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ARDEN HILLS SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — JULY 14, 2025 17 Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen confirmed. Finance Director Yang wanted to focus on the PIR Fund for PMP infrastructure projects, parks and trails before moving to equipment. Councilmember Weber said the real question is what it will take to fund the projects. He thinks we need to raise the PIR Levy. It has held with no increase for six years. He thinks it would be appropriate from an inflation standpoint since 2020 but he assumes it may need to be more than that. Finance Director Yang cautioned against increasing the levy by too much in one year. It will impact residents a lot more. She would recommend looking at bonding. If we do decide on bonding, do we bond infrastructure, parks and trails? The PMP projects will cost a significant amount of money. There isn't enough cash to fund that. Councilmember Rousseau would be interested in having a conversation about bonding for Lake Johanna. She's hoping that Old Highway 10 won't need to be a part of that conversation. She thinks we would save 75% even if we pay it 5 or 10 years out based on the relationships with Ramsey County and other entities paying for portion of them. She said we are doing the park improvement plan. We haven't considered resources for implementing the items in the plan effectively. She would like to see us put $15,000 or $20,000 a year aside so we can use the plan and be effective with it. Councilmember Holden said the only thing we're missing is that we haven't set aside funding for the court at Arden Manor. She thinks that's a priority. It's been overlooked. Councilmember Weber thought it was listed as a budget item for 2026. Mayor Grant didn't think so. Councilmember Rousseau wanted to know if the Park Improvement Plan includes a different park every two years. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen said that is how he has organized it. Councilmember Rousseau said we put additional funds toward the playground equipment to bring it up to a better standard. She wondered if we thought about building that in for the future. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen confirmed that he increased the amounts for the upcoming 2027 parks project to reflect the actions that were taken on this one. He believes it was $300,000 for each park. That was about 50% increase. Councilmember Rousseau asked what the cost of Arden Manor court would be. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen said the last Council discussion was that is a location that is CDBG eligible. Council direction was to pursue that funding source. The past couple years have been unsuccessful. The first year was due to staffing issues and this year it was not available. That is not a reliable funding source.