December 4th Council Update

The Council tonight handled several difficult decisions that will have lasting impact on our Community. The two major decisions regarding the water treatment plant and City membership on the County EDA led to some vigorous debate. The third item was the liquor store expansion.

The City Council voted unanimously to raise City water rates $10.47 per 7,000 gallons per month. This will take the rate from $21.62 to $32.09 or an increase of 34 cents a day. I have written and spoken about this extensively. This rate increase was the only way the City could honestly pay for the water treatment plant and the water treatment plant is the only way the City can guarantee healthy drinkable water.

As a father of an almost three old beautiful girl and a five year old amazing son, I could not fathom the idea of their long term health could be impacted by cancer causing radium. This is a hard fact all parents face…a fact all residents face. This simply came down to a health and safety issue. We must ensure our water is safe. If a City is unable to do that then there is no reason to have a City.

Isanti is currently blending water from separate wells to keep radium content at a safe level. This will only work if the levels in the one good well remain low and the levels in the two higher volume wells does not increase. We are also in a situation that we can not use both high volume wells at the same time because we do not have enough safe water to blend with from the low volume low radium well.

With the votes tonight to provide the revenue for the water treatment plant and to start the design phase we are on track to have a completed facility by the end of 2009 and full operation by the beginning of 2010. This long lead time was another reason to start this project as soon as possible.

There is not a single Council Member that wanted to raise the rates and we all understood the impact of this decision. The entire Council however has been working on this issue and has seen the serious facts we face. We can not stick our heads in the sand and wish away the radium issue nor can we pretend we have the money coming in by using inflated estimates as was done with the east 65 debacle.

I wish the City had raised development fees years ago to cover such infrastructure cost but it did not. I wish the City had started to reserve money for the project years ago, but it did not. There are many things I wish were handled differently in the past but I can not rewrite history.

Conservative revenue projections were used relating to future growth in order to make sure we are able to fund the project and not build up any more devastating debt. The plant will be built using a low interest state loan which we qualify for because of the radium issue. The plant will also bring the high levels of iron and manganese under control.

The next item is the County EDA. The Council on a vote of 3-2 voted to opt into the County EDA. CM Duff and I voted against because we have not received any description of what the county EDA intends to do or how much they are looking to tax County Residents. With too many questions outstanding we felt we needed more answers to questions before we moved forward. We were however out voted. I was recommended by the Council to Commissioner Pagel to represent the City on the County EDA and to make sure our City’s interest were protected. The appointment as a non-voting member to the County EDA is Commissioner Pagels. The County EDA’s membership is made up of the five county Commissioners and 1 non-voting member from each commissioner district.

The County EDA could accomplish great things if it is organized in the right way with the right mission. The EDA will be a success or failure by the decisions in its first few meetings. I will keep you updated on its development. We have witnessed a birth…a birth of what I do not as of now know…

The liquor store renovation was halted tonight but not completely killed. The votes were not there to go ahead with the unneeded and costly renovation but the votes were not there to outright end further discussion either. Everyone seemed to agree that the partial numbers we received were not enough to base a decision on…that’s a good thing. There was however a consensus to get accurate information before a final decision was made. I do not think a renovation can be done at a cost the City could afford. I am hopeful that if accurate numbers can be together the vast majority if not all members will see the City just can not afford a renovation that reduces liquor store profits to the general fund. I might be dreaming but I hope common sense can prevail.