HomeMy WebLinkAboutCouncil Information Memorandum 01-17-2019CITY OF PLYMOUTH
COUNCIL INFO MEMO
January 17, 2019
EVENTS / MEETINGS
Housing & Redevelopment Authority Agenda for January 24 .................................. Page 2
Official City Meeting Calendars .................................................................... Page 3
Tentative List of Agenda Items ..................................................................... Page 6
CORRESPONDENCE
GFOA's Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting ................... Page 7
Plymouth Fire & Ice Winter Festival Set for February 2 ........................................ Page 9
REPORTS & OTHER ARTICLES OF INTEREST
Plymouth-Based PRI Robotics Acquired by Michigan
Manufacturing Company, Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal ........................ Page 11
Roseville Fire Chief Asks for $1M to Hire 9 More Firefighters, Pioneer Press.............. Page 13
MEETING AGENDA
PLYMOUTH HOUSING AND REDEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY
THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2019 - 7:00 p.m.
WHERE: Parkers Lake Room
City of Plymouth
3400 Plymouth Boulevard
Plymouth, MN 55447
CONSENT AGENDA
All items listed on the Consent Agenda are considered to be routine by the Housing
and Redevelopment Authority and will be enacted by one motion. There will be no
separate discussion of these items unless a Commissioner, citizen or petitioner so
requests, in which event the item will be removed from the consent agenda and
considered in normal sequence on the agenda.
1.CALL TO ORDER - 7:00 P.M.
2.PUBLIC FORUM
3.CONSENT AGENDA
A.Approve HRA Meeting Minutes for November 15, 2018.
B.Plymouth Towne Square. Accept Monthly Housing Reports.
C.Vicksburg Crossing. Accept Monthly Housing/Marketing Reports.
4.NEW BUSINESS
A.HRA Strategic Plan.
5.ADJOURNMENT
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SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. BIRTHDAY
CITY OFFICES CLOSED
22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30 31
January 2019
3400 Plymouth Boulevard Plymouth, MN 55447 OFFICIAL CITY CALENDAR Phone: 763-509-5000 Fax: 763-509-5060
7:00 PM PARK & REC ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Council Chambers
SUN TUES MON WED THUR FRI SAT
CHANGES ARE NOTED IN RED
5:30 PM SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING Goals & Legislative Priorities for 2019 Medicine Lake Room
7:00 PM REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers
7:00 PM PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING
Council Chambers
7:00 PM ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY COMMITTEE MEETING Medicine Lake Room
7:00 PM HOUSING AND
REDEVELOPMENT
AUTHORITY
MEETING
Parkers Lake Room
NEW YEAR’S DAY
CITY OFFICES CLOSED
7:00 PM SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING
Meeting with Legislative Delegation Medicine Lake Room
6:00 PM CLOSED COUNCIL MEETING
Discuss Labor Negotiations Medicine Lake Room
7:00 PM REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers
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SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT
1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13
14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28
SUN TUES MON WED THUR FRI SAT
February 2019
3400 Plymouth Boulevard Plymouth, MN 55447 OFFICIAL CITY CALENDAR Phone: 763-509-5000 Fax: 763-509-5060
7:00 PM PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING Council Chambers
7:00 PM ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY COMMITTEE MEETING
Medicine Lake Room
5:30 PM SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING Discuss Plymouth Creek Expansion Medicine Lake Room
7:00 PM REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING
Council Chambers
5:30 PM SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING
County Road 47 Discussion Medicine Lake Room
7:00 PM REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers
PRESIDENTS DAY
CITY OFFICES CLOSED
7:00 PM PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING Council Chambers
7:00 PM PARK & REC ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Council Chambers
7:00 PM HOUSING AND REDEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY MEETING Medicine Lake
Room
3:00 PM - 7:00 PM Fire & Ice Festival Parkers Lake Park
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SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT
1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20
7:00 PM PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING Council Chambers
21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
March 2019
3400 Plymouth Boulevard Plymouth, MN 55447 OFFICIAL CITY CALENDAR Phone: 763-509-5000 Fax: 763-509-5060
7:00 PM PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING Council Chambers
7:00 PM ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY COMMITTEE MEETING Medicine Lake Room
5:30 PM SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING Board and Commission Recognition Medicine Lake Room
7:00 PM REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers
SUN TUES MON WED THUR FRI SAT
5:30 PM SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING
Discuss Boards and Commissions Medicine Lake Room
7:00 PM REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers
31
7:00 PM HOUSING AND
REDEVELOPMENT
AUTHORITY
MEETING
Parkers Lake Room
7:00 PM PARK & REC ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Council Chambers
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Tentative Schedule for
City Council Agenda Items
February 12, Special, 5:30 p.m. Medicine Lake Room
• Discuss Plymouth Creek Center expansion
February 12, Regular, 7:00 p.m. Council Chambers
• Adopt Drone Policy and approve purchase
• Public hearing on Wine and On-Sale 3.2 Percent Malt Liquor License applications of Akirsa
Pizza Company, d/b/a Firenza Pizza, 3225 Vicksburg Lane, Suite A
February 26, Special, 5:30 p.m. Medicine Lake Room
• County Road 47 discussion
February 26, Regular, 7:00 p.m. Council Chambers
• Oaths of Office for Police Officers Scott Serre and Matthew Krueger
March 12, Board and Commission Recognition, 5:30 p.m. Medicine Lake Room
March 12, Regular, 7:00 p.m. Council Chambers
• Recognize Board and Commission members
March 26, Special, 5:30 p.m. Medicine Lake Room
• Boards and Commissions discussion
March 26, Regular, 7:00 p.m. Council Chambers
April 9, Regular, 7:00 p.m. Council Chambers
April 23, Regular, 7:00 p.m. Council Chambers
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City of Plymouth
News Release
For Immediate Release
Jan. 15, 2019
Contact: Alyssa Fram
Recreation Supervisor
City of Plymouth
763-509-5225
afram@plymouthmn.gov
Plymouth Fire & Ice winter festival set for Feb. 2
Plymouth, Minn. – Plymouth’s annual winter festival, the 30th-annual Fire & Ice festival is set for 3-7
p.m. Saturday, Feb. 2 at Parkers Lake Park, off County Road 6 and Niagara Lane.
Favorites of Fire & Ice include recycling bin races, a youth ice fishing contest, hayrides, pony and sled-
dog rides, miniature golf on the ice, snow bowling, box hockey, recreational skating, snowshoeing and
cross-country skiing. All events are weather permitting.
To combat the cold, attendees can warm up at a bonfire with s’mores and hot chocolate, while supplies
last, sponsored by Step by Step Montessori. Food trucks will also be on site. The finale of the event –
fireworks sponsored by the Plymouth Civic League – will begin around 6:30 p.m.
Cardboard Sled Contest
The Cardboard Sled Contest returns to Fire & Ice for the second year, set for 4 p.m. on the Showmobile
Stage. Participants may create and decorate cardboard sleds ahead of time and enter them in the
contest. Contest participants should check in at 3:45 p.m.
Sleds must be constructed out of cardboard and may be held together with tape and glue. Sleds may be
decorated – but no nails, plastic, screws, staples, metal fasteners, or other sharp or pointy objects may
be used. Finished sleds must be no larger than 6 feet long, 3 feet deep and 4 feet wide.
First- and second-place winners from multiple age categories will be selected to win prizes. Categories
include:
•Preschool, ages 5 and younger
•Youth, ages 6-8
•Youth, ages 9-12
•Teens, ages 13-17
•Adults, ages 18 and older
Shuttle Service
Free shuttles to and from the event will run from 3:30-7:30 p.m. at Oakwood Playfield, 1700 County
Road 101 and Parkers Lake Baptist Church, 14720 County Road 6.
-more -
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Medallion Hunt
The ninth-annual medallion hunt began Thursday, Jan. 10 with a clue on plymouthmn.gov and the city’s
social media platforms. More clues will be published Thursdays, Jan. 17, 24 and 31, or until someone
finds the medallion. There is no need to register or pay to participate. A $250 prize will be awarded to
the first sleuth who finds the medallion. Only Plymouth residents are eligible. For more information, visit
plymouthmn.gov.
More Information
Fire & Ice is free, aside from food trucks, and open to the public. The event is sponsored by the City of
Plymouth, Abbott Northwestern-WestHealth, TCF Bank, Hy-Vee, CCX Media and the Plymouth Civic
League.
For weather concerns, call the weather line at 763-509-5205. To view the Fire & Ice event schedule, visit
plymouthmn.gov.
Cutline: Embrace winter at Fire & Ice Saturday, Feb. 2 on the frozen Parkers Lake. The annual event
features a cardboard sled contest, recycling bin races, snow bowling and games, sledding, ice skating, a
bonfire, fireworks and more.
-30 -
Page 10
Plymouth-based PRI Robotics acquired by Michigan
manufacturing company
Eckhart Inc. has acquired Plymouth-based PRI Robotics & Automation. ECKHART INC.
Plymouth-based PRI Robotics & Automation has been acquired by Eckhart Inc., a
Warren, Mich.-based producer of manufacturing equipment.
PRI was founded in 1995 and produces robotic systems for manufacturers. John Quinn,
who owned the company before Eckhart's acquisition, will leave as part of the sale.
"Our team has been designing and integrating highly engineered robotic systems for
over 24 years," Quinn said in a news release. "With an installed base that exceeds 500
systems, we sought a partner with an established track record of bringing innovation
and new ideas to coworkers and customers."
Quinn also owns Plymouth-based Technical Tool Products Inc., a manufacturer of tools,
cranes, hoists and conveyors.
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Eckhart was founded in 1958 and has eight locations across the Midwest. Eckhart
produces advanced industrial solutions such as robotic systems, autonomous guided
vehicles and 3D-printed tools.
Andrew Morales, a general manager for Eckhart, is shepherding the company's
expansion into the Twin Cities. The Plymouth location employs 11 people now, but that
number will rise in concert with the growth of the business, Morales said.
"We already had customers in the [Twin Cities] market, but we wanted to invest more
and longer-term," Morales said in an interview. "It was a great opportunity to partner
with a company that offers a service more or less distinct from what Eckhart is doing."
Eckhart has had a business relationship with Eden Prairie-based Stratasys Inc. and is
forging partnerships with other Twin Cities-based manufacturing companies, including
3M Co., Morales said.
"We would love to see this location become the center of Eckhart's business west of Lake
Michigan," he said.
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Roseville fire chief asks for $1M to hire 9
more firefighters
Roseville Fire Chief Tim O’Neill with one of the six trucks at the city’s fire station on Tuesday, Jan. 15,
2019. He’s asking the city council for nine more full-time firefighters. (Deanna Weniger / Pioneer Press)
By Deanna Weniger | dweniger@pioneerpress.com | Pioneer Press January 16, 2019 at 7:46 pm
The Roseville Fire Department got two calls the day after Christmas, one right after the
other.
It was a scenario Chief Tim O’Neill had been dreading since the department started
winnowing its larger part-time staff in favor of fewer full-timers.
Technically, he was on vacation, as was one of his full-timers, leaving him with four
firefighters on duty to cover two possible structure fires.
Which fire should he send them to?
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He chose the townhouses at 514 Lovell Ave. because the caller could confirm there were
flames.
As for the Rose Mall apartments at 2221 Albert St., he called Falcon Heights for backup.
That caller had described smoke filling the apartment. He knew Falcon Heights would do a
good job, but he also knew its response time would be longer than Roseville’s usual 3.5
minutes.
Fortunately, he made the right call. The apartment smoke was just someone’s burned lunch.
There were no injuries. The fire at the townhouse, however, destroyed the unit.
Had a third call come in that day, there would have been no one in the Roseville fire station
to answer it.
“On average, seven times per day the department does not have an available unit to respond
to the next emergency,” O’Neill said. “I don’t want to cross my fingers anymore. I want to
have adequate staffing.”
He has asked the city council to find an extra $1 million in the budget so he can hire nine
more full-time firefighters as soon as possible.
PART-TIMERS LEFT SOONER THAN EXPECTED
How did the Roseville Fire Department get to this point?
Phase 1, which started in 2014, was to slowly deplete the department of its 70 part-time
firefighters and replace them with five full-time firefighters for each of the three shift cycles.
O’Neill figured it would take at least 15 years for this phase to complete. He chose to let the
part-timers go by attrition rather than with a pink-slip tsunami, something he felt would
dishonor those who’d given years of service.
The part-timers, however, saw the writing on the wall and decided not to wait around
It took just four years for O’Neill’s part-time pool to drain down to 19. He expects it to be in
the single digits next year and by 2022, to be completely dry.
Fifteen years would have given him plenty of time to slowly build up his full-time crew to
the 24 that he’d planned on.
Most departments increase their budgets $50,000 at a time, O’Neill said. It’s gradual and less
painful for taxpayers. But after the incident Dec. 26, he decided he couldn’t wait any longer.
5 TIMES MORE CALLS IN 12 YEARS
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O’Neill’s presentation to the city council Jan. 7 was researched and stacked with statistics.
In 2006, the department was answering just under 1,000 calls a year. By 2018, that number
had jumped to 5,000, but the staff and apparatus stayed the same.
Roseville firefighters don’t just go to fires, of which they have an average of 12 per year.
They respond to medical situations and car crashes and do 550 inspections and 500
community events per year.
During a shift cycle, the four or five full-time staffers answer about 14 calls per day, do two
to three hours of inspections, attend about two hours of training and attend community events
in the evening.
Not counting Minneapolis and St. Paul, Roseville ranks seventh in the Twin Cities region for
call volume. Of those seven, it is the only city that does the work with an average of four on-
duty staffers.
Most, such as Brooklyn Park, Coon Rapids and Edina, have at least six.
Besides the numbers, O’Neill said, Roseville is a “complex” city. It’s only 13.84 square
miles in size, but its population of 36,000 more than doubles during the day due to workers.
It has manufacturing pockets with chemical and fuel dangers, three major highways, multiple
apartment buildings and retail, including Rosedale Center.
“We are one of the most lean-staffed fire departments in the metro,” O’Neill said.
Firefighters David Doucot, left, Erin Stone, Karl Strohmeier, Israel Diaz and Sergio Nardi at the Roseville fire station
on Jan. 15, 2019. Their department is asking the city for additional staffing. (Deanna Weniger / Pioneer Press)
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IS THERE ANOTHER SOLUTION?
O’Neill has considered the options.
Using the resources of surrounding cities and the county to cover the gaps is happening far
too often to be neighborly, O’Neill said.
“The foundation of each fire department is to handle the basic needs of the community first
and ask for help when we really need it,” he said. “We can’t call them two or three times a
day.”
Opening the department back up to more part-timers would be going backward. It wasn’t a
fiscally smart business plan, O’Neill said, because training took up to two years and about
$80,000, and the part-timers only worked about 14 months after training.
Keeping the status quo means firefighters are working round-the-clock, which can lead to
fatigue and more turnover, O’Neill said.
“A firefighter works an average of 30 years,” he said. “They’ll never make 30 years at this
rate. They are extremely busy. They can handle up to eight calls at night, which means they
have to sleep on their day off.”
Assistant Fire Chief David Brosnahan said the current staffing level is unsafe for firefighters
and residents. When the department gets to a fire, it has enough staff to either extinguish the
fire or rescue people, but not both.
“I can’t tell you the size of the rock that’s in my gut when I have to make a choice of …
whether to send people into a house or not, whether to suppress or perform rescue,” he said.
THE COMMUNITY’S GOT THEIR BACKS
The department has been taking its case to the community for some time, explaining the
reasons behind the switch to full-time employees. O’Neill said the response has always been
encouraging.
On a feedback form, resident Gil Ward said he would support the extra staffing.
“I owe my life to the firemen who rescued me when I had a heart attack while skiing,” he
wrote. “Please up the financial support of our fire department.”
Gordon Marten also supported the increase.
“Current excellent service requires future additional support to meet the needs of an aging
population,” he wrote.
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Mayor Dan Roe said he and the council were just as surprised as O’Neill to see the part-time
pool shrink so quickly. He’s hoping to find the money, possibly phased in over time or
allocated from other departments.
“I think the answer is we do need to address the staffing concerns from the point of view of
the safety of the community and the safety and well-being of the firefighters,” he said. He
hopes to begin addressing it within the next few months as the city gears up for its next
annual budget.
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