My WebLink
|
Help
|
About
|
Sign Out
Home
2014.11.12 Parks Packet
Hugo
>
Community Development
>
Parks
>
Parks Commission
>
Parks Commission Agenda/Packets
>
2014
>
2014.11.12 Parks Packet
Metadata
Thumbnails
Annotations
Entry Properties
Last modified
6/23/2016 3:37:40 PM
Creation date
6/23/2016 11:36:56 AM
Metadata
Fields
Template:
Commissions
Meeting Date
9/12/2014
Document Type
Agenda/Packets
Commission Name
Parks
There are no annotations on this page.
Document management portal powered by Laserfiche WebLink 9 © 1998-2015
Laserfiche.
All rights reserved.
/
15
PDF
Print
Pages to print
Enter page numbers and/or page ranges separated by commas. For example, 1,3,5-12.
After downloading, print the document using a PDF reader (e.g. Adobe Reader).
View images
View plain text
forestlaketimes.com <br />http://forestia keti mes. com/2014/10/15/after-th e-ys-a pproval-now-what/ <br />After the Y's approval, now what? <br />By Ryan <br />Howard <br />October 15, 2014 at 12:17 <br />pm <br />After a whirlwind month-and-a-half process of debate, the Forest Lake City Council has approved the development <br />agreement and bond sale to bring a YMCA facility to town. The 3-2 vote secured $9 million in city funding for the $14 <br />million structure on Forest Road North, but residents are left waiting for the next steps in the process. <br />Council meeting <br />At the two-hour Oct. 7 meeting that decided the agreement and bond sale, the council members and residents <br />rehashed the arguments for and against contributing taxpayer money and public land to the facility. During the <br />meeting's public hearing portion, resident Mike Devine said he wasn't against YMCAs in general, but he questioned <br />the usefulness of bringing one to Forest Lake. <br />"What am I getting out of this as a citizen that I can't get from driving over to Lino Lakes?" he asked, referencing the <br />YMCA that is roughly 10 minutes south of Forest Lake's Broadway Avenue exit. <br />Jeanne Hamlin didn't take a side on bringing the facility to town, but she noted her feeling that the process was <br />rushed and lacked data showing a city benefit. In particular, she remarked, she found it "extraordinarily inappropriate" <br />for the council to vote on taking the next step on the project on Aug. 25, when the agenda item regarding the facility <br />had been sent to them only hours before. <br />"The Y is not a fly-by-night organization; they understand that these things take time," she said. <br />On the pro -YMCA side was Mark Finneman, who said that though he originally questioned building the YMCA, he <br />changed his tune after additional thought. He believed the city was in good financial shape and primed to bring an <br />asset to the community. <br />"These are the times you grab hold of ideas that you can take advantage of," he said. "The city allocates its capital <br />expenditures in a very logical manner. It gets to its needs first and then moves on to its wants." <br />As for the council members, Councilmen Ben Winnick and Mike Freer reiterated their beliefs that the project was <br />unnecessarily rushed and taking advantage of questionable interpretations of state statute (for more information on <br />those objections, see the Sept. 25 story "Final YMCA approval set for next month). They also accused Councilwomen <br />Molly Bonnett and Susan Young and Mayor Chris Johnson of using back channels to leave Winnick and Freer out of <br />important YMCA discussions until they had already been presented to the YMCA. Freer was particularly upset with <br />Johnson and Bonnett talking to the YMCA in June about what it would take to bring a facility to town, before the <br />council talked about the matter at its July 1 meeting. <br />"It should have been brought to all of us to have a discussion," he insisted. <br />Johnson denied any wrongdoing and said the accusations put the council in danger of "getting into election season <br />crazies here." Young, who joined with Johnson and Bonnett to approve the facility, predicted that any perceived <br />downsides to building the facility would be outweighed by positives, and she called the YMCA a worthy beneficiary of <br />public funding, compared to contributions or tax increment financing given to some area businesses with few local <br />employees. <br />"This is something that would actually benefit folks," she said. <br />
The URL can be used to link to this page
Your browser does not support the video tag.