League of Women Voters of Northfield

Kiffi Summa, LWV Observer

After the opening roll call (all members present), agenda and minutes approval,  Deputy Police Chief Walerius was sworn in by the City Clerk.  Our new Deputy Chief has a distinguished Law Enforcement career with twenty years on the State Patrol, and recent duties in Owatonna. Chief Taylor gave a little background , and a strong statement of confidence in his new Deputy Chief.

There was a very large CONSENT AGENDA, 12 items, all of which remained on consent. Most of the Consent Agenda was “Housekeeping”; only item #2 , the second reading of Ordinance 896, the new Assessment Ordinance, might have been of major public interest. A Public Hearing had previously been held on this new assessment policy, and as I recall, there was no public present, so it seemed reasonable to leave this on the Consent Agenda.
For some years there has been a cap on the assessments to homeowners for infrastructure projects, but this cap  no longer allows the City to retrieve a large enough percentage of the actual costs, so an alternative method of determining assessment amounts is being put in place by this ordinance change.  The benefit to the assessed property will be determined , and then the total assessment determined by that value  being charged against the actual front footage of each property. There are varying methodologies for irregular lots, culs-de-sac, etc.
A summary of the ordinance will be printed in the Public Notice Section of the Northfield News. Copies of the full ordinance may be obtained at no charge from the City Clerk’s office at City Hall.
The Consent Agenda passed unanimously.

There was then a short PUBLIC HEARING on whether to approve an on-sale intoxicating liquor license, and Sunday liquor licenses, for Bon Appetit (food and beverage management )  at Sayles Hill Cafe, at Carleton College.  There were no public comments, and only one councilor, Kris Vohs, cast a dissenting vote.

The REGULAR AGENDA carried item#s 14-20, and again was of a more ‘housekeeping’ nature than long discussion items.
Item # 14 :   Resolution 2009-064, and 065 – Master development Loan Fund for the Archer House
The two resolutions dealt separately with an addendum to the Master Development Fund Policy to allow this loan, and then the actual approval of the loan.  This is a $100,000 forgivable loan if all the rest of the 1.2 million dollars of Phase 1 and 2 improvements are done within the next three years.
The Archer House owner, Brett Reese, Staff, and Council all agreed this was a wonderful  example of public-private partnership, and the entire downtown benefits by the availability of new public bathrooms at the Archer House.  The downtown Wayfinding Signage will direct people to these facilities.

Item # 15: First Reading of Ordinance #900 – Amending the Rental Ordinance
Nine small amendments were mostly minor in nature, and are needed to correct provisions in the original text that were now found to be unworkable.
The “20% rule”, which has caused a lot of controversy, was not further dealt with even in discussion, at this time.

Item # 16:  First reading of Ordinance 901 – Amending NF Code   Section 10-38 – Nuisance Animals
This was to instill some more specific language into the existing ordinance.

Item # 17:  Approve Initiation of Fourth Street Project
The first step in the reconstruction of Fourth Street.

Item # 18: Receive Resolutions from Non-Motorized Task Force
The N-MTF passed two resolutions to forward to the City Council; the first expressing a recommendation to create a permanent Transportation Commission. The Council will discuss that in August, when they discuss all the Boards and Commissions.  The second resolution was  a recommendation for how to improve bicycle and pedestrian safety at the Hwy 19/3 intersection. Staff and Council believe that the Highway Corridor Study that will be done this summer in the hopes of getting a Federal TIGER grant will provide a work plan for several Highway  modal integration issues, thereby  encompassing the concerns of the second resolution.

Item # 19: Approve Contract for Highway 19/3 Study
On a very short timeline because of the September deadline for the  Federal TIGER grant application, Bolton & Menk, Inc.  was selected out of those applying for the contract to do a study of modal integration along the Highway corridor, from the 19/3 intersection up to Greenvale Avenue. Fees charged will be on an hourly basis, not to exceed  $58, 886.  There will be two opportunities for public input, late July and during August .

Item # 20: Initial Discussion on 2010-2014  Capital Improvement Plan
The City Council was asked to “review, discuss, and provide direction to staff on a policy framework for the CIP and related debt management”.
From the Staff Summary: “A sound and structured basis for the development and review of major capital projects is needed. … Formal policies have yet to be established. The number and cost of major capital projects needed is daunting. At a time when the tax base is shrinking,and the overall economy is stressed, it is difficult to think about increasing the tax levy for a large construction project.
… Deferring decisions on major rehabilitation or new construction projects , for whatever reason, has gotten us to this point. Definitive action on projects is needed. the timing, sequencing, and financing needs to be established. How do we go about this?”
Power point reviews and charts were handed out to help the Council with their considerations, which are to be communicated to Ms. McBride, the Finance Director.
This will be a very serious, perhaps the most serious , ongoing discussion between now and September when a budget must be approved.

Item #s 14-20 all received unanimous approval from the council.

The ADMINISTRATIVE UPDATE from  Joel Walinski stated that the annexation request from Bridgewater residents Prawer and Gill came in on July 1.  Since the annexation agreement between NF and Bridgewater does not allow such a large acreage (455 AC.) to be annexed at one time that agreement would need to be amended if the Council wishes to proceed. Consideration of this request for annexation will be brought to the Council at the July 20th meeting.

COUNCIL REPORTS covered a broad range of issues from C. Buckheit’s heavy involvement with the Land Development Code, to multiple councilors having attended various conferences, to C. Denison’s monitoring of the Charter Commission’s process, to Mayor Rossing’s “Thank Yous” for the 4th of July programs and fireworks, as well as to Dean Kjerland and his sponsors for the display of Art Glass at City Hall.

ADJOURNED:  9:50 PM