8.g administrators report
Staff Report
Date of Meeting: June 19, 2018
To: City Council
From: Neil Soltis, Administrator
Re: Administrator’s report
Building Inspection – Through the end of May, 148 permits with a total valuation of
$16,046,475 have been issued. The 2018 totals include the permits for the elementary School
improvements and for 6 new homes. The compares to 94 permits with a total value of
$3,787,342 with 5 new homes for the first four months of 2017.
Bond closing – The bonds issued for the 2018 Road Improvement project closed on Friday, June
15. The funds were deposited into the City’s account and will be used to pay contractor
invoices.
Public Works Staffing – The City received no applications for the part-time seasonal
maintenance worker position. We have received notice that one of the Public Works staff will
be off work due to recovery from a medical procedure until July 5. The notice from his
physician places a 1-2 pound lifting restriction. The City’s personnel policy allows for the
Administrator to grant a 10-day leave of absence. Further leave of absence requires City
Council approval. To date the City has not received a formal request for unpaid leave.
Community Tourism Assessment Team – Currently there are 5 members of the Team
• Brad Borg,
• Jan Lynn,
• Matt Miller,
• Lynne Moratzka, and
• Colleen Nora
I am working to coordinate an initial meeting with Tammi Koerte of the UM Tourism Center
Population – The Met Council has released the preliminary population and households
estimates for Scandia s of April 1, 2017. The Council estimated a population of 4,049 and 1,490
households.
2020 Census – Washington County received the Local Update of Census Addresses files from
the Census Bureau for the 2020 census. The County provided an address map that was
reviewed for accuracy. I met with County GIS staff to go over any apparent issues. The most
common issue was missing houses where building permits have been issued in 2017 and 2018
2040 Comprehensive Plan – Access to the plan as approved for review is on website. The
review plan was sent to affected communities on 5/30/18. The 6-month review period ends on
December 1, 2018. A copy of the plan will also be sent to the Met council for preliminary
review.
Scandia Marine Lions Legacy projects – The Lions are in the process of surveying their
membership regarding establishing a legacy project. Among the projects under consideration
that would impact the City are: a playground at Lions Park, handicap accessible doors for the
Community Building, and a shelter for Lilleskogen Park. The results of the survey will be
presented at the July 12 Lions meeting.
MnDOT Landscape Partnership – A landscape architect from MnDOT has marked off the
planting locations and beds. Adam has called in utility locates and adjustments have been
made to the locations. The steps towards an actual planting day are to kill the grass within the
planting beds, to till those areas, to respray the beds, and then amend the soil with compost.
Once we are closer to firming up a planting day(s) we will begin recruiting volunteers or
organizations.
May Township Fire Agreement – The Township Board is having legal counsel review the
agreement. The main issue seems to be a preference to use population instead of households
as a factor. The issue that I have expressed on this is that the population is a factor of
households multiplied by the Met Council estimate of the # of resident per household and that
the preference is to rely on a verifiable number.
Veterans Memorial dedication – The dedication of the Memorial has been scheduled for
Saturday, September 29 @ 10:00 a.m.
League of Minnesota Cities annual conference – I will be attending the League’s annual
conference from Wednesday through Friday of this week. At the conference the City will be
recognized as a Step 2 GreenStep City. The resolution passed by the Council in 20 14 stated that
the City “Will claim credit for having implemented and will work at its own pace toward
implementing any GreenStep best practices that will result in energy use reduction, economic
savings, quality of life improvement, reduction in the City’s greenhouse gas footprint, and
recognition by the League of Minnesota Cities as a Step Two GreenStep City ” The program has
recognition signs that can be installed on the City’s entry signs at a cost of roughly $60 per sign.
EDA – Predevelopment grant application – the EDA is working on submitted a predevelopment
grant application to look at the feasibility and cost of creating a community sewer system to
serve the village mixed use area along 97 east of Olinda.
Legislative Session – Gateway Trail bill – The language that would allow for MnDNR to seek the
expiration of the metropolitan agricultural preserve classification on the portion of land under
their trail easement was contained in the tax bill that was sent to the Governor but was vetoes.
To date the contributions for the lobbying efforts are $850 short of the cost.
BoldPlanning - The training on the BoldPlanning software will be on June 19 - 21. Chief Hinz
will be attending the complete training and Adam Hawkinson and I will be attending a ½ day
session on the Emergency Operations Plan.
Holiday lighting – The holiday decorations for 15 poles have been ordered at a cost of $5,785
including shipping
LHL sign vandalism – One of the DNR signs are Log House Landing was hit with graffiti on 2
occasions. The sign was able to be cleaned the first time but the same message was done the
following evening with marker that could not be removed. The sign was then removed and the
DNR informed.