This transcript has been processed to identify speakers based on the municipal context provided and internal references within the dialogue. **Note on Council Roster:** While the provided context reflects a 2026 outlook, the transcript is from September 2024. Speaker names have been reconciled between the provided list and the officials present during the 2024 session (notably including Councilmember Katie Bernhjelm and City Attorney Leah Koch, who are active in the recording). *** [0:00] [Music] [0:48] **Mayor Nick Lien:** We'll call the regular city council meeting to order for Tuesday, September 3rd, 2024. Would everyone please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance? [1:00] **All:** I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. [1:12] **Shirley Buecksler (City Clerk):** Call the roll, please. Mayor Lien? **Mayor Nick Lien:** Here. **City Clerk:** Councilmember Bernhjelm? **Councilmember Katie Bernhjelm:** Here. **City Clerk:** Councilmember Bernatz? **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** Here. **City Clerk:** Councilmember Cordes? **Councilmember Jake Cordes:** Here. **City Clerk:** Councilmember Wilson? **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** Here. [1:24] **Mayor Nick Lien:** All right. Uh, any changes to the agenda? Leah? Nick? Holly? **Leah Koch (City Attorney):** None. **Councilmember Jake Cordes:** None. **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** None. [1:33] **Mayor Nick Lien:** All right, seeing no changes to the agenda, I would seek a motion to approve the agenda. **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** Motion to approve. **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** Second. **Mayor Nick Lien:** Motion by Holly, second by Steve. All in favor say aye. **Councilmembers:** Aye. [1:45] **Mayor Nick Lien:** Item five, announcements—there are none. Item six is our citizen comments. If there’s anyone in attendance wishing to speak, come up to the podium at this time. Citizen comments are a time for anyone to address the City Council on matters not on the agenda. Those speaking should state their name and address and limit their comments to three minutes. The Council will not engage in discussion on your topic, but those issues requiring response will be responded to by the next City Council meeting. The City Council asks that anyone speaking at the meeting please be respectful. Go ahead. [2:24] **Resident:** That noise that you're hearing is roughly 70 dB. So, um, I'm just kind of curious if you would mind if we just left this running in a loop while the City Council meeting was going on. And if it shouldn't bother you at all, you should be able to hear me speak just fine. And I'd also like to wonder if I could bring a bigger sound machine, and I'd actually like to bring 12 of them and set them outside of your homes just for 24 hours if that would be okay with you. And maybe we could just—and if you don't like it, like the Mayor said, "just move," right? So if you don't like the noise that you're hearing, if you don't like what the City Council does, if you don't like what happens here in Farmington, just move. You know, just uproot your family, just get a higher rate on your mortgage, just incur all the cost of moving. Simply just move. It's okay, right? Because that's what the Mayor said. It's on Facebook, it's out there. That's what he said. None of you, not a single person on the Council, nor in the City, denounced what the Mayor said. But that's what this noise should be: okay with you. And what the Mayor said—by not saying anything, you're agreeing with them. Why would you want your residents to move if they don't agree with you? What happened to a civil debate? What happened to something where government and residents can get along? You're the first government—the first government that any actual citizen has or can come in contact with is you. I think that you bear a bigger, or as much, responsibility as any politician that's out there. And many of you probably don't look or view yourselves as politicians, but you are. Every single person sitting in that seat is a politician. Some of you weren't elected; some of you were appointed. Some of you tried to get elected and weren't elected and then were appointed. But every single one of you are politicians. And to tell your residents, to tell your constituents, "just move," just uproot your family, just take your kids out of schools they're growing up in, just take your kids out of the neighborhood that they've grown up in, just take your wife that lives 12 minutes away from her job and just move... that's our solution? Just move because we are going to bring tax dollars in? We haven't said what those tax dollars are going to be used for. You did at your work session a little bit with the Independent School District; you said that, you know, "hey, we're going to get some money," don't know how much. You don't know how much is going to be allocated. And there's going to be another referendum on the ballot this year because we can't afford to continue to pay. And everything that's at stake is always classroom sizes, it's always the things that all the residents want, right? We can't build a new hockey rink because you don't have enough money. We can't do this because we don't have enough money. You're not saying "just move to a better city that can provide those things at a lower cost or at a lower tax rate" like Apple Valley or Rosemount. Is that your goal? Do you guys want everyone to just leave Farmington so you can do whatever the hell you want with it? That does not seem reasonable. It does not seem like why some of you ran, or what you ran on when you went to acquire the seat that you're sitting at. "Just move away if you don't like what we're doing. If you don't like that we're rezoning property, if you don't appreciate that, just move away. It's fine." How about you just step down? How about you just move? How about you leave? We are the residents here. I know there's not a whole bunch of people standing here, but one fly in your tent when you're camping on a hot summer night in Minnesota, or one mosquito, is enough to cause great annoyance and probably keep you up all night. And I'll be that one fly. I'll be that one person. I've sat in a seat similar to yours. I've been elected twice. I understand the stress and the things that you're going through. But to simply say, "just move, just get out of my town..." it's not your town, it's our town. And that's not what any of you ran on. I'm sitting here just in utter amazement about the comments and none of you, not a single one of you, denounce anything that the Mayor said. You don't denounce him giving double middle fingers. When I follow up with Lynn, she says, "well, we don't have a process for that. We don't have a process to censure." My email back to her was: "make one." And it doesn't stop you from doing something just because you don't have a process. At some point, we all have to make up our own process. We have to figure out, well, okay, what's good? What's right? To rezone this property to cause this or a similar noise this loud at your property line—that's 70 dB. And what's even crazier is if that property gets rezoned and they put in a drug manufacturing plant instead of a data center, because as soon as it's rezoned, they can put in whatever they want—I shouldn't say that—they can put in an approved use under the city code. And all this doesn't pass a smell test. Josh and I talked on the phone last week; we talked about a smell test. None of this passes a smell test. It doesn't pass the smell test when the Mayor says, "if you don't like it, just move." Just uproot your family, take all the equity that you've earned out of your house, and just move. It's crazy. It's crazy talk in an election year. Someone who wants to be here, someone who's saying, "I'm going to represent the city of Farmington well—and if you don't like it, just move." So, with your permission, can I leave this here the rest of the City Council meeting? Is that going to bother any of you? [8:50] **Mayor Nick Lien:** You will not leave it there. **Resident:** I'll let you do with that as you may. So I can leave it running for the entirety of the City Council meeting? **Mayor Nick Lien:** I said you cannot leave it there. **Resident:** Okay, and I'll let you do with it as you may. Okay. All right. Well, I appreciate your all of your willingness to at least listen and you're willing at least to hear. And, oh, excuse me, hopefully I've been heard. [9:45] **Mayor Nick Lien:** Anyone else wishing to speak can come up to the podium at this time. Seeing none, we'll move on to our consent agenda. Unless there's a change to the consent agenda, we'd seek a motion to approve. **Councilmember Jake Cordes:** Motion. **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** Second. **Mayor Nick Lien:** Motion by Nick (Cordes), second by Holly. All in favor say aye. **Councilmembers:** Aye. [10:28] **Mayor Nick Lien:** We'll move on to our item 12.1 which is new business. This is the Pilot Knob Road Trail preliminary design feasibility report. Kelly? [10:35] **Kelly Armbruster (Parks & Recreation Director):** Good evening, Mayor and City Council. The city of Farmington has a bike/pedestrian plan that was approved in 2019. This plan included a phasing strategy with priority projects. Within the priority projects, a connector trail missing segment on the west side of Pilot Knob Road south of 197th Street was identified. This missing segment is a dual trail gap on the east side of Pilot Knob Road south of 197th Street as well. In Dakota County's long-range vision of their trail network, this gap is number 13 out of the top 20 high-priority trails identified by Dakota County. As part of the Parks and Recreation Commission's work plan, one of their goals is to identify bike/pedestrian plan priorities to accomplish annually. During discussions on priorities to work on, in addition to the trail gap on the west side of Pilot Knob Road, the Parks and Recreation Commission kept coming back to the need for a trail on the east side of Pilot Knob Road from Highway 50 to 195th Street. This would allow trail users east of Pilot Knob Road to have a north-south connection to the existing trail network without needing to cross a busy and higher-speed county road at an uncontrolled intersection. Thus, staff engaged Dakota County about the trail gap and the need for a trail on the east side of Pilot Knob Road. Staff from the City and County met on Pilot Knob Road to discuss the project and both agreed preliminary design that assesses potential pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure improvements was needed. In addition, Dakota County hasn't updated the pedestrian and bicycle study from 2018 and still refers to the rankings when looking at implementing priority trail gaps. In July 2023, a Professional Services Agreement with Bolton & Menk for preliminary design for Pilot Knob Road Trail was approved. In addition, a Joint Powers Agreement with Dakota County for this preliminary design along with the cost share was also approved. Since then, City and County staff have been collaborating with Bolton & Menk on preliminary design of the trails. Tonight, Matt Blazer from Bolton & Menk is here to present the Pilot Knob Road Trail preliminary design and feasibility report, and Gina Medo, the Regional and Multimodal Transportation Manager for Dakota County, is here tonight as well. The action requested tonight is to listen to the presentation, discuss, and ask any questions you have. At this point, I'll turn it over to Matt from Bolton & Menk. [12:46] **Mayor Nick Lien:** Matt, welcome back. [12:48] **Matt Blazer (Bolton & Menk):** All right, thank you. Thank you, Mayor, members of the Council. So, I think Kelly did a great job summing up why we are here so far. So just to look at some existing conditions here: this is Pilot Knob between, you know, CSAH 50 and 195th Street. Right now, the orange area lines—those are the trail segments that we are looking at tonight. Those segments are not there right now. So one thing to notice is that area that's between Pilot Knob and Aiken Road—that area is somewhat landlocked except to the north for pedestrian facilities. Right, the trail on Pilot Knob today is on the west side of Pilot Knob; on Aiken Road, it's on the east side of Pilot Knob. So it's really tough for any residents in that area to go south because of Middle Creek and that area; you kind of got to loop up and around on both directions. So, you know, that's one of the bigger areas for that east side trail. And then, as Kelly mentioned, that gap there kind of near Meadowview Park—imagine yourself if you're, you know, more of a regional user and you're heading north-south on that direction. It's a little funky to have to go off into Meadowview Park and then have to come back around. If I was new to the area, you know, I think I would get a little bit lost kind of doing that movement. But like I said, the area that we are looking at tonight is those pieces in orange. [14:24] **Matt Blazer:** So when we first met with City and County staff as a group, we really looked at two different options for what a trail would look like there along Pilot Knob. You know, there's a major ditch that kind of runs for the majority of it north and south between Middle Creek and 195th. So really, you got to put it on either one side of the ditch or the other side of the ditch. You don't want to put it right down the middle for, you know, pretty clear water reasons. But really there are two big things with those two. Right? Option one is a little bit easier to construct; you're a bit further away from people's homes that live along Pilot Knob, and you're a little further away from some of those utilities there, so for the private utilities, a little less coordination, things like that. But I think the bigger draw for option two is that you're further away from traffic. Right? The further you are away from traffic, the safer you're going to be. A car, if it would have to go off of Pilot Knob—you know, doing 55 miles per hour, the speed limit is there—it would have to go down across the ditch, summit that ditch, and then up onto the trail to affect any pedestrian users. So I really think that that buffer, that gap there with Pilot Knob, that was really what drew us more toward option two and the reason that we kind of went that direction. So that's the typical section—right, what you're typically going to see with what we're going to propose along this stretch. And it's kind of like cut into the ditch side, into that back-slope, that hillside. But for the most part, we don't need any right-of-way for what we're going to propose tonight. We're really not impacting any properties along that east side in terms of landscaping or fences, things like that. There are a couple of fences and landscaping maybe in some places that they're not supposed to be, but you know, we would coordinate with those property owners in final design should this continue. [16:03] **Matt Blazer:** With that, I'd like to kind of point out maybe a few places that don't quite follow that typical section that we're looking at around the route. First off is right on the south side. If you're familiar with the trail there on the west side, this is essentially the mirror image of that where there's a curb. And so since we can use that curb, that's kind of that vertical buffer from traffic there on Pilot Knob, you know, we would just do a 10-foot boulevard and then a 10-foot trail, kind of mirroring that area where you already have that urban curb-and-gutter section through that piece. Moving on there... so one of the most difficult parts of the project, I think, is where we have to cross Middle Creek. As I said, that’s a major barrier there between the north and south. So to cross that, we would extend those box culverts that are there now, somewhat similar to the west side where it already has the creek. But we would be able to shrink down the road just a touch and then also allow for some barrier/boulevard there between the trail and the road. With that, we did look at some other options there like retaining walls and things like that if we could kind of squish it in. If you notice, there is going to be some wetland impact in that area; we would have to go through U.S. Corps of Engineers for a permit and WCA and some different processes for that. But based on this and being able to go through that area, we just feel like that's the best way that gives us the safest and best product to cross the creek there. [17:35] **Matt Blazer:** The next spot I’d like to point out is kind of near that 206th Street area. So with any project where you add a whole bunch of pavement, we have stormwater requirements in Minnesota. So you need to treat that new pavement, that stormwater running off of there. For this project, we would do something more linear than, say, have to purchase a property in order to put a stormwater pond. So this would be a system of berms across the ditch that kind of act as like a stair-step, if you would, while you kind of come down the ditch toward the creek. It's a very simple and efficient and very cost-effective way to treat your stormwater. Like I said, instead of having a big pond that requires, you know, dredging and clean-out and things like that, this would be more dry and just a couple of different berms across. It’s a really linear way to get that stormwater management needs that you need for a project like this. We are adding pavement where there wasn't any before. [18:38] **Matt Blazer:** And now we're kind of getting into that north area where we had that gap section. So the section on the east—that’s just our typical section there, like I said, kind of building into that back-slope of the berm. On the west there, that slopes off pretty hard from Pilot Knob and right into the stormwater pond at that location. So on that area, we would need a pretty significant retaining wall in order to fix that trail gap piece there. After the neighborhood meeting, which I'll talk about in just a minute, we did meet with two of the property owners that back up to that area and discussed, you know, what that would look like. Right? Because I know some people think, "retaining wall in my backyard, what's it going to be?" things like that. But in order to get that area—you kind of see that typical section in the lower left—we add a retaining wall and kind of get that up above the grade there. [19:35] **Matt Blazer:** All right, so we took all of that stuff that we just talked about—the layout that we came up with, Option Two—and we had an open house back in January of this year, January 30th, and just talked with residents, got feedback from those folks along the corridor. And in general, I would say it was positive. You know, people really liked that there was a good balance between, you know, safety and then distance from the roadway and not impacting the existing properties, which can be, you know, one of the big difficult things with these trail retrofit projects. We end up in a lot of times impacting a lot of trees and landscaping, things like that. The solution that we came up with really doesn't have a lot of those negatives. A couple other things that we did here... back at that neighborhood meeting, you know, we had comment cards; we did include those in the report just for all you folks to see there. You know, things about the roundabout on the north side—that was one of the questions that came up from a few people that attended the meetings—if there were a possibility of having some kind of mid-block crossing there on Pilot Knob in that area. And then, you know, is there a better place? You know, "should we be using these funds"—which we'll talk about the cost here right at the end—is it better to do a trail somewhere else versus one that already has one on the opposite side of the road? All very, very good points, and really what we were looking for: that feedback at that neighborhood meeting. [21:05] **Matt Blazer:** So in response to that, County staff did look at that mid-block crossing that some people asked about. Right now, if you live in the exact middle of the corridor, you know, it's about let's call it 1.75 miles—so let's call it 2 miles. You have to walk almost a mile to the north or a mile to the south if you live in the middle to cross and then come back down if you wanted to go, like, west of Pilot Knob, let's say. Right? So, you know, I can understand the want, the desire for an enhanced crossing there. County staff did examine that and looked into their—they just developed some new criteria. I put the very complicated flowchart there on the right, if you would. And what they found is, just based on high speeds and the multiple lanes at some of the intersections—right, if you have a left turn, a right turn, and a through lane, and then you have that again on the other side, right, that's six lanes of traffic that you have to set up for an enhanced crossing. That can be quite a bit, just to be frank. So what they found out—their recommendation, their findings—were that it's just not recommended to do an enhanced crossing. And when we're talking about enhanced crossings, we're talking about like a pedestrian refuge, right, like a median, so you only have to cross half, look the other way, and you can cross the other half, or an RRFB. You know, there are like HAWK systems, like the pedestrian light Apple Valley has one by Greenleaf Elementary School up in that area. Those enhanced crossings—a signal—is not what we're looking at there. [22:25] **Matt Blazer:** Right, the other thing... you know, instead of just doing an enhanced crossing, you can look at an overpass or underpass. Overpasses are very expensive. Right? There are a couple areas, or one specific area, that lends itself to maybe looking at an underpass there at the creek. Pilot Knob's kind of up in the air and the existing trail is a little bit lower, so an underpass makes a lot of sense to put in this area, especially when you only have to worry about, you know, excavation and retaining walls on half the road. Right? So staff did add that to the project. We looked into the pedestrian underpass. As far as ADA compliance goes for that, we can achieve ADA compliance, but it's a little bit difficult, to be honest, at this spot. You know, we want some nice easy slopes coming into the underpass as it goes under so you don't have a whole bunch of areas—like, think if you're a wheelchair, pushing a stroller, you have to pull off the trail every 30 feet along those lines. That gets tough because Pilot Knob’s going up in elevation there and you kind of got to chase that slope, and it becomes a little bit hard there. You know, when we're looking at geometry, right, we can get enough cover in that area for... once we don't have groundwater concerns in Farmington at this spot, which I know is a tough one over by the fire station on the other side of town. And then drainage: we have some pretty easy drainage here too with the pond and the wetland right there. We got to be a little bit higher than that, and you know, if we would see a large rainstorm, you might get a little bit of water in your box culvert, but nothing that’s not manageable. The tough part about this one was the cost. Construction cost for this one would be about $1.4 million—$1.6 million for project cost for this. And a lot of that is driven by those retaining walls that are needed on the east side when we're kind of chasing that grade to go up the hill. You know, I think your typical box culverts—the real simple ones—are in that more $800,000 to a million dollar range. So this one, those retaining walls are just a very significant cost that gets added to this when we're trying to chase some of those grades and kind of stay away from property impacts there. You know, so it's not to say it's not doable, it's just the way staff put it was: prioritize the trail on the east side and then possibly look at the underpass at a future date. [24:50] **Matt Blazer:** All right, so and I kind of alluded to some of those estimated project costs there. You know, we're looking at total construction cost of about $2.34 million, $2.35 million. And then the Dakota County-City split 85/15. There’s, you can see, at close to 2 million to 350, respectively, for cost. All right, and kind of looking at next steps to the future, you know, Kelly kind of alluded to what we're looking for from you folks as far as guidance. But right, we—the City and the County—they partnered up, we did the preliminary design, we had the open house, we got input, which is great. When you're looking at things like funding applications, a lot of those different agencies, they want to see a project that's actually doable, that's feasible. When you're filling out those funding applications, things like that, when you're going after grants and so forth, this also gives you a very real number to put on planning documents or planning in the future. You know, it might not have to be the whole trail in one shot; it could be cut up into some small segments, things like that. So this really gives you guys real numbers to fall back on when we're trying to plan for these improvements should you decide to continue. Right after that, right after we fund it, we would do final plans and then we would do construction. With that, I'll break for questions for you folks, and I'll have Gina come on up and help me out with the County if there's any that I get stumped on. [26:01] **Mayor Nick Lien:** Thanks, sir. Appreciate it. Katie, questions? [26:05] **Councilmember Katie Bernhjelm:** Um, so the budget that you're proposing in there, that doesn't include the underpass? Just for clarification. Or it does? **Matt Blazer:** It does not. **Councilmember Katie Bernhjelm:** It does not. Okay. And as of right now, the city portion of that is not included in our budget for 2025 or this year? **Kelly Armbruster:** Correct. No, it's not included in our budget right now. **Councilmember Katie Bernhjelm:** Okay. [26:34] **Mayor Nick Lien:** Steve? [26:36] **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** Yeah, same—couple things. One, I was at the January 30th meeting and really appreciate the fact that you put the resident comments in there. So I just want to thank you for that. Um, the roundabout at 195th and Pilot terrifies me the way it's currently set up. And I totally understand why the enhanced pedestrian crossing... and because I'm, you know, and I think a lot of drivers are familiar with it so kind of can maybe predict that, you know what, if there is a family crossing—bikers, runners, whatever. But I think one opportunity that could enhance the safety would be to lower the berm in the middle so that way it's visible from the north or south to see what's happening on the other side. I think the berm is a significant barrier. And while I know this is more of a County issue, and since we have a County representative here, I mean that could be an opportunity to do that potentially. But that's kind of my one thought or comment. [27:43] **Matt Blazer:** No problem. Gina, do you want to kind of maybe come up? I know that some questions about the roundabout and pedestrian crossings did come up at the open house and maybe can talk about it being a County road. [27:54] **Gina Medo (Dakota County):** Yes, thank you. And thank you for the question and suggestion. And I will bring that back to our design staff. I'm a planner, not an engineer, so those folks would be able to take that recommendation and look at it. I do know our traffic staff is—and we did hear some feedback about that roundabout at the open house—our traffic staff is doing an overall County evaluation of any multiple-lane roundabouts like this one. The single-lane roundabouts tend to be simpler and more straightforward for pedestrians. But they are going to be looking at signage and striping at all of our multi-lane roundabouts to see if it can improve the interactions for pedestrians. And I know our Traffic Engineer in particular has some things that he wants to look at in terms of the placement of even the pedestrian crossing signage to make sure they're not blocking pedestrians standing there waiting to cross. So we will be looking at that. But I had not heard the suggestion about the berm before, so I'll bring that back as well. [28:55] **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** Yeah, the other comment I would make—and I'm sure their transportation and enforcement people could drive all over the County—but, you know, we get those berms decorated like a Christmas tree with, you know, "open house" or "new construction," whatever. And of course we want to enable those builders to be able to provide direction for where that's going on, but you know, usually on the weekends that's littered with signs and that creates an additional hazard also. [29:25] **Gina Medo:** That's also good feedback. I think our permit staff typically try to monitor that, but I will tip them off to that as well. **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** Yeah, thank you. **Mayor Nick Lien:** Anything else to add? Nope? [29:34] **Mayor Nick Lien:** Nick? [29:36] **Councilmember Jake Cordes:** Um, I guess I was wondering if you could shed some light on what—how you determine like where that underpass should go. I mean, if I look at it just at its top level, I mean there's no intersections around that area. So, I mean, what would drive them to want to cross right there? [29:56] **Matt Blazer:** Yeah, I think that that was the most clear one, as far as I saw there, for a couple of reasons. One, it's right where the path kind of takes the left to go in, so it's kind of a natural "I need to go left" or "I need to go right" if I want to go underneath there. So it's kind of a natural left or right. The other big thing... you're talking from the west? **Councilmember Jake Cordes:** Yeah, sorry, northbound. If you're northbound on the trail. **Matt Blazer:** Sorry, right. Like that's right where that's kind of a juncture already in the trail. **Councilmember Jake Cordes:** I think I know what you're talking about. Yeah, west side there. [30:24] **Matt Blazer:** Yeah. And then the other thing is just that's the biggest area where there's a difference between, if you would, the ditch side, the side that's way far down, and then the street. So it just naturally lends itself to a possibility of an underpass there. You don't have any excavation on the one side, making it cheap—I mean, believe it or not, with that, I mean I know that’s a big price tag, but right, you have less impacts, less excavation on the west side there. So really a lot of your excavation there was on the east side. [30:52] **Councilmember Jake Cordes:** Right. The reason I asked is because I had brought this up I think the last time you guys were here to discuss this. I live closer to 206th, which also has a very significant ditch on the west side there. And I think I even saw it in one of the comment cards that they're very concerned about going—when you cross that ditch, I mean, you kind of take your life in your hands going down the thing, right? Unless you—if you want a shallow way, you have to go south right now. It's on the road, you have to go south to get to where it's flat to cross over. And they're all their own brand of dangerous, right? And I know if you can't put a crossing in there, there are a lot of people who probably would cross right there. And the road is pretty high up from the ditch, so it seems like it's amenable to an underpass. But I don't know what your guys' thoughts are on that. [31:39] **Matt Blazer:** It’s something we can look at. **Councilmember Jake Cordes:** Yeah, I mean, that's just one area where I know there are a lot of people that cross and there is no safe crossing there today. So it's tough. So that was it. I appreciate you going with Option Two over Option One, even though there's a little bit of additional work and cost. I think, as much as you can, separating our pedestrians from traffic at that speed is a good idea. Um, can you refresh my memory real quick: what was the expected total cost of the underpass where it was positioned? One point what? **Matt Blazer:** 1.4 million for construction cost. **Councilmember Jake Cordes:** 1.4. Okay. I know one of the questions that came up back at the January 30th meeting was redundancy, right? We've already got that path. So if rather than constructing another path, we gave a safe opportunity for residents to get under... was it explored at all just to be able to connect to an underpass area and then only have the east side? Or was that not explored just for the purpose of easy access and path of least resistance? Can you speak a little bit to that? **Matt Blazer:** Um, it wasn't looked into specifically. Now, that could be an option to build the trail, you know, because as Councilmember Cordes kind of mentioned that, right, it's not at an intersection. So you could look at getting to an intersection or something like that. You could look at doing that, yeah. I mean, it would have to be one of those things where the study would have to make sense from, you know, pedestrian use. But if we're looking at overall budget, to me, what I'm seeing is a very short section that we would need to add in on the east side and then a trail that already exists and a safe way to get our residents to that trail. And if we're talking about, you know, 1.4 as compared to 2.3 without that, I'm just—my mind goes: does it make sense for us just to be able to get them to that side rather than constructing an entirely new path and having that duality on both sides? Yeah, just a thought. **Matt Blazer:** Yeah, I think it's a great comment. [33:14] **Mayor Nick Lien:** That's all I have. The County does not have this project in their CIP yet—they don't have it marked by year, do they? **Gina Medo:** Um, yes, Mayor, we did actually, for planning purposes, we put it in an "out-year." So those are our planning years, which means we don't necessarily have budget authorized to spend on them. But I think we were showing construction—we've moved it back and forth—I think we show in our draft right now we're showing 2026. But we're flexible and kind of responding to where the City... you know, obviously we're partners in this, there's a cost share. So we don't build it without you all. So, you know, those are the conversations we have every year when we have our CIP meetings: if there is interest to move it forward and what works with everything else going on. We know we also have some other pretty big initiatives in Farmington with some of the other studies happening on Denmark and probably some other things that I'm not even tuned into. [34:25] **Mayor Nick Lien:** Yeah, no, there's a lot. I appreciate that. I just—I remember when we did the community meeting that it was, like you said, it was an out-year. But starting the preliminary design, talking about a feasibility, right... is it 5 years, is it 6 years? And that was going to be a tie-in. And I have to imagine that the engineers have identified Pilot Knob south of 195th. Is there any conversations of that going to four lanes, like even in the next decade? Is there even preliminary conversations about it? **Gina Medo:** Mayor, I don't think so. When I'm looking at the corridor and actually looking—I think we even had this question from a resident in terms of, "would it make sense to construct trails if you're going to have to expand the roadway?" And I think right now our—we updated our Transportation Plan in 2021 and did traffic forecasts out to then. And I think right now our long-range plan shows a three-lane section. So basically what it is today, where you have the turn lane, a through lane in each direction, and then turn lanes, is what we're showing. **Mayor Nick Lien:** Yeah, I think it's... right, it goes up to 240, right? **Gina Medo:** I believe so. I would probably feel more comfortable if I asked the person who did that, but that is my memory from the last time we spoke about it. **Mayor Nick Lien:** That's fair. I just wanted to make sure because I hadn't seen anything or read anything yet. Um, the last one was 70/74 ASH, basically in 2019, and that was a 20-year plan. So I didn't know if there were more talks about Pilot Knob just to make sure that, you know, using Option Two, there's enough room in the right-of-way to get it out there. But when you start talking about a retaining wall, you start talking about an underpass, like just making sure that it's sized for the future and not underbuilt, and we have to come back 15 years from now and change something. [36:03] **Mayor Nick Lien:** You know, even during the open house, the point that I heard a lot—and I happen to reside in the area there and we use the path often—is there is no good place to cross. And if you're on the west side of Pilot Knob from basically 203rd North, you almost have to go to 197th or 195th to cross because unless you're going from 10:00 to 2:00 in the afternoon, you know, after the school buses or before them, it is a long way to travel. You are crossing five or six lanes of traffic. And you see kids and parents doing it, you see parents and dogs doing it. And the underpass does make sense, right? To the elevation point. You know, engineers are the smart people, you'll figure out where it goes, right? I don't know how this project doesn't get done without some component of an underpass to it, though. It seems like a substantial investment by a County standard—right, the County standard is to have paths on both sides of the County roads. So connecting the city paths to have that continuity for the County standard without having the underpass, it seems like there is a lot of path that is being invested in that is not going to be sufficiently utilized because of the obstruction to crossing Pilot Knob. That just—I see that every day driving through there. So, however we come up with a final plan—and we thank the Commissioner every time he comes in for the 85/15 and not the 55/45 that we used to be on—I would encourage us to continue down that path of having some type of underpass in there because it's unsafe otherwise. And then we just have to sort it out with our budgeting and scheduling and how that works. So, any other points to add? General direction is we like what they've shown, we like what they're proposing. Just continue to work with staff on a few of the points that were made and let us know how we can be more effective and helpful in the process. [38:15] **Matt Blazer:** All right, good deal. Thank you very much. **Mayor Nick Lien:** Thank you guys, appreciate it. **Matt Blazer:** Yep, no problem. [38:20] **Mayor Nick Lien:** All right, round table. Leah? **Leah Koch (City Attorney):** Great, thank you, Mayor and Council. Um, judicial update this time. The judge I clerked for, Judge Timothy McManus, is retiring. And so the application period’s closed, but we'll have a new judge in Dakota County shortly. So they're holding interviews in early September. So that's my update. Thank you. [38:52] **Mayor Nick Lien:** Nick? (Councilmember Cordes) **Councilmember Jake Cordes:** Uh, I hope those of you that had a kid in school for the first day today had a survivable one. And with that, please stop for the buses that have their stop arms engaged. That's all. [39:07] **Mayor Nick Lien:** Holly? **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** I don't have anything tonight. **Mayor Nick Lien:** Got nothing? (Councilmember Bernhjelm) **Councilmember Katie Bernhjelm:** I got nothing. **Mayor Nick Lien:** I got nothing. All right, last call. I’m good. Katie? **Councilmember Katie Bernhjelm:** I don't have anything either. [39:23] **Mayor Nick Lien:** Steve? **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** Um, I wanted to thank our School Board for I thought a really productive discussion that we had a couple weeks ago. It was, you know, sometimes we kind of have those "let's get together and just kind of have a fluff discussion," but this was I thought a very productive discussion to kind of understand what they're doing and for us to kind of talk about what we're up to. I also want to thank Kelly and the Park and Rec staff and the Park and Rec Commission and the Senior Center Commission (Rambling River) for what I thought was a really, really fun and informative night of touring the parks and everything. So thank you very much, Kelly. And then to Nick's point, many years ago—probably 20 years ago—and I will never forget this because had it happened, it would have changed my life significantly. But I did used to drive a school bus and I had a car go around the stop arm. And I just remember yelling "Stop!" as loud as I've ever yelled it, and a first grader was at the bottom step. And had that child stepped out, they would have almost certainly been killed. So Nick's point is really well taken. They're big, ugly, yellow, and have flashing lights for a reason. So that's all I have. **Mayor Nick Lien:** I have nothing. Nothing for me. Thanks. [40:41] **Mayor Nick Lien:** John? **John Powell (Public Works Director):** Thank you, Mayor. I'll use up some of that time. Um, I want to thank Natural Gas. You'll notice that they removed their dewatering pipe and the hump crossing by the school on the east side of Aiken. They've mostly demobilized and completed their work, so we had minimal disruption to the school traffic when school started. Additionally, the 2024 Street Improvements—the contractor, Hazelton, worked; they got all the concrete flatwork done. Bituminous base was down last week and they're currently grading the boulevards for sod. So again, right around Farmington Elementary School. I was in regular contact with Dan Miller and our staff; Rich was in contact with Kim, the principal at the elementary school, on a regular basis, and they'd come to the weekly meeting. So they didn't have any—they certainly knew the effort the contractor was putting forth, and thankfully it came to fruition; we got the work done before school opened. That's the 2024 Street Improvements. We also last week had an open house for the 2025 Street Improvement project, the same evening as the Park tour I believe, and had good attendance, good comments, and feedback. And right now we're in the information gathering phase, finding out what challenges they're dealing with so we can address those in the project. And finally, the Denmark study that the County has underway. The limits were County Road 50 to 220th Street. Through conversations with the County, they're actually extending that study because there's a section of 220th/Ash Street that is rural still from Denmark over to the railroad tracks. That area is going to be included in the study, so we'll have a number of planning budgets for that whenever that moves forward. So we're very happy that they added that into the scope and we can address that at the same time. **Mayor Nick Lien:** I like it. Thank you, sir. [42:58] **Mayor Nick Lien:** Kelly? **Kelly Armbruster:** Parks and Recreation has a number of fun family activities over the next week, and the best thing about them is they're all free. So Saturday, the "Who Done It Hike." It's at Ritter Farm Park in Lakeville. If you've never been to the park, it's a great walk in the morning. Registration starts at 9:30 a.m., the walk starts at 10:00. It's a Sherlock Holmes type of event; along the walk you'll get clues and you got to solve who did it. It is dog-friendly, so see you at Ritter Farm Park on Saturday at 10:00 a.m. for the walk. Also Saturday, "Movie in the Park," our last one for the season, Distad Park. The movie is *Wonka*. Kids' dance will start at 5:30 p.m. and then the movie will be shown at dusk. So join us Saturday for both those events. And then next Wednesday is already the Homecoming Parade, if you can believe it. So the Tiger Cub Pep Fest right after the parade—new location this year, it's going to be in the parking lot of the former District Services office on Walnut between 4th and 5th there. So that'll be right on the parade route. We'll have a DJ and all the fun games and trinkets. So join us next Wednesday for the Homecoming Parade and the Tiger Cub Pep Fest. And that's in cooperation with Community Education. **Mayor Nick Lien:** Thank you, ma'am. [44:11] **Mayor Nick Lien:** Kim? **Kim Sommerland (Finance Director):** I have nothing this evening. **Mayor Nick Lien:** No pressure. Chief? [44:16] **Matthew Price (Fire Chief):** September 18th is our Open House for Fire Prevention Week. Starts at 5:30, Station 2. I get one more council meeting to get it out to the public again, so look forward to seeing everybody in the community. **Mayor Nick Lien:** Thank you, sir. I thought you were going to add in the ribbon cutting that we had for Rambling River Park. I know I should... did you leave those for me? **Matthew Price:** I did. **Mayor Nick Lien:** Okay. All right, I appreciate it, you're so kind. All right, set me up. [44:48] **Mayor Nick Lien:** So yeah, we had our ribbon cutting at Rambling River Park and then we did our Parks tour. But then we also had a visit from Congresswoman Craig. We had submitted a project again for the Congressionally Directed Spending, or the federal appropriations bill, whatever you want to call it. We had submitted for the Veterans Memorial extension to it—the pavilion—and she came by to look at it. We had given her a brief and everything, and it obviously has her support. And so that's a very long process. We've been recipients two years in a row for north of about 1.5 million for various projects, and this is another one. So that's a—that was a big win to get her and her team here to look at it and see it and continue to endorse it. Um, on the school bus stop arm violations and stuff... you know, I think one of the things that drivers forget about this time of year is how quick the angle of the sun, in the direction that you're driving, changes. You know, like we've been driving through town all summer long and you see people out, and all of a sudden now you've got more people out, you've got buses out. As the sun angle starts to change, you know, especially directionality—whether it's morning or afternoon—just take a little bit of time. I mean, there—I can't tell you the number of times, whether it's on Pilot Knob or Highway 50, it's people are going 60-65 and they miss those crossings, and sometimes they're not even looking, and you see it happen. And it, you know, knock on wood, we've had some close calls. But we just slow down. Like, more than anything, just slow down. Kids are going to be out for a while and we have to be cognizant of the buses and the kids getting on and off of them. So, outside of that, look for a motion to adjourn. [46:33] **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** Motion to adjourn. **Councilmember Katie Bernhjelm:** Second. **Mayor Nick Lien:** Motion by Steve, second by Katie. All in favor say aye. **Councilmembers:** Aye. **Mayor Nick Lien:** We're adjourned at 7:45. [46:42] [Music]