Agenda - Council - 04/23/2024 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Councilmember Woestehoff asked if it would be more informational to share on the ballot question that property taxes could go up a certain percentage rather than a dollar amount. City Administrator Hagen said they can try to provide both a percentage and a dollar amount. Councilmember Specht asked if the trail around the lake will be paved. Parks and Assistant Public Works Director Riverblood said yes. The consensus of the Council was to direct Staff and the architect to move forward with plans to produce a more accurate cost estimate which they can use on a ballot question. 2.02: Old Town Hall Discussion - 50th Anniversary City Administrator Hagen reviewed the Staff report concerning the old Town Hall and the 50th Anniversary of the City. Councilmember Specht shared that when Economic Development Director Sullivan took them on a tour of the building, he was impressed with how well it was put together and how it was close to being able to be utilized as a facility again. He said it would be a great thing to find a way to utilize this historic building, especially during the City's 50th anniversary. Councilmember Howell noted that this building is a historic building that the City owns and it will sit there and rot if they do not do anything with it. She added that when the EDA looked at this, the revenue it could bring in versus the cost to fix it up would take a long time to break even. She explained that in other cities, they use these old buildings as one room schoolhouses which was a good use. She noted that preserving this building and getting it back into use would be great. Acting Mayor Riley said that there was not a funding source for this project which is why they have not done anything with the building. He added that the parking for the building is also an issue. Economic Development Manager Sullivan shared that when they looked at this from the EDA perspective, they were close to pulling the trigger to getting the building ready to go for development; however,the pricing was very expensive, and prices have not come down since they first looked at this. He explained that another option for this would be to potentially move the building; however,there are strong recommendations to not move it as they would have to do a lot of structural work to make the building strong enough to be moved and it would also lose all historical significance. He said a small boutique shop would be a good use for this building. He explained that the original interested party would have weekend and evening hours that would operate outside of bank hours to accommodate parking with the bank next door. He said this location is a cute venue and it would be able to preserve it as Ramsey does not have a lot of historical locations. Councilmember Woestehoff asked where the funds would come from to get this building up and running. City Council Work Session/April 9, 2024 Page 6 of 8