2009-09-02 CC WS - Approved - Laserfiche WebLink

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City Council 2009-09-02- 6:30 p.m. Minutes of Work Session Present were Mayor Capra, Council members Linda Broussard-Vickers, Tom Lee, Jeff Paar, and Ben Fehrenbacher. Also present was, Rusty Fifield of Northland Securities, Finance Director, Mike Jeziorski and Public Works Director, Paul Palzer. Rusty Fifield reviewed the status of the city grants for the Downtown Redevelopment Project. The first grant, from Minnesota DEED in the amount of $588,000 is at risk of being lost. The State needs to make sure the funds are spent before the deadline. Since the developer is not able to commit to starting any construction, the city may not be able to start the public improvements that would be partially funded with the grants. The second grant is from Met council and has over a year to its deadline and may get a year extension. After some discussion it was clear that the Council is not able to start any construction until Beard Group can provide a start date. Mr. Fifield will talk to some other developers to see if anyone else would be interested in moving part of the project forward. Finance Director Jeziorski presented an updated draft budget for 2010. With adjustments and corrections, the deficit is now estimated at $222,715. The Council reviewed a list of possible cuts and through consensus accepted most of. Public Works Director Palzer suggested that the seal coating could be deferred, but that eventually the work will have to be done. Typically the streets should be seal coated every five to seven years and some of the city streets are over due. The budget for seal coating was reduced to $152,000. The General fund levy would be $1,743,437 as currently proposed, the bond levies would be $504,100. The combined result is a 13% increase in the total levy. The budget as amended will be placed on the September 9, 2009, meeting agenda for preliminary approval. The meeting was adjourned at approximately 8:37 p.m. Dallas Larson, Administrator