VICTORIA CITY COUNCIL SETS GOALS
FOR PARKS AND DOWNTOWN REDEVELOPMENT
Victoria city councilmembers and some city staff held a goal setting session at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on May 24th.
"It went very well," said Council-member Dave Lindgren in a phone conversation the next day.  "We got a lot of things out.  We want a better rapport among the council and administrator and city office.  I think meeting like this is something we should do every six months."
Dave said the top priority goal is to get Diethelm Park up and running in all capacities.  The second goal is downtown redevelopment.  "That always seems to be the council's goal," said Dave, "but this time it's really going to happen.  We have enough people living here now."
In that regard, he said the Stieger Lake Bridge should be closed and gone in about thirty days.  Streets in the vicinity of that bridge will be realigned, and the city hopes to negotiate with Sidco 4x4 to purchase his property for development.
Also, said Dave, city staff will be talking to the Victoria Fire Department about using their equipment and men to burn down the three houses that the city purchased along Stieger Lake.  Such a "burn down" would be good practice for the firefighters in understanding and working with fires.  Sketches of the town-homes proposed to be built on that prop-erty and other information can be viewed at www.VictoriaGazette.com.  Click on Sue's Album and scroll to Downtown Redevelopment, August 2001.
Dave reported that the townhomes expected to be built on that site will prob-ably range in value from $176,000 to $566,000.
The city is also expected to soon approach Cenex Midcounty Coop about the oil tanks and property that the company owns along Stieger Lake Lane, said Councilmember Lindgren.
Looking to October 12th, when the development moratorium is no longer in force in Victoria, the city is anticipating Terry Hartman of Hartman Companies and Lundgren Brothers to be knocking on its door with plans for development of several hundred acres and requests for Laketown Township property to be an-nexed to the City of Victoria.
"We also rehashed a lot of the stuff from the council meeting Thursday night," said Dave, "like what title we should give the person who's going to manage or operate or direct the Victoria Field House.  We didn't come up with anything definite ... We're glad to know that the state is going to pay for most of the expense in taking down that bridge ... We're happy to be back on track with the Victoria Lions.  They should have never been told that they can't have beer in the park."
Dave also said that Victoria council-members received the preliminary draft of the proposed 2003 city budget at this casual workshop at the arboretum.  That budget will be reviewed, as usual, in upcoming editions of The Victoria Gazette.

In response to e-mail questions re-garding the goal setting workshop, Coun-cilmember Jerry Bohn submitted the following information ...
"We had a good meeting.  We agreed on three goals for city staff in the next year:  *Hire an arena manager.  *Focus on downtown redevelopment.  *Get prepared for the end of the moratorium.
"We spent a lot of time discussing the skill set required for Mary Saarion's re-placement.  We agreed this person has to be sales and customer oriented.  The big-gest challenge for our Parks Department in the next year is to maximize revenue at the field house so its operation is not a burden on the city finances.  This person has to focus on revenue generating activi-ties especially when the ice is off.  This person has to be able to get people ener-gized and involved in using the facility.
"We agreed on the following course of action downtown.  By the end of the summer we will demolish and clean up the condominiums site on Stieger Lake Lane, just down from the bridge that's about to be replaced. 
"Also on that list is the Noreen house next to the Victoria House and the former auto body shop.  We will also be working with Sidco to clean up their site.  We will be beginning construction of the new bridge (the funding survived Jesse's pen) and the realignment of Rose and Elm Streets. 
"The logic is that if we spruce up what the city owns downtown, it becomes more attractive to potential developers.  We are working with Harry Garrish to get the condo project off the ground and with Terry Hartman on his downtown project.
"We have completed the sewer and water studies that define our infrastructure needs as the City of Victoria expands in the next 20 years.  These are two impor-tant pieces we need to be prepared for as we end the development moratorium, but we still need to finish the study (which is near completion) that reviews our fee schedule for these infrastructure items.
"We are also near completion of the study that is reviewing our park fee sched-ule to make certain we are generating enough funds for future park needs. 
"We still need to complete a master plan for the 1,000 acres to the west and south of Victoria's border owned by Lundgren and Hartman.  We anticipate they will apply for annexation when the moratorium is lifted in October, 2002."

SLALOM SKIERS WIN HANDILY
SUBMERSIBLE COURSE FOR SCHUTZ LAKE
On May 9th Councilmembers unani-mously approved the installation of a sub-mersible slalom ski course in the center of Schutz Lake for the summer of 2002.  Lake residents Greg Kurowski and Scott Wright spoke to the issue as two members of the Schutz Lake Skiers Association.  The third member of the association is lake resident Lance Fisher.
Said Greg, "This is a vital and impor-tant issue to us."  In referring to the past 15 years of the controversial issue, he said, "Our objective is to have harmony on the lake."  He added that most of the opposition to the competitive ski course has now moved away from Schutz Lake.  Also, he preferred use of the word "submersible" rather than "permanent" regarding the apparatus because it will be removed over the winter for repairs and maintenance.  In recent years, the slalom skiers were only permitted to use a course that had to be installed and removed with each use, but it could be used from sunrise to sunset.  No hourly restrictions were placed on use of the submersible course.  No one spoke against it.  With a second motion, the permit was tied to boats on Schutz Lake only. 
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