(Spirit Lake)– The Spirit Lake city council has decided to delay one part of its proposed building project in order to make a bond issue proposal more palatable with voters.
The council held a work session Tuesday evening to review six options City Administrator Mark Stevens presented last week designed to reduce the amount of a bond issue that would be needed for the city hall/police station project.
Councilman Jerry Harbst told fellow council members he personally couldn’t vote for the combined city hall/police station project and the 3.3 million dollar bond issue that would accompany it, saying there are too many uncertainties over the economy and what the legislature might do and the impacts it could have on the city’s tax levy. Harbst said he WOULD support a proposal for just a new city hall.
Councilman Steve Balm agreed, saying there would be some advantages to delaying the police station part of the project in that it would give the city a chance to see what might happen with its levy and give it some time to pay off some debt.
City staff added another possibility would be to do the police station renovation in phases, keeping each one below the threshold required for a public referendum.
Deleting the police station and allocating $250,000 in city funds toward the city hall project brings the amount needed for a bond issue down to $1.6 million and would keep the tax levy below $11 per $1,000 of valuation. That seemed to be within the threshold for support among most council members.
While the council stopped short of taking official action to endorse going ahead with just the city hall portion of the project for now, they did give a clear concensus that’s how they want to proceed.
City Administrator Mark Stevens said he’ll draw up a resolution reflecting that, along with proposed language to be included on the November General Election ballot, for the council to consider at an upcoming meeting.
