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Current Events
- If you or people in your area want to meet and discuss current/future topics related to the city, reach out to me to set up a time to visit. (email, phone call, or in person)
- As you're driving on the river road by Stephens' park, you'll notice construction on the south side of the road. That's the new central water system treatment facility in progress.
- Many of you are familiar with the phrase "rural look and feel" or "rural character." Dayton residents have said this is important to them and I agree. It's even in our mission statement. We've had a couple work sessions on the topic and I believe it'll result in a list of ideas we will be prioritizing for the future. If you have ideas, please let me know.
Work Session (Full Time Fire Fighter Hiring)
Through out the 2025 budget negotiations last year, a few things continued to be carried forward even though a majority of the council clearly didn't want them in there. Unfortunately, some of those stayed in until crunch time and the members of the council could either pass the entire thing even though these things were in there, or get over it and move on. They chose to get over it and move on. That budget passed 4-1. I was the lone vote against it. Had the only issue for me been just the 2 additional full time fire fighters I probably would have been ok with it, but I also didn't like the jump in capital equipment.
When the council funds an item in the budget, that doesn't mean it'll happen. That item will still need to be approved. This work session was to discuss the 2 full time fire fighters. For those of you curious about the details, I would suggest you watch the work session. The data put together by staff to support the hiring also showed a few other things that were concerning:
- Dayton's Fire Department is significantly more expensive for the residential properties than the other communities (St. Michael is 30% our cost).
- The fire fighter response per call (corrected for the number of fire fighters) was well below all the others with the exception of Maple Grove (which could have other factors given their scheduling process).
- The number of calls per capita our fire fighters respond to is almost twice as high as the other cities.
Since those budget talks last year, I've talked to a few council members from other cities and it's become clear to me that a significant issue we need to deal with is not only the number of calls the fire fighters respond to, but the types. Other than Rogers (who has an ambulance service) our neighboring cities significantly limit the calls their fire fighters respond to. That doesn't mean the calls are ignored since the police are almost always the first to arrive. What it does mean is a majority of calls our city responds to are either canceled in route or the respondents get there and there's nothing for them to do. My guess is that's a significant factor when a fire fighter has to decide to pull themselves away from what they are doing in order to answer a call that could end up being a complete waste of their time and skills.
There were also a number of other problems with this item that came up during the discussion.
Work sessions are for discussion and votes aren't taken. The vote for this was later in the meeting.
Item K (Lawndale Easement)
This was a continuation of a tabled item from the last meeting. The item involves a 3-way easement between the city and 2 properties. The details are hard to explain here but the bottom line is, it was a very poorly written agreement and my gut tells me the city leadership at that time was trying to involve themselves in something they shouldn't have. The result allowed one property owner to completely take advantage of the other with the city not having any power to assert the original intent due to the agreement wording.
Item L (Quarterly Financial Report)
As with every quarterly report, there were no surprises here.
Item M (Bernens Concept Plan )
Over the past few years, the council has pushed to allow some large, unsewered lots in areas that are slated for sewered development in the 2050+ timeframe. Over the past few years, I’ve had a lot of people ask about new homes on large lots and it’s been a long and painful battle to get it through. A month or so back we finally approved it with what the city is calling A3 zoning. The end result wasn’t what I would have preferred, but it’s a step in the right direction.
The first development to make use of this new zoning is on Diamond Lake North and consists of ten lots that vary in size from 3 to 23 acres. This new development consists of eleven 1.5-acre lots.
When this development came before the planning commission, the primary concern was the north access which would have been Maria Ave. The planning commission seen a few issues with that and asked that it be moved to Shadyview Ln. They also asked that it plan on an eventual connection to the river road when it gets sewer, but I would be surprised if the county was ok with that when it happens.
At this point the development hasn’t been run by any sort of civil engineer so it’s possible we’ll see it again as a concept plan. Since this was a concept plan there was no approval vote. These are only meant as a way for planning and the council to give their opinions on the development.
Item N (Yearly Audit)
As with every yearly audit report, there were no surprises here either.
Item O (Salonek Ag Preserve)
This was a request by the landowner to move his property into the state’s Ag Preserve program. It passed 4-0 with Scott (the property owner) abstaining.
Item P (Approval of 2 Full Time Firefighters)
This was the item to allow a vote on approval of hiring of 2 full time fire fighters discussed at the earlier work session. A few points were re-iterated from the work session but there was no motion made, and so the item didn’t pass. People are often confused by an item that fails to get a motion or second. It simply means none of the five of us wanted to approve it. It’s highly likely there will be other aspects of this coming up in the near future dealing with the number of calls the fire fighters respond to, a way to get an on-call schedule that the fire fighters can live with, etc.
Feel free to contact me with your opinions or ideas or complaints!