My Spring Isantian 2011 Article

As you read this article, we will have a new Council member as a result of the March 15th special election. Once we have the Council up to full strength, we will be dealing with several difficult issues – water & sewer rates, annexations and City service levels.

We discussed the expansions on the east side of TH 65 and the costly consequences of this action. I am especially frustrated by this project, since as a Council Member, I voted against the City taking on the responsibility of this project instead of having the developer pay for the expense as was traditionally done. With the collapse of the housing market, the bonds are not being paid for by new construction as anticipated. The City has been left with this debt. Even though I was against this action and fought hard to stop it, we are now left to deal with this problem. This leaves the debt payments to you and I to pay for through increased water and sewer rates. Rapid residential growth has saddled our community with problems, of which, we are trying to work our way through.

The issue of annexation has arisen as we are dealing with 23 properties that are 100% surrounded by the City; receive Isanti police protection, planning/zoning and public works support but pay no City taxes. These properties are Isanti Township and pay their taxes to the township which provides none of these services. It is a basic fairness issue that if these properties receive City benefits - they should pay City taxes – otherwise current taxpayers will continue to subsidize these areas. It is something new and the property owners will not like this action but we cannot afford to continue to provide City services to these areas for free while we are looking at cutting service levels elsewhere in the City.

At the time of writing this article, Community meetings have been scheduled for March 1st and March 4th to receive public input on the City’s service levels and to explain how your tax dollars are spent. We are looking for input into what is most important to our citizens as we work our way through this Great Recession. Isanti has seen a 10% reduction in the total value of all properties in the City, which means lower property taxes paying for City services. We have made the commitment to not increase property taxes to make up the difference as many communities have done. This does mean that we will be looking to make further cuts to balance our budget. The many actions we have discussed previously have bought us time to deal with these issues in an appropriate manner. Our budget reserves along with efficient City government will get us through this dark period. A positive in this area is our new 3 year contract with our Police Union in which they have agreed to share a greater part of their health care expenses. This now brings all employees into the same health care plan.

I want to share a few fun items for the spring. The City has taken possession of a 22 acre parcel of land along the Rum River that is bisected by Isanti Brook in the Northwest quadrant of the City. This passive park will have a walking trail and will be kept in its natural state for future generations to enjoy. Redbird baseball will be gearing up soon along with Rum River BMX and our Soccer complex will be humming as well. Our Soccer complex will be hosting nearly 5,000 players and 20,000 spectators from the end of April through May as we host the Minnesota Cup. Let’s make sure everyone feels welcome to our great community.

If you have any questions, concerns or comments please contact me at 763-442-8749 or email me at George@georgewimmer.com . You may also get my City updates on Twitter at twitter.com/mayorwimmer  Facebook at facebook.com/GeorgeAWimmer or my blog at georgewimmer.blogspot.com