1996-01-23 - Laserfiche WebLink

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I I I Council Meeting Minutes January 23, 1996 Page 3 State of the City Address. continued We are lucky in New Brighton to have a sense of community from our early history as a free standing City. Now, many of us work in St. Paul or St. Cloud or Wisconsin. We are part of a larger world. It is also true that it makes sense to work across boundaries on community issues. That is why we rely on Ramsey County for police and fire dispatching services while we maintain our community oriented police force and concentrate on Neighborhood Crime Watch and Dare Program efforts that help prevent crime. That is why we have a regional sewer system and mutual aid pacts. That is why we have the Minnesota Twins and not the New Brighton Twin.'l. Let's talk about solutions. When we have a community problem, we talk to the people who can and will respond. There is no way we could solve our problems without significant support from individuals and community organizations. Whenever we need them, they deliver! The Eagle's Nest and the Lion's Den at the Family Service Center. The Care A Van. Santa Cop! The Coalition for Healthy Youth. Our Advisory Commission members, the Rotary, the Chamber of Commerce, the Legion, the Antique Car Run and Stockyard Days and Historical Society members. Our churches and scouts and school leaders and sports groups and marching band members. The list is endless. It makes me proud to serve as Mayor! IT IS TIME! What's really important to the sustainability of our neighborhoods and our community and our state. It is time, I believe, to reestablish our sense of citizenship and community. I believe I can speak for many of you when I suggest that it is time we rethink our politics. We need to focus on important problems and solutions rather than political party affIliations. We need to reeducate ourselves and our children on what it means to be a citizen and neighbor. We need to rethink our assumptions about services and taxes. We must regain our sense of perspective and We must work together! We need only to look outside the windows of City Hall to see examples of what teamwork can accomplish. New and relocated businesses are thriving, new homes are under construction and next spring the New Brighton Care Center will expand and remodel. It has taken over 20 years and combined efforts of many people, both private and public sector, to create our new town center. But, we did it! Right next to downtown is the new Family Service Center, just one year old. The Center is busy and rapidly becoming the gathering place we dreamed it would become. Kids and Seniors and community groups and Teens and individuals are fmding it to be a great mixing place. We are still discovering better ways to manage our new indoor park. We added space for seniors and we hope, soon, to be able to provide congregate dining in response to requests from many seniors. Without their hard work it would not happen. Many other successes from 1995 will pay dividends for many years. We modernized our phone and computer systems. We made substantial progress on our Public Safety Visioning Process. We began our Leadership New Brighton program. Silver Lake Road reconstruction started. We rebuilt neighborhood street'l. We added iron and manganese fIlters to our water system, at the U.S. Army's expense. The list goes on! These successes do not fInish our work. In the coming months we will be back in the trenches working on Rice Creek Center revitalization and helping to solve the contamination problem at Mac Gillis and Gibbs. We will be planning for redevelopment of the 1-35W/I-694 Northwest Quadrant and working with adjacent communities on TCAAP Reuse and ice rinks and soccer fIeld opportunities. We will be working on telecommunication infrastructure needs. Perhaps of most interest and importance is our City plan to follow up on our Public Safety Visioning Process with a comprehensive review of all services and financial strategies. We understand the frustrations many residents feel. While we serve as Council members and staff, we also pay taxes. As employers, we are familiar with many frustrations of business owners. As parents, we share the concern about the quality of our schools. As leaders in New Brighton, we also care about the future of our neighborhoods and our neighbors. Rather than wait for a crisis, we will take action now to sort out the services we must provide and which ones are just nice to have. Optional services may have to be dropped or shifted to a user pays finance plan. We cannot count on increased tax revenues to support all future services.