Work Session Update

The Isanti City Council had a work session on Thursday June 8th. We covered 8 issues. There are three topics I wish to discuss.

First topic that I wish to discuss is Ianti's street addressing and naming Issue. There is a 14 county wide grid system that is used. The City of Isanti does not fit in this system. This is of concern for everyone from emergency personnel trying to find an address to UPS trying to deliver packages. It becomes more important each day as the City grows.

The Council heard from several important individuals including Fire Chief Randy Polzin and 911 dispatcher Bob Shogren. All agreed that the current system is severely flawed. There were concerns off 911 calls not properly directing emergency personal to the correct location. Concerns of City liability were also raised if corrections were not made.

There was also an issue that City staff had also made a change within Isanti's system that caused further confusion.

This issue will now go to the Isanti Planning Commission to research and propose a solution to the City Council. The entire Council now sees the need to reform our street naming and addressing system.

It has been a painful process, go to http://georgewimmer.blogspot.com/2006/06/June-6th-council-meeting.html for details, but much needed. I would like to thank Fire Chief Polzin for leading the fight on this key safety problem.

The second issue is the realignment of Credit Union Drive. When this street was first put in it should have been to the west of the Credit Union. The City Council at the time directed it to the east. We are now faced with having to fix this past mistake. If Credit Union Drive is moved to the west it will then line up with East Dual Blvd. This will allow for better traffic control and street crossing.

The other problem this can help solve is the access to the property in the SW corner of 5 and 65. This is the location of the planned McDonald's and other development. If Credit Union Drive is moved then another access can be allowed onto this development and remove the access by the current gas station. This is a tremendous safety gain for all drivers. Currently the in and out at the gas station causes traffic issues. When a McDonalds is on this location the traffic will be doubled or tripled. We need to make a realignment of Credit Union Drive a priority for safety and economic development reasons.

The difficulty is in paying for this twice. This is another example of poor past city planning that we need to correct today. If we wait it will cause greater safety concerns and the cost will only escalate.

The last item I want to discuss is the sewer/water rate structure. The City is currently collecting roughly 25% more in sewer rate fees than expected from the last rate hike. I proposed that we lower sewer rates to fall back in line with expenses. A government entity should not collect more in fees than is needed to appropriately operate.

I was happy to see agreement on my idea to raise the average sewer rate for new homes. New houses in the past were charged for 4,000 gallons of usages for the first year until a winter average could be established. Winter water usage is used to established yearly sewer rates so residents are not charged sewer cost for lawn sprinkling. This new rate of 5,000 gallons will bring greater fairness to all of Isanti. The reduction in the subsidy paid by current residents to new residents will be greatly reduced.

I will be pushing for a vote on reducing sewer rates by at least 20%. Fair fee prices are essential to a financial healthy community. The sewer rate reduction and fixing Isanti's addressing system are key reforms we must work to complete.