[0:03] [Music] [1:20] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** All right, good evening. We'll call this meeting to order for the January 9th, 2025, Apple Valley City Council meeting. Uh, as we get into the agenda, for any audience member who would like to speak, please come forward to the podium, u— and address the council. The first item on our agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance, and I would ask everyone to rise and join us in the pledge. **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. [2:01] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** The next item on our agenda is oaths of office for council members and Hiebert, and City Clerk Scipioni is going to walk us through this one, please. Go ahead. [2:06] **Christina Scipioni:** Wonderful. Um, so we will start with council member Grendahl, if I can meet you over by the flag. Please raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, Ruth Grendahl... [2:23] **Ruth Grendahl:** I, Ruth Grendahl... [2:25] **Christina Scipioni:** ...do solemnly swear... [2:26] **Ruth Grendahl:** ...do solemnly swear... [2:27] **Christina Scipioni:** ...that I will support the Constitution... [2:28] **Ruth Grendahl:** ...that I will support the Constitution... [2:30] **Christina Scipioni:** ...of the United States... [2:31] **Ruth Grendahl:** ...of the United States... [2:32] **Christina Scipioni:** ...and of the state of Minnesota... [2:34] **Ruth Grendahl:** ...and of the state of Minnesota... [2:36] **Christina Scipioni:** ...and faithfully discharge the duties... [2:38] **Ruth Grendahl:** ...and faithfully discharge the duties... [2:39] **Christina Scipioni:** ...of the office of city council member... [2:41] **Ruth Grendahl:** ...of the office of city council member... [2:43] **Christina Scipioni:** ...of the city of Apple Valley... [2:45] **Ruth Grendahl:** ...of the city of Apple Valley... [2:46] **Christina Scipioni:** ...in the county of Dakota... [2:48] **Ruth Grendahl:** ...in the county of Dakota... [2:49] **Christina Scipioni:** ...and state of Minnesota... [2:51] **Ruth Grendahl:** ...and state of Minnesota... [2:52] **Christina Scipioni:** ...to the best of my judgment and ability... [2:54] **Ruth Grendahl:** ...to the best of my judgment and ability... [2:57] **Christina Scipioni:** ...so help me God. [2:58] **Ruth Grendahl:** ...so help me God. [3:00] **Christina Scipioni:** Congratulations. [3:05] [Applause] [3:10] **Christina Scipioni:** Next, I will invite council member Hiebert. Same thing, and I think she has some family members who will be coming up as well. Folks looking for pictures, don't be shy, get wherever uh you can get a good one. All right, please raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, Lisa Hiebert... [3:37] **Lisa Hiebert:** I, Lisa Hiebert... [3:38] **Christina Scipioni:** ...do solemnly swear... [3:39] **Lisa Hiebert:** ...do solemnly swear... [3:40] **Christina Scipioni:** ...that I will support the Constitution... [3:42] **Lisa Hiebert:** ...that I will support the Constitution... [3:44] **Christina Scipioni:** ...of the United States... [3:45] **Lisa Hiebert:** ...of the United States... [3:47] **Christina Scipioni:** ...and of the state of Minnesota... [3:49] **Lisa Hiebert:** ...and of the state of Minnesota... [3:51] **Christina Scipioni:** ...and faithfully discharge the duties... [3:53] **Lisa Hiebert:** ...and faithfully discharge the duties... [3:54] **Christina Scipioni:** ...of the office of city council member... [3:57] **Lisa Hiebert:** ...of the office of city council member... [4:00] **Christina Scipioni:** ...of the city of Apple Valley... [4:02] **Lisa Hiebert:** ...of the city of Apple Valley... [4:04] **Christina Scipioni:** ...in the county of Dakota... [4:06] **Lisa Hiebert:** ...in the county of Dakota... [4:07] **Christina Scipioni:** ...and state of Minnesota... [4:09] **Lisa Hiebert:** ...and state of Minnesota... [4:10] **Christina Scipioni:** ...to the best of my judgment and ability... [4:12] **Lisa Hiebert:** ...to the best of my judgment and ability... [4:14] **Christina Scipioni:** ...so help me God. [4:15] **Lisa Hiebert:** ...so help me God. [4:16] **Christina Scipioni:** Congratulations. [4:19] [Applause] [4:30] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Thank you. Uh, congratulations to both of you and look forward to uh Ruth continuing to serve with you, and Lisa, look forward to having your contributions. [4:47] **Councilmember John Bergman:** Mayor, I concur with you. Congratulations, uh, Councilmember Grendahl, on getting reelected. Look forward to working with you; we've had a pleasure for all these years to work with you. Uh, newbie—yes, people will say—um, congratulations, Lisa. Um, u—we look forward to the good work that you will provide to the city. So thank you. [5:03] **Lisa Hiebert:** Thank you. [5:04] **Ruth Grendahl:** Thank you. [5:05] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** All right, that moves us to our next item, which is to approve the rest of the agenda. And Tom, I—we have one item to add. Um, do you want to just walk us through that? [5:16] **City Administrator Tom Lawell:** Yes, good evening Mr. Mayor, members of the council. Uh, we do have one item we'd like to add to our regular agenda. So this would be item 5B: It is authorize emergency repairs to sanitary sewer on 140th street. [5:29] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Thank you. So, uh, with that, do we have a motion to approve the agenda as amended? [5:33] **Councilmember Ruth Grendahl:** So moved. [5:35] **Councilmember Tom Melander:** Second. [5:36] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Motion from Councilmember Grendahl, a second from Councilmember Melander. All those in favor indicate by saying aye. **All:** Aye. [5:41] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** To the agenda passes. The next item is our audience participation portion of the meeting for items that are not on our agenda, and I know we have our library branch manager, Tyler Williams, here to give us a library update. So come on forward, we'll take you first. [6:00] **Tyler Williams:** Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor and members of the city council. It's nice to be here. Um, my name is Tyler Williams, I'm the manager of the Galaxie Library right next door. And I just wanted to take a couple minutes tonight to uh update you and the citizens of Apple Valley on a couple of uh big events we have coming up in the next few months. [6:17] Um, the first is going to be very close. We're we're right around the corner on Saturday, February 8th. We're going to be hosting the Minnesota Black Authors Expo here in Apple Valley. Uh, this is an event that's been going on for the last 10 years uh in Minneapolis. They were at the central—they were at DeLaSalle High School for a few—for several years, and then they were at Minneapolis Central Library last year. And for 2025, they um wanted to branch out and and show that they are a Minnesota event, local author event, not just a Minneapolis event. And so they're going to be holding quarterly events this year and they asked—first people they asked to come to was to Dakota County and to Apple Valley. And so we're very excited to have them here. [7:02] Um, this will be an all-ages event. Um, we're going to be in the Western Service Center atrium that day. Uh, we're going to have about 20 authors: uh authors of children's books, teens' books, adult books. Um, we're gonna have a couple of writing workshops, one for geared for adults and one geared for teens. We're going to have a children's area with lots of activities and and author story times. Uh, it's just going to be a great event for people to come out and meet uh and greet local authors and see their books and what they have. Um, we're really excited to have them here uh in Dakota County. We want to show show them how much um Apple Valley and and the Dakota County Library appreciate our local authors. [7:47] Um, the second event, which I do not have a flyer for yet unfortunately, is um going to be our teen job fair, which is going to be on Saturday, April 12th. Um, it'll be from 10:00 to 12:30, and it's going to be a great opportunity for teens in the area to come and meet local employers. Um, we're going to be having um resume workshops, interviewing workshops to help them build their skills and and give them opportunities to to get themselves ready for the workforce. And and it also is opportunity for some of our local employers uh if they're looking for teen workers, either just in general or or uh for the summer, to come in and and have a a lot a lot of teens um to talk to. We had 220 people here the last time we'd held this event, which was two uh two years ago. Um, so that'll be on April 12th. [8:39] Um, it's—teens and parents are welcome. If there's any local employers who um are—know they're going to be looking for work this summer and want to be involved as well, um they can contact me over at the library. We're working with CareerForce um on this particular event, so I can put them into contact with our our contacts at CareerForce and they are are welcome as well. It'll be um—like I said, we had about 200 people for that event so it's a lot of fun. So, um that was it. I just thank you for giving me a few minutes of your time. I just wanted to highlight those events that are coming up. So thank you. [9:06] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Tyler, we appreciate the update and all you do for us at the library. Thank you very much, great to see you. Anyone else who would like to speak to the audience participation portion? If not, let's move on to our consent agenda. These items are considered routine and will be enacted with a single motion unless a council member or a citizen requests to pull an item to be discussed separately. Council members, are there any items you would like to pull? One from the audience? All right, seeing none, do we have a motion to approve the consent agenda? [9:36] **Councilmember John Bergman:** So move. [9:38] **Councilmember Ruth Grendahl:** Second. [9:39] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** We have a motion from Councilmember Bergman and a second from Councilmember Grendahl. All those in favor indicate by saying aye. **All:** Aye. [9:45] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Opposed? Consent items all passed. We'll move on to the regular agenda. Uh, it's Christina again; we have item 5A, and that's: Adopt a resolution appointing an acting mayor for 2025. It's been a long time since we've had to uh to do this. [9:55] **Christina Scipioni:** Um, Mayor and Council, there's a statutory requirement that each year the city council determine who will serve as acting mayor um in the case of the mayor's absence from a meeting or absence outside of the city. Um, and so at this time it's really the council's prerogative to determine who that will be. [10:14] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Thank you. Councilmember Bergman, you were up first. [10:16] **Councilmember John Bergman:** Thanks, uh, Mayor. Uh, for—I make a motion that for acting mayor: Councilmember Ruth Grendahl. [10:24] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** All right, do we have a second for that motion? [10:25] **Councilmember Tom Melander:** Second. [10:26] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Any discussion or any other motions? No speeches? Are you—are you—are you willing? I should ask if you're willing to accept the appointment. [10:33] **Councilmember Ruth Grendahl:** Yes. [10:34] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** All right. All right, we have a motion and a second for council to appoint Councilmember Grendahl as acting mayor for 2025. All those in favor indicate by saying aye. **All:** Aye. [10:41] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Opposed? That item carries. Thank you all. Um, and then we will move on to—uh, we promised Lisa a nice short agenda on her first night, and then we've decided to throw an emergency sewer repair in the mix. So um, although right up her alley of expertise. So uh, there we go. Matt, do you want to walk us through um uh this item, which is relatively urgent here? [11:03] **Public Works Director Matt Saam:** Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor and Council. Um, it's not too often I'm before you with sort of an emergency uh repair request, but that's what we have here unfortunately. Before I get into it, I did want to um introduce a couple of of other staff that are here to assist or answer questions. We have Evan Aostor, Assistant City Engineer, behind me, and then Brian Skull, our Utility Superintendent, too. [11:26] So, um with that I'll get into it. And as the mayor stated, we did have a sanitary sewer uh failure along 140th Street. It's along the south side of 140th Street, east of Pilot Knob. And for the mayor—and you want to click it, Tim? Thank you. So here we go with a map of the city. Um, the dashed area—it would help if I turn it on maybe—oh, too far. Okay. The dashed-in area in the north, generally the northeast portion of the city, shows the the area of the city that drains—and we're talking about sanitary sewer here through—so it drains through toilets, sink use, showers, that sort of thing um into the sewer line that failed. [12:12] So a large portion of the city again in the northeast area of town. And we did a zoom-in on the the uh pipe failure location along 140th that's shown sort of in the lower right, and in the red line that's where generally that sewer line is. Tim, you want to help me? Let's see... thank you. So a little more background: um, back on New Year's Eve, December 31st, uh we we um city crews and Valley Rich, which is our contractor, responded to a sanitary sewer main break. Was originally called in as a water main break but um, not soon after reporting to the site, it we—it was quickly discerned that it was sanitary sewer um again on 140th Street. We got that sewer repair that day um through Valley Rich's help and reinstated—as it is put back into service, although there was significant debris that entered the system. [13:06] A little more background: the hole in the pipe was on the top of the pipe, so not on the bottom. It was basically due to sewer gas over the years. This pipe is concrete, um over about 50—over 50 years old um, 1972 I believe. Um, and so over the years those sewer gases had deteriorated or eroded away um that pipe, and with the weight of the earth and everything that opened up a hole in the sewer line, hence why we found dirt and other debris in the line blocking it. [13:46] So again, we got that repaired on New Year's Eve. Everybody goes home, they're off on on New Year's Day. We come back on January 2nd looking to just finish cleaning the line, and then we find a much larger break in another section of the pipe. Um, so we then did a bypass, which means we're we rerouted the sewer line around where the section was broken so we could fix it, only to find many more additional breaks that had surfaced. So now we're up to um, as my last bullet shows, um approximately over 1,000 ft of sewer pipe that has holes in it and needs to be repaired. [14:32] Um, so since then, uh utility staff, engineering staff, we've been reviewing televising footage. We have a camera that we can send down the the pipe to visually inspect it. Um, so we've been reviewing that televising footage to try to discern uh what the uh the best recommended repair or replacement would be. Some of those pipe sections, just because of the sheer amount of dirt and debris that's in the line, we're not able to um get to or or visually inspect. Um, Brian's crews are still working on that. [15:10] So we do believe, though, because of the extent of the damage, the cost of these repairs is going to far exceed um the competitive bidding requirement of $175,000. And so what that does—maybe for for folks at home—anything over $175,000 the city's required to competitively and publicly bid that out, which means we have to post it on our website for three weeks, um then we take in those bids, open them, bring back a contract to council after you evaluated it. All of that takes time, probably 30 to 60 days, sometimes even longer. [15:52] So um, with the um emergency nature of this area—and a little more information on that—of that size and I showed on the map earlier, we've counted over 2,600 structures that drain through that. That's schools, churches, homes, um and they're all contributing over 400,000 gallons of sewer each day through that line. So hence why it's an emergency to get that repaired; sort of a major line for us. Additionally, Lift Station 1, which is a little to the north, that flows or pumps to there. And so a failure backup there would result in sewage possibly getting into Long Lake or other ponds, obviously something we don't want to risk. So that's why we're we're coming before council tonight. [16:40] So a next steps would be we'd like to solicit pricing to consider multiple types of repairs. Basically work with contractors; we could do some slip lining possibly. Um, there's something called pipe bursting where they bring um a a a metal type head through the pipe, blow up the old pipe—basically burst it—while they're pulling a new pipe right in along the same alignment. Um, we can also do some directional drilling or boring, you may have heard of. So um, want to work with both again our televising, our engineering staff, and also contractors to try to get the best price and best recommendation on on what to fix. [17:28] As far as funding this, um we did have some previously um funded project, City Project 2025-106; it's also sanitary sewer slip lining improvements. So we thought it it made some sense that we could delay that work—it's not of as an immediate nature. Uh, we have $600,000 budgeted for that, so we'd like to use that money to help pay for for this work. Any additional costs, if there would need to be, would come from our sanitary sewer Utility Fund. [18:03] So we did have three um actions requested of the council tonight. The first being to declare emergency conditions for the sewer main breaks along 140th Street West between Pilot Knob and 142nd. The second is to adopt a resolution of support to extend the duration of that emergency until we're able to to get the failed sections restored, replaced, and fully functioning. Just a little background: our City Attorney said the initial Declaration of Emergency can only last three days, hence why we need to do the second resolution of support to be able to extend that. That's why we're doing that. And then the final one is to adopt a resolution authorizing the Public Works Director—myself—to create a local or special emergency contract. Basically, that allows us to um not have to post it through the normal competitive bidding environments. But make no mistake, we're still going to get multiple quotes and bids and try to get the best price, but time is of of the essence here. So with that, I'd be happy to take any questions uh the council may have. [18:48] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Thank you. Do we have any questions for Matt? Um, Tom and I chatted earlier today; my first question was: how many more of these do we have? And I think this was a unique situation here that due to some slope in the pipe and the way it turned up, gas probably created this section to deteriorate faster than other similarly situated sections. [19:13] **Matt Saam:** Mr. Mayor, Council, that's exactly right. However, your point is a good one. We do have—and we've been researching—how much more concrete pipe from the '70s do we have out there could that could potentially be a a issue in the future? So we are looking into that, working with GIS to determine where we have that. We'll be ramping up televising and inspections of those lines so hopefully we can get get replacements planned for the future. [19:43] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Thank you. Um, if there are no other questions, we work through the action items. I'm looking at what you have on the screen and then the memo. The first bullet is different, Tom, and so maybe you can walk us through that. The action requested on the slide is to declare the emergency, but I believe we did that earlier in the day, and so are we looking to accept the proclamation as you have in the memo, or are we looking to declare the emergency tonight? [19:54] **Tom Lawell:** Mr. Mayor, members of the council, the actual emergency itself—because of the nature of this and the way that the state statute is set up—is that the mayor actually declares the emergency, and then the action being taken tonight is to affirm that by the city council and then move through the rest of the steps. [20:13] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Got it. Just look to the City Attorney: are we taking action on the first item on the screen? [20:18] **City Attorney Sharon Hills:** Yes, Mr. Mayor. You should take action on the proclamation declaring what's what's in our memo versus what's on the screen. [20:25] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Thank you. I just didn't want to screw the first one up because it seemed to be the that control the rest of them from there. So um, we'll take these one at a time. So we'll look for a motion to accept the proclamation declaring a local emergency. [20:38] **Councilmember Ruth Grendahl:** Motion. [20:39] **Councilmember Tom Melander:** Second. [20:41] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Motion from Councilmember Grendahl and a second from Councilmember Melander. All those in favor indicate by saying aye. **All:** Aye. [20:46] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Opposed? That item is approved. Our second action item is to adopt a resolution extending a local emergency pursuant to Minnesota Statute Section 12.29 and 12.37. Do we have a motion? [20:55] **Councilmember Lisa Hiebert:** So moved. [20:56] **Councilmember Ruth Grendahl:** Second. [20:58] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Motion from Councilmember Hiebert and second from Councilmember Grendahl. All those in favor indicate by saying aye. **All:** Aye. [21:03] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Opposed? That carries. The least exciting first motion ever, possibly, Lisa... f—one anyway. Um, and our third item is to adopt a resolution authorizing the make—the making of a local or special emergency contract. [21:13] **Councilmember John Bergman:** Motion. [21:14] **Councilmember Ruth Grendahl:** Second. [21:15] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Motion from Councilmember Bergman and a second from Councilmember Grendahl. All those in favor indicate by saying aye. **All:** Aye. [21:20] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Opposed? Those all carry. Thanks to our Public Works staff too. You've had a a New Year's Eve you weren't quite expecting, but um but I think thanks to the work, we also don't have impacts to homes and lakes and businesses and apartments and all those things. So um, I think we say like, your work is really great when nobody notices it, and uh this is noticeable but in a good way. So thank you all. [21:30] **Matt Saam:** Thank you. Thank you for that, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Council. [21:34] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** All right, that brings us to our staff and council communication. And uh Tom, do we have any items for staff communication? [21:40] **Tom Lawell:** Mr. Mayor, just a a general reminder that Mid-winter Fest is coming up. This will be on Saturday, February the 1st over at Johnny Cake Ridge Park. And uh, we will continue to promote that amongst the community and uh we'll we'll bring it on to the next agenda as well. But just want to focus that that is our major winter festival that we have as a community event. Uh, lots of partners come together—food trucks and a lot of other uh good activities going on for the whole family on that day. So uh, pay attention to that and we hope for a good community response to Mid-winter Fest. Hoping for just a little bit of snow uh between now and then to make that a little more wintry. [22:19] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** So uh, council members, any uh items for council communications this evening? All right, if not, we will move on to our calendar of upcoming events, and we are going to add one chamber-scheduled ribbon cutting to the calendar. And that is the Berry Sweet Kitchen, which is in the space near Buffalo Wild Wings and Applebee's, kind of in that corner. Um, they were here a while ago for their liquor license, and their ribbon cutting is 8:00 a.m. on the 16th, so next Thursday. So we'll add that to the calendar. If we don't have any other additions or changes, we would look for a motion to approve the calendar of upcoming events. [23:08] **Councilmember Ruth Grendahl:** So moved. [23:09] **Councilmember Lisa Hiebert:** Second. [23:11] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Motion from Councilmember Grendahl, a second from Councilmember Hiebert. All those in favor indicate by saying aye. **All:** Aye. [23:16] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Opposed? The calendar carries. And just a reminder that our city offices are closed on Monday, January 20th, 2025, in observance of the Martin Luther King holiday. With that, we have a motion to adjourn. [23:23] **Councilmember Ruth Grendahl:** So moved. [23:25] **Councilmember Lisa Hiebert:** Second. [23:27] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Motion from Councilmember Grendahl, second from Councilmember Hiebert. All those in favor indicate by saying aye. Thank you. [23:32] [Music]