01/22/2000 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Regular Council Meeting 1-22-01 Page 4 improvements in that area as well. Those tend to go hand in glove. These are older areas, these are older systems so we try to improve them so that we, as they say, get the best bang for our buck and have good long-term installations in place. We also had a project really that started when I was on Council, came to a bit of a head shortly after I became Mayor, and then subsided. It is a problem that is more than 25 years old and that involves the Upper 40 drainage system. And we had actually secured State funding (about a half million dolla.rs about a half-dozen years ago) and were prepared to make improvements along that drainage, predominantly in the Metropark area. We had kind of partnered with the Metroparks and for a variety of reasons, that fell though. T'hat issue is also coming back to the fore. We have had recent meetings with representatives from the Village of Gates Mills whose residents are impacted down at the bottom of the drainage, with the Metroparks. We anticipate tha,t as we look at this with a new set of eyes, that the scope of the area of work will expand beyond where we had focused before (which was preriy much in the Upper 40 properties just inside the Metropark area) and we will be looking along Village properties that are further upstream as well as in the Beta. Park complex. So, that is another issue and it is likely going to be an Issue II application. Given the involvement of the Metroparks and Gates Mills, we think that there is a good chance that partnering will go a long way. Again, these are big ticket items and every one of these we look to a combination of grants, of low-interest loans and our own contributions_ In the Eastgate/Meadowood area for example, we have set aside a chunk of money that we anticipate would be the Village's contribution to that equa.tion. But again, this is not small change. These are big ticket items. We are cunently paying for the Church, the Methodist Church, a.nd we are in the very enviable position of being able to do that pretty much cash on the barrelhead. We have broken it down into basic installments and we have paid over half on that. But again, these are commitments that we ha.ve made. These reflect issues that are a combination of long-term problems. We are looking down the road to consolidate our future infrastructure so that we will be looking to a much securer future. In many ways this is like repaving your driveway, fixing your roof, replacing the furnace--not very exotic--but very necessary improvements. And on top of that, we still have been trying to expand our services. We live in a time when the delivery of safety services for police and fire are pretty sophisticated. We know from the standpoint of personnel that there are demands there as weli. And these are the day-to-day operational issues that don't go away. And in all this, we have managed to maintain preriy much the same population and we enjoy about the sixth lowest ta.x rate in the County. And I would dare to say that per capita, we probably deliver some of the best services that one can get for the money that ane has to pay for them. But this is a year where I think that we find that some of the good momentum that we have had will be slowing somewhat as we consolidate, as we play a little bit of catch up, as we continue with some of the obligations that we know we have made for future infrastructure improvements and look to ways to be creative, as we always have been, to provide services, the recreational programs that we have, the facilities that we have added. In addition to the pool and the wetlands, our soccer fields will be up and running by the fall and we will be looking ta put in a couple of extra baseball fields over time. These are all like so many hungry mouths to feed, everyone is looking for a slice. We know we will get them done and I