Agenda - Council Work Session - 09/06/2011

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L LSA Design, Inc. N/lpmnra Northwestern Building 219 North Second Street Suite 302 Minneapolis. MN 55401 T. 612.339.8729 F. 612.339.7433 www.lsadesigninc.ccr To: Brian Olson, Dir. Of Public Works From: James B. Lasher Planning Project: Ramsey Municipal Parking Facility Architecture Subject: CMAQ Grant Authorization Urban Design Date: September 1, 2011 The purpose of this memo is to outline the results of a meeting held with staff from Mn /DOT, FHWA and the Metropolitan Council on August 31, 2011 regarding the status of the City of Ramsey CMAQ Grant. BACKGROUND The City of Ramsey applied for and was approved to receive a Congestion Mitigation Air Quality Grant (CMAQ) from the Metropolitan Council in 2005 for a total of $5.6 Million. This grant is composed of 80% federal and 20% local funds and the use of the funds was programmed for 2009 implementation. The funds were allocated to two projects: 1. Ramsey Star Express Bus Service $1.5 Million 2. Ramsey Parking Ramp Expansion $4.1 Million In 2007 the City request and was granted the ability to "pre- fund" the Ramsey Star Express Bus Service portion of the grant. This basically allows the City the right to start running bus service before the federal funds were available for that use. The agreement with the Met Council included that if the City did incur costs to run the bus prior to 2009, those costs could be re -paid to the City once the federal funds were available in 2009. To date, the City has been running this bus service and Met Council has begun the process of repaying the City that federal portion of the CMAQ grant. In 2010, the City completed necessary plans for the Ramsey Parking Deck Expansion. Due to issues of potential winter construction costs along with various issues regarding land development and available parking within the current ramp, the City elected to delay the bidding and construction of the parking improvements until spring 2011. In June 2011 the City took bids for the parking ramp and subsequently awarded a Contract for Construction to Knutson Construction Co. on August 9, 2011. Due to an extremely competitive bidding climate, the Knutson Construction Co. bid was $1.3 Million dollars under the available funds of $4.10 Million. Concurrent to this project award, the City of Ramsey was notified that the Governors Bonding Bill from the 2011 Legislative Session included funds for the construction of the Ramsey Rail Station. This was the culmination of years of work and effort by many parties to successfully provide a rail station at "The Core" on the Northstar Commuter Rail.