Board of Public Works Meeting – September 8, 2026: Well Rehabilitation, Development Compliance, and Oktoberfest Parade Policy
Board of Public Works Meeting Summary – September 8, 2026
The Board of Public Works met on Tuesday, September 8, 2026, at 10:05 AM in the City Hall Council Chambers. The meeting was called to order by Mayor Shaundel Washington-Spivey. Present were Andrea Trane, Erin Goggin, Tamra Dickinson, and the Mayor; Matt Gallager was excused. The session adjourned at 10:28 AM, lasting approximately 23 minutes. All action items were approved unanimously (4-0).
Consent Calendar
- Approval of Minutes: The minutes from August 31, 2026, were approved unanimously.
- Bidder's Proof of Responsibility: No items were presented.
Discussion Items
- Well House 13 Chemical Rehabilitation (Item 26-0924): Water Utility Director reported that Well 13, installed in the 1950s and 70 years old, requires chemical rehabilitation to address unstable biofilm affecting disinfection byproducts. The lowest of three quotes was approved. The cost will be covered by the water utility operating budget. Councilmember Goggin noted that Well 21 may also need rehabilitation, but casing replacement is the ultimate long-term fix. The motion passed 4-0.
- Construction Contract Final Payments (Item 26-0925): Final payment for a utility service on Sint and King was approved without discussion.
- Annual Development Agreement Compliance Reports (Item 26-0934): Staff presented compliance reports for Gundersen, Kwik Trip, and Riverside Center developments. Key details:
- Gundersen: Exceeded $25 million assessed value guarantee ($48 million) and 2,500 job requirement (5,400 headcount, 4,300 FTEs, average wage $52/hour). Staff recommended approving a payment to the developer and a PILOT payment to the city.
- Kwik Trip: Exceeded tax guarantees for bakery ($19.5 million) and dairy/freezer ($19.8 million) expansions. Job requirement of 100 new FTEs was met (910 FTEs, 153 part-time). No payments were needed; staff recommended forgoing a third-party job audit.
- Riverside Center: Phase 1 assessed value fell short of $11.4 million guarantee ($9.957 million), triggering a PILOT of $26,452.27. The job count dropped to 1,232 (5 below the reset target), resulting in a $17,500 deficiency penalty. The net payment to the developer was calculated as $330,905.62. The board approved the staff recommendation.
- JSI Street Privilege Permit (Item 26-0937): A request for fiber conduit placement at the southwest corner of 3rd and Cass Street was approved. The contractor agreed to coordinate around Oktoberfest activities to minimize disruption.
- Oktoberfest Parade Right-of-Way Policy (Item 26-0939): The annual policy was approved with additional conditions: the City Clerk's office will post the notice on the city website, police and Parks & Rec Facebook pages, and the Planning Department will notify neighborhood associations.
Key Outcomes
- All four motions (items 26-0924, 26-0925, 26-0934, 26-0937, 26-0939) passed unanimously with a 4-0 vote (Gallager excused).
- Well House 13 chemical rehabilitation approved.
- Development agreement payments approved as recommended by staff.
- Fiber conduit permit granted with coordination for Oktoberfest.
- Oktoberfest parade policy approved with enhanced public outreach.
Meeting Transcript
Good morning, everyone. We're going to call this meeting in order at ten oh five a.m. on September 8th, 2026. Let the record reflect that uh Director Gallagher is excused from this meeting and other all other Board of Public Work members are present. I'll take approval of minutes from August 31st, 2026. Any discussion or corrections. Moving to our next agenda item. So it actually to get the quality that we want, we have to add more, and it affects if we don't do this, it keeps affecting our disinfection byproducts, which were uh we did have a high rise with them last year. So fixing this well as a primary well that we don't have to add the extra chemicals to is prudent and in the best interest of the water system. Thank you. Any questions from Board of Public Work members? Is this money coming from the um utilities or do we need to borrow for this or anything? No, this can be accommodated in the operating budget for the water utility. Okay. Councilmember Goggin. Hi, and reading through this, it it says, and I'm kind of quoting here certain wells will need to be chemically rehabilitated. So I'm wondering how many do you feel will need to be chemically rehabilitated in any more this year? Not anymore this year. Uh we can this one was the most pressing. Uh there well 21 will also be another one that will need a different chemical rehabilitation. Uh, but it also depends on with our capital improvement or uh as we set up for our capital projects. If we're able to get well 21 in for uh well casing replacement sooner, uh then that would be the preferred method because the ultimate fix to all this is to replace the casings in the gravel packs to each and every one of our wells. Yes. So is this gonna be like the average cost per well? For this uh type of chemical rehabilitation, yes. It and as it says it's outside of the normal uh preventive maintenance cycle, and it is more expensive because of the amount of chemicals that we actually have to put in it and the process to do to be able to inject that to be able to treat the gravel pack and the surrounding uh aquifer. Because my concern is that as we we've told the public that we're raising water rates, that now we're looking, and I and again I I don't mean this to be I I'm trying to figure out how I want to. I don't want it to look for things we need to do. I want it to be that we need to do things, not want to do things. No, this is this is definitely a need. So what this is really reflecting with this unstable biofilm is each one of these wells, uh this one in particular, well 13, is 70 years old, uh, the casing and the gravel. So that's all original from when they installed it in the 50s, and those type of uh life cycles for those well casings and the gravel pack is recommended to be 50 years. We're already 20 years over it. So same with well 20, that's already over 50 years old, or 21, excuse me. Uh most of our wells besides uh well 25 are older wells. Uh well 19 is the one that does have the most recent uh casing replacement, so that one does not need it, but many of the other ones are too of the age that they need their casings and gravel packs replaced. So for well 13 and eventually 21. Why would we just do the chemical and not just replace the gravel? The gravel pack. The gravel pack and casings. So on an as high end estimate to replace the casings, it's 500,000. So we need to plan it out a little bit more strategically and line them out. It's expensive to maintain water. It is very expensive. Well, thank you very much. Any other questions from board of Director Train? Derek, it says you got three quotes. Is this the quote? I didn't see the other two quotes on there. Is this the lowest?
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