TOWN BOARD RE-ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING

  
            On Wednesday, March 29, 2017, the Board of  Supervisors 
held their annual Re-organizational Meeting at the Eureka Town Hall.
In attendance were Supervisors Lu Barfknecht, Dan Rogers, Donovan 
Palmquist, Carrie Jennings and Charles "Butch" Hansen.

            Meeting dates, posting places, notices, financial items, policies,
professional services and Supervisor assignments were the major agenda
items discussed.

            The following are topics that might be of interest: (This 
information can also be found in the Town Board minutes when approved).
    
MEETINGS:
     The schedule of the Town Board meetings:
           April 10, May 8, June 12, July 10, August 14, September 11, 
           October 10, November 13, December 11, January 8 (2018)
           February 12, and March 12.

     The majority of the Planning Commission meetings, by a majority
      vote and resolution, will be held on the first Tuesday of the month 
      unless otherwise indicated:
           April 3, May 2, June 6, July 3, August 8, September 5, October 3,
           November 6, December 5, January 2 (2018), February 6,
           and March 6.

NOTICES:
      The designated official newspapers are the Farmington/Rosemount
      Dakota County Tribune and the Lakeville Sun Thisweek.

RECORDING MEETINGS:
      The recordings of regular and special meetings will be used for
       transcription purposes and will be destroyed after approval unless
       specifically directed to preserve the recording. Recordings of Public 
       Hearings will be preserved. Recordings of the meetings can be obtained
       by the public upon written request, for a fee between the actual meeting
       and approval of the minutes for that meeting.

CHAIR AND VICE CHAIR:
      Supervisor Lu Barfknechs is the Chair and Supervisor Carrie Jennings
      is the Vice-Chair.                                           
                                                                                                  
COMPENSATION FOR TOWNSHIP OFFICERS, PLANNING 
COMMISSIONERS AND JUDGES WILL REMAIN THE SAME:
      Supervisor Chair - $90 and Vice-chair $90.
      Board Supervisors - $80
      Special meetings - $70
      Planning Commission Chair and Vice Chair - $70
      Commissioners - $60
      Special meetings - $60
      Liaisons - $50
      Head Election Judge - $15/ hour
      Judges - $12/hour
      Site Inspection rates - $25

TOWNSHIP ATTORNEY FIRM:

     Kelley & Lemmons Law Firm

ENGINEERING AND PLANNING:
     TKDA

OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES:
     Broad View Tech, Town Web and Rack Space

SUPERVISOR ASSIGNMENTS:
     Supervisor Rogers - Lakeville Fire, Farmington Fire, (Butch
     Hansen is the backup) contact, Weed Inspector, Ambulance contact, 
     Road contact and Dakota County Sheriff contact.

     Supervisor Jennings - North Cannon River Watershed,
     Vermillion River Watershed contact (Planning Commissioner 
     Nancy Sauber is the Vermillion River Watershed and
     North Cannon River Watershed backup contact). 
     Wetlands/DNR contact, Airlake Airport contact, Dakota County
     contact and Soil and Water Conservation District contact.

     Supervisor Palmquist - Road contact, Compliance Official and
     Building Inspector backup contact.

     Supervisor Charles "Butch" Hansen - Town Hall Structure contact
     and Building Inspector contact.

     Supervisor Barfknecht - Professional Services contact.

For Supervisor contact information, visit the Eureka Township web site
or call the Town Hall clerk at 952 469 3736.

For additional information regarding adopted policies, financial items
and other business discussed, refer to the DRAFT minutes when posted
or the minutes which will be approved at the April Town Board meeting.
            
         

   

A TALE OF TWO CITIES...

It has often been said that it is in Eureka's best interests to be in touch with the surrounding municipalities and develop positive relationships with them. In that vein, on March 10th I attended the "State of the City" address by Farmington Mayor, Todd Larson, sponsored by the Dakota County Chamber of Commerce. Obviously, there are big differences between a city of Farmington's size (over 22,000) and Eureka Township (1500), but here are some bits of information that I learned that may also be of some interest to citizens of Eureka:

* Mayor Larson said that Farmington has some joint committees with and that it is "nice to go out to townships and meet with members." (In regard to Eureka, this type of meeting hasn't been done in my recent memory.)

*A HyVee grocery store is to be located on Highway 50, near McDonald's. The preliminary plat, CUP, and business subsidy agreement have been approved. They have been working on this for about nine months.

* For the first time ever, the Tamarack Retail Center is full.

* There were 65 new single-family building permits issued in 2016. This is considered low; they would like to have closer to 100 per year. They are looking for 300 new lots to be platted in 2017 if developers to clear land and build are secured.

* The city has given matching grants ($1500-2500 each) to downtown businesses to improve and upgrade their facades.

* Various Farmington businesses and organizations donate to city-wide efforts such as new chairs and cabinets for the senior fitness center, crack sealing trails, K-9 unit, and first aid kits for police and fire.

* Farmington sends out a city survey every two years.

* Highway 50 will be milled and overlaid between 3 and 52 in 2017.

* Farmington uses many means to communicate with its citizenry such as a new mobile app, a new website, e-notifications, on-line job applications, city calendars mailed every December, city news and rec guide mailed every quarter.

Of all the ideas above, I was perhaps most interested in the surveys sent out on a fairly frequent basis. It could be a good way to engage more Eureka residents and landowners and obtain some direct feedback. (The last time a Township-wide survey was sent was for the Commercial/Industrial Study. I will note that some did not want that survey sent out in the first place and then later questioned its validity, even though the return was actually quite good for surveys of that type.)

In a similar vein, I attended the Lakeville Public Hearing on March 16th for the preliminary plat of the property owned by Launch Property, represented that evening by Dan Regan. This is part of the 98-acre property that was annexed by Lakeville in 2006. At the time of annexation, it was said that a developer was all lined up and ready to go and they needed sewer and water.

Here are the points of interest that Mr. Regan made in his public testimony:

* This development has "been a long time coming."

* It has taken "quite a number of years."

* There are structures planned on Lot 1 (19 acres) and Lot 2 (20 acres).

* There will ultimately be two buildings with warehouse and office space built on these specific properties. The tenant for the western half of the first building to be built will be Menasha Paper. This business has been located in the AirLake Industrial Park for quite a few years. It was not made clear if Menasha is moving entirely to the Launch Property site, leaving open its current facility in the industrial park, or if this could be in addition to its current operation. If my notes are correct, they will have 3,000 sq. ft of office space and 136,000 sq ft of warehouse space in the new structure.

* Launch Properties is building the facilities with maximum adaptability/flexibility as they look forward to possible uses in the future. For example, there are 269 parking spaces planned, with room for 334. They intend long-term ownership.

* It was noted by the Commission Chair that this property is readily developable, being flat with sandy soils.

* They are obtaining a CUP for a deviation in the exterior architecture. Instead of concrete with vertical "corrugations" colored like concrete, the exterior will be smooth concrete that will, at least in part, be colored. This would be similar to the Shutterfly development in Shakopee, for example, and is the newer trend.

* There are 11 stipulations to consider in the review.

* The plan calls for a Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP) that will not result in open water near the airport. Open water "attracts birds."

There were no comments from the public. There were two of us in attendance! It was interesting to see how city municipal matters move ahead when there is a full-time and complete staff to present information to the Planning Commission!

NOT WATER UNDER THE BRIDGE...

At the January 9, 2017, Town Board meeting, the Town Supervisors passed a resolution to return the watershed permitting authority to the Vermillion River Watershed Joint Powers Organization (VRWJPO), thus reinstating the Township's original position on this issue. As you may recall, Eureka was the only township out of the thirteen in Dakota County which declined to adopt the Watershed Ordinance in the first place. It did, however, adopt the Watershed Water Plan, which it is required to do.

I believe that there was an erroneous thought by some at that time that if Eureka did not adopt the ordinance, then the ordinance requirements would just "go away." This was and is erroneous thinking because all this legislation "flows" from the Clean Water Act passed in 1972. What that faulty thinking may have been based on was the fact that once one Local Government Unit (LGU) dropped out of the Watershed Management Organization (WMO), the body was defunct. However, the the powers exercised by that body would still be exercised, in the Vermillion's case by a Joint Powers Organization of Scott and Dakota Counties. In contrast, the North Cannon River is still managed by a WMO. Your Township representative to that body has a direct vote in how that body moves forward, within certain requirements. The VRWJPO Board is what has that vote for the Vermillion.

I just attended the January meeting of the JPO Board. Present were Dakota County Commissioners Slavik (Chair) and Holzberg, Scott County Commissioner Wolf, watershed staff, Assistant Dakota County Attorney Brosnahan, Manager Brian Watson of the SWCD, and a few more people in the audience. At this meeting, the JPO Board passed their resolution taking back the watershed permitting authority for Eureka.

Note that this is the permitting authority for the watershed portion of permitting, NOT the Township's permitting under its zoning authority. This means that permit applicants first will be required to receive a permit from the VRWJPO before they come to the Township for its permit.

Two things are important to note:

1. The Township is not to pass any permit contingent upon the VRWJPO's permit. If an applicant has not received the JPO's permit first, Eureka will not go ahead with its permitting process. In the past, there have actually been instances whereby a Township permit was passed contingent upon the other, but the landowner proceeded with excavating before receiving the watershed permit as he was supposed to. Oversight appears to have been lost. Thus the order of permits.

2. The VRWJPO meets on the fourth Thursday of each month, at which time permits can be approved by the Board. The Commissioners briefly discussed the future possibility of approving the simplest permits administratively (outside of their monthly meeting), but if and until that procedure is actually implemented (more discussion to follow), applicants must have their paperwork in in time to be processed at that fourth-Thursday meeting before coming to the Township. This is effective now.

If a landowner plans appropriately, this process can be smooth and not take up extra time. Conversely, submitting paperwork, say, the day after the VRWJPO Board meeting would naturally extend the time involved for approval as the paperwork would have to wait until the next month's meeting before even coming to the Township. That element is largely in the hands of the applicant.

I believe the rationale behind this move is that Town Boards come and go; Planning Commissions come and go. The VRWJPO has professionals such as Watershed Specialists who are well-versed in the Vermillion Rules, Water Plan, Ordinance and the technicalities and who do not have to be repeatedly trained as they enter office such as local officials would have to be.

Therefore, Vermillion River Watershed permitting will be handled by the JPO in a process similar to how the County deals with Shoreland and Floodplain. The latter is quite familiar to residents.



The VRWJPO is also going to look more closely at how other townships have been handling watershed permitting as it recognizes that the process has not been consistently enforced by the various bodies. This underlines that it may be best for clean water that the VRWJPO handle the permitting, rather than pass it to the townships whose roster of officials is subject to change every year.

FURTHER AIRPORT ANNEXATION UPDATE

The Special Meeting of the Planning Commission, the Town Board, Township attorney, Chad Lemmons, and TKDA Planner, Sherri Buss, was held on January 5, 2017. It was deemed by those bodies and persons and at least one member of the two-member audience to be very productive and informative. The information gathered by Ms. Buss included how other municipalities, including townships, have dealt with similar matters.

The different options as cited in the previous blog post were discussed and clarified. Supervisors Behrendt and Jennings will be meeting with Lakeville to first start discussions about a possible Joint Powers Agreement (JPA) between the two municipalities. The hope would be that Lakeville could sell sewer and water to the airport, the Metropolitan Airport Commission would receive the sewer and water that is called for under its policy, and Eureka would retain the airport within the Township. If this were to be agreed upon, the three entities would each come away with a "win."

Whether this goal can be reached or not is a matter of the discussions to follow. If ultimately a JPA cannot be entered into, then the Town Board would look into moving to another possible agreement to satisfactorily resolve this issue. Those in attendance at the meeting were of the opinion that the JPA would be the ideal solution.

YOU MAY HAVE BEEN WONDERING...

On Thursday, January 5, 2017, the Planning Commission and the Town Board will have a special joint meeting with the Township Attorney and Sherri Buss of TKDA, the Township's planning and engineering firm.

At an earlier Board meeting, following the airport's request to be annexed by Lakeville coming to light, the Board tasked the Commission with looking into the different options open to the Township in response. The Commission asked for and the Board intended that this study be undertaken with professional assistance. The group examined Joint Powers Agreements (JPA), incorporation, orderly annexation, and zoning strategies to discourage annexation in the future. (Some of these zoning strategies have been discussed during the Commercial/Industrial Study as well.)

The special meeting was set up by the Planning Commission to share its findings in person with the Board (always better than just reading reports) and to provide a timely venue for any additional questions that might be asked and recommendations to be made. It is the Commission's intention that the Board act at its January meeting to proceed with the short-term possible solution, that is, a JPA, before the Board changes composition.

When Supervisors Cory Behrendt and Carrie Jennings were designated by the Board as a body to meet with Lakeville officials to discuss this development and did meet with them, a number of things were reported to the Board.



One was that this annexation request is solely on the instigation by the airport, the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC). Lakeville simply received the request.
   

Another was that Lakeville has no plans, at least for the immediate future, to annex any part of Eureka. It feels it has "plenty on its plate" right now.
     
     

A third very important one is that Lakeville stated that it would certainly look at any formal proposal for a JPA with Eureka. (This, by the way, is 180 degrees from what had been reported to the Board earlier: "They'll never do that.") Of course, there were "no guarantees" offered, but at least Lakeville indicated it was open to examining the idea. A JPA could be so worded and agreed upon to keep the airport in Eureka, while yet providing for it to receive sewer and water in line with its (MAC's) policy. Lakeville could provide the city services and collect the monies.

   

 It was also noted that it would not take a lot to extend the lines for the airport (stub under runway) and that the airport would not be a high-use customer.

Whether Lakeville would actually be willing to proceed with this effort is uncertain, but it would be a good answer to the airport's concerns and the concerns of Eureka citizens to retain the airport that were expressed at the Annual Meeting in 2016. The Commission agrees, in fact, that a JPA would be an ideal solution to address the immediate issue. Looking at other, much more involved, strategies could still be dealt with down the line.


      Stay Tuned for Further Developments

A LITTLE CHRISTMAS CHEER!

Here's a little something to keep your brain from freezing up!
Answers are at the bottom after the bells. (No Peeking!)

Decipher the following familiar Christmas songs:


1. Infant, the exterior is frosty.

2. Small male percussionist

3. As herdsmen view their groups

4. Azure Yuletide

5. Beneficent Bohemian royalty

6. I marvel while I stray

7. Singular event in the metropolis of Israel's great king

8. Yea, sanctified twilight

9. Are you perceiving what I am?

10. The totality of my desire for Yuletide is a pair of incisors

11. The measured tread of the playthings

12. I observed my maternal one bussing Father Christmas

1. Baby, It's Cold Outside

2. Little Drummer Boy

3. While Shepherds Watch Their Flocks

4. Blue Christmas

5. Good King Wenceslas

6. I Wonder While I Wander

7. Once In David's Royal City

8. Oh, Holy Night

9. Do You Hear What I Hear?

10. All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth

11. The March of the Toys

12. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus


    MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

DON'T FENCE ME IN! ...AT LEAST, NOT WITHOUT AN OTC PERMIT...

As a result of fence complaints and to provide some oversight and guidelines to remedy such and other situations, the Planning Commission and Town Board have worked on and adopted a fence ordinance. When required, permits for fences are over-the-counter and are inspected by the Building Official. The application fee is $25 for Clerk time and any Building Official inspection fees are to be paid by permit holder.

FIRST and IMPORTANT, fences used for agricultural purposes on agricultural land are EXEMPT from this ordinance and do not require a permit.




Also, although a fence IS a structure, it is exempt from structure setbacks given in the Ordinances.

BOUNDARY FENCES are in a special category. There are three scenarios that may exist for such fences:

1. If the survey monuments are still in place, these may be relied on.
2. If there are no survey monuments, the Building Official can and shall require a survey to be made.

BUT,

3. If the involved landowners agree to the placement of the fence, they have the option of entering into a written, legal agreement which must be recorded at the Dakota County Recorder's Office and proof of such filed with the Township.


IN ALL CASES, the fence and any underground footings or supports must be located entirely on the the property owned by the landowner erecting the fence.

The Ordinance describes appropriate materials, which must be put up in a workmanlike manner and maintained in good repair.




The maximum height for residential fences is six feet.

The "good side" (finished side) must face the neighbor's property.

Security fences may be topped with barbed wire, except when on property abutting residential property. If the top of such a fence is angled, it may not extend over the neighboring property.

Traffic sightlines may not be obstructed on corner lots.

FOR FURTHER DETAILS and exact wording, please see website and/or Town Clerk.