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I have served the City of Isanti as Mayor since 2007. We have accomplished great things together and I look forward to building on our success. United, we move forward to a better future. You may contact me at 763-442-8749 or e-mail me at george@georgewimmer.com.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

A few facts about an Aquatic Center

There were several reported statements in the Star that I think need to be examined. One statement was that this will be decided by the people and not by elected officials. Well lets see.....the Council did not have a petition nor was there a single citizen that requested an aquatic community center by coming before the Council. It was two Council members that started this ball rolling. When money is spent for surveys or studies it will be the Council taking those actions. The final funding will be by referendum but thousands to tens of thousands of dollars will be spent long before that.

The next item that really worried me was the idea that the City of Isanti would place a sales tax on our growing business community to fund this project. I have been working as hard as possible to bring in new businesses and to help our current businesses expand. This will grow our tax base and yet I will now face questions from these prospects once the word is out that Isanti might look at a sales tax.

We just finished a difficult round of Union negotiations and will be facing tough budgets for the next few years. This project by the supporters own words is years and perhaps decades away. Why is this being pushed now? Why when we face so much economic uncertainty and we are asking to do more with less; is this what we are spending time on.

Yes this is a wonderful concept and I would love to take my kids just down the road to play but it is not realistic for this type of facility in a community of our size. Facts are stubborn things I know but we can not simply wish them away.

I do not want this to become a fight on the Council but someone has to explain the true cost to our City. A cost that on the low end is a 30% tax increase to over 50% increase on the high end. Does anyone think this is realistic? Does anyone think a sales tax would be good for our City and if one were even possible that it would end with one project?

I am once again frustrated that we are spending resources on this when agreed upon Council priorities and other assignments are not being fulfilled. I am simply at a loss to explain it.

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OK I just read the County News story and it added another statement I never heard before. This was somehow the Isanti EDA that started the ball rolling on an aquatics center. I have been on the Isanti EdA the last 16 months and this was never brought up as an item to start pursuing. We did discuss the benefit of a library.
We have had several great businesses start on Main Street in the last 6-12 months and we will have another great one, Isanti Retail Meats which is a spin off of Isanti Custom Meats. This will be a retail business selling meat, cheeses and all sorts of great things like salads and rotisserie chickens. They will also have a catering arm. This project started last year when former Chamber President Jaysen Guthmueller and I were visiting with the Owner of Isanti Custom Meats. This project was then worked on by city staff and myself. We have now gotten to a point that it will be a reality. Nearly a year but that is how long it takes and how long you have to work on many of these projects, especially in a downtown. They plan to be open by the start of October.
I mention this because it was the hard grinding work that the ICP, City Staff and I have done over the last year to develop downtown. It was of course first and foremost the individual business owners that take that first great leap and their hard work. We are full filling the direction of the Council and City as a whole....please do not mix an aquatic center with this...please do not mix property tax hikes and sales taxes that will kill business with this....
The tax abatement and RLF that I and have pushed for that the ICP helped build and Staff and I made work and passed through Council will help make the Meat Market a reality.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Even though this project has now been "put out there" for all to see, is it possible that it can be just left as is with nothing further done with it? Does there HAVE to be a committee put together to look into things further (as Cheryl Huggins recommended) or can it just be dropped? Does the council have any say on at least THIS part of it and just refuse to spend any money on it at this point?

Although this might be a nice addition to our community, I think that there's far better places to concentrate our efforts and money on right now.

And yes, even if it will be YEARS before this would ever come to fruition, who's to say that economically, we couldn't be back in this same situation - we'd then have a facility that we can't afford to have along with people in the community that can't afford to USE it! I think that it would be a far better thing if the CM's & community members that are interested in securing such a facility for this area, to focus their efforts on soliciting already-established companies to build one of their facilities here. Let these companies take the risk rather than possibly strapping the people in our community with possible higher taxes, etc., when many are already forced to live paycheck-to-paycheck and have had to for years.

Anonymous said...

are yo kidding me. this looks like a xmas tree project. everyone is adding there ornament to the tree and it will end up costing us an arm and a leg.

fight em george. stop taking our money so some people can get rich and some can play. i can not pay the activity fees for my kid to play sports and some of these guys want to raise my taxes to pay for a big costly toy

Anonymous said...

George, Why weren't you at the meeting last Saturday to pose your questions and concrens. This is something that a leader as tough as you should have been at.

George said...

It strikes me as a bit cheap to challenge my toughness because I was not at one meeting, whose date and time I did not pick and that conflicted with my schedule. I read that there was going to be a meeting and its time and location in the paper just like everyone else. This “project” is under the control of the Community Center Committee which includes Council Member Kolb and Johnson who both are working for this project.

I think it was also an opportunity for the supporters of this project to have a chance to put their best foot forward.

It is also a bit dicey territory to have the full council at an event where their opinions are being stated for or against a project. If a quorum is present and more than two speak it is a public meeting of the council. This was not posted as a public meeting of the council but as an informational meeting and therefore if a running debate did occur it would be a violation of the States Open Meeting Law.

I met with such groups last year with members of the Chamber of Commerce and learned about the feasibility or in this case the lack of feasibility of this type of project. I have also research these types of facilities in communities where they are located and all this information helped me to reach the opinion that it is not now a feasible project for Isanti.

George said...

CM Kolb gave us a brief update at the Council meeting but did not state what the next step is.

There are two options, move forward or shelve it. If it moves forward then that will start costing more money we do not have and money that was not budgeted as this was not a Council priority.

If it is to be shelved then why did it start since the entire Council knows this is an expensive project and we can not pay for it.

What this does is get a lot of peoples hopes up and makes those of us that are trying to be responsible into the bad guys.

The Council just went through a process with the liquor store where a $100,000 was spent designing a facility that could not cash flow enough to pay the debt and all its obligations to the city.

I do not want us to waste money in the same vain. If there is a project or process that can get us all the items mentioned for a community center that serves all and pays for itself then show me the numbers. I will be the number one fan of such an idea. If not then I hope the promoters will say that as well and not leave it up to others to have to bring reality into the equation.....

Anonymous said...

anonymous that is cutting on george should pound sand!!!

if this was still the good ole boy days the group would have gotten together made the decision behind closed doors and stuck us with the bill.

if this is so great as everyone says then why is a business not doing it. i agree if it made money someone other than cities would do it.

Anonymous said...

Jake - that's my point exactly! We ALL know that this ISN'T a moneymaking proposition - George already did the homework awhile back and shared his results on here. It's a terrible idea and for all those that think that we need this facility, let THEM put their money where their mouth is - get together, go to the bank & get the financing, build it and pay the payments themselves! I want to win the lottery too, but reality tells me that that's just not going to happen! I sure wish that people, especially some of the leaders in this community, would start using their heads for something more than hanging their hair on!

A note to CM Kolb....it's projects & ideas like this that are getting you dangerously close to being perceived as being a "good 'ol boy". You just may want to re-think things as it was clear in the last election as to what people thought of THAT club and their actions.

Anonymous said...

If no one asked for this thing then why is the city wasting money and time on it???

George said...

To be clear I believe that both CM Kolb and Johnson have the best intentions with this project. I simply profoundly disagree that it should be given so much attention and work when there is no chance it will be a project in the next decade.

A good example of a project of this relative size is the water treatment plant. The Council made it an official Council goal in January 2007 and the public works committee was instructed by Council to work on the project with staff.

This is how any project of such magnitude should be approached especially if the City name is getting attached to the project.

Brian said...

Are we seriously still discussing this? Put it on the shelf for the future.

What other projects that can actually be accomplished in an economical way and that our city can afford are we diverting attention away from so we can entertain a great idea that can only remain an idea for a long long time?

Anonymous said...

SHELVE IT!! We need something like this almost as much as we need the "Dave Apitz Isanti branch library" Politicians attempting to do more ego/legacy building! Doesn't seem to matter if they are located in Washington D.C. or Athens township, politicians are mirror images of one another.

Anonymous said...

It is safe to say the the Isanti Political Season is in full swing! It was a chicken in every pot like you have never seen before. Something for everyone!!

To save time, I will just share some of the priceless quotes from the meeting.

CM Johnson took credit for the Councils tax reduction of last year which technically as part of the council he can but the truth of the matter is that he voted against it. He must be running for County Commisioner or something.

CM Johnson also touted this as an economic development tool stating the the $7,000,000 plus dollar project would create a half a dozen or so jobs. Whoopee!! Lets build 3 of them!!

When asked about the location, they vasilated between a downtown location and one sharing the project with Cambridge. Like that will ever happen. Those two groups can hardly occupy the same room together.

CM Johnson touted the cities property acquisiton fund to buy up some of the houses on 1st Ave. The comical part hear was that a member of the audience, and I am not positive about this but I believe it was the most recent past Pres. of the Chamber had to correct him that those funds were being redirected to a revolving loan fund to stimulate econmomic development. This was verified by the City Clerk. The audience new more about City business than a sitting Council member.

Another priceless comment was that they would not necessarily have to raise taxes to pay for this that it could be paid for in other ways, like a sales tax. What?? a sales tax is now not a tax?

When asked how a proposed Cambridge YMCA would affect this project. the presenter from the pool company stated. Not at all!!
BS! How can it not?

CM Duff showed up with 5 minutes left in the meeting which I understand is much better than his attendance record at his council appointment meetings prior his announcement to run for the County Board.

They appear to be tying everyone into to this. A library, senior housing, Community center and an aquatic center. A chicken in every pot.

My Lord am I glad that we have elections!!

Anonymous said...

In regards to the person who is taking attendance at meetings I ask you if this is fair. Are you at all of the meetings that are required of council members? How do you know if they are there or not? You comment on Duff being there for 5 minutes and I challenge you to look at his City council attendance. He has not missed one meeting and follows through on committee meetings.
I have sat on the Isanti council in the past and am here to tell you first hand that you can not please everyone or make every meeting that is on the City calendar. Most of our council must work a fulltime job and they have families and other commitments. They are forced to balance all of this and keep everything afloat. I say shame on you for criticizing attendance when you have not walked in a council persons shoes. Maybe you should put your attendance book aside and do something worthwhile that will make a difference to our community.

George said...

CM Duff has been at ever Council meeting and workshop to my knowledge.

I do take issue with CM not making meetings unless there is a family or health issue. We have 24 Council meetings a year and I expect everyone to attend.

I myself have never missed a Council meeting in my total time on the Council.

Anonymous said...

Small-town politics can be funny as some choose to waste everyone's time complaining about whether or not a CM attends enough meetings. As Wimmer says, CM Duff has attended every council meeting and from what I have observed in the local papers, he seems to research the issues before voting, a nice change in local politics (other than our mayor). I would rather spend my time evaluating how our elected officials vote rather than worry about how many meetings they attend. CM Duff said he wanted to reduce taxes and he, along with Wimmer & Kolb, made that happen. In my eyes, that is much more important than counting how many meetings he attends.

Anonymous said...

George, can you confirm that no city money has been spent on this project to date? Thanks.

George said...

Well money has been spent in staff time, research time, meeting posting, holding this meeting.

It is not tens of thousands but with everything it could easily be over a thousand depending on the how much staff was used. I do not sit on this committee so Ican not answer this questions directly.