Lake Elmo City Council — Transcript
Sunday, October 26, 2025
Pickleball Noise Pollution and Park Planning
Youth Service Bureau Annual Report and Funding Request
City Financial Management and Debt Load
Capital Improvement Project Cost Overruns and Management
Quarterly Strategic Plan Progress
City Centennial Celebration Planning
Votes (9)
Public Comment: Pickleball Noise Concerns
Dissent: N/A
Moved by N/A · Seconded by N/A
Paul Bolman detailed the significant noise disturbance from pickleball courts affecting his and neighbors' homes, citing constant percussive sounds and yelling up to 14 hours a day. He highlighted health impacts, property value depreciation, and referenced the city's own Park System Plan recommendation against placing courts within 600 feet of homes, a guideline he believes was violated in several parks. He suggested noise mitigation or relocation as solutions.
Presentation from Youth Service Bureau (YSB)
Dissent: None
Moved by N/A · Seconded by N/A
Michael Huntley presented YSB's 2024 performance and 2025 update, detailing early intervention and prevention services for youth and families across various programs like diversion, chemical health support, and family therapy. He showcased high success rates (e.g., 94% diversion success) and requested $5,775 in support for 2026. Council Member Holtz clarified YSB's distinct youth-only focus compared to Family Means, which also serves adults.
Consent Agenda Approval
Dissent: None
Moved by Unknown [00:09:47] · Seconded by Unknown [00:09:48]
The council approved a range of routine financial and administrative items, including payments, requests for street and utility improvements, security reductions for various developments (Union Park West, Eastn Village, Dairy Queen), a well water treatment plant pay request, POC firefighter hiring, and the Youth Service Bureau contract.
2025 Bond Sale Resolution 2025-054
Dissent: Unknown [00:13:58]
Moved by Unknown [00:12:35] · Seconded by Unknown [00:12:47]
Tammy Amdall from Northland Security advised on the sale of Series 2025A bonds for street improvements. The city's double A1 rating was affirmed by Moody's. The bond sale attracted seven bids, with Brownstone Investment Group winning at a true interest cost of 3.32%, significantly lower than the 4.18% estimate. The premium bid allowed for a reduction in the bond's par amount from $2,185,000 to $2,025,000. One council member expressed concern about long-term liabilities and fixed-cost ratios, advocating for careful consideration of debt load in future capital planning.
I94 Lift Station and Force Main Improvements Contract Award (Resolution 2025-055)
Dissent: None
Moved by Unknown [00:18:27] · Seconded by Unknown [00:18:47]
The City Engineer presented five bids for the I94 lift station and force main improvements, recommending A1 Excavating LLC for the low bid of $1,248,683. The project involves upsizing a sanitary force main and replacing a culvert, funded by enterprise funds. The Engineer explained the cost was higher than initially estimated due to the project's emergency acceleration last year and complexities discovered during final design, such as pump replacement, utility crossings, and site constraints, asserting the current bids reflect the accurate cost.
Material Testing Contract for I94 Lift Station Project
Dissent: None
Moved by Unknown [00:19:40] · Seconded by Unknown [00:20:01]
Following the award of the I94 lift station and force main improvements contract, a motion was made to authorize the City Administrator to enter into a material testing contract for the project's construction phase services, not to exceed $25,000. This is a standard ancillary service for construction projects to ensure quality and compliance.
Quarterly Goals Update
Dissent: N/A
Moved by N/A · Seconded by N/A
The City Administrator presented an update on the progress of the city's strategic plan goals across six key areas, including community building, managed growth, financial balance, governance, public services, and infrastructure. Highlights included progress on the TAP program for 180 acres, comprehensive plan updates, new financial software implementation, exploration of new fees (street light, stormwater), GIS mapping, and smart water usage technology. Council members praised the clarity of the update and suggested making similar information available to the public on the city website.
Appointment of Planning Commissioner
Dissent: None
Moved by Unknown [00:26:44] · Seconded by Unknown [00:26:50]
The council considered and approved the appointment of Danielle Sorro to an open position on the Planning Commission. This followed an interview conducted earlier in the evening.
100-Year Anniversary Celebration Discussion
Dissent: N/A
Moved by N/A · Seconded by N/A
Council Member Dragasich proposed city-sponsored fireworks, potential fighter jet flyovers, and a street dance for Lake Elmo's 100th anniversary in 2025, suggesting a budget of up to $50,000 from the city's fund balance. Connect Lake Elmo is already planning a community day picnic for September 5th. Concerns arose about the extremely short timeline (six weeks), the need for fire chief coordination, and especially the City Attorney's caution regarding the legal authority for the city to spend funds on fireworks under its statutory powers, even for a centennial celebration. The Mayor indicated prior discussions with the MAC regarding potential flyovers.
Notable Quotes (18)
My home is 40ft from park. We are subject to nearly constant percussive sound paddles. Sometimes it 14 hours a day.
On page 57 of the Lake Emel Park System plan, there is a recommendation that the pickleball courts not be placed within 600 ft of a home. My experience is that this is a pretty valid recommendation.
Something that generates as much noise as pickle ball does not belong in a neighborhood park with adjacent homes.
Youth Service Bureau is a 501c3 nonprofit organization and we've been operating since 1977. We have an office in Stillwater, an office in Woodbury, and an office in Cottage Grove. And we serve the whole area, you know, up and down between those cities.
One of our statistics and it it's the highest it's ever been... 94% [of kids through our diversion program] stay uninvolved with the juvenile justice system for at least one year.
To help me understand and I we're definitely going to be approving this because it's for our community. But to help me understand with I know Family Means does some counseling as well in the area. Is there are they distinctly different for some of the services that they are offering when it comes to the counseling side?
The city's existing rating of double A1 was affirmed by Moody's as part of this process. So, congratulations to the city on that.
The final um offering with and we use the true interest cost which takes into account the purchase price of the bonds at 3.32%. The estimate in the finance plan which was from um June the beginning of June and I presented to you on June 17th was 4.18% at the time.
just think as we move forward looking into the capital improvement and budgeting process just the I'm no uh council member Dragus here with the financials but a couple that stood out to me the long-term liabilities ratio the fixed cost ratio I think both show um as we're moving forward in the process the rest year with the CIP that maybe we need to as council member Dragusich has mentioned before think a little bit about uh the debt load.
The low bid was in the amount of 1,248,683 for the project. Um, we are recommending that the city move forward with that bid from A1 Excavating LLC and award a contract.
this project was an ad, a a very late ad and acceleration to the capital improvement plan last year. It uh it was added and accelerated as a result of um a water a sance main break that occurred last fall. um it became an emergency situation which kind of unfortunately forced staff into a reactionary rather than you know being able to plan uh mode.
I walked away thinking, you know, I've been in that position before. you just you come up with your best with the information that you have on hand and you know at the time and then you get into the project and you find some things that you couldn't have been aware of when you started and so I think you know he it's tough for him to stand up here and tell us you know oops we we missed it but it's completely justified.
It's our second update since um the council adopted their strategic plan earlier this year.
Bolton and Mink is able to provide us with GIS mapping and so um staff as well as Bolton Mink have been working on developing this platform and um we just recently had a meeting and we're hoping to go live end of July, August I would say.
Just say it's fantastic to see it documented and to be able to provide that to the community. It's we haven't had it provided in this way potentially ever. I mean, so it's it's very very much appreciative of it.
I you know I actually became aware of this 100 year celebration... I saw it and I really wasn't aware but I got to thinking um as a city you know will we have some kind of celebratory or celebration process.
I was thinking 30 minutes, that's $45,000. We'd have to decrease, you know, our $12 million we have in cash in our general fund to cover that, but it's a hundred years. That's only 450 bucks a year um for 100 years.
Mr. Mayor... there might not have been one because I don't know if it's a it has to be a public purpose expenditure... I'm not aware of anything that allows you to spend money for fireworks.
Ordinances & Resolutions (12)
City document referenced for pickleball court placement recommendations.
Submitted by the Youth Service Bureau for 2026 funding.
Resolution for awarding the sale of general obligation improvement bonds Series 2025A.
Document containing estimates for the 2025 bond sale.
Resolution for accepting bids and awarding a contract for I94 lift station and force main improvements.
City plan discussed in relation to the Musa boundary workshop.
Request for Proposals for the old fire station and public works building.
New financial software scheduled for implementation in Q1 2026.
First water brochure mailed to all residents.
Internal communication platform created for employees.
Draft report presented at a city council workshop.
Platform being developed with Bolton and Mink for internal and external use.