2013 Spring Isantian Article

Another winter is passing us by, as we prepare for the weather changing into a glorious spring. As always in our town; other changes are unfolding as well. 

The first item we need to discuss is the request by regional and county emergency experts to change the name of County State Aid Highway (CSAH) 5 within the corporate boundaries of the City of Isanti. The need arises from duplicate addressing in the City and Townships along this corridor. Many of these addresses have been around for decades but with the growth in our region and the technology changes for how 911 calls are handled, these duplicates, along with the potential for many more in the future have required this adjustment to be made.  This has happened because township addressing and City addressing are handled separately. This could continue to occur as the community grows to the east due to the differing addressing systems used by various entities.  If we change the name of CSAH 5 then the house numbers would stay the same but the street name would be different, thus solving the problem. No one on the City Council wants to change the name but the safety concerns are far too great for us not to take action.

The next item I want to touch on is the 2013 City Council Goals as set by unanimous City Council vote. These goals are as follow:

Finalize decision on Community Center viability

Downtown Business Loop

CSAH 5 Aesthetic Standards (appearance issues)

City Website Update

Maintain Consistency on City Standards at all levels

Utility Billing brought back into City Hall

Continuing Economic Development to Diversify and Increase our Tax Base

The Council believes it is important to maintain and improve upon our City Standards to ensure a thriving self-sustaining community. We discussed the need to move forward with a number of planned projects that will help improve and diversify our tax base to ensure continued success of our City. Many volunteer efforts are underway to fund the Community Center and the success of these will help the Council make a final decision this summer on its long term viability. The Business Loop item refers to the concept we developed a few years ago, to have a continuous business loop from CSAH 5 to 1^st Ave NW to Main St to Credit Union Drive NE or Dahlin Ave NE. This would help create a critical mass of businesses that would ensure the long term success of our downtown businesses. Much work needs to be completed and full community involvement will be necessary to make this concept a success. More details will be forth coming as milestones are reached. Utility billing is currently outsourced and has been for decades. This approach however has resulted in increased costs, control lost and customer service lacking. We believe it is necessary to take direct control of billing for City services to ensure better service to our residents and business at an acceptable cost. Our City website has served us well to a point but is lacking in several areas and showing its age. We want to make the website more accessible to our residents and businesses and leverage its use as an economic development tool.

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 follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/mayorwimmer Facebook at www.facebook.com/MayorGeorgeWimmer or my blog at georgewimmer.blogspot.com