What should the new City Council & Mayor take action on or start with when they start their duties in January?

I would be interested in what the citizens in the City of Lorimor think are important. If there is an area you think is important to bring before the City Council in January make a comment below and I will add your concern to the list.

You will have to have an account on this site to vote or comment. This sight is free for people in the area or if you have family in the area.

This poll will be in effect until the Feb. council meeting. I will put a new one on at that time. If an item is not listed in this poll, make a comment on a new item and I will put it in the next poll. Any item that the new council has takin care of will be taken off!

Your opinion is important! So express it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks Randy for your comment and recomdations.  I agree with most of the things listed. There should be a discussion on each item.

I think the items should be seperated into tax revenue funding and user based funding. A budget is set up for the tax funding (property taxes). The sewer and gas system is funded by  user based funds ( sewer and gas revenue). The tax revenue is handled differently than the user based funding.

The user based funding is based on the revenue collected from the utility bills (sewer & gas). Out of the revenue there is operating cost, monies held  in a reserve fund (to fix the problems you have listed), and a reasonable profit from operating the system for use in the general fund. Grants are fine, but the problems you are talking about have to be fixed as quickly as possible. I have no problem working with the DNR. Those problems should have been corrected when you brought to the City Council. The DNR provides consultation visits to help correct those types of problems. During a consultation visit, the City can't be sited. The City is responsible for getting the problems done before they have a compiance audit. Your Utility bills will go up or down and any work done will be reflected in those utility bills. The City Council at the time you reported the issues involved  were responsible for doing that type of maintenance needed on the systems. It would have been cheaper to do the normal maintenance needed in small amounts than waiting till they have accumulated into a bigger expense as we have at this time. The City could have been cited at any time for those issues. The DNR would have set up an abatement schedule with reasonable time limits. They would not have waited for any grants in the abatement time frame. The City is responsible at the time not a year after they are reported. This doesn't mean the City shouldn't try to get grants to help on there operating expenses. The problems should be fixed when they are reported, to comply with any state regulations that the City are in violation of. These types of problems have nothing to do with the City budget. They are handled with the funds generated through the utility rates.

The City should be applying for Grants all year not just for things that come up. Grants are great sources of revenue for future projects along with emergency issues. Southwestern has grant writing  in the business courses. I went through the grant writing when I went through the Building program. It is a very important part of that program. The Career  Planning Office at Southwestern has grant writing material that is very helpful and they are also willing to help anyone in that area.

They have a book with all kinds of grants to apply for. All you have to do is go down the list and start applying. The secret is to keep applying as you go. You might only get one out of a hundred. You can't get a grant unless you apply for one. The ones you didn't think you will get will be the one you receive.

Grant writing should be an important part of your City Government.