08/05/2003 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of S/5/03 appointments and seven voting Council members only four appointments. Because there were so few Councilpersons present, it was decided that this issue should be discussed with more Councilpersons available and that this issue would be discussed when Council reconvened in August. Therefore Ordinance 2003-101 was held in committee. ^ Use of the old library building. This meeting was called as a result of Mrs. Kasler's request to proceed on that issue. Back and forth discussion was held between representatives from the school board and those Councilpersons present. Discussion was had about the benefits of purchasing versus leasing, both on behalf of the school board as well as the city. In all discussion, concerns were had about the fact that the Law Dept. is leasing space and how the Law Dept. will play a part in occupying that space and under what conditions that would happen. It was decided at the meeting, after input from Mr. Gareau, to hire an appraiser to determine the value. The school board came very clear near the end of the meeting that their intention is not to lease, but their only interest is to purchase the building. Mr. Gareau commented, if the city were to sell the building to the school, there might be conditions that might be of interest to the city whereby the funds from the sale would be put in a dedicated account to be used to buy property that may be of greater need or greater importance to the city. The pros and cons of that suggestion were discussed. The Mayor did agree to go forward to hire an appraiser at the urging of the Law Director. The Law Director and the Mayor are going to come forward with a plan to Council describing conditions under which Council might consider a sale of the property. It will then be Council's decision whether to accept, deny or to amend any versions of the package. He received a copy of a letter dated August 3 addressed to Mrs. Kasler from the Mayor where he advised that, "We are still in the data-gathering mode. Of particular interest is the securing of a formal appraisal of the old library building. We should have such an appraisal in our hands in two to three weeks. I'm requesting a few minutes at the Infra-Governmemal Committee in the event they have a meeting so as to further discuss that matter." The committee will have another meeting to discuss the matter, and the issue will be held in committee at this time. Mr. Gareau requested that Mr. Miller bring Ordinance 2003-101 back into committee for discussion. He and the Law Director will work to get revisions completed before the committee meeting. Mr. Miller agreed. Councilman Gareau, chairperson of the Recreation, Public Parks and Buildings Committee: 1) The Recreation Commission meeting was held on July 7. Agenda items included the following: Recreation Commissioner DiSalvo gave the commission an update on the park. He indicated that the basketball court specifications were completed and the city will go out to bid soon. The vending service agreement that the city Rec Dept. had previously entered into was null and void, or otherwise illegal. The contract was entered into without proper authorization. It dated back probably to the early 90's, and then probably before that, all the way to the 1970's when the vendor first entered into a contract. This is the 8