Victoria MN Newspaper

Said Cara, "County Road 13 is an existing obligation, to maintain and to rebuild. Gravel Road 18 is not currently their obligation to maintain."

City Attorney Bob Vose advised, "It is not a simple thing to ignore a policy." He was referring to a policy agreement whereby a city pays a portion of costs connected with the reconstruction of a county road that lies within the city.

Councilmember Tom Strigel pointed out that the Regional Trail crosses Rolling Acres Road and that making the Road wider will make the trail crossing even more dangerous. "Is there a possibility of an over or underpass there?" he asked.

Stated Mayor O'Connor, "As soon as you improve a road because of high traffic, you get more traffic."

The motion was to table the issue and bring it back to Council in about a month, giving better opportunity to understand cost implications and priorities.

SHORTER CITY SCOOP FROM DECEMBER

WeCAB A NOTOBLE AND WORTHWHILE CAUSE

*City Manager Laurie Hokkanen announced that a WeCAB Information Seminar is scheduled for Thursday, January 8th. "It is open to anyone interested in being a volunteer driver. Mary Thun is one of the co-sponsors. She will be at the January 12th city council meeting." Said Mayor O'Connor, "This is really for a noble cause. It's a worthwhile program." The seminar will be held in Elstan Hall at the St. Victoria Catholic Church .

*Councilmember Strigel pointed out that the City of Victoria paid $28,000 to the City of Chanhassen for snowplowing the Tristan Heights neighborhood, which is located on the Chan border, and referred to the new equipment scheduled for Victoria Public Work. Ann Mahnke said that Victoria will indeed be taking that piece back for snowplowing.

*Council approved the final levy of $188,000 in support of the Housing Refinance Agency lease revenue bond financing of the new City Hall. As stated in the Agenda Statement, "The bonds were issued with the provision that the EDA would adopt a special HRA tax levy of $188,000 annually toward towards the debt service on the bonds.

*Council adopted a fee schedule for city services, licenses, and other fees. Any changes reflect an increase to cover city costs, new services or services no longer being used.

*Council approved the re-appointment of Ann Hoelscher as Victoria's representative to the Board of Directors of the Lake Minnetonka Conservation District.

*Council approved partial payment of $3,745 for work completed by Minnesota Dirt Works on construction of the Victoria Regional Trail/Arboretum Connection. Total contract amount is $265,384.

*Council approved a final change order and final contract amount of $343,248 on the Wasserman Trunk Sewer Enhanced Foundation Design.

*Chad Johnson spoke to councilmembers on December 8th, asking for their support of mountain biking in the Three Rivers Park District. He said he's lived here 13 1/2 years and has a group of 12 mountain bikers, four of them from Victoria. "I'm reaching out to stakeholders," he said. "We would like to put a mountain bike trail in Carver Park. We also want to work with businesses." Ann Mahnke reminded Council on December 22nd that the Three Rivers Park District (which includes Carver Park Reserve) is funded by the taxpayers of Hennepin County.

*Council accepted a donation of $1,500 from Mount Olivet Rolling Acres. The nonprofit entity made this voluntary payment in lieu of taxes, declaring, "We appreciate being a member of the community and want to quantify our participation."

*Council also accepted donations of $50 from Robert and Meredith Westby and $100 from the Laketown Homeowners Association, both for the Fire Department.

*Council removed Dog Licensing from the city ordinance. City Clerk Jennie Kretsch stated, "This predates 1975 in our code. It's a service we provide to residents. It's not very time consuming for staff. A lot of dogs are now microchipped. We had from one to three or four dogs lost per year. They're usually unlicensed." Councilmember Crowley said social media now joins lost dogs with their owners.

*The 2014 Sheriff's Report showed overall crime in Carver County is down 15% from last year. Drug crimes, including possession of marijuana, are up 62%. Overall calls are up 12% but they include those calls not involving crime -- like if someone accidentally leaves their garage door up.

*Laurie received a letter from Ann Rexine, a Planner with Three Rivers Park District, inviting comment on the draft master plan for the Baker/Carver Regional Trail.

*The recent issue of the Lake Minnetonka Conservation District Newsletter, received by the City of Victoria, reported among other things that the lake elevation of Lake Minnetonka on June 1st, 2014, was 930.58 feet, which broke the prior historical high. On June 23rd, 2014, the lake elevation was 931.11 feet, a new historical high. Only on August 1st, 2014, was the High Water Declaration terminated.