HomeMy WebLinkAbout6.f. Community Center/Ice Arena News Article i
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CITY OF ROSEMOUNT
EXRCIITIVE SUb�lARY FOR ACTION
CITY COUNCIL MEETING DATE: SEPTEMBER 20, 1994
AGENDA ITEM: Community Center/Ice Arena AGENDA SECTION:
Newspaper Article New Business
PREPARED BY: Thomas D. Burt, AGENDA NO. A-d G�'"O (�
City Administrator �p, .�.
ATTAC�iENTS: Letter to the Editor APPROVED BY:
Due to the impact the article in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, September 10,
1994, had on local residents and the number of calls city staff has
received, Council is asked to approve the attached "Letter to the Editor° .
RECOb�:NDFD ACTION s
MOTION to direct staff to send the attached "Letter to the Editor°
in response to the September 10, 1994, article about Rosemount taxes .
COUNCIL ACTION:
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LE'ITER TO THE EDITOR:
In a recent "St. Paul Pioneer Press" article the community center and ice arena were
identified as the cause of the proposed 9.5% tax increase in the 1995 tax levy. It is
unfortunate that the article singled out the community center and ice arena as
responsible for the increase. The proposed $557,452 increase in the 1995 levy is
attributed to many things such as street lights on 145th Street, Business Park 1and, salary
increases for existing employees, a special census, and the cost of operating the
community center and ice arena.
The ice arena does require a $95,000 transfer from the general fund in 1995 to make the
budget balance. The reason the 1995 ice arena budget is different than the original
projections given to the City Council by the supporters of the arena is largely due to the
cost of the facility. The original request for an ice arena was to construct a $1,800,000
facility which would be open 35 weeks out of the year. The actual debt issued for the
construction of the arena was $2,360,000. The changes were due to the installation of air
conditioning in the arena, an elevator, capitalized interest and a facility that is open year ,
round. This along with lower than projected revenues have resulted in the need for the
transfer. In addition, $600,000 was spent to relocate the existing businesses that were on'
the Armory/community center/ice arena site.
The City Council apologizes for the comments quoted in the "St. Pau1 Pioneer Press."
The quotes that ended up in the paper were inappropriate and do not express the
opinion of the City Council. The Mayor and the City Administrator met with
representatives from RAHA, and this issue was discussed thoroughl�. This meeting
brought out good communications between the City and RAHA, cleared up some
misunderstandings and only emphasized the positive that the comrnunity center and ice
arena bring to Rosemount.
The City Council is very proud of the community center and the ice arena. This facility'is
a great asset to our community and has helped to promote the growth of our City of
both residential and commercial. The Armory/Community Center has become, in its
short existence, a major focal point of our cammunity. Already there have been some
major events held at the facility such as the Worid Ringette Toumament and the all
class reunion. The community center and ice arena is a success with many activities, such
as: Dakota Civic Community Theater, Early Childhood Family Education, Peace officer
Career Opportunity Program and many successful park and recreation programs. 'The
facility is booked almost every Saturday for wedding receptions and the arena is actively
being used by RAHA and soon the high school will begin their hockey season. The
facility is quite busy, and all comments have been positive.
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Without the help of RAHA and people like Steve Hawkins and Ron Pederson we would
not have this wonderful facility. The City Council expresses our thanks to all the
individuals who helped to make this a reality and want to aga.in apologize for the
negative comments that were made.
Sincerely,
ROSEMOUNT CITY COUNCII.
Mayor E. B. McMenomy
Councilmember Joan Anderson
Councilmember Dennis Wippermann
Councilmember James Staats
Councilmember Cathy Busho
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C I TY O F RO S E M�U N T z875 C145tHSAt eet West
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P.O.Box 510
EVE'f t�litl s Comin U ROSel710UC11'�� Rosemount,MN
y 9� 9 p 55068-0510
Phone:612-423-4411
Fax:6}2-423-5203
September 19, 1994
Rosemount Area Hockey Association (RAHA)
ATTN: Ron Pederson and Steve Hawkins
3511 143rd Street West
Rosemount, MN 55068
Dear RAHA Members
I am writing this letter to formally apologize for the newspaper article that appeared in
the St. Paul Pioneer Press, dated September 10, 1994, concerning the tax rate
increase for the City of Rosemount.
Any quotes that appeared in that article may in fact have been been said by myself
during the course of our hour and a half phone interview. But, I believe that those
quotes were, in fact, taken out of context. It was never my intention to blame your
organization for being the sale cause for taxes to increase for 1995. And if inembers
of your organization feel that I am personally blaming them for anything, I want to
assure them that is not the case.
What I did tell the reporter that wrote this article is that we have built a facility in our
community that is costing us money to operate. The Ice Arena does not make money
at this time. Hopefully, at some point in the future, it will. The rest of the facility, the
Community Center, does not make money either and I do not believe that it ever will,
as I believe that it was never expected to. It is a park facility owned by the City of
Rosemount that will be operated as a benefit to the citizens of this community. The
Ice Arena is different. People were led to believe that this facility would not cost the
taxpayers anything. I do not believe that anyone is at fault in this regard, contrary to
my quotes that "a bunch of loca! boosters didn't give up when the referendum was
defeated" and "that those people did a lot of selling to convince the council it could
work. They played games with the numbers until they made the numbers work. The
bottom line is now we're going to pay for it." These comments were taken out of
context. It was never my intent to personally blame your organization for the deficit
that we are currently experiencing with the Ice Arena. I commend your organization
for the hard work that they put in, especially Ron Pedersan, Steve Hawkins and Ralph
Baxley, getting the Council to believe in the Ice Arena as a valuable asset for our
community.
Printed on reryded paper
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Page 2
The reality is, at this time anyhow, that the Ice Arena is running a# a deficit. This is
not the fault of your nurnbers or our numbers. It is just costing us more to run the
facility than we are collecting in revenues. It is still an asset to our community,
something that is there and that we should be proud of. Also, it is something that we
should continue to strive to make a success in every way.
This article was supposed to be a comparison of all comrnunities in the Dakota
County area and how their taxes were going to be affected for 1995. That is the way I
approached the interview. Because our City is experiencing a Iarger increase than
most other cities, the reporter wanted further explanation as to why our increase was
larger. I tried to be courteous and honest with the reporter, but the article does not
necessarily portray me in that light at aIL
I truly did not intend, and I cannot stress this fact enough, to blame anyone for
anything. If your organization #eels differently, I once again apologize.
Thank you for your consideration in this matter.
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Je rey A. May, Finance irector :
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, ee ��Bnt change from�last ysar.: Pe�cenkchsnge.h�om last yea� .
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Totsl properey tax levy _,
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; lotal property tan levy: _
. a 9.5 ercent .
� n � 8�451,028 � 3,223,399 -
r Percent change irom lest year:: :Perce�t change from last year
, • ,�5 � +2i%
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. Expectea.eifeecit ._ F�pectea etfect ....;:_ _ . .. .. _ :
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■ Civic Center, ice arena ,+saa o�s�.o,000 no� � ' '`��
+s�on sv.o,oao nome
cause much of increase ' .. .. . : �-; .
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BILL tiARDNER stnFF wRirER
. � NOTE:Total P►operty+tex changes det�end on budgets adopted by city,county end .
school districts es well as changes In prnpertY ve�uaUons end oth�factc+rs.
�he city of Itose- -------------• �
►nount is raising � PIONEERPRESS :
property taxes abouC Generating
9.5 percenl in 1995,' � ��II the revenues don't increase, ! �
. partly because the revenue ����� �
� cit,y hasn't sold any the taxpayers ace going to have to
� pay more each year to keep up ,
land in its business park and parlly be- Wi�h that increase in dehl cost," r
c�i�se the city's new ice arena isn'L �8y- �CONi1NUE0 fROM IF Nja said. "Al some point we're {
ing tor itsel[ as backers promised it robabl oin to have to look at ' ._ ,
� would. their own operating costs,but they p y g g The eernina i: �
� , retinancing that debt."
The Rosemouni. tax increase is consid- haven t.
In addition, the ctty is substdiz- The city also patd a60,000 for
� erably higher than in neighhoring Dakola � tn the ice arena by about ;95,000 �and tor its new business park, Th2S2 aCe thp
� Coanty cities and would raise the city's nexl ear,May said,despite prom- W�th the ldea that ihe sale at the �Xli'8V8gai1Z81�
� share o[ property taxes on a �110,000 ises by the hockey supporkers that. �and would finance that indebled-
home trom �478 lhis year to ;522 next the �2.2 mlllion arena would pay ��as. � Leather Center'�
�- year. The county share would raise taxes tor itselE. • "We i�aven't sold any of the land ���oyys y0U t0 C�
another �10 per year, but the schoot dis- ••��p bunch of local hockey boost- , yet," May �ald.
� lrict numhers are not yet availabie. ' fUCflllUC2 f01'y0U
° City Finance Director Jeft May attri- ers didn't give up when the refer- The city added no new employ- , �
t,ui.es much of the increase to the new endum was defeated;' May, sald. Qes and put aU street reconstruc- ex2►ctly what s b
�� Nalional Guard Armory and Civic Cen- "Those people dld a lot of selling �ton on hold for 1995 because tt handcraFted in c
..� �e� to convince the couneil tt could didn't want to raise taxea �ny agSUC¢S y0U thE
� ''In t995 the full impact ot debt and work.They played games with the more, May s�id. ,
F operation ot the communily center and numbers until lhey made the num- , � �!�
ice arena is hitting us," May said."That's I bers work. The bottom ilne !s now �n Apple Valley, property taxes —
.� the main reason for the increase." , we're going to pay for it." are. Cising approximately � per-
1991 Rosemount voters ap�roved � ' The iirst year's debt on the ice cent, from :385 to ;3B0 on a ,�,��..M �" 3
` 1n � 110 000 home. The city's budget
y�4 building a banquet hall and upgrading an arena is approximately =I50,000, _ � � y ' r
� a u d i l o r i w n f o r t h e pro posed National �y a y said, and that debt has been restores street overlaying into the ? ���� � F ,
'' • structured so that it rtses signiti- bu d g e t a n d a d d s o n e p o l l c e o f f i c e r. ���_
�� Guard Armory,but they voted down add- This r street overl�ying was _ (
,ti ing an ice arena. The- city hoped the Fani ly over the ppusually long 25• Y � �
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hanquet hall and auditorium would pay � wyear term. P tinance�l,irom unbudgeted money.