Minutes - 2005/06/20 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Mounds View City Council June 20, 2005 Special Meeting Page 16 • Todd Leffler, 7660 Woodlawn, New Brighton, and owner of a rental property in Mounds View. He stated as he drove here this evening and drove by 19 for rent signs. He noted it was a tough rental market right now. He stated there were 1,400 rental units in the City which was a huge part of the population. He noted he was losing money and could not afford to raise his rent, which meant he could not put more money into the building and therefore the building get run down and the quality of tenant went down. He noted the police were not issuing speeding tickets because they were busy at the rental places. He stated he wanted Medtronic in the community so he could put some money back into his rental building. He stated if they did not have Medtronic, they would have a "Pawn America" community and the community needed new jobs and fresh blood. He stated he lived off Interstate 694 and he would gladly take the freeway noise of this community. He stated he did not believe the Mayor of New Brighton when he indicated new Brighton was going to put townhomes on the dump. Mike Read, 2208 Lois Drive, stated all they have been hearing tonight was numbers being added and subtracted to make anything look good. He stated he golfed, but there were other golf courses. He indicated he did not like the 25-year TIF Financing and if that could be lowered, he believed more people would be in support of this proposal. Fritz Gastreich, 5030 Bona Road, indicated he was in favor of this proposal. He stated they were 12,000 residents in a 3 million population metro area. He believed it was amazing Medtronic • chose this community for their facility. He thanked Medtronic for giving Mounds View consideration. He stated there seemed to be a bit of a consensus that the City should go back to the bargaimng table to get a better deal. He stated the City needed to remember that Medtromc was a world class business and being a world class business Medtronic had world class competitors and Medtronic did not have time to sit around and negotiate endlessly on their business future. He indicated there were many, many other options for Medtronic. He stated if the City was walking away from this, they were walking away from Medtronic and in the meantime the City would be subsidizing the citizens around them to the tune of 80 percent for the non-citizens who used the golf course. He requested the City keep in mind that most likely this was final one way or another and Medtronic would look for other options. David Jahnke, 8428 Eastwood Road, pointed out the City prepared a survey on these issues and 62 percent of the people wanted to get rid of the golf course so he did not think they needed a citizen vote on this. He stated time was running out and the golf course has been "bleeding" the City. He believed cities should stay out of business and the golf course has lost money since day one. He stated there were no guarantees that the golf course would ever make money. He noted the billboard company could cut their contract in five years or cancel it altogether. He indicated they had to count on good weather in order for the golf course to make money. He stated with the Medtronic proposal, they did not have to depend on the weather or billboards to make money. He stated they had an opportunity that they would never get again. He noted they did not have time to waste and Medtronic would pull out and the City needed this tax base, even though they might not see the entire realization for many years. r~ u