City Council Work Session

Catherine Readno. Well, and, you know, and we've got somebody who's coming up with a 100th birthday on July 4th, which is Virginia Mahoney here in the city too. Just putting that out there because I'm thinking about Virginia, who will be 100 on the 4th of July. We do have a lot of people who have lived most of their lives here who are in different places in their lives and who require different kinds of supports and services. But, you know, one of the things earlier this evening we were discussing, the Willard Sherwood Center and the senior center that will go at the Willard Sherwood Center. And that is a facility for the 7,000 people who have this card to go in there and get the community connection to take the exercise classes to play pickleball or basketball or bocce to do.

Thomas PetersonMy very last question is this absolutely is not a criticism of the Willard Sherwood project because if ever there's a project here, it's a big ticket item that has not escalated, that's it. I mean that cost number has stuck and then come down a little bit. So again, no criticism whatsoever of that project from a cost management perspective. However, it did not go through a referendum and it is a big ticket item. Any history or rationale on that?

Stacy HallAnd so that in the case of Willard Sherwood, let's say we might be bumping up against that timeline. So I think in recognizing that challenge when you're working through the framework, I think those are, I'm sure, things that you will be thinking about. And I just recently learned about them. But they're just things that I think that we want to try to keep engaging with the community on. Personally, I don't think a referendum is a bad thing. I think especially when you're spending tens or hundreds of millions of resident tax dollars. I mean, I think, you know, when you said before, and I understand it was the equivalent of 158 or a million, whatever it was, but there's certain things that a building of this size, the police renovation, you know, the police station, those are big things.

You know, kind of like the property yard is a big thing, and Willard Sherwood is a big thing, and the schools are a big thing. big things like that since the city was kind of established and created and they did all the big things early on. But we are now faced with finding the money to do these renovations of these big things or to build the next big thing because our buildings are aging. Our infrastructure is, you know, starting to go despite great years of maintenance and operations and all that. But things don't last forever. You know, we all see that with our houses. My house was built in 69. I THINK THIS IS A GOOD CONVERSATION. I WANT TO THANK YOU FOR POINTING OUT SOME OF THE AREAS ABOUT THE

Billy Batesyeah yeah but that did not go to a referendum it did not right okay thank you so that I think is something that is um perhaps somewhat comparable um to uh the Willard Sherwood project um and uh perhaps uh let me think what um Do you recall, was that like 08 or late 2000s, I think?

So recent history. And so additionally, let's say that we wanted to do a referendum for the Willard Sherwood Center. Is there time in the timeline to do that, you know, based on when we need to issue those bonds?

Stacy HallI WANT TO BE CLEAR, I WAS NOT SUGGESTING THAT WE DO A REFERENDUM FOR THE WILLARD SHERWOOD CENTER. I WANT TO MAKE THAT SHORT. I ALSO DID JUST GOGLE WHILE YOU The library was built in 2008 and then renovated and it said the new building costs about $16 million, financed through a partnership between the city and the county. The city sold 30-year bonds to build it and in return the county will not charge the city its $700,000 annual library services fee, which is normally a charge levied by the county in exchange for making library services. So, yes, it is something that we took out bonds for, but I do think the cost differential is rather different with regard to the $16 million. I don't know what $16 million then would be worth now, but maybe it's a little bit closer than I think.