This transcript has been formatted with speaker names based on the context of the Lake Elmo City Council meeting. Note: I have corrected some phonetic misspellings from the raw text (e.g., "Jagassic" to "Dragisich," "Hearn" to "Hirn," and "Cararissa" to "Clarissa") to ensure the transcript matches the official names provided. *** **[00:00:00] Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** Thank you for joining us and hopefully you don't walk away with any April Fool's jokes. All right, so item B on the agenda is approval of agenda. If everybody's okay with that, I'll entertain a motion to accept the agenda as written. **[00:00:15] Council Member Jeff Holtz:** So moved to accept the agenda. **[00:00:16] Council Member Matt Hirn:** Second. **[00:00:18] Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** All right, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. **[00:00:22] Council Members:** Aye. **[00:00:23] Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** Agenda is approved. We do not have any presentations this evening unless somebody's set me up for something. Um, we do have somebody that would like to talk during the public comments and inquiries. When I call your name, please come to the lectern and state your name and address and I'll give you six minutes to speak if you need it. Dennis and Cheryl Reelli. **[00:00:45] Dennis Kelly:** Good evening. And actually, it's Dennis and Cheryl Kelly, so it must be a little—the K looks like an R. My apologies. I know it's her handwriting. She writes better than I do, so there's an issue there. **[00:00:55] Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** There you go. There you go. **[00:00:57] Dennis Kelly:** So, Dennis and Cheryl Kelly, 13667 Greenwood Trail North in West Lakeland. And the reason we're here this evening, we're members of the Afton Bayport Lakeland Lions Club, Lions International. And my wife Cheryl is the district governor for district 5M6, which represents all Lions Clubs in Washington, Ramsey, and Dakota County. And I think many of you probably know or realize that until a few years ago, you did have a Lions Club in Lake Elmo. Lake Elmo Lions Club was actually chartered in August of 1956 and served the community in the city of Lake Elmo for almost 65 years before they turned their charter in. A number of reasons impacted that—COVID naturally which had an impact on all organizations, the fact that their main fundraiser, the fishing tournament, they couldn't do a number of years because of ice levels on the lake, and they really weren't doing a lot of outreach to get new members. So, we wanted to let the council know and the mayor, and we greatly appreciate the time this evening, that we are going to be starting the formal process to start a new Lions Club in Lake Elmo. We're going to start that on April 16th with a community meeting here in the community center, and we're going to be letting the citizens of Lake Elmo know we're doing a direct mail of 4,400 mail pieces to let them know about that meeting, inviting them to come in and learn about Lions International. We are the largest volunteer organization in the world with 1.4 million members in over 200 countries and 45,000 Lions clubs. And the goal of Lions International is to be a facilitator to allow the citizens and residents of a community to work together to help the community be better. We support our local elementary school, we do vision screening, and we want to be able to have the citizens in Lake Elmo have the same ability to work here and support the Lake Elmo baseball league fundraising. So, we wanted to let you know that this was going to be happening in the community. We hope we have your blessing and we would invite you to our meeting on April 16th. Would you have any questions of us? **[00:03:30] Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** No, that was great. I don't. Does anybody else? No. Thank you very much for coming in. **[00:03:35] Dennis Kelly:** Thank you. **[00:03:37] Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** All right. In our packet, we had the minutes from March 18th. If there's no changes or things that are incorrect in that, I'll entertain a motion to approve the minutes for March 18th. **[00:03:45] Council Member Jeff Holtz:** So moved. **[00:03:46] Council Member Nick Dragisich:** Second. **[00:03:48] Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** I have a motion and a second to approve the minutes from March 18th, 2025. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. **[00:03:52] Council Members:** Aye. **[00:03:53] Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** Minutes are approved. Consent agenda: Number two is approve payment of disbursements and payroll. Number three, approve Arbor Day proclamation. Number four, approve support for Lake Elmo Association to submit a letter of intent for habitat restoration through the priority 2 settlement. Number five, approve animal in CUP and variance extension resolution 2025-032. Number six, approve Northstar second edition development agreement resolution 2025-033. Number seven, approve security reduction and accept improvements from Royal Golf third, fifth, and sixth editions. Number eight, approve release of grading and public utility security for the Union Park West Edition. Number nine, accept sanitary sewer water main improvements and approve security reduction for Northstar first edition. Number 10, approve plans, and specs, and order advertisement for bids for Stillwater Area School District Utility Improvements resolution 2025-034. **[00:04:45] Council Member Jeff Holtz:** Call the question. **[00:04:46] Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** All those in favor of the consent agenda as presented, please signify by saying aye. **[00:04:50] Council Members:** Aye. **[00:04:52] City Clerk Julie Johnson:** Mr. Mayor, did you get a motion and a second on that? **[00:04:54] Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** Sorry. Thank you. Was there a second? **[00:04:55] Council Member Jeff Holtz:** Motion to approve the consent agenda as written. **[00:04:57] Council Member Nick Dragisich:** Support. **[00:04:59] Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** Now I'll call a question. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. **[00:05:02] Council Members:** Aye. **[00:05:03] Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** All right. Regular agenda. Accept bids and award contract for the Village Parkway UP Railroad Crossing Improvements Resolution 2025-035. Mr. Stanley to present. **[00:05:15] City Engineer Nate Stanley:** Mr. Mayor and Council, thank you very much. Before you this evening is an item to accept bids and award a contract for the Village Parkway Union Pacific Railroad crossing improvements. This project was advertised originally last January. We had to do an extension on the bid date due to some issues securing temporary construction easements. Those easements have since been secured. Six bids were received with the low bid falling in line with the engineer's estimate. It's a good bid from New Look Contracting. It's my recommendation that Council moves to accept the bids and approve the resolution for that contract. Any questions? **[00:06:15] Council Member Matt Hirn:** Member Hirn here. Just one little question about where you're talking about there's no engineering time for the pump, electrical panel, and generator upgrades. Are we talking closer to 10 hours for that? Or an additional 100? What are we looking at for that? **[00:06:35] City Engineer Nate Stanley:** You're catching me a little cold on this one, Council Member Hirn. I'll tell you what, I can look into that and get the idea. **[00:06:40] Council Member Jeff Holtz:** Council Member Holtz here. When it came to the easements themselves, what was the underlying issue? Were they just not in the right spot or was there not enough lengthwise along the railroad? **[00:06:55] City Engineer Nate Stanley:** So, Council Member Holtz, you're going to have to forgive me being the new guy here, not having the whole history on this, but the big easement was written into a development agreement. It was just the process of getting the approvals from the developer to secure the easement. We were able to do that fortunately. **[00:07:20] Council Member Jeff Holtz:** And then once the construction is done, are we going to be putting up the orange barriers? Because it's going into a farm field, right? What does that end of the road look like there? **[00:07:35] City Engineer Nate Stanley:** You could expect to see essentially permanently mounted type three barricades just to deter traffic from going that way. **[00:07:45] Council Member Jeff Holtz:** Will we still have some type of barricade on the pedestrian walkways so they don't cross yet since there's no need to cross? **[00:07:50] City Engineer Nate Stanley:** If there's nowhere to go except for the train track, I think there'll be a barricade there. Yes. **[00:08:00] Council Member Matt Hirn:** I actually made a mistake. I was asking a question from the next item. So just to clarify, apologies on that. But with this one, I saw the lift station item pop up. Just a question regarding the annual maintenance fees—that 14,000, is that a consistent fee we can expect across all railroad crossings? **[00:08:25] City Engineer Nate Stanley:** Yes. Yeah. Unfortunately. **[00:08:28] Council Member Jeff Holtz:** To that point, are we reducing money because we did eliminate a crossing earlier? Are we netting out? **[00:08:35] City Engineer Nate Stanley:** No. Council Member Holtz and the rest of the council, I did speak with Jack today. He informed me we do not have any other crossings like this with the arms that go down. This one is why we have to pay those maintenance fees. **[00:08:50] Council Member Nick Dragisich:** Thank you, Council Member Dragisich here. It might be helpful to explain—we're putting the railroad crossing in because we went through a process with the state, but it's for future development and to connect to downtown. We have these young students here who don't know much about us, so I thought an explanation might be helpful. **[00:09:15] City Engineer Nate Stanley:** Sure. A little more history on this is that this rail crossing is to open up an area for future development. There's also a large water main crossing at the railroad to facilitate that development and improve service for the community. Cities look to do these kinds of things in partnership with developers, but sometimes we have to take the lead. **[00:09:40] Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** With an agency like a railroad in your future careers, have fun. **[00:09:45] Council Member Matt Hirn:** Can I follow up on that? Is this a different situation than Northstar? I believe the developer there was responsible for crossing the railroad. Is the reason we are doing this because we don't want to go through the three-year process again versus waiting for a developer? **[00:10:05] City Engineer Nate Stanley:** Council Member Hirn, I can't say exactly why we're leading it rather than the developer. I think it boils down to the fact that there's nothing happening on that other side of the track right now without this. **[00:10:20] Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** If I may, a couple key differences: Klondike was just for a utility crossing. The developer needed that for the development. At this point in time, we've secured the access permit, which has a limited amount of time. If a developer came in later, there's a good chance they would be handcuffed for three years working to go through this again. **[00:10:45] City Engineer Nate Stanley:** To piggyback on that, our permit expires at the end of this year. It was kind of now or never. **[00:10:55] Council Member Nick Dragisich:** In my previous research, in development agreements signed prior for the south, there were some fees involved in the future railroad crossing. It’s a very complicated project. I kind of think I drove Clarissa crazy asking questions about the financing, but it’s all in place. **[00:11:15] Council Member Jeff Holtz:** Motion to approve resolution number 2025-035 accepting bids and awarding a contract to New Look Contracting Inc. for the bid amount of $587,948.01 for the Village Parkway UPRR crossing improvements. **[00:11:30] Council Member Nick Dragisich:** Support. **[00:11:32] Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** We have a motion and a second. Discussion, Council Member Holtz. **[00:11:35] Council Member Jeff Holtz:** I mean, at this stage, it’s awarding the contract. It has been over a decade in this process. This was in our 2040 comp plan to have some type of a road here. It’s been a long time coming. I’m looking forward to what that next stage looks like. **[00:12:00] Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** Anyone else? Hearing none, I'll call the question. All those in favor of resolution 2025-035, please signify by saying aye. **[00:12:05] Council Members:** Aye. **[00:12:06] Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** Resolution passes. Nate, you get to stay up there for the I-94 lift station and force main improvements. **[00:12:15] City Engineer Nate Stanley:** Mayor and council, thank you. I do have a brief presentation. We are asking for council to authorize the creation of plans and specifications for the I-94 lift station. **[00:12:30] Council Member Jeff Holtz:** Move to approve an increase in the design services contract in the amount of $9,000 and authorize the city administrator to enter into a material testing contract with Braun Intertec in the not to exceed amount of $10,000. **[00:12:45] Council Member Matt Hirn:** Support. **[00:12:46] Council Member Nick Kragness:** Just for clarification, I will not be voting or discussing on this since I work for the company in question. **[00:12:55] Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** There's a motion and a second. Any discussion? No. Okay. I'll call the question. All those in favor of the motion to increase the design services contract and the material testing contract, please signify by saying aye. **[00:13:10] Council Members:** Aye. **[00:13:12] Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** Thank you for catching that. Sorry there, Mr. Stanley. We can move on. **[00:13:15] City Engineer Nate Stanley:** To reiterate, we are asking for authorization for the I-94 lift station force main replacement. This force main was constructed in 1995. It has had seven breaks since October 2023. That is not normal. That's bad. When a force main of this magnitude breaks, it requires an all-hands-on-deck response that can be very expensive and very dirty. This pipe has passed its service life and is suffering from fatigue. This project has been advanced because of the critical nature. We want to replace approximately 3,000 feet of force main right up to the Oakdale border. Tonight I'm asking for a motion to authorize preparation of plans and task order number 27 for Bolton & Menk. **[00:14:45] Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** What type of pipe is in there currently? **[00:14:48] City Engineer Nate Stanley:** Well, it looks like it's PVC to me. I don't know what grade. Maybe Marty has that information. **[00:15:00] Public Works Director Marty Powers:** This pipe is an SDR26, 8-inch. We actually have two different manufacturers on this section of pipe and they both broke. We've had five different specialists look into this. Some indicated that this type of pipe, at the depth it's at with the hammering that occurs when the pumps kick on, has just weakened it over time. We thought it only happened when three pumps were kicking on, but the last time only two were running and it still broke. **[00:16:00] Council Member Jeff Holtz:** Do we need any sort of cooperative agreement with Oakdale given that we cross the road there? **[00:16:10] City Engineer Nate Stanley:** We are tying in right at the border. That's technically MnDOT right-of-way, so we will need a permit from MnDOT. **[00:16:25] Council Member Jeff Holtz:** Given that there have been seven breaks, I presume in this process it will be known what *not* to install in its place, right? **[00:16:35] Public Works Director Marty Powers:** There will be an evaluation. It certainly won't be what's in the ground now. **[00:16:45] Council Member Nick Dragisich:** Nate, explain for the benefit of our students here tonight—what is a force main and what is fatigue? **[00:16:55] City Engineer Nate Stanley:** Material fatigue is the wear and tear that eventually wears it out. When you have a pressurized pipe that runs periodically, fluids create pressure differentials and a hammering effect that vibrates the pipe. Anytime a pipe is moving, that's not good. A force main is a pressurized sanitary sewer used when you can't convey sewage by gravity due to low points. **[00:18:00] Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** Are we confident it's the material and not the pressure? **[00:18:10] Public Works Director Marty Powers:** We added automated pressure gauges and we never exceeded the 160 PSI. We added relays so the pumps can't start at the exact same time. I thought we had it, and then we got another break. It's just fatigued. **[00:19:00] Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** Where are most of the breaks happening? **[00:19:05] Public Works Director Marty Powers:** They are really throughout the pipe itself—behind Best Buy, near the Machine Shed, and on Hudson. **[00:19:30] Council Member Jeff Holtz:** Move to authorize preparation of plans and specs and approve task order number 27 for design phase engineering services provided by Bolton & Menk, Inc. in the not to exceed amount of $109,537 and authorize the city administrator to sign a geotechnical services contract. **[00:19:50] Council Member Matt Hirn:** Support. **[00:19:55] Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** Motion and a second. Any discussion? **[00:20:00] Council Member Jeff Holtz:** I would like to see the info on what it should be replaced with. I mean, this is why we have a CIP project. It’s got to be done. **[00:20:15] Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** This is the reason it's important to have good asset management. We need a better understanding of our assets so we aren't constantly in a bonding point. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. **[00:20:35] Council Members:** Aye. **[00:20:40] Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** All right, that passes. Council reports. Council Member Dragisich? **[00:20:42] Council Member Nick Dragisich:** No report this evening. **[00:20:45] Council Member Jeff Holtz:** I want to give a shout out to Lake Elmo residents who have been at the capitol testifying—Bray Meffy and Sammy Silver. It takes a lot of courage to testify in front of legislators. Kudos to them. **[00:21:05] Council Member Matt Hirn:** No report. **[00:21:07] Council Member Nick Kragness:** No report. **[00:21:10] Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** Staff reports. Administrator Miller? **[00:21:15] City Administrator Nicole Miller:** Today marked the last day of employment for our Administrative Services Director, Jennifer Doyle. We want to thank her for her service and compassion. We are currently recruiting for that position. **[00:21:35] City Clerk Julie Johnson:** No report. Thank you. **[00:21:40] Public Works Director Marty Powers:** Our plows aren't put away yet, but we did get some street sweeping done this last week. **[00:21:50] City Engineer Nate Stanley:** No report. **[00:21:55] City Attorney:** Mr. Mayor, members of the council, we closed on the Olsen property on March 20th and the Jurk property this Thursday. Also, there's going to be a hearing before the Court of Appeals on April 16th regarding the pumping gallon limits. **[00:22:20] Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** Next week is a council workshop with Clark Schroeder presenting on the water task force. With that, I will adjourn— **[00:22:35] Council Member Nick Dragisich:** Wait, let our students ask us some questions if they have any. **[00:22:40] Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** You guys have any questions? Put you on the spot. No? Just quiet like you are in class. It takes me back to my days as an engineering student. We are adjourning this meeting at 7:45.