[0:01] [Music] [0:48] **Mayor Joshua Hoy:** We'll call the City Council regular meeting to order for Monday, February 3rd, 2025. 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. [1:05] **Mayor Joshua Hoy:** Call the roll, please. [1:10] **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Mayor Hoy? **Mayor Joshua Hoy:** Here. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Councilmember Bernatz? **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** Here. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Councilmember Cordes? **Councilmember Jake Cordes:** Here. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Councilmember Lien? **Councilmember Nick Lien:** Here. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Councilmember Wilson? **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** Here. [1:25] **Mayor Joshua Hoy:** All right, any changes to the agenda? [1:28] **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** No. [1:30] **Mayor Joshua Hoy:** You mean Holly? None? None. All right, seeing no changes, I seek a motion to approve the agenda. [1:35] **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** Motion to approve. **Mayor Joshua Hoy:** Motion by Holly. **Councilmember Jake Cordes:** Second. **Mayor Joshua Hoy:** Second by Jake. All in favor say aye. **Councilmembers:** Aye. [1:40] **Mayor Joshua Hoy:** All right, first item on the agenda under announcements is 5.1, the swearing-in of Fire Department personnel. Chief. [1:56] **Fire Chief Matthew Price:** Good evening, Mayor and Councilmembers. This evening we will be conducting the oath of office and badge pinning ceremony for five members of the Fire Department. We did promote six members; unfortunately, one of our newly promoted captains was not able to be here this evening, so we will conduct that ceremony at a later time. So, our first members conducting the ceremony will be the fire captains, which took effect January 1st of this year. Matt Donley is a 16-year member of the Fire Department and has held the rank of firefighter and lieutenant. Matt has served on many boards and committees for the department and holds many certifications such as Incident Safety Officer, Public Life Safety Educator, Advanced Firefighter Search and Rescue, and is an emergency medical technician. Again, this evening, Matt will be pinned by his wife, Jackie. [2:43] **Fire Chief Matthew Price:** Josh Streiff is a five-year member of the department and has held the ranks of firefighter and lieutenant. Josh currently serves as the department's Relief President. Josh also holds many certifications such as Live Burn Instructor, Fire Instructor 2, and Incident Safety Officer, and is an emergency medical responder. This evening, Josh will be pinned by his son, Dominic. Brian Hansen is a 14-year member of the department and has held many ranks as firefighter, crew leader, and lieutenant. Brian has served on committees for the department over his career and holds many certifications such as Fire Apparatus Operator, Aerial, Advanced Pump Operations, Incident Safety Officer, and is an emergency medical technician. Again, this evening, Brian will be pinned by his mother, Marsha. So, I will ask the three individuals to come up and take their oath, please. [3:57] **Fire Chief Matthew Price (Administering Oath):** I do solemnly swear I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Minnesota. I will faithfully, honestly, and impartially discharge the duties of Fire Captain of the Farmington Fire Department. I pledge to carry out the duties of Fire Captain to the best of my ability, and I will honor and respect the mission, goals, purpose, and policies of the Fire Department. I recognize the badge of my office as a symbol of public faith and trust. I accept it so long as I am true to the ethics of the fire service. I make these promises solemnly, freely, and upon my honor, so help me God. [5:20] **Fire Chief Matthew Price:** Congratulations. So at this time, I'll ask Jackie, Dominic, and Marsha to please come forward to pin. Stand in the line there, there you go. [6:20] [Applause] [6:35] **Fire Chief Matthew Price:** So next we will do the Fire Marshal position. Heath Walker is a 17-year member of the department and was selected for the full-time position of Fire Marshal on December 9th, 2024. Heath has served on many committees and boards over his career and holds many certifications such as Fire Inspector 1, Fire Instructor 2, Incident Safety Officer, and is an emergency medical responder. Heath will be pinned by his father, Tom Walker. [7:15] **Fire Chief Matthew Price (Administering Oath):** I, Heath Walker, as Fire Marshal of the Farmington Fire Department, will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Minnesota. I will faithfully, honestly, and impartially discharge the duties of Fire Marshal of the Farmington Fire Department. I pledge to carry out the duties of Fire Marshal to the best of my ability. I will honor and respect the mission, goals, purpose, and policies of the Fire Department. I recognize the badge of my office as a symbol of public faith and trust. I accept it so long as I am true to the ethics of the fire service. I make these promises solemnly, freely, and upon my honor. [8:35] [Applause] [8:42] **Fire Chief Matthew Price:** I'll ask Tom to come forward. [9:06] [Applause] [9:10] **Fire Chief Matthew Price:** Our last position this evening is for the Deputy Fire Chief. Matt Brown has over 28 years in the fire service and was hired last year as our Fire Marshal in October of 2024. Matt was offered and accepted the Deputy Fire Chief position. Matt had to do the work of both the Fire Marshal and Deputy Fire Chief for a few months while we hired his replacement. Matt holds many certifications such as Public Information Officer, Live Burn Instructor, Incident Safety Officer, and is a certified paramedic. This evening, Matt will be pinned by his wife, Kim. [10:00] **Fire Chief Matthew Price (Administering Oath):** I, Matthew Brown, as Deputy Fire Chief of the Farmington Fire Department, will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Minnesota. I will faithfully, honestly, and impartially discharge the duties of Deputy Fire Chief of the Farmington Fire Department. I pledge to carry out the duties of the Deputy Fire Chief to the best of my ability, and I will honor and respect the mission, goals, purpose, and policies of the Fire Department. I recognize the badge of my office as a symbol of public faith and trust. I accept it so long as I am true to the ethics of the fire service. I make these promises solemnly, freely, and upon my honor, so help me God. [11:23] [Applause] [11:27] **Fire Chief Matthew Price:** At this time, I ask Kim to come forward to pin his badge and his daughters to pin his collar brass. [12:09] [Laughter] [12:16] **Fire Chief Matthew Price:** Thank you. [Applause] That concludes the ceremony for this evening. Again, we'll have cake and ice cream as we always do for our promotions at Station One if you guys want to join us. Thank you. [12:20] **Mayor Joshua Hoy:** Thank you, sir. Nick, any comments or—we're getting spoiled. We had PD last week and fire this week. It's been a nice couple of meetings, so congratulations everybody. [12:30] **Councilmember Nick Lien:** I know you long through a few years at this point. It's always a pleasure every time I get to see you, so congratulations. Thank you all so much for your service and for everything that you do to protect Farmington and our residents. It does not go unnoticed. We're immensely grateful for your choice to serve in this capacity. So thank you. [13:02] **Councilmember Jake Cordes:** Just I want to share my congratulations to those five we recognized for their promotions tonight, and thank you five and all your colleagues for everything you do for our city. [13:17] **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** Yeah, congratulations to all five of you. And I also want to extend my gratitude to the spouses and families too, because when your husbands and loved ones are out there, you're taking care of an important duty too, which is your family. So gratitude to all of you. [13:42] **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** Thank you. To Nick's point, we do get a little spoiled, right? We got a couple of good promotions to the PD a few weeks ago and now to the Fire Department. I was like hearing the first part of it when the Chief talks about the classes and the certifications and the education, right? And that's something for everyone that sits behind those that were promoted—continue to perfect your craft, continue to train and excel at the highest level, follow the leadership of those that came before you and continue to do what you do for our community because without you, we wouldn't be as safe as we are. And to your spouses and your extended family, the sacrifices that you make—holidays, nights, weekends, kids' sporting events, personal activities, all the things—it does not go unnoticed and there are no words that can put enough emphasis and appreciation on your sacrifice as a family. So thank you to everyone, we appreciate you. Now go enjoy your cake. [15:07] **Mayor Joshua Hoy:** All right, moving on. Our next item on the agenda is item six, our citizen comments. If there's anyone in attendance wishing to speak, please feel free to do so at this time. All right, seeing none, we will move on to item seven, which is our consent agenda. I'd seek a motion to approve the consent agenda. [15:28] **Councilmember Nick Lien:** Motion to approve. **Mayor Joshua Hoy:** Motion by Nick. **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** Second. **Mayor Joshua Hoy:** Second by Steve. All in favor say aye. **Councilmembers:** Aye. [15:42] **Mayor Joshua Hoy:** All right. Item 12.1 under new business is Professional Services Agreement with Alliant Engineering Incorporated for the 2025 Street Improvement final design and bidding. John. [15:53] **John Powell (Public Works Director):** Thank you, Mayor. Please give me a moment to get my presentation brought up. Through past action, a feasibility report has been prepared for the 2025 Street Improvement project. The project location included these streets: Sunnyside, Fairview, Centennial Drive, Centennial Court, and Sunnyside Circle. Those streets are illustrated in yellow, excuse me, on the map that's been displayed here. Ash Street is on the north end of the project and Highway 3 is a short distance to the east. This is directly south of the Sixth Street project that was completed last year. [16:38] **John Powell:** The schedule to date has included three neighborhood meetings and open houses ordering the feasibility report, and this evening we're asking Council to consider approval of the final design and bidding. The first open house is usually gaining background information—that's really getting information from the property owners as to what challenges or concerns they have. And then we try to address those through concept development. The third open house, a lot of the illustrations, the intersections, the cul-de-sacs were sent out with the third open house invitation to get reaction. Primarily the reaction has been, you know, if you're narrowing the streets or reconfiguring an intersection, just make sure that, you know, emergency vehicles can get through there, and that's a baseline of our design, so that's not a problem. [17:35] **John Powell:** So the proposed scope of roadways: the existing roadways are 36 feet between the curb faces; we're proposing and recommending 32 feet between the curb faces. The benefits of this include storm water runoff being reduced. No new storm water treatment is proposed as we have very little space in the right-of-way and easements to put ponds or rain gardens or anything like that. So reduction of the impervious surface means there's more turf area and we get more infiltration before it hits the roadway. Long-term maintenance costs are reduced—less surface to seal, crack-fill, snowplow, etc. On this particular project, we do have some steep driveway grades, so the additional length to the roadway gives us more space to flatten out the slopes in the driveway. And then finally, it's a visual cue to drivers to reduce speeds based on narrower roadways. And it says "narrower," but this is really our standard 32 feet. But one of the issues and concerns that we did hear expressed in those early meetings was speeding and non-compliance with stop signs. [18:49] **John Powell:** The roadway—this is just a graphical illustration, the top being 36 feet face-to-face and the bottom being 32 feet face-to-face between the curbs. Inset A is the pavement section, which is our typical section: 12 inches of usually a sand subgrade, 8 inches of aggregate base, and then 4 inches of bituminous between base and wear. That is consistent with the recommendations in the geotechnical report. Along with replacing the roadways slightly narrower, we looked at a few areas in particular. This is the Centennial Drive intersection with Fairview Lane. Prior to—the way it exists now is it's kind of a lot of pavement out there; there's not a clear right-of-way or T-intersection. So what we're trying to do with this—and you can see where the existing curb line is—is we're trying to create a definite intersection there so it's very clear who has the right of way and who may be turning. [19:56] **John Powell:** Additionally, we are looking at trying to reduce the pavement areas. One of the questions we had about this configuration is what will happen then to their driveways and whatnot. Those will all be extended to the new curb line. This was an attempt to reduce the hard surface, increase infiltration, yet still provide a cul-de-sac that meets our design standards. This is another version that we explored, creating essentially a longer island versus a bubble-type cul-de-sac. We haven't had specific responses from all the property owners on these cul-de-sacs, so we will be reaching out to them to see if they have any concerns before we proceed with the final design on these, so they're very clear as to what might be happening in front of their houses. And then this is the, I guess, bulge or bump out. This creates an island of turf and actually we have a catch basin in that turf area so we can tip the flow to the center. One of the challenges on a cul-de-sac is when you have a crowned roadway and it all runs to the curb line, then having that slope to carry it all the way around the surface along the curb line. If we pitch it to the center, that gives us more flexibility and we can improve that slope and runoff. [21:27] **John Powell:** We also looked at sidewalks and trails. The 2019 Bike and Ped plan showed a proposed on-street bikeway as an ongoing project along Sunnyside and then east along Centennial Drive to Highway 3. Bike lanes are typically for one-way travel, so if we want lanes, we have to have one on each side. Preferred width is 5 to 7 feet measured from the edge of the gutter pan. So even with the existing road of 36 feet, 33 feet is between the gutter pans. If we take out the two 5-foot bike lanes, it'd only be 23 feet wide, which is inadequate. In addition to that, the new bike lanes would have to cross two intersections, about 20 driveways, and we would have to align a bike lane through that bump out. So we may have either two additional driveways, or if we didn't put an island in there, we'd be running a bike lane right through an area where vehicles could be coming in and out—not attractive options. Widening the pavement or installing a separated trail or sidewalks is not feasible just from the amount of right-of-way we have and the existing grades out there. [22:59] **John Powell:** So from a storm sewer standpoint, another concern we had a lot of feedback on was drainage, and usually that goes hand-in-hand. Similar to Sixth Street, the road's not draining, the water's sitting on the roadway and it's essentially rotting the pavement, and that's creating premature deterioration. Thankfully we were able to add storm sewer as shown in red here and increase the number of catch basins and get the runoff off the pavement quicker instead of running it along a lengthy curb line and then maybe even around a curve or through a valley gutter, which are those concrete drainage ways that cross the roadway. Those are not preferred. So if we take the center lines and match those, as long as we have catch basins on the sides, we can take care of the drainage. So we've eliminated a couple of valley gutters as part of this approach also. [23:46] **John Powell:** And then this is the south end where we're proposing additional storm sewer at the very south end of the project. For the recommendation of the Water Board, all the 6-inch water main will be replaced and the main on Sunnyside Drive will be replaced with a 12-inch ductile iron pipe; the remainder will be 8-inch. Sanitary sewer was proposed to be lined under a separate contract as part of the 2025 sewer lining project. Turf and trees: 47 trees, including ash, are expected to be removed as part of the project. We'll also include some tree pruning. Based on your action tonight, we would have the natural resource specialists go out and mark the trees well before construction's going to start so property owners can have a look at them, ask questions, make appointments with Ben to get more information on maybe why a tree is or isn't being taken out. If it's an ash, it's being taken out because it's an ash tree, but there's a lot of others that are mature that are right on the edge of the road and they won't survive a construction project, and we don't want unsafe trees when we're done. [25:05] **John Powell:** This area, similar to Sixth and Maple, will have a future tree planting contract. Ben Humbley, our natural resource specialist, is right now working on a planting plan for Sixth and Maple that he'll be doing some outreach with the property owners on, so we'll get some trees back in there. All disturbed areas will be restored with topsoil and sod. One thing we have on this project frequently: a number of them are outwalks. If there's an outwalk coming from the house, we'll replace the outwalk all the way out to the new curb line, and again, it'll be further away so I'll have more room to work and take up that slope if they are steeper. In the CIP we had a $3 million target with the identified funding sources: bonds primarily for the roadway, sewer, storm water, and water fund. Based on the feasibility report, we are over that, but with this number, $3.8 million still includes the 10% contingency and includes 18% for indirect costs, which I don't think we're going to reach that 18% on this project. [26:38] **John Powell:** So based on going through the final design, we'll have a final estimated cost. If we need to narrow the scope, we can narrow the scope and essentially take a part of the project and put it onto a future project or allocate funding and look at next year's project to see where we'd make that up. And I make those comments with knowing that I have to talk to the Finance Director and work through all that, so I'm not implying approval by anything I say here; we have to work through that still. Based on the estimated cost, the funding sources would be as identified. The water trunk fund is included because we do have a 12-inch DIP water main which, per our policy, is a trunk water main, so we can use the trunk water fund for that. Based on approval this evening, plans and specifications would come back in about a month for a bid opening in early April and contract awards. [27:39] **John Powell:** So we'd be looking to have a pre-con in April, and then the other thing we do is once we have the contractor on board, we have a neighborhood meeting with the contractor so the property owners can meet them before they're dropping off equipment and things like that. It takes the city out of the middle of conversations they may have about, "Okay, how are you handling trash? How are you handling other things?" They're responsible for that, but they're talking directly with the property owners and starting to build that relationship before something happens on site. Substantial completion would be the end of September with final mid-October, and then our two-year warranty would be October of 2027. Now, if the final payment isn't processed until December of '25, then the two-year warranty ends two years after that, December of 2027. Project scope: unless directed otherwise, final design would incorporate the scope presented this evening, including the roadway narrowing, intersection realignment, cul-de-sac treatments, trunk and lateral water main replacement, and storm sewer. With that, the requested action is to approve the Professional Service Agreement for final design with Alliant Engineering Inc., final design and bidding assistance also. I'd be happy to respond to any questions. [29:06] **Mayor Joshua Hoy:** Thank you, sir. Steve. [29:12] **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** You know, John, I just really primarily have a couple of comments. I've actually heard from a couple of residents out here that are really excited and really appreciative that this is going to be going on. I know that Councilmember Cordes used to live in this area too. So I'm really excited about this project for those residents out there. I did have a different resident too—I don't know if this individual was at the meeting—but the kind of Concept Two circle on Centennial Court was not this resident's preferred option. That kind of typical bubble, the one on the right, was not too liked. [29:58] **John Powell:** If that person showed up at the meeting, I think we did have some feedback on one of the concepts. But we intentionally sent those out with the notice so we were trying to solicit that feedback. Before we move ahead with either concept, we want to be sure we have a response one way or the other from the property owners on these cul-de-sacs, and we do have some flexibility here. We have two options. We don't want them to have a safety concern. They've been used to driving into a cul-de-sac that looked a certain way, and if there's a lot of concern with regard to that, we would put that in the final design and make sure we highlight that when you approve the plans. [30:44] **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** Yeah, and lastly—I appreciate that—and lastly, I think the deviation from our bike and ped plan makes sense in this area. The neighborhood really wasn't built to accommodate, you know, without the sidewalks/trails. It wouldn't make sense for pedestrian safety, bike safety, and cars also. So thank you. [31:02] **John Powell:** Mayor and Councilmembers, and I did talk to the Park and Recreation Director about that, and she understands the recommendation. [31:11] **Mayor Joshua Hoy:** Yep. That's all? Thank you, Jake. [31:13] **Councilmember Jake Cordes:** No questions for me, just a few comments. Like Member Wilson said, I lived in that neck of the woods for several years. My grandma still lives in that neighborhood; I have other family members and friends who live in that neighborhood. And like Steve said, they're excited to have this done. And as someone who frequents that neighborhood to visit family and friends, I'm excited to not drive through roads—no offense—but their PCI scores are not the greatest. So I think there's a lot of excitement around this project. And then in general, the Centennial and Fairview intersection—kind of straightening that out—I think personally, after having seen several incidents over the years in that, or near incidents in that intersection, I think it'll be a good thing to straighten it out and provide a little more clarity on who has the right of way and what the heck is actually going on there. So thank you, excited about this project. [32:18] **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** Mayor, if I might, Jake brought up a comment that I actually did have a question about. So is it going to be assumed at that Fairview and Sunnyside that there is a kind of a know by the average driver, or is there going to be a yield sign put there? At a T, it seems logical. You know, you could kind of presume what the average driver might do, but at this intersection, it would be assumed that Centennial would be the through and Fairview would be the stop condition? [32:51] **John Powell:** It's a T-intersection; typically we wouldn't have to put a stop sign there, but because this is a change and it's making sure that people—I understand stop signs assign right of way, you know, they're not for slowing traffic or anything, they assign right of way essentially—and when we're making a change like this, I think we'll go the extra step of making sure that people know that that's a stop condition there. [33:14] **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** All right, thank you. Sorry. [33:18] **Mayor Joshua Hoy:** You're good. Holly. [33:23] **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** Um, nothing that hasn't already been addressed. I mean, first thank you so much for making it easy to understand things that are beyond the scope of what I would normally process on daily information, so your thoroughness is deeply appreciated. I also really love how there's so many aspects to this that I don't think residents necessarily realize or paid attention to, right? The side benefit of narrowing the road is that people naturally feel the inclination to slow down a little bit. It's not always the case that you're going to keep everything you want to keep, be that the bike path or the trees, but the improvements can't—you can't make an argument for not going through the process of making those improvements and doing it right. Can you explain a little bit better for people that are looking at this and aren't familiar with the difference between the proposed funding sources and the estimated project scope? It looks like we had some indications on where money was going to come from and where it could come from now. Can you just in layman's terms a little bit for the person looking at that's saying, "Well, you said it was going to be $3 million or we hoped it would be $3 million, now we're at $3.8"? How do we handle that? What happens in that? I know you touched on it but just with a little bit more clarity. [34:50] **John Powell:** Yes, Mayor and Councilmembers. I would start off with we tend to over-scope these a little bit because it's much easier to pull back on the scope than, "Okay, we've got $500,000 that we were allocated for a project and we're not going to get it done." So we'd prefer to pull back on the scope. The street work is primarily General Obligation bonds—that's the debt the city issues—and we have a five-year street reconstruction plan that we review each of those years and allocate funding for that purpose on these projects. Sanitary sewer is paid by the sanitary sewer fund; storm sewer similarly by the storm sewer fund, as is water. The trunk water fund is for water main over 8 inches in diameter, and that was identified in the feasibility report as to how we define laterals and trunks. The water trunk fund is different than the regular water fund, so we use that for oversizing. We also use that to reimburse developers if they oversize a public main because they pay for up to 8-inch and then we will usually give a credit to their utility developer fees for the oversizing. [36:08] **John Powell:** And so what we'll do is, as we go through the final design, if we come back with the engineer's estimate prior to bidding and it's still way over, then we may decide to take a section of the project and put it on a future project instead of this one. So we would identify—we wouldn't do, you know, the cul-de-sacs probably, Sunnyside probably, the south end of the project is what would get left off if we have to cut the budget. Or we do this project and I work with the Finance Director and we reduce the scope of next year such that we don't exceed our general obligated bond funding. But then we don't want to keep going up and down every year. We have a target, but we do have some flexibility from year to year if we're a little over or if we're a little under. [37:11] **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** I appreciate that. I think, you know, one of the things that we've talked about as a council before is that kicking of the can, right? That these are things that need to be done, and all of the things that need to be done to maintain our community standards for what it is we want our residents to have—every aspect of that takes money. Sometimes the estimates are exciting and we're happy when they come in under, and sometimes they come in over. But you know, for me it's just that reality that we can delay something and move it, but you can't just forget that it's there or you can't pretend that the need doesn't exist. There always has to be that continued process of these things have to be done in the same way that we all have to maintain our own homes, and you can defer maintenance for only so long before it becomes a problem. So I appreciate all of that. Thank you. [38:12] **John Powell:** Thank you. And that's why we look at the CIP on an annual basis in the five-year street reconstruction plan in case we need to move things. And the preferred option, as we've gone through all this and we've had the public input, would be to—even if it comes in a little over—move ahead with this project, assuming I can work with the Finance Director and make sure funding can be allocated and the next years we just reduce a little bit. [38:25] **Mayor Joshua Hoy:** I'm good. Okay. Um, I was trying to find if I just missed it, but with respect to like the bike and ped plan, this is the first time I think I've ever seen us run into a situation where we talked about taking a bike lane out or even had it in part of the discussion. What was—do you have any insight into like the bigger picture—what was supposed to go on in that neighborhood? Was it all supposed to kind of feed into 220th, basically? [38:52] **John Powell:** The bike—Mayor and Councilmembers, the bike and ped plan just showed on-street bikeways Sunnyside down to Centennial. I think it was a way to get from Ash Street over to Highway 3 where I think there's an extension to the east shown in the bike and ped plan. But we do look at that. That's one of our reference documents that when we have a project, we want to be sure that we're looking at all the plans that we've prepared and taking care of things if we can, if there's ADA improvements and things like that. But here, we just didn't have the space for it to create either separated sidewalks, separated trails, or an on-street bikeway. [39:46] **Mayor Joshua Hoy:** I understand. I guess my question is more in the topic of: say it wasn't prohibitive down the road in a different project. Does reconstruction dictate that you have to add say like a bike lane in at that time or is that kind of at a discretion thing? [40:02] **John Powell:** No, it's not required, but we do—you know, that bike and ped plan was prepared not that long ago with a lot of thoughtful process that went into it, so we want to respect the effort that went into that and the conclusions reached at the time. But then that is always something that needs to be reconsidered as part of each individual project. So we're not obligated except from an ADA standpoint; ADA we have to do any ADA corrections as part of the project. But the bike and ped plan—that's a decision you have the discretion of including that or not including that. [40:35] **Mayor Joshua Hoy:** But they at least tried to make a commitment that said like when we come along we'll try our best to put bike lanes in here in fitting with that basically? Not just like leave space for it and then we'll do bike and pet as a separate project—you know, coming along and painting lanes later kind of thing? It would all be one project basically, right? [40:53] **John Powell:** Right. If we were to try and do it as part of this project, we would have to do some roadway widening and we would do it as part of the project. When we go through here, we don't want to leave anything to the future. If we're going to do it, we're going to do it now. If we're not going to do it, it's not going to get done this part of the project. [41:05] **Mayor Joshua Hoy:** That was kind of my question—was the bike and ped plan like the bike lanes—would that be its own kind of thing where we tackle like the whole city and doing bike lanes across the city as one monolith, or just piece-meal like we're doing here as we repair the roads we add them into places where they can fit? [41:21] **John Powell:** Yep. Um, we do have some roadways that are wide enough, so if it calls for a bike lane we don't have to do any widening; it'd be very easy to stripe those in. But as part of a system plan, we work with Parks and Recreation on that to make sure that we had continuity and that we're not just striping and then leaving folks with nowhere to go. We want a start and an end if we're going to do something like that and not leave people hanging. [42:07] **Councilmember Nick Lien:** I don't have any objection to it with what you're saying as to why it's restrictive for here. I'm just trying to get that piece in my head a little bit for the sometime in the future. Here, not a whole lot to add to what my peers have already stated. Getting the "T" more formulated at Fairview and Centennial is key. I mean, that has been a nuisance intersection for as long as I've been around the community, whether it's a stop sign on Fairview and, you know, through-way on Centennial or even a three-way, just some type of control there. The other part, you know, like I knew going through there years ago that the roads sit low, right? Like everybody's driveway goes up, so you knew that unless you were putting in retaining walls across everybody's front yard, you were going to end up with a slope and grade issue. [42:55] **Councilmember Nick Lien:** And I guess the only concern question I have is: have we engaged the school district yet with any type of proposal on reducing the road widths? And the reason I ask is if we're reducing the road widths—most of that area I believe is still walking to FES, it's not bussed. There may be some areas that are bussed, but I believe most of that is still within walking distance. If we're going to reduce the roads and not have sidewalks, it'd be interesting to hear what the school district's response would be about adding bussing in that area just because you had a vehicle parked on both sides of the road from April through November, not counting the summer when they're out of school, for child safety and pedestrian safety. Just one more thing to think about and yeah, just that I would ask to engage with the district and give them the option to start looking at the following school year as offering bussing, because I could see that as being a potential issue for especially kindergarteners, first graders, the young ones. Outside of that, I love it. I love the design. It's long overdue. So thank you, sir. I appreciate it. [44:17] **John Powell:** Certainly. [44:19] **Mayor Joshua Hoy:** With that, I'd seek a motion to approve the Professional Services Agreement with Alliant Engineering Incorporated for the 2025 Street Improvement final design and bidding. [44:23] **Councilmember Jake Cordes:** So moved. **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** Second. **Mayor Joshua Hoy:** Motion by Jake, second by Steve. Call the roll please. [44:27] **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Councilmember Bernatz? **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** Yes. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Councilmember Cordes? **Councilmember Jake Cordes:** Yes. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Councilmember Lien? **Councilmember Nick Lien:** Yes. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Councilmember Wilson? **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** Yes. **City Clerk Shirley Buecksler:** Mayor Hoy? **Mayor Joshua Hoy:** Yes. Thank you. [44:30] **Mayor Joshua Hoy:** All right, Roundtable. You get to start. [44:33] **Assistant City Administrator David Chanski:** Good evening, Mayor, members of the Council. Since the Police Chief outdid me last time with the top theater comment, I decided to try and give another try, see Chief? So in honor of the Super Bowl coming on Sunday, today Minnesota Vikings great Fran Tarkenton is 85 years old—it's his birthday today. And for people who don't know like me, who's not a native Minnesotan, I had to look these things up—he played for the Vikings from 1961 to '66 and 1972 to '78. He went to three Super Bowls. And bonus points to anybody who can tell me his nickname? "Scramblin' Fran." Because he was recently quoted as saying that Patrick Mahomes doesn't do anything that he didn't do with the scrambling around. But I would say Patrick Mahomes has won the Super Bowl and Fran Tarkenton went three times and didn't, which is, you know, kind of a through-the-heart thing. And because I need a legal connection to this, I do have to say that future-at-the-time Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Alan Page was a teammate of Fran Tarkenton's. So there you go. [45:51] **Mayor Joshua Hoy:** Good segue there. Well done. Nick. [45:59] **Councilmember Nick Lien:** I believe Paul Krause, the Dakota County Chair or Commissioner, was also the same years, wasn't he? Not a Vikings fan—one random Vikings fact, I mean that's all I had to contribute to this. That was my Roundtable. Okay, good. [46:06] **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** All right, I'm going to talk a little bit about Valentine's Day. Whether you love it or you think it's a Hallmark holiday, it's a great opportunity that if you are interested in spoiling your sweetheart, you can do it locally. So just, you know, top of mind, remember that there are lots of establishments, lots of businesses in Farmington that would love to be patronized if that's something that you participate in. So while it's perfectly fine to go elsewhere, I don't know, keep your eyes on Farmington and see what's here for your sweetheart. Thank you. [46:44] **Councilmember Jake Cordes:** I do not think I can do any better than those, so I will pass tonight. [46:47] **Mayor Joshua Hoy:** Oh, but you could. [46:48] **Councilmember Jake Cordes:** I don't think I can. [46:49] **Councilmember Steve Wilson:** I have no comments either. Our next city council meeting will be on February 18th because Monday the 17th is President's Day. I'm sorry, we'll see you in 15 days? Well, President's Day is on the 17th and our meeting is on February 18th. Messed that one up. [46:57] **Mayor Joshua Hoy:** All good. Nothing for me, thanks. Nothing. John? [46:58] **John Powell:** Thank you, Mayor. With the mild weather, aside from the cold snap, that means we've between Public Works and I know Park and Rec is doing a similar effort, we're able to get some trees out continuing our EAB management implementation, so that's good news. Also the well abandonment contract—we've already talked to a well driller and I believe the option of accessing the wells, pulling the top off and then doing the video and gamma log before we let a contract for abandonment is doable. So that's probably the approach we'll be taking. [47:40] **Mayor Joshua Hoy:** Cool, thank you sir. Kim? [47:45] **Kim Sommerland (Finance Director):** I do not have anything this evening. [47:48] **Police Chief Nate Siem:** I have nothing. [47:50] **Mayor Joshua Hoy:** All right. Excuse me, I don't have anything to add outside of you get some unseasonably warm weather and your walkers and your bikers are out on the streets and it's still not bright out—sun's not out until 8:00 AM. So just be mindful of those that are out and walking around and kiddos going to the bus stop. With that, I'd look for a motion to adjourn. [48:14] **Councilmember Holly Bernatz:** Motion to adjourn. **Councilmember Nick Lien:** Second. **Mayor Joshua Hoy:** Motion by Holly, second by Nick. All favor say aye. **Councilmembers:** Aye. **Mayor Joshua Hoy:** We are adjourned at 7:47. [48:36] [Music] [48:47] [Music]