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ANOKA RAM~mY MEETING Feb. 12, 1969 ThEe moo'ting was called at the Tec Center on Hy. lo in Ramsey Township at ~:4~ p.m. by Mr. Martin Gotham, Chairman of the ~amsey Towns~ip Town Board to discuss annexation of Ramsey Township to tke City of Anoka. '~Ve were given a questionnaire from the ~amsey Town- ship Fact Finding Committee with many questions which had been asked of this committee by residents of Ramsey Township.. Mr. Gotham said we were all there to find out how it will affect the residents o£ Ram- soy and Anoka if this annexation should go through. He then turned the meeting over to Mr. Stander o£ the ~amsey Township Taxpayers Association. ~r. Schrader called on Mr. Elvig,. the mayor of the City o.f Anoka.' Mr. Elvig referred us to the booklet called "Report of the Anoka-Ramsey Fact-Finding Committee~. He said this comF~ttee was made up of three residents of ~amsey and three residents of Anoka. He said this annex- ation idea had been checked on back in 1962-196~. He said some o:f the reasons for this committee were increasing taxes~ industry wanting to expand out along the highway, Anoka's limited area for expansion, new mass of population headed out this way and the need to plan for services for orderly growth in the community. They want euery one of the citizens living in this area to be fully k~owledgeabte., Mr. Gesko,. City Manager of Anoka was imtroduced.. He sai~ we were here 'to consider the future growth of these two communities. He also said the situation in which we find ourselves is not unique, that there ' are many areas surrounding the Twin Cities who have the same problems we have here. He said the situation had been made worse by exageration and misunderstandings. He hoped we could clear the air of speculations. fie said this was the first meeting o£ this kind, that there would be another at the Anoka Sr. High School next Thursday night.. The third such meeting would probably be here or in Anoka. He said he had hoped to have questions submitted in writing tonight but that in view of the fact that the taxpayers association had such a long list he thought we should start with those. He said the Fact-Finding Committee had drawn up four areas for possible annexation to Anoka ~nd~pointed out those ~ea~ in the fact- finding booklet. No. 1. "Do you think this report to b.e one-sided in favor of Anoka?" ~lr. E].vig answered, "No, I don't think so., It might be slanted toward serving a greater number of pe6ple. We must think about providing ser- vices for a greater number of people." No. 2. "Does this report accurately give the rates of taxation when the costs of developing the annexed area is taken into consideration?" We believe the rates of taxation, are very accurate~ We took the budget for Ramsey Township and the budget for Anoka - provided £om the future- took a look at 'the services required in the future, with the help of the city engineer and some help from other sources. We thiM~ the tax rates presented in the booklet give a true picture. No.. ~. a. "How did the Fact-Finding Committee arrive at the individual areas on the map?" Strictly by guess. Somebody has to make the £irst guess. We tried to use the natural boundaries. Then we went on to the next logical area. This is not necessarily definite but is just an es- timate. There are four such areas.