Based on the content of the transcript, specifically the closing statement at [20:15], the speaker identifies himself as **Brian Bachmeer**, the consulting city engineer for the City of Oakdale. Although he is not on the internal staff list provided, he is clearly the sole presenter for this neighborhood meeting presentation. [0:00] Brian Bachmeer: Hello and welcome to the 2026 Street improvement neighborhood meeting presentation. This includes Second Street, Third Street, Court, Fourth Street, Grafton Avenue, and Greenway Avenue. This is a map of the neighborhood area including Greenway Avenue from Hudson Boulevard to 7th Street, Second Street from Greenway Avenue to Grafton, Grafton from 2nd to 4th, Fourth Street from Grafton to Greenway Avenue, and Third Street Court west of Greenway Avenue. The purpose of this presentation includes four items. [0:34] Brian Bachmeer: Number one, review the city's need for an annual program. Number two, describe the construction elements of a project. Number three, outline the process of a project. And number four, present the policies of how projects are funded in the city of Oakdale. [0:52] Brian Bachmeer: The city of Oakdale has developed an annual street improvement program that has five objectives. The first objective is to improve safety. There is a direct correlation between pavement condition and safety on our streets for all users, including bikers, walkers, and motorists. The second objective is to control maintenance costs. Asphalt gets older, it becomes brittle. The cost to maintain those streets increases at an increasing rate. And we are now to the point where the maintenance costs are exceeding the revenue that's collected and dedicated for that purpose. Patching is a very inefficient way to continue maintaining the streets as it costs five times more per ton to pay to patch a street than it does to pave a street. [1:39] Brian Bachmeer: The third objective is to replace water manes that have a history of breaks. There are a number of blocks in this neighborhood where we've had a series of breaks and it's now time to replace those water manes. The fourth objective is to improve the efficiency of our street lighting system. And we do that by installing LED light fixtures on the existing power poles. And the final objective is to eliminate service barriers. In the spring of the year, we do have to post the streets to try to protect them from heavy loads and that could affect service delivery to your neighborhood. And so when we reconstruct the streets, we construct them to a higher standard so that there is no service interruption to your neighborhood. [2:24] Brian Bachmeer: This is a map of the city of Oakdale showing the pavement conditions throughout the community. The good and the average streets are generally reflected in blue and green colors and the streets that are in poorer condition are in the red, orange, and yellow colors. And if as you look around the community, you can see neighborhoods where we do have uh areas with poor pavement conditions. [2:55] Brian Bachmeer: As mentioned earlier, the city has an annual pavement reconstruction program. And you can see over the next five years, we're going to be doing those neighborhoods that had the pavement in poor condition in the previous slide. [3:11] Brian Bachmeer: And for next year, we are looking at again the neighborhood in the south central portion of the city. This is a chart showing how a typical city street deteriorates over time. On the left margin is the pavement condition from zero to 100 with 100 being a street in good condition with new pavement and zero being an older street with poor pavement conditions. On the bottom is the age of the street from 0, 10, 30, 20, 30, and 40. And on the right side is the cost per square foot to maintain a street. And what it's indicating here is as a street gets older, the maintenance costs increase. And there gets to be a point of diminishing returns, which generally happens at around 28 to 30 years. Most of the streets in next year's program have reached that age. [3:57] Brian Bachmeer: This is a map of the neighborhood showing the water main breaks that have occurred over the last 30 years. There have been 28 total breaks in this area. [4:14] Brian Bachmeer: 18 of which were on Second Street, Grafton, and Fourth and 10 of them on Greenway Avenue from Hudson Boulevard to 7th Street. There have been no water main breaks on Third Street Court. This map shows the load limits that we have to impose from March to May of every year to protect our streets. And the streets that are in red are the ones that have to be posted five tons per axle or less. And that is done to try to preserve the brittle pavement from heavy loads to try to reduce the amount of cracking and breaking that occurs. As you can see, your neighborhood now is to the point where it's restricted to five tons per axle. And if you look through the map, you can see that other neighborhoods in the annual program are also uh restricted by axle weight. [4:59] Brian Bachmeer: This is a map that shows all the streets that have been reconstructed since 1992, which is 32 years. And as mentioned earlier, you know, most of our streets last 28 or 30 years. So virtually all the streets in the city have been reconstructed during this time frame. [5:22] Brian Bachmeer: And we're now to the point where we're actually going back and reconstructing streets that were already uh reconstructed in 1992, including your neighborhood. That concludes the first part of our presentation regarding the city's annual program. Now, we'll take a look at this project as it relates specifically to this neighborhood. We have a series of pictures that will show the existing conditions of the roadway. This is a picture of Seven Second Street looking to the west. As you can see, there's been a lot of patching that has occurred in this area. And you can even see uh different colored patching, which indicates that's occurred several times over the years in the same place. It also indicates where we've had water mane breaks. [6:08] Brian Bachmeer: This is a picture of the third street court area, and you can see that we have done a lot of patching in this area as well. Uh well more than 10% of the pavement surface. This is a picture on Fourth Street looking to the west from Greenway Avenue. You can you can again see the the extent of patching that has occurred over the years in this area. This is a picture on Grafton Avenue looking to the north. Again, from a pavement perspective, you can see that we've patched the street a number of times. Uh if you take a look at the curb and gutter, you can see that it is heaved and settled in certain places along there, uh which provides for poor drainage, especially around the catch basins. [6:55] Brian Bachmeer: This is another picture on Grafton Avenue looking towards Granada and you can see again the amount of patching. You can also see uh the fire hydrant on the right side. That is an old style hydrant that was installed in the early to mid60s. So it gives you an idea how old the the water mane is in this area. This is Greenway Avenue looking to the north and you can see that we've had a series of water mane breaks with the darker patches along the west side. The overall pavement condition is different than the other neighborhoods because we overlay collector roadways with a thin mill and overlay that is paid for with our state aid gas tax dollars. That was done about 15 years ago. This street was originally reconstructed along with the other neighborhood streets about 30 years ago. [7:40] Brian Bachmeer: This picture and the one behind it are examples of previous projects that we've done in the city of Oakdale. This is Greystone Avenue just north of Hudson Boulevard. Uh that was the condition of the roadway in 2024. This is Greystone as it exists today. It was reconstructed in 2025. [7:57] Brian Bachmeer: Uh the curbon gutter was removed and replaced and the pavement was removed and replaced. The water man was also removed and replaced in this area similar to the improvements that we're proposing on Second Grafton and Fourth and on Greenway Avenue. You can see uh the patches to transition the driveways to the new curb and gutter. Uh you can see the new street light fixture on top, which is an LED type fixture instead of the high-pressure sodium that currently exists in your neighborhood. The proposed improvements being considered for this neighborhood include removing and replacing the asphalt, removing and placing the curb and gutter, utility repairs, primarily the replacement of water mane on second, Grafton 4th and on Greenway Avenue. [8:44] Brian Bachmeer: Uh sanitary sewer sealing if there is any areas that are allowing groundwater into the sanitary sewer system. uh storm sewer repairs where necessary, primarily around the catch basins and also cleaning out uh ponding areas to improve water quality where the storm sewer discharges into and close to Tanner's Lake. This will require the removal of trees along the project. Primarily, uh 15 trees will be removed along Greenway Avenue for the construction of the sidewalk. We've identified 27 trees that may need to be removed along Second, Grafton, Third, and Fourth Street for a variety of reasons. [9:31] Brian Bachmeer: 10 of these trees are ash trees, uh, which are susceptible to the emerald ashbor disease. There are nine trees that appear too close to the existing water services, so we cannot isolate the curb stops and turn water on to the homes or off. and there are eight trees that appear to be in poor condition or too close to the curb. Um so they are being proposed to be removed. We're also looking at replacing the existing light fixtures with uh LED fixtures. Uh most of the poles were will remain in place. There might be a few that need to be replaced if they're cracked, but if the poles are in good condition, they will remain and we will just be replacing the light fixture on the top of the pole. [10:17] Brian Bachmeer: We're also uh proposing a sidewalk along the west side of Greenway Avenue. We have been working with the property owners along that corridor to acquire the temporary easement that's needed for that sidewalk. Uh we'll also be evaluating the street signs along the corridor and we've notified the private utility companies including Excel, Lumen, Comcast u that we are working in this area and it would be a good opportunity for them to look at their facilities to see if they should be upgraded. At the same time, as mentioned on the previous side, we are proposing to construct a sidewalk along the west side of Greenway Avenue from Hudson Boulevard to 7th Street to improve pedestrian access to the high school and also the bus rapid transit station on Hudson Boulevard. This sidewalk will be concrete 6 feet wide and there will be a 4-oot grass boulevard between the curb and gutter and the sidewalk. [11:22] Brian Bachmeer: This improvement is being financed with a federal grant. We do have a series of videos that we will watch of a typical construction project. There will be videos on pavement reclamation, on grading the road, preparing it for repaving, curb repairs, and utility repairs as part of the project, both public and private. [11:47] Brian Bachmeer: The next couple of slides will talk about the actual construction process. Generally, the first thing a contractor will do is reclaim the pavement. They grind up the asphalt surface and turn it into a gravel road. Then they will start utility repairs underneath the road, uh, including the water mane, any gate valves, uh, manholes that need to be adjusted. Once that is completed, then they will grade the road, prepping it for the for any curb repairs that need to be done. Once the curb and gutter is repaired or replaced, they will install the first layer of black top and that's called the base course. Uh the total pavement thickness is 3 in. So it's put in two lifts. The first one is an inch and a half thick and that is a base course of asphalt. [12:34] Brian Bachmeer: After that is installed, then they will adjust the manholes and gate valves in the street getting it ready for the final work course. During the course of construction, the contractor is responsible for providing access and maintaining mail delivery to all abuing properties. The work hours are generally limited to 7 to 7 Monday through Friday. [12:59] Brian Bachmeer: If there's any work on Saturday, it's 9 to5 and there will be site representatives from the city and from the consulting firm that is managing the project on site. If you need to reach anybody, uh there will be contact information that will be provided to you. You can also uh there'll be weekly updates that'll be mailed out or a link to a city website giving you weekly updates. [13:27] Brian Bachmeer: And that concludes the second portion of our presentation. The third portion of our presentation is to talk about the process associated with a public project. The first step is to have anformational meeting with the neighborhood which was conducted on November 5th. And then this presentation is also part of that information to the neighborhood for those that cannot attend. The second step is for the uh consultants to prepare a feasibility report which goes to the council on December 9th where we'll talk about the feasibility of the improvements, provide an estimate more formally of the cost and schedule. The third step is and most important step is the public improvement and assessment hearing which will be on January 27th of 2026. [14:13] Brian Bachmeer: You will receive mailed notice of both of those hearings that'll be conducted that evening. That'll be an opportunity for you to see the presentation again, offer testimony before the city council, and then for the city council to make decisions regarding the project. [14:33] Brian Bachmeer: Uh the the next step that concludes the third portion of our presentation regarding process. The fourth and final portion of our presentation is for policies and that primarily is how this project will be financed. The estimated cost of this project is 6,325,116. [14:56] Brian Bachmeer: The city will be financing 86% of the total project with a combination of funding sources. the balance of the project about 14% of the total project cost would be financed through assessments to the benefiting property owners adjacent to the project. [15:13] Brian Bachmeer: The assessments are applied to the adjusted frontage of the property based on the width of the lot at the building setback line. The assessment rate itself represents the cost to remove and replace asphalt on a minimum standard street based on 2006 construction costs. [15:34] Brian Bachmeer: Virtually all the properties in this area are single family residential. There is one commercial industrial property on the corner of Hudson Boulevard and Greenway Avenue that would be assessed at the commercial assessment rate. It should be noted that the assessments cannot exceed the benefit to the property as determined by Minnesota case law. This is a map that shows the adjusted frontage of each parcel along the roadway improvements. What are special assessments? Special assessments are defined as a loan that is recorded against the property and spread over a 10-year period. The interest rate is 2% above the rate the city pays on a bond sale with interest acrewing starting in October of 2025. [16:19] Brian Bachmeer: The property owners can prepay without interest up until that point October of 2025. If the property owner prefers they can make partial prepayments, we prefer that they be in minimum $500 increments. The first installment uh in the absence of any prepayments or payment of the assessment will be collected with the property taxes starting in May of 2026. [16:47] Brian Bachmeer: The property owners do have the ability to pay the remaining balance at any time. If this creates a financial hardship uh for any property owners, there is a discrete deferral process that can be evaluated by our finance director. People typically ask, "Why am I being assessed for project improvements when I pay property taxes?" And the answer to that is property taxes go to paying services that the city provides such as police, fire, and maintenance of public facilities. As mentioned earlier, if the assessment creates a financial hardship, there is a deferral that can be applied for, and that's an application through the finance director. Generally the property is required to be homestead status. [17:34] Brian Bachmeer: Uh there are three criteria. The property owner can be 65 years or older, retired by disability or some financial hardship. Uh the deferrals do continue to bear interest and the deferrals are terminated upon the sale of the property, a change in the homestead status or if the council rescends the hardship. There are 164 property owners on the assessment role. The total amount of the assessments is 910,315. [18:09] Brian Bachmeer: Again, that represents about 14% of the project cost. Here are two examples of what the assessment payments may look like. As indicated earlier, the assessments are spread over a 10-year period. The example on the left is for a 70 foot wide lot. And so if you take 70 feet times $80 a foot, beginning balance of $5,600, we're assuming an interest rate of 5.75, uh, which is based on selling a bond at 3.75% plus 2%. [18:43] Brian Bachmeer: The would be over a 10-year period starting in 2026. So the first year, the payment would be in May of 2027, uh, onetenth the principal. So it' be $560 plus interest on the unpaid balance of $389.93. [19:02] Brian Bachmeer: So the first year of the assessment would be $949.93. Uh by the year 2036, the principal payment would be $560 plus $3220 and interest on the unpaid balance for a total payment that year of $592.20. [19:25] Brian Bachmeer: The example on the right is for an 80 foot wide lot. Uh so if you take 80 ft time the times the $80 per foot, the starting balance is $6,400. Again, starting in May of 2027, onetenth the principal is $640 plus interest on the unpaid balance of $44563 for a total annual payment of $1,8563. [19:54] Brian Bachmeer: Um, in the last year of payment would be in 2036. Again, onetenth the principal, $640, plus interest on the unpaid balance of $36.80 for a total annual payment in 2036 of $67,66.80. [20:15] Brian Bachmeer: This is a map showing the total assessments on each parcel determined by taking the adjusted frontage times the assessment rate. That concludes the PowerPoint presentation. I want to thank you for watching and if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to myself, Brian Bachmeer, uh the consulting city engineer for the city of Oakdale at my email address noted below. Have a great day.