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RENU session gets to basics of projects

NEW ULM — The New Ulm City Council held a special RENU (Reinvest in New Ulm) work session Thursday night to discussion the basics of planning for projects approved by voters last year.

No formal decisions were made during the meeting. The work session was to provide information and discuss the priority of the projects.

The new sales tax projects include an indoor water park, indoor playground, wellness center, gymnastic facilities, Johnson Park grandstand improvements, Hermann Heights road and parking improvements and a winter multi-purpose dome.

At the start of the meeting the council was given good news on a bonding related question.

Currently the city is still collecting a half-percent sales tax for the original sales tax bond. New Ulm collects enough revenue from this sales tax to pay off the debt service on these original bonds. The excess money generated has been put into a reserve account to cover any maintenance issues associated with the original sales tax project–Civic Center, Community Center and Recreation Center.

Early in the year the council was weighing the options of whether to pay off the original bonds now in order to start the new project, or wait to start the new projects in order to collect additional funds for the reserve accounts.

City Attorney Roger Hippert received an email from the city’s bond counselor Jennifer Hanson, confirming that the city did not have to choose. Revenue could continue to generate reserve funds while beginning work on the new project.

City Manager Brian Gramentz said that since the sales tax legislation is structured as an extension of the existing sales tax with ability to finance new projects, the ability to fund reserves should be ongoing. Allocating sales tax revenue between various bond issues is permitted.

By the end December the reserve account is expected to have $4.3 million.

With this extra flexibility, the city is able to begin planning for the new RENU projects sooner than expected; however the order and priority of each project remains to be determined.

The projects will not all be completed at one time, but in phases. Chair of the RENU committee Toby Freier was at the meeting and presented the council with a project phasing recommendation created by the committee. The first project on the list was Johnson Baseball Park’s grandstand improvements.

New Ulm will host the 2020 State Amateur Baseball Tournament. The RENU committee and the council were in consensus Johnson Baseball Park should be in the first phase to insure the improvements are in place before the tournament.

Next on the priority list was the dome facility, wellness center, gymnastic facility, indoor pool expansion and herman heights improvements.

Freier and the council agreed this list was subject to change based on a variety of factors. The Hermann Heights improvements was the lowest cost project and could be bumped up on the schedule if needed. Other projects might be quicker and lower cost to do at the same time.

Other hold-ups could delay certain projects. For example, Park and Rec. Director Tom Schmitz said construction at the Fieldhouse might need to be pushed back based on the soil conditions.

The council believed it was important to begin discussion on the dome facility now because this was the only project not occurring on city-owned property, but on School District 88 property. In order the complete this project the city would need to work with school officials and determine a timeline.

Councilor Larry Mack said there was a limited time when the dome could be installed. It could only done when not in use by the school, which require coordination between the city and school.

City Staff will also begin working on Request for Proposals (RFPs) for proposed projects. By creating the RFP, the city will develop a better idea of the cost and help with prioritizing.

Council Chair Charles Schmitz said if costs come in higher than expected, the council would need to decide whether to cut a projects or reduce all of them.

Park Director Schmitz confirmed the original Civic Center project was significantly reduced to come in on budget. Locker rooms and storage space were removed for the final design.

Even if a project is reduced or cut the city has the option of saving a project for a later time.

Councilor Les Schultz said as these project begin to move forward the city would need to keep the public informed on the progress.

“It is our obligation to let them know because it is their tax dollars,” he said.

Since this was a work session, no formal decisions were made by the council.

Freier said the informal discussion would be a relief to the stake holders in the project. “There was some concern that everything was going to be two years delayed, but we’re already working on RFPs,” he said.

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