pledge allegiance to the flag and the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all this time uh deputy clerk if you could take the uh role here councilmember peterson your councilmember wong here council member cole here mayor furlong here quorum is present at this time a motion to adopt the agenda so moved your honor by council member peterson second second by council member thorson any discussion if not all is in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed motion carries this time we have a presentation i think they're all out in the hall not knowing that we i'd like to welcome everybody it's a beautiful day sun was shining so so we have a presentation a century college 916 student built home interior design group and this is always one of my fun nights because my daughter is a interior designer yep so i used to listen to her presentations when she was at school welcome tom thank you you got you got the floor yes i appreciate that thank you so i guess tonight i was just going to give you an update on the project and then turn it over to eric leit we'll give us an update on the communication with uh neighborhood and then after that point we'll turn it over to katherine harrington and the interior design team good so home's going well even given the struggles of the current building industry and what we're dealing with i had some of the suppliers that we've always used in the years past back out not so much because they don't want to do the work they physically can't do the work so they're getting so over overwhelmed with work right now so a good example that would be the drywall the gentleman called me which was awesome and said he just can't do it so i got on the phone and contacted my builder friends and within a couple weeks we had somebody out there so it's moving along a little bit slower than what i anticipated the initial date i wanted the open house was mid-june i need to push that out to like mid july just because of product availability and people and so i had the last commitment uh last week with uh our friends from heart craft and so they want everyone again want to supply all the mirrors and shelving pro bono and their nearest install date they can guarantee me is july 6. that's how far booked everybody's out that's kind of we're at with the building we started exterior finish today siding be coming in a week as far as the inside goes the home is completely drywalled and it they sprayed textured to ceilings yesterday they should be in tomorrow to sand and then they'll start doing interior painting after that and uh everything's ordered uh i have to order stuff i used to be like two weeks now it's like two months in advance just because of the supply chain issues yeah it's really crazy so uh before i turn it over to eric leah are there any questions for me have you had a lot of people uh asking if they could buy the house one gentleman one gentleman yeah but you know i told him we take visa i mean we're fine we're fine with that so there's been interests the neighbors have been really supportive and so there's a gentleman lives down the street uh he brings us donuts every couple weeks oh nice and then bill who lives down the street i actually knew his brother i didn't even know they were related and so he stops by once in a while so there's another gentleman who lives further down and he's retired carpenter from carl sanderson and he thinks it's a good deal the city and the schools are partnering up taking which was a problem house in the community and making something positive right so from my exposure with the community it's been really good good i took it yeah i stopped there today i was kind of i wanted to take a peek and it's yeah it's shaping up and um and those kids uh they're out there you know weather you know with the bad weather and but it's looking good so if it's another month that's okay okay i appreciate that so i try to hold to my due dates but sometimes things are out of my control with that um other good news i mean we haven't had any vandalism no theft of materials [Laughter] so that's been good and you know it's going well and so we're trying to control uh even uh material waste i think i just got my first dumpster in there for the drywall and otherwise we've been well the donut store is a little bit more in depth and so the gentleman that gives us donuts we box over scrap wood and he burns in his fireplace or something like that so good community outreach i guess we'll go with that one um yes scott question uh you're saying that july open house is kind of pretty much everything's done when you anticipate it listing and then what do you anticipate the listing price to be i'd say we could probably start listing it early uh just to spark some interest in it i would say the sale price um i've been talking to some of the builders that have been out visiting and they're looking at this house going 410 and i'm like yeah i'm still thinking 380. okay and the budget i had set up is like 340 350 somewhere in there so hopefully it's a profit well it will be a profit to the city to invest in other properties and we just keep this thing going you know i think the goal here is to not lose money provide an educational opportunity and improve the community of north saint paul all right so i appreciate all those i appreciate that you know the questions for tom is it it's probably mine i forgot something so i'll turn it over to eric yeah i better answer that one quick everybody uh my name is eric lee i'm the proud assistant principal at the 916 current tech center so i know we had some concerns about about the neighbors i've been emailing them every week giving them some some kind of updates and when certain noises that are outside that the normal are going to be and i haven't heard any any complaints eric i've heard so many compliments about your updates and and getting the word out there so i appreciate that and all right hopefully that's kind of put a blanket on any kind of are you good i mean i don't know if they email you directly like oh my gosh nope no idea and i invited you doing a great job thank you i might invite them all tonight to see it but you know that's the way it goes so all right with that i'd like to turn over to katherine harrington she is the interior design instructor professor at century college catherine welcome thank you um thanks for having us here again my students have worked hard we just have a class of four this year which kind of makes decisions easier but it makes harder work for everybody uh uh there are alexis karen shelby and rebecca and they'll be presenting um and uh i just wanted to talk a little bit about this project and how much i think it benefits everybody first of all it certainly benefits the city of north st paul and uh our collaboration with uh um two schools that we collaborate with uh 916 and the and the um saint paul college students the people who end up buying these houses get just as i say this every year such a little jewel and gem of a house you know i've seen tom last time we were out there at the house and tom was with his students out there making them undo something again because it wasn't quite right so you know everything is done right and sturdy and square and good in these houses and they're one-off you know they're not a they're not a kind of a whole development full of the same thing same thing these are custom cabinets that these folks get and they're done well and they're beautiful and the finishes are beautiful and so they end up with something that is really something special and we are so happy to be involved we figure our our part of this is work within the budget which is always quite small and try to make the whole house look kind of richer than it is and um we hope we've done that and and we'll talk about what our thought process is and what our plan was and we've got a little power point and i do have a few copies because our camera is right there go ahead we can share can you see it we do have a digital presentation available i don't know if we're able to share our digital presentation okay can you show how to do that website.org is this your first presentation in front of a city council yes it is it is don't be nervous [Laughter] okay so my daughter graduated from ndsu in interior design and she now works in austin texas for a architect firm and does a lot of commercial she loves loves it down there and she just got her license so she's a certified designer i don't i don't know the term of it but it's it's their i believe she does right right well we never have problems here on and off yes yep just don't touch that screen there because it leaves a mark we can't figure out how to turn it off when i first started i thought it was a god i thought it was a golf club a golf club okay oh yeah we can't figure out how to turn that function off on that screen so just don't touch that screen you make it worse we gotta unplug it later and plug it back in maybe okay are we ready yes going okay well so we are calling this project the urban cottage so our urban cottage design focuses on comfort and relaxation that you think of when you hear cottage while possessing elements of modern elegance the design focuses on organic colors and materials to nod to a biophilic aesthetic which means bringing the outside in and feeling connected to nature we have created a furniture plan for the house to show potential furniture arrangement so here is the main floor can we see the mouse moving i don't know okay perfect so this is the entry here so as you walk in there are some stairs going down but you can make your way through there will be some room to put maybe like an entry table or whatever you know hang your keys whatever you need the living room can seat at least six people probably more we'll make our way into the kitchen here very large island six foot island we have a pantry here and then we can make our way back to the dining room and then there is also access to the backyard through a slider here as we make our way back through the hallway there is a laundry and a mudroom space and further down the hallway there's the first bedroom there's a guest bath linen closet and then the owner's bedroom including a very large walk-in closet and an owner's bath and then if we make our way all the way back down to the lower level large family room big enough for a sectional whatever the family or who knew home buyers want to put there there's bedroom three and then bedroom four and then a three-quarter bath mechanical and then storage space which is really nice for a house that size to have that storage a big size house how many yeah do you know how much square foot it is 13. [Music] oh wow that was way off all right do you want to talk about the exterior yeah um when i pull that microphone down there you go all right so starting with the exterior we enhance the curb appeal by incorporating shake siding and to bring the front ring front to the character and timeless look we use really rich brown earthy tones and then we added two light fixtures modern light fixtures on the exterior both sides of the garage the front door is a beautiful green color to bring that earthiness tones back in there we can see the hardware black age bronze and then we um move into the oh the siding i guess it will touch the shakes and then we have the siding on there as well moving into the entryway we have over here we have some really nice luxury vinyl plank in a very it looks almost just like real wood and then we also have a beautiful pendant lighting in that entryway and then moving down the stairs you'll there'll be carpet down there but the wall color is a lighter white kind of greek villa as the color and then the trim work is all reaper repose gray right there okay so um we are moving on into the kitchen and so we're trying to create flow and consistency and so we're gonna have this wood floor carry on through to the kitchen and then um from that one board which she just took down there was a light fixture that had black metal and some brass in it and it has some beautiful lines that were circular and so that will tie in with the lighting that we have here which is really nice because it remains it has and this is not um a side view but these are actually circular and there's going to be circular bulbs so um it's nice because they relate but they don't look like they came from the same you know kit or whatever so that just kind of helps elevate the space the focal point of the kitchen is the island right here and so you'll have the light fixture hanging over it and then contract interiors and donated this countertop and it's really beautiful it has a lot of flat i mean granite but it has a lot of movement and so it really is eye-catching and so that's the focal point um and then to bring the urban cottage feel we chose a shaker style door and we kept the uppers in the light color right here and the lower cabinets and the green so to bring in that organic feel we kept the the lighter on the top just to keep it more you know open fresh that way you can be in the living room and have a little more versatility with how you decorate that area bringing in the brass again and cottage themed you know these poles are very um cottage style um and then we um around the perimeter we went with a formica black countertop and it has a little bit of a cream color veining in it so it doesn't compete with the island and it also provides contrast for the backsplash that is here and this is the tile that we're going to use and the tile actually each piece there's some variation in it so what we're trying to create is a texture versus a pattern and then we are mixing some metals by incorporating stainless steel appliances and staying within the budget we were able to get some great pieces our favorite is the oven it's a slide in and so it kind of gives it more of a custom feel and then we've got these french door uh refrigerator with the freezer below and what do you mean a slight slide in other ideas so typically like a bottom line appliance would be like you put it in but you would see like a panel that kind of juts up above okay here oh whereas this is more seamless okay it's a clean line and it looks custom built in okay and it has the refrigerator has a water filter in there inside um and then this is the faucet for the sink um and then this is our pantry this is another showstopper too actually the plan originally called for just regular doors on a closet and so we were lucky to be able to incorporate this there's actually four different cabinets to be able to open and see your food items can you reach and grab everything uh these ones you might on the upper cabinet or shelves you might need a little okay but because there are nine foot ceilings but you should be able to reach the lower cabinets here okay moving on to further into the home into the bathrooms and the bedrooms we have continued with our layered lighting of both brass fixtures and black pictures in the guest hall bathroom we've decided to hang pendants down because it's pretty narrow and it was hard to put sconces on the side which is actually the most optimal for lighting in the bathroom is to have the lighting on either side of your face instead of above so we decided to hang them from the ceiling so that they hit on the side we are incorporating our same kind of biophilic green theme and we chose another version of a green for the walls in the first guest bathroom i guess we're calling it and we're using a luxury vinyl tile which is kind of this gray wood tone in that bathroom black fixtures in the guest bathroom we also contract interiors also donated another slab of a type of granite it's more of a gray kind of speckle granite and we'll use that on the vanity and then the bedrooms will be carpeted and we have chosen a semi flush mount with a drum shade to kind of elevate the lighting in there moving on into the master bathroom it's a double vanity and we have chosen sconces to flank both the mirror and in the center again for the optimal lighting and we've chosen this kind of brass pictures in the master bathroom so that it's got a little bit of a different flair than the other bathrooms and we chose a stained vanity in this kind of wood tone and the walls in there will be light and the flooring will be the same as in the other and i believe we are using part of the kitchen island slab um for the vanity top countertop in there so that that elevates it a little bit and makes it a little different than the other bathrooms okay okay moving back to the mudroom and the laundry space on the original plan there was just like a standard closet in that space there's actually two closets and we opted to get rid of the larger one and put in this mudroom bench to give the homeowners a space to sit down you know take off their winter boots in the winter just have somewhere to you know sit down put your things and then storage as well and then in the laundry space just right across in the same room but across from the bench we opted to stack our washer and dryer to give us room for a utility sink um then we're also gonna have the same formica top as a kitchen in there around the sink and then the color is gonna be this repost gray which is gonna be the trim and the doors throughout the whole house so that'll be in there and kind of give like a richness to that room and then as we move down to the stairs and downstairs it says carpet on the stairs and then throughout the whole basement this is going to be the light fixture for the bedrooms and then the downstairs bathroom we wanted to add something special in that bathroom to kind of give the basement you know something special right so we chose this vinyl um kind of it's just kind of like a sheet sheet vinyl but it gives the look of tile like almost like a marble tile and it kind of has that like classic vibe to it so it kind of brings in that cottagey um atmosphere and then we're going to also use the same deep green as the kitchens we're repeating that down there and then we've paired it with black fixtures to kind of give it that modern vibe and then the countertops are going to be the donated stone from source very nice and i think that is it [Applause] tell you what whoever buys this house is going to be so lucky because if you go to buy a house nowadays i mean it's like you say it's cookie cutter you know every house has kind of the same fixtures in it and you've got designers that design and your input is worth a lot of value into that house because i could never do that i'd be yeah i'd be at menards picking out just a regular light and so so what's the hardest part of designing is it trying to get within a budget or what would you say i think you know a budget obviously plays a huge role because there are so many options and there's such a wide range of selections out there in price ranges um i don't know i guess the hardest part i guess would just be picking from all the different options i've been doing this now 40 years and so i know some people and so i say i have this class and we're doing this they're all about it so we get donated countertops they're really well priced things that wouldn't normally be in a house price range so that's really lucky for this project um but yeah it is any budget is hard to say within and then we have four of us five of us actually trying to make these decisions always tough but i think ultimately kind of sounds like city council so yeah no i appreciate that like i said whoever gets that house is going to be in for a not only is treat beautifully well built the quality of what goes into it is good and then we hope our selections add to that that feeling of like using the word elevating but a little bit richer than it is right right and thank you for all you do and in your team and uh being a part of this program it's go see it you just when they have the open house when you're in school you don't get to do that it's not pretend right right right right no it's good so you guys almost done with the program then or you're at the tail end is this the end of the probe okay well good congratulations and good luck it's like you say that product is now in that house where i know my daughter when they when they did their practicals whatever it was more or less right thank you thank you all and good luck tom do you have anything more to add can you tell us why you had to move the washer and dryer from one side to the other standing in the living room machine and again i can't tell you the value of having someone in there who cares to do something like that because that just brought another element to that house that if you didn't have done that they would have been looking at a washer and dryer sitting in the living room so yeah a lot of value there eric thank you for all your help and appreciate it and we'll be uh we'll see you down the road for the open house take care so this time i have another presentation a proclamation for arbor day let me pull it up real quick here this is a arbor day proclamation whereas in 1872 the nebraska board of agriculture established a special day to be set aside for the planting of trees and whereas this holiday called arbor day was first observed with the planting or more of more than a million trees in nebraska whereas arbor day is now observed throughout the nation in the world and whereas trees can be a solution to combating climate change by reducing the erosion of our precious topsoil by wind and water cutting heating and cooling costs moderating the temperature cleaning the air producing life giving oxygen and providing habitat for wildlife whereas trees are renewable resource giving us paper wood for our homes fuel for our fires and countless other wood products and whereas trees in our city increase property values enhance the economic vital vitality of business areas and beautify our community whereas trees wherever they are planted are a source of joy and spiritual renewal now therefore on behalf of the city council of the city of north saint paul i terence furlong mayor of the city of north saint paul minnesota do hereby proclaim friday april 29th 2022 as arbor day in north saint paul and i urge all city citizens to celebrate arbor day and to support efforts to protect our trees and woodlands and be it further resolved i urge all citizens to plant trees to gladden the heart and promote the well-being of this in future generations signed this 19th day of april 2022 so that is the arbor day proclamation and we have the consent agenda which is the april 5th workshop meeting minutes the april 5th regular meeting minutes the general claims that hra claims the building permit report for march the resolution of proven acceptance of donations received march 2022 revising the staff complement and expenditures in the 2022 budget related to the human resources manage manager slash assistant to the city manager rms user agreement between north st paul police department and ramsey county attorney's office squad video camera technology conversion bucket truck purchase open position on alternate to the minnesota municipal power agency mmpa board for north saint paul item l was taken out m is special event main drag vintage and collectibles sidewalk sale special event fallen angel tattoo grand opening and the last is the special event for max diner grand opening at this motion at this time a council member can take an item out if they can they do want to do so at this time if not a motion to accept the consent agenda so moved moved by council member juan second second by council member cole any discussion if not all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed motion carries this time the meeting is open to the public and i do have one and that is rt welcome again very quick update for you um season's coming to a close for the regular club season um going down to nationals here coming up again it seems like it was yesterday that we were down there in florida or yep yep back in florida again um and camp is ridiculously well attended numbers are up there our program is growing we added boys so boys volleyball has started that was like three weeks ago now um so that's continuing to grow we look to have teams for that next coming next season um that said we're still here you guys we're still here um we've been walking this path for the past three years together and um it's been challenging at times but we're still here and um if the city were to be interested in selling the building we're still here does that mean we might have two locations yes it does and we're okay with that um so just know that that we're still here we're here to walk this path with you guys as you continue to move down it our only concern right now as you heard from ron is the heat and that is on a timeline and the fact that the city does know about it and we could run out of heat like that's a concern so i would and i completely sympathize with council member cole and i wanted to approve anything without more concrete information about the library lease i get it that said i mean we know the heat is nine months out to get that repaired so that's my only real concern right now i mean come october next year when the heat needs to be turned back on if it doesn't work we're going to have some issues so i'm getting that resolved as soon as possible would be greatly appreciated um and that said i mean if we're not going to sell and like i said earlier if we want to just move that down give you guys some more time we can certainly do that too so we're here to walk that path with you and we have ben so thank you appreciate it at this time uh anybody on zoom zoom we have no public hearings this time the city business action items and recommendations we have two items one is the set the sale for the nine million dollar general obligation bonds and the second one is concurrence of bids and joint powers agreement with maplewood for the aerial street and utility improvement project so at this time i think morgan are you oh dan dan in morgan just stand so dan i'll turn it over to you and uh all right thank you mayor council members i know it's tough to to be excited about going out and selling almost 10 million dollars worth of bonds but actually there's a story behind this and it actually is pretty exciting if you can remember last year as we're going through the budget process we made the decision to call some bonds we made the decision to restructure some bonds last year what that all did was that actually reduced our debt levy for this current year of 2022 and in addition to that it opened up some capacity of approximately 421 000 on an annual basis so we could actually go out for a bond this year so i know in spite of everything we were looking at about a 9.2 million dollar issuance well total project cost using arpa funds of approximately 1.3 bringing it down to an issuance of 7.9 we're sitting at about 2 million dollars higher i think we're we're facing the same thing that everybody is and that's inflation um and costs are rising and we're also dealing with uh the rising of interest rates um and and the feds are talking about you know a number of upticks that they're looking at throughout 2022 good news we still have very good interest rates right now we got out good planning a lot of credit has to go definitely to to this city council for the in for the the site and the planning of of taking care of these projects that were on the top priority in addition the great work that w sb has done particularly morgan and his whole entire team and helping to develop and move fast and trying to get specifications out so we could get out on the street and get bids morgan will talk about one of the bids that that has come in but more importantly the bids have been coming in very favorable to the city um if you remember inc incorporated into our 10-year capital plan these projects were all identified costs have gone up we've been able to [Music] utilize the arpa money in a little bit different way we were at one point in time kind of looking at using that for the the water and the infrastructure because that was kind of what was required at the time by by the feds that has now changed their final rulings they opened up a little bit more flexibility there was the opportunity at one time that you how it was written before is that you could do and recognize loss in revenue we really didn't have a lot you know loss of revenue but there was a long lengthy calculation that you would have to do to be able to come up with that revenue loss in their final ruling they allowed a 10 million dollar up to 10 million dollar one-time if you're underneath that you just take that take that that loss so you know we're anticipating you getting a little over 1.3 million dollars we'll take that loss which that allows us to do is we don't have to be restrictive on on the water components of the project we can actually shift it to the street components of it which then holds that amount that we levied so we're not going to have another impact um on on our residents in taxes coming into 2023. in addition to that we've got a fantastic partner as a our as our financial advisor in baker tilley particularly michaela and michaela is online if we do have some additional questions for her that she can answer she certainly will do so but we were going out we're looking at a maximum of 12 million dollars for street reconstruction what's in front of you now and what we're looking at is almost 10 million dollars it's pretty close to a split we're looking at i believe it's 4.6 of street reconstruction and then 5.4 that will be utility revenue bonds [Music] so by doing this in addition to that michaela also identified that if we can keep this underneath 10 million dollars and which will be underneath there by five thousand dollars um it it ends up becoming um bank qualified which actually gives us a little bit lower of an interest rate what does that mean it means over the 20-year period it can save us an additional 300 000 so we're going to take advantage of that what does it mean for what it means for us is that we have to put up up front an additional 135 000 to bring us down underneath that 10 million dollars which again my recommendation is that we we move forward with that and so the bonds have been structured to going down that path so really this is a really good news type of story it's nice to see where we can have a plan and even through some adverse adversity of inflation and everything else and we're we're taking advantage of still historically low interest rates we're able to do the right things we're not giving up anything at this point in time in any of our designs or um any of our our plans um we're not compromising anything i know i know when i was here when uh just the the last meeting i think it was on the fifth um one of the concerns that the city council had raised is that we we somehow have a tendency of i'll use the phrase kicking things down the road um but here we're taking care of everything that we had identified to date so that's another good news um so i i'm i'm not going to go through all of the detail we know what the projects that were that we've identified um it's a 20-year bond we've got pretty constant levees um that we're going to have you know it'll range from you know approximately 316 000 a year to 313 so it's pretty level we're looking at approximately a 2.8 percent interest true interest cost on these bonds we're taking right now the bonds have been structured um at 30 points over the current interest rates we're still a little you know concerned of is that going to be enough in the last week they've gone up eight to ten basis points so i think we're under we think we'll be close even if they go up a little bit higher we should still be underneath our levy amount but we'll know a little bit more when the sale goes goes out the sale should be may 17th we have some more documentation to put together we'll have a call rating in early may and i think we're set advisors baker tilley also concurs that what they're seeing is that they believe especially with the feds looking at you know increasing interest rates to combat inflation that will see higher interest rates so us being out now and early is for the city's benefit and they are saying stay the course go out and sell so if there's any specific questions i certainly would take those there is a resolution in the packet that does need to be passed to set the the sale date any questions for the finance director good presentation it's exciting it really is it's nice to see a plan come together and um this gentleman to my right we'll we'll we'll kick off the next item and so far he's only delivered good news so is that trend continuing rates are going up no [Laughter] okay you're the second part so we need to pass the resolution first so that and i believe the resolution is providing for the competitive negotiated sale of nine million nine hundred ninety five thousand dollars in general obligation bonds you believe that's the motion correct uh finance director okay uh some move by council member thorson second second by council member wong any other discussion add all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed motion carries turn it over to [Music] uh city engineer morgan dawley thank you mr mayor members of the council this next item on your agenda here is a consideration of something that was previously discussed by council this is a joint project with the city of maplewood that contemplates roadway improvements on ariel street from the south cul-de-sac just north of highway 36 all the way up to 17th avenue it is a city street on the border of north st paul and maplewood the city limits actually goes right down the center of the road so the the road ownership responsibility is 50 50 between north saint paul and the city of maplewood in this instance as previously discussed by council the city of maplewood is the lead agency meaning they're the contracting agency they have gone out for bids and the action item for consideration here in front of council is twofold so number one is to review the bid results that maplewood has received and to concur with one of two options so there are two alternates built into the maplewood project for the improvements to ariel street bit alternate one is basically just kind of the the base bid which is the improvements to ariel street as i mentioned in that area as part of the north st paul portion we do have some city of north st paul water main which needs to be replaced so that's also a part of bit alternate one as a base bid and then bid alternate two which as requested by city council included the addition of sidewalk on the east side of ariel street now originally it was discussed that sidewalk would be contemplated between 11th avenue and 17th avenue through some subsequent meetings with residents with public works staff myself i was out there it was observed that actually pedestrians specifically students getting off the school bus at the intersection of 11th avenue and ariel street actually walked south on ariel street as well between 9th avenue approximately and 11th avenue and so um we just included some sidewalk in that two-block piece as well just to see you know as the prices came in if we wanted to uh consider sidewalk or council wanted to consider the full sidewalk it would actually as proposed here and as priced here with the bid would be on the east side again from 9th avenue to 11th avenue continuing through 11th avenue all the way north to 17th so just a little clarification on the sidewalk there we don't have a visual do we map i i don't no i we just had a map previously i can actually um if it's important i can certainly bring that up um at any rate i'll keep discussing the bids uh what i can report is that the um the bids came in favorably there were only two bids which that was interesting i had a conversation with a public works director at maplewood today he didn't have any information as to why only two bidders the low bidder that is being considered for award on the project whether or not north st paul moves forward or not with bid alternate one or alternate two and i should mention the city does have the option of giving direction on not awarding either alternate that is a third option here on the table but the low bidder is local contractor t.a schifsky and sons you're all familiar with their work obviously they've worked on several north st paul projects over the years and so they would be the anticipated awarded contractor uh a week from yesterday at the maplewood council meeting as i mentioned the bids were favorable the results are in your packet here and i guess i should mention as i'm working on a map here the two alternates in terms of what is presented in the table in the memorandum that's the total cost and so uh the low bid for bid alternate one was 721 785 and 75 cents and bit alternate 2 so with the sidewalk was 918 thousand dollars 985 and 65 cents now below that i've provided a little bit more detail in terms of the cost participation split between north st paul and maplewood obviously maplewood has some responsibility for the roadway portion north st paul would carry the responsibility for half the road plus our water main and for the sidewalk alternative which is alternate to the sidewalk would be 100 percent uh north st paul uh responsibility so those costs you know so not not what would we be awarded but at the end of the day when everything was constructed and we would use actual construction costs to actually finally settle up at the end maple wood would pay the contractor up front and we would reimburse them after the project but north st paul's costs construction only range from just over 531 000 for no sidewalk just over 728 000 for the version with sidewalk both of those are below estimates if you add in contingency and indirect as contemplated within the capital improvement plan and the bonding program that you just heard about from the finance director winik um it's about eight to nine percent below kind of our projected costs for before both of those right and so we've always planned for a worst case scenario with the sidewalk but it is up to council to to decide at this meeting we need to give direction back to the city of maplewood do we move forward with sidewalk or without sidewalk but again from a financing standpoint there are funds available to fund the sidewalk version even though that is more expensive by approximately two hundred thousand dollars um and then the second item uh for consideration within the council's packet here and we just need a motion in a second would be direction to execute the joint powers agreement that is in the packet again that kind of defines the particulars with this arrangement it's very similar to past joint powers agreements that we've had with the city of maplewood before on the 2016 street and utility improvement project and the 2018 street and utility improvement project those were projects where north st paul was the lead agency and they were paying for portions that were their responsibility of shared roadways so this is same situation very similar agreement but they are the lead agency and we'd be reimbursing them um i apologize i don't have a map and i don't have a great way to pull it up because i'm not logged on to the zoom meeting so i apologize for that shortcoming on my behalf but again in review in terms of location on the sidewalk we're talking about the east side of ariel from 9th avenue which is south of 11th avenue all the way north to 17th avenue which is where there is sidewalk actually to connect to which would take people east west on 17th avenue into maplewood to the west towards whitebear avenue and also to the east that would be on the north side of 17th avenue you can get to casey lake park that way so with that i know that's a mouthful but again there's kind of two combined things here for council consideration uh award or tell maplewood whether the preference for north st paul is to award neither alternate one nor alternate to alternate one with his which is aerial improvements with no sidewalk or alternate two which is aerial improvements with the sidewalk and then again authorization for staff to execute the joint powers agreement with maplewood subject to minor edits that the city attorney might have non-substantive if there was something substantive we would bring that agreement back but i'll stand for any questions the council might have at this time does the sidewalk is that part of our plan is that part of our strategic plan uh mr mayor members of the council so in the comprehensive plan there is an identified pedestrian improvement not defined specifically like sidewalk or trail or whatever but the section between 11th avenue and 17th avenue is identified on mapping within the comprehensive plan for potential improvements we've discussed this before in that when a street is reconstructed or fully reconstructed we might start looking at all sorts of different modes of transportation how can we you know how might we add different things this was originally contemplated as a more of a rehabilitation project just reclaiming the streets obviously we have some water main to attend to as well so we hadn't gotten to that point but again based on feedback from the council that was something that you all wanted to look at see what the pricing would be how that might fit within budgets and so that's what's before you here tonight you said that the neighbors were not in favor of the sidewalk they thought the traffic no at the neighborhood meeting that we had held and i think i presented on this previously to council we had not a significant amount of opposition to the sidewalk there were and i don't remember the exact numbers but there were there were some people that you know were for it some people that were um not for it but nobody was specifically uh really vehemently against it as i recall um we did talk about snow removal and how within current ordnance that's the responsibility of the homeowner or at least we mentioned that i should also mention that you know at those meetings not everybody shows up but you know that that is by invitation and that's where you learn more about the project right um uh we did also have some people in attendance that uh at that meeting that lived at some of the side streets like flanders and i want to say 13th avenue maybe even 14th avenue that had indicated that they would be in support of a sidewalk even though that wasn't their street or where they lived but they had said yeah that would be helpful or i would use that or i walk on the shoulder or the side of the roadway now and so i you know they they seem to indicate support for that type of an improvement any other questions for morgan councilmember thorson i'm assuming the sidewalks concrete that's correct yeah and we've uh designed it at a thickness so that you know should it need to be you know maintained by heavier equipment it would be able to handle that an absolute map when you're talking about the east side you're talking about the north st paul side correct correct does the cost increase or decrease if it's on the mapwood side on the west side um it might be marginally less only because there's fewer driveways but i think you know similar dimensions similar uh makeup and you know concrete versus other materials it would be pretty close to the same and the reason i ask that i mean i think this is a road that is a candidate obviously it's in the comp plan and we're trying to improve you know walkability and transportation make things safer and i look at the map and i encounter 14 residences on north saint paul are impacted and on the other side of the road there's six plus the town home development on the corner of 11th and 17th so from just a impact perspective if we're going to do this and and we're placing the burden on the homeowner to clear the snow you know and i understand how this is on maplewoods side so they could just say no we're not we're not doing this even if we're saying what we're going to pay for they could still say no it would make sense to me that if we're going to make this change we advocate for the sidewalk on the west side because it's having an impact on the least amount of homeowners now there's this large stretch of sidewalk that abuts to i don't know what that's considered a swamp or if they consider that a park but there's no one there in mape wood and so the question comes well how does that snow get removed but that's not unique to other areas in north st paul where there's large sections of sidewalk that aren't tied directly to a homeowner or a business i think that somehow it gets taken care of but i'm just kind of curious if uh if that idea has been discussed with mapwood at all about what if what if we put it on your side i mean have they been receptive to that or is that a no deal or council member thor simmons members of the council so that has been discussed with staff i don't recall if that was based on past discussions with the city council but i did bring it forward with the engineering public works staff at city of maplewood pointing out that fewer impacted properties or residential properties driveways there's kind of that big pond or whatever that is wetland there and they indicated that they would look at it and basically uh you know the feedback that i got or the impression that i got is that it was a north st paul kind of requested amenity and there wasn't really a lot of interest in terms of making it a city of maplewood amenity and so we moved forward with this plan at least for design and bidding knowing that we'd be able to present something to you all that would represent you know a pedestrian facility you know that's not to say that if uh no sidewalk alternate was awarded here tonight or that guidance was given to the city of maplewood there could be further discussions that go on that you know i don't know could be years down the road like a sidewalk walk could be retrofitted in to ariel street in this area as a stand-alone project i i guess i couldn't say whether or not we'd receive as favorable prices right i mean things might get more expensive as time goes on but that if council wanted to enter into discussions with maplewood to try to convince them to put it on their side that's certainly a possibility i'd but i would not be able to predict whether or not they would be open to that knowing that we had already kind of asked pointed out some of the potential benefits i think they certainly heard uh what we were saying but you know they they didn't move on that at all i think that happened on holloway they wanted it on the maple people wouldn't want it yeah okay yeah i think yeah you know so yeah i don't think it'll it'll happen if we decide to have them put it on their side i don't think they'll we'll do it um well i mean that's a it's a negotiating thing right if you don't ask and you just assume and you don't push back but um and i'm assuming then to on the east side i used i grew up on the home on the corner ariel and flanders there it's kind of like a hill is is the the road i'm assuming is going to be narrowed a bit and that sidewalk on that stretch is there going to be like a requirement to build a retaining wall or i mean we've seen that where if that side of the road is picked just the topography where you can't avoid it you gotta you know incur so i mean that's kind of is that something that's part of this plan or is that not meeting that uh that was actually one at least one of the resident meetings that i had someone wanted to learn more about you know where would this sit and how might this affect the area behind the sidewalk and so again to very kind of purposefully or intently i guess i would say the design of the sidewalk is in this proposal here is to go in that four or five foot striped shoulder okay so that's a edge of the road there that i think that shoulder's probably been striped for i don't know a generation right and but you can't park there so it's not like we'd be uh removing on-street parking but it seemed like a logical place where we can meet all of the required standards for the road the lane width that sort of thing and not have to get into moving power poles or building retaining walls i mean we might need to do a little bit of minor grading on the back side of this sidewalk but the back side of this particular sidewalk between 11th avenue and 17th avenue would sit basically where that striped shoulder is so the back of the walk is approximately where the back of the existing curb is if you can visualize that so not a significant widening into the slope or into people's front yards okay so essentially it's losing that shoulder that's striped the sidewalk will be within that and okay so because i mean when i look at this obviously sidewalks are controversial this clearly is an is an area that we've highlighted one should go in i'm not against the sidewalks i just think it makes more sense to put it on the other side of the road but you know it takes two to play ball here and naturally maple is going to want to say no but in this case we're going to pay for it so was that the question is it saying well we want a sidewalk here but we don't want to pay for it put it on your side or was it communicated like hey it makes more sense to go on your side and we will pay for it and they're still saying no because then the question is well we don't want to maintain it well you know we have a partnership in maintaining this up at silver lake the what's the aerator i mean it's not on our property it's maplewoods it's in their property but the county doesn't want to deal with it the watershed doesn't want to deal with it maple doesn't want to deal with it and we said well fine we'll deal with it so i mean that's just part of our job is also to negotiate for the best interests of our residents in the community and to me it just kind of seems like i did okay okay and they and they still just said it's the maintenance issue we didn't get into maintenance but if it you know if it were if the sidewalk were in the city of maplewood and i believe they have a similar ordinance in that you know their if it were in front of a residential property their their residents would have to you know remove snow and in the area that is adjacent to that wetland i think that's you know maybe city-owned property that would either have to be maintained by the city of north st paul or the city of maplewood we never got to that point okay um but you know in terms of within the confines of like this joint powers agreement and actually getting it done even if it was on the west side of the road i did say well what if we paid for it and yeah we moved forward with what we have in front of you here tonight thank you any other questions for morgan so we have i guess we have two two alt alternates and we have to decide on which alternate one or alternate two so or neither i mean so they have the ability to not award anything but then that i guess wouldn't address any of the road improvements or the water main improvements that certainly we've identified that our needs within the community so the first i guess motion would be uh alternate number one uh aerial with no sidewalk is there a motion for that number two would be a bit alt number two ariel with the sidewalk is there a motion for that so moved wow so moved by council member cole second by council member wong any other discussion if not all those in favor signify by saying aye aye motion carries and then this second motion we have so is that what you needed so for that one yeah and then i would just make sure to in your motion include um subject to minor non-substantive edits by the city attorney as kind of proposed for the action if that's acceptable yeah add that to the motion uh for authorization for staff to execute the joint powers agreement i was going to do that as a second motion yep that's fine okay uh so the second motion is a joint powers agreement between the city of north st paul and maplewood for 2022 jarvis area pavement rehabilitation project including aerial street improvements between the cul de sac and 17th avenue east uh city of maplewood project number 2107 in city of north st paul project number 22-03 so i moved it so moved by council member thorson's say goodbye councilmember peterson is that the right motion you want all those who favor any other discussion all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed motion carries thank you good thank you morgan and dan appreciate it anything else city manager if you're out there and you think okay no sorry i do not have anything else okay thank you so this time we have so no reports of the city manager and departments reports of city of council commissions and committees council member cole i just have one quick one we met ed amet on 4-2 primary discussion was we reviewed parking and green space in the open lot that it currently exists and i don't have the address on 7th but it exists between sidewinders and the tattoo parlor where the building had been torn down several years ago and it's just kind of been a dirt parking lot per se for some period of time and the eda decided it was um time to to make it pretty uh so we looked at three parking options and three green space options and um i think they came to a consensus it's kind of what they were looking for to push back for someone i believe was it wsb that was going to sketch it back up i can't recall um to to to to move forward with that [Music] that's all i got good councilmember wang um yeah the planning commission met the first of this month they're wrapping up the sign ordinance it's been a long long journey so it's looking really good there's a one pager for business and patio or businesses that will be developed for um sorry a one-pager of about the patio furniture for the businesses so they kind of have an idea of you know some of the direction we you know suggestions we have for the furniture like commercial grade is that put together already or it's coming to council or no i think it's in the works by staff okay um we also discussed the wayfinding plan and how it needs to be updated um i think that's part of the park's next move so they also discuss planning priorities for the year and we also had an applicant for the planning commission so that's nice to have someone back on there and then our next meeting is thursday may 5th as for the arts and culture commission and we had interviews yesterday to fill a position we had three people come and very passionate very excited and very good candidates so looking forward to that as well the art cart is coming to north st paul again you'll see it at the music and the parks as well as the car show um and we saw some drafts of the downtown banners and so there's a couple options that were thrown on the table and they're going to take another look at it and maybe we'll see that coming down the pike and then the next meeting is on may 4th at 6 30 here in sandberg thanks city manager did you have something to add to this it looked like you nope okay uh councilman peterson yeah i just wanted to um express my thank you to morgan walla he did a very nice job at the business association last weekend our last tuesday and it was very informative i had people come up and say yeah he was it was very succinct and really knowledgeable that you know that you know you know your stuff and so i did send him a thank you card and his boss did he keep it under two hours oh it was short i think i think it was the shortest the shortest speech ever oh yeah you weren't there no it wasn't i gotta give you a half hour it was within a half hour so well done otherwise i don't have anything else thanks councilmember thurston i have nothing but i do have a question on the the arts and culture one of the items was their apparel design and there appears to be an image like a silhouette of a different type of snowman and i thought that we had pretty strict guidelines on the use of our city logo and that that type of thing isn't allowed um i can't remember the terminology i think it actually was actually in a previous arts um on culture commission agenda but they had kind of a design guide on how to use the logo and that you're not to modify the snowman and and there's only certain colors is that ringing a bell for anyone or i think when we redesigned it i think there was restrictions on it yeah so it was like you know you you can't you know like the parks commission can't take the logo and then change it and say this is the north saint paul parks and rec and use a different logo and then you know you there were certain ways that you can use the letterhead there was things like that but they i think they had specific direction and we voted and approved this it's policy i can't remember the name of the policy but it was that the logo of the city is not to be manipulated and changed like you don't put a pumpkin on the head of the snowman or something you know things like that and i just i mean if you're doing apparel that's great but i don't you know to design your own logo i don't think that's consistent with our current guidelines and if if that needs to change i think we need to amend or change that policy that we have saying you can't you can't stray from the logo because that's our official logo i was not aware of that they're changing the snowman uh it was more for using t-shirts to kind of promote the the account commission because it is new um i don't know where we're at in terms of approving those or moving forward with that or a budget to my knowledge we can certainly take a look at those logos and the guidelines and policies around them you might want to bring that back to the commission yeah there was some and i want to say it was in a previous arts and culture commission where i saw that where it was that topic item and i think it was a well i'm sorry it was the banner guide okay maybe that's where it was okay so here's what i'm talking about it's it's like a guide with all the official the north st paul logo official use guidelines and they're saying you don't you know this this image has it depicting like uh he's holding the baseball bat and i don't know if you can kind of see that and they're zooming in here or i can see it on the tv but it's you know they're saying you can't modify the logo and this baseball bait and a baseball cap i mean it could be because we're promoting north st paul youth baseball but i mean this is an official policy that we've adopted it's a huge guidelines and that seems to be strange so if you're going to use it as an official city you know arts and culture commission city of north saint paul that seems to be in violation of that if it's not official and it's just you guys are you know going to do something on your own i get i don't i don't know if that falls in that but i just will take a look at it thanks uh general business anything else council member no general business council member call nothing at this time uh councilmember wang nothing thanks councilmember peterson we've got the cleanup um the silverlight cleanup is the 23rd of the month which is friday silver lake uh we'll use anybody they're going to have probably bags and gloves so come on up i don't know is it 10 9 o'clock kerry or 9 30 okay and the citywide cleanup is april 30th so get your junk and get it down to the public works they're going to have it really slick this year and we'll take as much as you have i guess and then the citywide garage sale will be may 5th to the 7th it's 10 to get a sign you'll be advertised and it's always good to clean out your closets and garage so keep the city clean thank you also member thorson just general question um the city manager is still here now but i think it was at the last council meeting i asked about the the the that trash and everything along like the burger king kind of side entry way in there you know i don't know if code enforcement had a chance to follow up but i was there again today and it's just as bad if not worse and there also now is a the pr it's private property um there's a huge snow pile there someone's clearly dumping snow and there's garbage all over so you know we've had these high wind events i think it's still kind of locked into that snow but eventually you know it's a concern that that stuff's going to be blowing into the state trail and under the highway has has code enforcement been able to reach the property owners and make them aware of that concern yeah mr mayor councilmember thorson i i did bring that to the attention of code enforcement the following day after the council meeting i i didn't get any follow-up i don't know where we're at on that okay i'm sensitive to that too you know that gateway trail is really the windows into north st paul for a lot of people and so um you know i'd like to make sure we're keeping it keeping it clean so i will check in on that with code enforcement tomorrow and try to get you an answer otherwise when's the cleanup day the 30th okay so i will be there on the 30th with my i will be there on the 30th with my dump trailer and anyone wants to help loading that stuff up bringing it to the city cleanup then if it's not resolved because otherwise you know there's no point in there's been enough time i believe that private property owner at least on a tax statement is lives in texas or something so i'm sure they're not gonna do anything so that's all i have okay i've got uh from the consent agenda we've got the fallen angel grand opening which is may 21st between 3 and 10 p.m it's kind of funny they put on the application no fireworks so last year when they when they did the application they had accidentally put fireworks in there and there's a big concern we actually went and talked to gabriel and he said no we're not doing fireworks but in the application and said he was doing fireworks and we weren't sure where he was actually gonna light off all that those fireworks over there so it's not gonna happen no there's not gonna be any fireworks but he it does have a grand opening uh may 21st between three and ten and then uh max steiner uh getting excited for that the grand opening celebration is friday july 8th and friday july 15th sounds like two of the car show nights and it will be in the resident parking lot they're gonna have a live band and they'll be between six and nine pm that's all i have anything else last minute if not uh john i don't know if you know this or not but you had little spots on your head from the tv screen we have we have a little uh something going on with our computer so there's little spots all over the screen so not only you're sick you got little spots on your on your head so so a motion to adjourn so moved moved by council member peterson second by council member wong you know the discussion if not all those in favor signify by saying aye aye oppose determined you