2025 Vol 19, Issue 5 October Gem Lake News

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Special Interest Articles: • 2026 Preliminary Budget • 2024 Audit Results • County Road E Corridor Project • School Supply Donation • Archery Deer Hunting • Mini Gem Opens • Stormwater Management • Senator Gustafson Receives Award • Donuts with a Cop Scheduled Recycling Dates: • October 8 • October 22 • November 5 • November 19 • December 3 • December 17 • December 31 Gem Lake News October 2025 | Volume 19 | Issue 5 Gretchen Artig-Swomley, Newsletter Editor Preliminary Gem Lake Budget Set for 2026 Minnesota state statutes require that cities certify their preliminary property tax levy by September 30 each year. Once the preliminary budget is approved and certified to the county, the city can lower the levy during the remaining budget planning cycle, but cannot exceed the certified preliminary levy. For this reason, most cities certify a levy using worst-case budget scenarios, which is the case for the City of Gem Lake’s 2026 preliminary property tax levy and budget. The 2026 preliminary property tax levy is proposed at $768,005, which is a 4.667% increase over the 2025 certified preliminary property tax levy. The preliminary property tax levy for 2026 consists of a debt levy of $85,778 (an increase of $2,042 from 2025 preliminary debt levy) and the general operating levy of $682,227 (an increase of 4.955% from the 2025 preliminary tax levy). Continued on page 2 Barb Suciu Hired as Gem Lake City Clerk The City of Gem Lake is pleased to announce the hiring of Barb Suciu as the new City Clerk, effective August 26. Barb has over 20 years’ of experience in city clerk and other municipal roles at the cities of Brooklyn Center, Minneapolis and St. Anthony Village. She is a certified Master City Clerk through the International Institute of Municipal Clerks, which requires years of study to achieve. She worked as a City Clerk for the City of Brooklyn Center from 2018 to 2025. Prior to that she was an Supervisor of Election Administration for the City of Minneapolis from 2015 to 2018. She was also the City Clerk for Saint Anthony Village from 2004 to 2015. Barb has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration from Metropolitan State University and an Associate Degree in Accounting from St. Paul College. Barb has three sons and lives in Little Canada with her husband. She is looking forward to working for a smaller city, where she can get to know members of the community. She replaces Melissa Lawrence, who put in four years of excellent service to the City of Gem Lake. Melissa is now pursuing her dream of working in Human Resources and has currently taken a job with the city of Blaine.