There should be a referendum. It is unconscionable to not have one.
That said, here are thumbnails to click on to see the council work session minutes re this, where every poobah in the area showed up - two at least up for reelection this November:
As always, click to enlarge and read. P.2 is where a fourteen million dollar rough price figure is casually noted in minutes.
From email, additional facts:
A draft house bill seeks $4.3 million in state bonding, this session, this link, the language was prepared by Senate staff and will likely be amended, per communication from Rep. Abeler. Also, from Rep. Abeler, the approximate currently planned expenditures-sources are, besides the State:
State ------------------------------------- $4.3 million
Federal ------------------------------------ $4.4 million
Counties Transit Investment Board ---- $3.3 million
Local -------------------------------------- $1.7 million
Total --------------------------------------$13.7 million
[and if someone can show how to align stuff in blogger it would be appreciated in an email or comment]
The Met Council appears to be in the driver's seat, on coordinating money flow, and the State money is to cover initial work, enviro study, BNSF's bite, etc., in anticipation of matching funds to finish the thing.
Per Brian Olson, Principal Engineer and Public Works Director of City of Ramsey, a plan set prepared by Kimley Horn consultants is held by the Engineering Department, at City Hall [the Norman Castle], for Public Access and Inspection.
Additional Northstar related stuff, here, here, here, here, here.
If I go to look at the engineering dept. stuff, I will bring the reliable first generation Sony digital camera, to see if I can get credible images of a few pages of plans or renderings.
I recall a model of the Norman Castle was prepared by some Feges-firm, years ago, and is in a glass box at the Castle. Perhaps the balsa-wood-and-exacto-knife crowd will do honors on the train stop too. The Castle's luxuriant and spacious high vaulted halls have room for another spiffy glass box model. We wait. We see.
Fourteen million bucks, on faith and not knowing easily from the City's website whether it will be as ugly and off-putting as the Castle [the ramp is much more functional and cleanly done], that prospect is the basic equivalent of stringing out citizens with a king-sized repeated chorus of, "Trust Me."
There's a joke ...
________UPDATE________
Up for reelection, Rep. Jim Abeler, Sen. Mike Jungbauer; then on Council, Elvig, Ward 1; Dehen, Ward 3; Look, at large. Five ballot chances, if there's somebody caring to run in opposition at the tiny town level. Some person who likes referenda on all big ticket spending items in tiny town, with some local incumbents overly blessed with ambitions and illusions.
Pay five bucks at city hall in July, be on the ballot in November.
Give citizens a choice.
________FURTHER UPDATE_______
I had a chance to talk by phone with Mayor Bob Ramsey. His question, where would I stop having referenda if it's for a $1.7 million expenditure?
It's a good question.
Before a complete answer, with feeling and thought each a factor, I think the third water tower is about that, or even twice that, and while I would not have voted to build it if given the vote, I don't recall if I ever suggested it go to a referendum. If I did, on reflection, I would say it's a different species of decision than a train stop located as it is, and all it implies. No referendum needed on the tower.
A twenty million dollar water treatment plant to suck in river water, that one I wanted a referendum on, but talk of it is not exactly prominent during present more realistic and less ambitious days.
Back to the train station - first, what assurance is there that it's not more expense truly on the table?
If a cost overrun of two million happens, and nobody else ponies up more, it's more than double for the hit to the local folks. And, none of the other numbers are hard committment numbers. They're targets at this point.
And next question, turn it all around. There was no referendum for the Norman Castle at nineteen million. None for a multimillion dollar ramp with Ramsey liable for costs of long-term upkeep. None on a fourteen million [projected=guessed at] super-duper train stop. When does that pattern cease?
Big time worry - some talk of wanting a community center. Others, myself included, think it would be wasteful and underutilized and the entire community paying for the walkable shared-wall housing folks by the highway and railway.
And what's a train stop, other government projects add to the tax base? If public building expenditures yielded big time growth, prosperity and opportunity, why is downtown Anoka not bustling?
It is fantasy. I can see a number of other government units wanting to see Ramsey go big ticket, Met Council being the prime one but other stops along Northstar are watching, with parking lots and modest stops so far.
But, why be somebody's lab rat, and pay a lot of taxes for the opportunity?
If there was an assurance, perhaps that's what this election cycle should be about - commitment that material terms and conditions, dreams and visions, for a "Ramsey Community Center" be made expressly subject to a binding and fairly worded referendum, there'd be less Angst and doubt and questioning. It's a thought.
It was so offensive, the James Norman hoax referendum that one-term councilmember Todd Cook kept saying was a referendum on Town Center approval, the "Would you like nice shops and restaurants," thing, where the rigging of the election was leaving out the twenty-five hundred ultra-dense housing units the rigging parties had up their sleeve in deluding Ramsey voters with that wholly bogus and indefensible wording.
Why trust the new guys, after the old guys treated us as they did? And after the stealth accompanying the first go-round, the Norman Castle, stealth arguably looks to have been a coherent thought this time too.
Mayor Ramsey did say he would ask staff about putting plans, visualizations, something on the website, prominently featured, to show the citizens of Ramsey what fourteen million is projected to be buying "for us."
I believe the new mayor understood the skepticism, and shares the belief that how things were done in the past has two effects; it puts the present council, new faces and old, in the position of mopping up a situation that might have been handled better in the past - with options limited now by what has already happened - "Making lemonade from a lemon," as I have heard it characterized; and that abuse of trust in the process and in citizens not having a voice beyond voting every two years is a history conducive to skepticism over new big-ticket items moving along greased skids, without it being featured "news."
By that, I mean -- The mayor and staff have to realize that something's screwed together incorrectly with this City of Ramsey web homepage screenshot, "in the news," not showing "news" such as a proposed dropping of fourteen million of mixed tax dollars into something some regard as "the same rathole" without a word on the homepage and without a single drawing, rendering, plan, etc., anywhere on the site - with either intentional apparent stealth or unintentional inexcusable institutional gross negligence being the only two plausible explanations that come to mind:
There're different ways to do things.
Calling "County Compost Sites Winter Information," "Anoka High School Theatre Announces Three Upcoming Productions," "Anoka Ramsey Athletic Association Spring Registration - Now Open!," and "Information on Driveway Sealing," news, while hiding fourteen million under a hat as, what, non-news??; that has the distinct miasma of the James Norman way of government still lingering.
This hummer, as news, "Anoka County Mental Wellness Campaign - Wilder Research Survey," suggests to me that my "mental wellness" would be several notches higher if I felt I could trust knowing what municipal government is up to without having to ferret out fourteen million in schemes and dreams.
There's room for each of us to improve, inside and outside of government, I guess.
For certain, I do trust that Mayor Ramsey wants to do the job right, and that conflicting interests and personalities at the council table are not what they were in the past, but there is Met Council continuity in things being advanced even after failure on the ground in parallel with housing market downturns. It was stealthy then for various reasons not applicable now, and needs to become less stealthy. At least the rose colored glasses are gone - the talk of having to truck snow out of Town Center because of the soon-to-be density everywhere there, the talk of a new fire truck needed to reach the top of the tall buildings, that's gone, not at all missed, but also not forgotten. Reality can always make some things retreat in disarray when they never should have been. What are the plans these days on a second parking ramp?
One opinion. Mine. Others can dispute ways and means and impacts of change.
I close repeating and adding observations about the city website. To repeat, nowhere in any prominent place do I see the mention of fourteen million as a planned expenditure. To add, nowhere in any prominent place do I see ridership figures for the Ramsey Star Express. It is as I recall, having seen a number somewhere, 240 or so riders per day. I don't know if that's supposed to be round trips or one-way, each way added to reach 240. Benefit of doubt says 240 round trips, without any inflation or misleading intended. That's $14 million/240 daily riders, or $58,333.33 being spent per daily northstar rider to be expected to be added to the existing ridership total.
I am uncertain that it's cost justified.
One former council member suggested it's the equivalent of buying each rider a new Mercedes, and that's one way to look at the number. And that would be a nice mid-model Mercedes, not the rock-bottom low-end buy-in starter Mercedes price, either.
And what's the ramp occupancy-vacancy statistics these days? How does that calculate out as a daily per auto expenditure?
Missing data, again.
So decisions are and have been questionable, even arguably profligate, and insufficiently publicized as they were being finalized.
Yet, the procedures of how things happen appear to me as quite better than before.
Not as great as they could be. Not perfect by any means. Not at all that. But better.
End of rant.
__________FURTHER UPDATE_________
Last night, the Timberwolves were taking gas against the Sixers, so I channel hopped to the Ramsey council meeting. They are moving to update and improve the city website. That is a positive step, and I believe Mayor Bob Ramsey is a strong voice for getting better information flow from City Hall to the public. It is a good step.