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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.