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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
Item D (Metro West)
A few months back it was discovered that a commercial building in the city was being operated without proper fire suppression which got missed during the plan inspection. The missing equipment was delt with, but staff was directed to talk to Metro West to find out how something that significant got missed. That discussion satisfied me. The company had recently turned over and the new owner put in processes to help mitigate those misses.
This item was to allow the owner of Metro West to discuss changes he’s made to how they handle our reviews and inspections.
I hear people complain about inspectors missing things a lot. My background includes production engineering and it’s a common problem. A facility (or home, etc.) can take hundreds of hours to design, build, and finish. A simple home electric install can take weeks. A typical inspection lasts maybe an hour. Inspectors miss things because they can’t possibly look at even 1% of the work done. Production facilities learned years ago, what matters is the quality of the process and work done.
Item E (DNR Landing)
Last year the DNR provided a significant amount of funding to the city to completely redo the DNR landing just north of the bridge in the Old Village. This was to review the plans prior to going out for bids. One of the things that needed fixing was the shallow boat launch on the Mississippi. With this plan that will stay as a canoe / kayak launch and a new boat launch will be created on the Crow River side.
Item F (Utility Boxes)
There have been complaints regarding the dilapidated state of some of the utility boxes in the city and how to address those. The proposal was to inventory everything in the city on the ROW. As you can imagine this isn’t cheap to do and would require periodically updating that list. And... it doesn’t solve the issue. The solution we settled on was, when a complaint is made about a box and the utility company hasn’t acted, the city would then use its power to try to get the utility company to correct the issue.
Item G (Bates Street Vacation)
The city is loaded with easements of various types. An easement is a portion of a property that is still owned by the property owner, but at any point in time the government body controlling that easement can use it for the purpose it was created for. Just for clarification a ROW (Right-of-way) is property the government actually owns, typically along a road.
I’ve never been ok with easements that don’t seem to have a real possibility of being used because of the restrictions it places on the property owner. I also don’t like how they’re typically acquired, which is another story...
In this case a property owner is putting a house on a property which has a road easement along one side of the property. That road easement was created (as far as anybody can tell) in the late 1800’s and, in my opinion will never be needed. Leaving it as an easement will likely result in a variance needed by this property owner since it will likely be very close to the house (4 ft). Staff is always risk averse which means if there’s ANY chance of the easement being needed, they will push to keep it.
The initial vote to vacate (remove) failed 2-3 (I voted to vacate) but when it became clear a variance might be needed, that flipped 2 of the votes and it then was approved.
Item H (Amend Franchise Fee)
A few years ago, the city passed what is referred to as a franchise fee. That fee shows up on everybody’s electric and gas bill. The fee amount is based on meter size and use. Typically farms need large meters to flow the amount of energy needed to dry grain. For months when they’re not used, the fee isn’t charged. Unfortunately, the utilities are no longer NOT going to charge when the meters aren’t in use and so this item was to reduce Ag fees to a typically residence cost.
Item J (Levy)
Cities in Minnesota are required to submit a preliminary levy by the end of September and a final at the end of the year. The amount of taxes approved in December have to be at or lower than the preliminary amount. There are still quite a few questions being asked but this was to get that baseline done. The levy being approved here was 9% higher than last year. That matches the “capacity” number increase. Roughly 3% of that is due to increases in property values and 6% was due to new property improvements (houses, businesses).
The tax rate is roughly the levy amount divided by the capacity amount. Since the increases match, the tax rate will stay the same.
For my part, I believe the levy still has room to come down for December.
This was approved 5-0.
Item K (Old Village Water Tower)
The Old Village water system only has 2000 gallons of storage. It’s also only pressured by the pumps. That’s fine for typical usage but not so fine for fighting fires. A water tower down there has been talked about for many years but they’re not cheap. And justifying a cost like that for roughly 150 –200 homes is a stretch. However, we have been on the list at the state for grant money a couple of years and at some point, it’s likely to happen. This was to approve preliminary plans for a tower including costs for the tower and a connection into the system for wherever it ends up.
This was approved 5-0.
Item L (Fernbrook Study)
With all of the development on the south side, Fernbrook traffic has been a topic for quite a few years. Recently the county put in stop signs at Rush Creek but that is a short-term solution. Unfortunately, they don’t have any long-term plans to fix it. To help them get towards a long-term solution this study will look at what it’ll take for roundabouts at 117th, 125th, and Rush Creek. There are currently plans and funding to put one at 114th.
This was approved 5-0.
Item M,N (Closed)
While the title of this agenda item is a little intense, the wording was specified by our attorney, and the content of the meeting / discussion didn’t reach the same level as the title. At the next meeting we’ll discuss the results of the meeting and any actions resulting from the discussions.
Feel free to contact me with your questions or comments.