This transcript features **Joe Wicklund** (Assistant City Administrator) as the facilitator, **David Bolf** (City Engineer from Northland Consulting Engineers), and **John Mulder** (City Administrator), along with questions from residents. [0:00] Joe Wicklund: Sure we've got a recording now we're recording um and obviously david bolf myself john mulder are available to ask questions and answer questions as we work our way through this significant project a little bit of what you're seeing right now is a very preliminary schedule for the kind of plan of attack and we're going to walk through some of the parts that have already happened on this and some of the parts that will happen you're going to hear john mulder in a moment talk about the city's financial management plan which started way back in 2019 that have kind of led to where we are today and the ability to do some of these projects of this scale as you can see coming up on february 1st [0:45] Joe Wicklund: we have the public hearing the the scope and size of this project have us doing steps fairly early in 2021 for a project that you wouldn't necessarily see being built until 2022 and david bolf will be able to talk about specifics on that project as well as how we've arrived at this point um with that being said a little bit of the history for myself before i turn it over to david and to john but i do want to tell you that there is you know even probably more history than 2019 on this as we did a city-wide inventory of roads back in 2015 and david will be able to talk about how from the engineers standpoint and from paul senst's standpoint in public works we were able to grade and score joey what muted [1:34] David Bolf: joe we can't hear you [1:36] John Mulder: joe we can't hear you [1:51] Joe Wicklund: i'm gonna walk across the uh room to make sure that joe okay you're back yeah and so everybody knows david and john have seen a little bit of this my particular device is sometimes very friendly with zoom and occasionally not so if we do run into those spots again please david john others wave your hands i'll jump back and unmute it won't be uh award-winning work but it'll still get all done let me get back to the screen sharing piece uh multiple uh community engagement surveys that i've done uh in my role over the last several years uh are always always probably going to flag roads as our biggest opportunity for improvement and for the longest time there wasn't a very good mechanism in town to be able to [2:37] Joe Wicklund: tackle these big projects it was kind of a fix it as we go approach but john in a moment i'll talk about the financial management plan that in 2019 made it possible for us to do projects like uggstad road uh johnson portland carlson alexander the project we finished in 2020 that you'll reference uh you'll hear today at levite junction and a few of the roads that we're going to do in 2021 so with that in mind i'm going to turn it over to david bolf our city engineer and he can start us back on the history side of things of how we inventoried our roads here in hermantown david [3:24] David Bolf: all right thank you joe again my name is david bolf um i'm this hermantown city engineer i i recognize some of the names on the um list tonight so nice to see some old faces that i haven't talked to in a while but so back in 2015 myself and the public works director inventoried all the roads under um hermantown's jurisdiction and we we came up with a ranking system from one to five and one being a new well-functioning road um five being a failing road and the twos threes and fours are somewhere in between there um so then we looked at um when we rank these roads you know what what type of um improvement strategy would we use [4:11] David Bolf: for each type of road so the roads that are ranked one and two we classify those as a preservation project which extends the life of the road roads three are you know beyond preservation but need appropriate tension which would be like a mill an overlay or a reclaiming overlay and then roads four and five um would trigger typically a full reconstruction so of the roads that we inventoried we had 164 different road segments and we have 45 of our gravel 73 which are rural bituminous in rural means that it has ditches opposed to the urban sections which have curb gutter sidewalk storm sewer and then we have [5:00] David Bolf: 26 municipal state aid segments so our uggsted road um the meeting that we're having here tonight in arrowhead both are um fall under three of these categories a rural bituminous urban bituminous and a state aid segment so the the importance of the state aid is we get you know state aid for it and on this specific project we um were eligible for some uh federal aid funding and i'll get into that explanation a little bit further but we can go to the next slide joe so again we um we rank these um these are improvement strategies for roads that are ranked three through five which are uggsted road [5:46] David Bolf: um all all the segments we um ranked these were a three so we have a milling overlay part of it a reclaim and overlap and um as we get into the different segments we do have a small section that we're on planning to reconstruct so i guess we can go to the next slide here joe [6:08] Joe Wicklund: when the president swung into office and at this point we'll turn it over to john mulder city administrator who can walk us through the financial management plan and how um you know funding for these particular roads as well as a lot of things we do across hermantown in terms of city government have come into being since 2019. john [6:33] John Mulder: yeah so actually you know started in 2018 and then i think at the very beginning of 2019 we completed um a financial management plan and it really was a multi-year plan for all of our tax supported funds and trying to look at how do we fit all of these pieces together so we looked at existing debt and future debt we looked at our capital improvement plans we looked at future operating expenses including staff and you know just other improvements that needed to be made and just operationally we looked at tax-based growth and we looked at our financial reports and our current financial policies we kind of reviewed all of those things with the help of a outside consultant and [7:19] John Mulder: uh ellers is our financial advisor and it helps us to then manage kind of what things can we take on what things do we think you know can fit into the services that are provided that we need to provide how do we maintain our assets you know we've got some beautiful assets we do we don't want those to you know fall into disrepair uh because we just neglected to maintain them um but it also then provides some clarity and reactionary um approaches to our needs so we tried to look at that at a more proactive approach to how do we best manage all of those needs that we have and all of the financial tools that we have in that at our [8:06] John Mulder: disposal and we talked about that kind of you know um just because we we saw and and joe mentioned that a little bit is like roads in our surveys we were not dealing with roads the way we ought to we were not planning for those city streets to be improved and so we looked at all of those different items on how we could address that need of of of improving our city streets so one of the things we looked at was all of the different funding options so if you go to the next slide joe is um we discussed different ways that we could uh pay for um [8:51] John Mulder: the road improvements you know and these are the generally big funding buckets that we have to work with so we could use road assessments which is one of the things that we're proposing to do and we've used um on johnson carlson alexander that neighborhood in 2020 we're looking at doing that same thing on levitek junction in 21 and then also sunbee and swan lake in 21 as well so we also could use general tax levy we could just you know put it on the levy and and pay for it um we typically do that through um a bonding process and so instead of paying for it all at once we go out and borrow the money and then we levy that money that debt payment over [9:38] John Mulder: time just like you would do your house you don't budget for your entire house in one year but you budget for um the payments on the on the debt so we get municipal state aid for roads um but that can only be used for certain roads uh it can be used for all city streets there's a lot of talk in hermantown always about local government aid the simple fact is we don't receive it you know the city of duluth gets millions of dollars in local government aid hermantown doesn't and primarily because of um our housing stock is too new and in our tax basis is fairly high um a sales tax um we have a sales tax but we can only use that for what the legislature um puts into the [10:24] John Mulder: law that allows us to so we can do the trunk sewer we can do upgrades to our water system we built city hall and the wellness center for that but otherwise we can't use sales tax for any other fund the water utility the stormwater utility sanitary sewer and the streetlight utility are all dedicated revenues for specific purposes and on any given road project we might be doing some of these things and so we'll use some of those funds for those projects so if we're going to make an improvement you know on a city street that also includes you know replacing a water main we could use that water utility fund theoretically for that purpose as well we need to put in some additional street lights or replace [11:09] John Mulder: some street lights we can use that street light fund so those are the kind of the different sources that we could use but the two primary primary ones are the road assessments and the general tax levy and on this project we're also able to use that that state aid municipal state aid so david i'm going to turn it back to you to talk or i don't know if is david or joe's going to go to the next slide [11:43] Joe Wicklund: we're going to turn it over to david because we've got a kind of a coverage on how we've ranked roads and we've got an idea from john on how we uh are paying for some of these projects we've had and how we are looking at uggstad road i'll have david dive into what our roads really look like and a little bit more about this project go ahead david [11:56] David Bolf: okay thank you joe so again um the slide before us here is our um city's rural road standards which is a 24 foot wide road with two foot shoulders that's the minimum as we all know uggsted and arrowhead are both wider than that um mostly because they are state aid and there's um well there's a little bit a higher level of standard that comes along with the state aid road so just wanted to kind of share that that's that's the minimum we're not proposing that on this project but um we have state aid standards that we need to design to on this project so this kind of um dives us right into the costs we've as part of our [12:42] David Bolf: feasibility study we estimated the cost for that includes the construction cost what we call a soft costs of engineering the permitting easements legal proceedings and contingency so the the bottom line is about a 3.6 million dollar project and then kind of building on what john presented earlier was the how we're going to fund that 3.6 million so the funding sources kind of break down into assessments local funding um the federal funding we we have um funding that's earmarked for 2024 of 1.48 million dollars and then [13:29] David Bolf: our municipal state aid account would um pay for about 1.3 million dollars of the project so that's how you um you can see we have the cost of 3.6 and then the funding of how we we're proposing to pay for that 3.6 million dollars [13:47] Joe Wicklund: david i can speak to this because this is a common question that comes up uh which is okay so we can talk about the 9750 but let's also get it squared away to what it feels like before that discussion comes up we're into the first version of these assessments on the first part of the road improvement plan that we did in 2020 with johnson portland carlson alexander residents as well as a stretch of hermanton road there were a handful of those folks that did come into city hall and read a check for 9 750 in the last two months of 2020 and knocked out the entire assessment but that's obviously pretty rare so the way that most folks experience an assessment like this is we've worked out financing through the city for 15 years at four percent uh and that equals a basically 876 and 93 cents on your property taxes so it is uh it isn't uh a check once a year to us it's just something that gets taken care of in your property taxes so when we have questions coming up about the 97.50 and where that number is and what it feels like here's another really good way to think about what that will feel like when we have the ability to spread it [15:02] Joe Wicklund: over uh 15 years and included in your property taxes [15:03] John Mulder: and joe the thing the important thing to remember on that assessment is that that doesn't become payable until after the project is completed [15:10] Joe Wicklund: that's true so because this one is again because of the complexity and the size of this we're we're doing a lot of pre-planning right now for construction in 22 with the assessment not taking effect until 2023 so you've got a full 21 and 20 full two two years before you would see that on your property taxes yeah and that's the part that john i know was something that everybody worked really hard for because we did not want to deal with any of the assessments before the road was completed the product so to speak was going to be done before anybody had to pay for it right david i think we're back to you on [15:49] David Bolf: some project specificity yeah so again um as part of our road inventory and financial management plan we recognize that the need to evaluate and budget and repair uggstead road and it kind of um overflowed on a little part of arrowhead road as well so what were the contributing factors for that are um added traffic from the wellness center the schools the the new ecfe building um we also have that multi-family building that's being built right now up by um 53 and ugstead there's there's various locations where the storm sewer is heaved and we [16:35] David Bolf: want to repair those um various segments of the pavement are in disrepair meaning they need to be replaced um part of this improvement of this corridor is the pedestrian safety especially in the the school zone and now the wellness center um the the intersection of oxidant arrowhead road there's um inadequate or no turn lane so we're proposing to make some improvements there and then the part of the master park plan indicates uh part of this corridor to um house the new new what we're calling monger trail connector so with that joe we can go to the next [17:21] David Bolf: next slide so this is if we can get everybody's orientation here this this represents the project in its entirety broken down into segments so to get your bearings the left side you can kind of see maple grove so north is to the right on here with highway 53 being up at the top or at the right hand side so hopefully everybody can get their their bearings on here so we we broke this down into you know seven distinct in different segments um segment one being from um maple grove road up to the vacroad [18:10] David Bolf: and i'm gonna go into further detail on each of these segments so this slide is just kind of a high level overview then segment two is from the lake junction up to arrowhead road segment three is from arrowhead up to um falcon drive segment four is from falcon drive up to um williams drive and then segment five is williams drive up to highway 53. [18:38] David Bolf: and then on arrowhead road we have segments six and seven which are um from the entrance to the um elementary school to unstead road and then from oakstead road to the um filkey circle that new road that was built off two years ago so with that joe let's jump into further detail on segment one so again segment one is from maple grove road to the lake junction this segment we're planting a mill and overlay so what what does that mean we remove the top um three to four inches of bituminous and we repave it there there will be a couple of um cross culvert um [19:27] David Bolf: replacements that we'll do as part of that we we will also widen the sidewalk on the east side to five feet the the ada um rules that are in effect um dictate that we need to to make these improvements the existing sidewalk is only four feet wide and that's why we need we need to make it another foot wider for five feet and then each of the intersections um with um you know low lake junction and maple grove road will have to redo the pedestrian ramps that have the the proper slopes and the truncated domes there just a quick just a quick clarification ada stands for [20:14] David Bolf: the americans with disability act sometimes we use acronyms and we forget like those could mean different things for different people but that's what that means is the americans with disabilities act so sorry david thanks for the clarification and then as as part of this um this overall project we're we're calling it a reconditioning project and there's the reconditioning is defined by mndot state aid and we can um up to 25 percent of the curb and gutter can be replaced under that reconditioning rule so on on uggstead road we're planning to replace you know as close to that 25 percent of the curb as we can so [20:59] David Bolf: it'll be kind of spot repairs where it's cracked or um a driveway doesn't tie in correctly or where we have a catch base that will replace that's those are the areas that we will be doing the spot curb and gutter replacement thank you next slide here is segment two so this is the bake junction to arrowhead road so this is you can kind of see in the picture here we got the this is um the the wellness center kind of under construction here so obviously before the snow came um this section we're planning a mill and overlay as well probably the biggest difference on this this um segment too is we're proposing [21:48] David Bolf: a new 10 foot wide paved multi-use trail on the west side so where we see sidewalk where we see a four foot sidewalk today we're proposing a 10 foot wide paved trail on that side and that would go from lebake junction up on this segment up to arrowhead road and then also we would make some turn lane improvements at this intersection with the right turn lane and a left turn lane as well so this this is segment three and this is the the segment that gets used the most because of the school um [22:35] David Bolf: hot circle drive there and this segment is the segment we are planning to do a full reconstruction so what does that mean we'll be excavating down three feet putting new granular material new storm sewer new curb and gutter on both sides and then again on the west side which is the the top of your screen here that orange line would be the 10 foot multi-use trail as part of this two we would we would add a lane so there would be a a shared center turn lane so if you're north or southbound you could um get in that shared center left turn lane [23:23] David Bolf: and either turn into hawk circle drive or to the the entrance to the to the hockey arena so that this is one of the things that came out of the the traffic study that we did at the end of last year so that's um what we're planning to do on on segment three here and that will carry up to um it goes off the picture a little bit but a little bit further north up to to falcon drive and we'll also be adding if you're on oaxtod road traveling south from highway 53 there will be a dedicated right turn lane in the hawk circle drive as well [24:08] David Bolf: okay we'll go to segment four so segment four is a um a rural section again that's from falcon drive up um north to williams drive this section does not have curb and gutter today um we're planning to reclaim and overlay that so the difference between a reclaim an overlay and a milling overlay is a reclaim grinds up the bituminous and mix it in with the underlying gravel base whereas a mill you you remove it and you put in new so the that's the the nice thing about the rural sections is you don't have you can reclaim it use that and um get a build a better solid base for your [24:56] David Bolf: new road and then we're proposing to put a new sidewalk on the west side and that sidewalk would go from hot circle drive all the way up to highway 53. [25:12] David Bolf: and then this is the last segment on um uggstead road and again this is from williams drive up to uh trunk highway 53. this this section has curb and gutter on it already so that's why we do a mill and overlay of that piece and then also add new sidewalk on the west side and um in 2019 the county and mndot and the city of hermantown had a cooperative agreement and we did some improvements at this intersection part of that project we put a six foot sidewalk on the lebake bypass on the county side of this so our new sidewalk would [25:58] David Bolf: um tie in to that and there's already a crossing at highway 53 that we put in as part of that project okay so this is um section number six or segment six and this is the so we're looking um up as east on this photo so on arrowhead road what we're proposing to do is build a dedicated left turn lane into hot circle drive so that the the thought there is the the morning the the two peak morning um drop-offs for [26:43] David Bolf: the elementary and then the the middle and high school will allow cars to get in a protected um left turn lane so the people that are eastbound you don't have to back up and wait for them and also provide a gap then for people on hot circle drive to get out of that and then what we would plan to do is mill an overlay from that point um east to unstead road then the last segment is segment seven this is um we're look at the intersection of unstead looking easton arrowhead we would we're proposing to [27:30] David Bolf: build a new right turn lane extended further east towards silky circle just to provide a little bit more stacking so that's a pretty short um turn lane and then we would mill an overlay um that the rest of that up to silky circle and all the the intersection would get obviously get um you know new curb and gutter and then also the the ada ramps that we would replace we'll open this up uh in for uh questions in just a moment but again and and i'm going to stop with the screen share but we can always open this back up if there's questions but our goals today obviously [28:16] Joe Wicklund: really kind of kick things off with the uggstead road project well in advance of uh the projected 2022 construction season um and kind of you know clue you in on what we're hoping to accomplish with it some of the reasons why obviously summarize from david's perspective the work that's already been done for the traffic study and and let him dive into the why we're doing what we're doing and certainly start to create some preliminary understanding of uh project impacts and timelines and i know there'll be some questions about that let me close down the sharing piece i did have to mute a handful of you just to be sure when we were going i'm gonna unmute uh as many folks as want so we can kind of open it up and we'll we might have that moment in a moment [29:02] Joe Wicklund: where a few folks are talking over each other but i'll kind of call on folks for questions while i'm on meeting these john the question came in uh over the chat um which i was already able to answer the individual but it's a it's a really good question for everybody which is if there are changes to the project scope or uh you know david finds something different than expected underneath the ground and the cost of this change do the uh assessment the proposed assessment in 97.50 does that go up as well [29:35] John Mulder: no the assessment will stay the same no matter what the project cost is um if if we run into situations where it's like hey we've got to do more soil corrections than we thought or more work than we thought on particular one we'll have to use that out of either you know our state aid revenue [29:47] John Mulder: our federal revenue to the extent that we have that or other sources but the 9750 is a hard number that's not going to go up or down on the based upon the total cost of the project [29:55] Joe Wicklund: perfect thank you john and then beyond that let's open it up again we've got everybody most i think of the muting is done on uh your side to the public side so if somebody has a question they can hop in unmute themselves uh and uh and fire away obviously a lot of mileage covered on this project compared to other ones the full stretch of stat road from the ballparks all the way up to 53 and and pretty significant changes important changes and safety changes to [30:33] Joe Wicklund: that intersection let me let me just add a couple comments joe as i'm thinking about this is this stretch of road is probably you know one of the main entrances into the community as you come in to the interior of the community and is really a center of the community given the school the hockey arena the wellness center and even fitner park so that's why it's important that we you know we need to do this and the other big part of this is wanting to improve pedestrian access has been kind of a goal that we've been talking about you know for a number of years now is how do we improve pedestrian access to these facilities and so that's what we're trying to do here is trying to you know fix up this main corridor to kind of one of our [31:18] John Mulder: community centers but also then improve um pedestrian access to those community centers as well so that's kind of a very big picture kind of policy issue that we're trying to get to when we look at doing this road project [31:41] Joe Wicklund: john a question that's come in and we've kind of answered it through the history of the project but i'd rather have you answer it again is you know hey is this project being driven by the new development on the corner of 53 and uggstad and obviously as we've kind of outlined it's not but i'd love for you to speak to that john [32:01] John Mulder: yeah i mean that project kind of came in probably about um a year and a half actually after we had started the conversation because of doing this road um we've had [32:06] John Mulder: um this um stretch of uggstead under kind of review for some time primarily well during the when the school was built this this section road took a major beating with all the heavy truck traffic and so we've been looking at that for some time and you know so and then we also apply for that federal aid and so that federal aid was done probably about the same time that this project this building project of the apartment complex was coming on the same line so it's like yeah does it serve the multi-family thing units certainly um but it's not being done because of that whether that project the apartment project would have happened or not [32:51] John Mulder: we had this thing scheduled for 2022 2023 that time period and now because of just the the timing of it 2022 works out to be the best year for us to do that [32:54] Joe Wicklund: perfect uh question from the folks in the audience uh and i know this will go right to some of the work um david you do uh i'm supportive of uh the project as a whole and i like to hear about these improvements my my question is if personal landscaping uh and trees are affected uh what happens david could you talk us through a little bit about uh how that works and and also what what is in play in terms of how we do our construction and what isn't [33:39] David Bolf: yeah good question so [33:38] David Bolf: this is like we've said tonight a few different times we have federal and state aid um that's going to help fund this project along with that is there's a we'll call it a playbook or a set of rules that we need to design to in order to um get our our state and federal aid funding so part of that says that we have to do all the work within the right of way that we have or obtain easements to do work along that right-of-way so the question came up is if i have landscaping if it's in your front yard and it's on private property we're we're not going to be there unless [34:24] David Bolf: we need to secure an easement if you have a tree that's planted in the right-of-way or some you know a decorative rock garden or a fence that's in the right-of-way um that's that right away is our corridor to make the improvements so that that op that scenario has played out a few different times this past year and on the project we're going to construct this year so there's there's a couple different ways we've been able to to deal with that and i'll give an example of the rock garden somebody had a rock garden and they opted to remove all the rocks by hand and put it in their yard and when them once the the project was done they they opted to [35:12] David Bolf: put the rocks back another one example is a fence that was um in the ditch bottom we had to dig a new ditch and the fence we didn't allow the fence to go back in the ditch bottom so the fence had to go back on the property line so to answer that question if there's um we'll call it uh private improvements within the right-of-way we will the design teams probably myself or joe as well will be in contact with those specific individuals and kind of lay out what the the city's planned improvements are for the roadway and then how we can deal with those um um you know private [35:59] David Bolf: improvements so typically it's it's up to the homeowner if they want to sell the jump to to do that on their their time and effort ahead of the project because once we come through with the backhoe it's the black holes aren't um friendly for um salvaging anything and it's in its way [36:32] Joe Wicklund: i can tell you from our portland carlson johnson experience this year david's uh and you'll see a lot of me uh in this project and you'll get to know me as your as your condo for information but david also been able to come out and walk you through what's possible if um you know you've got a sizable tree and it's on uh it's definitely in the right of way what's what's possible or if it's just simply [36:45] Joe Wicklund: not possible to keep it or if there's a tree that its roots beds are going to be impacted by some of the work we do so a lot of times what we heard originally was the fear was we were that we were going to folks wake up one morning and we will just mowed right through and all of that will be gone and i can promise you both from work i'll be doing on this project and david will be doing on this project that any kind of changes that happen you'll have a huge heads up on and any kind of specificity will be able to come out at the right date and stand with you on your property and walk you through how that impact will work our goal is for you to have a an incredibly good experience during this time in that same line and in that same vein of communication you'll also get updates on you know road closures road access when you'll be able to get in and [37:32] Joe Wicklund: out of places for example a much more tricky project logistically in terms of corners and curves and and different neighborhood was the portland carlson alexander stretch and we were able to get it down to the exact times when folks would know the um bituminous machinery that was laying the new pavement was going to be right in front of their house so if as long as you stayed connected to us and follow along on the website you would have a really good idea that you would never get stuck in your driveway uh david a little bit of a question for you um and i've got a few uh folks with questions coming into the the chat so i'll cycle through those before i open it up to anybody uh who wants to speak but can you be more specific david to what a 10-foot paved [38:18] Joe Wicklund: trail will look like on that second section on section two particularly for the residents obviously that live on the west side of augstab between levake and the wellness center [38:24] David Bolf: so it's a good question so what we're proposing there is that the curb and gutter that's in place today will be in the same location most likely it'll be new on the west side and the the 10 foot um would be we haven't decided but it would be either concrete or bituminous most likely this segment would be um concrete and that would be right behind the curb so if if you can envision um st louis county [39:03] David Bolf: when they did redid um maple grove road last year they paved a 10-foot trail in front of uh stubner park the soccer fields there so that's the the same feel that this this trail would have and again we have not decided whether it's gonna be blacktop or concrete but it'll be one of those two um part of that you know we have a grant and it's it dictates the the width of the trail and it's got to be a you know a hard surface it cannot be gravel [39:45] Joe Wicklund: uh what is the and this might be both a david and john question what is the projected speed limit for each section or for the project as a whole and what [39:48] Joe Wicklund: well let's start with that let's go into speed limits before i ask the second part of the the question [39:57] David Bolf: so right now we're we are not proposing any change in the speed limit along um any of the seven project segments as part of the um traffic study that was prepared at the end of last year um that was one of the things we asked the consultant to to look at and at that point there was um the recommendation was not to change um the speed limit in in any of the the segments so and unless there's a um design criteria that would dictate that we um [40:36] David Bolf: we will not we would not um be changing the speed limit [40:44] Joe Wicklund: david what's the impact again to existing residential properties on the east and west sides of the road in section one that's the section closest to the ball field [40:49] David Bolf: i believe no again we the the curb is not changing the location the curb is not changing um the biggest impact in segment one would be to the residents that live on the east side there's a four foot curb and gutter or there's a four foot sidewalk behind the curb and gutter that will be different that will be five feet in the future as part of this project so if it's still within our right-of-way [41:23] David Bolf: that we have but it would just be one foot um more concrete towards your you know house or garage [41:36] Joe Wicklund: thanks david uh john i think this one tees you up the presentation talked obviously about the 9750 uh divided by i think 70 or 75 residents is this uh based on the number of homes along the affected stretch uh and in that same vein do the wellness center apartments school do they see any uh different splits on this particular project obviously ugsted road benefits a lot of people [42:05] John Mulder: yeah so um that the the number of houses that we use was we just looked at every property and we we listed all the properties [42:08] John Mulder: ultimately will that be the final number maybe maybe not we sent notices to the school district and the wellness center is owned by the city um so we sent notices of the of this project to them to keep them informed but we will likely not assess the school district or the wellness center and the reason we don't do that is where is the school district going to get money they're going to get it from you through the taxes so we didn't see any point of you know assessing them only for them to put it on their tax roll and have you pay for it so that's kind of what we did with the public property we'll have to look at some of these parcels because some of them may not be accessible just because of you know if they don't have a house on them or if they're not [42:54] John Mulder: buildable we'll have to look at some of those things um what was the other part of that question [43:08] Joe Wicklund: the complex being put in at the end [43:09] John Mulder: yeah and at this point we just we've tagged them at 97.50 at this point [43:11] Joe Wicklund: when we uh talk about uh the walkway this might be a john question um tell me more about it who maintains that is there lights on it how does that get dealt with in the winter with snow and ice um is that is that get is that sidewalk treated differently and is the 10 foot section treated differently than other sections of sidewalk in hermit town [43:33] John Mulder: well what i would what i would imagine is that um one we probably will not have any additional lights on that sidewalk um [43:39] John Mulder: then we then there's currently out there right now um in terms of the trail that we are looking at throughout the city is we are making plans to um have that uh plowed of snow in the winter certainly we're going to do the roads first right we're going to do the streets and roads first but our plan is to try to clear that sidewalk and that trail as part of our snow operations [44:03] Joe Wicklund: and that john is part of the in in the greater scheme of things uh part of the ideally city-wide trail that's being constructed that'll be a non-motorized accessible trail that'll go really from highway 53 eventually all the way down to keene creek [44:17] John Mulder: that's correct [44:32] Joe Wicklund: i think i am through all of the questions in the chat um does anybody have and feel free to put more in the chat does anybody else uh have any questions that they uh want to ask in the live forum feel free to jump right in you don't have to raise your hand you can unmute yourself and just start talking [45:01] Resident: yes i was wondering if if they were going to change the speed limit on that at all from 30 miles an hour or increase it or decrease it because of the school and you get an improved road there you know people like to drive fast [45:13] David Bolf: david uh you want to tackle the speed limit piece again for us please yeah again the the we are not um proposing any changes to the speed limits that exist today and it's it's twofold one is from the traffic study that we had done earlier or at the end of last year um we had um the consultant um give us some they looked at the speed study there and they advised us to to keep the speed as as it is and then um secondly there would have to be a some kind of a design criteria or that would uh predicate us to adjust the speed limit and we we don't see that right now there's done the this road section is pretty straight [45:59] David Bolf: and flat and there's not a horizontal vertical curve that would um tell us that we need to adjust the speed limit [46:16] Resident: perfect that's what i was hoping for [46:18] Rick (Resident): yeah i'm rick i live here on the ugg said road just off of uh just off of the arrowhead and uh you know um i had a little technical difficulty so i missed part of the presentation but what i would like to see and it would not be difficult when you send these letters to me uh to everyone um what's the matter with sending a little drawing i i could see a little bit of the drawing here but i really didn't have a chance to study it and i had a [46:46] Rick (Resident): technical problem that's not your fault but i would like to i would like to have a a proposal sent to me or a drawing sent to me because i can see because from what i understand and i miss part of it um there's gonna they're gonna extend a sidewalk across the street which is brand new across from from me by the way okay so you're gonna extend that a little bit and then there's going to be a trail wheres this trail going to go um i missed that on part of the thing if you even covered it i don't know i was gone so not your fault there but this is a pretty uh a pretty poor time in my mind when we got this pandemic and people the [47:32] Rick (Resident): money is tight right now and you keep adding when i first heard about this proposal it was only supposed to go as far as from 53 to stead road now it's going all over you got new trails you got you got widening sidewalks that are existing are brand new across the street from me because i'm right by the health center and uh so somebody's got visions of grandeur here and they're taking off with this stuff and you're right in the middle of pandemic when money is tight so okay that's my rundown [47:59] Joe Wicklund: yeah let me give you a couple answers one the uh ability anyone who wants any particular information about this can certainly connect with me joe wicklund my contact information is all over our website and i'm in city hall even in the pandemic pretty regularly also this particular presentation and the details of it are going to be posted on our website in the next few days i bet it will be tomorrow but i want to give myself a little wiggle room on other projects as to information on this so idea of pictures rick or more specificity in your neck of the woods will absolutely be able to do that since we're just at the starting point certainly the pandemic isn't a convenient time to do anything i think we can all agree um in this particular juncture though part of the good part about this particular project is because of the size scope and complexity of it we're talking about 2022 for the work and the uh [49:04] Joe Wicklund: costs or any assessments associated with it not being a part of the occasion in 2023 let's at least at this point cross our fingers that we're all in a better place with the pandemic at least at that point i would imagine of course we still that's a significant chunk of change whether it's 2021 or 2022 or 2023 but at least uh that certainly gives us some breathing room so the other questions david i think we've covered the trail pieces a little bit but just to reiterate could you guide us quickly through why we have some sidewalk changes on the ada pieces and then a little bit about that multi-use trail uh on that small section uh from lake junction to uh to uh arrowhead [49:50] David Bolf: so i i'll try to answer your question as best i can rick in that so there's there's sidewalk a couple different vintages on the west side of uggstead um in the along the school district property and the wellness property so the there will be well you're talking i'm gonna try and call up that segment too okay the trail will be in lieu of the sidewalk so there's not gonna be a five foot sidewalk and then a ten foot trail and i if i didn't make that clear i'll make it clear now [50:12] Rick (Resident): so i i miss part of it so go ahead go ahead [50:18] David Bolf: well the four foot sidewalk that exists today does not meet the ada requirement so we have to increase it to to five feet to meet those standards instead of doing that in this section we um we're proposing to build our 10 foot wide trail there so instead of having a 5 foot sidewalk we're going to have a 10 foot trail so if you can see your screen here this is this is a section we're talking about [50:53] Rick (Resident): and yes that mailbox is my mailbox right there okay [50:56] David Bolf: so yes there's um unfortunately there's some sacrificial sidewalk that went in with the wellness center but the the big picture is that needed to be there in order to um have a accessible route to the wellness center so it had to go in you know day one so [51:37] David Bolf: another piece of this puzzle on the trail is that um the the city has to find funding sources for this trail and a lot of it's been through grants and the this federal aid project allows us another funding mechanism so we're using our our state aid and or federal aid to fund this trail rather than having to to see her to secure a grant to do that [51:58] Rick (Resident): okay can i ask you a quiz question here on that trail now okay it's going to come across is this trail going to continue down um ugstead road or does it cut off where does the trail go i like i say i missed part of the presentation so you probably covered it but i didn't get it so it's going to be right down across from me and then it's going to continue down all the way to maple grove the trail is or what [52:20] David Bolf: you know that that this trail is part of our parks master plan and we know the starting point is um the the school the wellness center and the ending point is the keene creek at the end of ocerstrom road so we we've built a couple segments we've building one this year we're building one next year and we know from a to b but the the intermediates were were working on securing easements for that so as part of this project the trail is going from hawk circle drive on the west side of uggstead down to the bake junction and it'll stop at lebake junction and then that's part of um the city's next um step in this is trying to to figure out the route from the bake junction back over to stepner park we have obviously we have some preliminary alignments that we're working on but a big part of this this trail is getting the the necessary easements to to construct it and at that point at that point at the vague junction people can cross the at the intersection and go on that five foot sidewalk on the other side as if they want to walk down to fitner park [53:44] Rick (Resident): right right and that's the people that are moving in down there at the you know a lot of the people that are moving in that apartment building down there are going to be utilizing all this stuff all the sidewalks and everything on that trail once again somebody told me and from what you're telling me now that's not the case that they were going to go there's a gas line behind me that goes cuts across there is that that trail was not going to intersect with that and carry on down you know where the gas line goes behind sewer line [54:15] David Bolf: pardon i think it's a sewer line behind [54:19] Rick (Resident): yeah yeah okay sewer line yeah i'm sorry [54:20] David Bolf: so it the trail is not going to go on the sewer line behind you but that might be one of the corridors you know once it gets off of south of the bake junction that is one of the corridors we are looking at [54:34] Joe Wicklund: okay a couple of other questions john i want to get this one because i know you're pressed for time um any difference in people that own homes compared to empty lots or lots you know folks who access uggstad that are further up uh roads say like roosevelt or things like that access to and is there access to the walkway from non-landowners parking places things like that outside of obviously um you know the ability to use the wellness in our parking lot fitness figure park things like that [55:11] John Mulder: yeah so you got a couple questions going on there one is we're only looking at assessing those properties that abut the road so if you have if if your property doesn't you know isn't up against the road you're not being assessed so people you know several houses into uh on roosevelt they're not being assessed there will be that we're not going to have any additional um dedicated parking spots for um jumping on the sidewalk or the trail but you will be able to um you know park at the um school complex or the wellness center or fichner park and jump on the sidewalk and trails and and you know take a walk with your neighbor or friend or something like that so we're not going to add any you know like trail heads or anything like that to this project but you will have access to it if you want to park at the wellness center and or the school district buildings [56:11] Joe Wicklund: the uh the question came in about the opportunity to pay the assessment uh at completion but rather than putting it on your taxes yes for example this year like i said we had probably a handful of folks on the portland carlson johnson alexander hermantown section of roads that we did during the construction season of 2020 that uh paid the full 97.50 this november december um here at city hall there'll be a window in which you can do that because of some process pieces we have to go through with the city council but when that window is open should all of this fall follow the schedule we plan in the very end of 2022 so much more than a year away we'll make sure that you know that if your preference is to pay the full 97.50 kind of just a discussion point maybe john something for us to think about on the city side but it was noted that assessing the school district would spread to a greater population which seems reasonable and fair because of the city gets so significant a benefit uh why shouldn't they shoulder and spread a larger uh portion of the cost that that seems reasonable and fair is that a possible choice for the city to uh assess the school [57:25] John Mulder: yeah we could certainly do that that's a that's a conversation that we could have with the school district it's a possibility [57:37] Joe Wicklund: and as john mentioned to a certain degree it comes back you know to you in that manner but at least it also spreads out to everybody part of our bigger process so that everybody knows on these road improvement projects was uh not that people wouldn't experience a road assessment uh twice uh you just have the uggstad road during the exit road johnson road if you lived on johnson road uh so there's a certain degree of everybody being in it together uh question david just to be clear the trail uh and i'm gonna read this as is david and then you can re um explain [58:22] David Bolf: yeah i see the comments here too [58:29] Joe Wicklund: yeah so to be clear the trail will be taking up six feet of property butted against the four foot current section of sidewalk in section one which is right away so it's not really property but i'll let you answer it [58:30] David Bolf: so yeah and i i see further down um julie meant section two which is from levake junction to um arrowhead road so what what we're proposing is replacement of that four foot walk with a ten foot trail so roughly without doing a survey from the back of the curb to the property line is about 15 feet so that current sidewalk takes up four feet of that 15 and we would propose a 10 foot there so we still have another five feet of of right away to to work within so there's there's some power poles on that west side that would be the about where the the uh the property line is and what i what hasn't been said tonight and i want to make clear to everybody that the city of hermantown is hiring a consultant to do the design of this roadway for us and also the construction inspection and engineering of this so once we have that consultant on board where we're um if we need any easements or if we have any um place where we have to like mark the trail what i what i would propose is we would mark where this trail is going to go put some laughs in people's front yards let them digest that then call joe or myself and we can kind of walk you through what the the expectation is you know when this is all said and done [1:00:31] Joe Wicklund: they shared that screen just so again people could see what they're talking about the um uh david a quick question the the section of uh sidewalk beyond hawk circle on the way to highway 53 that's going to be a five foot section uh not a ten foot section correct [1:00:46] David Bolf: okay so let's what we will commit to today because of the the grant is we know that the trail is going to be 10 feet wide we know that the sidewalk um from maple grove up to the lake junction needs to be a minimum of five feet and that's what we're proposing um so the question about what do we do from hawk circle drive north up to highway 53 we originally had proposed a 10-foot trail after further review we don't think that's the the best um fit for this section of road um because of the because of wetlands because of easements because of um proximity of homes to the to the road so what we're proposing is to put a sidewalk and at a minimum it'll be five feet and probably at the maximum it would be um six feet and the reason kind of why we're leaning towards a six foot is that's what's um lines up on on the north side of highway 53 that the county built so it's going to be in that five to six foot um range [1:02:15] Joe Wicklund: i want to give everybody heads up to john mulder i believe we'll still certainly answer questions if there's something that's more up his alley i'll take it down and make sure to get back to you on on the answer i do want everybody know we will take a look at the school piece as an option it'll certainly be a discussion point coming out of this meeting uh obviously that's uh an important point i do also want to point out that isn't just as we at least start out on the same point that isn't likely to lower your individual assessment it's just likely to spread the cost out of the project if that's something we could explore but at least you know will certainly be a discussion point as that 97.50 number is a a pretty solid constant across all of these projects that's what the folks on uh portland carlson alexander have we're assessed it was also the plan and is the current plan for the folks on the lake junction sun b swan lake et cetera so but we'll definitely continue that school discussion coming out of this meeting any other i think i've gone through everybody in the chat any other questions on the public side of things anyone else rick i see you've got a hand up but i want to make sure that you've got all your questions answered too do you have any more questions [1:03:04] Rick (Resident): no you covered it thank you [1:03:08] Joe Wicklund: any i'll probably be getting in touch with you i really want to take a look at a drawing where i can see it in front of me and look it's my screen is not real big where i can see much detail so i'll be getting in touch with you okay perfect and for folks who do want to contact me uh and david our contact information is on the website outlined in the uh letter it's it's hermantownmen.com which is the city's website backslash roads so anybody who's interested in reaching out and connecting with me and david for any variety of questions on this project or to be honest in my role any questions you've got about anything going on in hermantown i'm a great touch point on that that way we don't end up confused or or uh there's something you're not wondering about or are wondering about that you want clarity on on this particular project or another one i want you to be able to reach out any other last questions that anybody else has uh here before we wrap up anyone i don't see any so i want to i want to reiterate what kind of what rick said in his questions it's a it's a super challenging time everybody so i appreciate you carving out time and space uh and and joining us and and really being uh helpful in this process and this is really kind of the first step uh in a larger process uh for this project as well as others so please stay in touch with it as you have questions again find me find david or any one of us who can help you out we will have if you remember that original screenshot of calendar we've got at least two more of these uh scheduled uh later on as the design phase comes much more into uh focus and then david and i will also be like i said as we get closer in your neighborhood and potentially meeting with you one-on-one to walk through questions you might have or impacts that you have in the yard in your particular yard one quick question that came in um what were the reasons those on roosevelt were not assessed to a lesser percent because eventually we will be doing roosevelt road in those roads and that'll be uh the time that we'll uh assess those folks so there's a couple different ways that cities can do those assessments um with access points and things like that but we're at least doing it road by road with properties that specifically uh are on that so as we uh in the future head into roosevelt and some of those roads that's when those folks will experience the improvement in the 9750 assessment again uh for david for john for myself we really do appreciate the time uh and the communication and the connectivity on this and we'll certainly be in touch as we get closer to this project thanks a lot everybody for being a part of it tonight thanks