Meetings and Announcements
· Next Council Workshop and Meeting is Monday,
June 10th. Workshop start time is 5:30 pm. Items
include the Preliminary CIP review and update on the North End Study.
Updates from
Staff and Council:
Annual Employee
Appreciation Event, took place Wednesday, May 29th. Here is a
list of Employees honored for their years of service:
Administrative Staff:
Christine Evans- 15 years,
Lois Knutson- 15 years.
Fire:
Steve Lukin 20 years
Information Technology:
Nick Franzen- 15 years
|
Parks and Recreation:
Audra Robbins- 20 years
Public Works:
Don Jones-20 years
Doug Edge-25 years
John Ducharme- 30 years
|
Police:
Brian Touzell- 10 years
Tony Gabriel- 15 years
Glen McCarty- 15 years
Michael Nye- 15 years
Dan Busack- 20 years
Julie Olson- 20 years
Jay Wenzel-20 years
Kevin Johnson- 25 years
|
It was a really
great event held at our new Wakefield Community Building.
Below are the
links to the completed Employee Recognition 2019 video named ‘Looking Back
& Moving Forward’.
YouTube Link
(v1, 4m22s): https://youtu.be/ir-edCswIig
Vimeo Link (v1,
4m22s): https://vimeo.com/338994683
INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY
Comcast Internet
Essentials
At the last City
Council meeting Comcast’s Internet Essentials program was discussed and staff
was asked to look into promoting the program within our community. Since
that discussion we’ve registered as a partner on the programs website, www.internetessentials.com.
As a partner we now have access to professionally created flyers, postcards and
brochures all explaining the program and how to learn more/sign up for the
service. Many of the marketing materials are available in multiple
languages as well (Spanish, Hmong, Somali and many more). Now that we
have access to these materials we are now discussing how and where to utilize
them. Stay tuned for a future FYI on how we plan on using these
materials.
Update on
Sharepoint Council Calendar
Staff presented
to City Council that online access to the Council calendar will be coming soon,
and it will be. However, as we continued discussions on the logistics of
managing the various calendars, we need to change the configuration of a few calendars
so that the items are presented accurately. Those changes are taking
place now and will be done by June 7th. Once they are completed and
testing confirms that the new configuration operates the way we need it to,
instructions will be sent to Council on how to access the new calendar.
Until then, please continue to view upcoming events via the FYI and Council
packets.
FINANCE
Notice of the new
LGA distribution under the new Omnibus Tax Bill (SS HF 5), which is
expected to become law this year. The bill was approved during the May 24
special session and is waiting for the Governor’s signature. The bill
restores LGA to 2002 levels. Maplewood is expected to receive $1,102,768 in
2020, which is an increase of $227,086 over the amount of
$875,682 received in 2019. This is really great news for the City.
COMMUNICATIONS
Maplewood wins
Silver in statewide media competition
Congratulations
Kevin Schmitz (Communications) on winning a Silver prize from the Minnesota
Association of Government Communicators (MAGC) for his video on the Fire
Department’s Emergency Vehicle Operations Training. The City entered the video
in the Public Health and Safety Video category. This is the second straight
year MAGC has recognized the communications team for its video work.
Firefighter/Paramedics Rochelle Hawthorne and Charlie Smith and Battalion Chief
Shawn Conway added insightful commentary to help explain the importance of the
training.

Please take a
minute to watch the video: Youtube.com/watch?v=QOkAiq9Wcsk
COMMUNITY
DEVELOPMENT
Rental Housing
Licensing
Staff is
planning on setting the public hearing for the new rental housing licensing
ordinance at the council meeting on July 8. We will send notices again to all
property owners and include an article in the July Maplewood Living.
Council can then adopt on July 8 or bring it back to the July 22 meeting if
they wish to make changes. We did hold an open house for the rental
community. Over 800 notices were sent out and 3 people attended the open house.
Renters were also given an opportunity to send in their comments to staff or do
an on-line survey. Staff tells me that they received no additional input from
the renters.
Elk
Ridge Alzheimer's Special Care Center
Tuesday, June
4th at 4:30pm
1700 Beam Ave., Maplewood
Join us
for a Grand Opening and Ribbon Cutting Celebration for Elk Ridge Alzheimer's
Special Care Center! This is going to be a GRAND celebration with live music,
great food and special tours of the new facility. We will meet the leadership
of JEA Senior Living, the team members from Elk Ridge and learn more about
their philosophy of care.
Hillcrest Golf
Course Update
Attached is a
Mpls/St Paul Business Journal article about the Saint Paul Port Authority
looking to purchase this site and master plan it for development.
The 112-acre
golf course is located at the southwest corner of McKnight and Larpenteur – in
Saint Paul. Many Maplewood residents are obviously interested in the future of
this land and redevelopment will have impacts on the viability of other
projects in Maplewood. Saint Paul guides the north third of the course as Mixed
Use and the remaining area is Urban Neighborhood.
Maplewood Organics Collection Site
Ramsey County offers residential organics drop off at their yard waste
sites. They are expanding the organics program by partnering with cities
to install satellite organics recycling collection sites throughout the
County. Maplewood has been chosen to host one of the sites.
The organics recycling collection site will
be constructed on the MCC/YMCA parking lot adjacent White Bear Avenue within
three existing parking stalls. The enclosure design includes a concrete
pad, six foot high composite fencing (brown in color), with a service gate and
entry door. Organics collection recycling signage will be installed on
the outside of the enclosure.
The City will enter into an agreement with
the County for the construction and maintenance of the site. The County
will pay for and construct the enclosure, ongoing maintenance, hauling costs,
compostable bags for residents, and promote the site to Ramsey County
residents. The City will monitor the site capacity and hauling, promote
the site locally, and be responsible for snow removal. The City Council
will review the agreement on June 10. The design of the enclosure will be
reviewed by staff, Community Design Review Board, and the City Council through
a minor project review which will be released once the agreement is approved.
Maplewood Trash Cart Yearly Purchase
The City purchased 10,330 trash carts in 2012 for the City’s organized trash
hauling system. The trash carts have a ten-year warranty, and could be
used for 20 years. The total cost was $404,876, which was financed
through a seven-year utility bond. The City charges residents $.75 per household
per month on their trash bill to cover the cost of the trash cart utility
bond. The final payment for the trash cart utility bond will be made
later this year.
Beginning in 2016, the City has also used the collected
trash cart funds to purchase new carts in addition to paying for the utility
bond to pay for the original carts. While the carts are under warranty,
new carts are needed from time to time to replenish the trash cart supply due
to new trash services and cart attrition due to loss of carts. The 2019
trash cart purchase will be brought to the City Council for review in the
coming month.
PARKS AND
RECREATION
Pollinator
Planting at the Edgerton Community Garden
Edgerton
Elementary School 6th grade students planted pollinator strips at
the community gardens last Wednesday, May 29. These pollinator strips are
part of the plan for the garden and will provide a colorful entryway as well as
habitat for bees and butterflies.
This was a
coordinated effort between our Naturalists and Edgerton teachers Rick Wallin,
Susanne Collin, Alicia Bjork.
Many of these
students had never planted anything before and we were excited to introduce
them to bees and to the community aspect of the garden as well.
PUBLIC WORKS
Gladstone Phase
3 Improvements
The first phase
of the Gladstone Phase 3 Improvement project, between Prosperity Road and White
Bear Avenue began this week. The pavement has been reclaimed and work on
water main replacement and sanitary sewer services is taking place. During
the first phase a detour route of White Bear Avenue to Larpenteur Avenue to
English Street is available and signed.
Xcel Gas Main
Replacement Project
Xcel Energy and
their contractor Q3 started the process of crossing White Bear Avenue this week
with their gas main replacement project. This crossing is being done in
three phases. The first phase is taking place right now and requires a
lane closure and a lane shift to the south bound White Bear Avenue
traffic. It is anticipated that phase 1 will be completed on Monday of
next week.
On Tuesday
morning Q3 will be adjusting the traffic control on White Bear Avenue early in
the morning to begin phase 2 work. Phase 2 includes working in between
the northbound and south bound lanes on White Bear Avenue. Therefore, there
will be no east/west traffic allowed through the intersection, southbound White
Bear Avenue traffic will not be allowed to turn east, and north bound White
Bear Avenue traffic will not be allowed to turn west on White (see attached
Phase 2 traffic control plan). Phase 2 is anticipated to take 3 to 4 days.
Phase 3 will
include a lane closure and lane shift of the north bound lanes on White Bear
Avenue. Phase 3 work is anticipated to take 8 to 10 days. It should
be noted that this schedule is dependent of field and weather conditions.
Rush Line –
Tuesday on the Trails
The following is
a list of dates, times, and locations of upcoming Tuesday on Trails public
engagement events for the Rush Line project:
· Tuesday, June 4: Intersection of Bruce Vento
Trail and Atlantic Street, 4-6 p.m.
· Tuesday, June 11: Intersection of Bruce Vento
Trail and Larpenteur Avenue, 4-6 p.m.
· Tuesday, June 18: Intersection of Bruce Vento
Trail and Frost Avenue, 4-6 p.m.
· Tuesday, June 25: Intersection of Bruce Vento
Trail and Gervais Avenue, 4-6 p.m.
Have an
enjoyable weekend.
Thank you,
Melinda