Ramsey Resident - 2019 - September/October

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City Administrator’s Corner Happy Days Continued from page 1 Plans in the Mix to  en, head over to  e Kitch- en Table for a mile-high stack of ‘Fix the Darn Roads!’ pancakes and a cup of hot coﬀ ee. Check out the Car Show, Expo By Kurt Ulrich, City Administrator and Dog Show in the a ernoon  ere is no more basic level of service for local government than to make sure as well. Get the kids faces painted the community’s roads remain safe and well maintained. Everybody drives on and head over to the giant slide the roads and there is no shortage of opinion come springtime on what the City’s and bungee jump inﬂ atables! main priority should be: Fix the darn roads!  ere is fun, games and activities Winters in Minnesota are extremely tough on our City streets as the snow for kids of all ages.  e Happy melts, water seeps into cracks and freezes, loosening up the asphalt that is then pul- Days Parade will make its way verized by car and truck traﬃ c, creating potholes everywhere.  ese inconvenient down Sunwood Drive through obstacles are, at best, a nuisance and, at worst, may result in costly vehicle repairs or  e COR starting at 3:00 pm. create safety hazards. Be sure to visit the Event Tent City crews start ﬁ lling potholes as soon as weather permits, normally mid- throughout the day for the Kids March, and wraps up when the local asphalt plant shuts down in early November. Talent Show, mentalist and stroll-  is year the City will use about 420 tons of asphalt mix and material to ﬁ x hun- ing magician Noah Sonie, and dreds of potholes of various sizes throughout the City. In the winter, the City uses BINGO in the evening. Don’t a temporary cold mix to ﬁ x potholes until a permanent patch is made in the spring, miss high-energy, dance-pop and the pothole ﬁ lling season starts again. band Brat Pack Radio as they take While ﬁ xing potholes is an improtant part of road maintenance, the existance the main stage for a performance of potholes points to bigger maintenance issues.  at is, roads require continuous starting at 8:30 pm. When the long-term care and maintenance. Older streets require even higher maintenance sun goes down, you will want to expenses. Unfortunately, many of Ramsey’s roads were constructed by housing stick around for the ﬁ reworks developers many years ago using design standards that would not be allowed today. display to end the day! Consequently, these roads deteriorated quickly and the roads need costly repairs  e Ramsey Fire Relief As- or reconstruction. It can be diﬃ cult to ﬁ nd the dollars for preventive maintenance sociation will wrap up the Happy that includes ﬁ lling cracks and holes, putting on a protective coat of oil seal, and/ Days fun at the 9/11 Memorial or periodically overlaying streets with new asphalt in order to protect the underly- Golf Tournament on Sunday, ing street. Sometimes, it is better just to rip up the entire street and reconstruct it. September 8, at  e Links at A properly constructed and maintained street should last for 60 years. Northfork Golf Course.  e pro- Over the past several years, the City has sought to identify a stable sustainable ceeds for this event are generously funding source for the maintenance and repair of roads. Over the past ﬁ ve years, donated to nonproﬁ t, Fireﬁ ghters the City has used a combination of General Fund tax revenue, bonding and special for Healing. assessments for road maintenance and improvements. Most of the Happy Days In addition, the City Council is now having a community discussion of a events are free to the public, monthly fee passed along to property owners via a franchise fee on electric and gas thanks to our generous sponsors! utilities. Fees would be fully devoted to local road maintenance repair and re- For more information, please visit construction by City ordinance. Would residential and business property owners our website at www.cityofram- prefer to pay a monthly fee, a lump sum assessment roughly every 20 years, or in- sey.com/happy-days-festival. A creased property taxes to ﬁ x and maintain roads? Regardless, road maintenance is complete schedule too important of an issue to ignore and discussions have included valuable citizen of events can also input about what such a program should look like.  e Council has not made a be found on page 7 decision. I encourage you to learn more about this proposal at www.cityoframsey. of the Resident. com/franchise-fees and let us know what you think. 4Ramsey Resident • September/October 2019