13.01 - South Oak Street Project

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Page 1 of 5 Sandy Peine From: Tim Houle [Tim.Houle @wsn-mn.com] Sent: Friday, November 21, 2008 12:24 PM To: Sandy Peine; rlinnell @pequotlakes.k12.mn.us Cc: Mike Loven; Mike Rude Subject: Pequot Lakes-South Oak Street Permanent Easement Request To the City and the School District: 1. This is in regard to the above Subject, especially the stormwater infiltration component. 2. I've numbered the paragraphs should someone want to reference a particular point. 3. I apologize for the length of this, but I did not cover all of this Monday night as I thought we were past a lot of the background. But, with the concerns that were expressed, I think it is good for all of us, me included, just to check back on this process and make sure we are making good, long-term decisions. 4. On Monday night, November 17, 2008 I met with the School Board on behalf of the City. I was there to follow-up on many months of discussions with the School's Building and Grounds Committee as well as one previous meeting with the School Board on the City acquiring permanent easement from the School District for the City's continuation of improvements to South Oak Street. 5. I reviewed an August 27, 2008 proposed agreement and attached sketch. It is my understanding that Building & Grounds was recommending this agreement to the School Board with 2 modifications. One was that the City include an alternate bid item to pave the proposed off-street parking lot. The second was that this agreement was contingent on the School getting space along Hwy 371 (I believe in the vicinity of West Lake Street) for a sign. 6. The City Council has no problem adding an alternate bid item for paving the proposed off- street parking lot, which would then allow the School District to decide whether they want to pay for it or not. 7. On the sign issue, the City Council said they could not connect the Hwy 371 sign request to this proposed agreement on South Oak Street. The City said they would work with the School, but could not connect the two issues directly. I understand that there has already been some coordination occurring between everyone on the sign issue - I'm hoping this will lead to a positive outcome. (In my personal opinion, if this sign request had involved the same corridor that the City was requesting, I think the City would have had a different response on the School's contingency condition. However, if the sign request is along Hwy 371, I know that even if the City is totally supportive, there are MnDOT and DNR R/W issues in this general area that the City may not even have jurisdiction on. They really are two separate issues.) 8. The other major issue that arose Monday night was related to the proposed infiltration basin. 9. The existing situation is that the land generally slopes slightly to the west-southwest. We 11/21/2008