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PArE 3 <br />In his Department of Public Safety some cost savings havebiz4ert realized due <br />1 0 1 1 '1- i1L ,i 3 /i' ,1wl. d n iJ r S. -t T c <br />to personnel changeg4and' A conversion from gasoline to propane fuel system <br />1 squad cars. Also. the Minnesota Highway Patrol sub station in City offic <br />has provided added law enforcement and emergency assistance to our police <br />force at no additional costs to us. On a negative note, the city is now <br />required to prosecute criminal cases which were formerly handled by the <br />county attorney so that this will cause an increase in legal fees. We need <br />to actively promote those county court procedures which will down local <br />law enforcement costs. <br />Parks, Recreation and Forestry have seen many changes during recent <br />months and several innovative modes of service delivery were piloted through <br />this department. Joint powers agreements with New Brighton for recreational <br />and forestry programs have resulted in cost savings as well as extension of <br />these services to more residents. The use of competitive bids from private <br />^ompanies for park maintenance has been shown to be cost effective and exten <br />ions of this concept to other departments has promise. Also, an existing <br />pay -as- you -go fee policy for youth, adult, general, and swimming recreation <br />activities was extended last year to require that the Recreation Department <br />repay a loan from the capital improvement fund for the purchase of three <br />park shelter buildings. These buildings, originally surplus portable class- <br />rooms, will eventually be paid for from user fees. <br />The merger last year of the Public Works Department and the Building and <br />Zoning Department is now substantially completed. After a six-month evaluation; <br />period, the Council retained the new organization as the more cost effective <br />option. The restructuring due to the merger has contributed to cost savings <br />and has resulted as well in the addition to Staff of a civil engineer on a <br />a's <br />thirty hour per week basis. A major new benefit of this addition is civil <br />engineering expertise in the daily supervision of utility and community <br />'eveiopment operations. Although recent progress in public works has been <br />encouraging, more needs to be done to improve preventive maintenance in order <br />o better protect the puOlic investment in utility structures and other city <br />