[Music] foreign city council regular meeting to order for Monday August 21st 2023 would everyone please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance of the United States one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all come on call the roll please council member bernans here council member lean here councilmember Wilson here mayor white here all right uh any changes to the agenda Holly Leah I'm Steve Lynn seeing no changes we look for a motion to approve motion second motion by Holly second by Steve all in favor say aye aye um moving on here real quick we'll go to item number six is our citizen comments this time is reserved for assisting comments regarding non-agenda items no official action can be taken speakers are limited five minutes to address city council doing citizen comment time anyone like to speak please come up soon yep yeah David pritzloff 202 high five main here on one issue but I do have a question I did pass this out to all accounts members Administration and also John the first one was and I think that kind of happened the first uh time I came to the meeting about the Aiken Road Project when did the practice of of staff not answering citizens and comments change it was the process when I was on the council how our citizens citizens to get answers now to the project itself in 2022 this is just a response I got a response from the city just went through it completely and several issues I have a rule so I'm just going to read through this quickly and in 2022 the project was a million overly of Aitkin Road residents came to the meeting looked at plans filled out questionnaires walking slash bike trail were not part of the plan response States the city's response States in May of 2022 a project changed to a reclaimation of of roadway pavement in March of 2023 advertisement for bids on a completely different project and no meeting for residents feedback in May 2023 three project is awarded as a full reconstruction of Aiken Road and walking slash bike path a completely different project and no public meetings for residents input no chance for more questionnaires to be gathered transparency none why was there no new public hearings for input for this project myself I was never told that part of the project part of this project was that Minnesota Energy was going to dig up my yard for a new gas main to be installed to go down private drive across from me I had conversations with workers on job site foreman and re with regards to my yard being dug up was doing a gas main because the city project being done Minnesota Energy's policy for restoring what they damaged has to be the worst in the industry okay talking to Sean from Minnesota Energy he was to meet me out there to discuss no meeting no meeting and yard was hydroseeded while I was out of town total disrespect I soldered that yard 20 years ago with a culvert and I wanted it restored the way it was a letter day to June 29 2023 was sent out to Residence I received on July 1st 2023. Stadium work will start on July 5th 2023. short notice for everyone coming home from holiday weekend while city was working on on on this in March March and may on July 3rd I called the city and was told the first council meeting of July was canceled due to the holiday although city offices were open I talked with John the city engineer about the about the letter and the work being done and the road and that the road will be tore up up as residents come home he referred to the project using the words known overlay and that the road will not be tore up then other work will be being done as a result of the project all also State also stated that the walking slash bike path is going to be part part of this because of some State funding first anyone knew about that July 5th 2023 8 A.M Minnesota Energy is digging in digging up my yard had discussion with project site site project manager Aaron he had no idea what the project was he said he thinks the private drive across from me is getting paid I discussed with him what I knew about the project then he mentioned how fast traffic was going I say they should have lowered the speed for the project and for the safety of of the workers better signage and lower speed limit happen after requested on July 17th should have been mandated in in the contract the week of July 10th started Milling of asphalt sometimes that week I had conversations with Morgan from McNamara I was specifically asked why they were a million so deep for a million overly he stated they're doing a reclaimination project saying that they are they Mill that that much and the rest would be Paul pulverized into the base of the roadway knowing that they knew the road would be down to the base and it was by that Friday July 14th so that's what control was in the budget for the for the project but we use the words unfortunately and I am sure we'll hear I or we misspoke or meant to say dust control did not did not come to sight over the weekend when residents are home but first thing Monday they are on site I know from my neighbor and I and probably more residents want to say thank you for treating this that way enforcement of contract I have read the questionnaires maybe one or two stated anything about the condition of the trail unless Park and Recreations had other meetings that we were not told about to attend if the city can put down a trail the way the way that it was using City funds why such a difference when using State funds I am all in favor of getting our tax tax dollars back to our back from our from the state to use for improvements in our community but I think this Trail benefited far fewer people than other streets slash roads in our community favoritism definitely took place on this part of the project David I'm gonna I'm gonna stop you there um two meetings we've been more than gracious to allow you to speak well outside of the five minutes and I want to let you be able to finish that paragraph you did give us all a copy as we stated in previous meetings if if you'd like to stick around after our meeting we have about a 30 minute budget conversation and then you have the entire team and Representatives here to help discuss some of this well I guess I'll jump to a different paragraph which is which is short what would be um more appropriate it would be the if I can finally here right off hand well another issue another not find it right in here quickly but with with the bike trail they're the private drive across me one person came in as you put down a new Culvert flared in and rock came to the city and stated that would be dangerous for a bicyclist to go off the trail and we get hurt that Culvert is now abandoned and and water drainage from that other property owner is going to run all the way down his down the street it's a very unsafe area the elevation of the drop off across from me and other parts of that trail are much higher than it was anybody to go off that off that road or off that bike path is going to get injured it's really a public safety standpoint um when I say I wish I would have been able to read the rest of it I do understand that you know we did have other meetings but when a project is completely different from when it was stated and that it's very Pacific response to what the city gave me I wish I would have been awarded the time to finish it certainly didn't mean it was going to go that long but there's certain safety concerns out there and they need to be addressed no understandable and if you if like I said if you can stick around tonight afterwards it's about it should be a relatively short meeting but about 30 minutes for Budget conversation and then we can engage in some additional dialogue for you thank you is there anyone else wishing to speak during the citizen comments portion all right if there are none then we'll move on to item number seven which is our consent agenda unless there's any changes to the consent agenda look for a motion to approve motion second motion by Steve second by Holly all in favor say aye aye aye and we'll move on to our new business item 12 which is the Rambling River Park master plan Kelly good evening mayor and council members if you remember in November of 2022 the city council had a work session with the park and rec commission and also the Jim Bell Park and preserve advisory committee at that work session it was for hkgi to update uh the commission the council and the advisory committee on the park system analysis and the revised Jim Bell Park and preserve master plan concept based on hkgi's findings and the discussion with city council and Parks and Recreation Commission and staff everyone agreed the priority should be Rambling River Park we have a number of parks that need improvements but it was decided and discussed at that meeting that Rambling River Park was our first priority uh being the community one of the only Community parks and also the gateway to our downtown Rambling River Park was built in the 1970s there have been changes updates improvements in over the last 50 years however it has been several years since the last significant investment was made in the park in addition at the work session there was much discussion about removing relocating and adding amenities to Rambling River Park based on the discussion and the 2009 master plan being outdated it was this decided it was time for it to be updated hkgi did the master plan in 2009 so we hired them to do update the the master plan here in 2023 um the project kicked off in early April the planning process included two phases of public engagement and two presentations by hkgi at The Parks and Recreation Commission meetings we are excited to be here tonight to present the planning process and the preferred concept plan for Rambling River Park at this time I want to introduce you to Gabrielle grindy from hkgi thank you welcome back thank you good evening all right so the presentation will cover overview of the project a summary of the input we received during the two phases of input a summary of the document the master plan which you should have received in your packet and then some detail about the preferred concept and some information about implementation and next steps so like Kelly said this project the purpose of this project was to evaluate some of the issues and opportunities you can see in the photos there there's some flooding issues when we toured it in April we looked at some of the background plant previous plans and other documents related to County planning and City Planning that has impacted the area we met with City staff and toured the park we tried to get input from as many City residents as possible and then we met with several specific stakeholders we developed a few different concept plans that we presented to the park commission and then refine those to present back to the public to get input and then we reviewed those we also reviewed those findings and um some of the other ideas and the concepts with the part commission and then we developed the preferred master plan so this was our schedule we started in April we had our kickoff meeting we had our first phase of Engagement in April and then in may we developed some concept ideas presented those to the park commission and refined those and went out uh to music in the park at the end of May and then had a survey open during June that presented the same information that was at music in the park then we went back to the park Commission in July to present what we heard from the second phase of input and refined those Concepts again into one preferred master plan which we're presenting tonight so this map highlights some of the issues and opportunities that we talked about with City staff and then also what we heard from stakeholders and City residents so I'll just highlight some of the issues Trails or something that we heard about a lot mainly from City staff they said they've heard about that for the past few years there's several tree routes popping up areas of the trail which makes it unsafe for bicyclists going through the northern part of the park there's also flooding along the trail and part of the Northern Trails are a walk to school route for Dodge and Riverview schools from the Eastern Area across the railroad tracks so those are definite safety issues we looked at some of the main area of the park the tennis courts playground and shelter which are in disrepair needs some updates and then also at feely fields and looking at those Trails down by the ice arena there's some improvements that need to be made as well to the the bridge and the trails down there so we had two phases of public input the first phase again was in May uh the we had a online survey which was open for over a month we received 501 responses and the purpose of that survey was to get to present general information about the project and then ask for issues and opportunities we had stakeholder meetings in April with eight different groups including agencies and athletic groups and uh the veterans committee and uh the Rosemont Parks and Recreation director and some other groups that I'll mention in later slides uh phase two survey was open after music in the Parks so at the end of May through June and then we had the open house at music in the park so on the phase one survey the Outreach was conducted by a press release social media through the city social media and the parks page and then emails to City contacts and like I said we had 501 responses we asked for some basic demographics two-thirds of the respondents indicated that they have four or more people in their household so most of the people responding were people with families and then sixty percent of the respondents were between the ages of 31 and 45 so highlighting some of the input we received half of the respondents visit the park a few times a year when we asked we listed all the facilities in the park and asked which are the facilities that people use trails and play equipment were listed by over 70 percent of the respondents and then we asked for why people would not visit the park and the number one reason was the park is flooded or too wet and then the second most selected response was nothing keeps me from visiting so people really do love the park I think part of the issue was that it was in the spring so it was flooded at the time the survey was out uh when we asked for some potential improvements such as Trail improvements new playground equipment and other ideas The Highest Potential or the highest Improvement selected was Trail improvements and then the second was was improved restrooms and third was new play equipment and then we asked uh open-ended for people to list other improvements uh some of the popular responses were updated play ground equipment including shaded seating for parents new pickleball courts a splash pad improved trails and wayfinding issues with flooding were mentioned several times and just improving the landscape throughout the park some people mention amphitheaters or band shells seating for events and then Safety and Security improvements were mentioned several times so in um in concurrence with the online survey we had a mapping input called uh social pinpoint so this is what the map looked like and there were points where people could comments on the map there were 696 visits to that site and there were 17 comments placed and then people who visited the site could like or dislike those comments the three most popular comments were please add new fun playground equipment make it accessible and add a splash splash pad or Splash Zone the second most popular comment was move the kids playground to Higher Ground and add a wading pool so two mentions of play equipment and water play and then the third was adding public restrooms so we frequently heard the same issues so these are the stakeholder groups listed on the left and the blue we met with Dakota County Office of planning the Farmington area Veterans Memorial committee the Farmington School District baseball and softball associations we invited skateboard um community members so there were several Youth and their parents that came who scooter and skateboard the city of Rosemont Parks and Recreation director the Vermillion River Watershed jpo and the DNR so those are related to the Vermilion River I won't read through all of these comments but um we talked about several different issues related to the school learning about the kids who walked to school through the park we talked a lot about feely fields and how those fields are used and the desired improvements or if they're maybe not as desired as Fields anymore so maybe they could be replaced with other items other facilities we talked about the river and what projects could be done to improve the water quality there or improve the functionality of it for because there are many fishermen that use the river so making it more usable for them and more accessible we talked about the trails a lot how to improve those the skate park again that was primarily the reason for the Rosemont Parks and Recreation director meeting since they recently installed the skate park which is very popular and I think that was oh and also we talked with the city about some of the flooding issues and that new facilities need to be outside the floodway so we identified those on the maps so after developing three different concepts we went to the Parks and Recreation committee commission and developed two concepts that would go back to the public so these are the two concepts shown on the right the primary difference is in the band shell and Amphitheater area which is shown here and the playground location so in concept A we're showing playground location here concept B we're showing it over here and then in concept B we showed two potential skate park locations one on the north side of 50 and one on the south side we looked at various options for Philly Fields but the Parks and Recreation Commission determined that we would either leave the fields as is or update them to be more useful ball fields instead of putting other types of facilities in that area so in the survey we asked for input on which concept was preferred there was slightly slightly more interest in concept A but there were several people that said no preference so many of the con comments um said that there were a few things they liked about both Concepts so we combined them into the preferred concept but the second survey received 400 responses so a little bit less than the first survey we also asked for some priorities and once again Trail improvements playground and restrooms were at the top of that similar to the first survey we also had an open-ended question uh the most popular mention of a new facility was splash pad or water play which we did not have in either of the concepts and then there were many comments on skateboarding some on baseball and dog park and hockey were mentioned a few times as well these are some of the images from the music in the park pop-up Open House Event a lot of people wrote comments on the boards and most of the people that attended were interested in a skate park and then there was some interest in a splash pad as well and a few comments about a Band Shell or Amphitheater type facility so now I'll go through the content of the master plan to give you an overview of the information that's in that plan so the introduction has some information about the Project's schedule the purpose timeline of some of the development and facilities in the park we have a lot of photos and Maps displaying some of the existing conditions in the park we have an uh description of those facilities and what condition they're in is listed and then we have a summary of site analysis highlighting some of those items that I talked about at the beginning that have been identified by both City staff and stakeholders in public then we have some floodway floodplain Maps topography and utilities the next section is needs assessment and concept exploration so this includes all the information that I just presented about the public input stakeholder input and then the concepts that were developed and presented the feedback on those Concepts then the next section is the master plan concept so in a few more slides I'll go into a little more detail in what we're recommending for the preferred concept then the last section of the plan is the phasing plan and cost estimate so we identify three phases which would be near-term next year potentially then short-term would which would potentially be in the next five years and then long term which could be 10 or more years depending on funding or things may change at that point and the plan may need to be Revisited so there's a diagram and then cost estimates identifying those facilities and how much they would cost in each of those phases then we have a final section that identifies some of the funding sources and options for implementation so the preferred concept has an overall Park Improvement concept so there's a map of the whole park where we identify mostly improvements to the trails so these are Dakota County Greenway Trails so they need to be upgraded to Regional Greenway standards so some of that work would be smoothing out the curves widening the trail removing some trees as necessary to improve the trail experience and this would be a partnership project with Dakota County some of the other overall Park improvements include updating all Park trails to be paved and AD accessible uh adding some more access to the river throughout the park especially on the south side of County Road 50 and then I done we identified one area that is frequently flooded that is part of the walking to school route that would uh potentially be an elevated Boardwalk so this is the map that identifies those improvements we also looked at the issue of the underpass under the railroad near the river which is frequently flooded and even when it's not flooded it's a very low clearance so some of the options we discussed included reevaluating that site and then looking at other sites along the rail ultimately the Parks and Recreation Commission wanted to recommend that there is a new overpass north of the park so this is actually outside the park boundary but this seems like the best place for studying an overpass and then we're also recommending new tennis and pickleball courts at the schools tennis courts so this would be replacing in the same footprint of the tennis courts and these would be operated by the city so that would be a partnership project with the school then looking at in detail at the South part of the park we have short-term improvements that are recommended which include new play equipment a small Band Shell with some terraced seating that would facilitate facilitate Community programming and concerts a new open-air picnic shelter which would be in partnership with the Veterans Memorial committee a new restroom building which would be near the playground and it would be part of an improved Greenway trail head facility new naturalized vegetation along the river and improved improved entrance and wayfinding signage throughout the park so at both feely fields and the main entrance of the park having improved wayfinding signage with this new city branding we've identified a new skate park at feely fields and improve circulation between the North sides and north and south sides of the park this was something we heard about through the stakeholder meetings is that a lot of people cross the road just in the middle of the road not at an intersection and so there's safety issues there so in looking at various options including a mid-block Crossing we're recommending two enhanced pedestrian Crossings at the existing intersections on the east and west sides of the park and then along with that some traffic calming which would be low maintenance vegetation or trees along the roadway than the pickleball courts and Tennis Court on the school court on the School tennis courts and the splash pad so this is the plan that identifies those improvements so the PED Crossing would be at the intersection of Denmark and 50 and then also at Division Street so those would just be enhanced visibility and signage for pedestrian Crossing we talked a lot about having a mid-block Crossing in here but ultimately decided that that was not the best option the new shelter near the Veterans Memorial is shown here new playground here along with the restroom the existing shelter would remain until the end of its useful life it's not in terrible shape now and it is within the floodway so it would likely not be able to be rebuilt in its current location but it does still get a lot of use and works well for the current purpose we're showing a new Band Shell right here with some seating looking towards the river some new naturalized vegetation and Trail alignments and then on the feely field side we're showing the skate park which would take the place of the existing Little League field then looking at long-term improvements uh we're showing some of those field uh reverberation uh refurbishments and also changing the orientation of the fields to make them work better for tournament play as well as a concession building in the center which would be for equipment and restrooms and the railroad crossing on the north side of the park would be in the long term um improvements so as far as implementation and next step for phase one we're recommending the trail improvements new trails in the main area of the park removal of the tennis courts and then the new playground in that same area the new restroom building and vegetation and Naturalization projects along the river and that could be in 2024 with some of the projects going into 2025 depending on funding and timing and then phase two the short-term projects would be in the next five years after phase one that would be the new skate park with a shade structure adjacent to it new picnic shelter the Veterans Memorial partnership project a new Bandshell on Tara seating and then the new pickleball courts and the tennis court at the school of Courts the long-term projects would be the feely Fields ball field updates the splash pad and the pedestrian bridge over the railroad so this diagram highlights where some of those improvements would be in the next year or two so the playground restroom River restoration and trails and then this cost estimate highlights the summary of all of the detailed cost estimates which are in the plan so for 2024 phase one projects and some of those again could occur into 2025 the total cost estimate is about two and a half million 400 000 of that could be a potential cost share with Dakota County as part of Trailhead improvements which could be which could include the restroom building and another approximately 330 000 could be cost share with the Regional Trail improvements through the park there's additional potential cost share from the Dakota County Soil and Water Conservation District and the Vermillion River Watershed which could be approximately 75 000 to pay for some of the natural resources and water quality improvements along the river so with that with those potential cashier the city funding needed would be about 1.37 million 400 000 of that was taken out because that is already money identified through arpa funds for the inclusive playground and then short-term projects identified in the plan are about four and a half million and long-term projects would be about seven million uh that includes approximately 2 million for the bridge over the railroad so that is a big cost item that could change things depending on what happens so the next steps following tonight are to approve the plan and identify the priorities identify and secure the funding whether that's partner funding city funding or potential grants that the city could go after work with the partners to determine the timeline and the projects and then design and Engineering of the phase one projects so with that I will open it up to any questions or comments thank you ma'am Steve Gabrielle how would you describe the Civic engagement in this relative to other community projects you have been part of I think the response we always have more response on the first phase when we do two phases of Engagement so that was similar to this process we still got a really high number on the second phase so I thought that was a good number I think the 500 is higher than the average I would say in these types of projects I think the stakeholder engagement was really great as a part of this process there's a lot of great relationships that this city has with the the groups that we met with so I would call it a good um Civic engagement process I think we got the word out to a good number of people got it so I'm a little bit outside the 31 to 45 bracket that or 31 to 44 brackets so um I know some of the amenities out there are not going to be appealing to I guess I would say active adult without children population so do we think amenities like pickleball trails Etc are going to adequately fill that Gap or do we not have maybe enough picnic shelter areas or what are your thoughts on that with the old over 30 to 45 we hear more about Trails those are usually the top amenity we hear about for that age group and the pickleball as well so yes I would agree that those are the two that would hopefully serve that community okay and then lastly I guess I just have a couple of comments um I really like the way you and Kelly laid this whole thing out I mean from a decision maker standpoint it kind of you know starts with kind of what we're looking for and you know it's just laid out including the financing and the financing options um I like that there was what I think was a good Civic engagement so I mean overall I really like the plan obviously the council is going to figure out probably with even more Community engagement what the funding part of it looks like um but overall I really like it I also I know that David is here from the park and rec commission so David thank you for your work and really the entire park and rec Commission and I did want to acknowledge Ashley Crabtree who spent a lot of time over the last couple years dedicated to the park and rec commission who was heavily involved with this too who is no longer with the commission and doing other things but appreciate her as well so those are my comments Nick my two question well I'll do the comment first I guess I did like how this was laid out in your phases I do like the immediate short term those were really kind of low-hanging fruits that I liked seeing on there um the two questions I have I guess the first one is the crossing at Denmark does the substation occupy like the entire right-of-way and prohibit any sort of Trail going on that side of the road you know what I mean yeah we look east side of Denmark basically yeah we looked at the parcel lines there and we tried to keep the trail just around the edge this is the property line here so we would have to work with um Excel to you know make sure that we can so there is no proposed Trail in this concept though right that would go there well the there's the trail on the edge of Denmark well there isn't one today right so that would be new that was my question yes that's right because that's always been kind of a safety nuisances if you're coming up Denmark yep not really being able to get across there so okay um thank you the other one would be the um underpass situation I guess you said there is a study I mean is that or when the greenway comes through are they just basically ignoring that that kind of exists there or just because it's my understanding that as a school Walker out right through Couture's over to Riverview kind of thing so I mean are they just kind of leaving well enough B and saying the kids can get through there or well we talked with the school district Representatives about that and the county um there would need to be some engagement with the railroad and there were some concerns about how long that would take and how that would go so ultimately we decided to say when the greenway is built uh hopefully in the next year or two when that occurs we could reach out to the railroad and talk to them but there would need to be further study to see if they'd be willing to make some adjustments or have the county or the city make adjustments with that underpass okay but there would be no real plan to turn that into any kind of overpass there right just because the way that land lays out there I mean you can't obviously go deeper in that kind of thing so yeah unless the railroad would be interested in replacing that bridge or allow it yeah and something else to happen it could happen at that location no I mean that was just kind of new learning to me that that is a walker route and I'm sure the kids today are crossing over that right in the winter time if it's any sort of blockage they're going over the tracks which I don't I like the idea of so that sitting 10 years out yeah it is if it really is like 5 million to build a bridge over a railroad I mean that's tricky right but um so I guess me personally I would mind seeing that bridge may have moved up a little higher but that's just based on like I said if there are significant other walkers going over that today I don't like that um that I'm tired of almost hitting my head every time I walked underneath that bridge so other than that just like everything about it Holly um it excellent presentation I uh I definitely appreciate the time and energy that was put into this I actually I have two questions the first question has to do with um the rank of items as far as uh priority is concerned I see it on page 34 on our packet um and it talks about Trail improvements playgrounds Etc as we're going down and I'm I'm noticing on here that um the splash pad wasn't brought up as an item that could be ranked but it was mentioned often and I'm just my curiosity is more having to do with the phasing of this as far as is it a cost concern that we're pushing that out when it seems to be a high priority item are we are we listening to the feedback that's coming from our residents because I love that we've done that with the skate park I'm just wondering if there's a missed opportunity in that um with the splash pad yeah we talked about that with the Parks and Recreation Commission back and forth with the Band Shell versus the splash pad and which was higher priority because they're both desired and could be used um ultimately the decision was to push the splash pad out due to the high cost so yeah I think that it was mainly because of cost um also the usefulness of it over the season Splash Pad is a smaller season so I think those are some of the the comments unless there's anything else um that you remember but yeah that is something that could also potentially be a grant funded projects so if there are grants that are sought for short-term projects some of these could move around okay um the only other question I actually had was similar to Nick's question um the The Crossing concerns I know that ideally we're looking at you know the two um controlled intersections in practicality have have we been monitoring or are we watching how much Crossing potential there is right at the parking entrance where people are just gonna skirt across the road and are there ways that we can deter that are there things that we're exploring to especially as we build up both sides of these and people are interested in utilizing both sides of these I'm really my concern is is that area right where you would enter to either go to the high school ball fields or to uh to the parking lot to the um for Rambling River that they're just gonna jump right across after that natural vegetation barrier ends and um especially with the vegetation barrier now being there there might be less opportunity to see someone that wants to run across in that area yeah we talked a lot about that and the main concern was that the high speed of the traffic that comes from the West doesn't slow down until they get to this curve and that could be too late if a person is crossing if a car is coming very fast and they don't see someone Crossing due to the curved road that could be not a good situation to recommend that people cross their the city knows that people do cross there now but they want to discourage it but we did talk a lot about potentially adding flashers and I marked mid-block Crossing there so that could be something that is studied as part of project improvements that would have to be partnership with the county as well okay do you have something more well here there was one time sorry I was sitting in there um when we had talked about moving the playground over I think there had been a mention of putting a fencing along 50 if this if the playground got too close would that be something that would be there I mean that would probably address your concern running across as if they literally can't get on the 50 right right along this the north side of 50. was that removed at some point uh we talked about the that the ditch there might prevent people and then we also added some screening but we I don't think we had a offense in the concept that is something we could look at as an option a transportation um two or three times I had never got a response from them on 50. um baseball and softball definitely said they know that kids are running across and I've seen it too yeah so we would have to definitely work with the county on it that that's just a certainly an area of you know Public Safety for me that's that's a high concern as we start to make things more desirable going back and forth um that vegetation barrier the way that it Maps out looks like it ends really at a point where people would naturally want to cross and I don't know if that would cause more of an issue with seeing the potential of of a child or a parent child or somebody you know teenager on a bike doesn't really matter um crossing the road there or if it will actually serve to you know slow things down and and deter that from from being a possibility that's all I have though great job the others um when I first saw it there was things specifically I was looking for areas of concern you know constraints based on known conditions and things that residents and those that visit our Parks have been familiar with for decades and that's the river right and I catch some heat from my peers when I say mother nature always wins but she always wins and you're never going to beat a river and so not to be Debbie Downer but I I was discouraged to see a lot of the the proposed paths I mean even in the costing of it you know 50 of it was going to be reused it's all in the floodway like to me that that's I mean we don't need a survey for that we don't we need common sense that we're never going to win with the Vermillion River and so I think we need to start really stretching and challenging ourselves to figure out how are we going to propose a long-term solution that doesn't need to be refurbished in 10 years when or not used when the number one complaint from all of our residents because they know right I mean they're in the park they know it's wet um I was hoping to see a some type of a path or or a trail plan that was completely outside of the floodway um move everything to the north move it to the West um I mean we can throw money at something all day long and it's an effort in futility because the river is always going to win um I think we absolutely need to engage the county and put their feet to the fire um I mean they're throwing bison in Parks they're they're debt free they they you know applaud all the great things that they do with their Park and trail system and Rambling River is the connection point for the North Creek Greenway right they're going to connect Lakeville to the rest of Dakota County via the Vermilion River time to put their foot to the fire and and put their money where their mouth is they should be investing substantial dollars if if there are not alternatives for safe Pathways to school which we know there's grant funding and dollars available um you know the railroad is is a again kind of a losing argument because um we've been dealing with that with noise and you know hoping that they're going to build a bridge is likely not going to happen so we have to figure out alternative means how do we get those kids in the areas to school if we're not able to put them through a path where frankly on a dry day the clearance is like five foot two right we build a bridge we're not going to have Ada accessibility so that you know there's just there's some some infrastructure logistical concerns that we need to get flushed out because those are going to dictate what the overall plan of the park is um you know I mean something that I haven't heard that my creative membranes came up with is we have elevation about Midway through the parks Meadowview figured it out for 195th they trenched right underneath 195th they had the elevation do some boring samples what is the water table and where is it in proximity to 50 because routing around through other intersections I mean we that's going to be a tough path to win right like trying to get people to go into an area and cross 19 000 plus Vehicles a day there is no I mean I'm not an engineer and I could be completely talking about on my butt here but I don't think there's a way that you're going to ever just redirect people from a path of least resistance without giving them a a less restrictive means of access right so what would it take to bring 50 from the bridge and re regrade it from the bridge all the way through there I mean if you're going to spend three or four or five hundred thousand dollars and get the county involved and it's a Trailway connection put a tunnel under so one of the things that the county did say after the rounding over a park master plan was finalized and approved their plan was to do uh RFP in late fall to do 30 design plans um through Rambling River Park connecting to the North Creek Greenway and the South Creek Greenway um John Mertens from the county is here tonight so he can add any other comments if you have any John to that I don't have any comments if you don't if you don't mind coming up in that way those at home that are watching and listening and but you understand kind of the point that it was leading into with the county is a major contributor in this right a major partner and there's a way to put two solutions together um I'm especially intrigued to hear your thoughts here uh mayor council members um John Mertens with the planning office at Dakota County I work on pretty much all the greenway projects um not so much of the transportation projects but I'm pretty familiar with the the ones that we're talking about in this area so I I the railroad crossing um we're working on three railroad crossings right now on Greenway projects and you know we're figuring out ways to come up with the resources to do those and they're expensive you know they're five million dollars each um so so there's no reason we can't be looking at um great separate crossing bridge of two major Greenway corridors Vermilion and North Creek um I'm not sure this master plan is the planning process for that but um it can sure set the table for us to look at it closer the crossing under 50 I think you were just talking about potential um it seems to make sense when you have two parks in Australian a fairly busy road I don't know technically how that would work but it probably could be looked at we are building underpasses on a regular basis um and it's becoming more an emphasis not just for our Greenways but for our our road system too so again I I don't think there's any reason we can't look at options like that any other I know that we're looking at Denmark right I mean I think Denmark the bridge is slated for a replacement that goes over to Vermillion River and there may be an opportunity there to bring the Vermilion Greenway under the new bridge or maybe there's an independent box culvert placed with the new bridge and and I believe Denmark will have meet all of our County standards with Trails on both sides yeah when it's said and done I think we've been working on that safe routes to school plan with the city so I think there's been a lot of work done to kind of set the stage for what Denmark should look like in the near future with with improvements um yeah as far as at grade Crossings a 50 we did complete a Crossing study throughout Dakota County looking at what is the consistent way to approach situations like this and we're doing much many more uh what we would call active Crossing improvements with the RF be activation and painting markings again that takes when you look at it on in a situation like this each situation is different so there would have to be a probably an independent study done by our traffic engineer to determine you know where the safe Crossing would be if an accurate Crossing was safe so um not sure I can add much more as far as you know other than to say the county is a partner for sure in all these Greenway projects and all these Road Improvement projects and um and it's probably a pretty good idea to talk about some of these bigger opportunities I I agree and I I won't speak for my peers but I think we all agree that you know these are substantial investments in the community right and whether it's two million dollars or five million dollars it impacts our businesses and our residents at a in a much there's a higher level of impact in our community I believe than the overall net impact to the county and and knowing what this park could be as the Southeastern corner or the Southeastern parts of the county continue to build out and these trails get connected um the trails are dependent on the amenities for placement and the amenities are dependent on the trails right and we're trying to put more people into an area where there's higher usage with maximum visibility and I think the the infrastructure components of it the where you can physically build up and place these trails and um electricity and everything else it's going to depend on water table and the floodway and so trying to start there and let that dictate what's possible and then you know fill in your gaps as you go um I'm not one to get caught by bright shiny bulbs and lose the concept of what can actually be built um and I want to make sure that we don't miss that here because there's a lot of Rambling River Park there there's a lot of it to be used but having the county weigh in and you know I'm not asking you to speak for any of your counterparts or officials over there but um like we all agree that something needs to be done here and it it needs to be done correctly and not changed five six seven years as we get into phase two and phase three it needs to be conceptually strong so any questions or comments for my peers well relative to the trail piece of it Kelly you've got a dotted line I think on the north side don't you where the trail is that kind of skirts along the edge of the Native vegetation planting right correct we're talking about this year so that appears to be really close to the western edge of the flood plain but probably does cut through it um do we know if the trail part had discussion with the county to find out the topographical the elevation hkgi looked at that and we did have a meeting with Dakota County about the the location of of the trails and um John and Kurt have seen um the plan two or three times obviously if if they hire someone to do an uh look at 30 design these the locations can still move right okay I mean I think I mean I guess I would say that the mayor's comments are really good comments here and I know that the connection of the greenway is a really big deal for Dakota County so obviously we need to have close conversation with both funding and design and everything else I mean Egan put a park in basically a swamp and had all raised deck paths for a lot of it right it's like there's there's a way to do it it's just figuring out like how do we do this without putting A New Path right through the same area that's always flooded every year and all of a sudden becomes a cut off to all the great things that you're going to want to build so flushing that out ahead of time and letting the county lead some of that knicker Holly yeah so correct me if I'm wrong here but the the action requested is to accept the master plan or accept and approve automation my verbiage here is correct correct the action requested is to approve the master plan tonight so we can get moving on on certain amenities I.E the playground equipment we do want to apply for DNR outdoor recreation Grant it's a matching Grant they usually uh this or put the application materials out in December um and the grants are due back in I think it's early March so we want to get moving on the items that have been identified in phase one right away you know can I ask you a question about that yeah yeah so Kelly the one the one thing and actually I forgot to ask this earlier with our budget discussions we haven't really I don't believe we've included possible cost for phase one for 24. correct we have not nope the only thing we have identified is the 400 000 in arpa funds for the playground equipment and the county has committed 400 000 for a restroom building if the park becomes a Trailhead and then uh long-term maintenance on that building would be a 50 50 split so if we were following the 20 the if we were following the plan I mean we have a 1.3 million dollar gap for next year yeah right we'll have funds to do it all right away but I mean theoretically we can approve it but we really don't even have funds to go beyond the great applications for next year unless we insert it into the budget yep that is true okay which we're planning on having an additional discussion of the budget process event on it okay so Kelly you made a comment if the county identifies it as a Trailhead what I'm sorry it has been identified as a Trailhead then they would yep 400 000 towards the restroom and then 50 50 split on long-term maintenance new roof new whatever it may need yeah yeah it was so they'll have a kiosk um I don't know if it shows it on one of them oh yeah right there kiosk um a bike fix its station um trail maps Etc approval approval of this is a master plan still leaves what amount of flex in like the the time frames for things that are getting done the the scope of the approval um does it does it allow for some of you know some of the room to have these conversations that we're talking about now with placement of trails and um some of the crossing concerns that we've got uh or will approval negate further conversation about that sure no we could have conversations about that I wouldn't want to approve it today and then all of a sudden we decide to move the playground equipment over here right yep but Trail like locations could shift you know we're not going to take the skate park and then all of a sudden put it next to the Veterans Memorial I mean we know that the shelter the existing shelter is staying in place correct we've invested in um you know redoing the the parking lot the veteran memorial is staying in place correct uh darba funds have allocated 400 Grand towards the all-inclusive playground which is going to get moved to higher elevation correct um the tennis courts are coming out there's some re-grading some native stuff so we conceptually like we know that there's a large percentage of things that are definitively going to happen in that Northern Area exact placement is going to come down to final plans and specs and the approval of such so design final design and engineering but I just wanted to confirm before I we knew the scope of like what limitations exist underneath the approval yeah yep no understood good question Nick any other comments or questions no I'm good okay then I would seek a motion um to approve the final updated master plan for the Rambling River Park Washington do you approve second by Steve second by Nick call the roll please council member lean yes councilmember Wilson yes mayor Hoyt yes councilmember Burnett yes thank you ma'ams and sir thank you all right um and we go back to well we'll go to item 13 which is our city council Roundtable Nick everybody enjoy the last two weeks of Summer try not to overheat tomorrow and Wednesday all right I was going to say something similar but I don't think that we'll be back here again until after school starts so uh you know buses are going to be back out kids are going to be back out there's going to be a lot more foot traffic a lot more people traffic so eyes open slow down pay attention to flashing stops signs all the things we got used to not seeing during the summer just to make sure it's a safe transition and yeah you know take some time to enjoy these last couple weeks with your kids before their running back I've got a senior uh this year so it's hitting me hard uh a lot of less but uh um it's gonna be a good last couple weeks and uh safe return to school thank you ma'am Steve um I wanted to uh or start that off incorrectly I had an opportunity to help out a couple of veterans over the weekend with some yard cleanup and some things going on and I'm not not at all trying to Pat myself in the back for doing that but what I do want to point out is um you know if you um you are next to a neighbor one that you don't see out a lot or have uh you know interaction with or maybe not enough interaction with and uh you know there's basically a lot of people around the community that have needs that may be afraid to ask for them um so obviously uh that's something that we do really well in this community is serve each other so I just wanted to encourage people to uh to do that thanks sir Leah yes I just wanted to give everyone an update uh the governor's judicial selection committee is recommending uh candidates to replace judge wermager in Dakota County and then judge vandalist in Scott County and that's the First Judicial District so just stay tuned I think people kind of ignore the fact that local judges you know they're the ones who are doing a lot of the public service for the courts for our County so just keep an eye out on that I'm sure I'll give you guys an update at the next round table when it's announced thanks thank you ma'am all right the last Open Door food pantry that was hosted at Rambling River Center they were able to help 121 families in our area so that is an amazing service that open door is provided to our residents the next Open Door is planned for September 19th again at the Rambling River Center and also I'd like to thank the Dakota County Chamber for helping us host the coffee break for local residents and businesses within Dakota County and it was great to get out and meet people and welcome them to City Hall for our coffee break thank you thank you ma'am surely I don't have anything tonight all right Julie uh just we are working on filling some key positions due to retirement so the next month or so bringing those forward thank you ma'am Deanna thank you excuse me thank you mayor and Council I just wanted to share with you that on September 13th the Dakota County Regional Chamber and five other Chambers come together to host what they call the leaders and local government awards ceremony and this is a time where they honor five local government organizations that demonstrate Innovation excellence success with local governments and categories such as business retention communication and marketing Innovation planning land use Public Works and Public Safety at this ceremony they also recognize two individuals one is an elective official of note that is retiring and the other one is a rising star which is recognizing young talent that is entering government services so I am happy to announce that Farmington has been nominated in two of those categories so we are up for an award for the communication and marketing category for our for our unexpectedly bold Economic Development campaign so that's really exciting and the other is Jared Johnson our very own planning coordinator has been nominated and is a finalist for the Rising Star Award so I'm very proud of the team that we have and that is a great honor to see our team members being recognized outside of our own walls I just wanted to share that thank you we're going to bring home more Hardware right thank you ma'am John thank you mayor and council members I just want to mention we had a meeting earlier today uh with up railroad Representatives State rail office and UPS consultant they're looking at replacing the crossing at Spruce Street the arms and gates are Antiquated when they have when they need repairs they can't find parts for it so I'll be talking to you more in the near future about that and what that Crossing might look like but their preliminary schedule had work starting on the crossing sometime next spring so more to come thank you sir Kelly final music in the park will be next Wednesday August 30th at 7 pm at rounding River Park still drum band will be performing so come on out and enjoy the last night of music in the park um you guys will busy be busy that night though because we have our parks and Facilities tour that evening at 6 pm thank you ma'am Chris not a whole lot to report finances is keeping the terrain on the tracks and we're paying bills taking in money and doing what we do great choice of words I love it thank you sir Chief uh I have nothing you all stole my thunder tonight we had an event the beginning of um August that your team led that oh sure are we going to rehash old stuff like that night out yeah I mean if you haven't put me on the spot and make me improv something I can I'll do I'll be okay uh yes thank you to the 25-ish neighborhoods and and organizations that registered for events uh it was a good time getting out to as many of them as we could um it was good to see representatives from the schools out with US representatives from Council police and fire obviously it was it's always a good time thank you sir I knew I had it in you right uh I don't have anything more to add Beyond really I mean Holly made a great point you know we we have this conversation every year uh going back into school and that's you know don't forget what a school bus stop arm looks like because it never fails every single year the first few days of school the number of stop-arm violations and just as a reminder to be aware of the buses be aware of the kiddos in and around the proximity of the buses just continue to slow things down because they're out there um mother nature always wins and she's coming September's around the corner the next few days aren't going to feel like it um but yeah overall things are good so Leah we recessed our work session to pick up on the budget item okay do we adjourn still from here and then pick up okay yes yes all right I look for a motion to adjourn then motion so second motion by Steve second by Holly all in favor say aye aye aye we're adjourned at 8 10. [Music] [Music] thank you