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MINUTES OF THE <br />ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING <br />September 26, 2022 <br />6:00 o’clock p.m. <br />_____________________________________________________________________________________ <br /> <br />Page 9 of 13 <br /> <br />are at 8,300 people. As a previous gentleman stated they have not added roads and he would like to give a <br />statistic. In the whole City, only 33% of the people utilize water and sewer, 37% utilize sewer and private <br />water, and 31% do not utilize either sewer or water. He does not think it is fair for those people to be <br />paying for Public Works to service other cities. The revenue they are receiving from Spring Park is under <br />$200,000 which is really peanut butter and jelly. Mr. Jabbour stated they have 48 miles of local roads, 20 <br />miles of private roads that citizens pay to plow on their own, and 30-40 miles of County Roads. At the <br />time they built the current building, Mr. Jabbour made an arrangement to purchase land from the school <br />to add to it, which is perhaps what they referred to as the swamp earlier. He really urges the City to quit <br />spending that kind of money and thinks it is City Hall going a little bit on the wild side in spending. <br />Mayor Walsh noted the Public Works people are not just plowing roads, they do a lot of things in this <br />City, and the City must take care of them, along with many other things. <br />A member of the public asked regarding the wetland on the site of the current Public Works building, is <br />there a reason they cannot do the wetland overlay replacement on what is already owned. <br />Mayor Walsh clarified they did a facility analysis, spent a lot of time with the architects, months with <br />Public Works, noting they did a lot of homework on it. He shared they could not do it over there because <br />there is not enough room. <br />Crosby clarified if they filled in the wetland, there is still not enough room there for the site. <br />Mayor Walsh stated the new site has 28 acres. <br />Edwards noted the City could buy an extreme number of wetland credits to fill in the large wetland over <br />here but the project would have become astronomically expensive because there is not very much dry, <br />buildable land on the second lot to the northeast of the existing facility. <br />Barbara Schmidt is sure someone has checked into the construction company and noted when googling <br />them, up comes the Labors District Council of Minnesota and North Dakota warning of an evident pattern <br />of poor performance by Ebert Construction. It is a two page document listing five projects where they did <br />not meet standard and have been cited. <br />Mayor Walsh noted Ms. Schmidt can send that to Edwards. <br />Crosby moved to award the Public Works Facility construction to Ebert Construction for <br />$16,067,000 and authorize the purchase of the wetland credit at $94,655.88. <br />Johnson asked if they can make a motion to draft the approval so the City can look at the question <br />regarding Ebert Construction. <br />Crosby accepted the friendly amendment to draft the Resolution for approval. <br />Johnson seconded. Ayes 4, Nays 0. <br /> <br />FINANCE DIRECTOR REPORT <br />Finance Director Olson had nothing to report. <br /> <br />CITY ATTORNEY REPORT <br />Attorney Mattick had nothing to report. <br />