Ramsey's FRANCHISE FEE situation makes statewide reported news, Strib online; in part -
Ramsey, with a population of about 27,500, is just starting to look at its 2022 budget and could choose to levy a tax in lieu of the franchise fees.
Resident Thomas Gamec said he was in favor of keeping the fees, which are costs utilities such as gas and electric companies pay a city for permission to use the right of way to deliver services. Those costs are added on to consumers' gas and electric bills, and the money goes to cities for specific purposes. In Ramsey, the fees were dedicated for roads.
"I have never seen the city of Ramsey with as bad of roads as there are now," Gamec said while addressing the council. "Tell us what you are going to do before you eliminate something. How can we say you are going to come up with something better? We don't know. I favor franchise fees because I know that money is going toward roads."
[italics added] Below, a screen capture of a part of a 1981 council Special Meeting's minutes, with the early 1980s being when Ramsey's dirt roads were being sequentially blacktopped for the first time. Before that, dust, washerboard bumping at turns and stops. Periodic grading needed, Ramsey's grader doing yeoman work but still all the dirt road misery as the town grew. All that, but then was when dirt roads clearly were being improved - from being much, much, much worse before the blacktopping.
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