by Dave DeMars
In a meandering discussion, the St. Joseph City Council took up the issue of prioritizing capital improvements and how the budget was allocated at its Aug. 7 meeting.
The Public Works Department has a list of capital improvement projects the city needs to consider and has added several new projects to the list. Public Works and Engineering have prioritized the projects in order of importance and sought further guidance and direction from the council.
City Administrator Judy Weyrens explained one of the top priorities for the city in 2018 was the Industrial-Park expansion. Council member Bob Loso said he did not see any mention of the second phase of the alley-improvement project in the downtown area. Loso said completing that project would seem to be a top priority.
Council member Dale Wick wondered why there were some projects that weren’t shown as priority but were shown as funded in 2018. City Engineer Randy Sabart explained some of the projects were planned as add-ons to other ongoing projects. Wick was also concerned about the large fluctuation in the various budget years.
“Is there any way to take the bumps and valleys out of the budget?” Wick asked. “I mean $4.5 million in 2018 and $400,000 in 2019, and $17 million in 2020, and then $119,000 in 2021, and then $6 million in 2022.”
Sabart explained it was basically the result of planning for the size of some projects. Things have been pushed back from one year to the next, and that causes some uneven bulges in the budget process.
“As the council has started to notice, some of the big ones (projects) we keep moving back,” Sabart said, “back to the point of some of them being listed as to-be-determined instead of an actual cost because they do keep slipping. The big ones are tied to development area and expansion.”
Wick also noted it would be nice to have the cost numbers broken out by type of funding such as how much of a project might be funded from grants and how much from actual tax dollars. Loso said $3.5 million of the $4.5 million was Parkway grant money.
“It’s still a million dollars, but it’s relatively small,” said Loso, referring to the tax dollars the city would owe after the grant money was used for the project.
Mayor Rick Schultz added another concern when he asked about money set aside for Minnesota Street landscaping improvements. Schultz also questioned the cost of a new sign welcoming people to St. Joseph.
Public Works Director Terry Thene said what was really needed was for the council to give direction as to the type of sign they wanted. Loso said he favored a nice digital sign. There was also some question as to where to site the sign to establish the boundaries of the city.
Schultz said he thought the sign should be farther out.
“Do you mean out by Cold Spring or what?” Loso quipped. “Should we call Cold Spring and tell them we’re taking over?”
The remark drew a hearty laugh, but Schultz continued and said the siting on CR 2 and Hwy. 75 were of concern to him. The question was where the boundaries of the city were established and where might they be in 20 or 30 years. Loso suggested the signs be placed at some prestigious location that would indicate the city boundaries.
Weyrens posed the question to the council.
“Do you agree the Industrial Park is a priority?”
The council seemed to generally agree the industrial park would be a good idea and they should try to move ahead, but Loso was still concerned with the alley-improvement project. He was afraid it might get pushed out and take 10 years to complete. Wick also reminded them there are a number of things that need to get done and the council should probably not get too hung up with simply expanding the city.
Sabart said if things like the alley-improvement project were something that needed to get done, then it was possible to add on to the capital-improvement plan checklist and get those things done next year. He suggested it might be possible to go right into the feasibility-report stage.
“I’m going back to what’s important right away,” Wick said. “Let’s just build on what we can. If we have things that need fixing or such, it should be on the capital-improvement plan rather than just coming up with it and start spending money on feasibility right away.”
Sabart said the alley improvement may have been missed because there are multiple gravel alleyways in the city.
“But stuff on the CIP should be important stuff, not that the alleys aren’t, but if it hasn’t been on the radar prior to tonight, I don’t want to go right into a feasibility study and then take off some other important project,” Wick said.
Schultz shifted the focus asking whether the Americans with Disabilities Act transition plan is mandatory.
Sabart explained it was an unfunded mandate and the reason it hasn’t been on the radar screen in the past is the city had been able to qualify for federal funding in the past, but MnDOT changed some requirements indicating an ADA transition plan would be needed for work done after 2019 or in process. The ADA was passed in 1990.
Wick questioned how that would affect the CIP checklist since funding dollars are involved. Sabart said it would affect federal dollars for street improvement. At that point, Loso opined to him it was more important to get streets and roadways taken care of rather than being concerned about the sign and its placement.
Finally, no action was taken at the council. It will take up the issue again later to decide what items are of most importance to them.
Tax-forfeited lots
After moving the issue of tax-forfeited lots to be reassessed from the consent agenda to the regular agenda, the council briefly discussed the need for allowing the cost for reassessment on tax-forfeited lot sales to be at a term of 0 percent for up to five years for payment. City Administrator Judy Weyrens explained the number of tax-forfeited lots in the city was only 10 and it was thought that passing this action would help to stimulate interest and help to sell the properties. There have been some interested buyers who’ve asked about the cost to be reassessed once the properties are sold. The council approved the measure.
Bonds
Monte Eastvold of Northland Securities informed the council about two bond issues: the 2017A General Obligation Capital Improvement Plan bonds in the amount of $337,000, and 2017B General Obligation bonds for $697,000. The CIP bonds are used to cover government-center construction costs associated with the old city hall. The GO Bonds have two parts: CBD Alley improvement costs and rehabilitation costs for water-filtration plant one. The funding sources for the projects include debt levy, water revenues and special assessments.
Eastvold explained because of the small size of the two bond issues, a bond rating was not requested. Northland marketed the bonds to 18 local financial institutions and was able to secure Granite Community Bank in Cold Spring as a buyer.
Interest cost on the CIP bonds is 2.75 percent, and the 2017B GO bonds carry an interest rate of 2.57 percent. The council approved the bond sales.
Pedestrian crossings
Craig Vaughn of the SRF Consulting Group presented a final report on pedestrian crossings that cross Hwy 75 in St. Joseph. The crossings studied were College Avenue (CR 2), Fourth Avenue (Northland Drive), 12th Avenue (CR 133), 20th Avenue (CR 134 ).
What the study found was there was a lack of grade-separated crossings meaning pedestrians crossed the road directly on foot rather than using a bridge or a tunnel to access the opposite side of the road. The study also found cars travel at high speeds on Hwy. 75, making it unsafe to cross, there is a lack of gaps in the sidewalk connectivity and bike lanes (in the city in general) and the pedestrian walk time to cross Hwy. 75 at the 12th Avenue/CR 133 intersection is not long enough to cross both directions of travel in one cycle. One final finding was the proximity of the Cedar Street/Frontage Road north to the Hwy. 75 and Fourth Avenue/Northland Drive intersection causes an unsafe situation.
One of the major recommendations for improvement was to create an underpass west of Fourth Avenue/Northland Drive. It was thought this alternative would encourage trail users to use that crossing and would potentially provide connections to both the neighborhood and Fourth Avenue. It would also be compatible with snowmobile traffic and maintain a connection to Cedar Street and the Boulder Ridge Apartments from the Wobegon Trail. The estimated costs range from $2.5 million to $3 million.
After hearing the presentation, the council accepted the study.
Alcohol matrix
In another item, the council took a look at revising the alcohol matrix which had not been revised or updated in 10 years. Weyrens provided information from other cities as to how they handle liquor violations. St. Joseph fines, which are only $150, are quite a bit less than most other cities. Weyrens also pointed out no other city has as complex a matrix as St. Joseph.
“I would like us to go to a simpler matrix,” Weyrens said. “It really comes down to the time period and how long you want violations to remain with the property and the dollar amount.”
It appears there are a number of repeat violators. None of the other cities has quite the same make-up of bar patrons as St. Joseph. Many of the patrons are college students and tagging bars for underage drinkers could easily close them down if the council followed the matrix of other cities. The question becomes whether the goal is to put bars out of business or get them to be more vigilant about whom they serve.
St. Joseph Police Chief Joel Klein agreed other cities did not have quite the same problems as St. Joseph. The city of Northfield is the closest in its make-up of bar patrons.
In the end, the council decided it needed more information and a bit more time to gather how the matrices were working in other locales.