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9.e Staff Report - November 2021 Administration ReportPage 1 of 2 City of Scandia 14727 209th St. N. PO Box 128, Scandia, Minnesota 55073 Phone (651) 433-2274 Fax (651) 433-5112 http://www.ci.scandia.mn.us DATE: November 12, 2021 TO: Honorable Mayor and City Council Members FROM: Ken Cammilleri, City Administrator RE: November Administration Report Legislative Advocacy for the Bliss Waste Water Treatment Plant Project Upgrade Project and the Scandia Heritage Alliance Water Tower Barn Project Progress continues in the City’s efforts to obtain state bond financing to support our two funding requests. This Thursday, November 18, 2021 9:00am, the Minnesota House Capital Investment Committee is scheduled to visit Scandia to tour the Watertower Barn site and to hear about both of the project requests. Forest Lake has also been asked to attend by the Committee to present during the 40 minute period they have allotted for their visit. We look forward to putting forward some convincing arguments to secure their support. The Senate’s Capital Investment Committee is anticipated to conduct their bonding tours in the Twin Cities area some time in January. They are currently touring project request sites in Southwestern Minnesota. All of the site visits as part of the legislature’s committee tours are conducted outside of the regular legislative session. Normal session typically starts in late February or early March, so our efforts in St. Paul will need to continue through the joint committee process to ensure our funding requests receive endorsement from both houses. No Elections This Year The City generally does not hold an election in odd years, unless there is a special election to fill a vacant elected office. This year, only Stillwater Area School District (ISD 834) had an election this year. The residents of the one Scandia property within that district were asked to place their vote at the May Town Hall. We did have a few confused individuals who dropped by hopeful to vote. They were encouraged to come back August 9, 2022 for the next Election Primary and November 8, 2022 for the next General Election. 2022 Final Budget Preparation Wednesday, December 1, 2021 at 6:30pm will be the City’s Truth-in-Taxation Meeting in which the City Council will hold a public hearing on the proposed final City Budget. Preparations are being made to finalize those documents right now. There will also be a proposed budget and rates for Scandia’s sewer utilities. Page 2 of 2 City of Scandia 14727 209th St. N. PO Box 128, Scandia, Minnesota 55073 Phone (651) 433-2274 Fax (651) 433-5112 http://www.ci.scandia.mn.us Public Hearing Scheduled for Proposed Solar Ordinance Amendments The Planning Commission has called a public hearing at their December 7th meeting at 7pm to consider amendments to the solar ordinance as it relates to Solar Energy Systems (SES) or commercial solar installations. Changes include: • Amendments to the permissibility distribution SES in areas within the Shoreland Management Overlay District under limited criteria. • Revision the screening requirements for distribution SES to include a ‘scenic canvas’ and other options that may help alleviate issues with screening and visibility. • Permitting the placement of agricultural crops underneath solar panels, which may require increases to maximum panel height due to style of crop crop and size equipment need for planting and harvesting. • And, changes to permit agricultural crops to be used screening requirements. Code Enforcement Updates Most unresolved code violations are yet to be scheduled for trial through the Washington County Circuit Court. We are hopeful that efforts to schedule trials will resume in the coming months, but the ongoing pandemic continues to place uncertainty as to when the Courts will opt to resume their normal operations. When trials do resume, we must be prepared to anticipate an extremely large backlog. The only trial that has been scheduled related to code enforcement issues goes back to 2019, and that trial has been deferred to January. The Building Official Reports It is important to note that an error was discovered in the calculation of “net revenue” in the Building Official Report. These figures have now been corrected. However, please take note that when the reports indicate “net revenue” this net calculation does not include the costs of permit administration through the City’s office. Please let me know if you have any questions.