| One excavator asks for extension while another project comes to a close |
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| Wednesday, 14 October 2009 | ||
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Staff writer Residents living near the Emily’s Waters excavation project in Ham Lake will have a chance to voice their opinions Monday, Oct. 19, at a public hearing during the regular Ham Lake City Council meeting, which begins at 6 p.m. Denny Jensen, president of North Pine Aggregate in Forest Lake, came to the Sept. 21 council meeting to request a two-year extension of the excavation development
Jensen pointed to the current economy as the reason for the extension request. “The lack of work that has affected the entire Twin Cities metro area has had a huge impact on us being able to complete this project in a timely manner,” Jensen wrote in a Sept. 14 letter to the city. When the excavation was originally proposed to take place on the site located on the east side of Lexington Avenue and south of 155th Avenue, Jensen said he envisioned between 1.5 million to 1.75 million cubic yards of sand being excavated. According to Jensen, 930,000 cubic yards of material have been excavated so far. At the same Sept. 21 meeting where Jensen requested an extension, there was an agenda item in which City Engineer Tom Collins updated the council on all four existing excavation permits in Ham Lake. A group of residents living near the Eagle Trucking excavation pit north of Constance Boulevard and east of University Avenue described the hardship they have lived through the last four years. Lori Hultberg said she has not been able to open her windows for four years because of the blowing dirt and it is noisy at night with the de-watering pumps running. She questioned when the project would come to an end. Collins said he has been informed that Eagle Trucking will not need another excavation permit extension beyond the end of this year. Hultberg talked to neighbors living in Pinger’s Plaza and discovered that a deep well and a shallow well and two ponds have dried up since the Eagle Trucking project began. Residents she has talked to have also had to replace filters on wells and water softeners more often than before the project came. Peter Wojchiechowski said he is sick and tired of belly dumpers going by his house and said the truck drivers should be instructed to drive by every council member’s house every morning before they go to the excavation pit. “Think about the people who vote for you,” Wojchiechowski said. “Think about the people who live here. Think about the people who pay the taxes and not only one person or two people. Think about the community.” Other extensions It would not be unprecedented for the council to grant an extension to an excavator. At the 11th hour of 2008, Eagle Trucking project manager Butch Belair requested a one-year extension. The council Dec. 15, 2008 granted this extension without a public hearing. Mayor Paul Meunier and Councilmember Diane Theodorski did not support the extension while Councilmembers Julie Braastad, Jolynn Erikson and Gary Kirkeide voted for it. Erikson chose not to run for re-election and is no longer on the council. The only excavation extension that first-year Councilmember Tom Johnson has voted on gave Scott Lennes of Hearthstone Co., Inc. until the end of 2014 to complete the second phase of the Lennes excavation on a site south of Bunker Lake Boulevard and east of Lexington Avenue. Unlike other extensions, this was less controversial and the council unanimously approved it. The reasoning the council gave for allowing the Lennes extension was the second phase had not begun, but once it does, the development agreement only allows three years of work, so the extension just expands the window of time that the three years could fall in. The city had also asked Lennes to delay excavation to look into a cell phone tower on the property, which the council eventually decided to locate near the future Fire Station No. 3 site along Lexington Avenue. It is estimated that 617,000 cubic yards of material will be excavated from the second phase of the Lennes excavation site. The council has given Forest Lake Contracting two extensions to complete the Schoumaker excavation on a site located south of Bunker Lake Boulevard and east of Radisson Road. The council on July 2, 2007 granted an extension for when a one-year excavation period could commence. The one-year period started Nov. 1, 2007. However, the council on Dec. 1, 2008 gave Forest Lake Contracting until Nov. 1, 2010 to complete the project. Collins told the council at its Sept. 21 meeting that Forest Lake Contracting has an estimated 150,000 cubic yards of sand excavation remaining of the 620,000 cubic yards identified in the environmental assessment worksheet (EAW) that was approved before the project started. Eagle Trucking According to Collins, Eagle Trucking has informed him that it will not need another extension at the end of this year. Belair told Collins that there is approximately 30,000 cubic yards of sand that remains to be excavated from the southeasterly portion of the pond. He estimated that hauling off-site would be completed by Nov. 1. The EAW estimate was that 345,000 cubic yards of sand would be excavated. If sand material remains on-site, Belair said he would blend it into the side slopes of the pond. At the Sept. 21 council meeting, Dan Hanson said he and other neighbors have seen black dirt being hauled into the site that has been pulverized and then hauled off-site. Collins said this would not be allowed under the development agreement the city has with Eagle Trucking on this excavation project. After the Sept. 21 meeting, Collins followed up with Belair and discovered that Eagle Trucking did haul in black dirt from the Highway 65-Crosstown Boulevard reconstruction area, screened it and hauled it off-site. Belair told Collins that there is nothing in the permit that disallows hauling material in. Collins corrected Belair. According to Collins’ report, the permit clearly states, that the “contractor is absolutely prohibited from dumping or bringing in any material to the site other than as specifically approved by the city engineer for erosion control, dust control or other activities in connection with excavation.” Belair said this black dirt was hauled off-site in July and he assured Collins that black dirt would no longer be brought on-site to be screened and recycled. Collins questioned Belair about neighborhood reports that material was still being hauled into the site. Belair responded that he had been hauling in clay material to be placed on the southerly slope of the ponds for erosion control. This is allowed under the permit, Collins told the council Oct. 5. There was a complaint from Greg Mueffelman regarding some truck traffic from the Eagle Trucking site going south on University Avenue even though the city forbids this. Belair told Collins that none of his truck drivers did this. He knows two different septic installations that were completed south of University Avenue utilized sand from his excavation site. Mueffelman also said at the Sept. 21 council meeting that he saw trucks lining up at 6:30 a.m. waiting for the gates to open to the Eagle Trucking site at 7 a.m. One morning around 6:15 a.m., he heard a truck idling. When he went outside, Mueffelman saw that this truck driver was parked on University Avenue, blocking one lane of traffic. Belair also said they moved the de-watering pump from the top elevation of the pond to approximately five feet above the bottom of the pond to make the operation quieter for neighbors. The pump runs three days a week during the day, but no longer during the evening. Kirkeide said this was the first time he heard of these specific complaints from residents near the Eagle Trucking site. If residents would have brought forward these complaints earlier, the city could have met with them and the contractor to get the problems resolved quicker. “I think if we had known of these issues, we would have been dealing with them quickly versus at the end of the project,” Kirkeide said. “It’s the duty and obligation of the residents who have the complaints to let city staff know so we know that things have to be taken care of too because we’re not here to monitor them on a daily basis.” Collins reminded the council and the public that while Eagle Trucking will no longer be allowed to haul material off-site after this year, the company has until July 2010 to complete restoration work on the site, so neighbors will still see activity into the summer. Hanson suggested four points the council should consider for each excavation contract. The council discussed these at the Oct. 5 meeting. The first point was that money from the excavation contractor should be held in escrow for a few years in case there are long-term effects from the project. City Attorney Wilbur Dorn said the city does already hold some of a contractor’s money in escrow, but releases these funds one year after the city accepts that the project has been completed. The council agreed that this is a proper time frame. Hanson said the contractor should regularly update the city and residents on the progress of the project. He suggested that these reports should at least come annually the first two years of the contract and quarterly during the final year. Collins said he asks for updates from the contractors a couple of times a year or more if there are complaints. According to Dorn, all agreements the city has with excavators allow for the creation of a neighborhood liaison committee that would meet with the city and contractor to discuss issues. Hanson said if an excavator needs an extension, they should have to comply with any new excavation ordinance provisions they were not initially required to meet under an old ordinance. The fourth point Hanson brought up was a mediator should be the person to meet with residents and the excavator if there is a complaint because Collins has a working relationship with the excavators. Meunier said he prefers that Collins serves as the mediator and gives the updates because this is part of his job description as the city’s contracted city engineer. Eric Hagen is at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it |
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