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8.g administrators report1 f /.,� .. SCANDI a - Staff Report Date of Meeting: May 16, 2017 To: City Council From: Neil Soltis, Administrator Re: Administrator's report Comprehensive Planning — The next Steering Committee met on April 20. The Committee reviewed the results of the SWOT analysis and refined a draft of the community survey. Based on the limited sign-up the business and agriculture focus groups will be combined and a senior focus group added. An agenda item has been added regarding adding additional meetings to the schedule and to look at the cost of utilizing a survey that is mailed to all residents instead of the proposed on-line survey. Capital Improvement Committee — The Committee met on May 4 to discuss evaluation / prioritization criteria. At the meeting City engineer Ryan Goodman made a presentation on road improvements and provided information on sewer projects. The next meeting will take place on May 25 with follow-up discussion on the evaluation criteria, roads, and parks. Broadband & Cable — Based on meeting with Midco it was determined that Midco serves 369 addresses in Scandia through a combination of fiber and copper wire. Their cable network extends on over 12 miles of roads in Scandia which is roughly 12% of the total of the State, County, and local roads. In the meeting with Frontier, they suggested looking at applying for a Border -to -border Broadband grant from DEED jointly with Marine and May Twp. for the 433 exchange to supplement the enhancements that will be made with their Connect America grant. Note that these grant require a minimum of a 50% match with higher scoring for an increased local share. Washington County Update of Housing Needs — At the EDA meeting Bill Lightner of the County HRA found that the original information in the Washington County Housing Needs study conducted by Maxwill Research and Consulting overstated the need for senior housing through 2020. The combined excess demand for general occupancy housing in this submarket by 2020 is 159 units and 293 between 2020 and 2030 did not change. The corrected projected demand for active adult senior housing in this submarket is 121 in 2020 and 158 in 2030 and 136 service -enhanced units. Website upgrade —Judi & I are continuing to work with GovOffice on the upgrade. We have reviewed a mock-up of the home page. The major issue now is finding the photo that will serve as the background for the pages. The information on the home page will be simplified and enhancement are in place to make the navigation on the site much easier. Veterans Memorial — Fill for the memorial is in the process of being brought to the site. A revised landscape plan has been prepared and will be presented to the Parks & Recreation Committee. League of Minnesota Cities — I attended the League's Safety and Loss Control workshop. One of the session raised the issue of preparedness for natural disasters. Currently the City does not have an Emergency Action / Emergency Management plan. As time permits I will work with Mike Hinz and Adam Hawkinson on drafting a plan that memorializes information on resources, responsibilities, and role in the event of a natural disaster. League of Minnesota Cities Insurance Trust — Collen and I met with a representative regarding data security. The League will be providing suggested revisions to the current policies that are in the employee handbook that would address the password security and the use and retention of social media for employees and both elected and appointed officials. LED Lighting — I am working with Graybar Electric through a publicly bid US Communities purchasing contract to determine the feasibility and pay -back for replacing the fluorescent light fixtures in the Community Building with LED bulbs. This request will be included in the 2018 — 2022 Capital Improvement Plan with priority given to the office and hallways where the lights are in use for larger portions of each day. I am also looking at the cost to update the exterior fixtures to LED bulbs; however, the use of LED outdoor lighting fixtures is not allowed based on the development code. Gateway Trail —In mid-April the City received notification from the DNR that the Arden Johnson has initiated the expiration of the Agricultural Preserve designation and further noting that there is an 8 -year expiration period and that trail development cannot occur until December 28, 2024. Mayor Maefsky & I met with Brandon Helm of the DNR regarding the status of the extension of the Gateway Trail into Scandia. They are working on a joint powers agreement with Marine of St. Croix to extend the trail through land owned by the City and working on the acquisition of a small number of locations south of Marine. The major issue with the extension is working with the State Park in identifying the exact route of the trail through the park and any extension from the visitor center to the trail. The construction of the trail from the State Park into Scandia in advance of the remainder of the trail extension was view as possible after the access through the Park has been determined. Any construction is subject to the State's funding cycles. Wind in the Pines signs on 95 — The City has received another complaint about visitors to Wind in the Pines trespassing onto private property. Last year the City purchased and posted a "private property no trespassing signs" at the point the trail nears private property and additional smaller signs at the property boundary. The main sign was torn down within the week. Further Deputy Yetter has indicated that there have been a number of drug related citations issued at the park. Currently on MN 95 there are signs stating "Nature Park" on both sides of the road before the entrance. These seem to attract visitors with the expectation that they can reach the river despite signage at the parking lot indicating otherwise. I would like the Council to consider requesting that MnDOT remove the signs. Community Solar Farms • Argo Navis (Zavoral) — Grading permit and building permit applications have been submitted for the project. The building permit application has been sent on for plan reviews with the condition that no work can be done on the construction until all of the items in the conditional use permit have been met and there is an approved development agreement. • Ameresco / Greenmark (Oldfield) —Andy Pratt is working on the development agreement for the project. It is anticipated that the agreement will be on the next regular Council meeting agenda. • Manning Trail — It is anticipated that another solar garden application will be submitted for Planning Commission review at the June meeting.