[0:00] We're good.
[0:00] » We're good. Thank you.
[0:03] » All right. I'd like to call this meeting
[0:05] to order for the city council of
[0:07] Minatrista. Um but first, I'd like
[0:11] everybody to rise to say the pledge of
[0:13] allegiance
[0:19] to the flag of the United States of
[0:21] America and to the republic for which it
[0:24] stands. One nation under God,
[0:28] indivisible, with liberty and justice
[0:30] for all.
[0:36] » Well, Mayor Whan is out ill tonight and
[0:40] her normal replacement, uh, Kathleen
[0:42] Refkin is out, I think, on vacation. So,
[0:46] uh, so I'm Peter Vickery and I'm taking
[0:48] over tonight. Um to to my left I have
[0:51] council member Claudia Lacy and Brian
[0:54] McGovern and public works director Gary
[0:58] Peters
[0:59] » [clears throat]
[0:59] » Uh assistant county excuse me assistant
[1:03] city manager Paula Bowman and to my
[1:07] right Jasper Krugal the city manager and
[1:11] Craig Swear is the safety director. I'm
[1:14] not sure if anybody's on remotely.
[1:17] » Uh let's see. I think we do have a few.
[1:20] Um, let's see. Yeah, we have um we have
[1:22] Yan Meer off the the city clerk, David
[1:24] Ael, the um community development
[1:26] director, and then Sarah Solo, our city
[1:29] attorney. Oh,
[1:29] » Okay. Thank you. All right. Uh, so
[1:32] before we begin, I understand that there
[1:34] are two items that will be taking off
[1:36] the agenda.
[1:37] » Uh, yes, if I may. Um, Council Member
[1:41] Vicky, uh, the two business items, uh,
[1:43] we're proposing to take off the agenda.
[1:46] Um the one requires a supermajority vote
[1:48] which is a four fifths vote in order to
[1:50] pass or to be denied. Um and the other
[1:55] item is kind of paired with it as well.
[1:57] So um due to scheduling we would push
[2:00] that to February 18th. Um on February
[2:03] 18th we should have a full city council
[2:05] here.
[2:06] » Okay. All right. So do I have a motion
[2:09] to approve the agenda?
[2:11] » So moved.
[2:12] » Seconded.
[2:13] » All in favor? I
[2:15] » All right. Well, before we proceed with
[2:18] that, it's my pleasure to honor Michael
[2:21] Kirkwood, who has done so much for this
[2:24] community and Lake Minnotonka
[2:28] as a member of the Lake Matonka
[2:31] Conservation Board. Um, how many years
[2:34] have we been on there? Looks like six.
[2:36] All right. Well, [clears throat]
[2:39] » If we could get a little photo op here
[2:42] with you and council member Vickery,
[2:44] that'd be great. I think um Paul I can
[2:46] grab something. Thanks
[2:59] be
[3:04] » All right. Congratulations. Thank you
[3:06] very much. Pleas
[3:17] I want to do
[3:21] [laughter]
[3:31] » Smile together. Thank you.
[3:36] Thank you, Michael.
[3:47] » So, we just have one person to be heard.
[3:49] » Oh, Christian.
[3:52] » All right.
[3:54] Uh, well, next we'll go to persons to be
[3:57] heard and I understand that Bob
[3:59] Christians you want to see. Could you
[4:02] come to the microphone? Of course, we
[4:04] all know you, but could you give your
[4:05] address as well?
[4:07] » Okay. Well, first of all, as a member or
[4:11] board of directors for West Community
[4:14] College conference now called West, I
[4:16] first of all, I'd like to say thank you
[4:18] to all the people here at Trista for
[4:20] your support of all the events that we
[4:22] take place in. Uh it's really
[4:24] appreciated as uh uh as Jasper knows and
[4:27] and Craig, you're coming up with the
[4:28] next polar plunge, which is next
[4:30] Saturday. away from Saturday. Hopefully,
[4:31] it won't be 40 below windchill because
[4:34] then Claudia won't jump in the lake when
[4:35] it's that cold. But anyway, I'm sorry to
[4:38] be here. I've been a resident here in
[4:40] West Taka for uh since 1989
[4:44] and this has never happened before and
[4:45] I'm sorry to have to take your time. I I
[4:47] appreciate all you do. I used to sit in
[4:50] that chair myself years ago. Uh but uh
[4:53] we had a situation come up where uh I
[4:55] got my water bill and uh I I I didn't
[4:59] know what to I mean it was crazy. And so
[5:01] I immediately called my plumber and
[5:02] Jasper I was talking to my plumber uh
[5:05] regarding what happened. So he checked
[5:07] everything out and went through
[5:08] everything and he found out that there
[5:09] was a problem. And the problem was from
[5:11] the Minatrista city water line. There
[5:13] was some debris in the line that created
[5:16] and caused this to be open. So I mean he
[5:19] said it's really nothing you could have
[5:21] done. It's it's basically the city's
[5:23] response or fault whatever be. So, what
[5:25] I'm asking for is not for you to forget
[5:28] the whole bill. I'm here as a hopefully
[5:30] I think is a reasonable cause is if you
[5:32] just split it with me and pay the cost
[5:34] of what it is could cost me uh and split
[5:37] it 50/50. And I put that on the notes
[5:39] that I think Jasper has given you.
[5:40] Correct.
[5:41] » Yes.
[5:41] » Each of you have that. And I hopefully
[5:43] that we can resolve this. Uh uh we all
[5:47] got better things to do and it's going
[5:49] to be cold. So stay warm this weekend
[5:51] and be safe and hopefully we can come to
[5:53] a resolution where I think asking you
[5:56] for 50% or half of what the cost would
[5:58] be is is reasonable and fair. So thank
[6:01] you for all you do and thank you for
[6:02] your time. Any questions?
[6:04] » Thank you.
[6:05] » Do you have
[6:06] » I don't have questions.
[6:08] » Okay. I don't know what happens now.
[6:11] Somebody tell me what happens now. Do I
[6:12] leave here? Well, like somebody I mean,
[6:16] » It sounds like the two of you have been
[6:18] talking. Uh, how how long has this been
[6:21] going on? And
[6:23] » Yeah, I think I I'm not sure. It's been
[6:24] probably a few weeks, I think, since
[6:26] we've been corresponding. Okay.
[6:28] » Um, but I did talk to talk to uh the
[6:30] plumber and got a little bit more
[6:32] information and and cooperated the the
[6:34] the
[6:36] story, I guess. Um, couple things that
[6:39] we could do. um you know staff doesn't
[6:42] have discretion to modify utility bills,
[6:44] right? So that's a city council thing.
[6:46] Um if if if there's a desire to look at
[6:49] this further, I would say we we put it
[6:51] on a work session f future work session.
[6:53] I have some um ability to to pull a
[6:57] policy together that that I've worked on
[6:59] in the past in a past city where you can
[7:02] look at some of these things and and and
[7:03] and look at what happened and and come
[7:06] up with a a solution potentially with
[7:08] this if that's something that you'd like
[7:10] to look at. Um we could do that at a
[7:12] future council meeting. Um I would say
[7:14] probably the 18th would be the best
[7:16] since we're going to have a full
[7:17] council. Um, but if there is no desire
[7:20] to to look at this and create a policy.
[7:22] I would say I I wouldn't recommend doing
[7:24] a one-off thing, I would say should if
[7:26] we're going to do it as a city, we
[7:27] should do a policy so that if it happens
[7:29] to another resident that we have the
[7:31] ability to to say here's a form, fill it
[7:33] out, we'll bring it basically bring it
[7:35] to city council, you guys evaluate it
[7:37] and either approve or deny it.
[7:39] Forunately, it is a very very rare case
[7:42] and I don't know why mine was, but it's
[7:45] it's probably very very rare that it
[7:48] ever happened. So,
[7:51] anyway, thank you. Yes.
[7:53] » Well, I was going to say, Carrie, is
[7:55] there anything you could speak to on
[7:57] this?
[8:01] » Um, quite frankly, I mean, I do not
[8:04] believe that there was any debris.
[8:06] There's no debris in our water that
[8:07] would cause that. I would say it's more
[8:10] of a [clears throat] mineral issue
[8:11] either, you know, because we do not take
[8:13] out iron. There's always calcium in the
[8:15] water. So, you know, I mean, that's why
[8:18] every six months you should be cleaning,
[8:20] you know, running a cleaner through your
[8:22] softener. I mean, we've had issues with
[8:24] this in Huntress, we had one that
[8:26] happened, too. And um, you know, I I
[8:30] find it hard to believe that it was
[8:31] anything in the water that caused this.
[8:33] I mean, it's, you know, it it to me it's
[8:36] just, you know,
[8:38] mindboggling that there'd be a quote
[8:40] unquote chunk of plastic in our water. I
[8:43] mean, it's just it's it's not
[8:46] reasonable. I mean, it can happen, I
[8:47] suppose, but I've never seen the 13
[8:50] years I've been here already. So, I've
[8:52] never seen it happen either, but I'm
[8:53] just going with my plumber saying this
[8:54] is what the problem was. So, I I you
[8:56] know, I wouldn't be here. I just want to
[8:58] make sure that we can resolve this thing
[9:00] in a friendly manner.
[9:03] Okay. Any questions? Anybody else?
[9:06] » Great. No questions.
[9:09] » Thank you. Thank you. And thank you for
[9:11] your participating in the all the events
[9:13] that we take place in.
[9:15] » Thank you. Well, I think maybe we should
[9:18] bring that up to the general counsel and
[9:20] in the work session and figure out a
[9:23] policy. So
[9:24] » Alison as well
[9:27] would be good. Somebody contact me to
[9:29] let me know where we're going with this.
[9:30] I think it's what best at some point in
[9:33] time.
[9:33] » I will.
[9:34] » And it's something that I could probably
[9:35] like, well, obviously before the bill is
[9:37] due, which is sometime in February.
[9:39] » Well, if you stick around for like maybe
[9:41] a minute, they'll probably give you
[9:43] direction and then you'll know right
[9:44] away.
[9:45] » Yeah.
[9:46] » Well, yeah, it sounds like we're in
[9:48] unison that we would like to bring this
[9:50] up at the B session on February 18th.
[9:54] And I think Alison
[9:56] will [clears throat] need to as well
[10:00] » Yeah.
[10:04] » All [snorts] right. So,
[10:05] » February 18th, work session 5:00 p.m.
[10:09] » February 18th. Uh, you know what?
[10:12] » The bill is going to be due by then.
[10:14] » Well, I'll talk to our utility. If it's
[10:17] all right with you, I'll talk to the
[10:18] utility billing and put a hold.
[10:19] » I think the bill is due with 16.
[10:22] I think you're right.
[10:23] » I don't want another problem. I just
[10:24] » Yeah. No, we'll we'll make sure that
[10:26] nothing happens. It'll be
[10:29] Yeah. Well, thank you for paying half of
[10:31] it.
[10:32] » Okay. Thank you. Okay. Uh let's see. So,
[10:37] there are no other people to be heard,
[10:39] so we'll close that session. Um then
[10:43] we'll move on to the consent agenda. Are
[10:46] there any additions or items that anyone
[10:50] would like to remove?
[10:52] Nope. No. All right. Well, uh let's go
[10:56] through those then. Uh so, u item A is
[10:59] approve the city council regular meeting
[11:01] uh minutes uh from January,
[11:04] uh 7th. Uh item B is resolution number
[11:08] 8-26,
[11:10] approve claims. Uh C is resolution
[11:14] number 926 approve extension of
[11:17] preliminary plat for highlands at Whale
[11:19] Lake, excuse me. Uh item D is resolution
[11:23] number 1026 approve simple subdivision
[11:27] between 3265
[11:29] and 3320 Williams Lane. Item E is
[11:33] resolution number 1126.
[11:36] Authorize ex execution of accessory
[11:39] structure agreement with the MCWD
[11:42] at 6300 Painters Road, excuse me,
[11:46] Painter Road. Uh item F is resolution
[11:49] number 1226, approved purchase for
[11:53] replacement of the ditch flail mower.
[11:55] Thank you for getting a little better
[11:57] price than that we estimate, by the way.
[12:00] Um, and then item G is uh, resolution
[12:03] number 1326, accept improvements and
[12:06] authorize final payments for Minneapolis
[12:08] Avenue drainage work.
[12:11] Do I have a motion? So moved.
[12:15] » Second.
[12:16] » All in favor?
[12:17] » I oppose. Passes unanimously.
[12:22] » Okay. Uh, I don't think we have any
[12:25] public hearings. Okay. you know, we're
[12:28] not going to discuss the business items.
[12:30] Um,
[12:32] okay. Administrative items. We have
[12:34] staff reports.
[12:36] » Uh, yeah, Council Member McCree. Um, the
[12:38] only thing I want to bring up is uh the
[12:40] strategic planning uh session. We have
[12:42] that scheduled for uh February 26th
[12:46] starting at 3 p.m. Uh we're hoping that
[12:50] can wrap up by 6 PM and then uh we have
[12:53] a joint city council meeting with the
[12:55] city of St. Bonafacious here at our city
[12:58] council chambers starting at 6:30. Um so
[13:02] hopefully it works out for everybody.
[13:03] It's it's you know scheduling is is
[13:05] challenging so if if you can't make it
[13:07] just let me know. Um but I think St.
[13:09] Bonnie has four out of their five that
[13:12] are able to attend. Um and in general we
[13:14] we kind of crafted an agenda that talks
[13:17] about the fire partnership. Um St.
[13:20] Bonnie has an annexation request uh from
[13:24] uh Minatrista. a little portion of land
[13:26] that Minatrista is in is in the
[13:29] corporate limits of Minitrista that
[13:30] they'd like to discuss with us about
[13:32] possibly giving to them. Um and then the
[13:36] third item is the water interconnect
[13:38] agreement that we um have been working
[13:40] on on and off for probably the last
[13:42] three years. Um and hopefully we can get
[13:44] get that finalized. So those are the
[13:46] three items.
[13:47] » Okay, great. Um any other reports from
[13:53] staff? Oh, council reports.
[13:56] » Um, well, I guess I can say that, um, I
[14:00] had a board meeting with the Gillespie
[14:02] Center last night and their their
[14:06] biggest issue right now is they have a
[14:09] 25-year-old HVAC system and it's quite
[14:13] costly. The most, I think, competitive
[14:16] bid they have is about $188,000.
[14:19] And so, um, I contacted Gary because he
[14:23] knows a lot about things like that. He
[14:24] gave me some additional people just to
[14:27] maybe run that by and do some checking.
[14:30] Um, gosh, they have a new president um
[14:35] on the board who's wonderful, has a lot
[14:38] of business experience, corporate
[14:40] experience. She's lovely. And her name
[14:42] is
[14:44] uh
[14:47] Carlson D. I want to say Donna Carlson.
[14:50] I I'm not her last name is Carlson. And
[14:53] uh she's wonderful. Um
[14:56] that's really about it as far as that's
[14:58] concerned. The Minnesota or the um Lake
[15:02] Minnetonka
[15:03] Community Commerce um organization was
[15:06] kind of like our chamber of commerce is
[15:09] changing names. Um, I mentioned last
[15:11] time to connect West Hanka has like a
[15:15] logo with a bridge kind of connecting
[15:17] nonprofits, forprofits,
[15:20] the the city government, um, all things
[15:23] down in the western suburbs. Um, they've
[15:26] got Plan Moose, which is um, kind of a
[15:29] wonderful marketing company that's going
[15:31] to be helping us kind of really get up
[15:33] and running and bring it to a new level.
[15:36] So, City of Manista is uh one of their
[15:39] uh members and um the charity I run is
[15:43] also a member. So, we're um giving them
[15:46] quite a bit of support and hopefully
[15:48] it'll drive some more business and
[15:51] interest to the little community.
[15:54] » That's about it.
[15:56] » Brian, no updates for me.
[15:58] » Okay. Uh well, I was at the Pioneer
[16:02] Sarah Creek watershed board meeting and
[16:05] um uh they're promoting the uh
[16:08] responsible use of salt, which seems
[16:10] very appropriate given all the icy
[16:12] conditions that we have out outside
[16:14] here, but they're pointing out that just
[16:16] a tablespoon of salt will
[16:17] [clears throat] ruin five gallons of
[16:19] water, which Mike probably knows. So,
[16:23] they're really trying to rain that in
[16:26] and just use it where it's absolutely
[16:28] necessary.
[16:29] Um I talked with Gary about this in the
[16:32] past know that the city is very
[16:33] responsible for this item. So that
[16:36] that's encouraging. Um so that's it for
[16:40] me. Um
[16:43] well um guess this is a
[16:46] » What do we use other than salt here?
[16:48] » Uh well gravel or what do you call it?
[16:52] Not sand but uh
[16:53] » What was the question?
[16:55] » What do you use besides salt?
[16:57] um supposed to be still using like a
[16:59] salt sand mixture other words treated
[17:01] salt to cut down on it. But I mean
[17:03] that's really you know sand or straight
[17:04] sand you know it's that the the problem
[17:06] with you know straight sand is it's a
[17:09] more expensive cleanup cost in spring
[17:11] you know it gets into the um the sumps
[17:14] the sump the catch basin sumps and stuff
[17:16] and it causes a lot more deltas in you
[17:18] know at at the drainage points but salt
[17:21] is equally as bad I mean that gets in
[17:24] the lakes prevents it from turning over
[17:25] I mean it's you know really bad so but
[17:28] yeah you're you don't have much choice I
[17:30] mean they they've did try different
[17:31] liquid treatments
[17:33] with molasses, with beets, different
[17:35] stuff like that, you know, and stuff to
[17:36] try it. But, uh, you know, um, you know,
[17:40] it's nothing beats salt, unfortunately.
[17:43] So,
[17:44] » Gosh, that's too bad.
[17:44] » Well, the gravel roads you put down, uh,
[17:47] » Chips. Yeah, that Yeah, that's uh, you
[17:49] know, 38, you know, rugged, rough chip
[17:52] is what it is. A limestone chip
[17:54] » For those slid up live on gravel roads
[17:57] » Because a gravel road will freeze on it
[17:59] faster than a than a paved road. I mean,
[18:01] like we had those little bit of
[18:03] raintorms and it hits there and it just
[18:05] you got glare ice in a matter of minutes
[18:08] and they're terrible. So,
[18:10] » Yeah, I've noticed that the city salt
[18:12] trucks, they'll put a little patch down,
[18:14] then go down like 50 to 100 feet and put
[18:16] another one down, then let the cars kind
[18:18] of spread it out.
[18:19] » Yeah, they're um so in the the actual um
[18:24] controller itself in the truck, it's
[18:25] programmed for lane miles. So you can
[18:27] set it so it drops either you can spread
[18:30] constantly or you can set it up for the
[18:32] staggered drop you know stuff like that.
[18:35] So um a lot of the guys just do the you
[18:37] know depend on where it's at and let it
[18:39] go through and intersections of course
[18:41] we can hit the blast if we want to do
[18:42] more but you know all the trucks are
[18:44] calibrated every every season beforehand
[18:47] so we keep the right amount of salts
[18:48] going down. We don't want to try to over
[18:51] apply or you know or underapply. So and
[18:53] then we do pre-treat our salt. We take
[18:56] our same um chemical that we use for
[18:58] dust abatement. We actually water it
[19:00] down because it's a little bit too
[19:01] thick. We add water to it and then we
[19:03] add that to our tanks and that sprays
[19:05] onto the salt. So what happens is that
[19:06] salt starts to break down faster. So it
[19:09] actually starts working faster on the
[19:10] roads.
[19:11] » So that's why you see the side tanks or
[19:13] the tank in the back of these trucks.
[19:15] It's a brine solution to help the salt
[19:17] activate faster. So,
[19:20] » But there's there's tons of different uh
[19:22] ideas out there and stuff, but uh salt's
[19:25] still the still the best thing, you
[19:27] know, and so we try to keep it to a
[19:28] minimum. The the real culprit are the
[19:30] private contractors that are doing
[19:32] parking lots and stuff like that just
[19:33] because the slipper falls. You ever look
[19:35] at a parking lot a few days after a
[19:37] storm, they're completely white with
[19:39] salt, which is really sad.
[19:40] » Is that what they use at the airports?
[19:42] Like that scares me.
[19:43] » Yeah, I mean they Yeah, I mean the
[19:45] airport use a lot of liquid chemical too
[19:47] though. Um they use a lot of calcium or
[19:49] mag chloride to help break it down
[19:50] faster. So but a lot of that stuff too I
[19:53] think is in a containment area too that
[19:55] they you know where they stuff I'm
[19:58] assuming it would be in a containment
[20:00] area so that it's not just going into
[20:02] the environment that it comes back and
[20:03] stuff. So
[20:05] » But
[20:06] thank you.
[20:08] » Well with that do I have a motion to
[20:10] close the meeting?
[20:12] » So moved.
[20:14] » I second that. All in favor?
[20:17] [laughter and clears throat]
[20:18] » I
[20:18] » I
[20:20] » Oppose.
[20:22] No, I guess not. That's an easy one.
[20:26] All right.