FIVE-YEAR PLAN NEEDS MORE WORK
ADJUSTING VICTORIA'S CAPITAL EXPENDITURES
Council held a special workshop on December 14^th to discuss the 5-year cap-ital improvement plan, make recommen-dations to staff, and even a motion to look at outsourcing some of the summer-time mowing necessary on the various public city-owned properties.

Stated Mayor-Elect Mary Thun, "I want staff to take a look at contracting for mowing.  We can do a lot of mowing for $100,000.  I'm kind of sick of talking about it."  The motion passed unanimous-ly.
In responding to questions, Victoria Finance Director Jylan Johnson said that the city's computers are on a five-year replacement program.  She said that larger equipment is on a 10-year replacement program based on what the state does.
Replied Mayor Jerry Bohn, "I suspect MnDOT puts a lot more miles on a truck than the city does ... I'd pull out the grader ($150,000) and the generator ($80,000) and maybe the mower ($30,000)."
Reminding city staff that there are only a few stretches of gravel roads left in the city, he added, "The grader can be 50 years old before we have to replace it."
City Administrator Dave Urbia ex-plained, "We're not recommending re-placing the generator but looking at what we'd have to do if we needed to replace it in twelve years."
Councilmember Kim Roden asked that staff include more footnotes in the capital improvement plan "to illustrate why we would need something ... growth numbers, replacement schedule ... if we gotta have it or maybe it'd just be nice to have."
Mayor-Elect Thun questioned the amount of dollars proposed for upcoming phone expenditures.  "You're proposing $1,600 per employee," she said.  "Come on!  For phone costs?"  There are 22 full-time city employees.
Responding to more data placed be-fore them, Mayor Bohn said, "You've got capital improvement expenditures here that just aren't true.  We're not getting an elevated storage tank for $500,000 in 2007.  We just built an underground tank with our water treatment plant!"
Regarding a proposed expenditure for new city office location and possible plans to move out of the current city office space because it's projected for parking space in the downtown redevelopment plan, Mayor Elect Thun said, "If we're really going to lease city office space and this building has to come down, we better talk to the Victoria Lions.  Where are they going to hold their pancake breakfasts?  The Lions contribute lots of dollars to the community.  They are really a big deal."
In recognizing that the Lions contrib-ute especially to city parks and recreation projects, Mayor Bohn added, "With a smaller number of homes being built in Victoria, there's less money coming in for park improvements."
There were 176 new homes built in Victoria in 2005 but only 92 in 2006.  The city is projecting 79 new homes for the 2007 city budget.  New homes produce new taxes to run city government and build city offices.
Councilmember Richard Tieden re-ferred to the old city-owned Kirke-Lachen tennis courts.  "They're disgusting," he said.  "That area needs to be cleaned up."  Agreed Mayor-Elect Thun, "They're a disgrace."
In regard to the annual $75,000 that the City of Victoria gives to the Victoria Fire Department for their various capital expenditures, Jylan Johnson stated, "With $75,000 per year the Fire Department will not be able to fund everything."
The mayor asked, "Why do all of us cities outfit all of our fire departments and we're only within five miles of each other?  I'm not talking about the basics.  I just don't think we can afford to put in a millions dollars ..."
Councilmember Tieden pointed out that the fire departments of "Minneapolis and the northern suburbs do a lot of shar-ing."
Regarding a $250,000 projected ex-penditure in 2007 for the build-out of community space at the new Fire Station,  Mayor Bohn said, "Is there a compelling reason to do this in 2007?"
On a final note, regarding the annual large budget for the Victoria Field House, Mary Thun stated, "We've got to assume that we'll be operating it."  Discussion remains underway regarding partnerships with the city for operation of the Field House.
The city finance director will adjust the five-year capital improvement plan based on comments from city council-members.

VICTORIA MOVES FORWARD WITH WI-FI
COMPETITION FOR TELEPHONE AND CABLE

Council voted 4-0 to move forward with a municipal wireless ISP proposal as presented by Shawn Sprengeler with tothehome.com on December 14^th.  Kim Roden abstained from voting on the mo-tion because of her connections to Time Warner communications.
"Wi Fi is being employed in a num-ber of cities," said Mr. Sprengeler.  "We need antenna to mount on the highest spots in the city.  We would request a two-year subsidy to get it up and running.  It means a savings to the residents of Vic-toria.  We're not just looking at it as high speed internet but also car telephone ser-vice, automated meter reading ..."
Tothehome.com is based out of Shak-opee.

"Residents [basic plan] would be charged $19.95 per month," he said.  "Chaska offered it when DSL wasn't available.  Now we have the phone and cable systems so wireless has a lot of competition ... There's a big investment in equipment."

Click here to continue Wi Fi ...