Agenda - Council - 06/11/2013 - Laserfiche WebLink

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the safety and economic benefits at least one full year sooner than would otherwise be possible and eliminating one year's worth of inflationary and other cost increases. The success of this approach will be entirely dependent on MnDOT's confidence that enough of the potential funding sourceswill in fact be to cover debt service payments and their willingness to assume the risk of making those payments should there be a delay in one or more of the potential funding sources. Strategy: I believe this is the time to take advantage of the project's momentum, its visibility, its potential funding sources, and its political influence to make a final push to get it started now. Delay is almost always costly and dangerous. To that end I would propose that the city extend its contract with The Tinklenberg Group for a period of three months (June through August, 2013) for the purpose of: 1) Continuing efforts with MnDOT regarding the benefits of using the "gap" financing tool and positioning Armstrong as a demonstration project 2) Persuade Anoka County to support the project by authorizing the county HRA to function as t he bonding agency for the sale of the tax-exempt bonds associated with the project 3) Convince MnDOT, on the basis of the county 's willingness to act as the bonding agency, to proceed with the Armstrong Interchange asa Design/Build/Finance project and to initiate it this year 4) Maintain political pressure on the Governor and the project M nDOT Commissioner to do the project 5) Follow-up with bobuchar, Franken, Nolan and Waltz on federal grant funding support and on the use of the gap financing tool. Cost: The estimated cost of thisthree month effort would not exceed $12,000.00.