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Gem Lake News Page 4 of 6 MS-4 Report Gets Public Hearing A state mandated report on storm water management, called the MS-4 Report has been completed by council member Jim Lindner and submitted to the State of Minnesota. It was also the subject of a public hearing on August 20 during the monthly city council meeting. Jim reviewed all sections of the report, including educational efforts the city has engaged on the subject of storm water run off. Jim spent countless volunteer hours trudging all over Gem Lake to document and photograph inflows and outflows in our city, as required by the report. The document is now on display at Heritage Hall for anyone who wants to read it. Our thanks to Jim Lindner for taking on the task of completing this very detailed report. Now Open!! Black Sea Restaurant Stop in at our newest Gem Lake business! The Black Sea Restaurant is now open on County Road E near Enterprise Rental Car. The popular Turkish restaurant named the Black Sea recently open its second branch in our city. The restaurant has been a fixture for many years at 737 N. Snelling Avenue in St. Paul. That site opened in the year 2000 as a family run business. Due to the quality of the food, the Black Sea developed a loyal customer base, according to owner and manager, Tolga Ata. Mr. Ata has run the Snelling Avenue restaurant for four years, which was originally run by his Uncle. According to their web-site, Black Sea is the first and only Turkish restaurant in Minnesota, with an array of authentic fare. (They sa y they have the best spinach pie in town.) Check it out! The small but cozy place serves authentic Turkish food such as falafel, kebabs, hummus and other Mediterranean fare. The Gem Lake restaurant is located at 1581 E. County Road E, next to Vera Auto Sales. City News Page Preliminary Budget Passed for 2014. A preliminary 2013 budget for the City of Gem Lake was passed by the Gem Lake City Council at the council meeting on August 20. The 2013 General Fund Budget is set at $343,336, which includes a General Tax Levy of $289,439, a tax levy of $60,000 and a debt levy of $50,000. The preliminary budget figures are very similar to last year's estimated amounts. By law, preliminary budgets must be submitted to the Ramsey County in September for the following year so that estimated tax information can be sent out to property owners. Final budget figures are due to the county in several months. These final figures cannot exceed preliminary budgets numbers, so it is very common for early budget estimates to be high. For the past three years, the final budget for Gem Lake has been significantly lower than prelim inary estimates. Swale Will Reduce Gem Lake Pollution The Vadnais Lakes Area Watershed Management Organization will be putting a swale in the business district of Gem Lake, specifically on the northeast corner of Highway 61 and County Road E. A swale is a form of "hard scaping" the land to insure proper drainage of storm water and to help as much water as possible to seep into the ground where it falls, rather than running into a lake or other water body. The run off being diverted now flows under the Barnett Chrysler parking lot to the drainage culvert under Highway 61. The reason for the project is to reduce the amount of pollution that runs into the water body of Gem Lake by improving the ground along Highway 61 between where the water comes out and before it goes under the highway and on its way to becoming a problem. Gem Lake is now considered an impaired lake by the State of Minnesota. The project is scheduled to take place sometime this year. We aren't getting billed anything for this project.