View the meeting (click to open)
Current Events
- Election Updates: There are 4 council candidates and 2 mayor candidates. General election is Nov 5th. Click here for list of local candidates.
- 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.
Item J (unpaid utilities)
If you have outstanding balances on your water bill, that balance PLUS a significant penalty is added to your tax bill. This item formalizes that list (which is pretty long) and approves the amount be added to the next year’s taxes.
Item K (Stephens Park Master Plan update)
This was to suggest amenities to go into the next phase of updates for this park and approve going out for bids on proposals to provide that next phase.
Over the last couple of years there have been a lot of amenity suggestions for this park which are included in the agenda, some of which are pretty unrealistic and some that should have been included in previous phases (such as a decent restroom). These suggestions will be included in any proposals we’ll see.
It was approved 5-0.
Item L (Long Term Plan)
A few years back I noticed that items in the Long-Term Plan would get moved around by staff and in order to put them back, the council would have to notice it and undo it if they didn’t agree with it. I put a stop to that and everyone agreed that anything going onto the plan or being moved around had to get approval by the council. This item was to walk through the plan and adjust items and get an idea of the fund balances.
Most of this was informational but due to the survey results (which I discussed below) I suggested we move the fire station out 3 years. The survey results clearly indicted the residents aren’t interested in a 3rd station anytime soon. My reason for 3 years is that’s likely when the city will do another survey and that question will likely be on there.
The council and staff agreed to move that out by 3 years and additionally the new city hall since it’s likely going to be a single bond and they may result in one facility.
That ALSO gets us 3 more years to find a better location for these government buildings (or at least the fire facilities).
Item M (South Diamond Lake Road Updates)
This item approves plans and specifications to do an overlay on this road. It was approved 5-0.
Item N (Dayton Creek Addition)
This item is to do a comp plan amendment and preliminary plat approval. The property is on both sides of Dayton Parkway south of the freeway. The items in this approval are limited to a subset of the streets and storm water management. The developer doesn’t have any customers yet but needs this step completed to start promoting it. Given this has been before the council once before and the planning commission twice there wasn’t much in question. It was approved 5-0.
Item O (Met Council Affordable and Lifecycle Housing Goals)
The Met Council offers grants for pre-development, clean-up, development, and policy development of low-income housing. In order to get those grants (I’m not sure how they would even apply) you have to make an agreement with the Met Council to “not prohibit affordable housing.” My concern was... I have no idea what that means. I have no trust in the Met Council. It was decided not to agree to those goals.
Item P (Morris Leatherman Survey)
At the last council meeting we discussed the results of this survey with the administrator of the survey. Some of the results were so clear that I took those as a mandate and I suggested we discuss 2 of those items at this meeting. My concern was that a few of these survey results are not the direction staff or 2 of the council members are pushing and I wanted to make sure the council acknowledges the results and eventually acts on them.
- City speed limits (within developments). 71% of residents stated they wanted local speed limits reduced from 30 MPH to 25 MPH. We have gotten some requests for this in the past but it was hard to judge the number on both sides (there are people who think changing to 25 MPH is wasting money/energy) and our police chief not being very enthusiastic about it meant it wasn’t pushed. My suggestion here was that we do some work on this and see what the cost actually is and what it would take to implement this.
- Fire station. This was the result of a few observations in that survey; 97% are satisfied with the current level of fire protection, 89% do not believe response time to be a major concern (37% minor-52% no concern), and the average amount people are willing to spend on a new fire station is $6/month. A new station is going to be SIGNIFICANTLY higher than $6. Given these results, my suggestion was to move the planned station from 2028 to 2031. That way a new survey (in 3 years) has a chance to indicate a change in resident’s thinking. It also gives the city more time to find a better spot for it to land other than by a large residential development.
Item Q&R (Park Irrigation)
A few meetings ago the council approved going out for bids on putting irrigation in some of our parks. This was to approve the winning bid and allow the work to start yet this fall. It passed 5-0.
As always, feel free to contact me with questions or concerns.