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“Trees Are Our Roots” 8099 Bavaria Rd * Victoria * 952-443-2990 |
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The Victoria GAZETTE |
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City Scoop Continued |
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MINUTES OF MESSINESS IN THE COUNCIL CHAMBER SOME THINGS DON’T FLUSH EASILY The topic on the agenda of the May 10th Victoria City Council meeting was the regional sewer system being constructed and installed up at Highway 7 in Victoria at the intersection with Rolling Acres Road and down three legs of that intersection. The Metropolitan Council is in charge of the project, having spearheaded it in anticipation of growth in this quadrant of the Twin Cities metropolitan area, having gone out for bids and hired the construction contractors, and having accepted the role of supervisor of the work. Phase One began over two years ago. The project is now in Phase Two. Because there were issues in Phase One related to poor communication with Victoria residents, homeowner problems related to the project, and even litigation, more stringent requirements were adopted for Phase Two. One of the new requirements is a quarterly report at a Victoria City Council meeting from representatives of the Metropolitan Council and senior management of the project, especially Bill Cook, engineer, and Tim O’Donnell, information coordinator. The first quarterly briefing occurred at the May 10th meeting of the Victoria City Council. Bill Cook reported that 20 feet of horizontal pipe is being laid per day. “We’ve tunneled under Highway 7. We’ve tunneled under Rolling Acres Road. Home inspections are being completed. We have changed our communication process.” One of the reasons for home inspections in the area is to assure that if problems do occur, as they did occur during Phase one, that those problems did not previously exist. Victoria Councilmember Tom O’Connor pointed out that the City of Victoria will be undergoing a huge interruption in its daily commuter life during the construction season on 2012, as parts of Highway 5 are scheduled for reconstruction during the summer of 2012, and that many residents and travelers will need to be directed/detoured to Highway 7 during that time. Mr. Cook projected March 2012 as the completion date for the Hwy 7 section of the project. Said Councilmember O’Connor about the upcoming project on Hwy 5, “It will be a nightmare for our city. A little bit of a slippage on your March 2012 completion date for Hwy 7 could mean a disaster for us.” “We will contact MnDOT for their schedule and develop a contingency plan,” said Mr. Cook. Stated Councilmember Kim Roden, “I continue to be very suspicious of your activity in Phase Two because of your activity in Phase One. Are you willing to provide us the emails of correspondence between Met Council contractors and staff regarding any complaints? I understand there’s quite a bit of correspondence. I continue to be very suspicious. You have no credibility, zero, with me.” Mayor Mary Thun asked that such email correspondence be given to the City of Victoria. Councilmember Kim Roden continued to speak about unresolved Phase One issues, and Mayor Mary Thun restated that the agenda item for discussion was only related to the update on Phase Two. As Mayor Thun ruled Councilmember Roden out of order, Mayor Thun called for a five-minute recess. Councilmember Roden went to the audience microphone at the podium and continued to relay the questions, most of them related to restoration of the channel between Lake Minnetonka and Lake Virginia, posed on behalf of residents Pete and Ethel Nelson, which was done off-camera since the mayor ordered the cable camera turned off.
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Sue’s Album A symphony of photos and fewer than a thousand words at www.VictoriaGazette.com |
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June 2010 |
