Residents air water concerns

By Lauren Radomski (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Property owners along Pebble Lake say they’d like to see a solution to high water near their homes — and the cheaper the better.

A public hearing at Monday’s city council meeting gave homeowners a chance to voice their opinions on three different permanent pumping solutions proposed by the city. Temporary pumping back in fall 2006 brought the lake to a manageable level, said City Engineer Dan Edwards, but by the end of last month, water had risen nearly three feet.

One permanent pumping solution is a $600,000 project that would include an irrigation system for the campground and softball fields in Delagoon Park, Edwards said. Rather than running off of a well, Delagoon irrigation would run off of the same system used to pump the lake.

The assessment would be $65 per lineal foot, spreading the cost of the 1,800 feet of Central Lakes Trail lakeshore among property owners, Edwards said. The Depart-ment of Transportation, which runs the trail, has not yet agreed to cover this cost.

The second option puts cost of trail lakeshore on the city, reducing cost per lineal foot to $55 per property owner and raising the city’s contribution by $42,000.

A third solution would not include irrigation in Delagoon, treating the park as a separate issue.

“If we pull that out...we then drop it down to about $37 per lineal foot,” Edwards said of the assessment.

Responses to the city’s proposals were mixed. Peg Werner is a property owner along Shoreview Drive and said she and her husband support the first option 100 percent.

“I think this is a very exciting opportunity to have what seems to be a permanent solution to pumping at Pebble Lake,” Werner told the council. “As a property owner who probably owns a lot of (lake) frontage, I’m not opposed to being assessed by lineal footage.”

Not so for Steve Rufer and his wife, Sandy, who live on the lake’s south side.

“We strongly support the temporary pumping that the city did a couple of years ago,” Rufer said, but called the city’s two initial permanent solutions “excessively expensive.”

Rufer said he didn’t believe measurements of lineal feet were the best representation of property value, but said he’d go with option three if given a choice.

Ideally, he said, MnDOT would pick up the cost of that 1,800 feet in Central Lakes Trail lakeshore.

“It’s really disappointing that we’re assuming that MnDOT won’t pay their share,” he said. “If there’s some way for them to step up to the plate, I think that’s a really, really good idea.”

The city has written to MnDOT requesting assistance with the project, Edwards said, but has not yet received a reply.

Edwards said he hoped the city and property owners could reach a consensus on the best solution to the problem and avoid the appraisal process. City staff will continue to meet with residents on the issue and discuss pumping again at a May 15 committee meeting.