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HomeMy WebLinkAbout7. Approval of Minutes: August 26, and 28, 2003 OFFICIAL PROCEEDINGS OF THE CITY COUNCIL ADJ. REGULAR SESSION SHAKOPEE,MINNESOTA AUGUST 26, 2003 Mayor Mars called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. with Council members Lehman, Joos, Link and Helkamp present. Also present were: Mark McNeill, City Administrator; Judith S. Cox, City Clerk; Bruce Loney, Public Works Director/City Engineer. The following City staff were present at 7:08 p.m. R. Michael Leek, Community Development Director; Dan Hughes, Police Chief; and Michael Hullander, Public Works Supervisor. Mr. Loney opened the Short Elliot Hendrickson, Inc. (S.E.H.) presentation on the public works reorganization. Mr. Loney gave a little history on where the Public Works Department was at right now. Mr. Loney noted the organization and then the growth of the community was looked at and it could be seen early on that the growth of the community was outgrowing the organization. Mr. Loney noted the number one reason this report was done was to improve services to the public by the Public Works Department. Mr. Loney noted the last reorganization of the Public Works Department was done back in 1997. Lloyd M. Pauly, S.E.H. Consultant and former Public Works Director for the City of Minnetonka, 7975 Autumn Ridge Way, Chanhassen, approached the podium and highlighted some of his observations and recommendations. He noted how his information had been gathered. This was an opportunity to make some changes to an organization that was functioning well now but needed some help for future growth in the City of Shakopee. Mr. Pauly felt the current practices in need of upgrading were: 1) there needed to be s~tary sewer cleaning on a regular basis [this was one of the more important functions that Public Works had], 2) there needed to be a change to the developer and contractor work that the Public Works Department was doing [work to clean up after a developer and contractor needed to be billed back and small projects need to be done by others], 3) there needed to be a coordination of the entire pavement maintenance system between Engineering and the Public Works Department [Mr. Loney stated for this to happen he needed more time, money and personnel]. Mr. Loney noted the Public Works Department was stretched to the point where they were not getting other things done. Some maintenance was not getting done because little projects kept coming up. Cncl. Joos noted that planned maintenance was a critical component. Mr. Pauly also commented on the current organizational structure for the Public Works Department and what he proposed for an immediate and long-range structure. Mr. Pauly described the differences and the impact of the structure he proposed. The differences were: I) a full time public works clerk position rather than a part-time position [essential], 2) creation ofa park maintenance supervisor and street/sewer maintenance supervisor and making them exempt employees [replacing the park lead and street lead position]. 3) create a lead person responsible for fleet mechanic services. 4) create a position for a temporary lead person [specific program to lead]. Official Proceedings of the August 26, 2003 Shakopee City Council Page -2- Mr. Pauly made 17 specific recommendations in his report. He suggested that the purchase of the SPUC building be made prior to the remodeling of the current Public Works building. It was critical that the City negotiate for that building. The Public Works Department was in need of mapping facilities for who does what; their mapping was out of date and it was very hard to do their jobs with what they had. It was noted by Mr. Loney that the City now had the technology to do this, it was the time and personnel to do it. The Engineering Department needed to have input from Public Works in the planning and inspections of developments. Lehman/Mars moved to accept the report done by Mr. Lloyd Pauly on behalf of Short Elliot Hendrickson, Inc. on the Public Works Reorganization. Cncl. Lehman wanted to spend more time discussing the report in the future. Mayor Mars thought there should be more discussion on the 17 recommendations to find the important ones and to try and implement some of the recommendations depending on what the budget could stand. Cncl. Lehman noted an implementation plan and timeline needed to be put together. Mr. Loney noted there were several items in the report that needed to be expanded on with the Council so the Council understood why certain policies were proposed. No action was taken on the motion to accept the report. Mayor Mars thanked Mr. Pauly for his report. Mayor Mars recessed the meeting at 7:05 p.m. Mayor Mars reconvened the meeting at 7:08 p.m. Mayor Mars welcomed Planning Commission members and members of the Shakopee Public Utilities Commission and well as School District 720 Superintendent, Jon McBroom. Superintendent, Jon McBroom, noted the School District had a task force working to determine what the next facility would need to be. For this reason a demographics study was done by Hazel Reinhardt, former State Demographer for the State of Minnesota. Mr. McBroom noted the Facilities Task Force was well pleased with Ms. Reinhardt's report. Mr. McBroom noted this was a comprehensive report of where the School District had been in population figures in the past and where the School District was going. Ms. Reinhardt noted that figures and trends for public school projections were being looked at. The figures being looked at were for the ages of 5-18 and not the adult population. It was noted that the School District of Shakopee had 85% of its population within the City of Shakopee. It really was the City of Shakopee that was driving the School District. The number of households really increased during the late 90's. Ms. Reinhardt noted there was very substantial growth in the City even compared to the County last year. Ms. Reinhardt looked at what were the Official Proceedings of the August 26, 2003 Shakopee City Council Page -3- characteristics of the community, the age and size of the female population during the childbearing years, school enrollment dynamics, and births in the county. Ms. Reinhardt noted the structure of Shakopee Schools had enough room for growth from within the community as it is now for approximately five years if there was no new growth in the City. There was growth just within the City; the classes were getting larger; every class would be larger than the graduating class of 2003. Ms. Reinhardt noted that many of the characteristics and figures found for the City of Shakopee were not true in many others areas of the State (Shakopee was an exception). Ms Reinhardt stated that she figured the City of Shakopee would grow because of the high number of 0-4 year olds and the high number of women in their childbearing age and the number of full rental units in the City of Shakopee (internal migration). The number of households in the City of Shakopee would remain young for a long time. Ms. Reinhardt noted that consistently there were more kindergartners than graduates in the School District. There were large classes in the elementary grades. The kindergarten class had grown by 43% over the last decade. The lower grades were growing far more than the middle grades right now and it was expected that these younger families would remain in the City. The junior high had also seen some large growth; as far as the high school years were concerned, there was a large growth seen in the 9thgrade. Some of this growth was from the influx of students from the non-public schools. One of the methods used by Ms. Reinhardt for projections was the housing unit method. This method made only one estimate for the total enrollment but there were several steps involved. This was a valuable tool because it allowed the City to see how many housing units needed to be built to accommodate the school enrollment of certain sizes. Ms. Reinhardt stated as the population aged the migration to and from the community slowed. She was of the opinion that the numbers from the Metropolitan Council may be somewhat conservative. Historically, the Metropolitan Council underestimated growth. She projected the growth to be somewhat higher. Ms. Reinhardt projected that by 2013 the School District may be faced with 7000 students. The population in Shakopee was somewhat younger than what was seen in other cities. She projected there would need to be 5,845 additional housing units by 2013 based on the Metropolitan Council projections. Some of these projections were dependent on how the City chose to develop (kinds of units and rate). She felt there might need to be somewhere between 800 to 1800 more housing units than what the Metropolitan Council was projecting. She felt she had reasonable assumptions and was quite confident of them. Mr. McBroom stated that he too thought the 7000 number was legitimate. Ms. Reinhardt stated that if younger people kept moving into the school district this population growth for the school district would continue. She felt the school population would reach 7000 by 2013 and if not 2013 then certainly 2015. She noted she was also giving substantial growth to the non-public schools. It was after 2010 that the baby boomers children would be reaching their childbearing years and the school age population was expected to rise again. The high levels of Official Proceedings of the August 26, 2003 Shakopee City Council Page -4- school enrollment in Shakopee should be sustained by this fact. There was a lot of land in Shakopee and the Townships to develop. There was enormous capacity for growth with the opening of the Bloomington Ferry Bridge. Mr. Leek, Community Development Director, noted that the City of Shakopee was developing around 600 new units this year and this percentage was expected to continue. Mr. Leek stated the annexation of Jackson Township (when and how) and possible annexation of Louisville Township in the future would have significant impact on the City of Shakopee and the School District. It was noted that the single-family detached homes had the most school aged children. The attached townhomes did have kids in them but usually not as many as the detached single- family home. It was noted apartment units did not normally have many school-aged children. Superintendent, Jon McBroom, addressed the relationship between property taxes and the state formula for schools. Mr. McBroom noted the increased housing and increased businesses increased the tax base and these new households and new businesses picked up a significant part of the cost of new facilities or bond issues passed in the past. Mr. McBroom noted the School District was trying to do some financial study on this item. The expansion of the tax base was really a good thing and was a function of the growth of the City. JooslLink moved to adjourn to Thursday August 28,2003 at 7:00 p.m. Motion carried 5-0. The meeting adjourned at 8:30 p.m. &l~ld . ~ J dith S. Cox City Clerk Carole Hedlund Recording Secretary . OFFICIAL PROCEEDINGS OF THE CITY COUNCIL ADJ. REGULAR SESSION SHAKOPEE, MINNESOTA AUGUST 28, 2003 Mayor Mars called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. with Council members Lehman, Joos, Link and Helkamp present. Also present from Louisville Township was John Weckman, Chair and Marion Schmidt, Supervisor. Also present from Jackson Township was Norbert Theis, Chair and Rose Menke, Clerk. Also present: Mark McNeill, City Administrator; Judith S. Cox, City Clerk; Bruce Loney, Public Works Director/City Engineer; Gregg Voxland, Finance Director; Terry Stang, Fire Chief; Mark Themig, Facilities and Recreation Director; and Tracy Schaefer, Assistant to the City Administrator. Mr. McNeill noted there were portions of the budget that not only affected the City but the Townships as well. The Park and Recreation, as well as, the Fire Department section of the budget affected Louisville and Jackson Townships. It was for that reason that the Townships had been invited to hear those presentations. Terry Stang, Fire Chief, approached the podium. The highest number of fire calls was in 2001. He noted that now the fire calls were several calls ahead oflast year (2002) and there was still four months to go this year. He noted the budget increases were for: 1) officers pay, 2) increase in firemen pay, 3) business meetings and 4) outside schooling. Right now the firemen do not get paid for any time spent in schooling. The increase in wages still was not even close for the amount of hours that a fireman puts in. It was pointed out that the firemen did get paid this wage plus a per call stipend. Chief Stang did show a break down analysis of the budget with these increases included. This amounted to about a $50,000 increase in the total salaries for the firemen and $4,200 for the salaries of the officers. Chief Stang noted the firemen did get paid for attending drills but there were many activities that the firemen did that they did not get paid for. They did not get paid to attend monthly meetings. The amount put in the budget for attending the monthly meetings was $ 1,000. Chief Stang noted that normally a firefighter would take a 12-hour class in Mankato or Duluth. There were eighteen firefighters that took the 12-hour class last year. This increase would be $2,160. Previous to this request this was a weekend basically donated to the Fire Department by the firemen. Cncl. Link thought the total cost of these increases ($57,360) was a bargain because the City had a volunteer Fire Department and what the City was saving by having a volunteer Fire Department did not compare to this increase. The firemen were giving much more of their time because the fire calls were increasing. Link/Lehman moved to support a $57,360 increase to the Fire Department's budget for 2004. Mr. McNeill suggested that the Council wait until the end to see what all the budgets were before they made a decision. Things really did not have to be finalized tonight. Official Proceedings of the August 28,2003 Shakopee City Council Page -2- Mayor Mars noted that the City did get a bargain with a volunteer Fire Department rather than having a full-time Fire Department. Cncl. Lehman withdrew his second to the motion and Cncl. Link withdrew his motion. Norbert Theis, Chair of the Jackson Town Board, noted that the City of Shako pee had the best Fire Department in the State of Minnesota. He too would go along with the request from the Fire Chief. It was noted there was a break down of the Fire calls to the Townships from the City calls but the numbers were not available tonight. Chief Stang guessed 10% of the calls were to the Townships. Chief Stang noted Jackson Township contributed to the City for these calls and Louisville Township was charged a stand by fee as well as $206.00 per hour and then Louisville Township collected this money from the respondent. Mayor Mars questioned the townships about burning permit fees. John Weckman, Chair Louisville Township, stated he could see paying a fee for a burning permit but somehow the people had to be protected who got those permits. Norbert Theis, Chair of Jackson Township, stated he had no problem with a burning permit fee. Mr. McNeill noted that if there were an increase in the fIre fIghters wage then there probably would need to be an increase in the standby fee and the hourly fee. This should be known in September or October. Mr. Theis noted there was some trouble determining in specific areas if the fire call was Jackson or Louisville Township. Chief Stang noted if the wage increase for the fIreman were phased over two years that was fine with him. He noted many of the calls were in the daytime hours and not all of the employers paid the firemen when they left their regular job to respond to a fire and this was another reason the increase in pay was requested. Chief Stang noted some of the equipment that was proposed for the 2004 budget. Mayor Mars noted that the Fire Department thought the need for the next sub Fire Station would be out in the Southbridge area. The Townships could still be serviced very well. The sub Fire Station on the west end of Vierling Drive was still in the plan for in the future. Mr. McNeill addressed Ms. Menke's question. Mr. McNeill thought the sharing of costs would likely need to be discussed when the sub station was built on Vierling Drive (approximately five years). Mr. Themig, Facilities and Recreation Director, reported on the recreation fees. Mr. Themig stated there currently were non-resident fees depending on where a person lived. Mr. Themig explained these fees. These fees had remained the same for several years and probably needed to Official Proceedings of the August 28, 2003 Shakopee City Council Page -3- be updated. Mr. Themig noted that he did meet with Gerry Marek, Supervisor for Jackson Township, and John Weckman, Chair for Louisville Township, earlier this year and the proposal with fee increases was discussed but not formally presented to the Town Boards. Jackson Township was interested in streamlining the process regarding tracking the fee and Louisville Township was interested in keeping it the same. The proposal also talked about some additional support for park maintenance activities for programs that took place in City park facilities. There did not seem to be interest from the Townships to contribute for the park maintenance from their funds, so it was noted the participants might have to pick up some of this cost. Right now it was the City Of Shakopee residents paying for park maintenance for the parks in the City. Mr. Themig noted if there was consensus he would be happy to approach the Townships formally with this proposal. He did value the participation of the Township residents. Mayor Mars asked if it was a confusing element for the Park and Recreation Department to delineate out non-residents. Mr. Themig noted once they were set up in the system there was no problem. The confusion came when the participant came in to sign up. Mayor Mars noted the Townships had just received this information. Norbert Theis asked how the fees were determined. Mr. Themig noted as far as he knew a historical fee formula was being used. This formula had not been updated in a long time. Norbert Theis stated with the population of Jackson Township decreasing he had a problem with the increases. Mayor Mars noted the costs to the City of Shakopee had gone up. It was noted that the use of the recreation programs did see an increase in Jackson Township participants. Mr. Themig noted that Gerry Marek, Jackson Township Supervisor, did state that the ball field at the Jackson Town Hall could be used by the City for youth recreation programs. Mayor Mars stated that he would like Mr. Themig to present this proposal formally to the Townships and discuss the proposal with them and present the opportunities it presented and the challenges. Mayor Mars thanked the officials from Jackson Township and Louisville Township for attending the meeting. Mr. Voxland reported on the tax levy in general. Mr. Voxland stated the tax levy limit was $7.4 million for 2002 taxes payable in 2003. Mr. Voxland noted the levy set by the State Levy limit was $7.9 million for taxes levied in 2003 and payable in 2004. This represented a $441,000 or 6% increase. Cncl. Lehman noted the increase was due to the fact that the State said that cities could levy back a portion of what the cities lost in State Aid. Mr. Voxland noted that Market Value Credit was part of the original levy last year (This was included in the $7.4 million dollars last year. The state was going to pay the Market Value for the Taxpayer - they are not doing that.). It was noted that the City could levy back to the taxpayer $441,000. This was a fixed maximum operations levy. Official Proceedings of the August 28, 2003 Shakopee City Council Page -4- Mr. Voxland noted options for Council to consider. These options regarded different payment options for the 1995B Storm Drainage Revenue Bonds; this is a General Obligation Revenue Bond that has been paid out of the Storm Drainage Fees. A payment option for debt service for sanitary sewer treatment debt paid with the Met Waste bill. It was noted these options would raise the taxes to each property. The total debt service levy was a total of$171,000 last year. If the Council included the options that were presented, the total debt service levy this year would be $731,000. There also was the option that if the COPS grant was accepted by the City, the City could levy the portion of the City's share for the salaries of these new officers ($92,000). The total levy was $7.6 million last year and the total maximum levy for 2003 payable in 2004 was $8.7 million this year. This was an increase of$1.1 million or 15%. More was being received for fiscal disparities this year than was received by the City last year. The fiscal disparities distribution (money that comes back directly to the City) was discussed. The levy to spread and to certify was $8 million this year and last year it was $7 million. The market value cut of this proposed levy was $560,000. The State was giving the taxpayers the credit but the City was not going to get this money. Mr. Voxland stated that after the fiscal disparities were distributed, taking the options he suggested into consideration the debt service fund would get $179,000, the City EDA would get approximately $60,000 and the General Fund would get approximately $7.1 million. Mr. Voxland stated the City has a net taxable tax capacity of $24,000,000 million. This isa 16% increase. Mr. Voxland noted these were very preliminary numbers. This resulted in a tax rate for the City of 33.56%, which was a decrease of 1 % over the tax rate for last year. Even though the tax levy was increased 15% the tax rate would go down. A house that had an estimated market value last year of $126,000 had an estimated market value of$141,600 this year. The market value had gone up 12%. Because the cap was coming offthe market value the value of the homes were rising faster so their value could catch up to the true value. The tax on the home would go up $46.00 or 10.7%. This percentage was quite uniform for all priced homes, this year. Because things have changed at the State, the residential home would see a larger increase in taxes. Mr. Voxland noted he would bring back this type of comparable information, if the Council chose not to use the options suggested. Mr. V oxland stated that right now the expenditures exceeded the revenues by approximately $125,000. Mr. Voxland noted the picture might be brighter when firmer numbers were received on the tax capacity. The Council may want to choose other revenue sources such as: increasing fees, or using fund balance to help offset the deficit. Mr. Themig, Facilities and Recreation Director, reported on the Recreation Fund, the Natural Resources Budget and Government Buildings Operations. Mr. Themig expected the expenditures and the revenues in the Recreation Fund to increase in 2004 for a total net impact on the subsidy from the City to the Recreation Fund of approximately Official Proceedings of the August 28, 2003 Shakopee City Council Page -5- $62,200. This was assuming the current level of service, additional program growth in terms of participation and no fee increases, yet. The fee increases had not been discussed by the Park and Recreation Advisory Board (PRAB) yet; however, that discussion would be coming shortly. Mr. Themig was of the opinion when the PRAB discussed the operations regarding the Recreation Fund, the subsidy from the City would continue to go down. Mayor Mars asked Mr. Themig to do an analysis of how much the City could save by cutting off an hour here or there at the community center or community center activities. Mr. Themig will follow-up with this information. Mr. Themig would like further direction on this because there were many options. Mr. Themig spoke to the Natural Resources budget. This budget showed an increase of about 5.6%. The additional costs reflected in this budget were for greenway planning, an environmental partnership fund for wetland inventory and some GIS training. Mayor Mars asked if collaboration had been looked at with Scott County or other communities for some of the greenway planning, or the environmental partnership fund for wetland inventory or any other type natural resources program (tree inventory). Mr. Themig noted he would be willing to look at this suggestion. Mr. Themig thought perhaps Scott County might have resources accessible to the Natural Resources Department. Mr. Themig reported on the Government Buildings Operation budget. This budget showed a substantial increase in 2004 from 2003. Basically, the new Library was responsible for the large increase. This budget included city hall, the library and the senior center. There were significant increases in the utilities and professional services as well. Mr. Themig mentioned replacing the carpet at the community center for the third year, now. He noted the quote to replace this carpet had gone up $10,000 since the original estimate. He noted the library would be moving out of the community center and opening up the multi- purpose room space. He would like to move some activities around to use the space more successfully; however, this would incur some costs initially. He noted fitness requests were the number one requests from the members and potential members of the community center. Mr. Themig was of the opinion that the creation of a fitness center would increase revenues. He would also like to create a teen center in the other half ofthe multi-purpose room. There was an issue of teens hanging out in the community center. There was no place for them to go. Cncl. Lehman noted that this was a bad funding year to create a teen center that was expected to have a large amount of overhead. Mr. Themig noted he would like to do a Park Master Plan update that covered the townships. The current plan was done in 1998 and it really did need to be updated. There was no funding in the budget to do this, it was estimated that this update could be done for around $15,000. Official Proceedings of the August 28, 2003 Shakopee City Council Page -6- Mayor Mars thought this might be a good tool for the Townships as well; perhaps they would like to participate. Mr. Themig noted the new operating systems (heating, cooling, technology) in the new buildings were very complex. He suggested some ways the new buildings could be cleaned for the longevity of the building and systems. Mr. Themig stated these items were not included in the budget request and he would like some further direction on how he should proceed with these items. Mr. Voxland noted there was an equipment rescue truck in the 2001 budget that had not been purchased yet. This was being plugged into next year. Mr. V oxland noted that he proposed to move the telesquirt and the tanker out to 2005; the telesquirt would be ordered in 2004 but it most likely would not get here until 2005. He would move the Police 4x4 out at the Chief of Police's suggestion (one year). Mr. V oxland noted the current dollar, floor, for inclusion into the capital improvement fund is $10,000. He asked does the Council wish to increase this to $15,000 or $20,000? Mr. Voxland noted this has not been changed. If this were changed to $20,000 this would increase the individual budgets because the departments would then have to pay for equipment (vehicle) and decrease the rent expense because they are not paying rent on the vehicle. This however, made it timelier to make the decision whether to buy one or not. This would affect their budget for the next year as opposed to the following year thru a rental charge. Departments have been paying into the rental process for years for equipment and now that money would not be available for use. Mr. V oxland noted what was done was done. Mayor Mars asked Mr. Voxland ifhe was recommending that the Council raise the mark (from $10,000) and if he thought this would be okay for the equipment fund as well as manageable for department heads. Mr. Voxland noted he thought this should be raised but it would be a little more of a psychological adjustment for the department heads to go back and budget for the smaller vehicles. Generally this was a light truck and police car. If you wanted to take squad cars out that was a separate package. Mr. V oxland asked for direction or consensus on this question. Mayor Mars polled the Council members; Council Helkamp stated to raise it to $20,000 was fine. Then light trucks and squad cars would need to be looked at as separate issues because they are more expensive than what is being suggested. It didn't make any difference if it was cash being paid out for cars or rent. Cncls. Link and Joos concurred with Cncl. Helkamp and Cncl. Lehman also concurred with Cncl. Helkamp but he took it one step further. Cncl. Lehman did not think that these vehicles needed to be replaced as soon as the department heads thought they should be replaced. Mayor Mars pointed out that this increase and having this expense come Official Proceedings of the August 28, 2003 Shakopee City Council Page -7- from the operating budgets of the departments themselves just might take care of Cncl. Lehman's concern. Mr. Voxland wanted to know if the Council wanted to include the police cars in the Internal Service Fund or take them out. To this question Cncl. Lehman stated he would have to think about it, Cncl. Joos noted he would like to see it (squad cars) stay in the equipment fund, Cncl. Link stated he would like to see it remain in the equipment fund. Cncl. Helkamp thought paying rent into the equipment fund was a great idea and he did not want to get away from that concept. He did see some value of the squad car being in the department budget because this would have an effect on how they were maintained and perhaps help with the decision as to whether new cars needed to be purchased. He was on the fence. He would like more input from the department heads. Mayor Mars noted when he was reading this and looking at ways to be efficient, he came up with the idea to see if a percentage used for the department to buy some equipment and then the equipment fund responsible for the other percentage. Example Police Operating budget buy 2 squad cars and the equipment budget buy two squad cars. He would like a balance and the departments really scrutinizing what they should buy. Cncl. Joos noted that was an interesting concept but really the Police Department had no options as to what they bought. Cncl. Joos noted that as the City grew there were be additional needs for these cars and the number today may not be appropriate in years to come. Cncl Helkamp suggested fleet replacement vehicles coming from the service fund and fleet expansion vehicles coming out of the general fund. Cncl. Lehman noted if the replacement vehicles were put in the operating budget the departments were just going to come in with expanded budget requests. This really was not a change. Mr. V oxland noted he was not hearing a consensus for changing. Mr. V oxland reported on the small trucks. The compact truck will be dropped out with the required $20,000 it would not drop out the 'lS or 3/4-ton trucks. Mr. V oxland stated based on the previous discussion discussing squad cars it sounded like he probably was not going to get consensus to pull those out. Mayor Mars stated back on the squad cars, he did like Cncl. Helkamp's idea for fleet replacement and he would like to explore that idea. He would like to see more information on the fleet replacement with the equipment fund paying for the replacement vehicles and the general budget paying for fleet expansion vehicles initially. Defining the replacement criteria for a vehicle was a hard thing to get a hold of. Should the replacement criteria be placed on a mechanics evaluation and replace the equipment with a rating of3, or should a number of miles or years be used or should whatever the department head could justify year by year to the Council be used. Mayor Mars noted this was a complicated issue. It was not a one size fits all. It needed to be decided what was the best approach. Today's replacement policy was based on the City of Eagan's replacement policy. Mr. McNeill noted the he would look to see if there was something Official Proceedings of the August 28, 2003 Shakopee City Council Page -8- more up to date and might be more appropriate and answer some of the questions that the Council had tonight. He would follow-up on this conversation. Cncl. Joos noted if the vehicles were maintained properly they would last additional time. Mr. V oxland stated in terms of first line response vehicles, it became a question of reliability and condition if that extra year should be used; these vehicles were used for public safety. Mr. Loney noted there was a lot of information available on vehicle replacement policies. This did not need to be reinvented. Mr. Loney noted it would eventually get down to a policy decision; do you want to retain the vehicle longer; for a person to get the maximum use out of a vehicle one needed to look at the reliability of a first response vehicle. You do need to weigh this reliability concern for first response vehicles. Mr. McNeill noted that Chief Stang had done some research in the Metro area on replacing the tank on the tanker. This was the item that was really bad on the tanker. Right now the tanker had a steel tank and according to the companies surveyed, this type tank was obsolete and they recommended going to a poly tank. To replace this tank each ofthese companies quoted a ballpark figure somewhere between $50,000 to $60,000. The price quoted for a new tanker was quoted to be somewhere between $225,000 and $250,000. The pump on the old tanker was not OSHA approved either. Chief Stang stated if the pump were replaced also, the City would be better off to go with a new truck. Mr. Themig reported on the park ClP update. Mr. Themig noted bonding for some of the park projects was discussed with the Park and Recreation Advisory Board (PRAB) and after speaking with Mr. Loney and Mr. V oxland the bonding did appear to be feasible. The new park development could be handled through the Park Reserve Fund and the reconstruction park projects or park improvements could be handled through the bonding process. Mr. Themig recommended that the City proceed this fall with the actual design of Huber Park. Mr. Themig noted there were some questions relating to the concept plan for Huber Park that needed to be addressed with the final design. Huber Park was quite a complicated project. To proceed with the final design plan for Huber Park would be a change to the ClP. Mr. Themig noted the Park Reserve Fund was healthy enough to support this design work this year if the Council decided to do so. Mr. Themig noted that Mr. Loney had been in contact with the DNR regarding some funding for the riverbank stabilization. There may be a potential for a partnership on this with the DNR. Mayor Mars noted the conceptual plan would be made definite at some point but right now the City needed to do some things in Huber Park (sanitary sewer and underground power lines). Mr. Themig stated he thought the plan was needed to make sure the fill was being put in the right places. Because the Rotary donated some money for the band shell, it was pointed out that they should be involved in the band shell selection. Mayor Mars agreed that this conceptual plan needed to be taken to the final design stage. Some sort of framework was needed for Huber Park. The real figures needed to be found out. Official Proceedings of the August 28, 2003 Shakopee City Council Page -9- Tahpah Park parking lot and replacement of the play equipment in Tahpah Park was one of the projects proposing to be added to another project so it could be bonded for. The Greenfield neighborhood park west was phased over two in years in the ClP and Mr. Themig was proposing that it would probably be cost efficient to do this type park at one time. Mr. Themig noted that the Prairie Village Park land acquisition was pushed back to 2005 and that park development was then pushed out to 2006. The ProvidencelWestchester Park would likely be developed in 2006. The funding was removed from parcel 75 for the park out in the Southbridge area. It was noted the Greenfield east neighborhood park would not be built out until at least 2007. Mr. Themig noted some temporary improvements to O'Dowd Lake Park were going to be done by the Public Works Department and the potential construction of the permanent improvements would be done in 2005. The park dedication fee would be reviewed and updated and it was suggested that the City include in its budget some funds for upkeep and maintenance of the City parks. Mayor Mars suggested that a follow up meeting be set to finish this long agenda. He suggested Wednesday, September 3, 2003 with a start time of 5:45 p.m. Mr. V oxland pointed out that the EDA budget had not been reviewed yet and the EDA had a need to have this done by Tuesday, September 2, unless there was a special meeting scheduled. Helkamp and Link discussed the setting of the Tax Levy for 2003/04 by the EDA for the City. Lehman/Mars moved to adjourn to Tuesday September 2,2003 at 7:00 p.m. Motion carried 5-0. The meeting adjourned at 8:56 p.m. U~d, rJf dith S. Cox City Clerk Carole Hedlund Recording Secretary