Minutes - Council - 08/31/2010 - Special

Home

Motion carried. The meeting was closed to the public at 5:41 p.m. The meeting was reopened to the public at 6:10 p.m. Mr. Goodrich stated that a case will be put on a subsequent meeting to consider adoption of this sale ordinance when all Councilmembers are able to be present. 4.02. Consider Resolution of Funding for rail Station County transit Investment Board (CTIB) Grant Application City Administrator Ulrich reported that Anoka County staff contacted the City of Ramsey about making application to the County Transit Investment Board (CTIB) for a $1 million grant to assist in funding the Ramsey Rail Station. Burlington Northern is expected to begin negotiations and it's down from the $7 million. It would lower the cost of the overall project. The advice of Anoka County staff was that CTIB would like to fund 20 to 25 percent of the project so if we are going for a million, we should put out $3.5 million to step forward. Projected funding for the station would be $3.4 to 5.1 million (Federal, $2.0 million (State), $1 5 million (Met Council) $3.2 million (CTIB) and $3.2 million (Local — City and ACRRA) for a total of $15 million He stated the City has projected $68 million in improvement costs to be funded with The COR tax increment district, and of that amount, $6 million could be contributed to the construction of the rail station. He continued that Burlington Northern is expected to begin negotiations and it's down from the $7 million. It would lower the cost of the overall project. The advice of County staff was that CTIB would like to fund 20 to 25 percent of the project, so if we are going for a million, we should put out the $3.5 million amount to step forward. That would make it $3.2 million local, the County already contributed $100,000, which is their portion of planning and engineering. The County suggested that the City make this positive funding commitment for the funds to be expended in 2011 for the project. In doing so, the City will need to negotiate with each of the funding partners to secure their later participation. There is some concern that this establishes the floor for the City's future level of participation, but without a firm upfront commitment by the City, participation by any of the other funding partners is doubtful. It depends on how aggressive the City wants to be. We kind of establish that by putting our money out there and there's no guarantee others will pay. We may not want to do that until we know more funding sources. The other alternative says we would match 50/50 when we know about other funding. It shows our commitment but not an exact money amount at this time. Councilmember Elvig, for clarification, stated Ramsey is looking at $3.1 million. Mr. Ulrich responded yes, that's local contribution. Councilmember Elvig stated he believes you have to put that money in there — up front and he agrees with the $3.1 million. However, he would like to add in there we will have already invested "x" million dollars in access, site, additional parking ramps, etc. — anything we can load that gun with. He stated he can't imagine CTIB "turning their nose" up at that. Mayor Ramsey agreed the more we add the better off we are. Special City Council / August 31, 2010 Page 2 of 4