay um all those in favor of the adopting the resolution say I I those opposed the resolution is adopted next we have mayor and Council comments so I mentioned a little bit this meeting we had with um Senator papis about the state bonding funds that amount was for uh $2.85 million is what was in the bonding bill for last year and so we're proceeding forward with that um and I want to thank uh commissioner Carla bigam she also attended that meeting and provided some support and commentary uh for Newport um as part of that meeting and it was nice we were able to get some one one time with Senator papis um also to really talk about the need and why um why it was so important that we continue to be included in this bonding Bill and you know we came away from it feeling very good about it and um but Senator papus even though she she leads that committee uh there's still you know 100 plus other legislators between the house and the Senate that need to approve this kind of uh bonding bills so um and that requires a 60% approval in order for bonding to move forward um the other uh item that I attended to was last week and it was with representative Angie Craig and it was her annual honoring our Public Safety Champions and at this event she recognizes um those Public Safety officials whether it's law enforcement or um fire that have fallen in the line of duty in the last year she also Al recognized life-saving efforts by a number of Public Safety officers and deputies as well as people who had many years of service and were retiring out of SZ there some 30y year and 40y year um Veterans of uh their departments that were retiring in this year and um she also uh had a couple of really huge Bond or not Bonds but Grant funds going out to couple of cities Lakeville Got 5 a half million and another city got about 4 and half million but why were we there because we got a cops Grant and this is being used to fund a new Deputy for us and we got a giant check from her nice yeah so I told her this is our first big check so we got a giant check and she uh she acknowledged what she had done there were couple of cops grants that went out we were one of four communities um in Minnesota to get a cops Grant and I uh most of the grants the cops grants went to um to her district and um so this is for us to hire one additional Deputy I want to say apple valy got funding for three and another city got funding for three and somebody got funding for one more I think inro Height's got funding for three so it's $125,000 to help offset uh the cost for that and that's about a 3.3% tax levy increase that's the value of something like this a check like this so we're um very grateful and I also want to call out uh Sheriff stari he was really instrumental along with his staff for getting the Grant application um completed and submitted and written in such a way that we were successful um as one of very few communities in Minnesota to get these grants so she's a big supporter of uh the public safety realm and so it was nice to it was it was a very nice event to be at and there were quite a few officers there being uh recognized for uh their good work so that was that was my last two weeks council member Ingman I have nothing RF was here so okay thank you council member Chapan nothing to add tonight thank you council member Taylor nothing to council member suar I was with five individuals from our community and we trimmed trees and they were also out a separate time and did some distri tree trimming and then I also worked with the community Advisory Group and toured the Trout Creek down in Aton Alps where they introduced 2,500 3in fingerling brook trout into a restored area of trout stream very beautifully done and just recognizing what can be done in our natural world wonderful to see that yeah great appr and with the money from Andre Craig is that for one year or it'll we'll be spending it over two years okay yep yep so we'll Cobble it together with some other uh funding that we got Federal funding for 2025 and then we'll pick up partial cost in 2026 and use some of this money what's the remaining of this money in 2020 uh 6 and then in 2027 then the full cost of the deputy comes to us but it's sort of a nice step up you know over time and then you know of course you anticipate that hopefully some construction projects will come into play by then and and so we'll be able to balance that out so that's addition information sure that's be yeah you're very welcome that I'll take a motion to adjourn I'll make that I'll second that it's a contest okay we have a motion from council member Chap delain and a second from council member ingan to adjourn and any discussion all those in favor say I I those opposed we're journ thank you everyone e e e