[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[0:03] All right. Good evening. We'll call this meeting to order for the January 9th, 2025, Apple Welley City Council meeting. As we get into the agenda for any audience member who would like to speak, please come forward to the podium and address the council. The first item on our agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance, and I would ask everyone to rise and join us in the pledge.
[0:39] The next item on our agenda is Oss of Office for Councilmembers, Grendel and Hebert
[0:44] and City Clerk Scipio.
[0:45] He's going to walk us through this one.
[0:47] Please go ahead.
[0:48] Wonderful.
[0:49] So we will start with Councilmember Grendel if I can meet you over by the flag.
[1:12] the United States and of the State of Minnesota and faithfully discharge the duties of the
[1:25] the office of city council member of the city of Apple Valley in the county of Dakota.
[1:36] To the best of my judgment and ability. So help me. Graduation
[1:51] next I will invite council
[1:53] member Hebert same thing and I think she has some family members who will be coming up
[1:57] as well.
[2:02] Folks looking for pictures don't be shy get wherever you can get a good one.
[2:06] Please
[2:16] raise your right hand and repeat after me.
[2:18] I, Lisa Hebert.
[2:20] I, Lisa Hebert, do solemnly swear, do solemnly swear,
[2:23] that I will support the Constitution,
[2:26] that I will support the Constitution of the United States,
[2:29] of the United States, and of the State of Minnesota,
[2:32] and of the State of Minnesota, and faithfully discharge
[2:34] the duties and faithfully discharge the duties of the Office
[2:38] of City Council Member.
[2:40] The Office of Council Member of the City of Apple Valley,
[2:43] of the City of Alabama Valley in the county of Dakota and state of Minnesota and state of Minnesota.
[2:50] The best of my judgment and ability to the best of my judgment and ability so help me God so help me God congratulations.
[3:13] Thank you. Congratulations to both of you and look forward to Ruth continuing to serve with you and Lisa look forward to having your contributions.
[3:22] Councilmember Berkman. I concur with you. Congratulations, Councilmember Grendel. I'm getting
[3:28] re-elected. I look forward to working with you. I've had a pleasure for all these years
[3:32] to work with you. Noobie? Yes, people will say. Congratulations.
[3:41] We look forward to all
[3:43] good work that you will provide to the city. Thank you.
[3:48] All right, that moves us to our next
[3:50] item which is to approve the rest of the agenda, and Tom, I know we have one item to add.
[3:55] Do you want to just walk us through that?
[3:57] That's good evening, Mr. Mayor and members of the council.
[3:59] We do have one item we'd like to add to our regular agenda, so this would be item 5b.
[4:05] It is authorized emergency repairs to sanitary sewer on 140th Street.
[4:11] Thank you.
[4:12] So with that, do we have a motion to approve the agenda as amended?
[4:15] Seconded motion from Councilmember Grandola, second from Councilmember Melander, all those in favor, indicate by saying aye.
[4:23] The opposed to agenda passes.
[4:25] The next item is our audience participation portion of the meeting for items that are not on our agenda.
[4:30] And I know we have our library branch manager, Tyler Williams, here to give us the library updates.
[4:35] Come on forward, we'll take you first.
[4:40] Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor.
[4:42] Members of the city council, it's nice to be here.
[4:44] here. My name is Tyler Williams. I'm the manager of the Galaxy Library right next door and
[4:48] I just wanted to take a couple of minutes tonight to update you in the citizens of Apple
[4:53] Valley on a couple of big events we have coming up in the next few months. The first is
[4:58] going to be very close. We're right around the corner on Saturday, February 8th. We're going
[5:02] to be hosting the Minnesota Black Authors Expo here in Apple Valley. This is an event that's
[5:06] been going on for the last 10 years in Minneapolis. They were at the central. They were at DeSalle
[5:12] high school for a few for several years and then they were at Minneapolis Central Library
[5:15] last year and for 2025 they wanted to branch out and show that they are a Minnesota event
[5:23] local author event not just a Minneapolis event and so they're going to be holding quarterly
[5:27] events this year and they asked first people they asked to come to was to Dakota County and
[5:32] to Apple Valley and so we're very excited to have them here this will be an all ages event
[5:38] We're going to be in the Western Service Center atrium that day.
[5:41] We're going to have about 20 authors, authors of children's books,
[5:45] teen's books, adult books.
[5:46] We're going to have a couple of writing workshops,
[5:49] one for geared for adults and one for teens.
[5:52] We're going to have a children's area with lots of activities
[5:54] and author story times.
[5:56] It's just going to be a great event for people to come out
[5:59] and meet and greet local authors and see their books and what they have.
[6:03] We're really excited to have them here.
[6:05] in Dakota County, we want to show them how much Apple Valiant and Dakota County
[6:11] Library appreciate our local authors. The second event, which I do not have a
[6:16] fire for yet, unfortunately, is going to be our team job fair, which is going to be
[6:21] on Saturday, April 12th. It'll be from 10 to 12, 30, and it's going to be a great
[6:26] opportunity for teens in the area to come and meet local employers. We're going to
[6:31] having resume workshops, interviewing workshops to help them build their skills and give them
[6:38] opportunities to get themselves ready for the workforce. And it also is an opportunity for some
[6:44] of our local employers. If they're looking for team workers, either just in general or for the summer to
[6:51] come in and have a lot of teams to talk to. We had 220 people here the last time we'd tell this event,
[7:00] which was two years ago, so that will be on April 12th.
[7:05] It's teens and parents who are welcome.
[7:07] If there's any local employers who are going to be looking
[7:11] for work this summer and want to be involved as well,
[7:13] they can contact me over at the library.
[7:15] We're working with career force on this particular event
[7:18] so I can put them in contact with our contacts and career force
[7:21] and they are welcome as well.
[7:23] It'll be, like I said, we have about 200 people for that event
[7:26] so it's a lot of fun.
[7:27] So, that was it. I just thank you for giving me a few minutes of your time. I just wanted to highlight those events that are coming up.
[7:33] Thank you, Jonathan. We appreciate the update. All you do for us at the library.
[7:36] Thank you very much.
[7:37] Great to see you.
[7:39] Anyone else who would like to speak to the audience to participation portion?
[7:44] If not, let's move on to our consent agenda. These items are considered routine and will be enacted with a single motion unless a council member or a citizen request to pull an item to be discussed separately.
[7:57] Council members, are there any items you would like to vote?
[8:00] I want from the audience.
[8:03] All right, seeing none, do we have a motion to approve the consent agenda?
[8:07] Move.
[8:08] We have a motion from Council Member Bergman and a second from Council Member Grendel.
[8:13] All those in favor indicate by saying aye.
[8:15] Aye.
[8:16] Opposed?
[8:17] Consent items all passed.
[8:19] We'll move on to the regular agenda.
[8:21] It's Christina again.
[8:22] We have item 5A and that's a doctor resolution appointing an acting mayor for 2025.
[8:28] It's been a long time since we've had to do this.
[8:32] Mary and council there's a statutory requirement that each year the city council determine who
[8:38] will serve as acting mayor in the case of the mayor's absence from a meeting or absence outside
[8:44] of the city and so at this time it's really the council's prerogative to determine who
[8:50] that will be. Thank you council member Bertman you were up first. Thanks Mayor for I make a motion
[8:58] that for acting Mayor councilmember with Grendel. All right do we have a second for that motion?
[9:04] Any discussion or any other motions? Are you are you are you willing?
[9:10] I should ask if you're willing to accept to the appointment. All right we have a motion and a
[9:18] second for council to appoint council member Grand Hall as acting mayor for 2025 all those in favor indicate by saying aye
[9:25] Opposed that item carries. Thank you all and then we will move on to
[9:30] We promised Lisa nice short agenda on her first night and then we decided to throw an emergency
[9:35] So we are in the next so although right up her alley of expertise so there we go Matt you want to walk us through
[9:44] This item which is relatively urgent
[9:48] Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Council. It's not too often I'm before you have sort of an emergency repair request, but that's what we have here unfortunately before I get into it. I did want to introduce a couple of other staff that are here to assist or answer questions.
[10:03] We have Evan Acosta, assistant city engineer behind me and then Brian's school car utility superintendent too, so with that I'll get into it and as the mayor stated did have a sanitary sewer failure along 140th street. It's along the south side 140th street east of pilot knob or the mayor and
[10:26] You want to click it, Tim? Thank you. So here we go with a map of the city, the dashed area.
[10:35] Would help if I turn it on maybe.
[10:38] Okay,
[10:40] the dashed in the area, in the north, generally the northeast portion of the city
[10:45] shows the area of the city that drains and we're talking about sanitary sewer here so it drains
[10:52] through toilets, thank you, showers, that sort of thing into the sewer line that failed.
[10:58] So a large portion of the city, again, in the northeast area of town, and we did a zoom
[11:03] in on the pipe failure location along 140th, that's shown sort of in the lower right, and
[11:10] in the red line, that's where generally that sewer line is.
[11:17] Jim, you want to help me?
[11:18] Let's see.
[11:19] Thank you.
[11:19] So a little more background back on New Year's Eve, December 31st, we city crews and valley
[11:28] rich, which is our contract, responded to a sanitary sewer main break, was originally
[11:34] called in as a water main break, but not soon after reporting to the site, it was quickly
[11:40] discerned that it was sanitary sewer, again on 140th street, we got that sewer repaired
[11:46] that day through Valley Rich's help and reinstated as put back in the service although there was
[11:53] significant debris that entered the system a little more background the hole in the pipe was
[11:58] on the top of the pipe so not on the bottom it was basically due to sewer gas over the years this
[12:05] pipe is concrete over 50 over 50 years old 1972 I believe and so over the years those sewer
[12:15] gases had deteriorated or eroded away that pipe and with the weight of the earth and everything
[12:22] that opened up the hole in the sewer line. Hence why we found dirt and other debris in the line
[12:27] blocking it. So again we got that repaired on New Year's Eve, everybody goes home, they're off
[12:33] on New Year's Day, we come back on January 2nd looking to just finish cleaning the line and then we
[12:40] We find a much larger break in another section of the pipe.
[12:44] So we then did a pipe pass, which means we rerouted the sewer line around where the section
[12:49] was broken so we could fix it, only to find many more additional breaks that had surfaced.
[12:56] So now we're up to, as my last bullet shows, approximately over a thousand feet of sewer
[13:03] pipe that has holes in it and needs to be repaired.
[13:08] So since then utility staff engineering staff we've been reviewing televising footage.
[13:14] We have a camera that we can send down the pipe to visually inspect it.
[13:20] So we've been reviewing that televising footage to try to discern what the best recommended
[13:26] repair or replacement would be.
[13:29] Some of those pipe sections just because of the sheer amount of dirt and debris that's in
[13:35] the line, we're not able to get to or visually inspect.
[13:40] Brian's crews are still working on that.
[13:43] So we do believe, though, because of the extent of the damage, the cost of these repairs
[13:49] is going to far exceed the competitive bidding requirement of 175,000.
[13:55] And so what that does, maybe, for folks at home, anything over 175,000, the city's required
[14:01] to competitively and publicly bid that out, which means we have to post it on our website
[14:07] for three weeks, then we take in those bids, open them, bring back a contract, a council
[14:13] after you evaluated it, all of that takes time, probably 30 to 60 days, sometimes even longer.
[14:20] So with the emergency nature of this area and a little more information on that, of that
[14:27] That size, I showed on the map earlier, we've counted over 2,600 structures that drain through that, that schools, churches, homes, and they're all contributing over 400,000 gallons of sewer each day through that line.
[14:42] So hence why it's an emergency to get that repaired, sort of a major line for us, additionally lift station one, which is a little to the north, that flows or pumps to there.
[14:52] And so a failure back up there would result in sewage possibly getting in the long lake or other ponds.
[15:00] We see something we don't want to risk, so that's why we're coming before council tonight. So next steps would be we'd like to solicit pricing to consultable types of repairs, basically work with contractors. We could do some slip lining possibly. There's something called pipe bursting, where they bring metal type had through the pipe blow up the old pipe, basically burst it while they're pulling a new pipe right along the same alignment.
[15:29] We can also do some directional drilling or boring you may have heard of.
[15:33] So, I want to work with both, again, our televising, our engineering staff and
[15:37] also contractors to try to get the best price and best recommendation on what to fix.
[15:43] As far as funding this, we did have some previously funded projects at 2025-106.
[15:52] It's also sanitary sewer slip lining improvements, so we thought it made some sense that we could
[15:58] delay that work, it's not of as an immediate nature, we have 600,000 budgeted for that,
[16:04] so we'd like to use that money to help pay for this work.
[16:09] Any additional cost, if there would need to be, would come from our sanitary sewer utility
[16:14] fund.
[16:19] So, we did have three actions requested of the council tonight, the first being to declare
[16:25] area emergency conditions for the sewer main breaks along 140th Street, West, between
[16:31] Pilot Nom and 142nd.
[16:34] The second is to adopt a resolution of support to extend the duration of that emergency until
[16:41] we're able to get the failed sections restored, replaced, and fully functioning.
[16:45] Just a little background.
[16:47] Our city attorney said the initial declaration of emergency can only last three days.
[16:52] So hence why we need to do the second resolution of support to be able to extend that that's why we're doing that
[16:58] And then the final one is to adopt a resolution authorizing the public work structure myself to create a local or
[17:05] special emergency contract
[17:08] basically that allows us to
[17:11] Not have to post it through the normal competitive bidding environments, but make no mistake
[17:16] We're still going to get multiple quotes and bids and try to get the best price
[17:20] but time is of of the essence here so with that I'd be happy to take any questions
[17:26] the council may have thank you do you have any questions for Matt
[17:31] how many chatted earlier day my first question was how many more of these do we
[17:35] have and I think this was a unique situation here that due to some slope in the
[17:40] pipe and the way it turned out gas probably created this section of deteriorate
[17:44] faster than other similarly situated sections mr. Ann council that's exactly
[17:49] right however your point is a good one we do have and we've been researching how much more concrete
[17:55] pipe from the 70s do we have out there could that could potentially be an issue in the future so
[18:01] we are looking into that working with GIS to determine where we have that we'll be ramping up
[18:07] televising and inspections of those lines so hopefully we can get the replacements planned for
[18:13] the future. Thank you.
[18:17] If there are other questions we work through the action items, I'm looking
[18:20] at what you have on the screen and then the memo, the first bullet is different, Tom. And so maybe you
[18:25] can work us through that. The action requested on the slide is to declare the emergency, but I believe
[18:29] we did that earlier in the day. And so are we looking to accept the proclamation as you have in the
[18:35] memo? Are we looking to declare the emergency tonight?
[18:41] Mr. Mayor, members of the council,
[18:42] So the actual emergency itself because of the nature of this and the way that the state
[18:46] statute is set up is that the mayor actually declares the emergency and then the action
[18:51] being taken tonight is to affirm that by the city council and then move through the rest
[18:55] of the staff.
[18:55] Just look to the city attorney.
[18:57] Are we taking action on the first item on the screen?
[19:01] Yes, Mr. Mayor.
[19:02] You should take action on the parking mission declaring what's in our memo versus what's
[19:07] on the screen.
[19:08] Thank you.
[19:09] I said I don't want to screw the first one up because it seemed to be the one that will
[19:12] the rest of them from there. So we'll take these one at a time. So we'll look for a motion to
[19:17] accept the proclamation declaring a local emergency. Motion from Councilmember Granola,
[19:23] second from Councilmember Melander, all those in favor indicate by saying aye.
[19:27] Opposed to that item is approved. Our second action item is to adopt a resolution extending a
[19:32] local emergency pursuant to Minnesota statute section 12.29 and 12.37. We have a motion.
[19:38] Some moved second motion from council member ebert in a second from council member grendel all those in favor indicate by saying aye
[19:46] And opposed all the least exciting first motion ever
[19:49] And our third item is to adapt a resolution authorizing the way the making of a local or special emergency contract
[20:00] Motion from council member Bergman in a second from council member grendel all those in favor indicate by saying aye
[20:06] All right.
[20:07] Opposed?
[20:07] Those all carry.
[20:08] Thanks for our public work staff too.
[20:10] You've had a New Year's Eve.
[20:11] You weren't quite expecting.
[20:13] But I think things to the work.
[20:15] We also don't have impacts to homes and lakes and businesses and apartments and all those things.
[20:20] So I think we say like your work is really great when nobody notices it and this is noticeable
[20:25] but in a good way.
[20:26] So thank you all.
[20:27] Thank you.
[20:28] Thank you for that, Mr. Mayor.
[20:29] Thank you, Council.
[20:32] All right.
[20:33] That brings us to our staff and council communication.
[20:35] And Tom, do we have any items for staff communication tonight?
[20:42] Mr. Mayor, just a general reminder that mid-winter fest is coming up.
[20:45] This will be on Saturday, February the 1st, over at Johnny Cake Ridge Park.
[20:49] And we will continue to promote that amongst the community.
[20:52] And we'll bring it on to the next agenda as well.
[20:54] But it's one of the focus that is our major winter festival that we have as a community event.
[21:00] Lots of partners come together, food trucks and a lot of other good activities going on for the whole family on that day.
[21:06] So pay attention to that then we go for a good community response to mid-winter fest.
[21:11] I'm for just a little bit of snow between now and then make that a little more wintry.
[21:15] So council members, any items for council communications this evening?
[21:21] All right, if not, we will move on to our calendar of upcoming events.
[21:25] We are going to add one chamber schedule ribbon cutting to the calendar and that is the very sweet
[21:31] kitchen which is in the space near Buffalo Wild Wings and Applebee's kind of in that corner.
[21:36] They were here a while ago for their liquor license and their ribbon cutting is 8 a.m. on the 16th, so next Thursday, so we'll add that to the calendar.
[21:46] If we don't have any other additions or changes, we would look for a motion to approve the calendar of upcoming events.
[21:51] I moved.
[21:52] Second.
[21:53] Motion from Council Member Grendel.
[21:54] A second from Council Member Hebert.
[21:56] All those in favor?
[21:57] Any keep by saying aye.
[21:58] Aye.
[21:59] Opposed?
[21:59] the calendar carries and just a reminder that our city offices are closed on
[22:03] Monday, January 20th, 2025, and observant to the Barton Luther King holiday. With that, do we have a motion to adjourn?
[22:10] Motion, Council Member Grendel.
[22:13] Second.
[22:13] From Council Member Hver, all of those in favor, indicated by saying aye.
[22:17] Aye.
[22:18] Thank you, Richard.
[22:19] Thank you, everyone.