Council Minutes

Minutes/Committee of the Whole
Monday, August 22, 2005 - 7:00 p.m.

The city council met as the Committee of the Whole on Monday, August 22, 2005 at 7:0 p.m. in the council chambers in City Hall with Mayor Brown presiding. Present at roll call were Council Members Brooks, Hamerlik, Glassheim, Gershman, Christensen, Kerian, Kreun - 7; absent: none.

Mayor Brown announced that when addressing the committee to please come forward to use the microphone for the record, and advised that the meeting is being televised live and taped for later broadcast.

Mayor Brown commented on various events held during the past week and upcoming events:

Our hearts go out to the community of Cavalier and thoughts and prayers to the police chief and his family and spoke with the Mayor today and offered any assistance we could provide, that he wanted to extend his thanks to everyone involved in our police department for this assistance, support and follow-up.
He thanked our police for their response to this terrible event and for the local FOP for helping out chief's family and offer further assistance to the city and citizens of Cavalier.
He welcomed UND students back to the community and with UND returning to session and public school beginning next week, reminded everyone to be mindful of young people around and proceed with caution while driving.
He noted there would not be meetings the next two Mondays and the next meeting of city council will be on Tuesday, September 6.
He stated a while back he had attended the State Historic Society function at the Myra Museum and asked Leah Byzewski of Myra Museum to give us a brief look of this community asset.
Leah Byzewski, director of the Grand Forks Historical Society, reported that within the last year a lot of buildings were moved to allow room for the flood protection project and showed pictures of the various buildings, inside and out, and encouraged everyone to come and see. She noted that the Myra Museum has exhibits ranging from Lake Agassiz to the 1940's and have baseball exhibits, military exhibits, civil war rifle collection.

2.1 Application for Class 1 (General On and Off Sale Alcoholic Beverage) license by BOSOX, Inc. dba Boston's, the Gourmet Pizza, 3250 32nd Avenue South.______
Howard Swanson, city attorney, reported the application form is in order and properly
completed and attempted to contact the individuals associated with this restaurant today and not able to reach them, that they are primarily a restaurant but are applying for a Class 1 liquor license, and his attempt to contact them was to make sure they were aware that the application will not allow anyone under the age of 21 on the premises of a Class 1 license; that he will be attempting to contact them and that they may or may not wish to move forward with a Class 1 license, but will let council know.

2.2 Request for change in alcoholic beverage license from Class 4 (Food and Beverage Establishment) to a Class 1 (General On and Off-Sale Alcoholic Beverage) by Bonzer's on Fourth, Inc., 420 DeMers Ave.__________________________________
Mr. Swanson reported the application appears to be in order and complete, that this is a
change in the license from existing Class 4 restaurant type license to a Class 1, and did have e-mail with Mr. Bonzer who is here this evening, and he is aware of the implications with respect to people under the age of 21.

2.3 Application for abatement for 2004 taxes by Phyllis Felchle, 1710 21st Avenue S.
There were no comments.

2.4 Proposed ordinance authorizing sale of on-sale alcoholic beverages on Thanksgiving Day.____________________________________________________________________
Mr. Swanson reported he had drafted ordinance and if ready to proceed is ready for
adoption, as a result of changes in last legislative session, on-sale alcoholic beverages may occur on Thanksgiving Day, previously both on and off-sale were prohibited, off-sale is not allowed to conduct business on Thanksgiving Day, this is a discretionary matter, and not obligated to follow the change in State law but before you if you choose to.

Council Member Gershman stated he hopes council supports this, that at the legislative session the bar owners were in favor of this, that many restaurants where families might want to go out for dinner and be able to get a glass of wine or cocktail, that the off-sale people in ND decided they were not interested in being open that day.

2.5 Proposed ordinance establishing definition of "Twenty-one years of age" (Power Hour prohibition) as it relates to sale of alcoholic beverages and licensed premises.
Mr. Swanson stated during last legislative session the State Statute defining under the age
of 21 was amended to address what has been called the "power hour", situation where an individual turning 21 would attempt to enter premise at midnight on the day of his/her birthday and consume alcohol for the remaining hour that places were able to be open - as a result of the change in State law our local ordinance which defines age 21 has to be amended and that this is not a discretionary matter but mandatory item that we need to follow changes in State law.
He noted that he choose to mirror language existing in State law and that we have been using different language and not substantive change, but one change that is not in State law is in subsection (d) where we have included the states attorney or city attorney's office for overseeing law enforcement purposes for serving minors on the premises and that is a change he is recommending.

2.6 Proposed ordinance authorizing 2:00 a.m. closing time for sale of alcoholic beverages._______________________________________________________
Council Member Kerian reported having asked the police department to check into
several concerns or problems that might occur because of 2:00 a.m. hour - cost in terms of accidents, etc.; that the police department looked at Fargo, Duluth and Moorhead and reviewed their own situation to see if additional costs didn't seem to be impact if both cities on same hours. She stated they don't want either city to do it alone, and as EGF has taken action, it is right thing to do and would vote for the ordinance.

Council Member Hamerlik stated he had suggested in discussion with EGF that for the first month or so that the two police chiefs be in contact and if something major, could rescind it.

Council Member Brooks stated this is an issue addressed because supporting businesses in Grand
Forks so on even keel with those in East Grand Forks, perhaps not having everyone extend their hours from 1:00 a.m. to 2:00 am. and may not 7 days a week, giving bars option to operate business within their business plan.
Council Member Glassheim stated concerns and if we pass this asked chief if we will have
enough data or statistics to be able to follow up on any impact from changed time, monitor it.
Chief Packett stated they can give periodic report on how ordinance is going, and will meet with
Chief Lealos on regular basis and will coordinate efforts and will give council feedback in any
problem areas.

Council Member Gershman read the sunset clause - that this ordinance shall terminate and be null
and void on January 3, 2007 at which time it will have no further effect and both cities have put that into the ordinance to alleviate concerns that everybody has and if experience some serious issues, don't have to continue with it.

Mr. Swanson stated in the draft of the ordinance he took liberty by pre-supposing that
Thanksgiving Day on-sale would be allowed and that in this draft that he has included 2:00 a.m.
as it relates to Thanksgiving Day, if Thanksgiving Day does not pass, that change would be made.

2.7 Easement acquisition for Project No. 5774, Trunk Sanitary Sewer along 40th Avenue S. from S. 20th Street to S. Washington Street.___________________
There were no comments.

2.8 Budget amendment request (engineering department).
Mr. Swanson advised that there is no provision in the City Code or State law to waive
bidding for purchase of used equipment and that is part of the request from the department. Cindy Voigt, asst. city engineer, asked if there was any hindrance to waiving the policy we have, and did not know it was in our City Code that we had to bid out purchases of new or used equipment, understood it was policy decision and could have policy decision waived. Mr. Swanson stated they could discuss that.

Ms. Voigt stated this piece of equipment has 2,000 to 3,000 miles on it and is a new demo., similar to program car where offer at reduced price to city government, similar to where can bid this - bid many different ways with different reach height, different types of truck, four-wheel drive or not, sizes of engines, etc. and because of that it is hard to get any two bids that are exactly the same, can bid out what we feel is appropriate which she will bid the truck they saw and they came and demo'ed it on their loop of northern MN and ND and people she talked to who bought similar vehicles with lower or same lift, and paid more - they are going into new model year, 2006, and would have to spec. 2006 vehicle and has 2005 vehicle at a discounted price added to a lift that has a certain standard; and the safety features she listed in her presentation are not manufactured by any other supplier, the Versalift has the safety features that their electricians are comfortable with, better features than the competition and if she specs this, she will spec. those safety features so specking one supplier, that they can get other bids from other regional suppliers.

Council Member Gershman asked why couldn't they just bid a 2005 model - Ms. Voigt stated this type of truck is F750 diesel that they don't keep in stock, that this is where she called around to see if there was a used vehicle to save the City money and they happened to have this one and they had a used demo with 3,000 miles on a vehicle like this. Council Member Gershman suggested that she get together with Mr. Swanson to see how they can put this together and maybe by Monday night have some thoughts to move forward with it.

Ms. Voigt stated it would take 9 months to get delivery on something they bid and that they have $15,000 in repairs they would have to do to existing truck if continue to use it. Mr. Swanson stated one of the things they may wish to consider is something their office had proposed some time ago but never acted upon - authorizing the negotiation for used equipment with a super majority vote of the council - 5 out of 7 votes. He stated the concern is not necessarily the manufacturer of equipment but how many vendors of equipment may be able to bid on it - there are times that he recognizes and that law would recognize that there are opportunities that would allow you to save money or acquire property but by adding the super majority it gives you greater protection against simply arbitrary decisions. Council Member Christensen stated he would discuss comments with Mr. Swanson about his ideas.

Mr. Swanson stated that the Code is silent as to authorizing waiving bids, State law requires us to have an ordinance on purchase - can do this by ordinance which gives authority to do it and much like we have done with the sale of real estate.

2.9 Budget amendment (Revenue and Cash Carryover 2160) for mosquito control ongoing operations.__________________________________________________
There were no comments.

2.10 Hold public hearing for moving permit application to move a dwelling, to be used as a dwelling, from 407 4th Street in Inkster, ND to 5410 West Lanark Drive.________
Council Member Gershman stated that last week had person who was doing some
construction on business and had not yet received a permit for the change in his business, and now have somebody who purchased a home before having the permit to move it, and attention to the public and business that if you do need a permit to do something, make your purchase contingent upon receiving that permit - because we hear that they have made investment and how can we turn them down - and sometimes we don't have a choice but to follow what our permitting process is - caution to the public and businesses that if you need a permit or license, make it contingent upon receiving that permit or license. Ms. Collings stated the date for the public hearing is next council meeting, September 6.

2.11 Grand Forks Public Library Board appointment.
Council Member Gershman stated when we have these appointments - this is School
District recommending to us but there has been some discussion on council and public about people being re-appointed to position over and over, and never develop new leaders in Grand Forks unless we take people who are interested and get them involved in the process, and that he talked with the Mayor that the council should have a 30-day notice on every reappointment that comes up and that the council and public will have chance to speak to some people because only time they see any appointment is when get their packet on Friday and don't know position is coming up and no time to think about possible candidates and would like Mr. Duquette to find some way that staff would know and research various appointments, 30-day notice for them and public and announced at the meeting that 30 days have appointment coming up. Mayor Brown stated they would make that happen.

Council Member Brooks stated there is another issue there and that would like to see some other people involved and also present them with opportunity to take people from one committee to another so get broader picture of the city, and would like to see some changes as it brings new people in.

Council Member Kerian stated this is not a re-appointment but a new appointment - and that it is one from the School Board and not representing the School Board, and asked that the website be updated with the various committees on it and for public to look to see what the various committees are and see what they may be interested in, because quite a variety of them and does have information as to when terms expire.
2.12 Proposed Amendment #1 to the 2005 CDBG Annual Action Plan.
Keith Lund, Urban Development, reported that on January 18 the city council approved a 2005 CDBG Annual Action Plan which included the CDBG program budget and CVIC project in the amount of $113,000 for their emergency shelter, this was a little over $16,000 less than their original request, and since then CVIC has worked with architects to reduce the size of the project, project publicly bid and project stands at $139,710, which is $26,710 more than the award. He stated the council asked the staff to consider using any extra program income to fully fund the request for CVIC; that they approved the second tier projects if additional program income were received and have three projects in second tier - Red River Valley Community Action Agencies support of housing projects in the amount of $100,000; second was Senior Citizens re-roofing project in the amount of $48,000 and amounts received over those were to fund city infrastructure projects. He stated the council has chosen to support the Red River Valley project through Home funds and has been removed from the second tier and the request for $26,000 is in excess of 10% which requires HUD's amendment process or City's amendment process, and are here to discuss support of the emergency shelter project loan, if approve, the second tier would be as follows: CVIC in the amount of $26,710, Senior Citizens, $48,000 and any additional income over those projects would be directed to city infrastructure projects.

Council Member Hamerlik asked how serious roof repair was at Senior Citizens, as City responsible for the building, and could be costing ourselves more money if don't fix that, and plan if can be stalled. Mr. Lund stated when the Senior Citizens Center applied for the project, the roof had just passed its useful life but wasn't leaking, and have applied for this same project for 2006 and have submitted application and now experiencing leaking. The Citizens Advisory Committee will hear that either Tuesday or Thursday of this week.

Mr. Lund stated the city council approved the CVIC project for full funding as they went down the priority list and CVIC was the 6th project and the balance of the funding available was $113,000 and that was awarded, and talked about second tier after that, and discussion was how could they fully fund this and project in first position in second tier has now been removed and that gives flexibility to slide CVIC in and fully fund the shelter project.

Mr. Lund stated the amount available for second tier projects tight as they have about $800,000 to earn to reach their projections - have 4 home sales pending that will occur in next few months and that should be sufficient to earn program income that they projected, and if all 4 sales happen, would say have an additional $100,000. It was noted that hopefully both projects, CVIC and Senior Citizens, would be funded out of 2005.

Council Member Kreun stated that no projects were bumped and that Red River Valley Community Action was funded through HOME program rather than CDBG funds.

Mayor Brown stated have two citizens who wish to address the council and asked that they limit their comments to 4 minutes.

Doug West, 422 South 5th Street, #5, spoke that CVIC is an organization that tends to make whatever claim they feel like making, esp. on t.v. when they want to promote either an agenda or get money - that he has block grant information but not quite clear on what shelter costs are - and what he would like to see before any consideration or development toward any kind of shelter would be given, would like to see a complete breakdown of budget of that group's activities and numbers because they don't have an increase in clients served, and his request would be not to grant them any grant programs and money better spent in other organizations.

Council Member Glassheim stated that this has to do with a project to expand the shelter which was awarded over a year ago and tonight asking for $26,710 to complete that project, the cost that was awarded was not enough to finish the project, they serve approx. 100 adults and children each year in the shelter and shelter addition would have space to house two shelter caretakers who will oversee the shelter in exchange for free lodging, which will save them the cost of paying somebody salary. - and that the project has already been approved but didn't get amount of money they had asked for because money ran out and now have additional money they are asking for the money they anticipated would do the project.

Mitchell Sanderson stated his questions were answered and no comments to make.

2.13 Elite Brownstones Downtown Development Proposal.
Bill Kobetsky and Bill Schoen, Schoen & Associates, were present.
Mr. Lund stated at the June 20 meeting the council gave preliminary approval to the Elite
Brownstones project submitted by Schoen & Associates for the redevelopment plan for the 100 block of North 3rd Street, staff worked on project deal and bring details back to council for final approval, that staff, Shoen & Associates and council members worked to develop terms accep-table for all parties and that they have reached agreement and bringing project to council for approval so can move forward. He summarized details for the project: the project will encompass the west side of 100 block of North 3rd Street and includes City-owned parcel and lot currently owned by the Grand Forks Herald and used for parking; the project will consist of 26 condo units ranging from 1300-1350 sq.ft. with a base selling price of $135,000, two-story building with brick exterior and architectural elements in keeping with downtown historic district, the project will provide 52 spaces of underground parking or 2 for each unit, project construction costs are est. $2.68 million with 10% architectural and engineering fee, other expenses include realtor fee expense of $175,000 which is 6% of the total sales, marketing and development fee of $266,000 and interest expense of $116,000. He noted that non-typical expenses include relocation of flood and memorial monument and sculpture est. to be $20,000, extra demolition and engineered fill required due to remaining foundation elements est. at $75,000 and replacement of the parking for the Grand Forks Herald est. to be $30,000. He stated they are suggesting that the City transfer ownership of the city-owned portion of the block to the developer at no cost, project primarily financed with proceeds from the Fannie Mae line of credit up to $2.85 million, debt secured by mortgage against the entire property as well as personal guarantees by the principals of Schoen & Associates; and the developer will provide equity of $200,000 and in addition the developer will acquire with their own funds the parking lot owned by the Grand Forks Herald, and as a condition of selling the lot, the Grand Forks Herald required that replacement parking be provided on the rear of the property adjacent to the alley. The City's interest rate on the Fannie Mae line of credit will be passed onto the developer and they will pay interest, interest deferred but not forgiven during the period of construction, deferred interest will be recaptured upon completion of the project. The repayment of loan principal will be required upon the sale of each unit on a pro-rata basis of loans fund provided, the return of the developer's original investment and developer fee will be provided on the sale of each unit. In order to provide a clean site, they are suggesting the City remove any underground foundations necessary engineered fill est. to be $75,000 and this is to be funded from proceeds from a previous rental rehab program; the City will also cover the cost of replacement parking for the Grand Forks Herald, est. to be $30,000 and also funded from the rental rehab program, the City will provide a $20,000 beautification grant to detail with issues associated with relocating sculpture monument and developer will grant the City permanent public access easement for the portion which the memorial is set. The project is eligible for renaissance zone benefits for benefit of the developer and subsequent purchase of each unit, and upon completion the project will add approx. $3.5 million to City's tax base and generate $77,000/year in property taxes absent any RenZone benefits. Funding of the financing request will require $2.5 million increase to the City's $5 million line of credit with Fannie Mae.

He noted that on September 6 they will be asking for approval of the project.

Council Member Hamerlik asked that they show views and diagrams of the project on camera.

Council Member Gershman asked as the $2.5 million loan is paid down and as Schoen & Associates sells a unit, we will be paying off the Fannie Mae loan and if there was pre-payment penalty - and Mr. Lund stated there was not.

Council Member Kerian asked about the rental rehab program and what that money would be used for. Mr. Lund reported that the City received several years ago rental rehab program funds from HUD and funds dedicated to rental projects in the city, HUD has since cancelled that program and those funds unencumbered and their office over the years has operated a rental rehab program and disbursed all the funds, waited for fund to recapitalize and as HUD has cancelled that program the funds are unencumbered and their intent would be to provide a rental rehab program - currently $640,000 in that account, and this request would decrease that by $130,000 and would have around $550,000 to administer a program which they are designing - a rental rehab program for the renaissance zone. He also noted that this project doesn't use any CDBG money, using CDBG funds for new construction is complicated, but can use CDBG funds for pre-construction activities, site acquisition, demolition, clearance, but using CDBG funds requires that a minimum of 20% of the units whether they be rental or owner occupied be sold to low income home buyers, this was not the project for those funds.

Council Member Gershman stated this is going to be funded by the City by taking a loan, but not lose sight of the fact that those 26 units, probably all of them will go out to the local banks and will have to get mortgages locally and that loan will be paid back by mortgages at our local banks and at the end of the day the bank won't take the risk of this project, Schoen & Kobetsky are because they are personally guaranteeing this, and banks will participate in the less risk mortgage.

Mr. Swanson stated he wanted to disclose that his office has previously provided services to Schoen & Associates and Mr. Kobetsky and Mr. Schoen; and have also been asked to act as closing agent for the real estate transaction for the Grand Forks Herald, and is providing that information to make sure they are aware of that. It would be their office's recommendation, once Urban Development has negotiated all the terms that have been approved, that the documentation be as close as possible for those documents that were used in the former transactions following the 1997 flood where we sold downtown properties, and that gives quite a bit of the framework for the transaction and any contingencies that are placed on it.

Council Member Christensen stated that the documentation for this project, if it is approved, and expects it will be approved on Monday night, will be developed through the Urban Development Office and come back to finance committee for final review before being signed; it was brought to the committee's attention that there was some site cleanup required and were some foundations that had to be removed after the fire on that block, and committee concluded, staff negotiated and committed to spend up to $75,000 to clean it up. He stated they wanted to preserve the historical display on the corner, hence the $20,000 grant from Beautification Funds to reincorporate that structure in the project, and they have indicated they intend to raise it up and make it a focal point in the project. He stated that the $30,000 addition, staff took initiative and brought this to us without discussion from committee and that this will be the best for all parties involved for parking, Herald staff, and tenants of the property. He stated that this $3.5 million has a lower interest rate and allows this project to move forward and that they anticipate there will be 26 homeowners and they will get their own financing, and that $135-140,000 sale price and that in our first year will have more than $35-40,000 in taxes and that the $100,000 or $125,000 they will be investing will recoup in 2 to 3 years; and that this is the end result of an initiative that Mayor Brown and members of this council launched when they decided to study how they could use the CDBG money, can't use as much of the CDBG funds as they thought they could to build additional housing downtown, but on Monday, it is a great project and have excellent developers involved, great track record and thinks in year and half will have in the area of $3.5 to $4.2 million of real property on the tax rolls in downtown; and thanked the Mayor for allowing them to move this project forward.

Council Member Gershman stated that Mr. Christensen was the one who brought up recycling the CDBG funds to get housing downtown and Doug got us focused on this project and his committee did a terrific job, and the support of the mayor, and thanked Doug for his leadership.

3 INFORMATION ITEMS

3.1 Storm Water Lift Station #89 and Drainage Improvement Study to Surrounding area - Update - Information only_________________________________________
No comments.

3.2 Statement of Changes in Cash Balances as of July 31, 2005.
No comments.

4 CITIZEN REQUEST


5 ADMINISTRATIVE COORDINATOR COMMENTS


6 MAYOR AND COUNCIL MEMBER COMMENTS

1) Council Member Brooks noted that last week when tabling appointment to Airport Authority Board and that he had asked for info. and wanted to clarify that as it was not info from our staff but from the Airport.

2) Council Member Glassheim stated there was an ad in the paper not to put your lawn waste in the garbage and asked what you are supposed to do with it. Todd Feland. director of public works, stated it should not be placed in garbage container because the State prohibits yard waste to go into municipal solid waste landfills and wants it recycled and compost it - so pick it up separately and use for additions to top soil for closure projects. He stated there are 9 sites around town for yard waste or put it next to your garbage can in plastic can or box - trying to eliminate plastic bags as it causes additional work they have to do at landfill to get rid of the bags.

3) Council Member Christensen stated he had drafted a proposed ordinance for a domestic winery license and gave a copy to Mr. Swanson who said he was working on that and hope will have proposed ordinance at next meeting and move forward.

He stated under Informational Items after last week, dike held but had some overland flooding problems in the area of 24th Avenue, and at one time had a report from staff re. LS.89 and that whole project could cost in the area of $16 million, and had some proposed alternatives, one would be to repair or make better that lift station, and know you don't plan for 3 1/2 inches in 3 hours and time has come to review that plan with the idea of familiarizing council again as to what a minim fix would be required so could alleviate some of the flooding when we get those events as get those events more often than not in the summer and told people who called that we would review that again.

As to the Airport Authority and the information that has come to the surface re. that facility, that we would be losing some flights and it occurs to him that we better look at the composition of the Authority Board, not saying they are doing a bad job, but to ask how could we allow the creation of an Authority that required 7 staff persons to exist with only 5 - that we should look at that, and that on a lot of these authorities we have created, Alerus Commission, etc. and if charged with a public facility we should have some elected officials on the Board who are there and vote and more answerable to the public when they stand for office - should revisit the Airport Authority and the board structure. He asked that the quasi-committee chairs give a report, along with President Gershman, and maybe talk to Mr. Duquette and get back in a couple weeks. Mayor Brown agreed.

4) Council Member Kerian asked Mr. Grasser on the 24th Avenue S. area and if he could recap, as they took this to the public some years ago, had hearings and looked at estimates, and asked for total amount and cost per property owner, and it got to be a cost benefit question. She stated trucks were out stopping people so they didn't drive through it, serious problem but cost to fix problem is huge. Mr. Grasser stated the project started because having flooding in those areas and ended up coinciding with the time that our lift station needed upgrading and time was to look at it and if invest money in a lift station should we upgrade the entire project, hired consultant, WFW did analysis of area and put together some estimates and found that there wasn't any key that they could do any individual component that would do big improvement, over years pump station has been increased which maxed out the forcemain and to get anything more out of the station, need not just pumps and controls but also need the forcemain. If do pumps and forcemain also need to deliver the water to the lift station and found out that the pipes to deliver the water were also substantially undersized and to go back and do that you're digging up streets and increasing your pipe sizes, etc. He didn't remember the cost per property owner but varied quite a bit because large variety of sizes of lots within that district, the area they are talking about goes from Washington to Columbia Road and about to 32nd and about 17th Avenue S. for lift station 89. Cindy gave him some numbers and it looks like the $17 million would be about $6,700 per property owner and would vary based on the size of the lot, some smaller residential lots, and residents in essence said for the problems they were having, can live with it rather than special assess it is feedback they got and did proceed with creating special assessment district and upgrade the lift station, put in the biggest pumps that would work with the wet well and the forcemain that is there, has new controls and has backup electrical generator, and one of the issues in 2001 windstorm event is that this is one of the stations that did lose power and that causes problems and keeps water from being addressed; to look at doing any kind of fix out there, still have to go back and address all the individual components. Council Member Kerian asked if the $17 million is the sum of taking care of all three of those components. Mr. Grasser stated the $17 million does increase more than just the lift station 89, but other stations that are out here where some overlap in system.

Council Member Hamerlik stated that this is an event that occurs periodically but not forget there are other spots in the city that have the same problem and not focus on the southend - 13th Avenue North has been that way and have problem recently taken care of but not that well, drainage into the Coulee where it comes up to the houses and not focus in on one area but take a look at the whole city.
Council Member Christensen stated that these are basic issues that the council should address and seems that you have areas in this town that need drainage reviews and solutions pursued, and that he asked to have this put on to remind us that we did study it, this is an issue along with collector streets, special assessments for collector streets, etc. and these issues have to be addressed by this and future groups because can't continually rely on special assessments to pay for these things when there is a need that requires remediation but resort to the old methods of funding it - nobody wants another special assessment to fix something that a prior city council or engineering staff or consultant undersized because of the cost and that is why this is going to cost so much, its undersized. He stated we have to start exploring these issues to assist administration in developing effective methods of dealing with it - finding money to pay for it and would like to know and expect that he will get it in 2 or 3 weeks the easy fixes, not digging everything up and not putting in new pipes if it can be handled because it says "a one year event is a little less than 2 inches in 24 hours" and that we've had 3 1/2 inches in less than 24 hours, probably in 3 hrs. and lets start to figure out we're going to pay for some of these things and have some funding sources that they can hit.

Council Member Kreun stated that this wasn't designed improperly but is undersized, the usage changed over a period of time and runoff is higher, that 180 people attended public hearing in 2002 and the general consensus of those attending the meeting was that they did not have property damage and the group did not want to pay for any improvements by special assessments - that he was at the meeting and consensus was lot stronger than general consensus - if we are going to work on a problem of this magnitude there will have to be other funding sources brought forth; and before we start examining a situation that is only 3 years old, we have to address the funding sources prior to going through this exercise of redoing all of the things that we just did 3 years ago, and if want to do these things, we want to take up at a citywide scenario and funding sources would also be citywide.

Mr. Grasser stated the hydrology of the English Coulee gets complicated because what happens is get an initial flush from urbanized areas and have component that comes in later from the rural area that keeps that area high and impacts the level of the Coulee, the flood protection project is going to help take away some of the component of the overland flooding and part of the English Coulee impact but not going to impact the local drainage that comes off urbanized areas. He stated flood protection will keep the river from backing into the system, into the city and that would be flood component of it is the actual backwater from the flooding, that they are watching that area pretty closely and have had the University do some studies as they develop those areas to try to identify, make sure we're not causing any impact or developers not causing any impacts in those areas, that the Coulee is still a natural water body and it reacts to precipitation events. He stated he didn't have anything in the budget to look at that component, he would like as part of our flood protection project we have impacted some drainage basins and some of our long range master planning of storm sewer and would like to bring that to the council at some point in time and use some flood protection project monies to look at that study, a component of that could be the English Coulee.

5) Council Member Gershman stated that after the discussion of the appointment of the Library Board had asked Mr. Swanson if there was a law or policy re. the appointment, and he stated that neither State law nor City Code requires the appointment of a member of the School Board to the Library Board, nothing with the nominee for this position but should step back and that with this particular appointment to go out and look for people who might be interested in being on the Library Board, can start the policy, and have a week to work on that.
He stated that he had attended the ground breaking at Cirrus and also the ground breaking of the jail site by the County.

ADJOURN

It was moved by Council Member Kreun and seconded by Council Member Brooks that we adjourn. Carried 7 votes affirmative.

Respectfully submitted,



Saroj Jerath
Deputy City Auditor