Tennis.  There are 14 tennis courts in Victoria today, but only the new 8 courts at Holy Family Catholic High School (jointly owned with the City of Victoria) are in decent condition.  Courts at Deer Run need some work.  Courts at Kirke-Lachen and South Lake Virginia Shores need replacement.
There is about $235,000 in the Park Rec Fund for park and rec purposes.  As Mayor Jerry Bohn pointed out, "This fund is not from tax dollars.  But I want to know what all these things are going to cost.  I'm not going to sign over a blank check."
Members of the Parks and Rec Com-mittee were thanked for their ground work and narrowing of the playing field in re-gard to needs and requests from the recent Citizens Survey. 

ANOTHER WEBSITE FOR NEWS
PROPOSED BY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
City Councilmembers approved an expenditure of $2,500 to help sponsor a website that could be up and running later this fall.  Speaking on behalf of the Victoria Chamber of Commerce, Michelle Aspelin said the Chamber is also seeking $2,500 from School District 112 and $2,500 from the Victoria State Bank.  This is in addition to $2,500 that the Chamber is contributing toward marketing the site.
This $10,000 sponsorship is for only one year and is renewable annually.  Michelle said the Chamber sees the web-site as an additional, more immediate, method of communication.
"It comes with 600 pages of con-tents," she said.  "There are 5,000 sites like this across the nation.  Homeowners will like this.  It has recipes and hobbies and events.  It's a safe site.  There are levels of control to keep it family orient-ed.  There is no cost to share information on this website.  The Chamber pays an initial $1,197 to set up the site and there is  also a monthly fee and administrative costs.  It's a fantastic tool for cities and businesses and organizations to share in-formation."
Stated Chamber member Al Bill, "This is a grassroots for immediate com-munication.  We've also had a conversa-tion with the school district ... Holy Fam-ily has a hard time driving people to its website ... The Chamber is confident this will go ... Michelle has great energy ... Some of the money will pay for her time."
Asked City Attorney Mike Norton, "I assume you have a contract for the city to sign and a list of services provided.  This would be between the city and who?  Does it address liability?  What is the city getting for its money?  What if there's disagreement among the sponsors?"
Michelle said there is nothing like a contract at this time, and date for the one-year of sponsorship will begin whenever all four partners are on board.
Al Bill said the website could draw revenues.  "We don't know," he said.  "We're looking for a revenue stream for the Chamber to help with some of our costs like the scholarships and Touch of Bavaria."
Sated Mayor Jerry Bohn, "The coun-cil has a history of supporting the Cham-ber.  This gives us the ability to communi-cate on a timely basis."
Stated Tammy Abrahamson, Victoria Parks and Rec Director, "This is one more vehicle to get information out."  The City of Victoria already has a website of its own, as does the Victoria Chamber of Commerce, the School District, the Bank, Holy Family, and several other businesses and services in the community.

OTHER NEWS FROM AUGUST
MARK KALTSAS TO LEAVE VICTORIA

*Mark Kaltsas, City Planner/Assis-tant City Administrator/Director of Plan-ning and Zoning, informed councilmem-bers August 26th that he will be accept-ing an offer for employment elsewhere.  Said Mayor Bohn, "I feel very bad about losing Mark's services.  I don't feel there is a practical way to keep him ..."  Mark will be leaving his position at the city about the same time this September, 2004,  that City Administrator Steve Sarvi re-turns from his year-long National Guard duty in Kosovo. 
*Election judges have been appointed for the State Primary Election on Septem-ber 14th and the General Election on November 2nd.  Head election judges are Liz Anderson and Janet Roth.  Other appointees:  Candace Souweine, RaNaye Miller, Doris Schmieg, Marguerite Yan-isch, Marie Steinberger, Stephen Kartso-nis, Wendy Amundsen, Gary Bailey, Roseann Harker, Mary Hadaway, Sandra Dahl, Keith Geske, Deborah Price, Shirley Winters, Marla Westfield, Frayne Seele, Sheryl Gaida, Irene Vogel, Joan Geske, Marlene Kaufhold, Peter Bren, Judith Hassig, Donald Dahl, Joan Leonard, Rich-ard Harker, Marcia Ortner, Mitch Land-owski, Kenneth Wench, Nick Giambruno, Joyce Heiland, Carol Schmidt, Charles Schmidt, and Ron Allen.
*No additional building permits will be issued in the Watermark East Subdivi-sion, effective August 6th, until all issues with the city have been resolved. 
*Salon Spatoria, a full service salon opening this fall of 2004, received permis-sion to place a wall mounted sign on the Clocktower Building in downtown Vic-toria. 
*The Laketown Township Fire Aid Agreement was approved.  Their annual protection fee to the City of Victoria for the 2004-05 period is $19,477.77.
*Roger and Paul Hartman received approval for a minor subdivision and re-duced setback variance for property locat-ed at 74th Street.
*Council approved the purchase of 12 tables and 75 chairs for specific use at the Victoria Field House at a total cost not to exceed $3,957.30.
*Holy Family Catholic High School received approval to conduct a charitable gambling raffle on January 14th, 2005.
*On March 1st, 2004, the Chaska Lions made a donation to the City of Victoria for use by the Parks and Rec Department in the amount of $6,000.  Since the charitable gambling began in July of 2003, the total charitable profit has been $11,980.
*City Attorney Mike Norton reported that the federal government has adopted new hourly wages related to employee classifications, and there can be signifi-cant liabilities for cities if they are not in compliance.
*City Planner Mark Kaltsas and City Attorney Jack Griffin could not attend the August 26th city council meeting because they were attending a meeting of the Watershed District, trying to get approvals for Victoria's Water Treatment Facility.
*Councilmembers voted to raise the pension benefit for Victoria firefighters from $1,800 to $1,872 per each firefighter per each year of service.