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The upcoming construction season street improvements projects for the city of Wyoming are the topic of a public meeting January 20 at city hall.  This meeting is required as one of the steps in the process to assess a portion of the local street costs against benefiting property owners. (See map)

The council, with member Claire Luger absent, accepted the feasibility study for the work and heard from city engineer Mark Erichson.

The improvements won’t start until after school lets out to avoid bus conflicts. The street improvements will focus on mill and overlay, curb and gutter, sidewalk and trail and drainage in the area.  The city does not assess for improvements that are enjoyed by the city as a whole, such as the trail.  The scope of the work will be gone over at the Jan 20 meeting, and affected citizens are encouraged to attend.  Wyoming has been relying on a progressive orderly street improvements plan which relies on asphalt condition review and rating generally.  

Erichson explained though, that this set of roads is not adhering to “the worst first” ranking approach but rather, offers the best opportunity to avoid much more expensive repair and maintenance needs not far in the future.

Erichson said the preliminary assessment price per unit is $1,665, subject to  actual costs tied to bids.

In another action related to city infrastructure, council unanimously adopted an increase in stormwater fee rates collected quarterly in Wyoming.

The rate study was presented by NorthStar Erickson, which shows the fund will be out of balance by 2029. Al Erickson recommended a 2.6 percent hike for 2026 to 2031, when another analysis would be in order.

The council took no action on a request from a youth hockey association spokesperson and said the city would consider the issue.

Forest Lake Hockey Association, which is not under the Forest Lake Area Athletic Association (FLAAA) umbrella, asked if the city is open to revising the ordinances.

FLAAA already has charitable gaming in the city, and the hockey association wants to run gaming in the city limits too.  The ordinance effectively limits gaming to one non-profit.

In addition, ice rinks at Swenson Park would provide a place for practices and the group asked if the city could dedicate specific time slots for hockey players only.  There is restricted availability of ice time at area facilities, council was told.  The Forest Lake group specifically, has grown from 450 to 700 and access to sheets of ice is limited as this growth is happening all over the region.

Council agreed this would be a broader discussion about use of community assets and if there needed to be a ‘reservation’ fee developed along with other standards.  This was left undecided last week.

Library News

And, city administrator Robb Linwood reported the pilot project extending hours for the library is making progress. The East Central Regional Library proposed to do a trial run of making the library services available before or after-normal business hours. A small number of patrons will be selected to be provided special access through an electronic security system.  These “beta testers” will have the ability to use the library for about three months and then the regional board will get a recap to see if the program is valuable. The trial run is slated to start January 5, Linwood added.

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