April 9, 2025 Regular City Council Meeting Minutes

Call to order:

The regular Randolph City Council meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m. by Acting Mayor Jake Friedrich.

Roll Call:

Present:

• Council Members Jacob Friedrich, Tony Price, and Randy Ferguson

• Clerk Mary Haro

• Also, in attendance was Bolton & Menk engineer, Matt Blazer and legal counsel, Greta Bjerkness of LeVander, Gillen & Miller.

Approval of Agenda:

Motion to approve the agenda was made by Ferguson, seconded by Price. All voting in favor, none opposed, motion passed 4:0.

Public Comments:

Someone asked about the closed session and why it was being closed – it is AttorneyClient Privileged Information. A citizen asked if the mail boxes were going to be reinstalled. Matt will check on this.

Prior Meeting Minutes

A motion to approve the March 12, 2025, planning commission meeting minutes was made by Price, seconded by Ferguson. All voting in favor, none opposed, motion passed 4:0. A motion to approve the March 12, 2025 council meeting minutes was made by Ferguson, seconded by Price. All voting in favor, none opposed, motion passed 4:0.

Treasurer's Report and Payment of Bills:

Motion to approve the payment of bills was made by Price with the addition of a check to the Randolph/Hampton Fire District in the amount of $47,262.36 and one to Campbell Knutson for $25.00, seconded by Friedrich. All voting in favor, none opposed, motion passed 4:0.

Old Business

Mowing contract will be tabled until next month’s meeting.

New Business

Dakota County Deputy

A deputy discussed a few items one of which is mail theft which seems to be an issue. If you are out of town have someone trustworthy pick up your mail. Storage unit thefts continue to be an issue so they indicate you should check your unit often. They have speed signs on trailers and asked if we would like them placed anywhere in the city. We thought placing them at the end of town. They opened up their new jail mental health unit – this is devoted to inmates with mental health problems.

R Bar Special Event

Nate Icaza came before the board with an application for a special event permit to discuss an event he is going to hold on Saturday, June 21st. The road will be closed between Divers Path and Distad Path from noon until midnight. Friedrich made a motion to approve the special event permit and road closure as long as the fire department has approved the closure, seconded by Price. All voting in favor, none opposed, motion passed 4:0.

Variance Request from Reed Kosir

Reed Kosir presented a variance for property on 290th Street. A 5 foot variance on the west side of the building which is currently set at 10 feet. He has discussed this with the property owners in the area and they are fine with it. The business will be for storage for Reed’s Seamless Gutters. It was noted that there could be water issues with the water runoff from the roof but he indicated he will put gutters on the building. Greta noted the conditions that need to be meet before we can approve a variance. It fits all conditions. Friedrich made a motion to approve the variance for Reed Kosir with the requirement that there is gutters on the building, seconded by Haro. All voting in favor, none opposed, motion passed 4:0.

Variance Request from ECO Materials

Steve Kennedy and Greg Dumke on behalf of ECO Materials presented a variance by North Pro Rail LLC for height restrictions from 45 feet to 96 feet for a silo structure. Since it meets the conditions for a variance, Friedrich mad a motion to approve the height variance, seconded by Price. All voting in favor, none opposed, motion passed 4:0. EcoMaterials asked to be addressed regarding moving forward with their plans. They received a memo from Bolton & Menk today regarding storm water plans for Phase II and Northern Salt is responding to a flow change and will deliver them to Matt for review. They would like a quick turnaround from Bolton & Menk so they can get ready to break ground in May. Matt indicated they submitted a land use scenario and there were some questions regarding their exterior plans and what was acceptable based on our city ordinances. There is a lighting plan, landscaping plan, and signage plan that have to be submitted. They did submit a drainage plan but they needed to do some revisions to it. They are trying to expediate the process so if they cannot wait until the next council meeting, they can request a special meeting. It was noted to them that e would need to do a public hearing for an ordinance change. They have not submitted a current usage for the lower parcel of the property. It makes it difficult for Bolton & Menk to approve the grading for the northern parcel because we don’t know what the property will be used for. The applicant needs to make an application – they can analyze if they need to split the property. If they met the storm water requirements then they can do the applications separately but looking at the property they may need to submit them together because there are a lot ponds on the lower part that help offset how much site they are using. It was communicated as it was going to be submitted as one piece and one plan, they have to determine if they will submit one or two applications. If one works and they can configure it and it meets storm water requirements and ordinances, then they can submit it as one. Based on the current layout, Matt does not believe it would.

Sewer Inspection Fees

Mark Ceminsky introduced Travis Dunn as our commercial inspector. He will be working with Mark. Mark discussed the fees for inspection of the sanitary sewer lines when they are installed and recommended a permit fee of $100 for residential households which would involve the inspection of the hook up and the inspection of the holding tank being abandoned and a permit fee of $200 for commercial properties plus an hourly rate based on how long the inspections would take. Motion was made by Friedrich for the sewer inspection permit fee of $100 for residential and $200 for commercial plus an hourly rate for the inspection, seconded by Ferguson. All voting in favor, none opposed, motion passed 4:0.

Cannabis

Greta prepared a memo regarding some questions we had at our last meeting. Dakota County has not yet passed an ordinance regarding cannabis. They are in the process of working through it. One question she has is the zoning – it does not allow cannabis activities in residential areas so are we okay with restricting cannabis in the areas highlighted in yellow on the memo she presented. If yes then we don’t need to pass any zoning ordinance amendments. If no, then we want to restrict just to the commercial areas then we need to amend the zoning ordinance to restrict it to just be in that area. Another questions is for registration do we want to delegate it to the county? Should we survey the citizens to see if they want it in the city?Even if we delegate the registration to Dakota County, they will still need to check with us if am applicant meets local zoning. Greta will update us next month with the status of Dakota County and where they are at with their ordinances. State statute does not allow us to ban it but we can require it to be place in certain areas. The county will cap the license at 36 which is based on the population of Dakota County which means they will only issue up to 36 retail licenses within the county. We can restrict the number to 1 because of the population. If there are 36 license holders within the county we can say no because the cap has been met. This will be tabled until we get more information from the state and Dakota County.

Sewer Project

We received a delay claim from the contractor which was due to not having the permit for the project. It was noted that we did not get the permit or tell the contractor to start digging so the city should not be responsible to cover the delay. We hired Bolton & Menk to manage the project. We think Bolton & Menk should be responsible for the payment for the delay. Northland did submit an appeal so we can negotiate or it can go to mediation. This will not slow down the construction while this is taking place. Matt thinks $833,000 is what they believe is what is owed. There is about $269,000 left in contingency. Also it was estimated to be 60 days of dewatering and it was needed for 189 days which is almost double from the $297,000 price to be about $606,000 but they are negotiating that amount with the company. They do not anticipate any dewatering needing to be done this year. Matt indicated that we should not need to purchase or get any dirt for the holding pond as we can retrieve it from onsite. If we think we are going over $13,000,000 we had discussed cutting a street from the project or something else so we don’t go over the $13,000,000; however, we need to get the MPCA’s approval if we change the project and they may not agree to it. Matt indicated they are going to start with Duncan and then move to Danel and they will work around the school during the school year and the fertilizer plant because Spring is their busy time. They will be doing some work on 88 – they have the final lift of pavement east of the railroad tracks and they have to strip the roads. The sidewalks needs to be finished and delay was because of the gas line that CenterPoint needed to move. Also it was noted that two of the Firemen Only Parking signs need to be put back up as parking has been issue in the lot. Matt noted that all the work in town has a 2 year warranty so some work needs to be redone on Dawson as it is breaking up. Matt also mentioned that Dakota County is thinking about redoing the entire County Road 83 and not just the part in Randolph due to the sewer project because the road is in poor condition north of the city. He also noted that Jaime is the new Bolton & Menk individual onsite and then there will be a switch to different person in May.

Council Member Reports

It was noted that the fire hydrants are going to be flushed the week of April 21st. We also received the Drinking Water report so if anyone would like a copy just let me know. Randy noted that he attended the Dakota County Township Officers Meeting and they discussed Cannabis and don’t know what they are doing yet. He will also be attending the Watershed meeting next week.

Acting Mayor Friedrich made a motion to close the regular meeting, seconded by Price. The meeting was closed at 8:45 pm to attend a closed meeting to consider an attorney-client privileged legal matter.

Closed Meeting

Acting Mayor Friedrich moved to open a closed meeting at 8:47 p.m. pursuant to Minn. Stat. 13D.05 subd. 3(b) for attorney-client privileged communication to discuss the sanitary sewer project. The closed meeting adjourned at 9:24 p.m. Acting Mayor Friedrich moved to reopen the regular council meeting at 9:25 p.m.

Adjournment

Motion to adjourn the meeting made by Friedrich, seconded by Ferguson, the meeting was adjourned at 9:25 p.m. All voting in favor, none opposed, motion passed 4:0.