2002-08-26 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Session 1850 August 26, 2002 recreation facility improvements. She apologized, but felt she must withdraw her support for the ballot proposal. After meeting with some of the Park Commission members and other people that she felt would have some input into this proposal, she has come to the conclusion that it would be too soon to put this on the November ballot. The plans are from a previous Assistant City Manager, dated December 2000 and January 2001. While there are many aspects of those plans that are beneficial, she does not feel that she could vote on the November sales tax issue based on what she saw today. She wished to volunteer to be on a committee should one come to pass. She asked the Council to vote this down and wait for the April ballot. Bob Winters, 7242 Colgate, said that he had also met with Chuck and Frank and he thanked them for bringing him up to date on what was being proposed. He said that he was all for positive change and safe facilities. He stated that we should have the best facilities that we can get. He felt that there were some generally good concepts, but there are still some things that need to be worked out. It has been a couple of years since dollars have been applied to the project. Until details are worked out, the pricing can't be accurate. The integrity of a great pool is at stake. He believes that a consensus will be difficult to obtain with the voters in November. He is willing to work on this, but he felt it is too soon now. Ms. Welsch said that she has been concerned all along about getting more citizen input into this process. She understood the reason why the City is going with a sales tax and disagreed with Mr. McCarthy on this point. She did not want to go back to the citizens for another property tax hike after what we have been through during the last two election cycles. Ms. Welsch has spoken to Mr. Ollendorff, as well, to figure out how to drum up more citizen input and a design she can support. She could not support it as it is now. She did not see how this can be done by November. She will vote against putting this on the November ballot and hoped that it could go back on in April. Mr. Lieberman stated that he sees, in terms of urgency, the need to make repairs to the Heman pool. He did not see the urgency of proceeding with the Recreation Facility, because he felt that we can not build support for this plan by November. He has been through a lot of elections like this and it takes more time and effort to build community support to want the citizens to run out and vote for this. He did not see how this can be done by November. Mr. Munkel stated that it might be a challenge to put this on the ballot in November, but this is a plan that the City has been working on for a couple of years, as well as making drawings. There may not be the level of details in the drawings that people would like, but he believes we need to proceed with this project. People have committed time and energy to this project. He was not clear on what data and facts people need to see in this project, but the financial