Agenda Packets - 2005/04/25 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Mounds View City Council March 28, 2005 Regular Meeting Page 3 for the roads. He stated that sometimes the voters don’t want to spend the money on the streets, 1 so it goes to pieces. 2 3 Mayor Marty stated that they need to take aggressive action regarding the streets. He stated that 4 the original program was that since the city didn’t have any money, they were going to assess the 5 residents, and the residents were up in arms over having to pay the total cost of the project. He 6 stated that they then started earmarking half of the money from the franchise fee for the street 7 fund, which generates about $200,000 per year. He stated that the streets are past fixing, so they 8 need to put in new ones or else no one would want to live in Mounds View. 9 10 David Jahnke asked whether if a group of residents wanted their street fixed now if they could 11 come to the Council or Public Works. 12 13 Public Works Director Lee stated that they would be very happy to receive input from residents 14 in order to start mapping out areas where the people are in favor of the street repair, and they 15 could then focus their attention on those areas. 16 17 Mayor Marty asked whether Public Works Director Lee had been in charge of a street program in 18 another city prior to working at Mounds View, and Mr. Lee stated that he had been. He stated 19 that once the street projects began, the residents realized what they were getting for their money 20 and that it raised their property values. 21 22 Jerry Blanski, brought up the question of how to get the residents to respond. He stated that all 23 affected residents had received a notice of the February 17th neighborhood meeting, and that the 24 feasibility report and a feedback form would be given out at that meeting. He stated that at the 25 February 17th meeting, all present received the 58-page report. He stated that all affected 26 residents received notice of the March 14th meeting, and again a copy of the 58-page report was 27 given. He stated that notice was again given in the New Brighton/Mounds View Bulletin on 28 March 9th, and notice was given in the Mounds View/New Brighton/St. Anthony Focus on March 29 10th. He stated that Public Works Director Lee had done an above-board job of informing the 30 residents. He stated that a petition may already be in circulation. He stated he hoped that 31 whoever was circulating the petition asks the residents to read the report so that they are 32 informed before signing the petition. He stated they’ve had meetings for projects like the street 33 and utility repair and the County Road H sidewalk repair, and that is good to a point and as it 34 should be, but he felt that they overlapped. He stated he felt there had been wasted time by 35 having so many meetings. He stated the city had done a tremendous job of presenting the report 36 and showing slides and pictures. He asked why the Council members had not been present at the 37 prior meetings so additional time wouldn’t have been wasted with questions by the Council 38 raising the same questions that had already been addressed at the previous meetings. He stated 39 he felt too much time is being wasted by criticizing the Rice Creek Watershed District, and it 40 would be a very sad day if they didn’t have that organization. He stated that Rice Creek 41 Watershed District’s mission statement is to prevent flooding and to enhance water quality and 42 harmony with the development for the common good. He stated he agreed with Council Member 43 Thomas to a point regarding her statement that areas in the city are different, and residents should 44 be able to have a say in what they want. He stated he felt the city should have uniformity because 45