The concept of developing an assessment policy for street reconstruction has been talked about numerous times over the past couple of years.  The discussions really escalated with the advancement of the Andrie Street/164th Lane improvement project in 2009 and have progressed a long ways but the situation still remains unsettled. 

Early on, in 2009, discussions revolved around the existing City street assessment policy which currently pertains specifically to the Street Maintenance Program (SMP); where overlays are assessed at a rate of 50% and sealcoats are being phased out through the year 2014, from a previous rate of 50% to the current rate of 15% in 2012.

Because there is not any money to fund the change in policy, discussions revolved around the revenue source, standards for reconstruction, specifications and generally about what should be included when a roadway is reconstructed.

In November of 2009, staff was directed to review what it would cost to continue with our standard street maintenance activities, and add reconstruction costs into the program in five year increments. Staff completed this analysis and then evaluated how much funding would be needed over the next ten years based upon a concept that when a street turns 40 years old we reconstruct. Since approximately 45% of the roadways in the City were constructed between 1975 and 1985 (a 40 year design life was assumed), it amounted to approximately $90 million to accomplish this program. Although we know that there is no way that there could be a program such as this afforded, it demonstrated the dire consequences and the drastic need for the improvement. This $90 million dollar figure was used in all of the publications within the most recent communication plan and FAQ.

On June 15, 2010 this information was provided to the City Council. See attached information on the 5 year breakdown and a history of road construction in the City.

At the September 21, 2010 Council work session discussions focused on a franchise fee and public participation campaign to educate the residents of the imminent need for roadway improvements, and solicit their feedback on the potential scenarios that exist for a long term sustainable funding source. Staff discussed this matter with Himle Horner, a consultant working on marketing for the COR, and requested a proposal to assist the City in completing a public participation program.

On January 18, 2011 the information in the proposal was presented, and following discussion it was the consensus of the Council to accept the proposal and execute a contract with Himle Horner in an amount not to exceed $43,000 for advancement of this long term road maintenance initiative.

In order to formulate the questions on the 30 question survey, one of the first items included in the accepted proposal  was to research other communities and find out what they have done and engage those communities to learn strategies on how to successfully implement programs of this nature. On April 19, 2011, the results of this research was presented to the City Council at a work session and Staff was given consensus to make changes to the 30 question survey to residents.

On May 17, 2011, the City Council gave Staff and Himle Horner approval of the script that was to be the 30 questions survey. and approval to go ahead with the survey.

In June of 2011, the 300 resident survey that was conducted by Himle Rapp, formerly known as Himle Horner. This survey first gathered information from the resident about the satisfaction that they have had with their overall quality of life within the City of Ramsey. An overwhelming 93% of the residents rated their quality of life in Ramsey as good or excellent. They also felt that the two largest issues facing the City over the upcoming years were the COR and maintaining an aging roadway system.

Additionally, the resident survey asked the residents to choose between 3 financing scenarios:

Option 1: Raise the general fund levy to accommodate the need
Option 2: Assess 100 % of the costs to the benefiting property owners
Option 3: Implement a new revenue source (franchise fee)

In July of 2011, the City Council received the attached presentation by Himle Rapp and were given an opportunity to express their desires and or concerns about preparing a communication plan. Of the three funding scenarios, the one that got the most support was the implementation of the franchise fee for road reconstruction. 

During August and September, Staff worked with the consultant to prepare a draft communication plan, FAQ, fact sheet, a draft website, an online survey form, etc.

On October 18, 2011, the City was given the attached Communication plan as well as distribution materials and the website was unveiled in Draft form. The following comments were provided:

•The Garnet Street project was shown as a project that we would provide an alternative funding source for so that we could move forward with surveying, design etc and therefore move forward next summer to show signs of a successful integration of the program. At the Public Works Committee in December, this item was removed due to lack of interest from the abutting residents at a subsequent meeting until a decision is made about the long term road maintenance initiative even though we told the residents that we would write in the feasibility study that we would match whatever funding scenario resulted from the decision.
•Council commented on the online survey. After much deliberation, it was the Council direction to allow for an online survey as long as the name and address fields were required for the comments to be registered.
•All meetings that will be held regarding this program will be done at the Ramsey Municipal Center and not "in the neighborhoods" at a neutral site per City Council direction.
•The meeting format will be similar to the Ramsey 3 process. A brief presentation and break into smaller groups to discuss agenda items that are generated by the group. (Open Space technology)
•The City Council wanted more interaction and graphical representation of the issue in the website. This is a funding issue but do not lose sight of the issue. Use the year of original construction map and generate a FAQ that is dynamic and updated frequently.
•The City Council direction was to provide a video on QCTV with the Mayor, Public Works Chair, Public Works Director and City Administrator. Included in this case is a FAQ that will be the primary dialog in preparation of this video.

On November 15, 2011, Chuck Tombarge from Himle Rapp was present and Staff specifically requested direction on the attached communication plan, attached fact sheet, public engagement survey, power point presentation, an FAQ prepared by Himle Horner relative the long term road maintenance program. 

The direction at this meeting was to:

Tighten up the numbers so they are more realistic, make revisions to the communications plan by taking out the language about the costs being equivalent to a cup of coffee a day, and consider a franchise fee of $14 per month per household to create a source to fully fund the issue without assessments. 
 

Following through with the direction provided at the November 15th work session:

In simple terms, we have approximately 178 miles of roadway in the City. Taking out 36 miles of MSA roads that have their own funding source, leaves 142 miles of local roads. The dollar amount that we were using per mile was $750,000 per mile. This was derived from the above mentioned Andrie Street bids that we received in 2009 without the sidewalk. At the time we were assuming 2 years of construction increases since this was a bid that was opened in 2009. More realistically, the economy has slowed and therefore, we have revised the projected cost per mile by adding a 10% contingency and no construction cost increase. The recommended cost per mile is $645,430.

Early on in the discussion there was multiple conversations and comments about the use of whatever revenue source that is defined by this program to be used for street maintenance as well. There is approximately $495,000 that is allocated in the 2012 budget from TIF that is possible to continue until December 31, 2013, and in light of the discussions a few weeks ago about budget concerns in the 2013 gap year for the municipal center debt, Staff is recommending that the TIF financing continue to fund the street maintenance program until 2014. At that time, the franchise fee be used for the street maintenance program. Since Staff felt that the direction was to tighten up the numbers, we looked at the numbers from the overlay projects as well as the sealcoat projects.

We used the sealcoat bids for the last three years and an actual bid per square yard of $5.85 for overlays. The average cost per mile for sealcoats is $29,406 per mile and $96,096 per mile for overlays.

If we were to reconstruct the 142 miles of local roadways every 40 years we would need approximately $92M, or $2.3M annually.  If you include sealcoating at years 5,12,24,31 at a price of $29,406/mile (4 times throughout the 40 year lifespan) and an overlay every 19 years (but only occurs once during the design life) at a price of $96,096/mile we would need another $417,565 and $341,141 respectively, for a total of approximately $3.06 M of required funding each year for both maintenance and reconstruction.  

Utilizing $14 per residential customer (split between 2 franchises, $7 each), the amount available for use in the reconstruction efforts in 2012 and 2013 would be $1.53 million annually. The only way to achieve a program that is fully funded is to require a 50% assessment for reconstruction. This does, however, take into account that there is no assessments for maintenance activities like sealcoats or overlays.

The purpose of the case tonight is to receive direction on implementation of the program. We already have direction to produce a cable TV spot and revise the FAQ, but it is difficult to manage the message without knowing how the City Council feels about the annual contribution and if there is any assessment.