2010 State of the City Address by Shoreview Mayor Sandy Martin
Posted on 05. Jan, 2010 by Chris Dohman in City Council, Meeting
Mayor Sandy Martin gave the Shoreview 2010 State of the City Address Monday night, January 4, 2010 at the City Council meeting. Below is the text of Mayor Martin’s address.
Introduction
As we enter a new decade, we can all take great pride in what we have accomplished in the past and look forward with enthusiasm to Shoreview’s future. We are fortunate to enjoy a wonderful quality of life – great schools, an outstanding park and trail system, numerous lakes and open space areas, a state of the art Community Center, good public services and programs, a low crime rate, quality neighborhoods with diverse housing opportunities, a strong and supportive business community, and easy access to vibrant cultural and work opportunities in St Paul or Minneapolis. These many amenities were evident in 2008 when Family Circle Magazine named Shoreview “One of the 10 Best Towns in America to Raise a Family”. Achieving this high quality of life is the result of having a vision, setting goals, and a great deal of hard work on the part of many individuals and community groups.
That being said, we also recognize that many of our residents have suffered during the past few years with job losses, foreclosures, and investment losses due to the poor economy. As we look toward the new year, there is great hope that the economy has started to turn the corner and that we can look forward to a steady recovery and better economic times in the years ahead.
Financial Condition
Despite the loss of more than $400,000 in Market Value Homestead Credit Aid from the State during the past year, Shoreview continues to be in excellent financial condition. The City Council and staff were proactive and made numerous expenditure reductions and other financial modifications to the budget early in 2009 to insure that we could continue our cost effective public services. In fact, the City portion of the tax bill for the median home in Shoreview continues to be the 4th lowest of 29 similar cities at $693, 29% below the average of $976.
As a result of the City’s strong financial position, Standard and Poor’s upgraded the City’s bond rating to AA+. As part of their report, Standard and Poor’s analysts cited the City’s extensive level of financial planning, its conservative reserve fund levels, the low to moderate debt burden with rapid amortization schedule, and the City’s extremely strong wealth and income statistics. In addition, our participation in the Twin Cities’ economic base was noted with recent construction in the Rice Creek Corporate Park, growth in employment, and the diversity of our tax base. This bond rating places Shoreview in the top 12% of Minnesota government entities rated by Standard and Poor’s.
Our 2010 budget anticipates the loss of an additional $320,000 in Market Value Homestead Credit Aid. Again, through a series of expenditure reductions and revenue adjustments, the Council was able to adopt a balanced budget with only a 2.1% increase in general fund spending and without any significant changes to our service levels.
Economic Development
Although the economic downturn has delayed some planned development projects in the City, Shoreview did experience some business expansion during the year. Early in 2009, the City facilitated the relocation of PaR Systems, a world-wide high tech robotics firm, into a vacant office/manufacturing building on County Rd. E and Victoria St. Through the use of tax increment funds that were designated and restricted by State law for redevelopment, the City was able to keep a valuable business in the community, retain jobs, obtain significant reinvestment in a vacant office building, and return a former tax-exempt building to the tax roll.
In the Rice Creek Corporate Park located in northwest Shoreview, Personix, a leading manufacturer of credit cards and other document delivery services, and Key Medical, a medical equipment supply company, both expanded their businesses. Several new homes were constructed during 2009, primarily in the Snail Lake Landing subdivision located near the Snail Lake Regional Park. This 52 lot single-family development is nearly complete and has provided approximately $40 million of new value to the City.
Maintaining Quality Neighborhoods
Over the past few years, the City has taken a number of steps to encourage maintenance and reinvestment in our residential neighborhoods. Shoreview, like most communities, has been affected by residential foreclosures, approximately 100 in the past two years. The City has been fortunate that most of these properties have resold and are now owner- occupied, however, our staff has made strong efforts to track foreclosed properties to insure that both property and yard maintenance is handled in a timely fashion during the foreclosure process.
Our newly formed Economic Development Authority (EDA) has also been focused on the City’s goal of maintaining quality neighborhoods and is looking at the following programs:
- Home Improvement Loan Incentives – providing low interest loans to owner occupied single-family properties for energy efficient related home improvements.
- Blighted Property Redevelopment – designed to allocate funding for the City to remove or rehabilitate blighted residential properties to enhance appearance and livability of our neighborhoods.
- Foreclosed/Vacant Properties – to proactively address foreclosed and vacant properties through participation in the Greater Minneapolis Housing Corporation “First Look” program and through continued code enforcement efforts to insure property and yard maintenance.
In addition, the City is continuing to license and monitor all rental properties in the City. The SHINE program that provides for proactive exterior housing inspections and code enforcement in selected neighborhoods has proven to be an efficient way to promote cooperative self-enforcement. Through our contract with the Housing Resource Center, technical assistance on remodeling and other home improvements is provided at no cost to Shoreview residents.
Community Center and Parks
The Shoreview Community Center and Shoreview Commons area continue to be the major gathering place for our residents. The numerous programs, activities and events at the Community Center account for more than 500,000 visits on an annual basis. During 2009, another major attraction was added to the Community Center – the Tropical Adventure Indoor Playground. This new activity has attracted several thousand users and has been a significant new revenue source that allows the City to maintain very affordable membership rates. Community Center memberships allow full access to the City’s state of the art fitness center, the Tropics Indoor Water Park, the gym and running track, and the new indoor playground area. Our membership rates are extremely affordable and the monthly payment options makes membership even easier on personal budgets during these difficult economic times.
The very popular Farmer’s Market is held every Tuesday and this year it was expanded from June through mid-October. Hundreds of people enjoyed the Concert in the Commons Summer Music Series and plans are already in place to attract another exciting musical line-up for 2010. We are also exploring the feasibility of an outdoor family movie night.
The renovation of Sitzer Park was accomplished in 2009. With those improvements, the oldest park in the City now exhibits some of the finest new playground equipment, a new picnic shelter, new landscaping and parking spaces, and electronic scoreboards for the two youth baseball fields. These improvements were preceded by many meetings with area residents and Shoreview Area Youth Baseball to develop and updated Master Plan. A grand opening celebration is planned for this spring.
Environmental Initiatives
Shoreview has been a leader in numerous environmental initiatives particularly in the area of water quality due to the number of lakes and wetland areas in the City. Shoreview was one of the first cities to adopt a phosphorus ban for lawn fertilizers more than 10 years before a State law was adopted. In addition, over the past several years, the City has worked to eliminate or mitigate many of the direct storm water discharges into Shoreview lakes, since this is a primary way for contaminants to enter the lakes.
This past summer, the City took another significant step forward by reconstructing streets in the Woodbridge Street neighborhood with pervious concrete. The use of pervious concrete eliminated the need for a traditional storm sewer system and also allowed us to get rid of a direct discharge into Lake Owasso. This unique approach to storm water management has achieved national attention and the project has already received awards from various associations.
In 2010, the City plans to expand and renovate the Maintenance Center building. This project is necessary due to a significant amount of deferred maintenance and building code related improvements such as a new roof, more energy-efficient heating and ventilation systems, and electrical improvements. At the same time, improvements will be made to provide for more efficient vehicle maintenance, storage, office areas and employee locker rooms. In our ongoing commitment to environmental initiatives, the City is seeking LEED Certification – Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design, for this project. One of the significant design items is reuse of rainwater from the roof for washing vehicles and other non-potable uses in the building. Although the anticipated cost of this project is $5.5 million, the City is undertaking it at a time when the bidding climate is very favorable. The project is being financed through a General Obligation Bond issue and is timed to coincide with anticipated drops in our debt levy to minimize the impact on taxpayers. When the project is complete, the City will have a more functional Maintenance Center that will allow our staff to operate more effectively and a building design that better fits the Shoreview Commons area.
Although Shoreview has had conservation-based water rates for residential property since the early 1990’s, we are now required by State Law to utilize these rates for all commercial and multi-family properties as well. This will result in some modifications of the rate system for all property owners. In addition, the City undertook a major project to replace 8,000 water meters with new, radio-read meters that will provide better accuracy and more efficient recording of water usage.
Conclusion
During the many years of my involvement with the City, I have become convinced that government, at the local level, can have the most significant impact on the quality of life we experience. Local government is the closest to the people and often the place where government can be the most effective and most productive. It is here where “things really happen” and Shoreview is a great example of how constructive that can be.
Needless to say, government can’t do it all, and that is one reason why I am so pleased and proud of the recent creation of the Shoreview Community Foundation. Through the efforts of a small group of community volunteers, the Foundation has been working to establish an endowment fund that will benefit future generations and provide for amenities that would be outside the capabilities of government. During the past year, more than $85,000 has been raised toward that end. The Foundation provides a safe haven for memorial gifts, estate planning and gifts that commemorate the place where we raised our families and enjoyed our neighborhoods. Some initial grants will be awarded in 2010.
The City Council and I work very hard to make sure that our government operations are open and accessible to our residents, and that our citizens are well informed. We accomplish this through televising the City Council and Planning Commission meetings, the quarterly ShoreViews newsletter and our recently renovated website. I also have open office hours from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. on most Tuesdays throughout the year where residents can stop by and discuss issues or concerns.
On behalf of the City Council, I would like to first thank our many committee and commission members who volunteer their time and expertise to help make Shoreview a better place to live and work. I would also like to thank our entire City staff who are dedicated to providing quality service and programs to our residents.
I would also like to extend my personal thanks to my colleagues on the City Council – Terry Quigley, Ady Wickstrom, Blake Huffman, and Ben Withhart. It is a true pleasure to work with each of you and I know that you spend many hours working to make a positive difference in the City.
Thank you and my best wishes to everyone for a healthy, happy and prosperous 2010.
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