on cable TV good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the uh Whitebear Township annual meeting we are officially calling this meeting to order it is 7 p.m. March 13th or March 12th 2019 um this meeting will be cablecast um on our government Channel 16 and will be recable cast over the next several weeks if anybody wants to watch this evening's events uh tonight's meeting is not an official Town board meeting you will notice in the back of the the aisles here you're three town board members who are acting as residents this evening only um staff and Consultants to the town board are also here uh to help with any questions um pertaining to the presentations that will happen here tonight um the primary part of the presentation is the uh proposed preliminary tax levy for 2020 uh when it comes to a vote only Town residents have the privilege of voting upon that preliminary Levy uh this evening and the preliminary Levy as everybody knows is subject to change as the year goes along uh since it's not a town board meeting uh it will not be run by a board chair rather we have a moderator uh who has graciously agreed to perform that service for us this evening um Bob kermas where are you Bob right there has graciously um volunteered and at this time I need to call for a motion that appoints Bob kermas our moderator of the evening I make a motion we have a motion do we have a second second all in favor sounds like Bob this is your show thank you thank you Pat well good evening I see Pat left the microphone low enough for me so he's trying to tell me something um uh I have been as most of you are probably aware I have been uh the chair for the town board for the last several years and I retired at the end of last year so I'm no longer on the board uh and I the reason I bring this up is that the position of chairman of the board is a lot different than moderating this meeting so all I'm here for is to guide uh residents of the township and all the attendees here through the agenda for the evening uh so with that said uh the rules that we'll follow tonight will be more or less based on Robert's Rules of Order I'm not a I'm not a parliamentarian or legal expert by any means but we'll try to use the Roberts Rules of Order guidelines and uh our T attorney Pat Kelly can or will act as uh whether he knows it or not he will act as our parliamentarian for the evening so if we do have any kind of questions or issues Pat's our guy all right and the town clerk has arranged to have uh minutes taken for the meeting tonight uh so and matter of fact we do have a new staff member and and she's taken the minutes for us and uh uh they'll be availablein a week within a week on the on the town website okay all right so those two issues are taken care of uh we all uh we all have a copy of the agenda I hope we do it was available so the first thing we need to do is to approve the uh meeting the annual meeting agenda for this evening unless there's any changes orre Corrections is there a motion is there a second second motions made and seconded to approve the agenda as submitted those in favor please say I I any opposed the agenda is approved uh the 2018 annual meeting minutes are included in the packet and I believe they're also posted on the website too right so we've they've been available for review and um I rather than go through those meeting minutes I'll ask for a motion to approve the minutes as submitted is there a second motion's been made and seconded to approve the annual meeting minutes from 2018 those in favor please say I I any opposed that motion carries uh the next item that we have is a presentation from the Ramsey County uh Sheriff's office and I understand under Sheriff Jeff Ramer is going to do that for us yes sir thank you I'm going to adjust this microphone here if that's okay that's all right raise it up I think that'll work Pat your uh Town Treasurer said I only have 10 minutes so if I go past that 10 minutes please throw something at me so we can get this over with but um because you guys have a lot more important business to deal with uh just to introduce myself Jeff Ramer I am the unders Sheriff of our Public Safety Services Division which is better known as our Patrol Division it's the division that serves uh Whitebear Township and six other contract cities in Northern Ramsey County um I have been with the sheriff's office for 22 years um I was appointed to under Sheriff just this past January uh when our new sheriff Sheriff our new old Sheriff Bob Fletcher was reelected in the office um I previously worked under his administration um but I've done a variety of different things in the Sheriff's Office I've worked in every division most recently before um this under Sheriff job I was the commander of our Patrol Division um I have a couple other uh Sheriff's Office members in attendance here to assist me we always travel in teams it's a lot safer that way in the front row here I have the new commander who took my old job uh Commander Tony Waldo he is in charge of our Patrol Services which pretty much is your um uh 911 responders our K9 unit all the people when you call 911 he's in charge of those folks that come out here uh over at the uh little uh cafeteria table there we have Deputy Mike Casey who's one of our two traffic deputies he's a dedicated traffic Deputy that serves the the contract CI spends a lot of his time just going out there and writing traffic citations and moving violations things of that nature uh just a little bit about the sheriff's office in general there's a lot of people that don't know a lot about the sheriff's office um we are obviously your primary law enforcement agency um we are the fifth largest Police Department in the state of Minnesota uh if anybody can raise their hand and name the other four I won't waste my 10 minutes of time doing that but obviously Minneapolis and St Paul are two large agencies the Minnesota state patrol and the hennipen county sheriff's office um we have about 400 Plus members of our department about 225 of those are sworn deputies um we operate uh with five major divisions we have our Patrol Division out here that serves you folks uh we have a courts division downtown that takes care of court security civil process things of that nature we have our detention division which operates our jail um we also have a community outreach uh under Sheriff which is new for this Administration um that's in charge of recruiting members into our department interacting uh with uh communities of color and Outreach uh in the entire County and then we have our regional special service which has all of our specialty units like our narcotics unit our fugitive apprehension teams our special Investigation Unit um SWAT team things of that nature so um that's kind of our department in a nutshell um out here we have about a hundred Personnel that I supervise uh 88 of those are sworn Deputy sheriffs uh 12 of them are support personnel and um those are not all paid for by the contract that serves Whitebear Township some of them bodies are on the levy side but within our Patrol Division uh we have our uniform Patrol officers we have our K9 unit we have school resource officers we have investigators that investigate crimes we have a Community Support Services Unit that does all of our community outreach events out here uh like hot dog with the deputy um who I'm sure many of you are familiar with and seen um they also do things like coffee with a cop uh and they manage a lot of our volunteers so that's kind of our Sheriff's Office uh in a nutshell um we operate on that shared services model um where we can um you know we run lean um out here in the contract cities but when resources are needed in any one of the Seven Cities we can have a very large number of of deputies show up on that call at any given time so that's just that's kind of how the contract system works it's a very coste effective way of doing policing it's very popular um we're not only the we're not the only Urban county that does it it's popular in enoka County it's popular in Washington County and we've been serving your needs uh for decades now I think since the late ' 80s early '90s when we took over uh this City's contract um a little bit about crime Trends in Whitebear Township it's a very safe place to live safe place to work um you know calls for service in the township kind of hover around 35 to 3700 uh every year this past year in 2018 I believe we had just over 3,500 calls for service um those calls for service were down a little bit from the previous two years um and you you might ask what a call for service is it's basically just an event so if somebody calls 911 and we dispatch a a squad car if a deputy makes a traffic stop that's self-initiated if they come across something those are all logged as calls for service they don't necessarily mean somebody got arrested they don't necessarily mean that a deputy even wrote a report it's just an event that happened just to kind of qualify what that really means so um your major things uh happen in White Bird Township are Medicals um you know citizen assists uh traffic stops a lot of very mundane benign law enforcement type things that happen um some of the initiatives that we are looking to do in 2018 we have a very big one that we're tackling and it's actually um body cameras um our previous Sheriff's Administration headed on the road map for for 2020 uh our new sheriff sheriff Fletcher has advanced that and wants to see these body cameras implemented in 2019 um he's approached our contract city managers as well as the County Board and we're looking to implement uh body cameras in the sheriff's office um in 2019 by this summer um so it's a major undertaking it's a major uh cost cost ask for our our County board but um we've been told that there's support for it and uh We've assigned a commander to that initiative um and he's working diligently and getting the ball rolling uh so we'll have body cameras it's one of those things that's a public expectation it's one of those things that is um embraced by our deputies they want to have body cameras and uh we're excited uh to bring those into our Sheriff's Office to show that transparency and uh you know really kind of show the good things that we do um every day out there in the public so uh a few of the other things that the sheriff um is looking to get accomplished uh in his first couple years in office um he wants to have a renewed focus on school safety he plans on um hosting a school safety conference this fall in St Paul um he is uh big into prevention programs one of the big ones that he's looking to expand and and kind of get going off the ground is opioid prevention um it's a very significant problem in our field uh we see it uh all the time and we're really looking to tackle that problem uh on the front end um additionally we have a lot of uh issues with people with mental health problems we're looking to expand our our footprint into that and uh some resources and of course the sheriff's always been big on um Community engagement and Youth Intervention being proactive with our youth getting them involved in things and uh getting them on the right track from uh from the start so uh that's kind of the sheriff's office in a nutshell um I can entertain any questions if anybody has any questions hopefully I didn't go too far past my 10-minute time allotment yes sir just just in general how often should we see our car thead L we we get that question a lot and that is a that's a challenging question to answer I mean our our goal is to get our squad cars into your city and and into the the neighborhoods as much as we can now um you know you can stand in front of your picture window for hours and not see a squad car and step away and one will go by but um we are in your neighborhoods where um there's a lot of different Sheriff's Office resources out there um like I mentioned you know we have 88 cops that work just out of this um Arden Hill station from investigators to school resource officers to people answering 911 calls to our water Patrol deputies um so it it's really a hard question to answer but um I can assure you that we have a lot of resources out there to to serve your needs anybody else all right I appreciate your time thank you so [Applause] much okay well the next item on the agenda is to recognize uh public officials in attendance and I see County attorney uh John Choy is here and uh John would you like to make a couple of comments to us one thing I'd like to ask too is if uh anyone has questions for any of the speakers tonight on any any of the subjects please identify yourself and your address and that's for purposes of the recordkeeping go to microphone oh and we do have a microphone in the back for you thank you thank you good evening everybody I um I'm going to be just really brief I just wanted to this is a great opportunity for me to come up to the township and say hello as a part of your annual meeting um I was just reelected uh for my third term uh this past fall so thank you for uh your support and confidence in me and for me um the the work that I do as the chief prosecutor uh for me it's been just a real honor and a privilege to be able to work alongside the dedicated public servants and the County attorneys office and we do a lot of things Beyond I think when we think about the County Attorney we think about the work that we do around uh the criminal prosecution but there's a whole host of other things that we are engaged in a lot of uh uh we've had an increase in child protection cases and so those are some of the really the saddest things that we have to work on when we have to remove kids from their homes uh because frankly because their parents have failed them and so those are really uh just horrific situations but we have to intervene because we can't just take kids uh away from the home and place them somewhere else but uh we've had a dramatic increase in those types of cases and a lot of that has to do uh with um uh the drug crisis that we have um opioid addiction has been driving a lot of that and so uh that's just something that I think that I know that the Sheriff's Office and our office we've been in Partnership to try to do some more education around the nature of addiction and how families and communities can prevent that and I think that's just really important work just to lift up the public awareness that we're doing we're also uh engaged in civil commitment uh cases so when somebody is a danger to themselves or to others and just an influx of mental health uh situations that are driving a lot of things in our community and of course I think one of the things that we need to be thinking about is how do we build a better response so that we don't have to have people with mental health uh issues in our jails and having law enforcement contact if there's better ways to do that uh We've we're having some of those conversations in the county uh but at the end of the day you know the the work that I'm doing um we're just trying to get ultimately better outcomes for public safety for the quality of Justice in our community uh for all people and so for me it's been a real honor privilege to be able to uh work on behalf of all of you because I all of you are my boss and so thank you for your confidence and support so I'd be happy to answer any questions if there are any but otherwise uh have a a great evening thank [Applause] you uh we are hoping to see some more public officials uh this evening I don't see anybody am I missing if they come in later we'll uh we'll introduce them and give them a chance to uh make their comments uh next item on the agenda then uh will be a presentation from northeast Houston Youth and Family Services this organization provides support to Whitebear Township and we've been a member for several years the executive director uh Jerry Hoka will talk to us for a few minutes good evening um this is a little unusual for me usually I'm just talking to the boards or the councils um so it's nice to be in front of a group of people so um and I get 35 minutes rather than the 10 is that right no no so I'm going to have any of you ever heard of Northeast stent Family Services okay so some of you have okay um let's go through a quick uh I won't do everything here I always do like to start off with a quote and you can see it there we're products of our past but we don't have to be prisoners of it what we're saying is that people bring their histories as they go forward in life but we believe people can change I also use this because this is about NFS we've been around for 41 years we've learned things over those years things that we do better and things that we've changed and so it's just a way of how do we move forward with what we know and what we do best um for those who aren't familiar with us just quickly we serve all ages uh we're we serve Suburban Ramsey County the 15 municipalities uh we partner very closely with in the four school districts uh but we really focus in on the 5 to 21 year olds um we got started a long time ago 40 years ago when the communities came together and said there's another way that we can work with kids that are in trouble with the law in those days what I heard is that if you're in trouble with the law you were handcuffed thrown in the back of the squad and taken down downtown St Paul and in holding until your court date came up and the community said we've got to find a different way to do this and so the 10 municipalities up then in Northwest Ramsey County got together pulled some money uh got some money from the federal government got some money from the faith community and we got started in the first year we served 100 kids with four staff today we're up to 4,000 Youth and families and adults we expand beyond that diversion program we now do mental health you've heard a lot about that tonight I could talk for hours about that um we also do our still our diversion program we do a senior chore program as we age people want to live in their homes longer the state believes the longer you live in your home the better quality of life but you can't do your chores and so we connect Youth and adults so that seniors can stay in their home uh we also do a little small after school program I won't talk about that's still down in Roseville and then the final piece we do is we do what's called a day treatment program and usually when people hear day in treatment they think of alcohol and drugs this is mental health this is for kids that can't function in a classroom can't function in the community can't function in their home they come and they work with us throughout the year half the day is therapy half the day is education so um I got ahead of myself those are our three program areas we're at about a $3.3 million budget let's just get into it a little bit further here people still go yeah but what do you do you know who do you work with what is this about so we're going to borrow this from education this is the way education kind of looks at and thinks about the population 80% of the population can function in a normal classroom setting there's times where they might stumble a little bit there's times when they Excel but for the most part that 80% does well 15% need a little extra and 5% really need a lot and are pulled out and those are the ones that usually end up when they start talking about special education or special programs we use this as well when you think about the population that we serve everybody has trouble getting through life someday some days you don't want want to get out of bed the last few days with all the snow and the cold the last thing I wanted to do was get up and face everybody has that some people though need a little bit more and that's when we start getting into that top 15 and 5% what we try to do is give people what I call the fortitude and the skills to be able to function in normal society okay the other piece I use this is because we also do a lot with mentors and volunteers who help us with our programs people who are part of that 80% who can help us what what we're doing so that's how we fit into this okay let's go to the next one here quickly our mental health programs the big piece I'm going to say here is two things one is we would do what's called a solution oriented rather than sitting down with someone and saying so what's your problem and we got real creative about that well what brings you here today or what what what we say is how would you like it to be and even though that's a small change in words it's different when you're working towards something positive rather than working away towards something that's negative the barriers come in we will hear them but it's always what we call solution oriented it's also says something about our belief about people we believe people do the best they can to get by with what they have maybe the way they're going about it needs to change but they're trying to be successful in life I have yet to make a meet a parent that gets up in the morning goes I'm going to do the worst job I can of being a parent everybody's trying to do the best they can okay that's one of our beliefs we provide services in two places in clinics one is in sheview the other one is in the Whitebear community counseling centers old building with in White Bear Lake that's how we got to partner with you folks there were four of these youth service bus that started 40 years ago were're the last one that's remaining they've either Fallen by the wayside or they've come together and they've merged and that's how we got to serve uh Suburban Ramsey County um school-based is the AL the other thing is we know we need to go where people are where are kids during the day in the in the classroom so we have therapists that actually go into school buildings and work with the School Personnel to provide Mental Health Services and to work alongside staff okay our community services I already talked about diversion in that really what we're saying is we're trying to help kids get through adolescent to be successful adults we are at a point in our this is my belief we're at a point in our society where we have more jobs open than we have kids and people to fill them we need every kid to be productive it's less of a drain on our resources and who's going to be the next person that's going to work we've got great businesses up here that are going where are our workers coming who's going to be our next board in a Township or in a school board how do we get people involved in community so we got to help them be productive adults and finally day treatment I've already talked about that um it's just intense um if they weren't with us they would be hospitalized somewhere okay next one here quickly this is our budget if you add the green the red and the blue those are our three program areas 75% of what we cost us is for program the rest of it is to operate the organization and you see the okay I'm not even going to waste your time on this I could talk about this forever but what it says is is that contracts that's right you're doing good stay with contracts okay contracts is this is a good dance we're doing good here okay the red is contracts somebody says we're going to give you X number of dollars provide the service for those people and as you provide it we'll reimburse you in our senior chore program we pay kids and adults to go out and work for seniors up until February there wasn't much snow there wasn't much work being done and so there wasn't much and so what we started to do is as much as we can is get away from contracts because they change and they may not fit with what we do as an organization and we've done more with fee based programs we are a rule 29 mental health clinic which just means that we can use Insurance a person's insurance to help pay for services we have a contract with Ramsey County Attorney's Office to provide diversion they reimburse us as we provide those Services we're trying to get a better balance here what we're saying is is this nonprofits need to be run like a business the day and age just say give us the money and just let us do what we want is gone we got to prove to you that it's an investment in your community and we're doing a good job with your money that's what this is really saying next one here um here's what the agreement is with you folks you're one of 15 municipalities we say that anybody in Whitebear Township can have mental health services diversion services or senior chore Services by us regardless we want you to pay something because if you got a little money you got a little skin in the game it's a little different than just a freebie handout but we will never say no you can't have Services because you can't pay for it I already talked about educational tment it's not that we teach kids we get kids ready to learn and you may say well it's not my kid but if the kid sitting next to your kid is disrupt in the classroom your kid's being affected it's about the environment it's about helping positive learning environments be created turns of effective Workforce it's not just getting our next Workforce in terms of kids we hear from adults if I don't have to worry about my kid or my parent or myself at work I'm going to be more productive we know or people who do the research say for every dollar that you put into Mental Health Services an employer can expect a productivity of about $180 that's pretty good investment that's what we talk about these days is social return investment which is the next one there about reduced cost to public what the county says to us is please work for it out in the county take care of those before they become deep in and then they come to us that we have to work with and so we're trying to do prevention and early intervention so that they don't need County Services we use your money to leverage resources we get a grant from the Metropolitan Area Agency on Aging for senior chore but they ask us for a match we're able to use your money to help match that Grant and then finally the one that I don't put up here is problems don't stop at boundaries we're part of a community here and so we're working with the 15 municipality to try and make it a great place to live work and do business um this is just numbers think of households here comparing 2017 to 2018 and I just have to point out up in the right hand corner our information analyst left us for another job at the end of December and we just got a new one so we're a little bit late here and getting our year-end report to you but what we're saying is in 2017 there were 20 households we don't work with an individual we work with them within what's going on in their life in 2018 through September we had 177 households we put a dollar value to it based upon the industry diversion 6 and8 senior chore there's the seniors and the youth so in 2017 there were 34 households that got $226,000 with the service and the contract or the agreement with you folks was 198 that's we say it's an investment we can bring in more resources 2018 so far through 9 months 31 households 23 3 19956 you say well how does it go up what we do is we use the CPI in June to decide whether what you do to support us goes up or down no more than 3% okay numbers uh I'm just how am I doing here stop or go three minutes let me then talk quickly about here's what's going on mindfulness has anybody heard about mindfulness okay mindfulness that you don't know is this how many of you have gone on vacation and brought your cell phone with you and as you're sitting on the beach sitting by the pool sitting by whatever you're connecting to work or connecting whatever mindfulness is be in the moment what we're seeing is mindfulness for us in mental health is folks that have had traumatic experiences or horrible experiences or stuff going on in their life aren't in the moment somebody checked in for services at one of our our our clinics in the process of the receptionist asking the guy for the card for his insurance card he lost it cussing and swearing and whatever at this and after we're talking with her about it and she goes all I did was asked for his insurance card like you would if you went anywhere what she was dealing with was not the moment she was dealing with all the other stuff how many other times has he had to deal with insurance and cards and all that goes with that that's what being in the moment is so we're working with folks on being mindful I connectedness we just need to be part of community I won't get at that Workforce here's the big piece go to the next one our schools got us ready to do this how many of you did multiplication tables growing up okay I was pretty good at multiplication tables who uses a multiplication table today when all you guys a little computer do whatever this was helping us get ready to do things on a repetitive way where today what we got to get kids ready for is this same thing just a little different how do we get folks to be Innovative how do we get folks to work with others how do we get folks to be productive not standing on a productive line but in an Innovative way I'm not even going on the next one here this is all What's um you skipped one here's our partnership ship um 15 communities you can see Whitebear Township there there's the school districts the forign May ones plus we do a little bit with monomi and St Anthony so we're everything from St Anthony to Mami and Hugo and Whitebear Township down to Falcon Heights that's Northeast um Youth Services um quickly um go back to the other one and we'll finish the with here I've got one minute Pat and I'm done collaborations are important we believe in the way we got started back to the story was Partnerships we can't just sit in our office we got to get out in the community that's why we come out to the 15 municipalities that partner with us once a year to talk to you so thank you for letting me come here we also are involved in associations we're involved in the vness Heights Economic Development Council we're involved and rotaries were involved where people are being part of community we've had a long relationship with the faith community and the one and this is why I wanted to talk about this is business there are more help wanted signs out on all levels of Industry and what business is finally saying is we can't stay in our factories and in our offices and expect people to come to us we got to get out in the community part of the community we're seeing more businesses starting to volunteer this is a change from about 15 years ago businesses realize they need to be a part of the community otherwise they're not going to have employees so that's the part about everybody being together on this and finally if you want to help us out we got a leadership lunch it's a way that we bring over 300 folks together it's over on the other side of the of the suburban area but it's about Community coming together and the one that's more in your area at the vness heights common is a taste where we bring in restaurants and come together and have a nice Community together so thank you for partnering with us thank you for helping us work with you to create a place to live work and learn questions comments reactions yep you talk about diversion what is that diversion great diversion is divert a kid from a court this is low firsttime offenders we can either say you can go to court and you can deal with court or what you can do is you can come to us we're still going to meet with you and your family and find out what's going to go on you're still going to understand that you have broken the law and if you need to do restitution or forgiveness to someone who do that but then there is what we call a seminar where you find out about what went on and community service and this is the key part community service used to be and we still hear some people well just make them go out in the streets with a toothbrush and clean the streets and they won't want to do it again no what a kid does is I just won't get caught next time our community service is positive stuff volunteering somewhere being a part of something contributing back to uh going and and going to we do a lot with Feed My Starving Children and we do a lot with helping out seniors and I'll never forget the kid that goes you know she wasn't so weird that was all right and so about being part of something of giving back to community and being part of diversion is a different way of working with kids with first-time offenders so that they go the reason just say no to drugs didn't work is because we didn't help them say yes to something positive and that's what we're trying to do with kids kids want to be successful give them a choice to be positive or negative they're going to go positive that's what we're trying to do is divert them from negative by helping them be positive great question thank you any others yeah hi I'm just how muches the in terms of time or money uh go back to that slide please it's um okay so right there down at the bottom uh you can see the city contract of 199 and what we do is in 2018 through September we've already brought in $23,000 worth of services so you help that but what we're saying is we want to see this as an investment that we want to provide more services than what you just PID for thank thank you yeah anybody else I'll get out of your way thank you for your time thank you for letting me come to your Township I made the mistake one time of calling you folks a city city okay and as a result of that we now say we have 15 Municipal Partners rather than 15 City partners and that's all right because we need to understand our partners so thank you for letting me be a part of you tonight good luck with the rest of your meeting maybe we'll see you next [Applause] year thank you Jerry let's see I don't see any new faces out here so let's go on to the next item on the agenda and that's uh number nine um the Met Council has a uh requirement to update the community uh comprehensive plans every 10 years so we've started working on that this past year and we have uh Laura Chamberlain here from uh H KGI the consultant that's been working with the township on this project so Laura take it away and again I suspect there might be some questions from the floor for Laura if you have any please identify yourselves at the mic back there thank you good evening um my name is Laura Chamberlain I am a planner with Hoisington kogler Group Incorporated we are a consulting firm who uh was contracted with Whitebear Township to work with you through the comprehensive planning process and um I we are in the final steps of um going through the 2040 comprehensive plan so in general what is a comprehensive plan it's a long range document that looks uh typically 20 to 25 years out in the future this one will look out to the year 2040 um it is intended to be Broad in scope and policy oriented um and will provide the basis for future decisions and investments from your town board as well as your public uh officials and c and excuse me uh Township staff and it focuses on EV every aspect of um how a city or a Township or a county functions um and how all of these elements excuse me come together uh and at a very high level for looking at land use decisions housing decisions parks trails and open space uh transportation and then other infrastructure so the planning process that we've gone through we started this back in I believe end of summer 2017 and uh there's five major phases we are at right at the tail end of phase five um but first uh understanding the current conditions of uh the township um conducting or engaging in uh Community context and and Community engagement updating the actual content of the plan um and then preparing the plan uh preparing the complete plan all together and then with a complete draft um seeking approvals and that's the stage that we are in currently um and there have been a few key points Al in the process that we have uh gathered public input um in the fall of two or 2017 we had an online engagement tool called social pinpoint where um you could drop a uh an icon within the city and then leave a comment of I like something here or I'd like to see something different at this place um and we had over 70 people comment or 70 individual comments um and some threads of comments within that um last year at this time we had a display at the um annual meeting uh some of those displays boards are over here if you would like to prise them a little bit more um and then those displays were also at the administrative offices um and then coming up next week um on Monday we have a public hearing for the final draft of the comprehensive plan um this is the draft we have um available there will be a link available on the township website um as well as physical copy in um the town administrative offices uh to look through uh our comprehensive plan is split uh into the following chapters we have an introduction and Community context then moving on to land use plan Transportation plan water resources and Community Services parks and open space plan Trail plan the housing plan and implementation uh the biggest thing of looking out into the future is to see forecasting where we're going um and with that we've been working with um the Metropolitan Council establishes region-wide uh forecasts for population employment and households and um then we have been working based off of our land use analysis and how we think that the township is growing um what we think those estimates ought to be or that forecast ought to be um so the lower line here we can see um a small increase in households there are only a few available um Parcels left for residential development within the township um and so that will be a slow and steady increase in household number of households um Over time however even with an increase in households it's estimated that um the household size within uh Whitebear Township is going to decrease over time and which will actually lead to a stagnation in population instead of um continued growth so um some Trends and directions that the township is headed in um within our comprehensive plan the township will continue uh or continues to have a unique and be a a unique Community within the Met poan area um being a fully built out Community but also having a Township form of government is not something that many other places in Minnesota have um and particularly in the metro area and so that comes with um a lot of unique circumstances that are reflected within how um policy is regarded for the 20 240 plan as I mentioned before there are very few properties that are vacant or underdeveloped within the township um there are most of the development um that is slated to happen will or excuse me where vacant or underdeveloped areas um are along Centerville Road um and that includes residential as well as some commercial and industrial areas um a big focus of a lot of other communities and the uh Metropolitan Council in general is identifying areas uh that are prime for redevelopment in our analysis of land use within in the area um we found that areas that are prime for redevelopment that have access to um uh Transit corridors or um other key intersections things along those lines um are really because of the way the township is laid out are actually found in your surrounding cities So within White Bear Lake or within vess Heights um they kind of have those areas that maybe are more appropriate for redevelopment so we there are not as many prime re Redevelopment areas um identified through this plan um which is a unique situation but also makes sense given how um the township is laid out and looking at our uh parks and open space as well as our Trails chapters uh the park board prioritized uh future Trail connections within the township to and then also so connecting to our regional network uh here is a map of the future land use plan generally we have the exact same map as um the current comprehensive plan which is um still uh in enforcement right now we did add a public institutional uh future land use um as well as had adjusted uh residential densities for the there's one parcel with a designation of residential PUD Al along um Centerville Road and uh that PUD has a range of densities including um low density medium density and high density uh housing and um the intent of that area is to be built as a mixed um housing or excuse me with a mix of different types of residential types um as you can see a by breakdown of land use types uh a majority of the what is considered the land area within uh the township is actually water and wetlands um 21% um is residential less than 1% of the land area is commercial uh 5% industrial around 2% for institutional and then 10% for parks and open space uh that includes the county parks as well as Township parks um and 8% for right of way uh within the process of the comprehensive plan we finished a um uh a draft of the document back in September is um and at that or August I think yes so in August excuse me it's right there on the pr um and at that time distributed that draft uh to a list of adjacent and affected jurisdictions um and that's a list that is uh made up by or excuse me made up by the Metropolitan Council it is a requirement of state statute for us to um send our draft to adjacent communities to allow them an opportunity to make sure that their Com or our comprehensive plan and is in agreement with the policies that they are looking for and there's no conflict similarly um the township has been receiving copies of our neighboring uh uh jurisdictions their comprehensive plans during this time as well and that uh review is a required six-month review we just finished that up uh last month and we've received comments from the city of Hugo city of Lio Lake city of vess heights the city of White Bear Lake which waved comment uh Rice Creek Watershed District uh mot which also waved comment and then Minnesota Department of Natural Resources in general most of the comments that we received from our adjacent communities um were in recognition of our documents um where the document aligned with their plans um there were some minor and Technical changes um no land use changes were recommended or requested and um we were able to integrate those into the draft that you see uh or that is available today and um we had our Planning Commission uh reviewed the draft document at their February 28th meeting um they voted to recommend to the town board that the town board authorized the submittal of this draft of the compreh ensive plan to the Metropolitan Council um and as an element of that recommendation they uh recommended the town board follow one of the comments that was provided by the city of vades heights um to remove a Whitebear Parkway and labor Road connection from the future uh functional class uh road map as that had been in our previous 2030 and 2020 uh comprehensive plans venness Heights has since removed it from theirs and requested um that the area shown within the borders of vness heights be removed from our comprehensive plan so what's next as I mentioned before next week we have a public hearing regarding this document um at the Town board meeting um then after um the town board will hopefully authorize that to be submitted uh via resolution and um a a draft of the plan will be submitted to the Metropolitan Council for their review uh by March 20th and um after the Met Council receives it they conduct a completeness review Once deemed complete then they have 120 days to um uh officially completely review the document uh for consistency with regional policy um once that review is over then the township will have an opportunity again to address any issues or move forward and um we anticipate that we will be adopting the um 2040 comprehensive plan sometime this fall uh there will as I mentioned will be a link uh to download the plan on the township website and I also have it here but it's kind of difficult to see so I can take any questions Kelly Johnson 4064 Whitebear Parkway uh could you Enlighten us why the uh labor Road and Whitebear uh Parkway uh connection which has been in the works or at least been talked about for several decades now how come that was removed uh from consideration MH uh so that was removed from the from vness Heights I believe when the um when that road was initially studied uh with the i35e um coridor study and maybe that was in the early 2000s uh that uh connection had been identified as a um um excuse me I'm just trying to find the right word a frontage road and um what in our transportation functional class we call an A Minor um arterial and since then um the looking through the uh process of where that alignment would go there were some issues with um I believe there's a wetland and Lake right over there as well as um would go through uh what is now private property of um someone in venness Heights who um maybe previously have been interested in selling but now it appears is not um and you know that's kind of on the vness height side of things but so that's how they came to the conclusion that this is likely not going to be a connection that they are going to invest in at this time um and haven't really seen the need to have that um uh a minor connection at that point whether or not there could be a future connection that doesn't have um kind of a functional class uh or or have that high of a status or um that could be possible but um that is not uh we wanted to make sure to remove it from our uh arterial um Network okay thank you Laura all right thank you uh we do have uh one public official in here and Blake Huffman is the commissioner Ramy County Commissioner for our district Blake would you like to uh add a few comments sure first of all let me just congratulate the township on getting rid of that former uh uh supervisor kerm te Bob's a fabulous guy and he knows I'm a big fan of his uh thank you good evening everyone um let me just hit a couple of highlights real quick from the county perspective uh item number one is is um we believe we have a we're going to continue to play a role in Economic Development and that's going to impact um uh all the suburbs out here U eventually someday your great grandchildren perhaps we'll see teap get redeveloped uh no it won't be that long but but uh we're working with the city of Arden Hills trying to figure out how to uh reach an agreement to keep that moving forward but we've got land in uh the old west publishing and the old prison down in uh or jail Center in St Paul is being redeveloped by a private company we'll throw off lots of uh lots of private money roads we're reding doing roads I know your pavement management is about to come up and and give that update uh uh but we're about to this summer we're going to do ball eagle of the west side of the lake from H2 up to J uh lots of culdesac or a lot of uh ditches in there we'll fill in those ditches put some real uh storm sewer in there Etc uh Rush line is coming 2020 to the east of you over down 61 stopping in downtown Whitebear Lake uh so you know when that's all said and done by 2022 you can jump on a on a a bus and take that downtown to uh to to uh the Union Depot if you if you're so inclined um lots of new uh excitement at the county with uh uh we have a new commissioner Trista Mattis Castillo we have a new sheriff uh who's not here but I see his people here Bob Fletcher good guy from vness Heights neighboring vness Heights uh lots of great things happening we have great employees at Ramsey County uh we're trying to figure out how to keep your Levy down uh we we sometimes do better than other times uh we're rebuilding the vness Dome we're just trying to figure out how to pay for it we're looking for a name sponsor maybe the Bob kermes Fieldhouse I don't know Bob if you're interested in that uh but that that's coming we'll get that built over the summer and be ready hopefully for next winter assuming this winter goes away so let me just stop there you got a lot of other things to talk about beside me any quick questions for me sir who's going to own that Dome that you're rebuilding the uh the the who's going to own the Dome and it's going to be a field we're going to make it a field house so it'll have a permanent roof so it won't collapse like it did last April 15th and the county will continue to own it it's right next to hockey rings set are attached to the hockey rinks that we own as well other questions I love oh sir Builder that they anyil I'm not sure who had the liability but we had Insurance that'll pay for a good chunk of that replacement um so uh the the insurance replacement will be uh will be very helpful but we're going to do we're going to make it a permanent roof versus the the old Metrodome roof if you will right so it'll be a permanent hard hard roof uh in the future so it won't collapse again it'll exactly right exactly right it'll be a structure probably similar size I don't know that all that's been determined yet other questions always good to see fellow Ramsey County employees here Steve great to see you anyways thank you enjoy your meeting thank you Blake um tell you what Blake if you really need a name to put on that Sports Center I'll let you use my name but first you have to guarantee the roof doesn't collapse okay uh last year the board and Township staff went to work on looking at uh streets and Street Maintenance and Replacements in the township and it's a it's a extensive issue that uh uh we uh need to address so we put uh our engineering consultant tkda to work on the project uh Larry popper is here from TKD tonight and he's going toh walk us through the plan that they've submitted to the township thank you thank you for having me um as we exit uh the winter season we're now entering the pothole season so it's a good time to talk about pavement management um I'm Larry popper I as as Bob mentioned I work for tkda a Consulting engineering firm that actually has been the Township's engineer for over 40 years and um also with me is uh Jim stadinski who was actually been a town engineer for many years as well um so as as Bob mentioned the the pavement management we began studying this uh last fall and um trying to get an overall look of look at the the overall system the overall payment system in the township and really trying to plan for the right improvements um for the township moving forward looking at costs and trying to find a a way to uh balance those costs so kind of give you a little bit of an overview of pavement management um it's being planful about our maintenance activities our our uh improvements for for our streets and really to prolong the life of the street the initial investment in a street the construction or reconstruction is by far the the costliest portion of uh of uh Street Maintenance and so if we can extend that life that initial construction or reconstruction investment over um a longer lifetime it it provides value to uh to those to to the Township in terms of overall cost um and we're trying to find the be the best return on investment and and doing the right Improvement at the right time um trying to assure Safe Streets and preserve preserve property values as well so I'm not going to talk a lot about uh Street deterioration but the primary source of deterioration is uh is drainage and trying to control the drainage off the street and getting it um away from the street if it gets into cracks and into the street base it freezes and thaws and moves materials and so um trying to do improvements to keep that drainage away from the street soil conditions are also um a concern if if you have poor soils the street doesn't just doesn't last as long um original Street construction if it if it wasn't built to the proper strength for the loading um you don't get the life you need out of the street um and and just Time Time Marches On and the the pavement oxidizes and becomes more brittle and so those are all factors in uh um Street deterioration um this is a a curve of of degradation of a a street and so every street degrades a little bit differently that curve is steep for some streets depending on the factors I just mentioned and so every street has this curve of it starts off an excellent condition and just over time slowly deteriorates um uh next slide please and so this is another graph that shows uh the deterioration the red line is uh is that curve I just showed where if if you do nothing to the street over the course of 25 to 30 years that street will degrade um and then you would have to invest dollars to improve it back up to a brand new condition and then it would deteriorate again if you did nothing if you follow the blue line um the blue line has improvements or items that can be done um to prolong the life of the street so the first couple blips there are seal coats and crack sealing and and sealing the cracks and seal coating the street helps prolong that life of that street but eventually maybe 20 22 years 25 years you have to do what's called a Mill and overlay where you're taking the the top surface grinding it removing it and putting a new Surface on and that brings that life back up not quite up to 100% but um back up to a higher percentage again you do strategic um um seal coating and crack sealing and it degrades some more and then you do another Mill overlay to prolong that life and eventually you can't do another millon overlay because the the base material beneath the street has just broken down over time and but that's how you can get you know 60 55 to 60 years out of out of that initial Street investment so if you follow that blue line versus the red line um you can save um 33% on the overall cost of that street over the course of 60 years and so that's what we're trying to do and and trying to help the township manage so the township U we're going to talk more about the the township streets we the township evaluates their streets on a scale of 0 to five and the all the streets in in the township are are analyzed and um given a rating and what we found is that the overall average of the township Street system is 3.4 um we are recommending that that that range or of that rating of the entire system stay within the 3.4 to 3.6 um um kind of that range you know certainly we want to be be higher than 3.6 if we can but um if we can try to stay in that range um that's good for the township overall overall um streets that are below a 2.2 rating and maybe you can go back to the other slide they're kind of down in this range where they're they're looking at more costly improvements eventually for for uh um repairs um the the range here between these two lines is is 2.2 to 3.25 that's the category we're looking at uh Mill and overlay type of improvements um I can go to the next slide so when you look at at the overall Street system within the township the green category is the category we're looking at seal coating and crack sealing and about uh 60% of the streets in the township are at that uh at that just in that steal coating and crack ceiling um Range they're up higher in the in the in the uh graph um streets that need eventually will need Mill and overlay are in the yellow there's 6.6 miles or 15% um and then the red is the category where the streets are beyond that 2.2 um and lower R ranking and so there's about 25% of the township streets that have uh are below that 2.2 category um overall um the it's good to see that there's 60% of streets and that uh above that 3.25 or in that seal coat but the the percentage of uh the red is a bit higher than we'd like to see so taking the data and looking at the overall the overall Township we uh looked at grouping projects over the next five years and um really we again we want to try to prioritize th those yellow that yellow category to try to catch them before they get to the red category so um looking at we're recommending a a series of Mill and overlays this this summer to try to get those streets before they get to that red category and again try to prolong that life of that street we have a a few years uh four years of improvements uh more more extensive improvements uh mainly in the Southeast area of the township and then in 2023 looking at another larger Mill and overlay project also as a part of the evaluation or the the study was to try to look at uh our communication um undertaking Street improvements um you know getting the word out there about the street improvements and then talking um to people how that affects you and um what the costs are going to be so we as a part of the study created a a communication outline and uh plan for projects so overall the after the study was completed there the overall recommendations were to complete the right improvements at the right time and we're here to help make the the um help make recommendations to the town board for that um we want to prioritize the crack ceiling seal coating and Mill and overlay projects to get the most life out of your streets um overall for the system because we have we have 42 miles of streets if you do the math on every 20 years of mill in overlay um every 60 years of reconstruction the township should be completing about on average 7 miles of reconstruction or Rehabilitation and 1.4 miles of Mill and overlay to to get that life at 60e life out of the street and so as a part of that it that amounts to um roughly $2 million so part of the study was looking at a strategy for to come up with costs and we're still working on that with the town board on the right way to spread out the cost in terms of Assessments um tax levy um and utility funds and we're looking exploring other options for funding as well so that concludes my part of the presentation and I'm here for questions yes sir yeah Steve Dew from 398 L would Avenue and U I'm just curious so I'm seeing an R Street R section which happens to be the south side of white bear Lakewood Avenue stacker Homewood um and I know we're in a what they call the reclaim which is a bad section of Street um one one question I would have is the assessment what what diligence was put into that assessment and then secondly what is going to determine the cost of of that is that just a straight process for every area or is it something that you look into and say well maybe we can do a Mill and overlay even though this is in bad shape maybe we can do that I guess that's kind of two questions in one but what what processes do you have to make that determination on sure you've already made a determination here you're bad number one number two what what are the processes that come with that is it just a straight process here's what we're going to do and then and then three is there any any uh check or balance system into the rating of these streets okay for example maybe we don't agree that our street is a bad street but it seems that we're in a bad area so we're part of the bad group I guess sure I gave you three questions I I think the one the one answer to that to basically all three is there there's further study on those streets so um the rating is one piece and then grouping of projects is selected and then there's a process called a feasibility study and that you you dive in deeper into that that neighborhood and those those streets and you're looking at um you're doing probes beneath the soil and the coring coring of the pavement and those cores will help tell if uh if they need that more costly Improvement or maybe we can get more life out of that street and doing a Mill and overlay and so um that's the check and balance of that so then I would follow that up with if uh we're we're deeming that this sections of streets that it be imminent hey this is a good Mill and overlay we can save money here would that be that we go and test all streets right now because basically you're telling me from that test is going to determine where we go with the next process wouldn't that make it imminent that we test all the streets at once so we find out are we really in this bad rating or are we saying that that ground testing is really what's determining what the next step is going to be yeah that's a good that's a good point um um there's certain streets that are probably with that there's a 2.2 and then there's you know maybe they're in the ones and you know we um we probably think that they are past that that they're going to be more Co a more costly repair but yeah certainly those ones that are closer to the 2.2 category maybe that make does make some sense to do some um additional um analysis before they get further along is is the is that core assessment you're talking about is that the determinative thing that determines what's going to happen next yes yep it looks at the it looks at the underlines question I would ask a question wouldn't it make sense to do a core assessment everywhere or how are you getting at you're you've done what I think is a subjective a surface look but yet you're telling me this core assessment is the key determiner it make sense to do that and then figure out hey here's your real overlay you know overlay ones and here's your not here's how we should prioritize this I'm just asking yeah no that's that's a that's a fair point I think it's the the the streets that are closer to that 2.2 or right on that cusp are the streets you're talking about streets that are further along um you know and you you also look at the age when was it paved it is that is that base um you know 40 50 years old already when it was originally constructed and and now you know that that um pavement below that surface is already that age that it probably doesn't make sense to um do that additional probing but there are some cases in this in this Township where it may make some sense to do additional analysis before um they get further in below the 2.2 Joe I also live on Lakewood down in uh Precinct 3 um uh perhaps you're the wrong individual to be asking this question of but uh uh the assessment for that work obviously portion of it is going to be born by the Township in general and a part of it will be assessed to the homeowners whose area is improved uh what approxim it be that percentage and would that uh would that occur as it did with this uh sewer relining per household or would it be by Frontage on the road thank you yeah I'll answer the second question first generally for neighborhoods it's a unit assessment where everyone's assessed the same um when you get into properties that have part commercial part residential it gets a little trickier to do a unit assessment it might be front footage but um that that's more specific to properties that are adjacent to commercial um and your first question was the ratio between oh yes and the Township's exploring that right now we're we're exploring the cost for this 2019 project and and getting a a feasibility report prepared for that neighborhood and we are preparing options for the township to consider on different ranges of uh assessment amounts I've been reminded we need to to go to the microphone and use that because this whole proceedings is being carried over closer to TV so Steve Reeves 5341 Cedarwood Court I just want to say while we're on the topic are roads thanks to the public works department for keeping the streets clear especially this winter with all the snow events we've had it's not I can't imagine it's fun getting up in the middle of night having to do this over and over again every week it seems like so thanks a lot [Applause] guys Teresa tingerthal 1711 Whitaker my question is previous assessments for the roads about what uh what portion has been covered by the township taxes and what cover what percentage has been uh individ ual assessments I understand previously that assessments were 100% 100% of the cost now um the the state statute allows a maximum assessment of the benefit received and and so the cost of improvements because um oil prices continue to rise and gas prices the cost of road construction is increased and and so it may not be possible to assess 100% anymore because the benefit received isn't equal to the cost so that's why the the township is evaluating um different options for that anybody else thank you thank you very much thank you Larry okay now we're up to the item that I think everybody's really interested in but first you have to listen to a Tom Kelly joke I don't have one oh you're lucky all right uh what Tom is going to do is give us a preliminary or give us a statement for the preliminary tax levy uh for next year 2020 and again I'm sure there'll be a lot of questions um for the benefit of people watching on on closed circuit TV we do need any questions to be presented at the microphone thank you yeah I'm sorry to disappoint people but I just really don't have a joke uh the only thing I can say is going back to the last item I told the town board I said the good news is we do have the money to do the street improvements uh uh listed on the plan the bad news it's in your resident's Pockets right now so um as Larry said we are still trying to figure out uh the right formula on assessments versus uh taxes and uh other funding mechanisms but uh that's where we're at R now um as in the past uh for the 2020 uh tax levy first I'm going to go through kind of what happened in 2018 uh what we have going on in 2019 with our budget and tax levy and then get into uh the 2020 proposed preliminary Levy uh as in the past I've uh touted these Awards uh the first one here is for our annual financial report our audit report uh for year end uh that award uh the certificate of achievement uh the township has now received that award 22 years and we're one of 139 government agencies in the state of Minnesota to receive that award that includes uh townships cities counties uh State organizations and so there's only 139 that receive this award uh on the bottom is our budget award uh we're one of 29 government agencies in Minnesota to receive that award and uh we' received that award 17 time uh years uh not in a row but uh pretty much uh the last five years uh when I've been here uh we've received that award and then finally uh the popular report uh we've received that the last four years and we're one of 16 government agencies in the state of Minnesota to receive that one and we're one of 14 government agencies to receive all three of these Awards uh in the state of Minnesota so uh I'm very proud of that fact that uh we're able to achieve those Awards um for 2018 uh uh we will be getting our audit uh they've already started uh some of the preliminary work back in February uh then they'll be back in uh April uh and may to kind of complete the audit work and then they will our Auditors will present a final uh report uh in June to the town board by State Statute we have to have the report submitted to the state auditor by the end of June and so uh that's what we're uh trying for and then once uh it has been presented to the board it will be available on the town's website uh if you do uh want some uh if you're having trouble sleeping at night and you need something to put you to sleep you could go on the town's website and get our current uh financial report for 2017 I'm sure you'll be asleep and after a couple of pages um for 2018 and these are un audited numbers excuse me uh right now we have total revenues of uh just under 4 million $300,000 uh our budget for the year uh was just over $4 million and uh unfortunately property taxes accounted for uh 7 just over 76% of those revenues and uh that compares to favor or similarly to what we've had the last few years uh one good sign that the economy is doing well uh normally our collection rate on our property taxes is usually uh about 98 to 99% uh but for 2018 we've actually collected almost everything we have uh levied so we're at almost 100% um and then other Revenue sources that we had budgeted uh for 2018 a lot of those uh were slightly above what we had budgeted on the expenditure side so far uh We've uh expended just under $4 million uh our operating expenditures came in about $63,000 below the 2018 budget however we still got some uh bills that we're still getting in uh that we'll have to assigned back to 2018 uh so we'll be probably very close to uh budget uh once all of those are recorded in 2018 uh we had uh just over a million1 100 uh a, 897 th000 in construction activities uh some of that was for the Pine Hill uh development which is a new development uh Apple Tree Park had some new uh um improvements to it and then uh we had the completion of the sanitary sewer lining and then of course our 2018 seal coat project uh on the good news our Debt Service uh for 2018 uh we now only have a, 640,000 uh in debt outstanding uh we have maintained our uh Moody's uh rating of able A2 uh most of the debt that's outstanding is being paid for either through tax increments or special assessments so it it really hasn't affected our property taxes and in fact we haven't had a debt Levy uh in the last uh four to five years uh our Enterprise funds uh as uh you all know as uh utility users our rates we have been adjusting them each year and from those adjustments uh we now had uh 2018 so far we've recorded uh 3,3 and4,4 million uh however we haven't recorded uh the $780,000 of depreciation uh yet so um even though we are showing a gain of about 200 uh, uh two uh will end up with a little bit of a loss uh once that depreciation gets recorded uh again uh the utility funds uh the gains and the losses a lot of times depend on the type of projects that we have uh going on and uh the last couple of years we've had some uh quite large projects uh that have affected our balance uh but the good news is uh we should be adding uh about 100,000 in cash to the utility funds for 2018 our 2019 budget uh we had our annual budget meeting on December 11th uh their residents approved the 2019 property tax levy of 3,4 3,55 uh that is what we did present uh to the residents and then the residents recommended a 2019 operating budget of uh 4,231 $356 and the town board did approve that budget at their December 17th um uh Town board meeting and the budget itself uh the largest part portion of our budget is Public Safety it's 37% of our total operating budget uh Public Works is then 25% uh General government uh 23% and then our parks uh makes up uh the remaining uh portion of that uh 2019 budget uh was a balanced budget using a conservative Revenue estimates uh the 2019 budget increased uh revenues and expenditures about 4.65% over the 2018 budget and this graph just shows the uh how much we do rely on property taxes uh for our revenues and to fund our operate our operating expenses the blue line here is property taxes and the red lines or bars are all of our all of our other revenues and I would expect that will continue unless uh something changes in the legislature where we get uh money from some other sources uh but we are heavily relying on our property taxes uh for 2019 uh in fact uh 8.42% of our Revenue will come from property taxes and as you can see from the the chart here it's very similar to what it has been in the past uh the general uh operating budget as I said is a 4.65% increase uh the different areas General government which is uh our town board Community Development uh recycling the election activities in our Administration uh that increased just over 3 and a half% our Public Safety which is the police the fire uh and code enforcement uh that did have a large increase of 5.74% and then our Public Works uh activity uh because we were trying to fund uh more of the seal coat project and then um we had some other uh things that increased uh we assigned more Public Works time there uh they did actually increase uh just over 9% and then finally our Park and Recreation activity actually decreased 3% uh but again that decrease was mainly due to some of the uh Park improvements we had fewer Park improvements in eight in uh 19 plan than we did in 18 uh as I said the residents did approve a Le a property tax levy of 3,400 $3,055 uh that was an increase of 5.47% Over Our 2018 Levy again we did not have a debt Levy um as I said we haven't had one now per for about 5 years uh the good news is uh the town's tax capacity increased uh just over 52% and uh is over 14,48 and uh the only uh over the last 15 years only 2008 did we have a higher tax capacity and it and we're just slightly below that so we've basically recovered from uh the housing uh crisis that happened in 2008 uh where values dropped so we're back up to uh basically where they were before the other good news on that is commercial values are starting to rise uh prior to 2019 uh it was mainly the Residential Properties that were increasing in values and commercial was still flat from the recession and now commercial values are rising when it was when the residential values were Rising commercial was flat it was shifting property tax burden more onto the residents than onto the commercial and now that both are increasing they're sharing equally into that property ta any property tax increases that we've been having uh the tax capacity and the levy uh resulted in a tax rate of 21. 68.1% which is still the third lowest in Ramsey County uh the general fund uh our our budget and our 10-year CIP is available on the town's website and on our Facebook page uh again some real good uh help you get to sleep breeding if you uh so desire which brings us to the 2020 uh property tax levy and again uh you've heard it before uh this is our worst case scenario we've used conservative re Revenue estimates uh in our worst case expenditures as we get into our budget process we can always lower the levy but we can't exceed the levy that is approved tonight uh the 2020 uh budget and final property tax levy will be presented at the special Town budget meeting which is currently scheduled for 700 p.m. on December 10th uh and it's scheduled at Heritage Hall uh as in the past and that was set at that date and time and location was set at last year's uh budget meeting uh as I said uh we can lower the levy but we can't raise it uh this chart just shows you uh the red uh is our preliminary Levy and and the yellow is our final Levy and you can see uh since 200 uh 2000 uh every year we've basically presented you with a preliminary Levy and then the final Levy has been uh lower than that and we hope that'll be the case again uh this year for 2019 for example the preliminary Levy was 3,868 742 and we ended up with a final Levy of 3,43 th55 so it dropped you know over uh 8 uh $460,000 the proposed preliminary Levy for 2020 right now as we are presenting it is at$ 4,3,2,1 16% from the 2019 preliminary Levy so last year uh we're uh basically 11% over what I presented last year at this time uh to the residents uh we determined uh that Levy uh based on our 2019 budget and then 2018 and 17 actual revenues and expenditure level and then we've added some inflationary adjustments uh with the following exceptions uh 2020 will be an even Year and that means our uh rental dwelling licenses and our animal licenses uh are due for Renewal uh that adds revenue of about $224,700 uh to our budget uh so that's 24,000 we don't have to Levy for uh we did leave our state and county aids at our 2019 amounts uh the bad news is it really doesn't matter that much uh in state AIDS we get $15 um fiscal disparities uh I just rounded it down to$ 275,000 uh dollars uh fiscal disparities is a revenue share in pool for uh based on Commercial development and uh commercial uh values uh the formula to calculate that does uh use our Levy a little bit uh so we since we did increase our Levy we probably will see an uh a slight increase in our fiscal disparities for 2020 but I left it rounded it down to 275,000 for 2020 antenna leases uh on our uh water towers uh I reduced it down to 175,000 from our current 232 790 uh part of that is uh we're starting to see uh with the small cell towers and stuff uh there's less and less of a need for these companies to have the big antennas on our water towers and so I'm thinking eventually those leases are going to go away in fact one of the companies that leases on one of our Towers uh we just received uh notice that they're in bankruptcy so uh I think those revenues uh why they were nice why we had them uh might eventually be going away um and hopefully if we do get the revenues and we only budget uh a smaller amount we can assign some of those revenues to uh our street projects so that we don't have to assess and Levy uh the full things to you we can get it from some of these antenna leases on the expenditure side uh we're still under our Union contract uh which calls for a 2% increase on January 1st and a 1 and a half% it should say on July 1st um the Union contract does expire at the end of 2020 so uh starting next year we'll be uh renegotiating uh the contract but right now we are locked into that for 2020 uh right now the 2019 budget has a uh new full-time Public Works position uh so in n in 2020 we have to uh budget for the full year for that position uh we haven't filled that position yet uh in fact we haven't even advertised for it yet so we're only going to have part of the of 19 to pay for uh that position position but in 2020 if we do hire somebody for that we'll have the full year uh so that was added into the budget and then we have a new part-time uh administrative position that we're proposing uh to start sometime in 2020 uh it would help with some of our Communications updating our website getting us going on uh record uh retentions and schedules and stuff like that uh we increased our summer help uh budget uh to increase the increased need for Street Maintenance and park maintenance needs uh for right now in the 2020 budget we have 50,000 uh proposed for those uh part-time summer help uh compared to our 2019 budget where we budgeted 36,000 for those activities um perah our retirement fund for our employees uh they have been requesting the legislature to increase uh the contribution rate both for the uh Township share and for the employee share the last few years uh because of governor vetos and stuff those bills or those increases haven't got uh passed I expect them to be back before the legislature asking for an increase uh again uh so I've increased that to 8% it's currently at 7 uh five I think or 7.75 um so I've got a little bit of an increase in case they go back before the legislature asking for that health insurance I increased uh 15% uh currently uh in 2019 we had about a 3% increase on our health insurance rates uh but in the past we've been around uh 7 to8 uh perc on our health insurance so I've got a little bit uh of wiggle room there uh all of those items that I just listed uh basically increases our budget by just over 154,000 or 11.71% uh other items that have changed I increased the transfer for our seal coat project uh by 31,000 to 112,500 uh we haven't been funding our seal coding uh 100% uh the last few years uh and including in 2020 we propos a seal coat project with a cost of around 150,000 uh so we're getting closer to funding that at 100% by increasing it up to 112500 uh Park improvements based on our 10year CI i p uh will'll put in 275,000 on the budget our equipment rental fees that we charge the Departments for the equipment that they use so that when we need to replace the equipment we have the funds on hand I'm setting that that right now at 60% uh we're currently funding it between 30 to 25% so again it's something we have not been funding at 100% like we should uh uh so that by doing it moving it up increasing those fees up to 60% of the depreciation cost uh we're getting closer to that 100% uh the sheriff's contract uh for patrol and dispatch and then the fire budget I have increased at 10% and 17.06% respectively uh in 2019 the the fire department budget took a a pretty healthy increase uh so that they could hire some uh additional full-time firefighters to improve response time during the day uh so I've got that a little bit higher than normal uh than so that we can uh meet their new demands likewise with the uh sheriff's department they have uh some uh Capital costs and so forth that uh look like will go online possibly in 2020 so I've got those increased a little bit more than what we've seen in the past uh in 2020 I've got 85,000 budgeted for sign replacement for the new uh reflectivity standards originally we were supposed to have all of our signs uh replaced and meeting new uh Federal reflectivity standards uh by 2020 but they keep pushing it out and pushing it out and they finally did away with that but yet uh we still need to replace some of our signs to get them uh more readable at night and and so forth especially for the emergency vehicles and then uh We've budgeted 35,000 uh for uh emal Emeral ashore activities whether that be treating trees or removing uh trees that are affected by the ashore uh we did have uh some cases of ashore reported in uh 2018 and I would expect some more in in 19 and then even in 20 so we've got some money budgeted to deal with that uh Township uh day budget uh we've got 41,500 budgeted for that uh Festival uh in the past we've spent about $ 36,7 on that activity so I've increased that a little bit and then uh if we do go ahead with the uh 2019 Street project that Larry was talking about uh just a few minutes ago uh we will have to issue debt to pay for those uh that project uh which will then give us uh with planning not having uh the ability to assess 100% we're going to have to come up with the township share so I do have uh $3 34,1 90 budgeted uh for uh a debt Levy uh to start repaying the bonds that we'd issue in 2019 uh based on a preliminary uh Bond schedule that uh we have and as I said it would be our first debt Levy since 2015 all of that results in a 2020 uh preliminary property tax levy of 4,3,2,1 [Music] uh also in doing this just to give you some estimates uh I did leave the town's tax capacity uh at the 14, 48143 which is what it is for 2019 I'd expect that to increase uh for 2020 but if we leave it at that uh at the 2019 rate and we the the levy that I propose is approved our tax rate would go to 27.94 uh last year when I did the presentation at the annual meeting we estim estimated the the tax rate at 26.2 68 uh so we're not too far off from there and if there was no change in your home's market value uh you would see a property tax increase of $84 or between $84 and $188 for homes valued at $135,000 up to 300,000 uh to make that more pable you could break it down to a month L cost uh it would be $7 to $15.68 a month more that you'd be paying in property taxes uh as I've said uh the red line here is the preliminary Levy that we presented at the annual meeting here in March and the yellow line is the final Levy and I would hope that when we get down to no December when we have the budget meeting again we'll be down somewhat lower than what the red uh bar is there uh that's my hope anyways again we are our tax rate is the third lowest in Ramsey County uh Whitebear Lake and North Oaks are the only two that are lower than us North Oaks is way lower than everybody else and that's because they pay for a lot of their services through an association fee so instead of a levy they are paying uh a fee for for their services your property tax bill that you'll be receiving here probably shortly uh the breakdown of it uh most of the money uh you pay in property taxes goes to Ramsey County they make up about 48% of your property tax bill uh the school district makes up 24% of your uh Property Tax Bill and then the township makes up 20% and then there's some miscellaneous uh tax ta ing districts that make up just over 7% of your your property tax budget so again uh after tonight the town can lower their budget uh as we go through or the levy as we go through our budget process but we cannot exceed whatever is approved tonight uh this is our worst case scenario using conservative Revenue estimates and worst case expenditure estimates and we do have the preliminary budget or preliminary tax levy proposed at 4,300,000 621 uh our budget uh work will actually get started at the end of May beginning of June that's when department heads will start filling out what they think they need for 2020 uh for operating expenses we'll start getting in some of our Revenue estimates from the different organizations and uh so we'll really start working at uh the budget uh in July starting to work towards as I said hopefully lowering this Levy with that I'll take any questions that you may have uh uh on our budget uh or our past activity or anything you may have on the town's finances yes sir Tuma 4294 H me Lane if I read these statements correctly the tax Lev is going to increase by over $900,000 um and we're going to have to borrow money to take care of that we need to work harder to find a way to reduce our expenses so that we do not have to go out and borrow money um that is an expense it continues for a long period of time there's also Financial uh commercial banks that we have to pay to float a loan so there's more money associated with it that way um one source of funds might be to sell the white bear stable properties which the township now owns and purchase for over $900,000 so what is the chance that we can sell the white bear stable property and raise this $900,000 over there rather than put it on my tax bill and or borrow money let's take those in different steps um for our operating budget we won't be borrowing any money that is is strictly through uh either other Revenue sources that we currently get like our licenses our building permits those sort of things and our property tax levy the only thing that we borrow money or we'll have to borrow money for is if we go ahead with the the street reconstruction projects that were proposed in Larry's presentation we we because they're going to cost over $2 million the township doesn't have $2 million just sitting in the bank that we could use to pay that and wait for our money to come back in through either assessments or property taxes or whatever you have so so the only thing we'd be leving for is the street reconstruction projects that would be the only thing we'd be borrowing money for the second part of that question on um the stable property um and it's kind of semantics but there's legal stuff into it the town Economic Development Authority actually purchased that land with the idea to resell it and we're going to be trying to resell sell it uh hopefully this year uh in 19 and and get some development happening on that uh property but because the Economic Development Authority owns it we're restricted as to what we can use that money for that we get back from that property and chances are because of the type of development that that property will um allow or can can hold we're not probably not going to get the money that we paid for it out of it it so there's going to have to be some other funding there to help with that and so we'll probably be creating a tax increment district for that to get all of our money back out of that that District well that's going to be residential right yes yes eventually those residential homes will be paying uh once they're on the tax rols you know it it would add to our tax capacity which would then lower the tax rate and in theory lower everybody's property taxes uh but that's going to take a while you know uh the especially if we create a tiff District uh because Tiff tax increments are are restricted as to the type of use and so forth that we can use it won't be able to be used for our general operating expenses uh once the district expires it it can be uh and likewise even if we don't create a a tax increment District uh because of the leg in when you you will receive uh your notice uh of your 2019 property tax values in about May from the county assessor and those values would be used for the 2020 tax levy and so any home that would be let's just say if they they started a house in 19 they would be using the value of the land at the beginning of 2019 which is just land and then so it would be like we wouldn't see any uh value added until like at the earliest 2021 so it there's just a leg there so it does take time but eventually you're right and any resid any development there whether it's residential commercial it would add to our tax capacity which would then lower our tax rate and lower your taxes uh all infrastructure like streets yeah those those uh will have either the developer pay or we'd be uh assessing those and because they are new assessments more than likely we can assess 100% of those so so they'll pay pay for the infrast structure it it's just um you know the like I say there's a leg before those values actually hit the tax rolls to help lower the property taxes uh the other point uh that you kind of hit on is yes we are increasing our expenditures uh from year to year uh things are going up uh the town board does try to keep our uh expenditures as close as possible and and understands that when we do increase our expenditures uh it's affecting the residents in a property tax levy and so they they do their best to maintain what we have and and keep Services where they're at without uh reducing Services um so they are very cognizant of who's paying for these services this Deb to me is something to be avoided I'm a type of person who's never borrowed b car by car not once so I like it when I don't have debt it's a nice feeling I don't have to make payments or interest um and the township should be looking at it the same way um I think that maybe we need to adjust the stre if we can possibly avoid going back into the bond market yeah good news is right now with interest rates being as low as they are it's a good time to borrow money um but I'm with you I'd rather have the money uh but again um the only other thing would be like I say I can basically fund everything uh they're presenting in the uh Street Improvement plan that Larry presented the bad news is it's basically I need the money from the residents to do it uh um it's got to come from somewhere and unfortunately without some changes in the legislature uh we don't have a lot of options available to us right now um we're working uh with the legislature to maybe enact some of those changes where we can get more an aid uh like the city of Whitebear Lake and some of the other cities but uh that's kind of an uphill battle um cuz like I say the city of white be Lake gets over a million dollars and Aid and we get $15 so I think you have another question back here sure I didn't just answer I'm just looking at the budget yep budget 2017 Steve dof uh Lakewood Avenue uh the township budget uh you know which is a 2017 budget and you might have just answered it but I was wondering you know our tax rate even though it is one of the lowest is uh three percentage points I think uh above White Bear uh the city and my question was how long has it have we been above the city can somebody give me an idea have we always been above the City I always thought we were lower than the city um and so I'm looking at that and to me 3% seems like a lot you just told me about a million bucks that we don't get that they get so that probably plays a role uh what El what else is goes into that yeah actually number is and a half million um yeah um basically let's go to how long uh we were the second lowest and I left the Township in 2008 I want to say and it hap and the town became the third largest so I want to say in about 2009 um because of other factors and stuff uh Whitebear Lake uh or cities I shouldn't just uh say single out White Bear Lake uh because of of the um local government Aid formula as Bob said they've the city of Whitebear Lake gets uh a million and a half do uh in local government Aid we get $15 another thing the city gets uh which helps with uh their street reconstruction projects is they get municipal or gas tax money and uh because we're a Township we're not eligible for that so we don't get anything that way uh so even though you are paying taxes every time you fill up your gas T tank uh we do not get the benefit of those funds um well I guess shouldn't say we don't get the county gets some benefit from it so that when they do County Roads uh they get some benefit um but uh those are the two things that the city gets that we do not get now in 2017 as you said we were about 3 percentage points higher but because the city increased their Levy quite a bit last year because of uh different things uh we're only about 2% higher now uh so we we're closing that gap on them but uh it's probably going to be a while before I can stand up here and possibly say we're going to be the second lowest so I don't know if that answered your question fully or not thank you other questions seeing none I'll turn it back to Bob all right so as Tom mentioned then the the action that we're being requested for Township residents to approve tonight is to uh approve the proposed 2020 uh preliminary property tax levy and the total amount as Tom said was $4,365 so we need a motion from the township residents in a second is there a motion I'll move motion's been made is there a second second motion's been made and seconded to approve the preliminary property tax levy for 2020 if there's no further discussion those in favor please say I I any opposed that one a all right the motion passes and there is no other business on the agenda other than a couple of announcements uh the um a was previously taken to set the special budget meeting for Tuesday December 10 2019 at 7:00 7 p.m. in Heritage Hall so that's already been set and there is a backup uh meeting date if bad weather prevents using that date then the backup uh meeting date would be December 12th at 700 p.m. at Heritage Hall and then the final item that we have to do is by your vote set a time and location for the 2020 annual meeting to be held at this location Otter Lake Elementary School uh at 700 p.m. or in the event of uh inclement weather or some other reason that can't happen uh use Heritage Hall at 700 p.m. Tuesday March 10th what did I miss here no it's it's to hold the meeting on March 10th at either this location I'm sorry yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah okay everybody else understands that I don't but as long as you guys understand that's what counts is there a motion to that effect clar attorney you have two separate motions well uh it would be one motion the the issue is it's already been set is whether or not we should have it here which has generally been the uh vote of the residents or move it to Heritage Hall so they the motion would be to hold the meeting on March 10th either the motion that would be made would be to hold the meeting March 10th at Otter Lake Elementary School okay or to hold the meeting at on March 10th at Heritage Hall that would be it'd be either or yes okay so the one option is for the meeting here the annual meeting here or the other option is at Heritage Hall I move that we have the next meeting last s that would be March 10th okay so motion's made to have the next annual meeting March 10th here at AR Lake Elementary School at 7 pm is there second any further discussion did that address the question Pat thank you I just I needed the clarification yeah I do have one other item know it's you do have okay F item on the agenda right that's the next that's item 14 we're only on 13 okay thank thank you for we need all the help we can get sometimes all right so the motion is made and seconded there's no further discussion those in favor of the motion to have the me next annual meeting at this location March 10th please say I I I any opposed that motion passes then finally item 14 is for other business is there any other business we'll keep it brief uh John Bartholomew 4448 Margaret Street I'm here for a group that has been formed neighborhood concerned citizens group we're here to address water Gremlin uh we're concerned about the number of people that have been exposed to toxic emissions uh this has been a fast moving subject up till a month ago WI Fair Township Jim Lake and white bear have been pretty sleepy happy communities and all that changed on January 31st when the Township Board was notified that two hours before um Pia control agency was going to have a statement about uh water Gremlin on uh January 1st we were notified via the paper that they have been shut down for polluting the environment since then we've had one we've had two meetings one meeting that was put on by the PCA to address it and then a month later on the 1st of January water Gremlin and the PCA reached an agreement they refined $7 million last Thursday we had another meeting put on by uh the PCA and the health department and uh with the people to address the conditions concerns a lot of questions uh our group yesterday called at Heritage Hall for a meeting of all the groups that were concerned and that's County officials State officials various people from the neighborhood and out of that came what happened today uh at approximately 11:30 uh Senators Chuck weager Roger Chamberlain Senator I isacon and Victoria Reinhardt proposed a bill that said that $4.5 million of the7 $7 million settlement which was a civil fine was to be put in a separate account and it was to be used only by the stakeholders which is us to be used as needed as we go forward uh this we we were concerned that the money would be put into the general fund State coffers what whatever this didn't happen the bill was presented there were no questions it was voted on and passed uh that's a score for us in our community tomorrow we will be at the Senate again and Chamberlain will present a bill to ban tce the use of tce in the state this is a very toxic uh pollutant it's used to clean Parts uh it has been banned in other countries it's been banned in other states it's been sitting on the desk of the EPA for four years now and has not been signed we expect that bill we hope that bill will be passed a mile there's no reason for it not to be but I'm here to let people know that there is a group of citizens that have been formed to address the concerns we're still on our infancy we have more questions than ansers and a great deal of angst among the population the least of which or the most important is our health concerns property values water everything else uh currently we have a Gmail account that I will give uh that you can contact and it's called Neighbors unite 55110 gmail.com and again we're still getting formed we need some help we need someone that's a web developer to help us out so that being said I would like turn it over to another one of the neighbors Sherry Smith is another one of the core group she has some questions that hopefully uh can be answered by the Township Board and Ed you look like a deer in the headlights but here it comes thank you I am Sher Smith 4345 Whitaker court and I do have a comment and a question for the Whitebear Township Board so as as John expressed there is considerable and profound concern among the citizens who have been exposed to these toxic emissions there are lots there is lots of Discovery still underway what are the pollutants how long have we been exposed what type of pollutants until we get those questions answered I want to know if the Township board can make a comment about the planned expansion that water Gremlin has been pursuing Pat can I Pat Patrick can can you address that question can you as as I know theion put on back in De [Music] January uh when we met the other morning um I know you guys did a great presentation with with the group uh a couple things caught my mind obviously we are suspending any uh expansion of waterr that stands right now we are um accumulating and Gathering as much information as like you folks can we uh we're also going a little bit above and beyond we're we're going to start testing our private Wells we don't have very many in that area I think they're two to five our Municipal Wells were tested in October which came out clean and then we're um we're looking at um uh all other um Industries in the township whether they use tce or not we're looking at all their permits obviously um the township was CAU a little bit flat footed too we did not realize that that process of their monitoring was self-reporting so we are going proactive and making sure that uh this doesn't happen in another one of our Industries so we're looking at that and then uh we're just basically trying to address all you guys' concerns and all our residents concerns and as as we get information we're going to pass it on to you well we're doing the best we can this is uh we're not MP ACA Specialists we're not Minnesota Department of Health Specialists we rely on these folks they've kind of let us down but we're doing our best to get up to speed on it and we appreciate all the input that you folks gave us thanks and I would like to ask if if the testing in the municipal Wells was for tce only or for other pollutants okay so lead yep all right and I I appreciate um the remark the fact that that it was characterized as letting us down is um it it doesn't begin to cover what people are feeling in terms of health concerns property values um what's been going on and again we're still in in the discovery phase and I just uh I want to be able to rely upon the township where this business is is held that that that you're standing with us and you're listening and you got to remember all three of us live in the township too so we're we're in the same boat with you all right thank you thank you all all right is there any other business one more chance for other business if not is there a motion to adjourn is there second second and is there those in favor of adjourning please say I I any opposed we are adjourned