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The Metropolitan Council requires cities within its jurisdiction to formulate and follow Comprehensive Plans for land use and transportation. Ramsey's updated plan was due by December 3 1, 1998. The City requested an extension of the submittal deadline and it is expected that the City will submit its plan by June 30, 1999. The consulting firm of Hoisington Koegler, Inc. has facilitated the process of updating the plan. Each year the City Council approves a Capital Improvement Program. This document projects the priority and construction schedule for the completion of public improvements over the next five years. Most of these improvements are funded through dedicated funds that are set aside specifically for the noted project. A few projects will require general tax levy in order to realize completion. It is this document that gives the community the best picture of projected new roads, utilities and parks over the next several years. TRANSPORTATION Ramsey currently owns and maintains 133.27 miles of paved roadways after the addition of 1.64 miles of new street construction in 1998. This is up from 131.63 miles in 1997, 130.62 in 1996, 125.69 in 1995, 123.10 in 1994 and 118.27 in 1993. We also maintain 6.82 miles of dirt and gravel roadways .and Anoka County and the State control another 38.46 miles of paved arterial highway corridors. A major effort over the past few years has been toward the ongoing maintenance of those roadways. Annually, the City completes sealcoating or overlays on approximately 15 miles of existing City streets. In 1993, the Council created the Public Improvement Revolving Fund (PIR) to provide the dollars necessary to pay for half of the cost of this maintenance program. Without the PIR Fund, either the property owner would pay for all of the necessary costs, or a tax increase would be required for the City portion. The PIR is self-supporting through its interest earnings. The City has been approved for federal and state financial assistance to improve State Highway 47 between 142nd Avenue and 153rd Avenue. Construction is expected to begin in November, 1999, with completion sometime in the fall of 2000. UTILITIES Major improvements were also made to the City's utility system in 1998. A total of $2,044,000 of water and sewer lines were installed in new subdivisions or to interconnect (loop) lines within the urban section of the community. Well No. 4, which will provide more than 1,000 gallons of water per minute, was completed and brought on line in the fall of 1998. A second water tower is to be constructed during 2000 in order to service the industrial parks and the western part of the urban district PARxS Ramsey is fortunate in being the home to 522 acres of State and County park space, in addition to over 500 acres of City owned parks and trails. Included in the City inventory is almost nine miles of trails and over 125 acres of active park space. The balance of the system is either yet to be developed or dedicated as nature preserves. The City contributes anever-increasing amount of maintenance for the upkeep of the developed park system. To keep pace with the increasing number of park and trail users, the City uses a threefold approach. The first approach is committing adequate maintenance hours to the existing system. High school and college students provide a substantial number of hours during the summer and volunteers provide their services year-round. -vii-