This conference will now be recorded. body. >> I'm throwing everything to you. >> You got something to say on that? complete the >> I got six o'clock. We'll call the meeting in order. We'll start with the pledge of allegiance.
>> Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> I believe we do not have any amendments
to the agenda. So, I just need approval. Make a motion to approve the agenda. >> Second. >> Any further discussions? All in favor? >> I oppose. Passes 5 0. New business. Uh, news and broad pool abatement public
hearing. We'll go through a little presentation first and then we'll open it up to anybody that wants to um make comments on the abatement for the public hearing. just make sure that everybody that's here has signed up outside uh for we can just get all that
information. So, I'll let uh Brian start with the presentation. >> All right. Thank you. Um, when I was thinking about this, I thought, well, you know, I should start from the beginning, or at least the beginning of of when we signed a contract with our our pool contractor. Um, and just kind
of run through everything so everybody's got a good handle on what we have looked at because u, you know, I've seen Facebook posts and things like that questioning, you know, why did they look at this, why did they look at that? And we did. I promise you, over eight years, we looked at anything and everything. So, that's what I'm going to do. Just
kind of go through start to finish. Uh starting out with the old pool built in 1972, operated for about 52 years. Uh and that was built entirely from uh fundraising. $200,000 is is what my research showed.
Uh which coincidentally enough is roughly it's more about $1.56 million in today's dollars. And that was our fundraising effort for this new pool was about 1.6 million 6 point 1.626 million. So, um, yeah, we weren't far
off from from back in the day when when the old pool was built. Um, we ended up closing it down on April 1st of 2024, uh, for several reasons. U, water and sewer lines, broken broken toilets, dangerous cracks in the pool.
Um, when we started that thing every year, we didn't know if it was going to run or not. Um, sometimes it ran right away, sometimes it didn't run right away. The last time we had it running, there was a hammer on the return or something and we thought this thing's going to blow up, but then it resolved
itself and we were able to run it for a little while longer. But it it was done. It it wasn't practical to remodel it anymore, spend any more money on it. Um, and I'll get into a little bit more of that along the way here as well. So, um, going by year here. There we go. A little slow up there. Um
2018 the park board and the city council began to plan for a major rehab or replacement of the pool. Now that's a little misleading. They were planning on rehab um for a long time probably before that. Uh Kim Kim was around that during
those years before too but um uh they did a nice job of maintaining it to get 52 years out of it. Um the maintenance just just finally caught up. So then I started talking about, well, I have to do a major rehab or replacement. On August 21st, 2018, the council entered
into a professional services agreement with Burbach, who we're still working with, um, to look at costs for rehabbing the existing pool, and then, um, looking into potential designs and costs if they
were to replace the pool. Uh, they formed a pool committee. Uh, it was a large group. I should have put the names on here. Um, but pool committee in the fall of 2018 and and they were in charge of working with Burbach to uh look at new pool concept plans while Burbach was
working on the uh the rehab and and the cost the feasibility of doing a rehab. Um so kind of two things going on at once there. 2019, uh, park board and city council received a technical evaluation on the
old pool and it was a little rough. Um, it was estimated just a hair under $2.6 million of probable cost of uh, rehab. Um, you know, a comprehensive rehab to get it to where it where it needed to be. Uh, and that didn't include zero
depth entry or splash pad amenities. That was just the rehab. Um, yeah. So 2.6 6 million um based on the large c cost of rehabbing the pool. The decision was made to pursue a new pool facility. Uh and the pool committee went to work.
Um they were not giving given guidelines on on what to design as far as dollars go and they were in the 7.5 to 11 million range. U and they were beautiful design, just absolutely beautiful and tons of work. They put in so much work
into that. Um then I came around in 2020 is when I was hired in July and I said well we should probably look at the impact of of what you're looking at here and uh so we looked at various amounts 8 million 7 million uh you can see that on there. Um those were numbers from back
in 2020. Uh so it was a lot and so uh we also thought okay well if we're looking to spend that let's let's see what an indoor pool facility would cost. We worked with uh with Aaylor's U Rebecca and uh I can't remember who else at
Aaylor's but at the time. Eve. >> Yeah. Did we work with you on the Were you around when we did the Anyway. Yep. And um so they came up with the Jax Links Aquatic Center uh in Minong Minong, Wisconsin just as a kind of
place to start because they knew the numbers there and they paired it back to a facility that would be more fitting of of a community like ours because there was a a lot of talk about, hey, how come why don't we have something with a roof on it, something we can run all year round so it's not just a few months? Well, yeah, great idea. Let's look at
that. Well, $15 million give or take. Um and you can see the tax impact of that. uh you know 1,100 bucks a year on a $300,000 house, 9160 per month. So we thought and that those are estimated numbers, but we thought well maybe you
should look at um a little bit more reasonable pool, you know, maybe an indoor pool. It just is not going to going to fly here, you know, especially staffing and eat and all that stuff all the time. So we asked the the committee to start looking at at something
smaller something more affordable for the community. Well, that request um wasn't met with with excitement um by the pool committee that was there at the time. Um you know, it
meant an extended time for the new pool to come to fruition and all these wonderful ideas they came up with and and tons and tons of work and hours and hours and hours and they did a great job and know huge thank you to all of them for what they did. Um but they decided
that they were going to step down and and no longer participate um in the the new pool planning. Um the park board took it back on at that point um and started looking at uh at new plans, but there was a strong desire to keep the pool running as well, our old
pool. You know, we need to keep this pool running until we're ready to go with a new pool. Um, so council authorized $110,000 uh to rehab just the things that had to be done to keep it running. Uh, and I asked for
three or four years out of it. Um, from our pool contractor. Uh, we got three summers out of it, almost a fourth. If we had working toilets out there, we might have gotten a fourth. I don't know. But, uh, so, and again, it re the rehab was just just
the main things. uh you know the walls were falling down in in the vessel. Uh mechanical things um some things like the climbing wall uh we made sure that that could be reused, you know, so we're not spending that money again uh in a
new pool if we decided on doing a new pool. And then the park board continued to look at pool designs along the way as well. uh the park board requested from me um as the administrative representative of well how much are we looking at what
should we look towards and I said I don't know we need to do a capital planning process as a whole as a city to look at everything we've got because we need to do roads we need to do everything else as well uh pool's very important but we all so are all these
other things and so we went through a capital planning process that took most of a year so you're going to see a gap here. Um, and then 23 we finished the capital planning and we came up uh as an initial starting amount
of we could bond for $3 million and then the park board went to work from there. Well, okay, well, what type of a pool can we do? What type of fundraising uh would be feasible? Um, I think it was design number 22, wasn't it Fred? Um,
resulted in the pool with an estimated probable cost of 4.626 626 million. It it checked the boxes. Uh was a smaller footprint than the one we have now, but again, ours was full for swimming lessons and then it wanes off after that. So, a smaller footprint was
doable, especially when we can bring the cost down a little bit. Um and it had the amenities we were looking for. So, a lot of discussion uh with Burbach, with other communities, uh other fundraising efforts that have been done and uh the park board decided that okay,
let's go with this $4.626 million pool, go into the 1.626 million fundraising effort. Um and we formed another uh pool committee. This was a fundraising committee and they were also involved in the the details of the design as well along the
way. but um form the committee to do the work of gathering dollars to provide a new pool facility for the citizens of Zimroda and also uh get out the vote for for the referendum. As city staff, we can't ask for money. We can't go out and
solicit donations. Uh we really can't go out and say the vote for or not for a referendum either. So, we need the committee to do that. And they did a phenomenal job. Again, another committee, citizens, amazing amount of work, hours, lots and lots of hours.
geared up for the 2024 election and we put the question out on the August 13 24 primary election. Now, there was uh a lot of discussion about that primary as opposed to the November election, the general election. Um what it really came down to was we wanted to deliver this
pool spring of 26, like this spring. That's what we had been talking to the citizens about all the way along, the pool committee all the way along. And to do that, we needed the most time possible uh for Burbach to do the design. Um so we went with the primary on August 13th. Save saved a few months
of time. Um passed 71% voted yes. Those that came out to vote voted yes. Um and we initiated the plan design phase right away after that election on August 15 of 24. uh Burbra got going on there on the
drawings, the fundraising committee, went in earnest and started doing uh fundraising, lots of events, all that stuff. Um in 2025, we engaged in extensive detail meetings with Burbach engineers. Um
there's a lot of lot of details of course in a pool. We're not building a pool in the backyard. We're building a a public pool and there there's so many things that go into it. Uh and again the the park board was involved with that. Uh we had a park board representative Troy who was also on the pool committee.
Uh we also had a couple other pool committee members. So and um um public works administration. Uh we also got the pool manager involved um in in looking at the details things that need to be in the in the pool need
to be included inside the the pool house. We received 75% design drawings on April 28th and then final drawings were not complete until September. And so that was a long hall. Um and a good thing we did the um the the question on
the earlier election because otherwise yeah we would have it never had a chance for 2026 uh opening. Um put the advertisement out for bids on September 18th of 25 open the bids. Uh that was a well I won't
forget that day uh Tuesday October 21st and the bids came in at a little over $7 million as opposed to the 4.626 estimated probable cost you know 2.6 million over over which caused us to say
well uh what are we going to do now? Um, meanwhile, Burbach uh Oh, let's see. Council rejected all the bids on on December 4th of 2025. Uh, Burbach requested to do to rebid and we said, "Well, we can't pay you anymore to to
rebid after we missed it by this much." And they said, "No, no, no. Let us rebid. We're not going to charge the city anything." So, they've been doing the they did the rebid work, the some of the redesign, uh, at no cost to the city. Um things that were cited for the overage was tight time frame. You know,
we we all the way along we said we want to deliver this pool spring of 26 and and they tried hard as well. Um the time frame was the biggest factor in the huge um uh overage in the bids and there were some overengineering things
too. Uh Burbach builds just a a wonderful pool, but there were a few things that we could pair back uh and still be fine. Um the concrete slab was eight inches thick or no it was six inches thick and four inches is plenty. Some things like that. There was an aggregate specified but anyway we're
hoping that that would bring the bids down. Um and they were confident that the bids would come down substantially. Uh second bid advertisement went out on January 26 or January 6th of 2026. Uh we opened those bids uh at 2 pm on
Tuesday, February 17th. Uh five bids this time. So, a couple more on on the way it's structured is three contracts. Uh the pool, mechanical, electrical stuff, and then um decking and all the other things. Um
came in at 4,354,500. So, way better than um than where we were before. But then you got to add back in um Burbach's fees. You know, they don't they don't do this for free. They did the bidding for free this time, but uh so there's fees
that go in there and then there's other incidental things that came up uh that we had to spend some dollars on as far as uh asbestous abatement to get ready for potential demo. We were really trying hard to demo before the cover bridge festival this last year. Um um some additional soil borings that came
up because uh the engineers were a little uncomfortable with what they saw with the the limited soil borings they initially did. So anyway, long story short 4,942,35563 is the total that we're working with now, which is 316,000 and some change
over the estimated probable cost of construction. Uh the pool committee has raised $661,32212. Um thanks to the financial staff here and keeping such good books, we even got the 12 cents in there. um that includes cash and pledges. Um so
that leaves a funding gap of approximately $1.3 million uh that we got to figure out um what to do with um so staff consulted with Aaylor's Keith and and and Rebecca and uh so what do we
do? How do communities go about filling a gap like this when you've got a a public pool or a public facility that you know is needed? Um, but the fundraising hasn't gone the way we we had hoped. And they said, "Well, you do an abatement was the first thing they
had said." And there's other options, and I'll run through that, but the first thing we had talked about was was doing an abatement. And I'll get in that a little bit more later, and so will Keith, but um, really there's three options, and we wanted to present any options we could think of to the council
to consider, uh, in in how we wanted to move this forward or not move this forward. Uh, one of the options, no particular order, would be to go back for the voters and ask for additional dollars. Uh, with that, um, the 1.3 would not be enough
because construction would be pushed back a year and that carries with it inflation of about 12%. So, roughly 600,000, you rounding. Uh, plus there's some fees on on bonding. You have to bond for a little bit extra. And uh so
if you went back to the voters, you'd have to ask for another $2 million is what we're estimating right now. Um another option would be fun loans. Now, this is the way we thought and I thought, yeah, let's try and go this way though, the whole way along. But the
more we got into it and the more we were talking to uh public works director Jeff Meyers and his staff and Kim and um office staff, we have a lot of water and sewer type projects coming up or a lot of projects that are going to have water and sewer. Uh you know, one of the
bigger ones is going to be the highway 58 reconstruction. We have to handle all the crossings there. So we are going to need a bunch of money out of those funds. Uh so in all likelihood if we depleted those or wouldn't deplete it but if we took a bunch of money 1.3 million out of there we're going to have to bond at that time when we do those
projects to make that up. So as a staff we're recommending not to consider that that that's just that yeah not a good way to go. Um tax abatement um and this is what we had talked to aers about. Um
basically it's a a way to get the pool going. Um, so and Keith can maybe explain this a little bit more, but um, when a city um, incurs debt or issues debt, you need an authority to do so. Uh, our first authority was the the
voter approved 3 million $3.1 million. That was an authority. We can't just say, "Well, we're just going to do that bond for the additional dollars." Um, we need another authority. Another authority is the abatement. um it's a tool that that councils have to to incur
debt uh which is what we're presenting here. So, uh it would be written as not to exceed 1.4 million because there's some unknowns on some fees and things like that in there. Um and that involves abatement involves
taking a portion of city property taxes paid on a certain property. In this case, we're talking about DFA because it's a big enough property and we can abate one rather than a whole bunch of them. And basically that we just take those portion of property taxes and we pay the debt service with that. That
leaves a gap in funding for everything else we have to do. So therefore, we have to raise a levy. So it's a it's it's a just like the 3.1 million um we would have to raise a levy for this 1.3 million. Now now with that, we would continue to fund raise along the way as
well. and theoretically hoping to knock that down as we go. Um, so it would start out at the 1.3 or 1.4 million um each year hopefully we're fundraising um and knocking that down. And so it would
we we we get rid of that debt quicker with the fundraising. Um and here we are public hearing to raise awareness of the abatement process and gather comments the citizens. Um after this meeting, council will have a a week
and a half or so a week to consider and then uh during the April 16th council meeting, we're going to be looking for a decision because the bids um we have to decide on the bids within 60 days and the 60 days is
April 17th. So we're cutting it really close. Uh so there'll be a decision one way or another on April 16th. Um maybe I'll give way to to Keith if you want to say some things of So what we're going to get into here into now is the bonding impact. I broke it out by the the voter
approved 3.1 um the um the next one will be the uh the 1.3.4 million $1.4 $4 million
abatement. And the last slide will be the total tax impact on various. >> Yeah. So, that was a great overview, Brian. Uh Keith Dah. I'm a municipal adviser at Ellers, the city's financial consultant.
What's on the screen right now is the bonding impact just from the referendum portion that we were talking about the 3.1. When you look at the upper left portion, um the bond amount, it includes cost of
issuance. So when we issue debt, we're going to incur the municipal advisor has a fee, bond council has a fee, rating agency has a fee, and then usually you have to pay some type of fee to the county uh for some ancillary stuff. So
all of those costs are factored in the total bond amount that you're issuing. You're essentially using bond proceeds to pay for that cost of issuance as well. We also have the term on there which is 20 years and the interest rate which is
the average interest rate over that term and currently that is 4.35%. Why I specifically mention the interest rate is because this is conservative. We've put in cushion to account for any market fluctuations or volatility that
we might experience before issuing debt. So we have about a half a percent cushion in there. So the impacts that you see below is what I would like to say a worst case scenario. We fully expect that this interest rate will be
lower and that the impact to the residents and the businesses will also be lower. Um but on the the the table below we break out by tax classification with residential, commercial and
apartments. what this ultimately means for a property valued at X, a property valued at Y, and then you follow the chart over to the right and you can see what the impact would be uh based on the latest tax rates for the annual amount
by the value of the home or the value of the commercial or industrial property. And it breaks it down to what is the monthly impact and what is the daily impact as well. just so people can have some context about issuing $3.1 million
of bonds. What is that going to mean? On the next slide, we look at that additional gap that Brian was talking about. $1.3 million. When you factor in cost of issuance, it ends up getting closer to $1.4 million,
just slightly under it. But you can see the same chart with the same valuation tax classifications and what the tax impact would be on an annual monthly uh and daily basis. I would say with the last slide that
because we have two bond issuances potentially going forward at the same time um we can essentially have some cost efficiencies and issue both of them at the same time and save on fees from bond council the municipal advisor fee
and the rating agency fee because we effectively have two issues in one it's being bifurcated so we're able to save some cost and so when you look at the fiscal impacts on this slide. That's most telling with what may happen. But again, the interest
rate does have cushion to account for that market fluctuation and volatility of half a percent. So in all likelihood, these numbers will come down. The final thing that I just want to add is that specifically on the abatement portion.
So the city has identified one parcel to essentially abate its portion of property taxes. That's essentially the pledge. The specific revenue that the city would collect just like um any other property. It's not going to impact how the property is assessed. It's not going to impact how they pay taxes. It's
not directly going to increase them because they're part of the abatement. It's an accounting practice on the city side. so that when the county sends the tax settlement to the city, you specifically have to divert that portion of property taxes that would have gone
into the general fund into the debt service fund. So that will ultimately cover the average principal amount of the tax abatement bonds over the 20-year term, but it is essentially at the end of the day a tax levy. And so there is going to
be an interest component with these bonds. And so that's where the fiscal impacts come in. That's where you would essentially have to put that levy on all properties within the community to be able to make that full debt service payment. But with property abatement,
you are able to write that down annually and send that and submit that to the county so that if you do fund raise annually, you're able to use that revenue that you fund raise to write down the abatement. So there wouldn't necessarily be that impact that we're
talking about to the residents on the abatement portion of the bonds. So, that's what we ultimately wanted to cover specifically with these slides and address as far as how does the referendum bond and the tax abatement
bond work in tandem with one another and what potential benefit could we see from doing two bonds at once, but also continue the fundraising to hopefully reduce the debt service uh for the tax
abatement portion of these bonds. Yeah, thank you. So, really, you know, it's uh the way I look at it is about five bucks, a little over well, yeah, if it's a little less than that, be about five bucks on a $300,000 house
for this portion that we're looking to do the abatement on >> per month. Per per month. Per month. Yep. >> Um you know, already approved by the voters was 3.1 million. That's about 12 bucks a month. Um, now you'll notice it
was lower when you combine them when we put it all in there because of the fees he said we saved. So, so really you're looking at a total of 1434 give or take. Um, where you would have been at, you know, 1202. And again, as a citizen, this is what I'm looking at too
because I pay the taxes here too. So, so I'm like, well, what's it going to cost me here? Uh, but that so that's how I'm looking at it. Um, and does you want to go? Does council have any questions for for Keith before I move past into the
into the summary? >> All right. So, what does all this mean? Uh, well, it's been an eight-year journey so far. Um, it's been longer than that. Um, the documented since we signed the contract with Burbach, uh, and and really been rolling has been eight years. It was it was talked about
before that we have already spent $328,514.81 uh so far in plans, fees, permitting, asbestous abatement, additional soil borings, things like that. So we're we're $330,000 into this pool already. Um so we're at
the point now we're going to have to decide do do we want is the brother going to have a pool or not? Um, you know, we have a $1.3 million gap. Going back to the voters would cost another give or take $600,000. U not that we don't want to go back to the voters and
ask them, but the delay means about $600,000. And we might not get biders a third time. We're told that, you know, I go back too many times that biders are going to start dropping off. We probably we might get less bids. Who knows? um using the enterprise funds, water,
sewer just is not feasible with the projects we have coming up. We have to be responsible there. Um so that leaves the abatement. Um an abatement would allow the pool to proceed now. You know, we can start it end end of April here again. Uh once we award bids, there's
there's dates in there uh for start and finish. um about five bucks a month on a $300,000 house is was what we're we're looking or asking council to to consider. Um
and then again like Keith said, we're going to continue to fund raise and hopefully we can write that down every year as fundraising goes. And in talking with with Troy and and Brena and the fundraising committee, you know, we kind of think that having a project moving along will help in fundraising. And there's some larger organizations that
that they have applied to that have have said, "Hey, we're not going to give anything because you don't have a project yet." Well, if we have a project, we're going to go back to the bigger organizations. Well, not we, the fundraising committee because why can't, but um and and hopefully we'll realize
some some more of that fundraising that we were hoping to get uh you know, closer to that 1.626 million. That's it from me. Yes. Is that enough? You got >> We got enough. Thank you for all that work. I know Brian and Kim and Burbach
have put that together also with Ellers. So, I appreciate all that information >> and Miles and Miranda >> and Miles and Miranda, >> Jeff and everybody as well. >> Um, before I open the public comment portion, does council have anything they want to add to what they've seen or any more questions of what they've seen on
this so far? Perfect. I will open the uh public comment portion. Indiv individuals may address the city council about uh proposed debatement. Speakers must state their name and limit the remarks to two minutes. Generally, the city council will not take official action on these
items, but may refer the matter to staff for a future report or direct that the matter to schedule for future meeting agenda. Any public comments? >> I do have a question. My name is Jay Miller and I have a comment a question
on the 71% you said voted for this >> 71% of what >> is that the whole population of sroto or was it like the onethird that they say usually show up for precincts to vote >> basically what all the voters that
showed let's just say there was 500 voters 71% of those voted yes for the >> right so it wasn't >> and I I can't remember what the numbers were obviously It was uh 385 voters. There was five under votes
that that they don't count. So 272 to 108. >> So yeah, whatever that 400 votes. Yeah. >> So >> yeah, for for those who and it was very well publicized. It was in the paper for long time. So everybody should have
known that we were that we were we were running it. Um so uh yeah. So that's and again I the reason we did it on the primary was because of time um and people were um who were interested came
out to vote >> right that's I can understand you know how that went but it's like I said it's not the whole town's opinion that this is what's going on but then we also have more taxes coming up with the waste
treatment Nope. Not taxes. The >> That's That'll be a water bill sewer bill. >> That'll be fees or sewer bill. >> Yep. That'll be the the sewer sewer fees could be impacted by that. Will be impacted by that if that goes. So, Yep.
>> Okay. >> Yep. And hey, Todd, can you ask him to come up to the >> Yeah. Yeah. >> table. >> Pete. >> Sorry, not Pete. >> Yeah. David Grimser. >> Y
>> just a kind of an open question. If you run a golf course or newspaper or a city or park board, you got to have some real passion. And I don't know if that's our nature to to really show a lot of passion, but uh I know Pete was on that
committee. They did a lot of traveling. They came up with a plan for a indoor facility and the city didn't want to manage and operate it which is understandable. >> No, >> but I think I think you really got to I
mean I'd be all for this thing but you got to have a lot of passion to make something work because it it is not easy. Running any business today is tough. >> What David was mentioning that was a previous effort. Oh gosh, when was that? That was back in
>> early 2000s. >> That was That was early 2000s. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Not 20. Yeah. Early 2000s. >> Yeah. That was another effort where they had funding for an indoor facility and then um it was they didn't move forward with it because of the operating costs
moving forward on an indoor facility. Is that is that right? Yeah. That wasn't this effort. >> Just got to see some enthusiasm. >> But yes, the enthusiasm. Absolutely. Absolutely. What will it cost to maintain this pool once if it goes through and everything? How much is that
going to cost to where is that money going to come through? >> We current we currently budget what 110 120,000 we did with the old pool and we're going to currently because they say with the new pool is obviously going to run more efficient and so we can keep that budget at roughly 120,000 a year.
>> We don't anticipate raising that part of the of the levy. Just one more thing and I'll shut up. Um, >> no, no, no. But I look at Zambroa and we got so many good things here.
So I got to be careful what I say here. But we don't have a pool. We send four grades to Mazeppa miles away busing. And what I'm saying is when you look at new
people coming to town, young families, what do they see in Zimroda? And and that's just a general thought for young families. Do you have a swimming pool? Where are the kids going to grade school?
It's all solvable. You can use buses, but maybe you want it local. Anybody else? If they want to make comments, please come out the front, state your name, uh, and where you live. >> Yes, sir. >> So, the bottom line is us homeowners are
building. >> The taxpayers are I mean, it's not all homeowners. I mean, it's businesses, too. So, >> yeah. >> That's with any amenity in the community. >> Still come back to >> Yeah. Because we don't uh we don't have
any other way to to make money as a city. that that's how governments function and and uh you have to decide if that's an amenity you want in your in your community. Um and David brings up a good point. You know, we often have these discussions about well what what does the pool mean to Sroda? Um how many
families will it bring in? Well, who knows how many families we'll bring in? Um, but I think just just critically thinking about it, uh, there'll be some families that won't move here for sure if there's no pool here and there's pool next community and and and equally, you know, in my mind, if I was going to go
look for a new community to live in, never have lived anywhere but here, but if I was and I had kids, I would look at the school first, right? All right, good school. Yep. Check. Well, what else can I do in town? Can I get a haircut, moral change, go to the drugstore? I mean, you can do everything in Z. You never have
to leave Zroa. And then for my kids, what what do what do they have to do? Well, is there a pool? No, no pool. Oh, there's a pool next next community. And they have good school. They have, you know, I'm going to move there instead. How many does that equate to? I don't know. But but that helps the school as
well as the community by bringing family in. And right now with with with the apartment buildings starting up and the potential of some of the older generation who are interested in the bigger apartments moving out of their smaller theoretically affordable or what's affordable nowadays 300 350 but
but anyway moving out of the smaller homes that that lends itself to bringing families in plus the development in in Pine Island. Um that's going to be huge. Um you know we have a chance we're going to be sitting pretty good on on bringing people in. And I think the pool is one
of those things that that families will look at, which would be, you know, the more people we bring in, the better off the local taxpayers are. You're spreading things out. And and again, I I'm one as well. We all are. So So we understand we understand what you're
saying. But but you're right in that uh yes, citizens are going to pay with taxes for the pool just like roads, just like anything. Um, this building, everything is paid for by by tax dollars. You just got to decide what you
want in your community. >> Any more public comments? >> I will jump in. I am Mike Schultzy. I'm the park board president as of a couple years ago. Um, this has been a perpetual problem that's being
progressively pushed down the road. nice alliteration, but there's a whole lot of data and I work with a whole lot of great intellectual people that can think this out year after year and their minds are just spinning. How can we do it right? How can we do it responsibly? Um,
we also manage the park and so we have all these plans in the park that we're dedicating accounts for that have saved up CD plans and and stakeholders that are just holding that money for that pool and managing it correctly. Um, but it's in it's in like this limbo, right?
We need to use it. So, the funds are being managed. But let me back up. I get a little nervous doing this stuff. So, sorry. Let me stick to the the facts. Um, the pool and the park, it's an entity in Zimroda, like we're mentioning, that the
populace look forward to using. It has generational usage from elderly using it for aerobics to middle uh of the road families that have kids that they need something to go to. Hot summers, they're just getting hotter. And then the babes and the kids of the community that need
an escape and they have so many options in Zabona that are safe place to go. Lifeguards and uh entertainment, exercise, everything we need for our children. Um it is a very old pool. it is close to our wershed that goes into
the Mississippi. I have um a capital plan for the park board in process that needs connection with the city and connection with um uh projects so that we can state to grant proposals. Hey, we have this great facility. We want to
keep on being a steward of this park. We want to plant plants in the park and make it enjoyable for everybody, but we need a safe structure that's not aging and decrepit and falling into the water. Um, beyond that, I'm trying to say is
that this plan has been thought out from years and years ago that it has um engineering, it has safety, it has um the stewardship of the dollars, and it is a hard hard cost for this community.
Um, but if you don't take that choice to spend that money, the progression of the community is stalled and we're stalled on this project. Um, I I don't want to get too opinionated because that's not how you present to a city council. If
you could see in front of me, it's a whole lot of notes um that I keep on I've been maybe six years on the parkboard and I just keep on listening, keep on taking notes and I keep on wanting to do right for the the population because I don't want to be biased and I don't want to waste money. I don't want to ask people for how to
spend money for something they don't want. But if we all take a a place in the community and we all try to like lift up the different generations of usage and then see the future of what the park could look like if it had city support and it had engineering and and
the cost stewardship and I don't know just so many thoughts on this and I I hope I'm not getting too energetic and emotional. There's a lot of thought behind this years of waiting and um it's just a
choice away is just finish the choice, build it and um kind of carry the burden for whatever cost it costs us. I think the reward of having a pool and the progression of what we have in the future and the safety and the the
community the pro um community progress. It's just a beautiful thing and the cover bridge park is a beautiful thing. So, it could really use less of a demolition site and more of a a beautiful splash pad and kids laughing and all the things. Any questions? I
have a lot of data if you guys got like want I got some numbers stuff in that in my binder. So, I'm sorry if I rattled. >> How many kids use the pool? >> Consistently. >> Yes. Year to year, >> day to day. >> Day to day. So, you're going to start
with lifeguard numbers where they get about 100 kids to sign up for the the lifeguard the is it like an early June lessons and there they go throughout the the summer. Um, and then after that you get about
That's a hard question, isn't it? You need like a tally might have some background. >> My microphone's dead. Um the pool lessons when we were running our pool were probably the highly most highly attended lessons in the area. We had
almost we had uh kids from all different areas coming over lots from the ZEPA but also lots from other communities. Um as far as the daily attendance go of course that that on the weather when it's hot it's crowded. When it's cold it's not.
So if we have a cold summer it's not as well but on a hot summer oh goodness. You know, we sell we sell season passes. So, it's not every so or we have sold season passes. We do charge out of town residents more for their season passes. Um, that's a little bit
harder to quantify. Um, evenings are busy, families come home, they grab them. So, I don't know if I could particularly quantify the number, but I would say in hot days very well in attended. >> I can get you a hard number if I look back at um Ann's note. Yeah, the numbers
are good. We can we can pull >> I don't have I know we've always I'll just talk to the le part. We have always exceeded by a great amount our lesson our lesson budget. We've always had way more than we have budgeted for and we have also
seen an increase in parents previously to the full closing. We've seen an increase in parents having separate lessons for their children with special needs because there are kids that cannot take a lesson in a group class. And so we have had the opportunity to offer
that because we've had instructors that are willing to do that. So so that that's also been a part of the process. So >> and a new facility will increase those numbers substantially as well.
Is pool a money maker or does it cost the city? It always I'm going to be honest, it always every pool cost the city. There is no pool in the state of Minnesota that makes money. >> Yeah, like I said earlier and it's an amenities. The park doesn't make money. You pay more taxes to have the park than
what the park generates. It does a really good job generating money and they do camping and the and the shelter generate a lot but it still is a cost because you know it's unfortunately some of these things cost our roads don't generate money but we pay for the roads
>> that would be an unfair >> well yeah you're probably >> you without roads nobody would >> that's true that's true but improve maybe road improvement true >> but you know there's a lot of things we do then again as as Brian has said we have two options for for raising revenue
as property. Minnesota has set up uh its tax structure such that property tax is what funds municipal governments. Our two choices are fees or taxes. Um so yeah, that's a good point about the campground too. The campground will benefit from the pool. I think Mike
alluded to that as well. the park in general will benefit from the pool. But the campground does generate dollars um positive dollars quite a bit actually and and more so I believe if if we have the pool there to bring people in um you know which is going to benefit the
things that the park board is doing more amenities down there. It all kind of goes hand in hand. >> It will always cost to run this park in the pool. It's a stewardship. Um the park board has accounts that pay for all this stuff. It's not on the city
in totality. We get like a tax amount every year to spend on the park. And so we just kind of divvy up what we can do each year. So we do charge a reasonable fee for what we can give for people coming into the facility, but we're not going to like ramp it up just because we
need money because we just won't have anybody buy into that. But in the future, the more we have, the more we can use. >> Perfect. Thanks, Mike. >> Sure. Thanks for taking the time to really try this stuff out, guys. Thanks
for everybody's voices. Means a lot. >> Any other public comments? >> I'll just make it quick. >> Carol Schuman. um a new member to the park board, but I've also been on the Goodyu County Fair Board for 25 years.
And probably most of you realize that uh a few years ago, we started planning to replace livestock barns that were well getting poor and needed to be replaced. And the the fundraising committee had a very difficult time getting funds,
getting grants because we didn't have anything definite and we've had to make changes. But once we got that first commitment from the Goodie Alliance, we put up that first smaller barn for the the poultry barn. If you're familiar with the barns out there, once I came
up, we got the big donors to come. So, and now we aren't approaching people. People are coming to us because they see things are getting done. So, I think the fundraising will really take off and help with with covering these costs.
>> Thank you. And I mean to piggyback a little bit what I have heard that there are a few a couple other people that are willing to donate. They just haven't because we don't have a product yet. Do we know the dollar amount if it's $5 or 5,000? We don't know. But we've had a
couple people say I'm ready. We don't have nothing. >> So it can change the numbers >> 100%. Yep. >> At any time. So >> on this abatement portion especially because like you said we can write that down year to year right based on
fundraising. >> So you mean in other words it would you would take the money that the donors give and then just put it >> basically >> and then it would come off of from taxing us. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Gotcha. >> There there's two ways that it could
happen. Um the debt issuance process once the bids are accepted the bid is awarded the debt issuance process will take about 45 to 60 days. Um so in that time frame you can still fund raise and when we sell the bonds on the day of the sale we can reduce the bond size
accordingly if you have more cash to bring through fundraising to the bonds. So you can use it on the front end or you can use it once the bonds have been issued to write down those annual baitments. Has anybody got any rich uncle rich uncles?
They're going to die soon or something. >> We've been looking for them. >> We've been buying lottery tickets, too. Haven't we? >> We've been trying. We've been trying. >> You never know. >> Yeah, right. >> Any more public?
>> I'd like to speak. Troy Nessro resident for 50 plus years. Um, I was basically introduced as wrote about the same time the old pool was. And back to Dave's comment about being passionate about that. I grew up in the Covered Bridge Park. Um, and I've watched it grow
significantly over the years. And I want the city council to really think about what do you think the park should look like? Because Zroa is a great little small farming community, but the staple of Zimroda and the real like jewel, the crowning jewel is the covered bridge,
right? the whole entire park. So, watching that thing grow over the last 50 years, I just I physically can't imagine it without a pool. It's always had a pool for my entire life, but again, I've only had that to look on to. And to some of the comments that Mike and other people have made, I mean, it's
so important to the community about the the time together, the swimming lessons, and things like that. And and many people have said, "Yes, you can go to a a surrounding community for some of those things." But I really think that the pride in the community is the park. And I really think the crowning jewel of the park other than the actual covered
bridge is the pool. I mean, that's what brings so many families out there. I just don't want to see it turn into the covered bridge campground. You know, I think once that pool disappears, if it ever would, the allure of the of the whole facility kind of diminishes. It's
not that one-stop entity anymore. It doesn't have all those things. And to the to the fundraising questions, I was on and and Carol took my seat on the park board as after I served both terms. Um, and I was part of the the fundraising committee on the pool. The
roadblocks that we met with fundraising really came into two things. First and foremost, the big huge rich uncles or the donors, you know, the big shields of the Walmarts and the things like that, they require uh 501c3. You have to be a nonprofit. The city is
a public entity. The Covered Bridge Park is not a 501c3. So, we couldn't get any of the big major donors. Luckily, just this last summer after two years of really no progress. I mean, I shouldn't say no progress. We raised over $600,000, but we couldn't get one of
those big home run hitters other than like the local Hansen Communications came in great. That was clutch to come in with a six figure donation. We need more of those. Now that we have an entity that will allow us to use their 501c3 in the covered bridge um
committee, I think we're going to get some of those big donors. So, I am optimistic that those bigger donations are going to come in and we've already gotten over the halfway mark, right? The $3.1 million in the taxes, that's already there. The $600 plus dollars in,
you know, 600,000 plus dollars we got in fundraising is already there. We're almost to the 20 yard line, if you will, for a football analogy. We're right there in the red zone. We just need that last $1.3 million. So, the abatement, albeit another tax increase, I'm not a fan, right? I'm a I'm a taxpayer. I
don't want to see my taxes go up anymore. But when you look at just the $600,000 increase for waiting one year, I've watched this thing get kicked down the road for the last decade. I was on the park board for over six years. I mean, have been involved in this thing and the cost just keep going up and up
and up. Back when we finally had our reduced design version down to a $4, you know, $1 million pool. That was before the big COVID thing and now prices are through the roof. And if we wait any longer, I mean, it it just can't happen. We can't wait. Need to strike now. So, I
just want you to take that in consideration because I know the ultimate decision ends up in your guys' hand. I just think it's it's time for the pool. I really do. I think it's a great addition to the community. And back to the other amenities, the campground, the different things that are being put up and approved by the
park board, which does a fantastic job, but those are tax dollars, right? And that that is an opportunity that we are presented with to give an opinion at unless we attend every park board meeting and make sure we're there when it gets voted and things like that. So, I appreciate the time and the hearing to come in and talk about the pool. So,
thank you. >> Perfect. Thanks, Troy. Just to piggyback a little bit on Troy's comment about earlier, uh we had a family reunion up at the shelter. Had a family members from California come in, moved to the cities, were here the first time and
love the covered bridge, have now been back in town two other times to shop downtown from the cities just because they love the covered bridge. So I'm on Troy's thing that it's important to keep covered bridge and what's going to be the staple is the pool. It's going to
make it look nice. We've expanded, public works have done a great job expanding the uh uh the campground and building another bathroom. So, I would say I have to agree with the work and we've already done that. We need to keep
it going. Thanks, Troy. Yes, sir. >> I will keep this as short as possible. Uh Ben Lquist, resident of Zimroda. Um, the only issue I take with doing anything else is
based off of the people that voted to make this 71%, however you word it, it seems to me that we're changing what they voted on. If they had known that things were going to be different, they may have voted
differently. And the sheer fact that it's something that was voted on, it seems to me it should go back to the voters somehow. instead of putting it on you guys to make some sort of a decision that affects how people's money is spent, I just feel like it should go back to them
somehow to offer them the opportunity to make that decision because then nobody in here is talked bad about in the at night or in the evenings, whatever during the day when they're at work. I just seems to me because it was an item
that was voted on by the entire community if they wanted it should go back to them to make the decision. I will say this, I would love us to have a pool. I'm not against that in any way, shape, or form. I just struggle with the fact that once again, it was something
that was on the ballot. It was voted on with set parameters to change that just makes me a little nervous. Any more public comments? Going once. Public comments going twice.
Public comment portion is closed. Hey council, I know we've been talking about this for a few years. Um, we've looked that different. I want to thank everybody that put the time and the effort. Uh I know we'll council meeting on the 16th
like Brian said. >> That's to be decision time. >> We have a decision then. Uh I know we took all this stuff in now. Um me personally I've been asked talked to by a couple handful of people out in
public. So I kind of gotten their views. Um I know so we've talked about it. So I will uh close the meeting unless council has any more to add, think about it and uh we will talk about it on the 16th of
April. Any more discussions? Thanks for coming. Thanks for your input. Meeting adjourned. And you know what, man? If you want to talk any good. >> Absolutely.