Agenda - Council - 06/25/2024 - Laserfiche WebLink

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MAJOR INITIATIVES The City continued working with the State and County in what is teiuied 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, was fully funded as of July 2021, and construction began in the fall of 2023. The majority of the project is slated to be completed in the fall of 2025 with final cosmetic touches completed in the spring of 2026. Ramsey's contribution to the project is estimated at $4,000,000. The City issued $8,315,000 of General Obligation Bonds in 2023. This bond consisted of two issues: $6,915,000 Tax Increment for major improvements in the COR related to tree clearing and mass grading. The remaining $1,400,000 was a Capital Equipment Certificate issue that will be used to help fund some of the capital equipment outlined in the city's 2024 General Fund budget. The rating firm of Standard and Poor's reaffirmed the City's AA+ bond rating with this debt issue. The City broke ground on a ten -million -gallons -per -day water treatment plant in the spring of 2023. In November 2023, the watermain improvements that will service the water treatment plant were approved and construction is scheduled for the spring of 2024. The combined projects of the building and the watexiirain lines is approximately $42 million. Funding is proposed to come from the City's Enterprise Funds in which the City has been budgeting for the project since 2004 and also a $3.2 million state grant. 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, 2022. This was the twenty-ninth 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 2023 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, Brian Hagen Diana Lund City Administrator Finance Director 17