Minutes - Public Works Committee - 08/14/2000

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COMMITTEE BUSINESS Case #1: Discussion of Speed Humps on Dysprosium Street NW City Engineer Jankowski stated that on December 21, 1999, the Public Works Committee had a discussion on a correspondence received from MnDOT regarding Dysprosium Street NW speed hump removal. In the correspondence received by MnDOT, State Aid funding will not be approved on any projects of this route and the City will not be allowed to collect needs currently allocated on this route. Recently staff was contacted once again by the State Aid Office of the Minnesota Department of Transportation, regarding the City's position on the removal of these humps. At this time, the City has several State Aid projects for which they will be requesting payment from the City's construction account. The mechanism MnDOT has for exacting payment from the payback resulting from decertifying Dysprosium Street NW from the MSA system would be to deduct payment due from the City on an existing State Aid Project. At this point the City should take one of the following actions: · Remove the speed humps along Dysprosium Street NW and inform the residents for the reason of their removal. · Respond to MnDOT contenting that the speed humps do not interfere with the ability of Dysprosium Street NW to function as a collector street and request review of MnDOT's authority to require removal of the humps. The easement has been delivered to the City Attorney for recording. · Determine whether the City wishes to pursue alternative traffic calming measures. Councilmember Hendriksen stated that the last time the issue was addressed the Committee recommended a course of action that was than handled poorly. He suggested that now the City should request that MnDOT come and view the speed humps and then make a decision based on what they see and invite the citizens to that meeting because the City cannot incur the $128,000 cost to keep the humps. Councilmember Zimmerman inquired if it would be possible to schedule the meeting for September. Director of Public Works Kapler replied that the problem with the last recommendation given by the Public Works Committee was that they did not receive ratification from the City Council on the course of action. If the Council ratifies the decision regarding the meeting with MnDOT, a September meeting could be scheduled. Councihnember Zimmerman inquired as to how much it would cost to construct a sidewalk on one or both sides of Dysprosium Street. City Engineer Jankowski replied that it would cost approximately $42,000 for a sidewalk on both sides of the street without restoration. Public Works Committee/August 14, 2000 Page 2 of 9