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City Council Regular Meeting Minutes January 6, 2004 Page 10 1 find out it changed, it is a negative impact. Ms. Reed stated you can have appraisers come out 2 and find different discrepancies but she does not think any will find a positive impact. 3 4 Ms. Reed stated she will not be impacted that much but feels for residents who will be impacted 5 and thinks the City Council needs to look at what they have done to residents by changing the 6 zoning.. She suggested that zoning is like a"promise" of what will be maintained and to do 7 otherwise is like changing the"game." She stated those with young families are left"holding 8 the bag." 9 10 Ms. Reed stated she appreciates everyone's effort and maybe the petitioners are running in at the 11 last minute but that is better than to wait and then grumble once it is up and done. She thanked 12 the Council for hearing her comments. 13 14 Clarence Ranallo, 2601 Kenzie Terrace, thanked each of the Council members for serving the 15 residents of St. Anthony and the patience shown at the December 8 meeting and again tonight. 16 He reviewed that in 1995, the old school building was used as the city hall,police department, 17 and community center. That building was in need of much repair so an outside survey was 18 conducted on the needs of St. Anthony and feelings of the residents. Residents were asked if the 19 City should build a new city hall, police station, and community center. The residents said"yes" 20 but not to increase taxes by more than$24 a year. 21 22 Mr. Ranallo stated the Council hired an architect and engineering firm and they said to put the 23 fire station right here and also that the cost of putting the city hall and everything together would 24 be well over$100 per resident per year in taxes. The Council held well-published informational 25 meetings with residents, booster clubs, and the school district. He reviewed dates that meetings 26 were held and stated that only 32 different residents came forward to provide input. There were 27 also many discussions at regular Council meetings. The Council then hired a new architect who 28 was willing to meet the$24/resident/year directive. Mr. Ranallo stated the meetings continued 29 and the Fire Chief said they could live in their current fire station so don't worry about that at the 30 same time. So, the City built the city hall. Then residents came and said it looks bad,has no 31 swimming pool, and was a bad decision. In 1997,it was election time. People running for 32 election campaigned on how bad this building was,but the Council held the cost to the$24/year. 33 Two of the regular Council members were defeated. 34 35 Mr. Ranallo stated that the Council then learned that in order to get things done, you must have a 36 task force. In 1999,the Council decided to have a public facilities task force and one was 37 created in 2002. In 2003, all received a newsletter saying where the,fire station would be located 38 and what the cost would be. That location was 3501/05 Silver Lake Road. He noted the election 39 came in 2003 and the Mayor ran unopposed so residents must have thought he did a good job. 40 Two other Councilmembers were also reelected. 41 42 Mr. Ranallo noted that at the December 8 meeting, it was said how badly St. Anthony is being 43 treated by the State and Federal government. However, in last 14 years, St. Anthony has 44 received $13 million in State and Federal aid and$1 million went into the park. He noted that 45 people complained about their taxes but his taxes have decreased by 50%in the last five years 46 because he sold their four-bedroom house and bought a condo at Kensington with 2-bedrooms