2021 CAFR - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

MAJOR INITIATIVES The City continued working with the State and County in what is termed the Ramsey Gateway Project. The Ramsey Gateway Project will provide grade separations of US Highway 10/169 and the BNSF Railway. Highway 10 improvements at Sunfish Lake and Ramsey Boulevard are part of the project plan. This project, with an estimated cost of $138 million, is fully funded as of July 2021, and construction is set to begin in fall 2023 with the final touches completed in 2026. The City refinanced its municipal center debt in 2021 taking advantage of record -low interest rates. The City will save over one -million dollars in future debt service payments due to the refinancing. The rating firm of Standard and Poor's reaffirmed the City's AA+ bond rating with this debt issue. The City will begin construction of a water treatment facility in the summer of 2022. The project is estimated to cost approximately $32 million and be completed in the fall of 2023. Funding is proposed to come from the City's Enterprise Funds in which the city has been budgeting for the project since 2004. CERTIFICATE OF ACHIEVEMENT The Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada (GFOA) awarded the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting (CAEFR) to the City for its Annual Comprehensive Financial Report for the year ended December 31, 2020. This was the twenty-seventh year the City has received this prestigious award. Also, the City had previously received the award from 1981 through 1988, after which the City did not participate in the program for several years. The CAEFR is valid for a period of one year only. We believe our current Annual Comprehensive Financial Report continues to meet the CAEFR Program's requirements and we are submitting it to the GFOA to determine its eligibility for another certificate. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The 2021 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report of the City meets the highest professional standards and was prepared in a timely and cost-effective manner. This could never have been accomplished without the excellent work of the entire Finance Department. We would like to express our appreciation to the Finance Department and all members of the City's staff who contributed to its preparation. Respectfully submitted, Kurt Ulrich Diana Lund City Administrator Finance Director 17