04/24/2006 Council Minutes (3) - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Search

• COUNCIL MINUTES APRIL 24, 2006 APPROVED Country Inn and Suites is going up, and townhomes are going through approvals. The YMCA is holding its groundbreaking on May 10. Anoka County has selected Lino Lakes Town Center for a future regional resource library. Hampton Inn is also building on the north side of 35W, and we are getting additional users in the Target/Kohl's development. The 20/20 Commercial Development advisory group also promoted "Community Unity" through better communication between city officials and citizens. Communications with residents, I believe, continues to improve. The city received high praise for the very public way that the environmental review of the 35W Corridor (the AUAR) was handled before its adoption last year. Our website is filled with information and is easy to use. We learned from the recent survey that 83% of our residents read the newsletter, which is considerably higher than the norm for suburban cities. We televise and replay our council and advisory board meetings on cable. Our staff is involved in the local chamber, and other local business organizations. Our recently completed city survey is a vital tool that provides insight into the residents' perceptions about the community. It was rewarding to receive such positive responses. It is also necessary and helpful to hear the negatives, and it helps us know where to focus our attention. An abbreviated summary of survey results will be in your next newsletter, and the full results will be on the city website soon. The city also plans to run a series of follow-up guest columns in the Quad Press to provide more detail to residents regarding the survey results. We continue to work on communication with our citizens, and look forward to resident involvement in our visioning process this summer. Another 20/20 Vision recommendation in 1996 was to monitor the adequacy of our roads and work with other agencies on transportation issues. We all know that transportation needs and lack of funding have grown dramatically since 1996 across the metro area. We are taking aggressive action, in cooperation with Anoka County and MN/Dot, to find ways to fund improvements at the 35W and 35E interchanges. Federal funds for 35E are programmed for 2009 construction, and we continue to work toward funding for the 35W interchange in 2007. Over the past 10 years we have made significant progress towards the goals of the 20/20 vision. We have an excellent base to begin our new visioning process and we look forward to a collaborative visioning process this summer. We were less successful in 2005 in funding the reconstruction of some of our most deteriorated local roads. The Lino Lakes City Charter does not allow general fund dollars to be used for local road reconstruction without voter approval. In 2005, for the second time, a road referendum was defeated. It is our role as elected city officials to provide basic services such as roads to our citizens. We are dependent upon support of residents to do this. It is not in the best financial interest of this city to continue to allow deterioration of our local road system. The city is undertaking a financial analysis this summer to study, among other things, our assessment policies, street maintenance and reconstruction schedules, outstanding debt and financing decisions, and reduction of state aids. Periodic review and adjustment is critical, and tough decisions, based on updated projections, need to be made. Our city council makes decisions based on the needs of the community and its affect on local property taxes. I'm pleased to say that the city portion of your tax dollar has again decreased. In 2004 it was 36% of your • property tax bill. In 2005 it was 35%, and in 2006 it was 34%. It's not a huge decrease, but in light on the increasing demands for services and amenities, I am proud that we are able to hold the line as we do. POLICE DEPARTMENT 8