Minutes - 2005/03/28 - 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, so it goes to pieces. Mayor Marty stated that they need to take aggressive action regarding the streets. He stated that the original program was that since the city didn't have any money, they were going to assess the residents, and the residents were up in arms over having to pay the total cost of the project. He stated that they then started earmarking half of the money from the franchise fee for the street fund, which generates about $200,000 per year. He stated that the streets are past fixing, so they need to put in new ones or else no one would want to live in Mounds View. David Jahnke asked whether if a group of residents wanted their street fixed now if they could come to the Council or Public Works. Public Works Director Lee stated that they would be very happy to receive input from residents in order to start mapping out areas where the people are in favor of the street repair, and they could then focus their attention on those areas. Mayor Many asked whether Public Works Director Lee had been in charge of a street program in another city prior to working at Mounds View, and Mr. Lee stated that he had been. He stated that once the street projects began, the residents realized what they were getting for their money and that it raised their properly values. • Jerry ,brought up the question of how to get the residents to respond. He stated that all affected residents had received a notice of the February 17a' neighborhood meeting, and that the feasibility report and a feedback form would be given out at that meeting. He stated that at the February 17~' meeting, all present received the 58-page report. He stated that all affected residents received notice of the March 14~' meeting, and again a copy of the 58-page report was given. He stated that notice was again given in the New Brighton/Mounds View Bulletin on March 9~', and notice was given in the Mounds View/New Brighton/St. Anthony Focus on March 10~'. He stated that Public Works Director Lee had done anabove-board job of informing the residents. He stated that a petition may already be in circulation. He stated he hoped that whoever was circulating the petition asks the residents to read the report so that they are informed before signing the petition. He stated they've had meetings for projects like the street and utility repair and the County Road H sidewalk repair, and that is good to a point and as it should be, but he felt that they overlapped. He stated he felt there had been wasted time by having so many meetings. He stated the city had done a tremendous job of presenting the report and showing slides and pictures. He asked why the Council members had not been present at the prior meetings so additional time wouldn't have been wasted with questions by the Council raising the same questions that had already been addressed at the previous meetings. He stated he felt too much time is being wasted by criticizing the Rice Creek Watershed District, and it would be a very sad day if they didn't have that organization. He stated that Rice Creek Watershed District's mission statement is to prevent flooding and to enhance water quality and harmony with the development for the common good. He stated he agreed with Council Member Thomas to a point regarding her statement that areas in the city are different, and residents should • be able to have a say in what they want. He stated he felt the city should have uniformity because