2004-02-25 WS & CC Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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renting, and a new franchise guaranteeing franchise fees for the next fifteen years, the argument was made. It was clearly now or never. The Operations Committee, Cable Commission, and ultimately, City Councils agreed. . Where will it be built The first mountain to traverse ended up being where to build. We were somewhat limited in our choices, as the facility would have to be located fairly close to the existing I-Net infrastructure. We toyed with various possibilities, but always came back to an idyllic location on the comer ofHwy 242 and Polk Street in Blaine. It is on the I-Net and conveniently nestled between three schools and a library. Land is valuable and the Media Center would pay no taxes. A public hearing before the Blaine City Council was scheduled for mid January. Staff put a huge amount of effort into organizing a multifaceted front of support. Blaine community producers, representatives of all three nearby schools, the Metro North Chamber of Commerce, religious organizations, and staff all presented their reasons for the wisdom of placing a Media Center at that location. I was very relieved and grateful when the Council gave unanimous approval for the land purchase. The property at Polk and 242 . Amending the Joint Powers Agreement This took a very, very, very long time and a lot of meetings. The language of the Joint Powers Agreement had to be amended to allow the Cable Commission to own property and issue bonds. It also had to modify the means for leaving the Commission. A fmalized amendment, approved by the Commission was sent to the City Councils for their approval. One approval.. .two.. .three.. . four.. ..not so fast. Questions and concerns were raised regarding a city's responsibility for the debt. There were more meetings, lawyers and negotiations. Finally, an amendment everyone agreed upon was approved by all seven cities. . Getting the money Once the Joint Powers Agreement was amended we were able to move forward with bonding for the project. Our crack money team from Northland Securities, our bonding attorney, staff, and Commission legal counsel worked very hard on setting this up. We went for $2,000,000 which, interestingly, isn't as much as it seems. The Commission signed resolutions, millions of forms, got a really good interest rate, and got ready to spend. The closing on the bonds was August 14th. The final step was to set up investment accounts, an accounting methodology, and a fund transfer process. I i I I 1__ 13