2015.07.28 Packet Combined - Laserfiche WebLink

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July 14, 2015 Page 5 of 7 a Polling Location for City Manager Lotter indicated City Clerk Haarstad would be presenting this item to the Council. Precinct a City Clerk Haarstad reported at the June 23, 2015 City Council meeting, the City Council approved the following polling places: Precinct 1— New Brighton Community Center (NBCC) located at 40010th St NW Precinct 2 — Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints located at 100 Silver Lake Rd Precinct 3 — St. John the Baptist Catholic Church located at 835 2nd Ave NW Precinct 4 — Salem Covenant Church located at 2655 5th St NW Precinct 5 — Christ the King Lutheran Church located at 1900 7th ST NW Precinct 6 — New Brighton Christian Church located at 1500 29th Ave NW Precinct 7 — Grace Point Church located at 2351 Rice Creek Rd City Clerk Haarstad stated the City Council did not approve a polling place for Precinct 8 and directed staff to contact the schools to determine if they would be a better fit. Staff spoke with staff at the Mounds View Schools Superintendent's office, Community Education staff and school staff. Staff also performed site visits at Irondale High School, Sunnyside Elementary and Sunny Square Neighborhood Center. She reviewed detailed information for each of these sites with the Council. Irondale High School — As a School Resource Officer is on-site during the entire time elections would coincide with school hours, the school is comfortable with safety. However, the facility has a lot of activities taking place in the building and it will be difficult to find a suitable space that can be designated for voting activities. In addition, parking is a serious issue there is already a shortage between teachers, students, visitors and people attending other programs. As such, the school is unable to designate any parking spaces for election use only. Sunnyside Elementary — A small gym was identified that would be sufficient for voting activities while affecting only a small number of students participating in a special needs program. This small gym is near a door that can be designated as an elections entrance. However, as students would be coming though the hallway, school staffwould like a School Resource Officer to be on-site during all voting hours to guarantee the safety of children, As State statutes prohibit a uniformed officer from being in a polling place unless called by an election official to handle an emergency, this officer would need to be in plain clothes. Parking is also an issue at Sunnyside Elementary. However, the school is willing to designate 12 parking spaces along the back lot as elections use only parking spaces. That being said, school buses drop off and pick up children in this same parking lot. It is very likely that voters would be inadvertently prevented from arriving or leaving in the half hour before school and in the half hour after school. It is also possible voters would get blocked by parents dropping off and picking up children. Nathan Flansburg, new principal at Sunnyside Elementary, suggested that, while no money has been budgeted for this purpose, he may be willing to advocate for a partnership between the school district and the City to construct a parking lot an unused ball field. Parking at Sunnyside is not sufficient and the only option is to build a parking lot for the school and this represents an unbudgeted cost for an asset that will be rarely used by the City and heavily used by the school. Sunny Square Neighborhood Center — Staffvisited the neighborhood center again. While voters parking on the street may have to walk to get to the facility, the 24 spaces in this close parking lot should be sufficient for the number of voters expected throughout the day. Staff anticipates street parking only during peak voting periods — from 7:00 am to 8:30 am and from 5 pm to 6:30 pm. The parking lot is narrow; however, the park accommodates many activities on a regular basis. Staff contacted the Police Department who confirmed that the width of the parking lot does not appear to have caused a significant issue in the past. City Clerk Haarstad stated that after the site visits and information gathered by staff, the Council adopt a Resolution establishing the Sunny Square Neighborhood Center as the polling location for Precinct 8. Councilmember Bauman thanked staff for the information provided on the proposed polling locations. She