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Highway 25 Coalition Meeting Minutes 04-26-20183. Highway 25 Coalition Meeting Minutes — April 26, 2018 7:30 AM Monticello City Hall — North Mississippi Room Members Present - Sherburne County —Tim Dolan and Dan Weber; City of Becker — Tracy Bertram, Rick Hendrickson, and Greg Pruszinske; City of Big Lake — Raeanne Danielowski, Clay Wilfahrt, and Gina Wolbeck; Town of Becker — Brian Kolbinger; Town of Big Lake — Larry Alfords and Bob Hofer; City of Monticello — Brian Stumpf, Jeff O'Neill, and Jennifer Schreiber; and Wright County — Mike Potter and Virgil Hawkins. Others Present: Claudia Dumont from MnDOT and Josh Maus from SRF Consulting Group, Inc. 1. Call to order. The meeting was called to order at 7:30 a.m. 2. Consideration of adding items to the agenda. No items were added. 3. Consideration of approval of meeting minutes from the February 22, 2018. Motion made by Brian Stumpf to approve the February 22, 2018 Highway 25 Coalition Meeting Minutes as presented, seconded by Mike Potter, unanimous ayes, motion carried. 4. Treasurer's Report Larry Alfords presented the April Treasurer's Report showing a cash balance of $236,718.55 as of April 30, 2018. 5. Highway 25 Area Study —Initial Evaluation of River Crossing Updates Josh Maus presented information on discussions held at the River Crossing Study Team Meetings. Maus reviewed official comments submitted for each of the 5 river crossing corridor options. A total of 120 comments were received with 66 of them being from Big Lake addresses, 31 from Monticello addresses, 8 with Becker addresses, and 15 others from outside the study area or unknown. Maus noted that Option "A" received the most first place votes at 63, Option "B" and "C" received the least first place votes at 11 combined, and Option D and E received 70 first and second place votes, however many of the written comments voiced concerns over the impact to homes. While the votes are only a piece of the process, an initial evaluation of each option was completed based on transportation, social impacts, environmental impacts, and economic impacts. Maus presented the Study Team's recommendation to carry Options A, D and E forward into a more detailed evaluation and for no further analysis on Options B1, B2, and C. Maus reviewed the proposed next steps which include a secondary evaluation process, short/long term recommendations, holding a second open -house to present the recommendations, Implementation Plan and Coalition Work Plan, and documentation. Maus also reviewed the pro's and con's of each Option. Chair Danielowski asked for comments from the membership. Mike Potter discussed the cost concern of moving forward with Options D and E noting that these options don't appear to benefit Wright County. Potter also stated his concern that Monticello Township hasn't been notified of Option E. Brian Stumpf discussed his concern with moving forward with Option E as it will affect Monticello Township and they have not been part of the discussions. Tim Dolan discussed that the evaluations can be broken up into phases noting that pulling traffic from Highway 25 is a priority. Dolan also noted that placing the bridge crossing in an undeveloped area has the potential to open up future residential development and that he looks at this as a long-term deal. Raeanne Danielowski conferred that this project is a long-range process. Danielowski also noted that the Coalition should be looking at planning for 2 bridge crossings, one on the west end and one on the east end of the target area. Larry Alfords discussed that the scope of the project has changed and that the Coalition should invite Monticello Township to join the discussions. Jeff O'Neill discussed the original range approved by the Coalition which did not include any area of Monticello Township, and stressed that the Monticello City Council hasn't considered including Option E as they have preliminary plans for an interchange in this same area. O'Neill also noted that Option E doesn't serve a land use purpose, and stressed that placement of a bridge at the location of Option E is not in the best interest of the City of Monticello. Discussion was held on traffic counts in the target areas. Josh Maus noted that traffic counts have been conducted and results were part of the information provided at the open house events. Maus also clarified that the Coalition is only being asked to focus on specific sites for further evaluation, stressing that we are not at a point that a specific bridge crossing site is being considered. Virgil Hawkins reviewed that the purpose of the study was to determine what will meet achievable goals, and that we should be moving forward with the plan based on the data. Tim Dolan discussed the minimal cost impact to carry Option E forward, and noted that further evaluation of the identified options will provide a visual layout for the next open house. Larry Alfords noted that obtaining data on Option E could help the Coalition to make a final decision on another option. Tim Dolan discussed the original target area and asked how Option E has gotten this far without anyone expressing concern. Dolan stated that the Coalition owes it to the study to follow the data, versus letting the decision be politically driven. Dolan suggested that someone from the Coalition reach out to Monticello Township officials. Raeanne Danielowski discussed the various options noting that Big Lake has concerns with Option A just like Monticello has concerns with Option E which is why the Coalition should be looking at 2 bridge crossings, one on each end of the target area. Tracy Bertram discussed the need to review Option E with the Monticello Township Board at their next meeting. Jeff O'Neill stated that Option E should also be brought to the Monticello City Council as well. O'Neill also suggested that for the Coalition to look at options outside the original scope, it should require an amendment to the JPA. Larry Alford disagreed with O'Neill. Clay Wilfahrt discussed that each community has their own preferences to the location of a bridge crossing and that no specific community should have veto ability. Wilfahrt stressed that this should continue to be a data driven process. Claudia DuMont explained that the Coalition will need to identify multiple options to conduct an impact study. Josh Maus noted that there might be other areas that get identified during the environmental review. Motion made by Tim Dolan to move forward with Options A & D for further evaluation and to move forward with Option E contingent upon Coalition representatives meeting with Monticello Township and review of those discussions at our next Coalition meeting. Jeff O'Neil asked for an amendment to the motion to include review by the City of Monticello due to the scope of the area being expanded. The amendment was declined by Dolan. Motion seconded by Rick Hendrickson, unanimous ayes, motion carried. 6. Transportation and related Economic Development or Land Use Updates • Due to timing constraints, no reports were given for the City of Becker, Becker Township, City of Big Lake, or Big Lake Township. • City of Monticello — Jeff O'Neill discussed that projects continue to move forward with the potential for a phased 350 single-family housing development, noted that a retail developer is looking at Monticello, and discussed 3 multi- family developments that are in the works. • Sherburne County — Dan Weber invited the Coalition to the June 6th Open House for the County's Government Center expansion. • Wright County — Mike Potter noted that Wright County will be breaking ground on their expansion soon, and Virgil Hawkins noted that Wright County continues to work on their long range transportation plan. 7. I-94 Update Claudia Dumont noted that the Corridors of Commerce funds have not yet been awarded. 8. Adjourn. Motion made by Mike Potter to adjourn the meeting at 8:53 a.m. seconded by Bob Hofer, unanimous ayes, motion carried. The next meeting is scheduled to be held on Thursday, May 31, 2018 at 7:30 a.m. in the North Mississippi Room at Monticello City Hall.