Call to order:
The regular Randolph City Council meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m. by Mayor Marie Jacob.
Roll Call:
Present:
Mayor Marie Jacob
Council Members Jacob Friedrich, Todd D Carlock, and Tony Price
Treasurer Sandy Nicolai and Clerk Mary Haro
Also, in attendance was Bolton & Menk engineer, Matt Blazer and legal counsel, Greta Bjerkness of LeVander, Gillen & Miller.
Approval of Agenda:
Mayor Jacob would like to scratch the Scope of Work for Bryce Pressnall from the agenda. Motion to approve the agenda with the deletion was made by Friedrich, seconded by Carlock. All voting in favor, none opposed, motion passed 5:0.
Public Comments:
Commissioner Slavik discussed the speed limit through the city. He noted that speed limits are set by the State of Minnesota. Speed studies were done and after that the speed limit increased from 30 to 35. He wanted to discuss the reconstruction on County Road 88 and noted that most of it was done with the last lift to be done next year. When they were designing the road the number one complaint was that people drive too fast on the road. Changing the speed limit is a whole different process so there were ways to design a road to make people drive slower – (1) is to get rid of parking, (2) make a road narrow and (3) put pedestrian islands in to slow traffic We couldn't get rid of parking because it is a business district so it was designed to try to slow down traffic. He received numerous complaints about the pedestrian island east of town so it was decided to take it out. Because we have a school resource officer in the school they can look into options regarding the speed limit if they were interested.
He shared with us about the online request with the sheriff's office. People can put their complaints through that service.
A citizen asked if the state sets the speed limits he was wondering who set the boundaries. It may be a county level but Commissioner Slavik indicated he needs to look into this.
Deputy
A Dakota County deputies were present and indicated that they are getting a lot of school bus stop arm violations throughout the county. They are just going straight through the stop arms and there is no reason for it. He also noted there have been scams with a call indicating they are with the sheriff's office and there is a warrant out for them and they want them to send them bit coins. The sheriff's office is never going to call you over the phone and ask for bit coins. The court will mail you a letter and does not call you to ask for money.
He also indicated that if there has been suspicious activity just give them a call and they will come out and look.
Prior Meeting Minutes
A motion to approve the November 13, 2024, regular council meeting minutes was made by Carlock, seconded by Friedrich. All voting in favor, none opposed, motion passed 5:0.
Treasurer's Report and Payment of Bills:
There was an in and out for the Randolph/Hampton Fire Department. Tony is assisting Sandy with a spreadsheet to better assist us with our budget so that it will automatically calculate the amount in each category and tabulate it into the general fund, water tower fund and sewer fund. We can talk about breaking that down further into categories such as utilities, streets, snow removal, etc. This will help us with our annual budget. We will try this and see how it works.
Motion to approve the payment of bills was made by Friedrich and seconded by Jacob. All voting in favor, none opposed, motion passed 5:0.
Old Business
Northern Salt Site Development
Northern Sale was looking for some direction. The first meeting they attended was just an informational meeting. Now they want to know what we need from them. Bolton & Menk ("B&M") gave comments to their site and grading plan and has sent out a memo for the next steps. The Industrial District does not allow outdoor storage as a use. Their site plans shows the building and it shows accessory outside storage. They would like to start the outside storage the winter after they grade. This would precede the building but they would make a commitment with the city that the primary use is built within a reasonable period of time. They asked what type of application do they need to file so that they can have a formal start so they can begin grading and get access to the road and start moving forward. The memo stated what needs to be done for land use. They asked if they want to do the storage before they get their primary use in place, what can they do? Under the Industrial District Section 152.24 lists the uses that are allowed in that district.
They indicated they are not going to be using all 30 acres for outdoor storage. Approximately 10 acres will be a large building with some outside storage. Land to the south is going to be undeveloped – they don't have a plan for it but it may be developed for another building or warehouse down the road. It will not be long term storage. They need 5 acres to do the off load from the rails, set the materials down then load onto trucks to be transported out which would consists of wind blades and wind turbines.
B&M indicated what they need to understand is if they do the accessory use before the primary use, they would not be handcuffed to do the rest so they would like a staging plan and identify in the plan their storage area. That will help clarify the accessory use versus primary use area. They are coordinating the trains with the job sites so the materials will not be sitting for long periods of time.
Greta indicated the next steps would be to digest what was recommended and she would still like to know what the primary use is. They indicated the primary use would be a large building for bulk material storage inside which will consist of salt, construction materials, etc. It was asked that they put it in a letter and forward it to us.
It was asked if they need a conditional use permit but it is too premature to let them know if they do. When they reply to B&M comments that may clear some things up.
They have gotten the engineer everything they have asked for. We just need to have more details regarding their plan for the land. They also don't know if they need approval from the city or can our engineer give them approval. If it does conform with the ordinance then B&M can give approval. We all want to move forward, and they were told as long as it is conforming with our ordinances and the engineer is good with the grading then they should be good to start grading, however, we should have a final plan before they start grading. Matt can approve the grading. When it comes to start building, it was noted that they will need to apply for a permit.
They need to get the information to Matt and Greta before they can start grading, but they have an option if they want to start sooner they could ask for a special meeting. It was noted that we may need the planning commission to approve the plan as they approve the guidelines.
Next steps are to provide the comments to B&M and Greta and then we will can forward from that.
Removal of Snow from Sidewalks
A question was asked regarding who is responsible for shoveling sidewalks during the winter and how it is determined if the sidewalks are located on their property. Greta discussed that homeowners get ownership to the center line of the road that abuts their property and is subject to the road right of way. Here is an ordinance regarding snow removal which states.
§ 92.16 Public Nuisances Affecting Peace and Safety. The following
are declared to be nuisances affecting public peace and safety: (A)
all snow and ice not removed from public sidewalks 48 hours after
the snow or other precipitation causing the condition has ceased to
fall; (1) Duty of Owners and Occupants.
Jake presented a proposal on how to handle the snow removal. He drove around the city with Jason Otte and he also discussed this matter with several other cities in the area. He also talked to the person from Dakota County who does the snowplowing in the city and asked him about his concerns.
It was noted that in the business district there is no place to put the snow because there is no boulevard like there was last year. He presented a map that showed the sidewalks in the city and labeled them with responsibilities for the city, the school and homeowners. Otte's indicated they will plow for the city section as marked on the map for $250 a time which was $150 last year but there is more sidewalks to plow this year. They plan to use the brush when doing the snow removal on the sidewalks unless there is a large accumulation then they will have to use the blower. We will include the map and ordinance with the next water bill.
Friedrich made a motion to change our agreement with Otte Excavating to add a map of sidewalks with the plan to raise the cost of snow removal from approximately $150 to $250 per time for this 24-25 winter season, seconded by Carlock. All voting in favor, none opposed, motion passed 5:0.
New Business
Final Budget for 2025
It was decided to not make any changes to the 2025 budget. Haro made a motion to approve Resolution No. 24-13 approving the 2025 final levy at $195,750, seconded by Jacob. All voting in favor, none opposed, motion passed 5:0.
Sewer Project
Construction is done for this year. Signs went back up and the road is officially open and the detour signs have been taken down. The mail boxes will be put back into place but the post office wanted to make a few changes for routes so they are coordinating that with the contractor. There is still time to apply for the sewer grant from Dakota County. Encourage people to apply as the application has to be in by the end of December. There will be no extension for citizens to apply.
He asked that Northland have all of their 2024 work submitted so that we can do a final payout for the next meeting but wanted to give us some ballpark figures and they are still working on the dewatering estimate and hope to have that finalized by the next meeting. The dewatering was estimated for 60 days but it ended up being 4 – 5 months, however, they didn't have as many pumps as they estimated. They are still working on the project delay change order as they going back and forth with Northland on that invoice. They want to make sure it is correct. They will have invoice to us before they start back up in the spring.
They are currently under budget on just the construction part of the project. The $659,000 for the city's local funds portion which was for items such as the water saddles that were replaced are not covered under the grant so we will have to take out a bond to pay for the those items which were approved by the council.
We still need to put up "No Parking" signs on 292nd street by the firehall. Marie noted that there are no parking signs by the football field but not by the baseball field and that is because we want parking by the baseball field since the road is wider there.
There are still some stumps that need to be removed and that will happen next year. It was noted that the fence did go back up around the water tower.
Council Member Reports
Todd noted that you have to be an elected member to be on the Cannon River Watershed so his position will be vacant next year and they meet quarterly. The new liaison is Victoria Ranua. He noted that the river past the dam has zebra mussels in it. We also noted that we will be receiving a bill for dues and they did go up slightly. He also indicated that the pay for these meetings should be increased from $25.00 to help cover cost the of mileage.
Jake asked about the emails from our website if the clerk is receiving them and it was indicated she is not receiving them. We need to get this fixed as they should be going directly to the email. Jake and Mary will work on getting this figured out.
He noted an email from Jason the Public Works Director in Goodhue who is a licensed operator and was reaching out to see if we needed anyone for the water and sewer work. He would need a Class C license and inquire if he has ever worked with this type of system. Jake will contact him and get information from him to see if we should move further. Matt will send some items to Jake that are required of him for Jake to inquire.
Clerk Haro brought up the item of cannabis and we need to decide if we want to delegate our authority to Dakota County. We need to have a zoning ordinance regarding it. If we don't have an ordinance that indicates where they can and cannot go, if someone applies to the state to sell cannabis in our commercial district they would be able to do so. If we want to restrict that or have perimeters for around the school and parks we need to have an ordinance that indicates that. Greta will send the statute to Marie for her to review. We will add this to next month's agenda to discuss.
Clerk Haro thanked everyone for the flowers that the family received for the passing of her mom. It was very thoughtful and appreciated.
Marie noted that there was a tree stand in the city and she indicated she could not find any ordinance about discharging a fire arm within city limits. This is supposed to be managed by the DNR. Greta will look into this.
We need to buy a new phone so people can leave a voicemail message. She asked about a cell phone and we did not feel that was not the way to go.
Mayor Jacob inquired if we are interested in annexing Woody's into the city and if it was something we should discuss. They are currently in Randolph Township; however, they have city water. It was noted that if the city wants it and the landowners wants to do it, it is an easier process. He could then connect to city sewer. We did say no previously because he is not within city limits. She was just checking before we would move any further with this. If he is interested, then we are interested.
Adjournment
Motion to adjourn the meeting made by Friedrich, seconded by Carlock, the meeting was adjourned at 9:15 p.m. All voting in favor, none opposed, motion passed 5:0.
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