Agenda Packets - 1991/11/25 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Mounds View City Council Page Seven Regular Meeting November 25, 1991 can afford this. Mr. Werner stated that some people want some of the streetlights turned off. Mr. Werner stated the he lives mid- block and that the streetlight provides no safety factor for him, therefore, he should only pay for what he uses which is approixmately $.34 . Mr. Werner stated that the City should not be considering an increase at all. Mr. Werner stated that the City should cut back on streetlights . Mayor Linke stated that there is a plan for street light installation.s The City would not put more in that the plan says it should. Mr. Werner, Jr. suggested that half of the street lights be shut off in Mounds View and see if more burglaries happen in Mounds View as a result. Mr. Werner would volunteer to have the street light on the closest block to him shut off. Mr. Werner stated this could be a test case to see if word gets around that Mounds View is an easy target for burglary because of its lower number of streetlights . If the burglaries increase a year from now then Mr. Werner indicated that he would stand and say all right. Mr. Werner stated that he carried this a bit far but did it to set up an analogy. Mr. Werner again stated that the City shouldn't be considering an increase in streetlights if we can't afford police officers nor do the residents need the snowplows to go down their streets three or four times . Mr. Werner urged the Council to look into where the waste is going on. Mr. Werner stated that possibly the computer time could be used to run a statistical analysis to find out where the services the City offers are not cost effective rather than to run billing on the street light utility. Bill Frits, 8072 Long Lake Road, asked how can the City be short two police officers when the City has not grown one square inch in twenty-five years and the same area is being patrolled. Mr. Frits asked what's happening to those that the City has? Mr. Frits also stated the City should look at more cuts and that the City will have to cut services. Mr. Frits asked how large a club do the residents need to hi_t—the Council ov_e_the_head_a th i-n-order for them to understand that the Council can't increase costs to the taxpayers any further. Mr. Frits stated that if he were bit by a small snake rather than a large snake, he would still have been bitten by a snake. Mayor Linke stated that the poplulation of the City was 4,000 then and now has approximately 13,000 residents . Mayor Linke indicated to Mr. Frits that he was a union man and should understand that these police officers get vacation time. Mayor Linke stated that some of these officers have up to four earned weeks of vacation at this point. Mayor Linke further indicated that this means the City has twelve officers and that totals twelve months of vacation that the City has to cover -- that's one full man.