About Me

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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.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

A bit of a Break

I will be posting again next week on the topics ranging from a disappointing start to our Police Union mediation when they threatened to sue if we were forced to eliminate a position... this is what we get for taking another 3 months to hopefully get a good resolution... perhaps they wanted us to terminate the position a month ago...

Will be answering a goofy letter sent by the School District to parents of the primary school... The City did not deny the school district use of the parking lot... we simply asked that the district pay at least half the cost to repair the damage done to the parking lot done by their plowing... the superintendent refused... interesting considering all the fees the schools charge for use of their facilities....

Will be posting on the infrastructure debt the City accumulated before I was Mayor and our options to handle it... and about a dozen other topics.... follow my active Twitter and Facebook Account for daily updates... 


Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Isanti Home Invasion Press Release



ISANTI POLICE DEPT.
401 1ST AVE. N
PO BOX 428
ISANTI MN 55040
763-444-4761


Wednesday, December 15, 2010


On December 15th 2010 at approximately 12:09pm there was an armed home invasion.

Two armed suspects assaulted the lone male resident and he received minor injuries.
He was then able to free himself and ran down the driveway to where a Good Samaritan gave him a ride to the police department.

Suspects Description:  Two males; one shorter and stockier and the other taller and skinnier.  Both were wearing black gloves, sunglasses, black ski masks and black jackets.

They left in a dark blue Oldsmobile Intrigue.


Chief Ronald A. Sager

Monday, December 06, 2010

2011 Budget Update

When we started this budgeting process I predicted we would need to be at the 2006 spending limits.... well we are right on the number or actually .008 from the number so pretty darn close.....I think you would be hard pressed to find any government entity that can boast this type of budget discipline and reduce actual spending over 5 years.. .not a cut in increase but an actual dollar for dollar cut.....our tax levy is also looks like a ski slope going from 74% in 2005 to 54.47% for 2011.... we actually cut our levy rate by 2.5% from last year.... again the best i have seen out there is keeping the rate flat and many of our neighbors have increased their property tax levies.... Now there is real pain in this budget and that will been seen even more so as time goes on but with declining property values and state cuts we have to make the painful systemic cuts now to lessen the impact later.

The Council will be finalizing the 2011 budget Tuesday night and we will be discussing a possible cut of a police officer position due to the police union's insistence to be compensated at a higher rate than all over City workers. The City might be able to float a year with this inequity but the longer we wait to fix the problem the more expensive it will be and the greater harm it will do to City moral.

The biggest saving to the general fund budget was refinancing our City Debt with our higher credit rating - saving us over $100,000 a year.... We have this better credit rating due to our strong fiscal discipline and maintaining a prudent fund reserve to ensure we can be self sustaining as a City. If we leave this path for feel good spending measures we will soon be in dire financial straits.

There will be much more to say after Tuesday's Council meeting. I hope everyone understands where we are at from a budget stand point. The next two big issues are the sewer and water fund balances that were used by previous Council's and Mayor to fund the irresponsible rapid residential development. These are loaded with unsustainable debt and we are obligated to fix this problem just as we did with the our general fund budget crisis. The option for these two funds however are very limited and the answers seem painful... this will be one of the top topics at our upcoming community meetings....

Thursday, December 02, 2010

Tweets on State Budget Deficit

 George Wimmer 
$6.2 billion deficit does not include the school shift.... so are we not really talking roughly $8 billion deficit?????
 George Wimmer 
$6.2 billion deficit over the next two years for the State of Minnesota.... all local governments and school districts are on their own

Overpass Conversation

I am posting some of the conversation started on Twitter and Facebook regarding the 65/5 overpass. To join the conversation follow me on twitter or "friend" me on Facebook..

http://twitter.com/MayorWimmer


http://www.facebook.com/GeorgeAWimmer


Would you support a 65 overpass of 5?

15 hours ago via Twitter ·  ·  ·  · @MayorWimmer on Twitter

    • Jeff Said and tear out the all of the road work our tax $$ just paid for at that intersection??
      It would be nice and would reduce most of the stupidity that goes on at that intersection, but hard to justify on today's tax payers budget. Plus, would it even fit with out effecting the bank and the gas stations on that intersections?

      15 hours ago · 


    • George Wimmer MnDot has a once in a generation funding to do an overpass and it would affect the two north corners of the intersection... Mndot would pay for the relocation of the gas station as well as payment for their land....
      15 hours ago · 


    • George Wimmer The reason MnDot is looking at this intersection is cause it is one of the worse intersections for the worse types of accidents in the state....
      15 hours ago · 


    • Jeff said 
      It would be nice and definitely beneficial (if done in the right order so that we don't have to pay all of the US gas station employee's unemployment during the project), just a shame that all of the tax payer money on the first attempt to fix it would be scrapped. But I've been there. I replaced the roof on my house to put it up for sale, only to not have it sell and end up tearing it back off a year later and adding another level to the house to make it work for us. You can thank me for those building permit fee's ;).
      I just hate seeing my small town grow.

      14 hours ago · 


    • Brent said And who do you think MnDot gets their money from? The toothfairy? Its all of our money, well those of us who pay taxes anyway.
      8 hours ago · 


    • Onalee A much better idea than that crazy pedestrian bridge idea crossing 65 from Main Street.
      8 hours ago ·  ·  1 person


    • Brian said I'd support overpasses from 5 all the way down to hwy 10 in Blaine.
      8 hours ago ·  ·  2 people


    • Brian said And the closure of the median crossovers
      8 hours ago · 


    • George Wimmer Brent the money is going to get spent somewhere in the State... with that being the case let's spend it here to have long term fix rather than the band aid applied last year. The pedestrian bridge is all but dead.
      8 hours ago · 


    • John said I guess I am a little confused. why did we spend all that money last year to re do the intersection when now we are looking at replacing it again? I agree it would reduce the amount of deadly accidents I just wish somebody would have came up with this idea earlier wouldn't you agree?
      8 hours ago ·  ·  1 person


    • George Wimmer MnDot paid for and did the last improvement not knowing these funds were going to be available this year.... it is unfortunate that this sequence happened but I have to look what is best for the City long term. This is a tremendous safety improvement and will help our region economically.
      7 hours ago ·  ·  1 person


    • George Wimmer The safer and better flowing traffic makes our region more attractive to commercial and industrial development
      7 hours ago · 


    • Samantha said I would be all for a overpass if it could save lives.
      7 hours ago ·  ·  1 person


    • Jeff said Lets grow Isanti into the Next Brooklyn Center!!! What is the end goal here?? Concrete jungle?? There already is a Blaine and a Hopkins and a Coon Rapids. If that's where people want to live, I just checked, tons of houses for sale in each of them. I stayed in this town because I loved it, not because I thought it "Has potential". This is the real world, not Simcity.
      6 hours ago · 


    • Amanda said unfortunately i would have to say no because it takes away lots of much needed business for our community which already has a difficult time competing with cambridge... an overpass like that of blaine would only stimulate people to continue on to cambridge in my eyes...
      5 hours ago ·  ·  1 person


    • George Wimmer 
      Here is the problem.... Isanti grew to fast with residential growth - against my repeated warnings - and needs to grow its commercial tax base to offset all the cost from residential properties. If Isanti stays the way it is now you can expect your property taxes to double in the next 5 to 10 years.... If we grow our commercial tax base we will be able to maintain then continue to lower our tax rates. Previous Councils and Mayor loaded up on Millions of dollars of debt to subsidize residential growth... all I am asking for is that we use state and federal dollars that will be spent somewhere to help improve our long term chances...
      Over 80% of our residents commute to the cities for work... must improve upon that as well.... The idea of Isanti as this small 1200 person town is long gone and we must find ways to pay for the services we desire.... We are not a Blaine or any other City..we are simply Isanti 2010....not Isanti 1990...

      5 hours ago ·  ·  2 people


    • Brent said How does the state have any extra money? Isn't the state 5 billion in the hole?
      5 hours ago · 


    • George Wimmer 
      Amanda the overpass is not only a safety issue but actually helps attract larger businesses to the area. Larger manufactures want to know that they will have ease of access and faster travel times. It can be seen as a negative for the few businesses at the specific corner and that I understand. This type of overpass has not killed the business traffic flow at 95 and 65 in Cambridge.... people will stop and travel to business districts if there is a reason to stop... "trapping" them with a stop light is not the best strategy....

      5 hours ago · 


    • Amanda said well i don't want to upset anyone because i am honestly not very informed on the subject just my personal opinion is that it would be a bit of a hassle... :/
      5 hours ago · 


    • George Wimmer Brent... the joys of state funding.... the 5-6 billion deficit is in the general fund... transportation funding is a different dedicated source through the gas tax...
      5 hours ago · 


    • George Wimmer Amanda I need and want feed back.... it helps form the thinking process... I am very appreciative of everyones ideas and opinions... I do not mean to sound negative when I answer an argument cause I truly appreciate the time and effort you take to give your opinion...
      5 hours ago · 


    • Jeff said 
      I do respect that answer, Isanti was on that whirl wind before you got elected, so I will stop blaming you for that. ;)

      As far as the safety part, there isn't an argument, it would definitely reduce the higher speed accidents. There will still be just as many intersections with the on and off ramps though, so the id 10 t accidents are still more than likely going to happen.

      As far as attracting larger businesses what would be the reason for them to "stop" in Isanti and not continue on up to Cambridge where they would now have easier access through Isanti, as well as the straight access to St Cloud and 35? Not to mention far more options of places to eat, shop, and so forth.
      Not that I have anything against keeping the bigger business in Cambridge and keeping Isanti more residential, but how would that help our cities tax base?

      3 hours ago · 


    • Andrew said I like the idea. As George points out...we already paid the taxes for it to the state, and if we don't do it here MNDot WILL do it somewhere else.
      His point about commerce in Isanti is good too. Every wonder how many of us folks are driving 30 miles or more to get to work? I'm betting it's far more than it should be.

      My only curiosity is, how many of the other outlets onto 65 would be capped off to the south of the intersection with 5?

      2 hours ago · 


    • George Wimmer 
      Jeff we have consistently beat Cambridge on attracting manufacturing businesses and even have had expansion from some of their businesses into Isanti. The over pass allows these businesses to ship their product safer and easier when they can have a more hassle free way to get on highway 65.... We have Ever Cat and Eklunds that use the 5 and 65 access already not to mention the school buses that tie up the intersection as well... we also need to remember that east of 65 will in 15 to 20 years have the majority of our population... we want these residents to get to all the businesses west of 65 easier than going to Cambridge... we need the long view that way we get ahead of problems before they ever happen

      2 minutes ago · 


    • George Wimmer Andrew MnDot wants to eliminate most of the cross traffic on 65 in the coming decades.... the 242 project is just the first of many...
      about a minute ago · 

Upcoming Post

A lot going on as we finalize the budget and had a significant possible opportunity from MnDot to do a 65/5 overpass..... Will be posting on both these big items in the next 2 days....