Agenda - Council - 12/14/2021 - Laserfiche WebLink

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construction cost estimates, then the Council could know what they are looking at for the three buildings. She felt that was important before accepting the donation of the buildings so the City knows what the costs might be. City Administrator Ulrich suggested hiring a professional engineer or architect to do a feasibility study, noting an objective would have to be defined to determine the cost estimates. Councilmember Heineman commented it would be good to take a proactive look at what the buildings could do as far as a venue, as a wedding site for example. He supported doing a cost/ benefit analysis to determine if it is going to be worth putting in the work on the buildings and looking not only at what renovation would cost but also what revenue could be generated. He noted if it could be used as a wedding venue, it could be pretty profitable. 2.05: Consider Request to Study Cost of City Parks and Trails Maintenance and Operations City Administrator Ulrich stated this case was brought up by Councilmembers Howell and Musgrove requesting a detailed and itemized expenditure list from Parks in regard to the operations and maintenance of the parks including turf maintenance,trails,and the park system. In discussion with Staff, costs are not itemized currently but activity costs are generalized so recreating some of the numbers is not something Staff has done and would be difficult. He explained that estimating could be done although not as accurate and detailed as requested. Mayor Kuzma questioned whether this is something the Council wanted Staff to spend a lot of time on and is it necessary. Councilmember Howell explained the turf and trails information request was made to get an idea of what the expenditures are. She compared it to a large corporation where expenditures are tracked for specific projects,noting information could be included such as mowing so many hours and so many hours on trails, so when more trails are added, it could be known what it would cost in man hours and other expenses. She felt having this information would help the Council understand better, noting she struggles with vague numbers. Parks and Assistant Public Works Superintendent Riverblood replied getting information about mowing and snow removal could be done with the use of GPS to determine time and cost. Determining the information on park repairs could be a little harder because the timecard is set up to be more general and tasks are not itemized. With the Street Department, items like street maintenance, stormwater, snowplowing, and sign work could be divided out. He stated general numbers and estimates could be given but more specifics would have to be determined and implemented going forward. Councilmember Specht commented it sounds like a good part of a bigger discussion at a Work Session with questions about projects in the CIP and getting more information about expenditures in the parks now. Also, discussion about using funds to get more playgrounds updated. He felt a bigger Work Session discussion on the parks and what could be done to support the Parks Department could be beneficial. City Council Work Session /November 23, 2021 Page 13 of 15