City Council Work Session

CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION MINUTES Tuesday, December 05, 2023 at 6:30 PM Baxter City Hall, 13190 Memorywood Drive, Baxter, MN “A Growing Community” CALL TO ORDER Mayor Olson called the meeting to order at 6:40 p.m. ROLL CALL Mayor Darrel Olson and Council Members Connie Lyscio, Zach Tabatt, Jeff Phillips, and Mark Cross were present. City Administrator Brad Chapulis, Assistant City Administrator Kelly Steele, Public Works Director Trevor Walter, Finance Director Jeremy Vacinek, Community Development Director Josh Doty, and Police Chief Jim Exsted were present. BUSINESS ITEMS 1. City Assessment Costs for the 2024 Mill & Overlay and Full Depth Reclamation Improvements Project Municipal Project No. 4424 Alex Bitter, with Widseth, explained that during the November 21, 2023 council work session, the council expressed interest in potentially providing an adjustment to special assessments to reduce the cost on residents. The council reviewed past project assessments which averaged $7,402 for full depth reclamation (FDR) projects and $3,153 for mill and overlay (M&O) projects. The current estimated equivalent residential unit cost for FDR in 2024 is $10,929, with a corner adjustment, and $4,994, no corner adjustment, for M&O. The capital improvement plan shows the residential FDR streets that have been chip sealed are projected to be out of the pavement management cycle by 2029. After 2029, the residential road improvements should be M&O unless there are other improvements or upgrades required for the street. In order to propose an approximate city cost for the proposed adjusted assessment, a dollar amount of $8,500 and $10,000 were as an FDR assessment cost for the 2024 project. These amounts are baed off the 2023 project assessemnts. The 2013 Pavement Management Plan shows M&O is approximately 59% of the cost of FDR assessments. Based on the Capital Improvement Plan calculation, M&O has been average 54% of the FDR assessments. Setting the M&O assessments at 54% of the FDR assessments, it reflects the value of the improvements and maintains the correlation of cost between the M&O and FDR improvements. Based on this information M&O assessments were set at $4,590 and $5,000 respectively. Mr. Bitter reviewed the approximate assessments and estimated city responsibility based on the adjusted assessment. An inflationary factor of 3% was added to each year for an increase in ERU assessments costs. To determine how the adjusted assessment rates would affect the city’s financial contribution to future projects, Mr. Bitter needed to estimate the ERU assessments associated with M&O and FDR improvements. The largest unknown is what percentage of the proposed M&O projects will require FDR improvements due to the premature failure of the chip sealed roads. For the 2024 project, each of the road were evaluated in the spring of 2023 and from the evaluation, 60%b of the roads were recommended to be moved from M&O to FDR due to the stripping from the chip seal. Estimated future roadways for proposed projects from 2025 to 2029, Mr. Bitter assumed a conservative 75% of the roads being moved from M&O to FDR. 12/5/2023 City Council Work Session Minutes Page 2 Mr. Bitter reviewed proposed assessments with adjustments. The proposed assessment adjustments have determined higher density reduces the overall individual assessments costs per ERU due to the large number of ERU’s. Staff will need final council direction by December 12th to allow time to update the feasibility study. The study will be presented to the council on December 19th where staff will be looking for the council to approve the revised study and set the improvement hearing. The council consensus was to continue this conversation during the regular council meeting. 2. Review Mailbox Support Policy The time allocated for the work session expired prior to discussing this agenda item. ADJOURN MOTION by Council Member Tabatt, seconded by Council Member Lyscio to adjourn at 7:06 p.m. Motion carried unanimously. Approved by: Respectfully submitted, _____________________________ Darrel Olson Kelly Steele Mayor Assistant City Administrator