[0:00] Joe Wicklund: station welcome everybody my name is Joe Wicklund communications director for the city of Hermantown and this is our fourth uh full-blown public information meeting about the community recreation initiative the first three I'm kind of focused on individual projects and the component projects within it uh and this one will be a little bit more broad we'll cover a little bit of everything uh today I'm joined uh here in city council by John Mulder our city administrator Hermantown uh Chad ronchetti from Cross Anderson who is a trusted partner in this process in terms of both the referendum and steps that we need to take as a city as well as the build when we talk about the arena and then Eric Johnson our community development director who has been a huge part of our Trails process our Parks [0:46] Joe Wicklund: master plan and as well uh as looking both at the past of those things and an Insider looking at the future I'm going to pop up on our screen today a little bit of a PowerPoint presentation to walk through because we'll cover again all three projects kind of in their entirety and we can deep dive with some questions that have already been sent in into each one uh and we'll of course cover um the sales tax piece as a whole um but there there's kind of a starting point see if I can get this screen started um just to kind MAX re-center everybody what we're talking about when we talk about the community recreation initiative so there are three separate component projects you're going to kind [1:31] Joe Wicklund: of see us reiterate that a couple times today because of some of the information that's floating around out there but the community projects are the potential addition of a sheet of indoor ice which will be located next to our current Arena and we'll talk more about that actual location and the flexibility we've built in to support the school a reimagining of fickner park with a Turf baseball field some reconfiguration new playground equipment Sports courts basketball uh skate park and as well as the completion of our trail system which uh folks have already had a taste of and a really good experience with um but are kind of sometimes surprised Eric and I talked about this week that is far from done even though we're experiencing it right now that it's almost uh three months 30 complete three [2:17] Joe Wicklund: miles of 10 miles in the plan complete and that sales tax and those projects are all entirely decided by our voters both an early voting that's happening now and November 8th three separate projects three separate questions on the ballot and uh each one of them passes separate from each other the heart of these is is something that we've been focused on uh both because of community output input on our surveys but also knowledge that our area up North here in St Louis County does not have high quality Health outcomes and that has helped lead to the creation of the essential Wellness Center which we'll talk a little bit about today that entirely that sales tax funded project [3:03] Joe Wicklund: has already been a success and continues to be and the idea that we need to be able to provide healthy opportunities and recreational opportunities that aren't just combined to that particular building and that stretch out outside of that building something we learned both obviously through the pandemic in terms of access but also in terms of the desire from more and more of our members our community have more and more Recreation opportunities so three components in one goal three different projects with the goal of continued Health uh continue to improved Health outcomes in southern St Louis County and Northern St Louis County that that piece by the way is the regional impact that people talk about that allows us to be able to even Explore using sales tax we'll talk about the regional impact of [3:48] Joe Wicklund: sales tax but but the idea that part of what we'd be doing might be very Hermantown specific with the voters but also has an impact Beyond just our community even though these three amenities would be right in our right in our town some important considerations let's talk about some pieces that have floated around in this process that's been quite a lengthy process to be able to get to this point so folks who aren't in the know on the history of the referendum John Wen the discussion about individual projects even before we started making it uh official at with the legislature which I'll talk about in a second is is years in the making isn't it [4:34] John Mulder: yeah in fact I looked at my calendar um this afternoon in anticipation of the meeting I had a meeting in November of 2014 it was my very first meeting in talking about with the Hockey Association about the need for an additional um sheet of ice um so that's eight years that we've been talking about it um in 2017 we started doing some more formalized work where we were actually hiring Architects um to kind of help us think about what that might look like um what that might the design might be what might be some options we did some early um discussions with Professionals in as early as September of 2017. [5:13] Joe Wicklund: Eric I know that in your role you know I've been here since 2019 in my position when it was created but you've been you know working through Parks Master plans and kind of working on the you know what the uh Hermantown Munger Hermantown Proctor Monger spur the original kind of name um in making those a reality the entire time you've been here as well right [5:58] Eric Johnson: yeah that's true uh back in 2014 just like John had said uh the city engaged the consultant firm of hkgi as well as working with the city of Proctor and Duluth to Envision basically that Monger Trail spur that you just uh referenced so in that case there was a visioning document that was the extension all the way from our Wellness Center and the Hermantown school campus uh through the city joining Proctor and then eventually butting into uh the Munger trail spur down in Duluth you know how this looked at a number of different routes how this could be facilitated at that point some potential costs associated with it then in 2016 the city made an application to uh the state of Minnesota through their gmrptc which is a greater Minnesota Regional Park and trails commission that this master plan was then recognized by that Commission in that case and we could start applying for Grants the potential construction of some of these Trail segments and so that brings us up to a little bit more when I got involved in 2019 in my role where we were able to [6:46] Joe Wicklund: take both some of the ideas that John and Eric talked about and be able to start attaching potential funding sources to that the essential Wellness Center had been a success in terms of uh going through the long and lengthy process to be able to get that on the ballot approved built and started to make an impact in our community and it's a slightly different process now that Hermantown and other communities had to go through to be able to get the questions on the ballot and to be able to have the voters voice in on this that's process started in Earnest in 2019 and uh when we went down to the legislature to work on getting that finalized that's about the same time that uh the pandemic rolled out and kind of the the process uh both at the state [7:31] Joe Wicklund: level and at the city level kind of ground to an appropriate halt when he picked back up uh there was still a lot of momentum around the idea that this was an area that we'd had success utilizing sales tax and success working to improve health outcomes through Recreation and so we reached a point where the legislature had looked at the proposal and said yes this is something that your voters should have a chance to decide on based on the regional benefits and then there was uh some debate back and forth as the questions you'll see on the screen there was questions about a special session which would have added to the Project based on both the tax bill which would have added to each project the cost uh changes that had occurred since the original proposal in 2019 a bonding bill that would have added a specific fund funding available [8:16] Joe Wicklund: for the potential Arena both of those did not happen and we don't necessarily expect them to happen going forward there was a strong discussion about three separate questions on the ballot versus one we've always looked at this as one initiative around Health in our community but uh it worked out where legally and appropriately all three questions are separate that's really important and we'll get into that a couple times today that one two or three of these projects can pass they can pass separate from each other each just requires fifty percent of the vote plus one and we will have either one two or three of those projects the sales tax increase in the community will be a half percent regardless the time on the tax will be the difference because the three projects the arena uh fickner Park and [9:02] Joe Wicklund: the completion of the trail system do of course have different price tags uh what has come up recently and I'm going to say this a couple times today is that it's really important to note that the full amount the full 19 million that number that gets used does not get unlocked if one passes even in the questions themselves on the ballot it outlines the exact amounts so the referendum allows for the following amounts to be allocated for each project 3.9 million for thickeners so if enough folks vote Yes on that that amount is unlocked and we'll talk about that in a second with Eric 4.5 million for the completion of the trail system again folks have had some experience on that it isn't 19 million for the trail if that passes just 4.5 and 10.84 for the additional sheet of ice we don't get the full amount unless all three pass and [9:48] Joe Wicklund: we'll kind of dive into like the year differences and how long that tax runs and yes it is a required sunset a little bit about sales tax when we talk about it in Hermantown one we only have a one percent sales tax that is significant on the city level but the total number actually comes from a variety of different places the state of Minnesota has a Statewide sales tax of 6.875 and there's also a half a percent sales tax associated with St Louis County so our one percent the half percent from uh the county and the 6.875 percent from the state uh brings us to 8.375 that's charged inside the city limits of Hermantown and on things purchased here not all things but the things that are sales tax eligible our neighbors uh next door Duluth uh [10:33] Joe Wicklund: recently raised theirs a half percent higher to 8.875 with a focus on road Improvement uh that's part of what helps us feel more comfortable in Hermantown that if we were to take the step in this and go a half percent higher that there wouldn't be significant behavioral changes in shopping and things that people do because our largest neighbor actually would have a at this moment as a half percent higher sales tax in investigating this further I worked with the University of Minnesota and we commissioned a study to know how does sales tax operate in Hermantown specifically our buyers our businesses how does that impact our um how sales tax comes in and out of Hermantown and there were two really key details that came out of that the first is that taxable sales reported by our [11:21] Joe Wicklund: local firms have been on the rise every single year for the last decade and they saw that again in 2021 despite the tailing of the pandemic so we had a record year for sales tax uh in 2020 during the heart of the pandemic and another year in 2021. that might tail off or might Plateau a little bit in 2022 but the nice part about that is that that is a resource that we can tap into in Hermantown without um fear of that ending up in a different direction what that says is that business is going strong and growing in Hermantown the second important piece is at least 75 percent the number kind of clocks in a little bit higher than that of our sales tax is paid by non-residents for that most recent study where a little bit of a unique community [12:08] Joe Wicklund: in Minnesota based on our population size just to shade over ten thousand but that we have several big box retailers that draw in Shoppers from other communities to do their shopping here in Hermantown so when we think about where sales tax comes from and we think about the impact it has on Hermantown residence it's important to note that when folks enter with the ability to vote and they see that piece they know that the amount of money those price tags for some of those pieces from trails to the parks to the arena can be large numbers but a significant amount of that is going to be paid by non-residents who are passing through in their shopping habits are already taken care of here had a handful of folks say gosh seems like that's fantastic because [12:54] Joe Wicklund: other folks are paying for it or a negative that other folks are paying for it the reality is it's that it's an is what it is the fact that we are able to draw in folks in this community who shop here that habit's not going to change it's just a matter of if Hermantown wants to be able to utilize that unique sales tax opportunity to be able to make a difference and part of the reason why that's important and I'll turn it over to John on a little bit of the history in this but a lot of other cities in Minnesota have a local government or a local government Aid option to fund different things that they're doing in their cities we don't have that option here at Hermantown Dewey [13:41] John Mulder: you're right and so just just for a discussion is that the city does not receive local government Aid there's about a hundred cities in Minnesota that do not and primarily they are in the metro area and then there's a number of them in Greater Minnesota as well and Hermantown being one in large part because of the age of our housing stock Hermantown is a relatively new city so a lot of the majority of the housing has been built since 1940 and that's kind of the cut off is excuse me the percentage prior to 1940 and so um while Proctor gets in excess of a million dollars of local government Aid uh Virginia gets an excess of you know four million dollars in local government the city of Hermantown does not receive anything and has it for I want to say six seven years um where we have not received any Global [14:26] Joe Wicklund: government Aid so in absence of that lever to pull to be able to you know fund different projects or whether we're talking about the community recreation initiative or anything that does make the opportunity for sales tax one of the other level levers that's that's capable of being pulled we're seeing it successfully pulled in the community now sales tax as an opportunity to fund something and with the essential Wellness Center um John you gosh the discussions about that started even before 2014 and that project has proven to be in short order incredibly successful and funded entirely by sales tax [15:12] John Mulder: yes I mean in we had to go to the legislature to um allow for that uses so we had a one percent sales tax we went to the legislature to ask okay we have this money coming in can we use it for this purpose and that was approved by the voters um like by 74 so um that would have been I believe in 2019 uh no 2018 um and so at that point in time we were able to use sales tax for that purpose the city can only use sales tax for specifically things approved by both the legislature and by the voters we can't just use it for anything we want it has to be approved specifically by the legislature and by the voters for specific purposes and there's a lot of for lack of a better term like regulation and guidance on what those things can be and how they operate obviously one of the hot button [15:58] Joe Wicklund: topics right now in our community is the fire department and sales tax can't be leveraged to support or make changes there right [16:11] John Mulder: sales tax can only be used for sewer trunk lines water improvements for the financing of this building including the police and fire and City Hall and the wellness center those are the only four things that sales tax currently can be used for [16:25] Joe Wicklund: so let's talk about some possibilities that should voters think that they're a good fit that sales tax can be used for well pivot two we'll search for we'll talk first about the trail system in part because that's probably the area Eric where we get the most positive feedback at City Hall in terms of amenities that have have been brought online or improved in recent memory [16:46] Eric Johnson: yeah that's true the um once again kind of dialing it back to 2016 and that previous uh 2014 study uh the city was able to uh utilize that that approval by the gmrpdc to pursue some grant opportunities so uh back in 17 and 18 uh the city had submitted for a grant from the state basically using Legacy fund dollars uh to create a portion of this trail system uh this is basically what we utilized is calling the boulder Trail as well as the North King Creek Trail as part of that the city was able to obtain 820 000 in Grant funds that we used in addition to uh some of our sales tax in [17:32] Eric Johnson: association with the construction of a sanitary sewer trunk line over this trunk over this um Boulder Trail segment here so that's a picture you see on your screen right here this is the boulder Trail segment which generally goes from stebner park down to Hermantown Road it's approximately two and a half miles in length to 10 foot wide pre uh trail system uh it's for the most part 100 handicap accessible uh it's grades of five percent of less and it's a it's a great asset to our community and heavily used that way uh we've had the benefit of working with a couple other of our community groups I.E St Louis County to obtain another smaller Grant to have another trail signal within fichner Park and then St Louis County Road [18:18] Eric Johnson: Improvement project that did some sidewalks or basically a super sidewalk along stubner road so right now we've been able to been you know working quite well with the funds that we had available whether the grants or the sales tax for the sanitary sewer to create almost three miles worth of a trail system within this system overall as Joe had mentioned uh this is only 30 percent done eventually we're going to be looking from that school campus and the wellness Center all the way down to our Proctor border what you're seeing right now is this is a kind of a rough representation of this trail system with the the lines in blue being future segments associated with the trail in the lines in red being ones that we've completed to date [19:04] Eric Johnson: the city in the past has been very aggressive at trying to obtain grants for this work and continue and we'll continue to do in the future because we can use uh any sort of monies that may be obtained through the sales tax as a match for any potential grants that we could receive however the grants are extremely competitive the city once again since I've been here we've pursued at least six to eight different grant opportunities and I really only had two of them so um it's it's very very competitive there's not a lot of monies available overall for these type of grant opportunities right now we're seeing Trails coming in about 200 a lineal foot that's up substantially when we first started this we were looking at about a hundred dollars a lineal foot so [19:50] Eric Johnson: um really grants can only take care of a certain portion or certain percentage of this Trail overall system so that's where the potential use of the sales tax would help the city to be able to realize the complete of this trail system connected over to Proctor and to hand it off to them at that point I believe that Proctor as well is also looking at some potential funding that they can work on their Trail segment and get that down into the Duluth as well so between the two communities is a great opportunity to really see a lot of this Vision come to fruition in a short amount of time period once again by utilizing a grant not a grant excuse me but utilizing sales tax we can really in see this happen within a shorter time frame five to seven years [20:36] Eric Johnson: associated with that where if this was strictly done on Park dedication and grant funding opportunities it would be decades in the making just with the sheer cost of this type of Trail work to be done [20:49] Joe Wicklund: thanks Eric and I think that that's really the two points that are important about the trail system that well and let me start with so folks who have experienced it oftentimes are surprised that this isn't the full scope of it there are three wonderful miles available in Hermantown but there are possibility to connect all kinds of different areas across Hermantown once 10 miles are able to be completed and the second piece being hey you've got some of it done why do we have to leverage sales tax to be able to have the rest and and really it's the reality that we're you know would you like your material system completed you know so that you can utilize in the next five to [21:22] Joe Wicklund: seven years or we're really talking about a generational project across multi-generations before we get there um the uh map in front of you again is not uh super to detail but it gives you a rough idea on where a lot of things are going we're going to connect Highway 53 and the growing Highway 53 Corridor the the schools the wellness center to fickner park which we're going to talk about shortly the marketplace City Hall stubner Park King Creek Park all of our major parks in Hermantown would almost be connected with this plan and then down through Proctor with their eventual plan to hopefully carry it through to the monger and beyond for folks who have not experienced the trail or diving in for the first time a 10 foot wide accessible path non-motorized that we keep open 365 days a year as soon as our roads are clear in [22:09] Joe Wicklund: the winter the Public Works team here does an awesome job of keeping that open and we got a lot of compliments in the first year around about folks being able to get outdoors and off of our busy roads to use the Hermantown connector trail system and the boulder system of the boulder Trail before we dive into the park let's pivot to the additional sheet of ice um this piece is a really unique project within the uh community recreation issue as a whole because it drives a great deal of economic impact differently than the other projects do so when a couple of things that make the additional sheet of ice interesting is that it would have an economic impact of more than two million dollars annually expected hockey as a whole right now brings roughly four to five million dollars into our community and a second sheet of ice then would [22:55] Joe Wicklund: bump that up to about the seven million dollar Mark um it's been interesting through this process talking about Regional impact down in the Twin Cities area where folks are generally blown away that we've been able to build a Statewide if not National reputation for hockey success with a single Arena a single indoor arena that is funded only by the school not by the city and that current Arena doesn't meet the community needs and when we talk about that we're really talking about our our youngest hockey players and our oldest hockey players uh being able to get ice time during hours that are our work for families and work for working adults we've had an awesome partnership up with the school on a variety of projects this is a really great example of that we'll show that in a moment and that we're working with them to determine what's their best next [23:41] Joe Wicklund: step on a variety of areas such as their administration building on where we could put that Arena and how it best works for their needs finally we've had to dispel a little bit of the uh myth that hockey gets everything the only commitment that hockey as a whole right now gets from the city of Hermantown uh and the work that that we do in the city staff side City staff side is a three thousand dollar discount for water on the outdoor rinks which Eric that matches the same discount that we do for for soccer on the stedner parks for baseball for our other our other user groups as well [24:26] Eric Johnson: yeah exactly it works over at stebner Park with their irrigation associated with the soccer fields over there so it's it's it's a match between the two uh different user groups [24:34] Joe Wicklund: and so when we talk about the possibility of the city getting more involved than it has been in before I'm going to show you uh two or three different pictures that have been designed by dsgw and I'm going to ask uh Chad ronchetti to hop in in a second and walk through how this relationship fits on this portion of the project and is a little bit different but I'm going to show you the possible East Addition and walk you through a little bit of the arena and then the possible West Addition in part to show that flexibility um that's still on the table with us but on the screen right now you can see the gray box representing the current ice arena and if you've been in there it's it's totally functional and definitely can can handle uh some of the things that happen in there on a big scale but is really limiting in terms of tournaments and other greater [25:13] Joe Wicklund: opportunities that could be a possibility here in Hermantown a second sheet of ice would not only open that up but the viewing area the locker room uh which the current uh setup deals with some Equity issues between the girls and boys teams and some access issues for some some of our folks to be able to be a part of hockey all of that would then be rectified and we would go away from having what really is a functional and I don't mean that as a super big compliment but as a reality a functional Arena to really an experience here's the second level where you'd be looking down on the spectators see looking down from the open Concourse on the new Ice Arena and again as we mentioned there's still a lot of flexibility in where this can be built this is the possible West Edition and that hinges on where the [25:59] Joe Wicklund: best place the school district would think for the administration building this picture actually shows up in the left hand corner the school district option school district offices inside the new Arena as an option that the school can consider so there's a lot of flexibility built into this piece it allows us to maximize the resources around a single Chiller and what the school already has in place for what they've done for years in their Arena but also to bring hermantown's resources and abilities in this important area not only in Hermantown but in Minnesota up to speed we are pretty skilled at the city uh doing Trails as Eric and I smile each other and pretty skilled at parks but we don't build a lot of Arenas but [26:45] Joe Wicklund: Krauss Anderson does that and so Chad this is this is a different type of partnership in this because the scale of this is certainly different than the other parts of the project but but that's also a different type of project within Hermantown and and we need a different type of of partner experience than we've had on that and we've had Kraus Anderson on board if you could talk a little bit about how that relationship came to be in your role in this that'd be wonderful [27:14] Chad Ronchetti: sure yeah thanks Joe uh again Chad ronchetti with Kraus Anderson Construction uh we were we were through an interview process selected by the city of Hermantown to help advise them through the referendum process to help educate voters on uh what the implications are and make sure that the main you know help advise on when mailings and other information should come out uh Kraus Anderson is uh was hired for their expertise uh and selected based on their expertise we have built a significant number of Arenas across the state including the uh with in partnership with dsgw for the iron Trail Motors in uh arena in Virginia the one in Grand Rapids one up in really so we ice arenas are are what what a big portion of what we do and we are doing that in in partnership with dsgw [28:09] Joe Wicklund: perfect thanks Chad and when we talk about additional possibilities on the screen here uh 10.84 million will get kind of a skeleton of an indoor arena and the opportunities for uh philanthropic giving adding to both this project and [28:17] Joe Wicklund: other projects that we've discussed today are part of what take it to the next level we we've been doing work on that um both on the city staff side and in the community side but obviously if anyone's interested in in connecting and being involved in that both on the philanthropic side of the community side can reach out to me in the uh at City Hall and be able to reach out and see what next steps or what projects are most interesting to you let's dive over to the reimagining of fickner park now fickner park is for folks who are unfamiliar with Hermantown our Central kind of Park our baseball fields and a few other amenities that are there but it's definitely aging it has access issues and Ada issues overall both at the park and in bathrooms uh there are challenges for its primary use baseball and some softball and outdoor [29:03] Joe Wicklund: uses in the spring in that the location of its main field is also the lowest spot now as the park has evolved so that's a pretty wet spot in the spring the baseball basketball skate park and playground facilities are all aging and there's really and I think Eric mentioned this a little bit we'll have him talk about it more but really limited updates that we can do kind of fixes here and there with how current budgeting works and how current Park dedication fees work and and Eric without sales tax it's kind of a piece by piece process to be able to make any changes and it takes some of the more significant changes off the table at fickner Park doesn't it [29:50] Eric Johnson: it really does yes uh we've been very lucky as a growing community that we we do bring in park dedication with new lot development and new commercial development in the city however those numbers really range in the tens of thousands and and even that that's probably in the low to mid tens of thousands at best whereas the improvements needed over at fickner Park um Range really in the more 200 thousands of dollars plus so um the same thing with Park dedication we're able to do small projects where we can bring in a new Dugout we can probably buy a new piece of play equipment associated with it but for large scale a wholesale uh type of Redevelopment of a park particularly what's needed over here is Joe had mentioned the um the great challenges and drainage challenges associated with the park I mean those are things that uh you know cost hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars to do so from a park dedication standpoint I mean those are just things that you just really cannot achieve that you have to look for other sources of fundings to be able to make that work [30:36] Joe Wicklund: so Eric I'll have you walk us through then what is possible because fickner park has a wide variety of changes that happen even in what we've kind of called the base model that if sales tax if folks feel like that's a good fit and they pass this on November 8th that there's some significant and far-reaching upgrades not just one particular area [31:02] Eric Johnson: a number of different concepts you know working within that existing budget that we you know could be proposed associated with this but what could we achieve with that 3.8 million dollars and uh what you see on the screen here is is basically the the best that we can achieve budget wise that we would be addressing field one that's in the lower left hand corner [31:22] Eric Johnson: that'd be the rotating of that field uh raising it up and providing an artificial turf surface new Under drain surface associated with it and that would be envisioned that it could be a multi-use type of field it could be served for uh varsity baseball it can also have um basically other fencing brought in from a temporary standpoint this could be set up for a softball use as well so right now this could be a field that could be really extend the season that we have I mean right now we're um April and May are pretty tough times to get in for a baseball season but with an artificial turf and under drain system it really opens up that window to the north of that it'd be the re-envisioning of the prior softball field and Little League field that they have a bit more of a reorientation associated with that the big heart of [32:08] Eric Johnson: what we're looking at is bringing more accessibility into this park we had great success up at Rose Road field with our softball complex there that turned that into a nice accessible Park and that's what we're visioning here at fichner as well the center Concourse that you see is a paved surface that way looking at Ada accessibility and really trying to create what you try to see more in some of these baseball complexes where you get more of that cloverleafer diamond type of design I mean obviously with the this base plan that we talk about with potential funds from the initiative we can't really address the two fields on the Eastern side of the park however they're generally in decent shape and we can utilize those as best we can also as part of this would be looking at a new basketball and skate park with that [32:54] Joe Wicklund: those are two highly used things within this park right now and to be able to recreate those in a different location that basically serves the needs of the community but also helps us turn into more of a Central Park for the city as we kind of take a closer look at the pieces that Eric's talking about I'll upgraded playground equipment in the center there as well I'll upgrades to um bathrooms upgrades to concession stands it's kind of all the way around and then up in the upper left-hand Corner Eric mentioned a new and improved skate park as that's predated and aging at the uh uh fickner park now as well as the basketball court and some folks have seen uh um both floating around online and as well as other presentations the the kind of the more advanced version of this so if there is a philanthropic [33:40] Joe Wicklund: support for this we kind of then start talking about the old football field tennis a pickleball courts expanding some of those pieces too and and what's nice Eric is is the partners you've worked with have not only designed in something that you know if this passes at X level at the original initial the initial initiative level um is a huge impact but also can be phased up should it be you know philanthropically available to you do something special right at the start or over time [34:19] Eric Johnson: and that's right because we have the advantage of that there is more available land associated with this park as you reference Joe the old football field located to the north of that it's really an underutilized portion of this park that could see some potential opportunities at a future date whether through additional funding or phasing of the overall project [34:35] Joe Wicklund: so let's dive into some of the questions that folks have sent in and that we've kind of addressed in other presentations or have come up more recently to be able to talk about the community recreation initiative as a whole the first was again we reiterate this at the beginning whether one two or three of these components passed the increase is the same a half percent our sales tax in in Hermantown will move to 8.875 what we didn't realize is that there's a little bit of confusion on that when we talk about it the increase being the same we're talking about the percentage but that isn't the same dollar so again to reiterate the amount that each project receives is set we only receive the full amount if all three projects are passed [35:16] Joe Wicklund: so it's really that length that is going to be different if only one or two of them pass the percentage will be the same the amount of money we make I had a person in today who said gosh we could put all 19 million and have a really great trail system and that would be true if we if it operated that way but only the set amount that is outlined in the project is available for the trail system a little bit about those uh time frames uh the arena itself that particular amount of money would be about 11 years in terms of the tax the trail is about five years and the park about four years there's also been some idea that the sales tax doesn't Sunset that's different we're legally required to Sunset this one at this time a little bit of a question again that 75 percent sales tax paid by non-residents [36:01] Joe Wicklund: leaving less than a quarter we still as the University of Minnesota described it we still leak sales tax into other communities with our buying power a lot of our residents still spend uh in Duluth so this is a really good way to feel comfortable about the pieces that are coming into our community there's significant amount of our dollars that are helping support Duluth in terms of their sales tax and there'll be significant dollars coming into our community from other communities to be able to support ours that's already the case with the essential Wellness Center and we'll be continuing to be the case going forward and then finally for folks who've been asked what does what does a half percent sales tax really look like at the individual level what would this feel like for me if it's an effect and we've always said the easy math is if you spend a hundred dollars on an item [36:47] Joe Wicklund: eligible for sales tax that would now be 50 cents more if we dive a little deeper for example if this half percent uh sales tax increase were in play in 2020 so that we can use real numbers the pro resident impact in Hermantown would have been 33 dollars and 44 cents for the full year for each individual and really this is Again part of that unique design of our community 10 000 plus people which is you know that's the real number it's not bigger or smaller than that but four big box retailers that are the largest drivers of uh sales tax in our community so when we talk about Menards and Fleet Farms Sam's Club and Walmart uh it's not every purchase at those places that's eligible but the ones that are are what's driving a big part of our um sales tax so if you're a resident who [37:35] Joe Wicklund: doesn't spend a lot of money at those places your 33.44 is is likely even smaller than that and again the question it could up before about the time frames on each individual project should the only the arena pass the project will be or the uh the sales tax will be in place for about 11 years and then Sunset if only the trails pass about five years before sunsets and the park about four years together all three about 20 years but to put that into perspective and I'll throw it to Mr Mulder we've it's the same kind of thought process or funding for the essential Wellness Center and thanks to the work of Kevin Orme and our finance department and their conservative budgeting we're already significantly [38:20] John Mulder: ahead of where we expected to be in regards to sales tax and the essential Wellness Center yeah so I mean we anticipate that the half percent sales tax will generate 1.5 but uh 1.5 million but you know as sales increase and stuff like that we we're confident that that will be more than enough to make that happen so [39:01] Joe Wicklund: perfect I've got a handful of folks online that'll unmute if there's any questions from there and some folks in our audience here so we can open it up for Q a if there's any further questions or comments that have come in we again some of the new pieces that we've reiterated is um that that it doesn't have to be uh that it's not 19 million per project it's specific amounts on the other [39:24] Joe Wicklund: question that has come up now it's coming in is if I want to only stagger my votes and I want to vote for say one or two projects this year and then another one down the road is that going to be an option and John I'll I'll answer it and then I'll let you chime in that we've seen in short order some significant changes to how sales tax operates and how communities like us can leverage that just from the essential Wellness Center to now and so when I've been asked that question about that I would say it's probably best to treat the three questions on the ballot right now um as the only opportunity these might come in there may be others but there's a degree of uncertainty and unpredictability right now with how the legislature is treating sales tax as a [39:53] John Mulder: lever that communities like us can can utilize right so the the city has permission to ask at this point in time for that if any one of these fails we would have to go back to the legislature and ask permission again and then be able to do that referendum and the legislature um is not likely to approve a request that has already been denied so if it fails the option of well we'll just ask later and maybe I'll vote Yes later it's probably not going to happen this is kind of the chance for you to vote if that's how you feel inclined to do so to vote for these projects is now it's the time to do that don't wait um at a later date think well maybe we [40:39] John Mulder: can ask that question later after we see how these other ones go no you need to vote if there's Sean Klein you need to vote for those now [40:48] Joe Wicklund: the other question is if if I haven't or I have a group of folks or I have a uh members of the community that are interested in learning about this more and haven't necessarily seen any of the Facebook posts or any of the social media or any of the pieces we've just maybe gotten the flyer uh that the city put together in our mailbox how can we learn more about it and there's really two ways one anyone can reach out to me at City Hall at any time this is kind of the uh unsurprisingly number one thing that we're talking about on a regular basis uh here at City Hall these days but also the ability to have [41:25] Joe Wicklund: presentations like this where I come out and talk to you or groups and answer questions one-on-one is also open so we've done a few of those at the school already I'll be working with a group at the History Center tomorrow night and also at Edgewood Vista so if there is a group of folks who are passionate almost of any size I'd be happy to come out and walk them through what other folks have said about this what's important and give them the information not advocacy certainly letting folks make up their own mind but being able to to have the clarity needed because if the last thing we'd want is someone to walk in and have the opportunity to decide on these three questions and not have a full scope of the ramifications the information and the possibilities of these projects it's been an arduous and long process and a good way to get to this point and the [42:11] Joe Wicklund: questions themselves can be a little unwieldy on the ballot but at least that way we know that we've done everything we can to get in front of folks unless the four of you think there's anything I have covered haven't covered or if there's any questions from the audience I think that we're in good shape anything gentlemen oh well again do you have any questions and we want to thank the folks both in Chambers and online for joining us uh here tonight um we will have uh one more of these public information meetings on November 2nd and then any other changes or any places that I'm scheduled to be will be updated on our website hermantownmn.com backslash vote thanks again for joining us tonight