Communications, are we ready to begin?

Good afternoon, welcome.

My name is Soren Stevenson, and in the absence of Councilmember Wansley today, I am chair of Climate Infrastructure Committee.

I'm gonna call to order our regular meeting for Thursday, May 14th, 2026.

As a note, this is my first time chairing a meeting, so bear with me if there are hiccups and I'll be looking to the clerk many times.

Before we begin the meeting, I want to offer a friendly reminder to all committee members, staff, and the public that these meetings are broadcast live to enable greater public participation.

These broadcasts include real-time captioning as a further method of in to increase the accessibility of our proceedings to the community.

Therefore, all speakers need to be mindful of the rate of their speech so that our captioners can fully capture and transcribe all comments for the broadcast.

We ask all speakers to moderate the speed and clarity of their comments.

At this time, I'll ask the clerk to call the roll so we can verify a quorum for this meeting.

Councilmember Vita.

Present.

Warren?

Present.

Shuktai?

Present.

Chowdry.

Is absent.

Paul Masana.

Present.

Wandsley is absent.

Chair Stevenson.

Present.

We have five present.

Let the record reflect we have a quorum.

I'll remind my colleagues.

We'll be using speaker management today, so please make sure you're signed up.

For members of the public that are here for one of the public hearings, if you wish to address the committee, we ask that you register with the clerks to my right.

Uh you can also provide any written comments or materials to include in the public record.

Public works staff will also be available after the presentation to connect if you have specific questions.

With that, our agenda is in front of us, and we will begin with the consent agenda reflected in items two through 16 are on our agenda.

Item two, approving the RBC Gateway Food Truck Block Event Party event permit.

Item three, approving the downtown Wednesday's block event permit.

Item four, approving the annual saloon pride block party event permit.

Number five, approving the Taste of Minnesota block event permit.

Number six, approving the Minnesota UFC soccer celebration commercial block event permit.

Number seven, authoring a joint powers agreement with the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board for the Lake Harriet Parkway and William Berry Parkway Reconstruction.

Number eight, resolution authorizing a cooperative agreement with the Minnesota Department of Transportation for the Nicolette Avenue Bridge replacement over I-94 project.

Number nine, accepting the low bid for Oliver Avenue South Storm Sewer Improvement Project.

Number 10, accepting the sole bid for heavy truck and equipment body work.

Number 11, authorizing a contract with JJ Keller and Associate Incorporated for the CDL training program for city employees.

Number 12, authorizing a contract amendment with Minger Construction Companies Incorporated for the Combined Sewer Overflows Improvement Project.

Number 13, authorizing a contract amendment with WSB LLC for 35th Avenue North Flood Mitigation Project.

Number 14, authorizing a grant application to federal railroad administration for connecting Camden Railroad Grade Separation Project and the commitment of local funds for the application.

Number 15, approving Paul Wu for appointments to the Lynn Lake Special Service District Advisory Board.

Number 16, approving Jason Cramble for appointment to the Uptown Special Service District Advisory Board.

Colleagues, is there any further discussion or are there any items that anyone would like to pull for further discussion?

Seeing no further discussion, I'll move approval of the consent agenda.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say nay.

The ayes have it, and that motion carries.

Next, we'll take up our public hearing reflected in item one on the agenda.

Anybody who signed up for these items will be given two minutes each to testify.

I'll also add that we have staff present who can meet in the room or in the hallway if anyone if anyone have questions about their assessments.

For everyone in attendance and especially those who may participate in our hearings or or comment period, let me offer this notice.

These hearings are being recorded and broadcast.

Both the recording and broadcast are classified as public data under the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act.

By attending and participating in these proceedings, your image and any testimony or information that you provide will also be subject to disclosure under that law.

That includes but is not limited to your attendance, your name, and other personal details you provide, as well as any testimony or comments you provide, which includes any written submissions you make, which are included in the record of this meeting.

Our first public hearing is for the Loring Park resurfacing project.

I'll invite Hazel Wolf, Supervisor Engineer Technician 2, Transportation Maintenance and Repair with our public works department to begin the presentation before our public hearing.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, committee chair and members of the Climate and Infrastructure Committee.

My name is Hazel Wolf, and I am a supervising engineering technician with Public Works.

I'm here to present to you the public hearing for the Loring Park Resurfacing Project and recommend passage of resolution adopting special assessments in the amount of $648,801.44 cents for the Loring Park Resurfacing Project.

And passage of resolution requesting the board of estimate and taxation authorize the city's issuance and sale of assessment bonds in the amount of $648,801.44 cents for the project.

Loring Park, our municipal state aid, residential and local streets bounded by Hennepin Avenue to 2nd Avenue South, and 10th Street South to 15th Street West.

This area was reconstructed between 1966 and 2000 and has PCIs between 38 and 88.

The scope of this resurfacing project is a mill and two-inch asphalt overlay.

17 pedestrian ramps were upgraded in 2025 in advance of the resurfacing project.

Public works hosted a virtual informational meeting on Wednesday, May 6th at 2 p.m.

There were 708 invitations mailed, and 12 attendees came to this meeting.

A mailing was sent to all property owners impacted, inviting them to the informational meeting and this public hearing.

An additional area-wide mailing will be completed before the millen overlay closer to the time of the work.

The funding breakdown for this project is as follows for the millen overlay only.

Special assessments total $648,000 $801.44 cents.

Levy funded debt totals are $833,318.56, and the total project cost is $1,482,120.

On February 5th, 2026, the City Council designated the improvements proposed to the 2026 street resurfacing program.

The purpose of the asphalt pavement resurfacing program is to extend the life of some city streets which are not scheduled for any preventative maintenance, renovation, or reconstruction in the foreseeable future.

This resurfacing program is addressing city streets that are at a point in their life cycle where a new surface will extend the streets' life, improve ride quality and neighborhood livability, and help slow the overall deterioration of our city street system.

The proposed street resurfacing special assessments were determined by applying the 2026 uniform assessment rates to the land area of benefited parcels located within the street influence zone along the improved streets.

Information has been provided in the notices as to how persons may prepay the special assessments in full without interest if they so choose.

City Council has passed resolutions whereby a deferment of special assessments may be obtained by showing hardship for any homesteaded property owned by a person 65 years of age or older, retired by virtue of permanent and total disability, or military personnel ordered into active military service.

This concludes my presentation, and I am available for any questions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um there is no one signed up to speak.

Is there anyone else who would like to address the committee?

Seeing no one else wishing to speak, I will now move to continue this item to our June for to our June 4th meeting, as Councilmember Wandsley had outlined at a previous meeting.

This is to accommodate for two dates that were noticed to the public to ensure that all who wish to testify are able to.

Colleagues, is there any discussion?

Seeing no further discussion on that motion, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say nay.

The ayes have it.

Our next item is passage of two resolutions for the acceptance of the lead service line replacement project orders and related to the appropriation of staff of staff have prepared uh preparation, a presentation, and I'll now invite Christopher Larson, professional engineer in water treatment.

I'd like to be noted as present.

Oh, sorry.

Yeah, you're all good.

Councilmember Chowdery is present.

Christopher Larson, professional engineer in water treatment and distribution services, to get us started.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Committee Vice Chair and members of the Climate and Infrastructure Committee.

It's good to see you today.

My name is Chris Larson.

I'm a senior professional engineer with the Water Treatment and Distribution Services Division of Public Works.

I'm here to talk about the ongoing lead service line replacement program today, and to request acceptance of three project order grants being administered by the Minnesota Department of Health and Public Facilities Authority.

Today we will be going over just a brief brief overview of the project, including general information about lead service lines.

What are they, why are they being replaced as a part of this program to talk about our prioritization of these project areas, talk about specific project areas that are being worked on in 2026, today's request, and then of course talk about prioritization and projects in the future.

So first is an overview.

What is a water service line?

Of course, we have water distribution mains with that are located within the right of way.

Water service lines transfer the water from those distribution mains into the home.

In the city of Minneapolis, water service lines are entirely privately owned by that residence or business, the property to which water is being transferred.

Two specific type of service line replacements that we talk about frequently are on this diagram referenced on the slide, what we call main to curb replacements, which is from item one, which is the from the water main, to item number three, which is the curb stop, which is the shutoff valve located typically within the boulevard or within the sidewalk.

And then the other type would be from item number one to item number five, which is the full replacement from the water distribution main, all the way into the home to the water meter.

And this slide just references some of the specific materials that we'll be talking about today.

In the past, up to about the 1930s.

Service lines consisted of lead from the water main to the curb stop located in the boulevard, and then galvanized steel from there to the remainder of the house, or into the house to the meter.

About two-thirds of the lead service lines that exist out there have already had some work done on them, which would be replacement of the galvanized steel uh portion from the curb stop into the main or into the meter, rather.

Um, because of course calvinized steel, it tends to rust over time when exposed to salt from people's sidewalks, getting into into the ground and all the rest of it.

Um why are we doing this project?

Is the next question.

Um, uh, I just want to assure everybody that the city of Minneapolis does deliver safe drinking water to every home.

Um we use certain treatment methods, including uh two and primarily.

One is uh sending out a relatively high pH of about 8.9 into the distribution system.

This higher than neutral pH makes it so that the lead does not want to come into solution and get into the water.

The second thing that we do is we add a chemical called orthophosphate into the water.

This creates a coating on pipe walls, service line walls, and then also on the interior plumbing in people's houses that again prevents that lead from leaching out into the water.

And I also wanted to say that only service lines in the city of Minneapolis contain lead.

Distribution lines will be ductile iron or steel, or in very rare cases, concrete or cast iron was what was originally put in.

This slide, we're going to talk about just the project in general and some of the funding aspects of it.

Of course, the original funding for this project came through the IIJA, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act back in 2021.

You'll see the numbers on the screen here, which reference specific numbers, the amount of dollars that was available through that program, and then also through state funding that was released a couple years later.

One thing to note is that both of these funding sources expire in 2027.

There are current discussions at the state legislature legislature to increase funding for future years, but we're waiting to see how that shakes out.

Then I also wanted to note again that all portions of service lines in Minneapolis are privately owned.

There was a state law change to make it so that we could use public funds to work on private infrastructure a couple of years ago, which is what makes this possible.

The next item to discuss is prioritization of our project areas, both in the past couple of years, this year, and then in the future.

Per Minnesota State statute, we are required to prioritize prioritize our project areas based on seven metrics.

I'll just go through them very briefly one by one.

Number one is removing lines which are an imminent health and safety risk to the public.

Again, as I as I spoke about, that is not applicable in the city of Minneapolis.

That's due to our corrosion control program, which has been in place since the 1990s.

Number two is targeting areas with children who have elevated blood lead levels.

The Minneapolis Department of Health has a program where they monitor blood lead levels and look into the sources of those elevated levels.

To date, not a single case has been attributed to high or elevated lead in the drinking water in homes.

And so we don't consider that one to be applicable to us either.

Number three would be targeting areas with children under five.

Minneapolis is a big city, 430,000 people, give or take, with children scattered all throughout the city.

We would like to be able to target areas with children under five.

However, it is very difficult to create prioritized project areas based on that metric because of course families are all over everybody spread out.

Number four is targeting properties known to be disproportionately used by large numbers of children.

This is schools, child care facilities, faith locations that have daycares, things of that nature.

We pull data from the Minnesota Department of Health for registered child care facilities.

And this year we have a number of different packages, which I'll go into, but the red package specifically deals with all those.

So all of the currently registered child care facilities will be completed as a part of this program by the end of this year, around November, give or take.

Number five would be lower income residences and other historically disadvantaged communities.

For that item, we're targeting the green zones.

The north side green zone we expect to be done by the end of this year with about 1,200, 1255 services being done there this year.

In the future, we'll be moving on to the South Side Green Zone.

Another metric that we're going to be taking into account is the social vulnerability index from the federal CDC.

It's just another layer of similar data to the green zones.

A lot of it overlaps with our green zones, but there are some other areas which again we need to take into account.

Number six is coordinating replacement of private and public portions of water infrastructure.

Again, all of this is private, that's that's not applicable to us in Minneapolis.

Number seven, this is the big one that we're going to be moving into in the future, which is coordination with the statute words it as water main replacement projects.

But in discussions with the Minnesota PFA and MDH, they have interpreted this to mean public infrastructure projects in general, which include street reconstruction, rehabilitation projects, sewer projects.

The key thing here is to make sure that we're efficiently using our dollars and limiting construction impact time periods for neighborhoods and for our residents.

The first one will be roughly the north half of the city, and then the second one will be the south half.

As you can see, we have seven different colored packages blue, brown, green, orange, purple, red, and yellow.

Four of them are located in the north side green zone.

Those are all being done by one contractor in particular.

They're called precision and infrastructure.

You'll see them out there.

That's a big chunk of them, about $1,200, $1255.

Red is scattered as you'll see on the map all throughout the city.

Again, these are registered child care centers.

And then there's a little bit of the orange package in the north half of the city.

This is coordination with a specific flood mitigation project over on the northwest side of the city.

The other three contractors that we have, aside from the one that I mentioned, precision, our MB Advanced New Look, those three.

And then we also have another contractor on board, which does the restoration.

So after the plumbing contractor is complete and moves away, the restoration contractor Q3 will come in within a couple weeks and put street patches down, restore the boulevard, lake curb and gutter, that sort of a thing.

The other thing that I wanted to note here is that while they're not included on this map, we expect about 200 to 250 or so leaking services to appear.

If you remember when I talked about the lead and galvanized portion of the service lines, the galvanized portion tends to leak.

And it's it varies from year to year, but you can never predict where they'll happen or exactly how many will happen.

And so we've applied for funding for again approximately 200 to 250 of those that we expect to appear, which is a part of the project order acceptance today.

So this next map is the south half of the map.

This is the red, blue, orange, and brown packages.

You'll see that this is mostly related to street reconstruction projects.

We have Park in Portland, Lindale, a little bit down in Fulton.

Of course, George Floyd Squares included on there, which we're only doing the south and east portion legs of that intersection in coordination with the that specific project.

And then a little bit in Morris North as well as a part of the orange package.

So what is the action that we're requesting today?

This would be acceptance of three project orders from the MDH and the PFA for a total of about 21.37 million dollars, and then appropriating the grant funds to reimburse the water enterprise fund for our project costs.

This is this is a good opportunity to get a lot of dollars to do a lot of good work.

And then I like I said, I wanted to touch on future planning.

As I mentioned before, we are going to be done with the north side green zone after this year, which is very exciting.

In the future couple of years, we'll be moving to the south side green zone, as uh dictated by those prioritization metrics.

Um, we'll also be coordinating with other infrastructure projects, street restoration projects.

We've learned in the past couple of years that what we want to do is we want to imitate uh other utilities like Center Point or Excel, where they try to get in there a year in advance of the street reconstruction projects through lessons learned.

We've learned that that's the way to go for this just because of all the the moving parts in these street reconstruction projects.

We want to ensure uh timely delivery of of both projects, and that's how we believe that we can make that happen.

And then uh thank you.

That will conclude my presentation.

Um I am happy to stand for questions if there are any or accept follow-ups after the fact.

Thank you for the presentation.

Are there any questions or discussion from committee members?

Um, first I'll recognize Councilmember Palmasano.

Thank you for this presentation.

Um although my own part of the city hasn't seen a lot of this work yet.

I'm grateful for the prioritization of projects that focus on disadvantaged communities and children.

Where I have seen led service line work done in my ward is in coordination with the street projects, and I really appreciate the thought process, even though it can be difficult of getting that work done before a new street surface is put down.

I am a little bit concerned about the lack of dedicated funding beyond next year.

Um we don't have funding for the South Side Green Zone Infrastructure Projects or the rest of the city.

Um is it looking from your perspective on state or federal funding for this and what would be our options to comply with the mandate that I think is 2037 without additional funding?

That's a good question.

Um I will have to refer part of that to our water director, Annika Bankston.

Um I know that she and the American Waterworks Association are engaging in discussions with state legislatures, legislators rather, and the American Waterworks Association is trying to push that lobbying effort to the federal level.

Um I haven't heard anything concrete in terms of whether or not additional funding will be available after next year.

Um I will say that any funds that we do receive next year through these project orders, you have two years to spend the dollars, and so we should be able to continue the work through 2028 with dollars that we receive in 2027, which if worse comes to worse, that would give us a little bit more time to continue to uh lobby for funding to accomplish this work.

Um, to your portion of the question about what would we do if funding was not available?

I would just have to defer you to Annika and or follow up on that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

And I'm sure this isn't the first type of public works mandate that we don't know the funding out beyond a year or two, but it's nice to realize that that timeline would actually be extended beyond next year.

Thanks.

Councilmember Vita.

Thank you, thank you so much for this uh report.

I'm excited to see all the work that's been done in North Minneapolis, in particular in the green zones.

Just wondering about the future of this.

So when the work is complete, I think you say there's like 1200 um homes left, or the area that's left.

Does that mean it moves entire the project moves entirely out of the north side and it's picks up in on the south side?

Have we made sure that we've covered everything we need to cover on the north side?

Absolutely.

Thank you, Councilmember and Vice Chair Stevenson.

Um we have not finalized our project areas next year.

Um, a little bit of that depends on how much funding we're able to secure.

Um we have a rough idea, and that that plan is to work on the south side and then street restoration areas.

I'm not sure which street restoration areas in the north portion of Minneapolis that we have looked at, but I can certainly follow up with that answer.

Um I will say that uh right now, while things will be a little bit fuzzy, we should become quite clearer as time progresses, um, certainly as time comes to bid this project out.

So we should have more information uh in a couple of months for sure, but um we can get you what we have uh in short order.

Thank you.

So whatever you have now is great, and then a follow-up whenever you get it is fine also.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Councilmember Warren.

Thank you, Chair Stevenson, and thank you so much for your presentation.

I was one of the homes in North Minneapolis that got my lead water lines replaced.

So I'm thankful for that.

But the letter that was sent out stated that you needed to opt into this service.

So for individuals who disregarded the letter or didn't pay attention, is there going to be something done to ensure that those lines are replaced, and then how will we know if there are leaking issues that we are going to um remedy going forward in the future?

Because you said there's no way for you to really tell.

So is that going to be increased water billing or something, some type of water leak testing that will need to go out to the individuals who have had their lines replaced so that we'll know if there's leaking?

How does how does that determine?

Um Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, member.

Um yeah, a couple of different questions there.

Uh the first one I'll address is the leaking.

Um, we're we're able to tell pretty well with um leak and base leak investigation technology, acoustical sounding, things of that nature if there's a leak on either a water distribution main or a water service line.

Um, water bills uh would not be increased in the case of a leaking service line because of course the leak is outside of the home and before the water meter.

Um so that should not be a concern.

Um, can you remind me about the first part of your question?

The first part of the question is for individuals who receive the letter that they needed to opt into the service that may have disregarded that letter.

How are we remedying going to remedy their waterline uh replacements?

Yeah, um thank you.

Uh thank you, councilmember.

Um the that portion of that letter specifically refers to what we refer to as main to meter replacements, and so that would be those water service replacements that we have to enter the home.

The vast majority of them we should be able to, we are able to do without needing to get into homes, because that's just main to curb.

Um, for that, those we have uh requirement through the statute and through this program that we need to reach out to people uh four different times using at least two different methods.

Um, some of the methods that we uh use are a letter, door knocking, door hangers, calling the number on the um the water account, things of that nature.

Um at this time, we uh we are not going in and doing it anyway.

Um so we would put them on a list if we if we're not able to uh receive that agreement um this year uh as we plan to replace them, um and we would be circling around and including them on future project lists.

Okay.

I hope that answers your question.

Yeah, so I just want to make sure that those people are not forgotten just to um piggyback off what my council colleague was asking with respect to residents in specific areas of the city, um, that those people would still have an opportunity to opt into this service and and there would still be funding to remedy this, even if it was time had passed and we moved on to other areas of the of the city.

Yes, most definitely.

Anybody who um thank you, member, thank you, Chair.

Anybody who does not uh engage in communications with us in instances where we need to get into the homes, we will follow up with them and we will attempt to do to do so in the future in future project years, um, in addition to following up with them multiple times with multiple communication uh types this year.

So we'll try our very best this year to uh make sure that we're accessible to people and that we're able to communicate with them.

Um, if for whatever reason they are not able to opt in this year, out of town, whatever the case may be, we will follow up with them uh as soon as we possibly can.

Can I ask one more question?

I'm just wondering why this wasn't um coupled with the um sewer line replacement project, because I know it was done that way in other cities like in St.

Paul and what have you.

So they did the sewer line replacement grant coupled with the lead water line removal um, you know, program as well.

So there was one excavation done to the street at one time, and they were they did it.

So why wasn't this coupled?

Being that there's such a high concentration of sewer lines that also need to be replaced in Northside.

So I figured they would go in and kill two birds with one stone.

Thank you, Chair, thank you, member.

Um are you referring to?

I I take that to mean that you're referring to general sewer work that is not actively planned for work.

Thank you.

Um I'll have to defer you on that.

I I can't speak for surface water and sewer.

Um, their funding allocations and their project priorities and where they go out to do replacement work.

Um I'm afraid I can only speak to the funding that we have available for lead service line replacement.

Um we certainly want to uh engage in good partnership with other public works divisions and partner with them wherever possible and for projects that are planned.

Um, again, I'm afraid I can't speak to projects that might be needed or might be planned sometime in the just medium to distant future and just aren't currently planned right now.

Well, I thank you for your transparency in that.

And I mean, you know, it's something to stew about and and shoot around in the other departments so that you know teamwork and make a dream work.

We we can get a lot done together.

We greater together, right?

Absolutely.

All right, thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, member.

Councilmember Chowder.

Thank you, Chair Stevenson.

Thank you for the presentation, and thanks to the entire public works department and every person that worked on this.

This is really exciting to see come forward.

It's not every day we approve um 21 million dollars worth of projects and committee.

So excellent work, and I know it's gonna mean a lot for residents across the board.

I just have some questions regarding financing and maybe a couple details about projects.

So the first question that I have is annually, how much do we have for lead service line replacement from the federal government of the state together?

Do you have an understanding off the top of your head today, or should I do a follow-up?

Um thank you, Chair, thank you, member.

Um, I will say that this year we're accepting uh, as I said, about 21 million dollars last year, and uh this will be available in the slide that I presented.

Last year was about 10 and a half million dollars, um, and the year before that, the very first year, as we were ramping up, it was about three and a half.

So three and a half, ten and a half, twenty-one and a half.

Um, next year, I'm afraid I can't say off the top of my head what's um what's been allocated at the state and federal level combined.

I would um expect that it would be similar to this year, um, but I would have to follow up to confirm that again.

Anything after 2027 is uh there is no information that's available on those.

Um, in order to meet the 2037 deadline to replace all of these, we have about 38,000 lead service lines remaining.

So if you take 10 divided, yeah, it would be about 3,800 every year.

Um, assuming that the uh the burn rate is the same across the board, it'll probably look um like we're ramping up at the beginning.

So this this year in totality, including estimated leakers and planned proactive service lines, the number is about 1900, maybe 1950.

Um, next year we're planning, well, it depends on funding, of course, um, but it might be about the same if the funding is about the same, but we can potentially ramp up to be closer to that 3,000 mark, and then ramp up further from there to make sure that we get the whole project done.

Thank you.

Yeah, that's really clarifying and answers a couple of other questions that I had.

So the amount of funding that we spend is it dependent on how much we get per year, not the feasibility of the department to do work, right?

Or is it a little bit of both?

I guess I'm trying to understand how we have varying numbers each year.

Yeah, absolutely.

Um thank you for the clarifying question, member.

Um it is a mix of both.

Um we will do our very best to spend every single dollar that we get.

Um, uh to date, we haven't engaged engineering consultants to help move this work forward.

And of course, all of the work is out there that's physically being done is by contractors with uh in-house inspectors to make sure that the work is done on time and to our specification and uh meeting all of the requirements by America Build America, civil rights reviews, things of that nature.

There is a little bit of uh in-house work that we will have to do, but if we ramp up to that 3,000 or more level, we expect that we should be able to do staff augmentation with engineering consultants.

We might need to put an RFP out for that, or we might need to look at priorities with within our department or within our division of public works rather to maybe move resources around to make sure that the work is done in an efficient manner.

Um, so to be very clear to answer your question, there is a little bit of the the staff side and the ability to do the work with the people that we have available, but mostly it would be a matter of the the available dollars.

Do you have a total estimate for how much it would cost to do all of the lead service line work in our city?

Thank you.

Um thank you, Chair, thank you, council member.

Um I believe that was that number, our estimate was in these slides.

And remember looking at the top or thinking off the top of my head, I believe it would have been somewhere in the 350 to 400 million dollar range.

Um, and I believe that the estimate to replace all lead service lines across the state of Minnesota was about 1.5 billion dollars over 10 years, and I don't believe that accounts for inflation, which is significant over 10 years.

Absolutely.

So in today's dollars.

Um, and just my last question really excited to see the prioritization of child care centers.

Will the 71 projects that we're setting out to do cover every single child care center that needs this important update, or are we going to be looking out into the future for additional work at child care centers?

Yeah, um, thank you for the question, member.

Um, that 71 accounts for all currently registered child care facilities at the time that we bid this project out.

Great.

Um, we understand that just with the nature of the way things are, the way things are, um, daycares might move or go out of business or new ones pop up as they be they become registered.

So that is something that we will continue to check every year.

We will pull the GIS data from the Minnesota Department of Health, um, and we will continue to target those and keep them at the top of the list as they appear.

It should be relatively small number, but we will keep on it.

That's awesome.

I I lied.

This is my actual last question.

Um we pass this.

Uh, when what is anticipated in terms of starting to break ground and how long can folks expect a project to continue on their block if they're experiencing it?

Yes, thank you for the question.

Thank you, Chair, thank you, member.

Um, the project has begun.

Um, and so uh the bid acceptance would have come through council a couple of months ago with these contractors.

They are out there, they broke ground um the official notice to proceed date, I believe was May 20th or excuse me, March 23rd was the date that they could have started due to freezing conditions uh going past maybe when we would want.

Uh, most of them broke ground in early April.

Um, and so we the way that it works is we have four phases of the work.

Um I didn't include this slide today, but we have maps online where you can go to your your house if you're scheduled for work this year, you can click on your location and it will tell you which phase you're in and which approximate time window that is in, whether it's you know, uh March 23rd to May 15th or one of the later phases.

Um, and so that's when how residents can look at when their work will be done.

Of course, as time progresses and we get closer to that work, that work window, the contractor will try to reach out to folks and they do schedule not just for the main two meter replacements, but for also for the main to curb stop replacements because we want to make sure that uh people are accessible, we're not doing a short-term water shutoff when there's a critical water need, things like that.

And so folks will be able to schedule and know when the work is done.

Um I believe part of your question was: if work is happening on a block, how long will that take?

Um typically a block, if you have both sides of the street having houses, there will be about 25 or so residences and sometimes there's a little bit of variation because it depends on how many lead service lines are on a block.

Sometimes it's two, sometimes it is almost all of them.

Uh, but I can say that a crew will start on one side of the block and they'll basically march their way down with very little hopping around, but a little bit with scheduling.

Um, and their rates of work is about three or four a day when the service lines are packed so close together, and so they'll be on any specific block for about a week with a little bit of variation.

Um, I I hope that answers your question, but certainly let me know if there's a follow-up.

Thank you.

Really appreciate it.

Yeah.

Thank you for this presentation.

This is really great.

I'm excited about all the lead service lines that are being replaced in Ward 8 with all the construction that we have.

Um a little lost on our agenda.

A vote on this.

Uh let's do a voice vote.

So all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say nay.

All right, the ayes have it.

That motion carries.

Um next, our item is a resolution related to the city and park board storm report, stormwater management program and annual report for 2025 activities.

Staff have prepared a presentation, and I'll now invite Sharam Misagi, water resource regulatory coordinator, surface water and sewers from our public work department to get us started.

Welcome.

Thank you, Chair Stevenson and Council Member, good afternoon.

Um, my name is Shahram Misagi, and I work uh in our surface water and sewer division public force within the regulatory section.

And I'm really happy to be here today and to share with you about our uh stormwater management program and our stormwater annual report.

I also want to mention that a more detailed uh presentation is actually included in your console uh packet that's from our April Community Environmental Advisory Commission or CIAC uh meeting.

So what is stormwater and why does it matter?

Um, of course, stormwater is the rain or the precipitation that falls from the from the uh sky and on earth's surface, and some of it gets of course infiltrated into the ground, and some of it gets picked up by the plant, and some of it is particularly the part that falls on the hard surface, runs off the surface and creates that stormwater runoff.

Now, as stormwater runoff runs downstream, it can also wash whatever is on the heart surface or this or other surfaces, wash it with it and carry it downstream.

Things such as sediment, nutrients, trash, plutons, or salt.

So all this have the potential of getting washed downstream, and of course, it can it may impact our watered resources and our clean water, and uh it can impact them negatively.

Now the team that I work in focuses on developing practices and mechanics to interrupt that cycle and to prevent uh the pollutants to get downstream and impact and minimize the impact on a watered resources, and um all of these practices that we do, they all fall within what we call our stormwater um management program now.

Now, so the stormwater management program becomes important, it matters again because it in uh it it protects public health, it uh uh improves water quality and it protects clean water.

Uh also many of those practices that we use for our stormwater management are the same ones that uh promote to reduce the volume of the runoff.

So it also helps with the flooding issues, plus it keeps our lakes safe and provide a safe recreational use.

Now, our motivation is clean water, uh, however, our regulator driver is actually what we call stormwater permit.

The stormwater permit is issued to both the city of Minneapolis and Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, where we are the co-permittees, and we're both responsible to comply with the standards and requirements of this permit.

And the permit is issued by Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, where they actually get their authority through the Clean Water Act of 1972.

But ultimately, it is the City of Minneapolis and Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board to comply and follow the permit.

Now, what is the permit and what is in the permit?

Well, the permit gives us authority to operate our stormwater system.

So all the catch basins and the pipes and the pumps and or the ponds and the uh and the devices that are within our stormwater infrastructure where we can take the water from one place and carry it to another place and ultimately discharge it to one of the local water resources.

So the permit gives us uh permission to operate that system.

What's in this uh in the permit are a series of requirements and standards that as long as we follow those and comply with those, we can operate our system.

Now, this uh standards or requirements are each in different categories, which we call them the minimum control measures.

Now we have minimum control measures focused on public education, which is well, how do we raise the general awareness of the public around stormwater?

And then we have public participation as another minimum control measure, which is well, how do we get public participating in our programs and making them a partner into what we're doing in protecting clean water?

We also have post-constructional stormwater management, which is well, what happens to the constructions afterwards?

What sort of a stormwater practices we have in place to prevent the runoff carrying the pollutant downstream.

So these are uh these are what again what we call the minimum control measures.

And what's interesting, our annual report, which we report based on all the activities we have done, is also formatted in the same way, where each one of the minimum control measures becomes a chapter of our annual report.

So what we are what is the ask today is that today we're asking to um to approve the submission of our 2025 stormwater annual report.

Now, the annual report uh is submitted to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, and actually that itself is a part of the requirement of the permit, which is requires us to develop an annual report and to submit it to Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.

Now, the permit where the permit sets the standards and the requirement of how we can operate our stormwater system.

We also have our stormwater management program, which lays out how and what we can do in order to comply with our permit, plus to protect clean water.

And then the annual report is where we document and fire all of the activities we have done under all the different minimum control measures that it helps us to comply with the permit and protect clean water.

So all three together is what helps the city to comply with the permit and again to protect clean water.

So you may ask, well, where is the annual report?

So I'm happy to share with you a QR code and a link to our annual report, which is uh on the website.

Now, every uh every year we make sure this uh link is available to the current annual report, and uh, and so it will be for the two thousand twenty-five report.

Uh we also actively seek input and comments into the report and try to improve it every year, as we did this year by uh by attending, participating and presenting at the CAC, where we were able to receive a lot of healthful comments and improve the annual report as well.

So again, today we're asking you to approve the submission of our two thousand twenty-five stormwater annual report.

And uh, thank you very much.

Thank you for the presentation.

Are there any qu questions or discussion from committee members?

Councilmember Warren.

Thank you, Chair.

Um, so how frequently are the stormwater drains and things like that um cleaned out, especially in our North Minneapolis area.

Um Stevenson, I need to look up that information to tell you about the regulatory as it is uh conducted by a different team on uh in SWS.

Okay.

But you can you can send that information in with the I can certainly look it up, reach out to my team and get the information for you.

Because I would really like to know what that scheduling looks like for when those when those storm water drains are cleaned and what that schedule looks like.

Uh Chair Stevenson's just to uh uh make sure I understand the question is to you need you need to know the frequency of the catch basins that are on the street, how often they're cleaned.

Yes.

Yes.

Seeing no further discussion, I'll move approval of this item.

Uh all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Uh those opposed say nay.

The ayes have it, and that motion carries.

With that, we've concluded all business to come before the committee today.

And if there are no objections, we are adjourned.

We're