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I I I Council Meeting Minutes February II, 1997 Page 5 State of the City Address. continued I now want to return to my original "point 3", our commitment to long term versus short term goal satisfaction. Long term benefit is the very reason we are engaged in the discussions on the redevelopment of the Old Highway Eight corridor and the 1-35W Corridor Coalition. Long term benefit is why we have used tax increment financing to enable redevelopment, more than $68 million over the past 10 years. Long term payoff is why we are emphasizing crime prevention, Dare programs, school liaison officers, teen programs, kid programs and parent involvement. I want to reinforce the importance of redevelopment planning, because without a plan, we are left to the mercy of the developers and the whims of the marketplace. With a clear vision of what we want to see happen as a community, we can take a proactive role in encouraging and guiding the types of uses and businesses that will strengthen New Brighton at the same time that the property owners are profiting from their investments. It is vitally important, but I do not want to linger on the economic development issues tonight. Let's turn now to the future, to 1997 and the immediate tasks ahead. Earlier tonight the Council met with Senator Steve Novak, Representative Geri Evans and Representative Sautveer Chaudhary and, County Commissioner Jan Wiesner. We talked about the need for property tax reform, our hope to finally get the contamination cleanup started at the MacGillis and Gibbs site, and the need to preserve our ability to manage our public investment in rights of way. Rights of way may seem like a mundane issue, but, it is a hot topic in Minnesota and Washington and it will impact our telecommunications future. Senator Novak will playa key role in resolving current issues. These are but a few of the problems that will require a collaborative relationship among all levels of government. We congratulate Steve, Geri, Sautveer and Ian on their election victory and look forward to working with them over the next two years. We also would like to thank Dick Pellow, Skip Carlson and Brenda Thomas for their service on our behalf. As important as these issues and others are, I want to conclude my comments by challenging all of us to focus on human development issues in the coming year. Some of you are familiar with the work of the Search Institute and the results of the survey of our children and a companion survey of community attitudes conducted for the Mounds View School Board. A band of concerned people formed a response group. It's called the Healthy Youth Coalition. You will be hearing more from them in the coming months. They are dedicated to ensuring that children and families that need help get help. One of their goals is to inspire others to action, in churches, in neighborhoods, wherever concerned people gather. Timely intervention, where welcomed and possible, is a proven way to improve the quality of life for the people involved. I am convinced that our long term community well-being depends on our ability to do a better job of nurturing and educating our children and helping those parents who need help. This opinion is quite different from what it might have been when I joined the Council in 1978. Back then, we worried about pot holes, barking dogs, liquor store profits, and "typical city stuff." State of the City Address