e e e e e e e e e all right I have 7 o'clock we will call the town board meeting for April 15 2024 to order first item on the agenda is the approval Patrick got anything no changes from staff Mr chair um bard of anything nope all right I need a motion to approve I'll move to approve the uh agenda second faor say I I opposed that motion carries item three is approval payment of the bills we had a little faux paw on them well how do you want to handle this Patrick uh board can uh approve the expenditures contingent upon successful signature tomorrow morning do we need that number or can we just go with a do I need that total number have yeah 1,100 the board will hopefully Grant or um approve uh 1,171 18331 uh worth of expenditures on behalf of white bir Township all right uh typically I I also sign off on that register do we going to wave that for this one you want me to come by I'll have to call you in too Steve okay with that I'll I'll make that motion second all right motions made second I'll favor say I I I all oppos all right then I a motion to approve the minutes of April 1st 2024 Mr chair I saw no additions or deletions moveed to approve the minutes of April 1st 2024 second motion made second all in favor say I I all opposed all right item five is consent agenda item there seven items Mr chair I would move to pull off item 5e National Police Week for discussion all right anything else no all right then I any a motion to approve the consent agenda as amended I will move to approve the consent agenda as amended I'll second that all right all in favor say I I I all opposed all right FM IV is the National Police Week normally we'd adopt this resolution on consent but we have a representative from the Rams County Sheriff's Department I thought it'd be nice for get some uh air time with you sure if you just want to come up uh get your name and address for the record and uh my name is John eam I'm a commander with theams County Sheriff's Office and my business address is 1411 Paul Kirk W Drive in Arden Hills and so how's the township doing good still standing [Laughter] yeah well it it's kind of a a proclamation for us to recognize police Chiefs uh fire and rescue uh what am I missing um Sheriff's Office well obviously them but uh but but it it's kind of nice because I know with the climate nowadays it's uh you guys are kind of the unforgotten uh Heroes of the town so but we appreciate what all you guys do for the town thank you have any questions I'll one question really um the sheriff was here in our uh annual meeting in March and one of the citizens had asked about the uh racetrack on 35e and in the last couple weeks it's picked up again is there going to be an increased presence with you and the state patrol trying to curb that racetrack so I'm not sure about State patrols end of it um so I'm actually one of my jobs so my official title is commander of special projects and one of my jobs is that I'm the coordinator for the Minnesota toward zero death Campaign which is based off of the national highway Transportation Administration funding for overtime for traffic enforcement and while I don't know specifically what will be done on 35e I can tell you that the month of April right now is distracted driving enforcement and we are actively myself included we are actively going after people that are driving around um with cell phones in hand mostly because that unfortunately is the largest distraction that we're dealing with um then starting May 1st running all the way through Labor Day we will be doing speed enforcement and this year the state of Minnesota um much to the surprise of um a lot of us but it was a pleasant surprise actually chipped in money from the state to increase our budget for Speed enforcement which is why instead of doing just one month we're doing the entire summer May 1st through Labor Day and that's dedicated funds for overtime for traffic enforcement specifically speed enforcement and then um two weeks in May will be doing seat belt enforcement as well do those funds help you with uh employment or hiring or not no it's it's straight overtime basis okay it's extra Duty um on an overtime basis but it helps because that way you can have dedicated people um Deputy sheriffs dedicated people doing um nothing but speed enforcement they don't have to answer any other calls they don't have to you know um stop what they're doing they they're they're paid exclusively by the state of Minnesota through the federal funds and it's like that in the entire County of Ramsey um all of the police agencies inside Ramsey County actually um somebody came up with a really good name for it they call it the Ramsey County Traffic Safety initiative it just rolls right off the tongue and uh so the sheriff's office is a part of that um all of the police departments inside Ramsey County and then even though the state of Minnesota the state patrol has all of their budgeting is through their agency and we don't pay for any of their people we have a collaboration where we have meetings every month with all of the coordinators and we get together and we plan things and we we focus on the five things that cause fatal accidents um impaired driving distracted driving speed lack of seat Bel use and then also not paying attention for moving over things like that do you by chance happen to know what this for this distracted driving what's what is what is the find do you have any idea what they I can tell you the answer that I told several people today oh good I like that is that a long time ago so I've been doing this job for 31 years I've been with the sheriff's office for 24 years and what they used to do is they used to send out a fee schedule uh the the courts sent out a fee schedule and then what we would do is we'd hand it to the person and say this is how much the fee several years ago the fee schedule went away and now I honestly do not know what the fees are are for any of the violations I just point to the back of the ticket and they let people know that all the explanations and all the instructions to do everything from take this to court and dispute it to pay it outright around the back if you'd like to know what your fee would be for this if you want to pay it outright please call this number okay and then one other question about the community outreach for the uh you know the summertime the sheriff's department actually all year they they meet at different places around the communities for uh families to ask questions and things they still have that going do you not I believe that is scheduled for this year um used be hot dogs in the park or something once SP so that is um Sergeant Dan young is the person that's orchestrating all of that and the people in his unit so I do not know exactly when but I do know that they are planning on doing that this year as well okay just because it's a great time to be able to have people ask questions where it's a it's a non right so when I pull somebody over if they have a question they're probably not going to pose it at that point in time but if you meet me in the park or just hanging out it's a lot more relaxed of a situation and you get the honest questions and back and forth there thank you you're welcome than all right thanks sir for showing up appreciate it you're welcome thanks you guys all right with that I need a motion to approve consent to item 5 E I will move to adopt the resolution recognizing National Police Week as May 12th through 18 2024 second I'll second that me in second all favor say I all opposed all right moving on then uh we have number six is old business we have none seven is public hearings we have none so we'll move on to eight a new business this is the Surplus property declaration Patrick you going to fill us in on this uh yeah Mr chair I I would was um approached by a resident who is directly adjacent to this this property on stacker Boulevard requesting to see if the township had any interest in selling it checked in with our uh finance department Public Works they had no real plan for it or need for it uh it was an Old Well site for the township um it's been all sealed off and non-used for years now I want to say 15 years it was a warranty deed it was not tax forfeiture um therefore we are free and clear to do anything we really want with it so I checked with Chad to get a declaration of surplus property to see if we can't uh put this out for bid for interested parties um and that's under for the board's consideration this evening Chad you got anything else to add to that no the only key is that fact that you no longer need that lot for any Town purpose no so it's Surplus property MH um to your knowledge is it a buildable lot or is it an out lot sort because I don't think you could do a full build on the size of this lot um the neighbor who is adjacent to it is just looking to extend his property so why the interest that if you can't build on it I don't know propery um I don't know what what I'm trying not to have happen is I don't want to have have neighbor pick it up and then all of a sudden now they begging for variances so to do something that is not in the best interest of the township so you don't think that's what you could you could amend the resolution to require well actually no uh withdraw that if he is if he or she is the purchaser of the lot could require that they combine it with their existing tax parcel in which case they have only one buildable parcel um because of what was there maybe that would be in but that would limit who might be interested in that property which is probably limited anyway true or you could also sell it subject to an easement oh yeah an easement for say conservation easement something along that line yep that's a good idea but I think the mechanics of it are is that if the town board chooses to declared as a surplus property our next step is to go through like a two or 3 week bidding process on it yeah that's exactly right okay with whatever contingencies at legal you you'd want to establish the uh the condition now before you put out the bid good idea that was my point I I think we'd be far better to do that now so there's no misunderstandings as to the purchaser um how we do that I Patrick do you know the size of a lot I I'm sorry I don't no the way the way Public Works explained it to me it's very small you may want to take cons since there's a concern about selling a lot that you may have may come back for variances on which is a distinct possibility you may want to table this and then consider adopting uh restrictions on its use which obviously would limit limit who would bid on the property but then again it also avoids the problems you're you're suggesting well we also have an issue there's a Capp well on the property right yes so does that have any bearing on them trying to build on the property well under statute only have just have you simply have to disclose the fact there's a capped well on the property I don't know if there's any regulations regarding how close you can build to a capped well I'm not aware of any that doesn't mean there aren't any I'm I'm in favor of we're not as the chair has point out number of times we're not in the business of being land owners of that if if it's vacant or excess property we should sell it however we need to know a little bit more about it so I think the best answer is to table it and try and get the answers so what exactly do you need me to find out the exact measurements or dimensions of the lot I think we need to know can is it a buildable lot by any stretch of the imagination in the well outside of disclosure what else do we have to be concerned about I don't this is down on the Southeast Corner yeah um right if you go to uh the no there's Lakewood Randy I I pulled it up on the screen here I looked at it um so it's a corner lot also yeah which is more restrictive for building because of you have two front lot setbacks can I really ask somebody who's looking into a bid in on the property what it is they're going to do with it I mean unless they unless they're doing anything outside of ordinance they have to come get permits with us anyway right they do but I wouldn't want to base the acceptance of the bid on what they what the future intent to use the lot for would be you're better off simply establishing restrictions on it right now so as the seller I think we we should know what we're really offering but looking at the plat that Larry's pulled up it appears to me to be probably at least a buildable lot yeah it's pretty small well it's small but I mean in terms of what's already there it appears to be everyone when I just looking at it appears to be all those houses are located on on a single lot not a combination but if the concern of the board is that you know you don't want to create a situation where you have to Grant a number of variances or be forced in a situation you be forced to consider variances then yeah you should consider tabling this and um and developing a devis developing a set of restrictions or say even a conservation easement that would uh restrict its use well I think to be fair to this person who's interested the response that we could share is sure we're interested in selling property that we don't use we also want to be sure that we are not misleading or putting this potential purchaser into a um bad situation where they buy it and then find out they can't do stuff so I would think we want to do a little bit of due diligence as far as letting them know you can buy it be aware there's this that and the other restrictions that you would have to keep in mind and maybe he's just thinking that it'll be an extension to the backyard and they're going to put a volleyball net there who knows the the other side of it is too Scott uh and board is that we put this out for public bid somebody completely different can come in and buy it as well and that's why we need to make it a make them aware that there are potential restrictions on setbacks and easements or um lot size and whatever y so are we interested sure we want to be thoughtful about it and make sure that any potential buyer is aware of any possible covenants to how it needs to be handled and I think you the board's raised some good points because even though it may need variances and even though even though you're not obligated to Grant variances it does puts the puts the town the board and the town in a in a uh somewhat complicated situation of having to deny variances and possibly being sued uh to you know Su in the ca forcing the variants to be granted Ed so you're you're better off if you want to keep this lot vacant or un Buu you know without if you want if you're concerned about the build the whether the lot's buildable or not and what variance would have to be granted you're better off tbling it and then deciding if you want to put basic restrictions on it I mean so from a practical standpoint is this something that I mean I think the board could decide tonight that yes we would like to um sell this piece of product property but we are going to table it from the standpoint that we have to make sure we're comfortable with how we're going to Market it is that the best way to I would say so because if you look at the resolution there's also a second part of the resolution which calls for the town clerk to uh prepare post and publish a public notice seeking say in the real estates available for sale and by doing that that's an unconditional sale yeah so you may want to Simply state that at this point time that the board has found this to be a property which is has no special purpose for the town and therefore Surplus property and leave it at that for this point in time yes and second to that then would this be something that we would send to the like Planning Commission meets in another week or so could they look at this issue with the planner as far as what options we have to Market that is that something we that's really outside the purview of the Planning Commission just you could seek their advice if you wish to might it might come back to the Planning Commission depending upon what it is they're going to build that's true but the actual uh if there's no applicant then there's no yeah so the the town planner and staff can look at into that and you sure so do we set this for the exec meeting on the 26th happy to do so would you like me to call the petitioner on this and get some more insight on what it is plans are I would advise not doing that I was say based on what Chad said I don't think it's relevant to the we sell it or don't sell it it's our restrictions that we're concerned about so your recommendation is Chad to uh Mark say that we the board has is interested in marketing this property right that's my advice I mean having the having the person who initiated this come and explain what their proposed use is not a bad idea however you don't want to create the impression that he's that he or she is the only one that can bid on the lot and you don't want to you know create any false false assumptions so you're well you're better off just looking at the lot independent of what of what the the neighbor would want to do with it and I don't want to over complicate things here too but I mean if we're inviting whomever the person is that has initiated the interest in this property specifically and especially to appear in of the executive committee aren't we giving him a little bit of insight and advantage on purchasing the property in front of whomever else might want might want it when we post it yes that's that's a good point also you could uh you could meet in close session oh it's real estate it's real estate so you could meet in closed session to discuss this yep but in terms of whether it's Surplus property that has should be done at a public meeting yep as as tonight but how you Market it could be done at close session and that may be the best way to do it actually yeah I think I I would agree with that that's probably the way to go would you at least let this person know that we're thinking about it yep I'll tell them that they want to have a little bit further you guys want to have a little further discussion on it um and I'll let you know how that goes afterwards no problem that's a really long motion Steve yeah how you GNA do that I would I would limit it simply to that the board finds this property to be uh to have no special purpose and therefore is available for uh disposal that would be my my whatever we're going to call it re resolution or recommendation or don't we just table this instead of not not putting any uh headers or on I think we just table table the whole thing y all right I'll move to table this uh entire my system just went the Surplus black property declaration yeah okay I'm that malfunction at the moment all right motion made second all in favor say I I all opposed all right that motion carries moving on 8 B the improvements for the 2023 Mard ponds project BL are you going to go over this for us yes thank you Mr chair board um the Mard ponds Street Improvement project we've been discussing for 7 eight months now and um we've taken a number of steps throughout the process including preparation of a feasibility report um the public hearing was held in in January um neighborhood meeting was held on on March uh 26th and we are here today with uh plans and specifications for you to approve to put this out for bid and so we have two resolutions for you tonight um one approving the the plans and specifications and two authorizing advertisement for bid um just uh looking at the if you want to direct your attention to the to the screen the Mard ponds area is in that northeast corner of uh the township and uh includes the streets that you see on the screen there um the Mard ponds area San Santa cirle area um a couple of things to note for you tonight um the the project is a street Reclamation project where we're grinding up the pavement reusing it as base for the new roadway any areas that are soft or or um showing signs of um of uh settlement would be removed and and cut out and repaired and then it be repaved the existing curb and gutter would remain in place other than in areas that might have uh have show shown cracks or settlements um so that's the nature of the Improvement along the way we're also looking at improvements to the storm water ponds so we have a number of ponds in this area that would be um the sediment removed and cleaned um new rip wrap perhaps at the at the outlets um one of the things we heard um through the public process and through Public Works is uh some of these uh median Islands um at the entrances and one in this kisac and centa circle um that they should be we should consider removing them so um with that the the plans are showing removal of those uh those those medians that at the entrance to Mard Pond's Boulevard and Mard Pond's drive and so I can show you those plans if you'd like to see them um and then also the the median at the the one um culdesac there's a a center Island in that culdesac act that would be removed and it would um help with future maintenance that the there's plantings in those medians that um become overgrown and need maintenance and it would it would lessen that burden um and then also plowing operations would be improved without having to um plow around those median areas so Larry um this you've had uh Community meetings on that are they that has been brought up and part of the meeting so they're request of of the residents to to look at removing these it's not going to be a surprise and I'm mentioning it tonight to who showed it won't be a surprise it you know not everyone attends these meetings or participates I understand that but I know you had neighborhood meetings and I if it came up there I'm comfortable we've done our part to make sure it's not a surprise okay we we've been looking at this for oh my good a couple three months now so I don't know if you really need to go through the whole L aspect of it uh the one median in the middle was that done originally for safety reasons in and out or um no I they usually I don't I can't speak to what made the dec what what the how the decision was made to add these but it's usually a a developer driven Initiative for um what they view as an amenity going coming into the neighborhood yeah there were some um water concerns on one of the the far left side that's included in this plan correct to um so since that concern was brought up at some of the neighborhood meetings um the the township has been flushing the mains a little more frequently and we haven't seen that that issue reoccur okay and so there wasn't it wasn't felt that we need to do something um to address that it's not something you think we'll have we we'll do the road project then a year later we're going to have to tear it up again because of that or is it I the public works is is feeling that that there it's not a needed expenditure at this all right I think he might really want to ask Dale about that next Friday because I know he's been really focused on clearing that out over the past several months yeah I I just yeah and but they brought it up a few times I just don't want to spend money on a project to have it tore up again it's really hard to pinpoint what the issue is where where that would be and so we might be chasing something um and so it was felt that with a little more maintenance on that piece um maybe it wouldn't it maybe that's the best way to approach it okay well the only other concern I have is we had a resident interested in developing some Lots yes part of them facing Portland I think maybe one of them fac the uh ctoc I can't remember now but there there was there was brought up that we don't want to see all of a sudden uh a lot split and then they have tear it up to put a a stub in you are you aware of that one that they're talking about okay so that's on the radar we're not going to get that that one slipped by yeah we're aware of that situation um I believe the the services are in place okay okay all right uh any other questions of Larry or sta hearing none you want these as two separate motions don't that's the way they were all right the first one is the uh approving plans and specs I'll make a motion to adopt the resolutions approving plans and specifications second all in favor say I I opposed and the other one is advertised for bids yes I'll make a motion to authorize the advertisement for bids for the malor pond project second motion made second all in favor c i opposed all right that motion carries all right moving on we have one more Road Improvement this this is the Park viiew Court yes thank you park Parkview Court is in a similar location in the township it is a a solo culdesac um located off of Portland as well um this project came up uh a few years ago when we were looking at the neighboring Street to the South and we were looking at M Millan overlay project back then and and this project um when we looked at it was too far the the street was too far gone and needed more extensive work um to be a to be done than just a millon overlay so now this project is another Reclamation project but in this case we need to remove all the curb and gutter and replace it because it has uh deteriorated um so this project has kind of been on that similar schedule it's had uh the feasibility report uh public hearing um and a neighborhood meeting that same evening March 26th um this project uh kind of it doesn't include a lot of other items we are looking at some Turf estab reestablishment here between Portland and Park View Court but other than that it's it's what we proposed uh um the street Improvement and curb and gutter um I should have mentioned that other um Street Mard ponds um lighting was brought up by the neighborhood and that's still being pursued on Mard ponds and uh it' be separate from the project in this case the residents at the last um neighborhood meeting um are kind of dropping the the lighting so lighting won't be a part of this project or um we're not working on it separately either um so I don't I don't know there's I can go through the plans on this one as well but there's not a not as much to see on this one um there there's not a lot of storm sewer improvements or um Pond improvements or anything like that it's uh strictly the street work um The curban Gutter any conversation on the center Island in that one um they use that it's a larger one it's a larger one they have um um picnics or Gatherings for the neighborhood on that one so um they they want to keep that in fact uh they were talking about wanting power out to that Island because of of their activities but that's been dropped um yes as a practicality yes yep we're on their own expense yes lar you have a feel for the the market right now uh yeah bidding yes um just had a bid opening last week a larger job but the binus prices prices this spring have been really really good really favorable have came down a lot um that project was uh um my estimate was 5.1 million and it came in at uh 4.2 million oh nice and a lot of biders so there's there's contractors looking for work well in one respect that's good for the township because if the more bidding we get more competitive and then that that helps on uh our assessment values too so yep and so we're looking at a bid opening for this project as well as the Mard ponds on on May 15th and those bids would come back to the board on May 20th all right B have any other questions for this particular project it's uh kind of all all in at the same time right there because it's only one Road in um and there are some logistic issues does that come into play as far as the bidding process goes cuz like their their mailboxes are all going to have to be moved someplace MH yeah we've talked we've brainstormed ideas about that and including um looking at placing temporary mailboxes to the the area to the South as an option um there was concern about having them on Portland by the residents they didn't want to see that um so we'd work with our contractor in an appropriate space for that and we might you know we'll have to work with the contractor but you know maybe we're not curbing everything in the same at the same time time allowing for passage on one side while we're curbing the other side and and and leaving it for the curing period and then switching we yet to be determined yes good answer all right we we like to we don't like to necessarily restrict things in the in the specifications we'd like to work with our contractors on the appropriate um way to handle things like that all right that is you that's it all right so the first motion I need is again adopting the plans and specs I'll move to adopt the resolution approving plans and specifications second all in favor say I I opposed and then the second one is authorization for advertisement I'll move to authorize advertisement for bids for the 2023-the court project second motion May second all in favor say I I all opposed that motion carries item n is we have no added agenda items item 10 we have open I notice must I'm assuming students yes any would you would you like to come up and sure they do grade our our performances hearing none last chance you be you could be famous okay very wise all right uh item 11 I need a motion to receive agenda material supplements so moved second all in favor say I I'll osed and then I need a motion to adjourn at 7:35 so move second all in favor say I I we are adjourned