Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Call to order for Watertown City Council meeting for September 21st of 2026. Please rise while Fire Chaplain Hank Rosso leads us in prayer.

Our Heavenly Father, as we come to you today, we want to say thank you for your love for us. Thank you for this fine, excellent community, Watertown, that we share our love for. God, I want to say thank you also for each one here on the other side of this podium, our city leaders, those ones that give sometimes selflessly their time and their talent. And God, we thank you for that. We thank you for the spirit of unities here. Everybody stands shoulder to shoulder and not always eye to eye, but we are so grateful that the unity we have. God, I thank you for each one. It's a The office across the parking lot here and the city office, their work, their tireless help in serving us. And then finally, I thank you for our police and fire, EMTs, our paramedics, and God, especially after fire ops on Saturday, as some of us even here who got a firsthand training and observation of what they do. And Lord, we have no idea what they do for us, but we want to say thank you right now for that. All these things now we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Finance Officer Bob Zien, please call the roll.

Moorman?

Here.

Juergens? Here. Peters? Here. Shetty? Here. Allen?

Here.

Hoyer?

Here.

Pauline? Here. Thank you.

Quorum is established. Chair will ask, does anyone have a conflict of interest tonight? Councilman Hoyer?

I will be abstaining from 12B and 12C.

Okay, please note that any other conflict of interest. Hearing none, we do have two slight changes to the agenda before we approve it. Number one, we are going to add a Brief presentation by Councilman Jerns, an update on issues involving Lake Kampeska. That's going to be in Presentations and Reports, Item 9. And after consultation with City Manager Steger, it was decided that the issues for Executive Session can wait to the next Council meeting. or some time at that then that it would be more productive to discuss it at that time so we will strike items 6 16 a and b we will add that presentation with those two changes can i get a motion to approve the agenda motion made by councilman peters seconded by councilman shutty all those in favor of approving the agenda please say aye aye any opposed say nay motion carries We're on to open forum. Now is the time if anyone has something they want to discuss in front of the council, now is your time to do so. Just please make sure the microphone is on. It should be a red light up there, or green light on that one. Not yet. I think that's it.

My name is Brenda Owens. I live at 501 North Maple. of Maple and Fifth Avenue.

Of course, we've been under construction for quite a while now.

I am here also because of the sidewalks, right, for the assessment on the sidewalks. But my issue is, for 38 years now, I have lived in my house, and right beside me, I have a rental which used to be an old grocery store. That alleyway has caused me havoc year after year after year. I have been in front of every person but the council now, but I have addressed it with everybody that I could. Now with this new sidewalk and this new drainage that has gone in there, the problem is still going to exist for me because of the fact that the gravel from the alleyway does not go to the drain, nor does the water. It all comes right in front of my rental, right there on Fifth Avenue, right beside my house. I did print off pictures for everyone to see what is happening today and what has happened in the last 38 years. But I did only print the pictures from last year's gravel and water issues that I've had there. I've had last year in August, because of, and granted we did have an excessive amount of rain. We had 17.2 inches of rain in the month of June, July, and August. But that rental ended up with over three foot of water in there because we have, Shane Ronke has built a building on his property and he put up a three and a half foot retaining wall against the alleyway there. So now that water now from his roof comes down and it goes right into the alleyway, which of course I'm in the valley. So all that water comes to me. And so I am now being flooded out so i'm asking the council to please consider doing something with that alleyway and i do have pictures if anyone would like to see them from today and from last year what is going on today with the construction being done is the current ones right here and where the water flow and i just kind of showed everyone and I was so disappointed because I was really optimistic about this road construction and the new sidewalks and stuff. That very little rainstorm that we got, I had a huge gutter that was on my side of the property. And gravel was sitting out in front of my house again. And I thought this cannot be happening. So anyway, I will just get this. I did make notations on all the pictures that I printed off, and I'm just asking the council, and Justin just did come up to me just a little bit ago and said they are looking at the issue that I've been having, but 38 years is a long time, guys, you know, and I'm 38 years older. I can't handle the gravel and that stuff, and the city has, over the years, has classified that as a problematic alleyway And so the city, when I do get all that gravel out in front of my house, the city now just comes and cleans it up with their big equipment and all this stuff. So it's just, I'm asking that we can figure out something to do with that alleyway so I don't end up with the water issues and the gravel issues that I've had in the past. I appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you. And we'll make sure that you get your photos back once council has a chance to look at them. Is there anyone else who would like to address the council on something that is not on tonight's agenda?

We have, okay, my name is Holly Ring. I am lucky enough to stand in front of you in lieu of my husband tonight who is taking care of kids and should honestly be here. So I have the site plans in front of me that he's emailed me bless his heart We also live along the Fifth Avenue Road construction I have the Benefit or maybe the misfortune of being home with my kids during this construction project So I've gotten to see a lot of the day-to-day stuff He references like Okay, so mostly I think it's our sprinkler system. Our sprinkler system wasn't documented having... I guess it was supposed to be in the site plans that the irrigation system was supposed to be responsible for documenting the existing system, salvaging anything that they could, and then the shutdown and modification of each system prior to the construction happening. So... That didn't take place, in which case then we couldn't use our sprinkler system at all this year. We had a pretty dry summer. And with the addition of getting rid of, I think, don't quote me, but nine ash borer trees in our yard, our yard is decimated. And I know we mentioned that it's going to take several years to get the weeds under control once again. the placing the topsoil, he mentions that in depth, we have emailed several people about this. So this isn't the first time that our grievances are being aired. The permanent seeding did just happen this week, right before the rain. So I don't know if that's a benefit or a curse, but our sprinkler system still hasn't been repaired. So they put seed over and none of the sprinkler system has been reinstalled again. When I mentioned to the subcontractor earlier this summer, asking him about it, kind of relentless. Like I'm outside and I'm like, hey, when are you going to do this? And hey, this has got to get fixed still. And we have curb edging that has been destroyed that still hasn't been fixed. The subcontractor mentioned that he didn't even know about our sprinkler system. So my husband's biggest issue was that the plans are only as good as what you make of them. So if we're putting, and I'll just reference them really quickly for you. Sheet seven of 124 is the irrigation system and landscaping repairs. The subcontractor is responsible for capping all the existing irrigation systems. That didn't happen. Sheet 12 of 124, placing of the topsoil. He wants to know was the topsoil provided by the contractor for review by the owner and the engineer because that is in the spec. To our knowledge, it was never done. When walking the sidewalk it doesn't appear to be substantially free of rocks wood or other foreign debris in fact I have documentation Again because I'm home when they put the topsoil on The dirt on they didn't clear out any of their garbage, so we had pot bottles We had cigarette packs that were all buried in that before they put that topsoil down so that will eventually come up and The boulevard wasn't cleared of construction debris prior to placing the topsoil. Is that common to bury construction debris in the boulevard was his question. When in the project sequence is the sprinkler system repair supposed to take place? Should this happen before seeding? Because it didn't. And then the tilling areas prior to seeding is supposed to be a depth of three inches. Who's responsible for ensuring that that's adhered to? Because it wasn't. When in the schedule is the weed control supposed to take place? Weeds were already prevalent in the Boulevard prior to the seeding taking place. It was not sprayed prior to them putting down, if you wanna call it putting down the seed, I got a video of it and it was shoddy at best prior to them putting down that seeding. So that will have to ultimately be our responsibility if that's not taken care of. But it was never, It was never treated for weeds prior to the seeding happening is, I think, what he's trying to get at. And then... Sheet 34 of 124 talks about the sprinkler system. Sheet 45 of 124 indicates the area between the alley and the driveway was designed to maintain temporary driveway access through the duration of the project. And it sounds really pretty on paper. They took down our trees March 17. We didn't have access to our driveway until the middle of September. So we were not able to use anything during any of the hail or issues that we had this summer and again i think our biggest issue is that if it's going to be on paper and somehow adhered to there was no follow-through provided and then lastly sheet 62 of 124 indicates existing wood remaining wall of our property to be protected. So we have a retaining wall on the corner of our property. We live on Fifth Avenue and Third. We wanted to keep that. I think at one point in the specs, the engineer had reached out to my husband about what to do about it. We said we wanted to keep that retaining wall in rather than, I guess, leveling out the grass. Thankfully, I'm thankful now that we chose not to do that because that would be even more of our yard destroyed. But that top beam, they destroyed it. When they were taking out the sidewalks, they were careless and destroyed that retaining wall ultimately, and that still hasn't been fixed. So if that's not done, that's also on our agenda. I guess he didn't mention it, but I'm going to. um the ash trees i attended every meeting that was required for the ash trees we bought our house because of the trees in our yard um so i came home from one of those meetings and i was like andrew we have to get rid of all those ash trees and we need to do them before they die because they told us once they die they're going to be so much more expensive to take down so we were proactive and removed five i think on our own a couple months after going to those meetings and then you guys remove the rest of them on the boulevard shortly thereafter and i see throughout town now that you have decided to treat every ash tree in the town except for the ones along fifth avenue so it makes me um Ultimately I think it was for an easier job for the sidewalks and the roads to be replaced Because watching it you were able to just take a big piece of machinery and lay all those sidewalks had those trees been in the way and that would have been a much more difficult job so it's unfortunate that was 120 trees along fifth avenue that were taken down ultimately um that probably didn't have to be because the city ultimately decided to treat the rest of them outside of fifth avenue okay that's it i think um

think he'll give me a c maybe for execution but thank you guys all right thank you mrs ring um mrs ring did you say what your address was we live at 502 third street northeast on the corner of fifth avenue okay thank you and part of the reason why we do that is i know that we have a very attentive council and lot of the lot of the council members will drive by and see the site firsthand so anyway is there anyone else and there is the possibility that council might ask questions about what we've heard in open forum we just don't do it during open forum is there anyone else who would like to address council on something not on tonight's agenda

if it's about the sidewalks okay then come on up but it's on the infamous fifth avenue project but just please uh please announce who you are and where you live my name is selena urban i'm sorry what was that again my name is selena urban i live at 205 fifth avenue northeast so i live on the intersection of second street and fifth avenue i have a nice corner lot um Of all the things that have happened with this project, are they going to come by and put more seed and things down? Because most of what was put down in these last rains has been washed. Last time this type of work was done was when they put the ramps in to make everything ADA. I think it was 12 years ago, 10 years ago, somewhere in there. They did that, and seed was sparsely put down, and then we combated weeds constantly, knowing there's a city ordinance about noxious weeds and keeping those under control, knowing that we were going to be vulnerable to that ordinance. At the hands of not us and so are we gonna be looking at reseeding? I mean a good portion of my front yard has also been torn up along with the Boulevard and then the side Boulevard that's on Fifth Avenue 2nd Street So I just want to know if we're gonna be getting any Repair for that or continue with seeding and fertilization next year when it comes up patchy.

Oh, I Thank you. Anyone else? Anyone else would like to discuss something in front of Council? Okay, I'll close open forum. We'll go into item 9A, which is a presentation by Councilman Jurns with an update on issues involving Lake Compesca.

Mayor, are you fine if I go to the podium? Hey, thanks for leaving the light on. Really a lot of chatter lately about Lake Compesca, a lot of chatter about weeds, a lot of things that actually impact more than just people that are living on the lake. But thank you, Council, for changing the agenda so we could get this up and in front of what's happening in town Last two weeks ago. You will remember I made some comments in regards to this It was at the end of the council meeting I thought getting here early This may get to those that are online listening and also I'd like it to look for the media to to talk about or at least acknowledge that there's some great things going on in our city that involve Lake Kampeska, and that when you see negative things, either on Scary Book, you know, scare me till I don't know what's happening, or in the media when all it is is weeds, weeds, weeds, We hear those people. Those are the boaters that still like to boat in August, maybe here now into September until these weeds start drying, or not drying out, dying off. They don't dry out in water. Anyway, why is this important to Watertown? Watertown way of life is really about the lakes. Now, some people may not think that, but the economics behind it affects everyone in town. Economics are, this is why Watertown is who we are, a lot of it. It's an identity. It's a place to visit. It's a place for economic development because the assessed value of properties around Lake Compesca are no secret. It's millions and millions of dollars. So the economic impact is very important. Well, there's a few that still boat in August and September, and they want paths created to be able to continue boating. Is that really important to everyone? And are dollars needed to fix that or not needed? And over the next couple days, we're going to discuss in the media in Watertown starting tomorrow morning. Brad Johnson and I, Lake District, and Brad also has tons of experience and years of living on the lake and has just devoted his life to keeping it clean and keeping it vibrant and keeping it as a way of life. But there's so many things on how this is important. In fact, The economic driver is how we can fund projects like Fifth Avenue and other things that go on in our city. You know, what we're going to be speaking about also is, and what I really want people to know, is that at 1215 on Tuesday, the Lake District has their monthly meeting at the public library. And why is this important? Because we're going to discuss, I know they are, I don't know if they'll have me involved, but I'm going to be there. just to listen to what the weeds are doing, what we can do about the weeds, and then I'd like to highlight this evening what the weeds have done that have created something very, very positive that is just starting to get out there. And the reason it's just starting to get out there is because fishermen don't share the secrets. That's That is just not what they do. But I got a photo yesterday of a beautiful bucket of four species of fish that these two men had caught. And I hear these stories over the last two weeks, and I'm going, it's time to talk about Lake Compesca. and the positive things that weeds can do for you. So going and predicting that we're gonna be spending millions of dollars to take care of our weed problem is what it would cost. And there might be some temporary things that the Lake District decides to do, but I just wanna let people know that the Lake District is funded by dollars from the property tax assessments at Lake Compesca. So those dollars are not coming from those that are living throughout the city. The only dollars that would ever be added to that is if the city council decides, hey, we want to partner with this or we feel like it's beneficial to do it. So, you know, there's just some clarification. But this Lake District Board is going to be deciding some of these things, whether to do it or just whether to let nature take its course. And the more and more people I've talked to the last two weeks, that is becoming more of a sentiment all the time to. Figure out solutions. I talked to the same fisherman that had this beautiful bucket of fish and I go, so where do the weeds disappear that you can actually fish? He said, just get outside the 10 to 12 foot break line. and you can fish and you can boat all you want. And there is a big, large amount of the middle of Lake Compesca that's available for those boaters. So it's going to be an interesting conversation over the next couple days, but over the next few months and years as we discuss issues dealing with this. Why is fishing so important? Because I'll give you an example. Big Stone Lake has been dealing with this for five, six, seven, eight years now. They are one of the most prolific fisheries in boundaries. It's a boundary lake in Minnesota. Three times this summer, the state record bluegill has been caught in Big Stone. There's people coming to that town, coming to that community, spending their money. And a day after Kristen's report came out on sales tax and BBB, These are vibrant things that can happen if you have a very healthy lake. So just wanted to give everybody a heads up that the Lake District's meeting tomorrow. It's a very important meeting in regards to weeds, fisheries, and just trying to figure out the differences between whether we spend millions of dollars or not. Thank you.

So councilman before I open it up for the rest of council to talk about it You did mention this as an item to work on at least I know twice before so that's why you had laid the groundwork, but Just question. Is there anything actionable that you are aware of that is coming up? Is there other than the meeting and what's Are there next steps that you're aware of?

Yeah.

I mean, how is this a council item?

This is a council item because the Lake District, if they make a decision or if they see that there's funding that's needed, they would have to come to the city council. Now, I think, and it is public, how much they have in the bank. I think the last I saw, is it around a million dollars? Well, that's not going to last very long. So that's why it's not only important for our city council as because of the funding issues, but also for the economic. I mean, our vision, our 2050 vision, and to grow Watertown should be all at the top of our importance of where we're heading with our city. So that's why I thought it was important.

All right, thank you, Councilman. Council, does anyone have any questions or comments on Lake Compesca or the issues facing Lake Compesca? All right, thank you very much. We'll go to item 10A, which is an approval of a professional services agreement for collection design and construction administration associated with the street reconstruction project number 2704 with HDR engineering incorporated in the amount of roughly $235,000. City Engineer Peterson, please tell us more.

Thank you, Mayor, Council. This is an engineering agreement with HDR for the North Broadway sewer and street reconstruction. It's a project we're planning for next year. It's a full street reconstruction on North Broadway and Harmony Lane. It includes sanitary sewer, storm sewer, water main, curb and gutter, sidewalk, and asphalt paving. The large wastewater project that we have going on at the treatment plant, there was a collection portion of it that we held off on until we saw how the treatment was going. This is part of that collection system. And then the HR agreement, they'll complete the design and provide partial construction administration and engineering services. With that, I'll stand by for questions.

Thank you. Council, can I get a motion to approve the agreement? Motion made by Councilman Peters, seconded by Councilman Mormon. Council, any conversation questions? All right. Hearing none, the motion is to approve the agreement. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed to say nay? Motion carries. Item 10B is an approval of a change order. Number one, final for the 2026 Solid Waste Improvements Trust Hoop Building, Project 2612 with Berger Enterprise LLC for an increase. roughly $15,000 for a new contract price of $155,000. City Engineer Peterson, back to you.

Thank you, Mayor. So this is the final change order for the hoop building at the landfill. It's adjustment quantities to account for some additional concrete blocks and hardware needed to anchor the

the the building to defend it when loads so i guess with that i'll stand by for questions council can i get a motion to approve the change order motion made by councilman allen need a second thank you councilman mormon council any questions or comments councilman shutty thank you mayor uh just a quick question is it is it standard to be you know for contractors to be off by 10 percent on anchoring a hoop building

It's a little deceiving with these small contracts, like a $15,000 change on the Fifth Avenue project is smaller. It's a small contract, so it looks larger. The amount of blocks that were needed, it's kind of based off the engineering design, so that's why we kind of bid it as a unit price.

Councilman Hoyer. So in situations like this, just because I've asked before in the past about, you know, when we add something to it, we make a choice to change the design and then it makes sense to do a change order. What generates the shortcoming? I think this is a little bit like Councilman Chetty might have been getting at too. I understand that it looks larger because it is a smaller contract, but it's still just scale. And so that percentage is a little higher. You know, I wouldn't bat an eye at 15 if it's like a $400,000 project. It's scale. So just, is it a failure on design? Is it, or if you don't use the term failure, you don't have to use that. But I just would like a better understanding of where it comes from and how does it get overlooked? Because I feel like there's a lot of mathing that gets done to figure these out.

So when we did the design, it was based off of certain assumptions. And then when the actual submittals come in, there's some adjustments are made. And in this particular case, the loads needed some additional weight, essentially. So that's where the change comes in.

Councilman, back to you. Any other questions or comments? Councilman Jerns.

You mentioned the word loads. Snow loads? I mean, roof? I'm with those two. I'm like, that's a pretty good percentage.

The hoop barn, it's the wind loads. you know, so the wind can come up and catch it. When I say load, like keep the essentially more blocks to weight it down. That makes sense.

Thanks, Justin. Maybe. No, I know what weighting it down would mean, but why would we just find this out now?

The the project started in July and it just was when the, I guess we could have done it earlier, but we kind of waited until the entire project was done to see if there's any more adjustments to be made.

Councilman Peters. Not to pile on this topic, but I just wanted to add something here quick. I think, you know, where we sit, it feels as though, It's brought to us with no option other than up or down with this increase in price. And it feels as though we're kind of backed in the corner now because I agree with these guys. Why is it $15,000 more on a small project? And I think that this is one example of just some that come in front of us and we feel like we have to make a decision right now without much context. And so this all makes sense, Justin. Your explanation makes sense. I think there's just some concern in terms of What options do we have other than just feeling like we're a little spineless and just saying here's more money go finish the project I think is my thoughts, but that's all rhetorical.

I don't expect a response Councilman Hoyer So I'll just clarify a little bit for me to where that's coming from it's At no point in the history of me ever watching council meetings or being on council Have we ever said no to a change order and so it's understanding Does the error come from something that we did in our planning that maybe we need to tighten our process? Is it something that the contractor misdid or misbid? In that situation, it's harder for me to say, well, you professionally made a mistake, and we're just going to swallow that, and we're going to make the taxpayers pay for your mistake. And so it's just kind of having a better understanding of where did this come from, is this something we could have avoided, or is this error on the outside entity instead of us?

I GUESS I WOULDN'T CONSIDER IT AN ERROR. WHEN WE DO DESIGN, WE DO CERTAIN ASSUMPTIONS AND, YOU KNOW, WE BASE IT OFF OF A CERTAIN DESIGN AND THE ENGINEER, THEN WE DO A SHOP DRAWING PROCESS AND THE ENGINEER THAT SUBMITTED THE SHOP DRAWINGS, WHEN THEY DID THE CALCULATIONS, NEEDED MORE FOR THIS PARTICULAR BUILDING. IT WASN'T A FAULT OF THE The contractor, we did spend quite a bit of time pushing back, I guess you can say, just making sure that what we were getting is what we needed. And when it was all said and done, it was determined that this is what we needed to keep the building from flying away, essentially.

City Manager Steger. Mr. Mayor and members of the council, I actually brought up the bid tabulation on this project, and all of the bidders used the same quantity of 132 blocks. And so had this quantity been correct at these unit prices, it wouldn't have changed the winning bidder. What I don't recall and I haven't been able to find is what the engineer's estimate was on the project, if you know, City Engineer.

I believe, I can't remember if it was 150 or 160. I believe it was 150 was the estimate originally.

I actually just found it. It was 174,494. Okay.

Councilman Shetty.

Thank you, Mayor. And yes, just to kind of, me to finalize this out of course this is something i would it's we need to do this we need to approve this um we're all on the same team so this hopefully this doesn't come across as counsel against the engineering department this really isn't that this is just some questions that it's you know due process to try to work through it and and maybe on the front end if if if there's something that could be done differently on the front end to alleviate this from happening in the future so be it if not if this is just how the process works i know that between City manager and engineering department you guys who work these these things out So but I do see that and of course the need we got a finished project. So appreciate it Councilman where

just see now now i'm even more curious because i just want to learn at this point so the estimate that we have is 172 correct and then it came in for 174 excuse me um so then why why do we not match like our estimate sounds like it was closer to what it actually was supposed to be so it sounds like our math was good why did those quantities not match or why weren't they a little closer to each other And if there's not an answer, if there's not an answer, I just want to kind of understand the process a little better.

Well, when we do our estimate, we, it's our, based off of our experience, our best guess, so to speak, of what the product will cost with these unit prices. This particular bidder had different unit prices, and so that came in lower than our estimate, which is always good on the engineering side.

yeah and then when when the project is all said and done then we adjust final quantities and this one ends up being a little additional so any other council discussion all right the motion is to approve the change order if you're in favor of that vote aye if opposed vote nay finance officer bob zine

Okay. Moorman?

Aye.

Durence? Aye. Peters? Aye. Shetty? Aye. Allen?

Aye.

Boyer?

Aye.

Holleen?

Aye. Motion is unanimous in favor. Motion carries. Item 11A is a first reading of an ordinance of the City of Watertown amending provisions of Chapter 11.04, Garbage and Rubbish, under Title 11, Health, in the revised ordinances of the City of Watertown. City Manager Steger.

Thank you, Mayor, members of the council. Before you tonight, the next three items are related to items we brought forward in the past to streamline some of the business licenses that we have in the community. And what we are doing here is we are removing the council approval from approving routine business licenses and moving that authority be handled administratively at the staff level in many cases it it doesn't seem to make sense to make someone who wants to come into the community and haul rubbish wait for a two sometimes three week council cycle to get their license to do that and so you'll find that with each of the next three items It's just our method of streamlining all of these licenses. And I believe we will have made it all the way through the ordinance book after these three.

Thank you, City Manager. Council, I'll give a little free rein if you want to ask questions regarding the three items in particular, or the concept behind why this is being done. But other than that, this is a first reading. No action is necessary, but questions and conversation are encouraged. Councilman Hoyer.

I just want to say thank you again to staff for going through these and trying to streamline this. I think you hit the nail on the head that there's no point sitting around for three weeks to get the thumbs up to haul garbage or to get a pipe fitter license. I think we can just go, you paid your fee, great, thank you. So thanks for taking the time and just tightening it up.

Any other questions? Councilman Mormon. Just a quick question with item number 11A. If we look at 11.0409, number three, it says prohibited landfill disposal, the city shall not accept liquid wastes. And then number four, it says special waste may accept liquid motor oil. Just wondering if there's a contradiction there with those changes or if the city landfill is now accepting used motor oil, used waste oil.

I don't believe we are accepting used motor oil. Do you have that up, City Attorney?

That would probably be a change in the red line version when I was trying to convert, so your next reading would have that.

Accurate to what it was so basically we were just rewording it to be a little bit clearer and in that process Obviously it wasn't in them when I created the red line version and the clean version Okay, thank you Council any other questions comments Item 11 B is another ordinance amendment on hauled wastewater general provisions city manager Steger nothing else to add other than this is a wastewater hauler I

Council, any comments?

Item 11C is another ordinance amendment on business licensing provisions by amending gas license requirements.

City Manager Steger. This is the requirement for a gas fitter to have a license. And on this one, I will indicate that through Watertown Municipal Utilities, there is an exam and a qualification that the gas fitters do need to go through. Thank you. Council. Councilman Jones. So it's not a gas license? No, it is a gas fitters license.

Okay. Thank you for clarification. Under the gas ordinance. We don't have anything to laugh about very often here, so.

Council, anything else? All right. Item 11D is a first reading of an ordinance zoning text amendment clarifying the clear view triangle. Community Development Manager Hanton.

Thank you, Mayor. So this is the first reading of a chapter in Title 21. Basically, just we amended the setbacks for garages when they're entering an alley earlier this year or potentially last year. And so this is just to make the Clearview Triangle consistent with those setbacks. With that, I'll stand by for questions.

Let's see if there are any. Council? All right. 11E, another first reading ordinance amending the zoning map of the city of Watertown for Lot 3, Calvin Industrial Park, third edition from I-1 Light Industrial District to I-2 Heavy Industrial District. Manager Hanton, back to you.

Thank you, Mayor. So this is a rezone petition from the current zoning of I-1 light industrial proposing to rezone it to I-2 heavy industrial district. The property is about 25 acres and will be plotted as one lot. The thing about the I-2 district is it the exact same as the i-1 district as far as zoning goes until they would want to utilize anything within the conditional use section that would have to go back to the Board of Adjustment so there would be additional review or depending on the type of use or what they wanted to utilize the property for so with that I will stand by for questions council any questions or comments

All right, we'll see those back in a few weeks. Item 12A is an approval of a resolution levying assessments for sidewalk improvements along Fifth Avenue with the 2026 Neighborhood Street Reconstruction Project number 2503. City Engineer Peterson.

Thank you, Mayor. The Fifth Avenue project is nearing completion. The contractor is completing what we call punch list items, which include final grading, seeding, landscaping, and repair of some items. On the city side, one of our closeout items is the sidewalk assessment. We sent estimates of these assessments back in the spring, and the final assessment is based off of the final quantities installed. Most of them stayed the same. There were a few that increased, and there were also a few that decreased based off the quantities that were installed. With the council approval tonight, then the landowners would have the opportunity to pay the assessment within 30 days, and whatever assessments that are not paid would go on the tax rolls to be paid over the next 10 years. I guess with that, I'll stand by for questions.

I think there likely will be some, as I know that there's a lot of people in the audience tonight for this. I will open a public hearing now on this item.

Mr. Mayor.

City Manager.

Maybe make a couple of comments and ask City Engineer Peterson to talk about the punch list and the schedule remaining on the project. First of all, I'll just say for the benefit of the residents and the public, I am very disappointed with the performance of this contractor, and I've let that go on to the contractor, and we have had an extreme amount of staff, time invested this year, in managing issues with this contractor and subcontractors. We have paid the contractor $1.7 million project to date on a $2.9 million project. So, rest assured, we do have leverage financially to ensure that this project is appropriately completed before we sign off on it. And I will just tell the public, before we sign off on this project, we will walk your neighborhood with you and ensure that our engineering staff looks at the issues that you have and we agree that the issues have either been resolved to your satisfaction or we might have to agree to alternative actions to get them resolved. So this project is not finalized. Tonight's action is merely on the assessments, but I did want everyone to have that background before we get into the detailed discussion on the sidewalk assessment.

So City Manager Steger, just for a little bit more clarification for everyone out there, a lot of issues were brought up in open forum, and I made a list for them, but In particular, Mrs. Ring listed some things off that were actually in the proposal. Because the city will go through those and make sure that they have been handled by the contractor, which is their responsibility, correct?

That is correct. Before we issue substantial completement or final completion on this project and issue payment for the contract sum, it will be completed to our requirements. And we will do a detailed walkthrough with the residents. I think we've missed that in prior projects I know on Seventh Avenue two years ago We had some issues and we've continued to hear with issues on 12th Avenue Which was last year's project so before this one is completed the residents will have a chance to show staff city staff what issues are there and we will put the full leverage of the city behind getting the issues resolved and in the future we'll deal with whether or not this is a eligible contractor for future bids thank you city manager so just uh for those in the audience that spoke during open forum we and we would we will likely mention this later but such things as the sprinkler the debris the seating

that will be some of the things that the city has control over because we control the purse strings and the payment schedule to the contractor. And that is the leverage that we have. City Manager Steger, City Engineer Peterson. City Engineer Peterson, did you have something that you wanted to add?

I was just going to mention, I mean, we have walked the project and created what we call a punch list. I do believe quite a few of the things that were mentioned are on that punch list. I DID MAKE NOTE OF THEM AS WELL, JUST TO DOUBLE CHECK. AND AS CITY MANAGER SAID, IF THERE'S ANYTHING THAT IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO MEET WITH CITY STAFF, WE WOULD BE WILLING TO MEET WITH YOU AND LOOK AT THESE ISSUES AS WELL.

Thank you. So just another question before I open it up to public hearing. The question, so this, what is germane to a topic of just sidewalk assessment? It's just how much is it being assessed and for what? Is this correct?

That's my understanding, yes.

And just out of question, because I went to this area last week and looked at it, now The sidewalk is not necessarily just along Fifth Avenue because on some of the properties they have gone into the adjacent roads such as Maple first, second, third, and they've gone partially up the property, but not necessarily the entire way. It that is also part of this proposal? Anything that has been torn up by the contractor is part of this? Yes.

And it's a sidewalk that doesn't meet ADA or didn't exist prior.

OK. Seeing Manager Steger, anything else?

Nothing at this time. I'll stand by for questions. OK. Open it up for a public hearing. Who wants to go first?

And just please say your name again. Amy, what's your last name?

Oh, there we go. Yeah. Amy Obenauer. We live at 425 2nd Street, Northwest. Aaron Garsroot is the property owner as well. But I had talked to Chaz on August 5th, and he had said that the cement bid came in lower than what was projected when they first did the assessments. So are you going to be changing the amount that we have to pay since the price that they bid for the cement was lower than was originally assessed in the first time you sent out the letters?

I think that could be a question that I could see if can be answered. City Engineer Peterson, are you ready to answer that question?

What Chaz was referring to is our estimate, our numbers were higher than what the bids came in. So the bids came in significantly lower than what our estimate was.

Right.

The assessment that's before you accounts for those bid pricing.

Okay. So it's been, because he said it was like $20, but it ended up only being like $10. It's like much less.

Yeah. And we also account for the $20 per linear foot sidewalk reimbursement that the city has for residential We do count that as well.

So yes, it's like $29 some sense and it's down below $10 per linear foot Okay, so it's just making sure that it had been adjusted because we didn't see a whole lot of movement between the the first Assessment in the second if the price of cement was so much lower.

I was just curious So in short it will be It has or it will be? It has.

The numbers account for the bid pricing, yes.

Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Obenhauer. Anyone else? Is there anyone else who would like to come up during public hearing? And just please restate your name.

My name is Selena Urban, 205 Fifth Avenue, Northeast. So I was here when they did the big city meeting and they had all the plans laid out. We were asking questions and everything felt great. It felt like we didn't know what was going to happen, but at least we had some idea. And we were told, these are the sections of sidewalk that you're going to pay for. So they gave us a map. I snapped a picture, looked at our sidewalks and said, yep, that looks like garbage. I know I'll be paying for that. Then I get this most recent bill in the mail, because the first estimate was about $300. That was for the double width driveway. Like I said, I was okay with paying that. I just got the bill in the mail just recently, or estimate, whatever you want to call it. It was over $700 instead of $300. They had made it at 75 linear feet. There was some statement when I talked to Chaz how they didn't take into consideration the adjacent road, because I'm on Second Street. And so my assumption is some of that was not ADA, but I was never told that. I was never given the opportunity to review my own sidewalk. So I want to know why I got that bill and if I can see a map because some of that sidewalk was replaced when they did the ramps 10 12 years ago and That was angled fairly steep. So but at the same point, I don't feel like I should be responsible for paying for that non-regulation when we didn't even like the city put it in for us and Some of it I understand we might have to pay for and some of it looks like garbage and I don't want to pay for it. Like what they did was bad. There's like we have our sidewalk was the old where it's like two chunks next to each other all the way down. And at one point they had just taken one of those chunks out and then just put a new one in and they had this foam around it and there's chunks of concrete between the concrete and the foam and so nothing is straight. And then also then when the landscaping came through they took a chunk out of our walkway. And we can't tell anymore because we paid those concrete workers to also do Private walkway because they were going to go into the walkway that goes from the sidewalk to our house Part of the your guys's city contract was to go up. I think it was four feet Well, we needed it replaced so we paid our money to do the rest, but now there's been damages to that walkway I'm not quite sure where there are but then how do we get that rectified and I mean, do we then call the concrete? I mean, is excavation different? When they were digging it out, because they they dinged up our driveway, they dinged up the walkway, the brand new walkway that we just paid for. And that's frustrating, too. So, but I do, I don't know if there's a way to get a map of the new cost, or the new linear feet, since I'm on a corner lot. So I don't know, but the quality is not to standard. And I don't think I should, I'll pay for what I need to pay for, but I don't feel like I need to pay for things that were ill done or I shouldn't have to pay for. I guess that makes sense. So I don't feel it's my responsibility. All I got. Okay.

Thank you, Mrs. Urban. So just before you sit down, I had three questions that you had. The damages to the walkway, who pays for that, or the extra work that was done, the linear feet, and the quality is not up to standard. Was there something else that you had listed?

No.

Okay. And if I happen to forget it, because we'll go back after taking public hearing, we'll go back and ask, make sure these questions are asked and answered. So, okay. Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to come into public hearing?

Right. We were talking about how we're going to walk around, right. And take care of, When my sidewalks were put in on Maple Street, they did have to, because they put a sewer drain.

Oh, I'm sorry, Mrs. Owens, I know your name, but. Brenda, I'm sorry, Brenda Owens.

I'm sorry, I live at 501 North Maple. Thank you. On Maple, they had to put in a drain there. They did tear out some of my sidewalk on Maple, which my first assessment was at 155 linear foot. The last one I just got was for 174 linear foot. And I was told that's because they had to run additional sidewalk on Maple Street, that they did not put that in the bid or they did not anticipate that. They also ruined, when they took out some of my sidewalk on Maple, when they brought those forks in and they lifted up that cement. Granted, you have to remember that cement was probably put in in 1920, the best cement ever, right? They also damaged the rest of that, some of the other sidewalk on Maple. Well, I confronted them about that and some of the city people, and they said I'd have to prove that they did the damage. so as of right now they're telling me they're not going to fix it or do anything with it because i have to prove and hopefully i had pictures of my sidewalk well i'm sorry i didn't go around taking pictures of my sidewalk right but i did have some pictures of the gaps now that are in between the old sidewalk with the two bricks right that they how they poured it back in that day and time there's a lot of cracks now on it because of the weight that was been put on there so It looks really, really crappy. And after 40 years of living in my house, I take a lot of pride in my home because it is historical. Then when they did tear out my sidewalks, I had a driveway that was all reinforced concrete. When they tore that out and they did OK, up until some point, I come home and there was a huge chunk taken out of my driveway. They said, no problem, we're just going to put in, we'll just piece that piece of driveway in. That's fine and good, but what they did is only put in like a three-inch piece of slab. It's not reinforced anymore, right? I wasn't given back what I've already paid for, and I expect to be whole, not just pieced in here and there and everybody, and we're all supposed to be happy. I'm not happy with that. when they tore out in front of 15 Fifth Avenue, which is my rental, like I said, which was an old grocery store. They tore out that sidewalk and they tore out the, what do I want to call it? Gosh, it's like a cement, what do they call it?

What is it called?

like a flashing right which is cement well when they tore that up they also took out all of that and so now i've got from the sidewalk to where the the brick starts the whatever flashing on the front i've got now gaps like this why was instructed that they aren't going to repair that i should just maybe get some spray foam and put some spray foam in it That's not acceptable. I'm a female. I would have to hire a contractor to come and look at that, to put spray foam in? I mean, it's just, my question to you then is, as you guys are walking around, can I address these issues and have the contractor be responsible for that? In my driveway, I'm not happy because of the fact I have reinforced concrete.

And Mrs. Owens, I just want to make it clear to everyone, At a council meeting, you're addressing the council. Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. And then the questions can go through the chair and through the council back to staff. Okay, sorry, sorry. No problem.

So anyway, yeah, I just need to know if this is now going to be addressed as you guys are walking through as the council on these issues. So I can become whole again. Now, what we're going to do on my driveway, I don't know, because they've already poured the cement. It's been pieced in. Well, granted, they did, but it's not reinforced anymore, and that's not what I had before. They just come in and did a really crappy job on it, so... Okay, that's it.

Thank you, Mrs. Owens. So I have the damage to the sidewalk, reinforced concrete in the driveway, the gaps in the rental property, and will you be made whole again? Those are the four items. And part of the reason why I list these off is because other Homeowners in that area might have the same questions So I would just want to make sure that you know that the at the questions will be asked and addressed But I don't want to cut off the public hearing. So is there anyone else who would like to address the council? I

Hi, my name's Rita Ralph, and I live on 16 Fifth Avenue Northeast. I have the same problem as Brenda did with my driveway. We had reinforced concrete six to seven inches deep years ago that was put in. I watched them put that concrete in that extra piece that they had to cut off because they wrecked it, the extra three foot plus the end of the driveway. There is no rebar in that three foot piece that attaches to our actual driveway. My husband's livid. He said, if that thing cracks in the next few years, we're going to wind up having to put the darn thing, replace it, and do it all by ourself, because they did it. Plus, when they poured in the cement for the concrete, I've got a rubber piece about that wide in front of my house, because he cut it in the wrong spot, and I watched him. He cut it, and then he looked at it, and then he moved over and cut it where it was supposed to be cut, and then they stuck that rubber crap in the middle of it. So how long is that going to last? And the riffraff crap that was in the dirt, I was picking my own out because I knew darn well they weren't going to. You guys, I was picking out chunks of the clay pipes. I was picking out roots. I was picking out big old branches of the trees. I was picking out glass. They didn't do a darn thing when they came back, when they were supposed to pick all that stuff out. And I knew they weren't going to. So I did all that cleaning myself and the spraying of the grass seed. You look at some of the houses when you go up and down the street. It was halfway up my house. They sprayed my rocks, my plants, my pots, and halfway up my house and my windows. I had to go outside and clean it off myself. Then they came back with a big old hose, like firemen use. And then they just sprayed it on the sidewalk and shot it all over the house all over again. So it took me another half hour to an hour to clean that off. They did a crappy job of that. Yeah, I better stop. Okay. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mrs. Ralph. I'm just going to remind everyone else who might testify that these issues that you're mentioning about spraying the seeds and the cleaning and the rubber, that is not directly pertaining to the sidewalk assessment. And that's all we're talking about right now is the sidewalk assessment. The other aspects of it we can get back to at the end of the meeting, but I just want to remind everyone What is germane to this topic and that's just the assessment on the sidewalks? Is there anyone else who would like to testify during public hearing? All right counsel can I get a motion to approve the resolution? And I just want to make this clear to everyone just because we make the motion and second It does not mean that you automatically support it It is just that is what we have to do in order to even bring it up for consideration So, Council, can I get a motion to approve the resolution? Thank you, Councilman Allen. Seconded by Councilman Schutte. Council, actually, I'm going to go through some of the questions that we had listed, if that's okay with everyone. So, we'll go from what I have first. So, damages to the walkway, Mrs. Urban. Had a question, but I think that that question is shared by others in regard to let's say even the quality of the driveways the damages to The rest of the sidewalks. These are things that let's just say Issues with the workmanship and the completion of the project the quality of it the extent of it Who can give us more information as to this, how it pertains to the sidewalk assessment, what's going to be done with this? So City Engineer Peterson.

These are things that we can review and look at the punch list to make sure that it's on there, these items. I don't know how many of them are AFFECT THE SIDEWALK ASSESSMENT.

OKAY. FOLLOW-UP QUESTION FOR YOU, CITY ENGINEER. SOME OF THESE OTHER THINGS THAT WERE LISTED THEN, DO YOU NEED TIME IN ORDER TO MAKE SURE THAT THOSE ARE ON THE PUNCH LIST AS WELL? YEAH. THEN THE QUESTION I WOULD HAVE IS BEFORE COUNCIL VOTES TO APPROVE THE ASSESSMENT, SHOULDN'T WE KNOW WHAT'S BEING COVERED OR NOT? I mean, I'm just wondering, I mean, if something, it's hard to approve this tonight when we do not know for certain if the concerns that were raised are going to be addressed.

City Manager Steger? Mr. Mayor, on an assessment, we have a deadline of, I believe, November 1st. It could be October 31st to have the amounts listed on the assessment rolls.

so certainly with council meetings coming up in october we could defer action on this okay i'm just going to say on behalf of council i'm inclined to defer but not i do not want to lose this opportunity to defer conversation about this because there's a lot of people that came out tonight to ask their questions and i think that they Let's take this opportunity to delve into this and get some clarification. So council, just keep that in mind. I'm going to ask council near the end to defer action on this to a date uncertain, but I do want to encourage further conversations. So there was a question on linear feet as well that was raised twice. So who sets the linear feet? What's the extent?

The extra linear feet are, it's generally the corner houses that had to go along the side streets. That's really the difference.

Who decided how far on the side streets to go with the sidewalks?

That would have been the kind of a combination of the city and the engineer.

Okay. The reason why I ask is because when I went to that neighborhood, I noticed on quite a few of the side streets, the new sidewalk goes about halfway through the property, and then it goes to the old sidewalks. Not that that is completely unbearable, but it's definitely unsightly and potentially annoying. Well, it is annoying. So the question I would have is, I mean, that's decided by the contractor. no the engineer in the city the engineers we have to stop it at some point and so okay there was a question about the quality is not up to standard on several aspects of this um is that going to be something that the city has the power over on the punch list yes the the punch list there there are

several locations where they're either replacing it, sealing the cracks, or patching certain areas. It's various depending on what it is. So there's several of those locations on the punch list.

Damage to the sidewalk. There was a question about that. In particular, I think on one of the side streets, probably more than just one. And who proves it? How can it be proven? Who's burden of proof?

What's the rectification? Generally, we look at, we have some photos ourselves, and Google Earth is pretty good too, of looking at the condition of it prior to and afterwards. And based on that, that's kind of how we try to judge if it was damaged during the construction or if it was previously damaged.

Okay. I was thinking that that would be possible. So if you're a homeowner and you think that your sidewalk was damaged but not taken care of, that will be the process? Yeah. Okay. Thank you. There was gaps in a rental property on 15 Fifth Avenue. Just when the sidewalk was placed, there's gaps now between the new sidewalk and the base or the the base of the house?

That one, I got to double check if that made the punch list or not.

Okay. What's the process for any of the homeowners to be made sure that they're being made whole again?

That's also just something- That would be where we could meet on site and DISCUSS IT.

WE HAVE DRIVEWAYS THAT WERE NICE, HAD REBAR, NOW QUESTIONABLE.

I DON'T KNOW HOW TO ANSWER THAT ONE, TO BE TRUTHFUL. talk to my project managers and see what was done at those pathways.

And Mrs. Ralph, I just wanted to let you know that I did write down the rubber, the improper cut, the pipes, the spraying of the seeds, but that's not germane to the sidewalk assessment. OK, council, let's open it up. Anybody have anything to say? Councilman Schutte.

Well first thank you all who are bringing your concerns to us appreciate that sometimes that's a challenge just to come up front and do that But I do appreciate also as city manager stagger is as you kind of preface this with You're seeing some things you're not pleased with and you want to try to to improve how we work through this process this year and so I I could see the need to defer this potentially because I like that we like to see some action some of this might take a little bit to get to work through but i guess just as far as from my perspective here is that the uh that brings us some hope here i guess that we're we're on it and i'm not saying that lightly or empty i mean city manager stager i know is a man of his word so let's uh let's get to work on this thank you thank you dan since the mayor stepped out i'll call myself here for a minute i got some questions um i got a question for city manager stagger

Was there sidewalks on both sides of the street all throughout Fifth Avenue?

No. The majority had sidewalks, but there were a couple of lots that I know were lacking sidewalks. But if I were to estimate, it's probably 85 percent had sidewalks on both sides.

Okay. Thank you. Well, I guess I was surprised a little bit on the comments about the lack of comments around the cost of the sidewalks that the homeowners have to consume. And it goes back to the work session we had about a month ago when we talked about this. And I guess, you know, I have the ability to vote no on this, I understand, but I am just wrestling with the notion that we are putting in a street and we're ripping out current sidewalks, replacing them with new ones, and we're asking our citizens to pay for those. I just cannot understand the logic behind that. And this is just so much different than putting in new sidewalks that aren't there, a new development where the developer can, excuse me, take that cost and put it back into the lot and sell the home to recoup his costs. I just can't get on board or get it through my head how this is appropriate. And I know we're still trying to figure out how to skin this cat, but we're taking out sidewalks that were already there, putting in new sidewalks, which was our decision on this side of the bench to redo this construction and then asking them to pay a share. I just, I can't get on board with that. I don't know what we have to do to change that, but I don't think that's right. And there's a couple of comments I wrote down here. One of them was the assessment. About $300 going to $700 and then you know you had your private walkway done. I guess you know your private walkway I kind of see that as separate. It's an agreement that you had with the contractor, but but certainly I Just can't get on board with the with the with the cost allocation to the the citizen So I don't know if anybody has any comments or any ideas of what we can do But this one to me is a slow pitch down the middle for us to figure out a way to not pass that cost on to the citizens. So those are my comments. Thank you for allowing me to call on myself. I'll give that back to you.

Thanks, Councilman Peters. Councilman Allen, do you have anything?

I'm ready. Not specifically to Kyle's point. I mean, I think it's a conundrum. But as we discussed in that work session, I think the city What percentage are we paying right now?

Of the side it varies with the cost we were paying $20 a foot, but to put this into perspective The total assessment here I think is twenty seven thousand dollars on a two point nine million dollar contract So the sidewalk assessment that we are placing on the homeowners is on a rebuild of a street is a very minor portion of the project. And I certainly would entertain looking at the city picking up a greater share of that. However, I will also point out Councilman Peters, the last time we discussed this, was the only dissenting voice. So staff is happy to implement what you want to do as a council, but we do need to be aligned and consistent across the community and across projects.

And that was part of my comment was that really no one up here complained so much about the price other than linear foot Calculation where you were surprised that it was a lot more linear feet than than what you had planned and and I think also So I think our citizens are recognize that there's some value that eventually will accrue to them. The problem is it wasn't very well done. And I hope that we can get those issues corrected so that you feel like there is some value to the investment that you're making. It just, you know, it's not perfect. By any means, I can understand that, and I'm sympathetic to that. but I also think we're trying our best to put as much of the bill as we can as a city. Maybe there's some way to do it, to put more of the bill, I don't know. But right now I think it's more, my concern is that people have, It's just not been very well done. And so I appreciate City Manager Stagger's acknowledgement of that and our commitment to work with the homeowners to try and rectify whatever it is that we can. And we probably won't get that exactly right either, but I want you to know we're really going to try because I feel that's really important for us. So, and again, thanks for everybody for sharing your concerns and the issues. I really appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you councilman jurns.

Well, it's sure amazing how the tide can turn when the wind changes directions because CM staggered does talk about an issue that my opinions changed quite a bit tonight by this contractor and the absolute stupidity that they have Used in their minds and in their decision-making on this project What we're also DEALING WITH IS SOME PAST CHALLENGES THAT WE SEE IN GOVERNMENT AS A WHOLE BUT ALSO WITHIN OUR CITY OF PAST ADMINISTRATION AND PAST STAFF THAT HAS SORT OF PUSHED THIS UNDERNEATH THE RUG. YOU KNOW, TWO COUNCILMEN HAVE ALREADY BROUGHT IT UP. THE DIFFERENCE IS THAT WE HAVE A NEW CITY MANAGER AND HE IS A MAN OF HIS WORD. Not that he can change everything overnight, but I think the confidence that I have personally over the last few months is that when he says things are going to get done differently, they're probably going to be done differently. So that means in the world of customer service, if you say you're going to do something, you get it done instead of being brushed off. So I'm enthused that Justin is taking notes. i'd encourage you to get more notes to him if you have more items that he needs on his punch list and i think as a city councilman we don't need to be involved in this but we also need to be involved in in a recommendation uh that has been talked about here by uh cm stagger and um councilman peters um and So we get the frustration because things like this in the past have just gone maybe not done rightly. So hopefully we're on a different path there. The second issue I had was with the patching. No concrete expert, but valuations, what I heard there with what they've done, Justin wasn't able to put his neck on the line with the answers to that. That's okay. But if they come in and did that kind of shoddy work at my place, I would expect this to get done right. And multiple of you have said It's been confirmed by the mayor. It's been confirmed by CM Stagger and others. I drove that road the day they were spraying. I saw the stupidity and the carelessness of that. if that was anything like what has been done prior i believe that patching should be totally tore up and that contractor subcontractor should be held responsible for that crappy work because three inches versus steel reinforced driveways is a big difference and so the future whether you sell your property in five years or 25 years or 30 before it would have been in good shape I don't know what they did. You can nod your head. Were they driving their equipment on this stuff? So that is just carelessness on the part of a contractor. So they should put you back to where you were before. That's what the law should say. I believe it says that. That's what every... person who understands the right thing to do would do for you. So hopefully that gets done. We again have we can hear you out. We can change things in the future based on what we're hearing on this circumstance. But I know our city manager has had more heartache and headaches over this contractor that

really it is a bad situation thanks for your time tonight and coming up councilman mormon thank you mayor i just i agree with everything that my colleagues have said um i also you know i want to thank you for coming up and testifying that's not easy and just me personally i am incredibly sympathetic to the property owners and homeowners in this town And I myself am incredibly, to the point of ridiculously fussy even with my own property. You can ask my wife, I like my lawn perfect. Everything, if one little rock pops up out of my sidewalk, I'm out there with a caulk gun to fill it. So I would be just as equally as upset if it wasn't perfect also. I would support, if this is an option, if this helps things, I would support the mayor's proposal for a deferment of the vote. And then also just a couple quick questions for our city engineer. And you might not know the answers. I don't have a spec sheet in front of me and stuff, but Do you know with like the sidewalks, the concrete work and stuff like that, does it say in spec sheets on this project if rebar is supposed to be used and stuff like that?

I believe the, I'm 90% sure that the sidewalk here didn't have rebar. It had rebar tying into the existing, where the new matches. Okay. But not in the driveway.

Okay. They're not putting, like, the fiber mesh or anything like that additive in it or anything either, are they? No.

Okay. It has to meet a, I believe it's 4,500 PSI.

Okay. Do they, that was just my other question, and I by no means am a concrete expert either, but on a project like this on sidewalks or driveways, do they have to do a slump test to all the concrete they pour? Yeah, there's a certain lot. Okay. Yes. So they would have, I'm assuming they would have paperwork that would record all those numbers to make sure everything's tested correctly? Yep, we got the test results. Okay, thank you.

Councilman Jerns?

So I'd like to clarify, Brent took that a step further. What I was referring to is the driveways that they wrecked. And you had steel-reinforced concrete in your driveway no matter what the specs are on the sidewalk, you should be put back to whole. Thank you.

Councilman Hoyer.

I'm going to ask some kind of deeper questions on this. I apologize I wasn't at the work session. Somehow my email was disconnected, so I didn't see the date change. But what is it in Watertown's guidelines that drive us to replace existing sidewalks to make them ADA compliant? because I've looked into this a little bit and it doesn't look like federal law or DOT automatically requires that an existing sidewalk needs to be replaced when we do a road reconstruction. I see that like ramps do. And so I don't see that existing sidewalks need to. Now in our laws, the way they're written is if a sidewalk is in complete disrepair, then it can be viewed as a nuisance. And then in that situation, it's a requirement. So where does it come from and why do we do it the way we do it?

Who would like to answer the councilman's question?

Or who can?

City Engineer Peterson. I can attempt. The federal law does, it mandates the corners, as you mentioned, and if the sidewalk doesn't meet ADA, then that's when we I believe that is federal. That's when we require them to fix it. I don't believe the federal law requires us to put sidewalk when it doesn't exist.

It doesn't, but we do in our own laws in Watertown. We call for it. We can waive one side based on our guidelines from what I have read. But the federal requirement for you to switch out existing sidewalks to ADA, if they are undisturbed, i'm not finding anything if they damage the sidewalk or they have to replace a section of it then the new part can't go back in to the old standard it has to be updated this is what i've read when i've been googling this throughout the day um i would love just a verification from city at some point on this because if we are not required with some of these older neighborhoods to be taking that sidewalk and broadening it out it would be good to know and then that would also make a case for me to say i don't think they should be footing this bill if that sidewalk didn't need to get spread out but i i could be completely wrong in my reading and in my search and i'm open to that but i just want to make sure that we're 100 on that city manager

Mr. Mayor, Councilman, I don't think you're wrong in your research and your reading. The two applicable documents that have been guiding sidewalks in our community involve a 2007 transition plan for sidewalk accessibility, which presumably originated through some legal action. And then secondly, we adopted a 2021 Master transportation plan in the community which called for sidewalks on both sides of of streets with the provision for an acceptance An exception as you mentioned on a single side so those are the two guiding documents that we have both of which are subject to revision

Well, the reason I bring it up again is that the federal side of it isn't asking for, like, in your older neighborhoods that aren't to the modern 4 foot standard. That technically, if they're not touched, they don't need to be updated. You know, unless they're in disrepair, then they can be required to, but, um. I even in our other document, I'm not even sure that it. requires what we were doing on this project. I think you're right that it is just if it does not exist, it becomes a conversation. And that's just us. I mean, that's not federal, but some of the reason I bring it up too is because Sioux Falls got in a lot of trouble for this a couple years ago for lack of ADA compliance. Basically, they just needed a comprehensive list of how to address all the problems in a plan. Um, we kind of have that, I think with our sidewalk study that we do have, but, um, I, yeah, I just would like some clarity on when we're doing neighborhoods like this, or when we're doing roadwork abutting sidewalks that do exist, do they actually need to be altered if they met the standard at the time they were built and we're not touching them?

Sydney manager. I, I will express my personal opinion and we can head this direction, but In redevelopment projects, I would like to see us as a principal to start out with doing the project in the existing footprint. So in no case should we be widening a street to make a street wider and take an existing right-of-way. We should try not to place sidewalk wider than it existed before or place it further into the right of way, regardless of what current new build design standards state. I think if we start with that principle, many of these neighborhoods will be able to be redeveloped and have the streets and sidewalks done with fewer problems for us. You know, if you look at some of the streets done in recent years, the sidewalks are placed closer to the house

the curb that that just doesn't seem like the right answer and maybe those dimensions make sense in a brand new neighborhood they certainly don't make sense when we are redeveloping existing neighborhoods um i would say in general i do agree with the majority of that just withholding that if we touch the sidewalk at all and we can't replace it to what it is it has to go ada new standard but if it is an acceptable 1920s concrete sidewalk that can withstand a nuclear bomb, apparently, then maybe we leave it alone. But I think it's just something that we have to look at as a council. Again, I'm an advocate that there are sections of our town that are right by schools that have no arterial sidewalks to them. That's pretty concerning. I just say that because I have a kiddo that I take to one of those schools. And that's been the number one thing I've noticed about that neighborhood. We'll address that separately. But looking at this project, again, you know, if it wasn't required, I don't think it's a great standard to now be going, well, guys, maybe you didn't actually need to pay that. Now, your bump outs, like your curb ramps, absolutely, we did have to update those. They were a budding. But, yeah.

I don't know where to go from there. Councilman Allen.

So the other thing we did tonight was the HDR engineering approval there. So we're going to be redoing Broadway and Harmony, I think it is. Are we going to have these same issues? What are the sidewalks, and what's the impact going to be there? And I'd like to know that in advance of us beginning that project and having a whole bunch of our citizens come in and say, what are you doing? So I'd like to get some clarity on that before we stumble into another one of these. Thanks.

Thanks, Councilman. Council, any other comments or questions? Okay. Before I take a motion to defer action to a date uncertain, because I don't want to do a date certain because we don't know for certain when we're going to be taking it back up, but we do know it has to be done before November 1st. Okay. I do first want to say thank you to everyone who came out to address the council. It is very important for us to know what's going on and the impact it has on your personal lives. I want to, along with saying thank you, I want to apologize because one of the things that I heard when I talked with a lot of the people out there was, let's just say the lack of human kindness in how certain people were addressing the homeowners and their concerns. And that is not the standard we want to live up to here in Watertown. And I like when we start applying a higher standard I always try to look optimistically whenever it's something that's facing the city, because I know that we have a lot of good things going on in Watertown, and I like looking at it optimistically. In this case, I like the work that the city has already been doing on the sidewalks and the issues like this on these big street reconstructions, because we've had several of these in years past, and they've had some smaller issues, We've taken those, we've tried to learn from them, and I think on this one we have some bigger issues and more of them. I will say with the work that has already been done with the work session, the work that's going on with the inside the council and with city staff, I think we're getting there in understanding where we should be applying a higher standard ahead of time, as Councilman Allen said, so that we avoid situations like this. But I think Councilman Allen's comments can be echoed by everyone up here. So I want to thank everyone for the work that has been done. Let's start, you know, now that we know more, we can apply a better standard to ourselves as well. And I do believe that we will. I will say we have a long list. We have a punch list coming up. And we listed off all those things. I will ask everyone in the audience, was there anything that you brought up that was not asked? And so the next question is, what is, City Manager, what are the next steps? For the people that are here, anybody else affected, what will be the next steps?

I think as the next steps, our engineering staff will meet with the prime contractor and pass on the things that we know of. And also, if there are issues that have not been captured through the engineering staff, Please reach out to City Hall so that we can capture the issues. And we will make staff available at any time to do a walkthrough with you. And now we need to go and deal with the contractor on the project. I didn't want to be really nice to the contractor tonight because they have caused us a lot of pain, but I was reserved in my comments because we have to keep in mind that we do need this contractor to work with us to complete the project and complete it to the standard that we're holding them to, and we will. We sure will do everything that we can legally to enforce the contract that we had with them to ensure that this project is done for our citizens the way it needs to be done. Thank you.

Council, I would like, could I get someone to do a substitute motion to defer action to a date uncertain? Thank you, Councilman Hoyer. Seconded by Councilman Peters. Council, any discussion on that motion to defer to a date uncertain? Just to explain, we've got some learning to do on what is on that punch list, what has to be done. We need to learn that. We need to get more information on anything else that might have to be put on that list, and then we will come back and make sure that we have some avenue of correcting what needs to be done to correct it. So the motion is to defer action to a date uncertain. I think that we have support on this, so I'll just do a voice vote. All those in favor of that motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed to say nay? Motion carries. We'll see that back at future council meeting. Now, you can go if you want to, but if you had a question that was asked in the open forum, there is a good chance it might be brought up at the end of the meeting. So you can stick around for that. You don't have to. Just wanted to let you know before you go. Item 12B is an application for a transfer of ownership of retail malt beverage and South Dakota farm wine license and video lottery license from M&M Little River City LLC to Watertown Little River LLC, Watertown Clark at the same location effective October 1st, 2026. Finance Officer Bob Zien.

Okay. Thank you, Mayor. If it's okay, I'll kind of cover B and C. Is that okay? So both of these are an ownership transfer. It will take effect on October 1st. Like I said, location, everything else is the same. All fees have been paid and notice has been published. I can answer any questions. Thank you.

Thank you. I will open a public hearing. Is there anyone who would like to testify on this item? I'll close the public hearing. Council, can I get a motion to approve the transfer? Motion made by Councilman Peters, seconded by Councilman Shetty. Council, any discussion? Councilman Allen.

I don't know. I guess I'm just curious as to how common it is for us to transfer licenses to out-of-state entities. I was a little confused. I looked at Watertown Clark, and I thought, well, that's kind of an odd thing. And the transfer of ownership, it's Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and Columbus, Ohio, I think. And so I just wonder how many of our institutions. I mean, there's nothing wrong with it. I'm fine with it. I don't have an issue. But I just am curious, is that something that we're seeing more and more of? Maybe.

It's not uncommon. I can't handicap an estimate for you, but consider most of the chain restaurants in our community. The corporate ownership, many of the big box stores, corporate ownership. So this is not unusual at all. I'm just curious. Thank you. Thank you.

Any other comments or questions? As that was a question of clarification, I feel okay just doing a voice vote on this. All those in favor of approving the transfer, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed say nay. Motion carries. Item 12C is an application for a transfer of ownership of a retail malt beverage and South Dakota farm wine license and video lottery license from M&M Little River City LLC Silver City Casino to Watertown Casino LLC Silver City Casino at the same location effective October 1st. Anything to add?

Nothing to add.

I will open a public hearing. Is there anyone who would like to testify on this? I'll close the public hearing. Council, can I get a motion to approve this transfer? Motion made by Councilman Schutte, seconded by Councilman Moorman. Council, any questions, comments? Hearing none, the motion is to approve the transfer. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed, say nay. Motion carries. And just please note that Councilman Hoyer was abstaining from those two. Item 12D is a second reading of an ordinance authorizing the finance officer to certify the property tax levy to the Coddington County Auditor. And we will go to City Manager Steger.

Thank you, Mayor. Members of the Council, this is the second reading of the annual property tax levy. This is an increase of 3.73% over the 2026 taxes collected, and that amount is determined by state law. We are able to increase the levy by the consumer price index, which was 2.5% year over year, plus an amount for new properties in the community, which was 1.23%. This brings the total amount of property tax that we will collect next year to $4,854,000, which is an increase of $175,000 over 2026. Just for a little point of comparison, I went back and looked. Going back all the way to 2021 and we've averaged an increase in the levy each year of about three point four to three point five percent This levy increase this year is not out of line with where we historically have been applying the state State formulas for the levy increase Thank You counsel, can I get a motion to certify the levy I

Motion made by Councilman Peters, seconded by Councilman Hoyer. Council, any comments, questions? The motion is to certify the levy. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed, say nay. Motion carries. 13A is an approval of a resolution of acceptance for Isabella first edition installed by Clausen and Sons Construction LLC, LL and Sons Excavating Incorporated, Timmons Construction, and Dunnink Incorporated on behalf of the developer Steven Horning. City Engineer Peterson.

Thank you, Mayor. Isabella First Edition is on the west side of town, kind of adjacent to Highway 212 and in that Dollar General area. There is about 2,000 feet of sanitary sewer, a small amount of storm sewer, and then a turning lane on 33rd Street, which we'll be accepting with this resolution. I'll stand by for questions.

Thank you. Council, can I get a motion to approve the resolution? Motion made by Councilman Allen, seconded by Councilman Schutte. Council? Motion is to approve the resolution. All those in favor, please say aye. aye any opposed to say nay motion carries 13b is an approval of a resolution supporting class b membership for watertown regional 911 telecommunicate telecommunicators in the south dakota retirement system sydney manager steger thank you mayor members of the council i'll give some background here the south dakota retirement system currently has two tiers of employees in the state

what is called a Class A, which is most employees employed by the state and municipalities and county governments. Secondly, there is a Class B, which is a class that is reserved for public safety professionals. And so this is the county sheriff's departments, correctional officers, police officers, firefighters, paramedics, And the state put those provisions in place years ago to recognize some of the unique demands of those professions. And what that involves is where the contribution to a Class A employee is 6% per year by the employer and the employee, a Class B participant participates at 8% per year, or two percentage points higher on both the employee and the employer. And the reason for capturing that additional money is that these are professions that, due to the nature of the work, have a retirement age that is slightly younger than most Class A participants. What we have before us is a statewide effort to recognize the important role that our communication officers play in the 911 centers around the state. Historically, there's been resistance to treating these officers as a Class B participant. And so throughout the state, we are asking for communities such as Watertown to pass a resolution of support to allow our communication officers to be recognized for the work that they do perform. If you're not familiar with the work performed in our PSAP, which is our Public Safety Answering Point I'd encourage you to take a visit tomorrow night When we will be having an event there But I do want to point out that this is comes with minimal cost to the city If this were to pass through the legislature in the South Dakota retirement sit system For new officers, this would be less than twenty thousand dollars per year of investment into these critical professionals. I'll stand by for any questions, but I do fully support this, and it has the full support of our staff as well.

Thank you, City Manager Steger. I'm going to ask if our 9-1-1 director, did I get the title right? Mr. Troy Van Dusen, if you would like to add anything.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the council, City Manager Steger. I think he summed it up very well. You know, it wasn't that long ago that 911 dispatchers were really kind of put into the same category as a clerk, like an admin assistant, that sort of thing. Over the years, we've seen that position evolve and change into where really 911 communication officers are the first first responders. They have to be certified. They go to law enforcement standards and training academy for two weeks. to obtain their certification. But they're also certified in emergency medical dispatching and emergency fire dispatching. So our staff, we're all very proud of, do a phenomenal job. And we've got several this year that are going to be receiving life-saving awards at the awards banquet and have been recognized for their work in our 911 center. So the city should be very proud of the work that is being done there. And I thank you for your consideration of this resolution. Thank you.

Thank you. Council, can I get a motion to approve the resolution? Motion made by Councilman Allen, seconded by Councilman Peters. Council? Councilman Mormon?

I just want to say I agree wholeheartedly with moving them to the Class B pension system. And you know, there's lots of professions within whether it's city, county, state government that would love to be in the Class B pension as opposed to the Class A. But one of the definite differentiating factors of those individuals that are in the Class B is the fact that they work non-traditional schedules. And that's one of the main reasons why they have a better pension and they can retire younger is because these are individuals that are working nights, weekends, and holidays. And it's hard to find people that want to do that. And having lived a life like that for many years myself, it is very hard on your body. So I would love to see this passed through the state legislature.

Thank you. And I would echo those comments. It's a very important job and it helps the other first responders do their job better. Any other comments? MOTION IS TO APPROVE THE RESOLUTION. ALL THOSE IN FAVOR WILL SAY AYE. OPPOSED, NAY. FINANCE OFFICER ROB ZEHN.

OKAY. MORMAN. AYE. GERRANDS.

AYE.

PETERS. AYE. SHUTTY. AYE. ALLEN. AYE. POYER. AYE. POLIN.

AYE. MOTION CARRIES. CITY MANAGER, ANYTHING TO REPORT?

A COUPLE OF THINGS. FIRST OF ALL, TOMORROW EVENING AT 530 P.M. IN THE COMMUNITY ROOM AT THE WATERTOWN POLICE DEPARTMENT, We will be hosting a community discussion on the various technologies that we use in the police force, including license plate readers and camera technology. And also, I think we'll give a little tour of the 911 center so you can see what our communication officers do. So that will be tomorrow evening at 5.30 p.m. Secondly, we have received proposals for redevelopment. of the wastewater treatment plant site. I'll talk now about next steps. Keep in mind, this wasn't a traditional bid. We did not ask for proposals so we could look for the best dollar amount and stamp a bid and move on. We were looking for the best ideas, and now we do have some to look at. And they're pretty wide ranging in terms of what we have received. What I would like is a volunteer, probably three volunteers from the council who are willing to work through the proposals with staff over the next few weeks. That may involve sitting down and going through presentations with the respondents to dive further into what they have proposed. So if you're willing to assist with that, please reach out to me. I WOULD LIKE TO RECOGNIZE TWO TEAM MEMBERS THAT WE HAVE WITHIN THE CITY. BOTH ARE LONGTIME members of our staff at the wastewater facility, and both of them received some statewide recognition this week for their long, long service. First, we have Larry Howard, who is our collection supervisor at wastewater. Larry has been with the city for 33 years and was recently recognized by his peers for his lengthy service and contributions to wastewater within the state. And secondly, Craig Mitchell has also been with the city for in excess of 30 years. And he was also recognized by the statewide association earlier today. I don't recall the names of the awards. But we did do some social media posts. So you can look up the names of the awards. But again, it's great to have Watertown employees recognized on a statewide basis. for the contributions that they make, not only here, but to the broader profession. That's all I have.

Thank you, City Manager. I will open the City Councilmember introduction of topics for future discussion by bringing a topic for future discussion that was currently spoken of tonight and in the past because I know that this will be part of the Fifth Avenue discussion coming forward. So I feel okay saying that this is a topic for future conversations. But some of the things that were brought up were that in open forum were the ash trees that were taken out. And one thing in particular, it's like Mrs. Ring mentioned that the city was treating all of the ash trees as, and I might not be right, but I thought the city was treating some, but there's been a lot taken out too.

That is correct. We are attempting to treat one out of every three trees. So our belief is we can prolong the life of some of the ash canopy by treating trees. and allowing the replacement trees to start to grow a canopy before ultimately all of the ash trees need to be removed. So it is about a third of the trees, not all of the trees that we are treating.

OK. And is there any discussion about Mrs. Owens' alleyway about drainage or?

I'm unsure of what the specific issues are on that alley, so I'll maybe turn it over to City Engineer Peterson and let him comment.

Yeah, just this morning, Street Superintendent Rob Bain and I were having a conversation about that alley. There's nothing definitive at this point, but we are looking at it to try to come up with some solution to help out Ms. Owens.

Okay. And one other thing that was brought up previously is the seeding that was sprayed over there in the topsoil. I know that this was a big issue on the 10th Avenue project as well because people didn't like how their yards were put back together or not put back together. So I know that this is an issue.

YES, THAT IS ON THE PUNCH LIST TO FILL IN AREAS THAT NEED TO BE FILLED IN. WE'VE HAD COMMENTS ABOUT CLEANING UP THE ROCKS AND BROOTS AND OTHER JUNK, SO TO SPEAK, IN THE RIGHT-AWAY. It's it's usually you know when it comes in next spring Discussion about treating weeds and that kind of stuff, too. So okay.

Thank you, and I'll just I'll support councilman Hoyer and Discussing more about the sidewalks about let's get an understanding of what we have to do and what we don't have to do because like what's happening at Fifth Avenue when I Like they go halfway up someone's property with a wide sidewalk and then it goes back to narrow old sidewalk. It's just weird and it's not great. It would be annoying. So I will say that that is a topic for future discussion. City Attorney Carrico.

This is actually an odd request, but I had heard as well when I first came on board as the city attorney that we were doing the ADA sidewalks in response to litigation. However, I could find no case that we're talking about. So if anybody knows what this case is, please tell me because I have done research to try and locate this case as to why we're doing these ADA sidewalks. And I could not find anything. So I'm wondering if it was more of a threat of litigation that caused the city to implement some sort of plan. But if anybody knows historically, please let me know. Thank you.

thank you city attorney and thank you council for indulging me by bringing those up council does anyone else have anything that they'd like to bring up councilman mormon i just want to quickly say uh thank you to the watertown fire rescue there's a few of us sitting in this room that had the privilege of partaking in a um I don't want to say training, but an exposure experience of what it's like to be a fireman or a firewoman on Saturday. And what a phenomenal group of individuals we have. What a super fun experience it was. And I wore my Watertown Fire Rescue shirt tonight out of recognition for all those individuals. And I can tell the public that we have a very, very, very well-trained group of individuals that work there. And when we went through the EMS portion on Saturday and they showed us some of the stuff they can do on the ambulance, I was completely blown away at the extent of medical Care they can provide everyone on the ambulance nowadays. So I just want to say thank you to all of the individuals that worked with us on Saturday and gave up some of their time off and You know what a what an awesome experience and I recommend anyone that has the chance to go through it Thank You council anybody else have a topic for future discussion.

I Okay. And as noted at the beginning of the meeting, the topics for executive session probably need to marinate for a while, and then we will bring them up at a future meeting. So as I'm aware, I'm not aware of any reason to go into executive session. Therefore, I will entertain a motion to adjourn. Made by Councilman Peters. Seconded by Councilman Mormon, was it? All right. All those in favor of adjourning, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed to say nay? Motion carries. Good night and God bless you, Watertown.