11-09-2015 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES CITY COUNCIL NOVEMBER 9, 2015 for 2016. City Administrator pointed out that no street projects were completed in 2015 so the city is basically doubling up for next year and will be doing about $2.4 million in projects 2016, plus the Centerville Road project which will be bonded for. He stated there are years where we have done more work. McGraw asked about the $85,000 budgeted for the old fire hall brick repairs and driveway, and noted that the building is old and the park and rec equipment is out of there. He stated that he realizes the building was important in the city at one point, but asked if it is worth keeping now and is it still useful. City Administrator responded that the city still stores some equipment in the building and there is rental hall space in the basement, but there could be discussion about if there is still value in the keeping the building. There are things that need to be done if the building is going to be kept. McGraw stated that he would like to have a discussion about the building and have the whole thing looked at so the Council can get a better idea of what work needs to be done instead of doing piecemeal work of $85,000 here and $100,000 there. He would like to get a big picture of what it would really entail to keep the building. Keis stated that he is fine with leaving the $85,000 in the budget as a place marker, but before any work is done to the building he would like the Council to have some discussion about the overall building and community needs. Fischer agreed and pointed out that there will be strategic planning coming up for the parks department and this can be one of the topics. McGraw stated that he is fine with leaving the $85,000 in the budget and there is nothing that says they have to spend it. The Parks Director pointed out that more important than the building, is that the property is used for parking for the skateboard park and other events and uses, so the property is still important. McGraw stated he wasn't thinking about getting rid of the property, just reassessing the building use and needs for the community. Keis stated that he feels the 3.33% levy needs to be lower and had spoken to Councilmember Montour who agreed. He questioned if it takes $12,500 to bring it down a half percent. McGraw also agreed that the levy should get down from that point and wanted to continue to explore the previous discussion of city staff reorganization. Fischer stated that he thinks there are reasonable options to explore that can get the levy down to where they would like it to be. Keis stated that in order to give staff some direction, the levy needs to get down below 3% 10