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HomeMy WebLinkAboutweekly newsletter Date: December 9, 2011 To: Mayor & City Council From: Mark A. Rohloff, City Manager WEEKLY NEWSLETTER Subject: TH CVS WITHDRAWS PLAN FOR 9 & KOELLER 1.: On Wednesday of this week, I was informed by Jim Collier of Valmeir Companies, the development group hired by CVS to plan th and construct the proposed CVS Pharmacy at 9 & Koeller, that they have withdrawn their application for a planned development at the subject location. Following my final meeting with the neighborhood group that I had assembled to assist staff in developing a final report and recommendation for the Council, I extended the courtesy of meeting with the Valmeir group and other parties proposing the CVS Pharmacy to discuss the neighbors' concerns and how staff intended to respond to these concerns, including our recommendations to Council on the final development proposal. I shared with the Valmeir group the insistence of the local th neighbors that no access to 7 Avenue be a part of any final development plan for this site. th All along, the group representing CVS has insisted that access to 7 Avenue was an important th feature for this development so that people heading east on 9 Avenue could find a way to get th into this site through a right turn movement, preferably from 7 Avenue. Based upon the information I shared with them, they felt that it was best that they withdraw their application at this time. With that said, I do not believe that it is their intent to walk away from the proposed development. I believe that they want to take the next few weeks to decide how they plan to proceed with this project. Because the CVS group has withdrawn their application, there is no immediate need for staff to report back to the Council on this matter. However, since so much time was devoted to this project, I have asked staff to review the information from the neighborhood group meetings and still provide some information to Council that may be helpful for future consideration of development on this site. If you have any questions regarding the next steps in this process, please contact Community Development Director Davis. TEMPORARY CONTRACT FOR WEIGHTS & MEASURES SERVICES 2.: Our City Sealer, Bruce Luedtke, retired from city service this week. As City Sealer, Mr. Luedtke was responsible for coordination of the city's weights and measures program. Weights and measures services are required of cities over 5,000 population. The City Sealer position has been in the Health Department for a number of years, and with the changes that have been discussed for the Health Department, it had been my intention to move weights and measures back into the Inspections Division within Community Development. Weekly Newsletter December 9, 2011 Page 2 With Mr. Luedtke's imminent retirement, I took this opportunity to look at other options that may be available for us to receive weights and measures services. I have been aware that the State of Wisconsin Department of Agriculture and Consumer Protection has provided weights and measures services to many municipalities throughout the state, including Fond du Lac, Brookfield, Waukesha, and other communities. As an interim move, I inquired with the state if they would be interested in providing this service on a limited and/or permanent basis. At this time, the state is not in a position to commit to a long term City Sealer service to the City of Oshkosh. However, they are willing to provide these services on a limited term basis over the next six months. As a result, I am in the process of entering into an agreement with the state to provide this service through June of 2012. During that time period, we will look to see if the state can provide this service on a permanent basis, or if we need to look at other options, including rehiring a City Sealer, or look at some other type of option for this service. The state will be providing this service to the city at a cost of only $16,000 for the six month period, so the long range financial benefits of working with the state could be significant. We will use the next six months to evaluate whether or not the state provides us with a quality service that ensures protection of Oshkosh consumers when they are using pumps or scales that are subject to the weights and measures program. We will evaluate this program prior to the expiration of our six month contract so that we may plan our future weights and measures program appropriately. If you have any questions regarding this short term arrangement, please contact me. 2011 TAX BILLS BEING MAILED TODAY 3.: I am pleased to report that the 2011 tax bills are going out in the mail today. After a bit of a delay in receiving the last few pieces of information from the state, we now have all of the information necessary to issue the tax bills. For your information, I am including a document that outlines the rates and includes a few examples of tax bills for Oshkosh taxpayers. As noted in this document, the net overall rate for 2011 is $23.911, a decrease of approximately 0.15% compared to last year's rate of $23.946. As you can see in referring to each taxing jurisdiction's line, the piece of the levy attributed to the City of Oshkosh is approximately 35% of the overall levy. In addition, the state credits came in favorably, and netted out to be a little higher than last year's amounts. Also, for the first time, we are including an insert with the tax bills that provides additional information regarding the tax bills, CIP, operational budget, and the lottery credit. Please contact Finance Director Steeno or me if you have any questions or would like additional information on the rates or the bills. CITY AWARDED ANOTHER GRANT FOR RIVER WALK BOAT DOCKS 4.: Please find enclosed a letter from the State Joint Finance Committee, informing us that the City of Oshkosh has been awarded a grant of $644,952 to assist in funding the costs of a transient boat dock facility in the City Center River Walk area. As you know, we recently finalized the donation of land from the City Center complex to the city to construct a River Walk. This grant will help offset costs for construction of transient boat docks in this area. Congratulations to Community Development Director Davis and his entire staff for their efforts in securing this grant. I also appreciate the efforts of former Council Member/current State Senator Jessica King for keeping us informed as to the progress of this grant application. If you have any questions regarding this grant, please contact Community Development Director Davis. Weekly Newsletter December 9, 2011 Page 3 DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS & UPDATES 5.: Other items I'm enclosing with today's Newsletter include two FOCUS newsletter publications from the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance. Insofar as minutes are concerned, I'm enclosing the following: The minutes of the ndth November 2 Long Range Finance Committee meeting; the minutes of the October 12 Board thth of Appeals meeting; the minutes of the October 12 and November 9 Landmarks rd Commission meetings; the minutes of the November 3 Museum Board meeting; the minutes st of the October 31 Housing Authority meeting; the meeting notice, agenda and background th material for the December 14 Parking Utility Commission meeting; and the meeting notice, th agenda and background material for the December 13 Traffic Review Advisory Board meeting. I am also enclosing Museum Director Brad Larson's weekly letter to the Public Museum Board. The last item I'm enclosing is the latest report on the hotel/motel room tax for the city. th UPCOMING MEETINGS 6.: Meetings I have scheduled for the week of December 12 include the following: On Monday, at 7:30 a.m., I will be attending a meeting of the Chamber Governmental Affairs Committee. At 9:00 a.m. on Monday, I am meeting with Mayor Tower to go over the Agenda for Tuesday's Council Meeting. On Tuesday, at 9:30 a.m., Public Works Director Patek and I are meeting with the city's right-of-way acquisition specialist to th discuss acquisition of property at 9 and Washburn for future storm water detention ponds. At 12:00 noon, I will be attending a meeting of the Winnebago County Conflict Resolution Committee. At 1:15 p.m. on Tuesday, I will be attending a DARE graduation ceremony at Webster Stanley School. At 2:30 p.m., I will be meeting with Mr. Charlie Carlson to prepare for the presentation at Tuesday's Council Meeting of the Classification & Compensation Study. On Wednesday, at 7:30 a.m., I will be attending a meeting of the Board of Health, at which I will report to them on the current status of health consolidation discussions. If you have any questions regarding my attendance at any of these meetings, please do not hesitate to contact me. MAR/jdc Enclosures