Ward Update
TRANSITIONAL HOUSE (brought to your attention in my 4/10 update): The council approved city ordinance and land development manual changes which would lay out the conditions for a conditional use approval of a residence to house newly released prisoners who would be otherwise homeless into our community. The net is that a house or dwelling unit (apartment) cannot house more than 5, must be at least 1000 feet apart from one another, and if housing any type of sex offender must not be closer than 500 feet from a day care center or 1000 feet from a school, playground, or other child-oriented facility. A neighborhood informational meeting is mandatory (within a 500 foot radius) and city council approval is required. The Department of Corrections will oversee these requests and establishments. They are currently planning to only have 4 of these homes in Rochester. This is the big picture. Contact me if you have any further questions.
FIRST STREET PLAZA: We awarded the low bid for the First Street Plaza to Pember Construction for $2,872,156.69. Work will begin in June and mostly completed this fall. This was a re-bid as the first bid came in at $4.1 M which was almost $1 M over the preliminary engineering estimate. Staff, working with the design engineers, pared down the design requirements coming up with a figure closer to what we were prepared to fund.
SILVERLAKE BUFFER PROJECT: The project to provide a native plant buffer around Silver Lake had been formally approved at last night's council meeting. The purpose is to reduce fecal coliform bacteria from entering Silver Lake and the Zumbro River as a result of goose and other animal droppings on the shoreline. The buffer zone will begin from about 10 feet off the shoreline in the water to about 30 feet of shoreline. More information about the project and goose management can be found at http://www.rochestermn.gov/departments/administration/projects/geesemanagement.asp . Some interesting stuff in there. One of the most interesting is about Angel Wing, the condition we see sometimes at Silver Lake with some geese that are mistake as wounded. This came up when we first proposed no feeding of the geese and received flak for not helping the poor "wounded" critters. If you read the article you'll see that these geese are healthy, can fly (I'd been amazed the first time I saw this happen) and the condition is attributed to a nutritional condition due to TOO MUCH FOOD! How's that for a twist?
PEDDLER PERMITS: It's the time of year when door-to-door sales reps knock on your door again. Be advised that they must have a "Peddler's Permit", issued by the city clerk. Don't be afraid to ask to see it. A company ID will not do. If you have any doubt don't hesitate to report these people to the police. They may be going door to door to see who's home so they could come back again a bit later to break in and rob you.
The exceptions are political campaigners, religious evangelists (unless they are selling something), non-profit fundraising activities such as Youth Hockey, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, school fundraisers. If in doubt, call the police or the city clerk's office 328-2900.
I had a request to look into the hours that they could solicit. Staff is looking into what other cities are doing. We will have a discussion on this either at our June 4th Committee of the Whole meeting or the one after on June 11th.
What do you think are reasonable hours for solicitation? I'd like to know. Tell me what you think.
Thanks,
Bob
FIRST STREET PLAZA: We awarded the low bid for the First Street Plaza to Pember Construction for $2,872,156.69. Work will begin in June and mostly completed this fall. This was a re-bid as the first bid came in at $4.1 M which was almost $1 M over the preliminary engineering estimate. Staff, working with the design engineers, pared down the design requirements coming up with a figure closer to what we were prepared to fund.
SILVERLAKE BUFFER PROJECT: The project to provide a native plant buffer around Silver Lake had been formally approved at last night's council meeting. The purpose is to reduce fecal coliform bacteria from entering Silver Lake and the Zumbro River as a result of goose and other animal droppings on the shoreline. The buffer zone will begin from about 10 feet off the shoreline in the water to about 30 feet of shoreline. More information about the project and goose management can be found at http://www.rochestermn.gov/departments/administration/projects/geesemanagement.asp . Some interesting stuff in there. One of the most interesting is about Angel Wing, the condition we see sometimes at Silver Lake with some geese that are mistake as wounded. This came up when we first proposed no feeding of the geese and received flak for not helping the poor "wounded" critters. If you read the article you'll see that these geese are healthy, can fly (I'd been amazed the first time I saw this happen) and the condition is attributed to a nutritional condition due to TOO MUCH FOOD! How's that for a twist?
PEDDLER PERMITS: It's the time of year when door-to-door sales reps knock on your door again. Be advised that they must have a "Peddler's Permit", issued by the city clerk. Don't be afraid to ask to see it. A company ID will not do. If you have any doubt don't hesitate to report these people to the police. They may be going door to door to see who's home so they could come back again a bit later to break in and rob you.
The exceptions are political campaigners, religious evangelists (unless they are selling something), non-profit fundraising activities such as Youth Hockey, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, school fundraisers. If in doubt, call the police or the city clerk's office 328-2900.
I had a request to look into the hours that they could solicit. Staff is looking into what other cities are doing. We will have a discussion on this either at our June 4th Committee of the Whole meeting or the one after on June 11th.
What do you think are reasonable hours for solicitation? I'd like to know. Tell me what you think.
Thanks,
Bob
posted by Bob Nowicki | 8:35 PM
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