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2002-08-30 Friday News\� -4ilg� The Friday News 1:7 - August 30, 2002 CDA Senior Housing Development Concept Plans On Wednesday, the architectural renderings for the Dakota County CDA senior housing development in Town Center will be presented to the City Council. The CDA is providing these drawings to the City Council to gather feedback prior to their formal submission. Once the concept plans are reviewed, the CDA will bring their final plans to the City for review. Upon approval, the CDA will complete plans and specifications and go out for bids. CDA Deputy Executive Director Kari Gill and ESG Architect Jay Nelson will be in attendance at the meeting to discuss the concept plans with the City Council on Wednesday. St. Thomas Academy Ice Arena Mr. Frank Lang appeared before the Planning Commission at their regular meeting on August 27th on behalf of St. Thomas Academy to discuss the Academy's Concept Plan for a Planned Unit Development for a hockey arena on the "Tousignant" property. The proposal includes an entrance drive at the northwest corner of the site, and a full access driveway in the center of the site. The ice arena portion of the property is approximately 9.45 acres. They have provided for 270 parking spaces. The facility is designed to provide 1,000 seats to accommodate the University of St. Thomas requirements. On Wednesday, the City Council will discuss the PUD Concept Plan application with Mr. Lang and provide any feedback to him on the Concept Plan. Tuesday September 3'd City Council Meeting Rescheduled to Wednesday, September 4th On Tuesday night, the City Council rescheduled the September Yd City Council meeting to Wednesday, September 4th in light of the Labor Day holiday. The meeting will be televised live on NDCTV on Wednesday at 7:30 PM. Please also note that City Hall will be closed on Monday, September 2 n in observance of the Labor Day holiday. Have a nice Labor Day weekend! State Primary Election Just a reminder that the Primary election will be held on Tuesday, September 10th. If you are unsure of your polling place, please contact City Hall. Just a reminder that local filing dates are August 27th — September 10th. Mendota Heights is Starting a 55+ Club Here is a place to find other active people who want to socialize or exercise or just plain have fun. Join an active group of 55+ers and share what you would like in a club. Some ideas have been: a biking club, hiking club or card club. Meet at the Ice Cream Social on Wednesday, September 11, 6:30 PM, Mendakota Park Pavilion and give your input on what should be offered. For more information call Teresa Gangelhoff, 651-222-1354, Recreation Programmer. Livable Communities Grant Application Update The Met Council received 44 Livable Communities grant applications requesting over $47 million. Applications have been reviewed internally for completeness and distributed to the internal staff review team, which is comprised of staff members from transit and transportation, environmental services, planning and technical assistance, aviation, parks, and livable communities. The staff comments will be forwarded to the advisory committee for consideration in their deliberations. Sector reps will contact communities if there are any questions that need to be answered or clarified during both the staff review process and the advisory committee review process. The Advisory Committee has set the following schedule: They will be meeting on September 12d' to discuss the applications and give preliminary scores. On September 23rd they will make the first cut of the projects. The remainder of applicants will be invited to a question/answer session on October 8 or 16. In November, the Committee will review the projects and make funding recommendations to the full Council at its meeting on December 18d'. As your recall, Mendota Heights applied for $1.8 million for the commercial parking structure. Marie Park Tennis Court Update The final color coat was applied on Tuesday. The court markings, replacement winches, net and final fence repairs are scheduled for completion on Thursday or Friday. Once completed, this will complete the resurfacing of the courts a month ahead of schedule. The contractor was able to work on our courts sooner because of the wet weather, which has delayed work on other newly constructed courts Northern Service Center Open House The Dakota County Board of Commissioners is holding the Northern Service Center Open House on Saturday, September 14d`, from 14PM. The program will be held at 1:30, with tours to follow. The Northern Service Center is located at 1 Mendota Road West in West St. Paul. Proposed Tentative Tax Levy Each year, the City Council has to adopt a preliminary budget and tax levy at their first meeting in September. The levy is then certified to the County by September 15th. Once the preliminary levy is adopted, it cannot be increased, but may be decreased. The process will be the same this year, with the County sending parcel specific tax statements to the residents in November. The budget will have to be finalized and adopted by December 17th. With the removal of the basic school levy from the taxes this year, the individual homeowners are estimated to receive a reduction in their tax bill. For 2002, our residents enjoyed an approximate 30% reduction in property tax. Based on this proposed budget, we expect a small decrease in taxes for 2003 as well. *(This is the number that the levy limit applies to. Our levy limit for 2003 is $3,556,357) Final Thought "Talk that does not end in any kind of action is better suppressed altogether." Thomas Carlyle Respectfully Submitted, Cari Lindberg Attachments: Pipeline, Just the Facts, City Council agenda, Pioneer Press article "Dakota County: County's share of property taxes may rise," Star Tribune article "Katherine Kersten: Dutcher's audit of Brooklyn Park looks like grandstanding," Pre -application meeting synopsis, Notice of public hearing and public comment period on amendments to the Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport Zoning Ordinance, AMM News. 2002 Preliminary 2002 Final 2003 Preliminary General Fund $2,954,163 $2,865,990 $3,120,707 Emergency Prep. $2,500 $22,500 $2,000 Fire Relief $33,000 $33,000 $34,000 Infrastructure $50,000 $50,000 $50,000 Legal & contingency $60,000 $60,000 $60,000 $3,099,663 $3,031,490 $3,266,707* Special Levies $519,844 $519,844 $430,042 Total Levy $3,639,507 $3,551,334 $3,696,749 Less LGA $0 $13,301 $13,302 Net Levy $3,639,507 $3,538,033 $3,683,447 *(This is the number that the levy limit applies to. Our levy limit for 2003 is $3,556,357) Final Thought "Talk that does not end in any kind of action is better suppressed altogether." Thomas Carlyle Respectfully Submitted, Cari Lindberg Attachments: Pipeline, Just the Facts, City Council agenda, Pioneer Press article "Dakota County: County's share of property taxes may rise," Star Tribune article "Katherine Kersten: Dutcher's audit of Brooklyn Park looks like grandstanding," Pre -application meeting synopsis, Notice of public hearing and public comment period on amendments to the Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport Zoning Ordinance, AMM News.