HomeMy WebLinkAbout20090316 - VIII-C-3MEMORANDUM
TO: Honorable Mayor and City Councilmembers
FROM: Dave Osberg, City Administrator
DATE: March 12, 2009
SUBJECT: Schedule Special City Council Meetings to Discuss Highway # 61
Bridge Project
RECOMMENDED CITY COUNCIL ACTION
It is the recommendation of Staff that the City Council take action scheduling four (4)
Special City Council meetings on April 6 and Apri120, and also on May 4 and May 18,
for purposes of discussing the Highway #61 Bridge project. Each meeting would begin at
6:00 PM, and need to conclude at approximately 6:45 PM, to allow for the start of the
City Council meeting of those four nights at 7:00 PM.
BACKGROUND
For the last several months, City Staff have been conducting meetings with
Staff from the Minnesota Department of Transportation to discuss the Highway
#61 Bridge Project. As you might imagine, there are numerous topics we have covered
during these meetings, and the intent is for those meetings to continue throughout the
next several months.
In the near future, the City Council will need to make at least four significant decisions as
part of the Highway #61 Bridge project. Those decisions include the following:
a.) Resolution on Municipal Consent, relating to Right-of--Way; highway capacity
and access.
b.) Cooperative Agreement between the City of Hastings and MnDOT and the
"exchange" of funds to pay for a variety of projects associated with the
construction of the Highway #61 Bridge.
c.) Drainage mitigation agreement.
d.) Agreements associated with the Xcel transmission line project, in the staging area
near the Lock and Dam Road.
Encompassed in each of these official agreements and documents are numerous planning
type issues that are being discussed between the City Staff and MnDOT Staff. During one
of our recent meetings, we all agreed the time is approaching in which review, discussion
and comment by the City Council will be imperative, to assure no surprises develop as
each official approval is brought before the City Council during the next several months.
City Councilmembers will recall MnDOT is available with office hours each Monday in
which there is a City Council meeting. Those office hours end at 6:00 PM on those days.
Thus, both Staff's thought it would be a productive and wise use of the City Council's
time to have special meetings (workshops) prior to each of the next four City Council
meetings. While it requires arrival prior to the City Council meeting, it does eliminate the
need for any additional meeting nights/times. Furthermore, it recognizes the intense and
broad interest that each member of the City Council has with this project, and thus the
idea of having a Committee of the address these topics on a regular basis was discounted.
Think of the Special City Council meetings as "Committee of the Whole" concept. Each
meeting might have only one or two topics that each Staff would "check-in" with the City
Council, in an effort to build consensus and understanding on each of the various topics
that would be included in the four "agreements" addressed previously. Should this
concept prove tie successful, it may continue beyond the four dates referenced in this
Plavid M. Osberg
City Administrator