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<br />the Met Council and MnDOT. He further advised Congestion Mitigation Air Quality (CMAC) <br />grants will be processed this calendar year. The City would be allowed to apply for funding from <br />this grant for projects that mitigate congestion, which includes anything that can be used by mass <br />transit. Generally these grants are compiled in 5.5 million dollar increments and the City would <br />be required to match the funds. Northstar service may meet the requirements of the grant, <br />however, another alternative would be the inclusion of investments the City has already. To <br />include these investments a Letter of No Prejudice must be acquired. He stressed the importance <br />of the City doing what it can to ensure acquiring this letter. <br /> <br />City Administrator Norman suggested the delegation going to Washington D.C. address the <br />Letter of No Prejudice with the City's legislators. <br /> <br />Mayor Gamec stressed the need to proceed with Northstar bus service in the City. <br /> <br />Mr. Lasher suggested the possibility of utilizing a grant to acquire one or two busses to start <br />providing service into this area. He indicated Maple Grove has used CMAC grants to purchase <br />busses that provide service in their area. He advised the Letter of No Prejudice is granted from <br />the FTA, however the FTA has concerns that Northstar will not go through. <br /> <br />Councilmember Strommen suggested the process for the CMAC grant begin prior to the <br />delegation to Washington D.C. She suggested The Tinklenberg Group begin work on this. <br /> <br />Mr. Lasher concurred. He indicated the process should start locally. <br /> <br />Councilmember Elvig inquired how the bonding will work in relation to the parking and City <br />Hall. <br /> <br />Finance Officer Lund explained there will be two separate bonds issued, one lease revenue bond <br />and one geo bond. She would recommend both bonds be let on the same date. <br /> <br />Councilmember Elvig suggested a variable rate bond would be beneficial for the parking, rather <br />than bonding the entire 12 million dollars for both ramps for 20 years. He commented a <br />determination has not been made on the second ramp at this time. <br /> <br />Assistant Public Works Director Olson advised he does not think the City could back out of <br />building the second parking ramp. The timing is an issue, but funding could be obtained from <br />somewhere else to offset what is required to be bonded. Since RTC is capping their dollar <br />amount at six million dollars, he understood the objective was to acquire the six million dollars <br />upfront. <br /> <br />Councilmember Elvig stressed the need for the Council to understand if a variable rate will be <br />used, where the revenues will be coming from, and the timing. He thinks they have to bond the <br />full amount and commit to doing this, but the timing on the second ramp is critical and flexibility <br />on the bonding would be beneficial with that. <br /> <br />City Council Work Session/February 1,2005 <br />Page 7 of 10 <br />