August 21st Council Update

I wanted to update you on two items from tonight's meeting. The first item is the new liquor store. Building a new liquor in the end did not make financial sense. The $1,800,000 bonded debt and the $200,000 to $300,000 in cash the city would have spent did not bring the city and new revenue. We would have forgone roughly $40,000 in salary offsets and $100,000 in property tax relief per year.

The store would be able to reach roughly $40,000 in added revenue to the city by 2012 if the projections hold up. This is still $100,000 short of where we are today. I can not see spending so much for so small of a return in the future. This was a tough decision and the split vote reflects the debate. In the end council members' Duff and Kolb and I voted against building a new store. CM Johnson and Larson made good arguments in favor but I just could not agree. This was tough and a lot of work went into the process. It is always difficult to see a project not be completed but good money after bad is an even worse decision.

The other item of note is the discussion on the Community Center. We talked about the longevity and the need to fix the roof. I want to commend CM Johnson and Duff on their work on this project and for continuing to tackle this project.

Josh Fedder of Million Dollar Homes and Jan Peterson of Realty Executives Northland volunteered to help find support in the building community for the project. This type of volunteering is one of the many reason's our Community is so strong. I want to thank Jan and Josh and hope everyone recognizes their efforts.