City of Watertown, SD 2021 City Council Meetings, 29 Mar 2021

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From YouTube: Special City Council Meeting 03-29-2021

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Special City Council Meeting 03-29-2021

A

I'd like to call to order the special city council meeting of monday march 29 2021, please rise as pastor jeff ruggles of grace point church leads us in prayer.

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Let's pray father, we thank you for the city that we can all be a part of god. We thank you for the city council and the men and women that serve us, god and tonight, as we participate in this special meeting in this project. That's been going on for a long time.

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We just pray that you will bring things together and that things will continue to unfold in a way that will help benefit the kids in this city and uh that that things will just work out and be with the nerves and the the anticipation that is in this room. Father in christ's name, we pray.

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Amen, please join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands. One nation, under god, indivisible with liberty and justice.

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Strong roll call please albertson here.

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Mueller yeah lawyer here uh helene here lollum here manti here rudemski here roby.

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Billhauer here.

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You all right. Thank you. First item is the public comment period. This is the time reserved for anyone who would like to make a public comment to step forward and do so. We do have a sign up sheet for in-person comments and a policy for all. If anyone wishes to speak, please come forward or say permission to speak if you're online.

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Right hearing, no one will move on to approval of the agenda. I have a motion by lollam and a second by bueller any discussion, all those in favor signify by saying aye aye. Anyone post signify by saying nay motion carries hey item.

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Six is the regular agenda item; a is approval of a professional services agreement for design and construction services associated with the snow removal equipment, sre storage building at the airport terminal project number 1927 with meet and hunt in the amount of 428 thousand five hundred dollars authorizing the mayor to sign all applicable documents have a motion by why and a second by vilhar, and I will ask the public works director city engineer, heath von nai to introduce this.

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For this captive, we have tonight that I'm almost certain.

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Maybe use that one.

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All right there we go so with that. uh Yes, this item is in relation to the new airport terminal, that's obviously underway under construction out at the airport property. One of the components of that project was the new snow removal equipment building facility that had to be accomplished in conjunction with the new airport terminal being constructed.

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If you recall, the council would recall, we selected a design professional through meet and hunt as that professional a month, maybe a little over a month ago now as the consultant to move forward with the design services for the new snow removal equipment building again, this is specific to that that structure that facility it's in tandem with and in conjunction with the airport terminal, but this is a completely separate contract and a completely separate uh awarding of funding that we will be receiving from the faa.

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That's essentially what's driving this this schedule and why we've got it on a special meeting tonight. This is a timely execution of the monetary components of meet and hud's contract.

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If you recall, they had to go through an independent fee evaluation, an ife in order to set up the costs for their design services for this particular project, they've accomplished that and have met all the faa requirements as far as that, ife is concerned.

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So with that uh the total contract amount as you'll see in the contract document, it includes uh seven general services that they'll be providing, which include everything from project management to schematic designs, final designs, construction plans permitting bidding and then construction administration.

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So all the way through the construction phase of this new facility for the airport and all that at a cost of 428 500 and as with all of our other uh airport projects, there is a certain component of that that will be funded by the faa and a lot smaller component that we will cost share in as well.

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We do have mitch walker from edenhunt online, along with mike schmidt, from helens associates, who oftentimes partners with meet and hunt on these projects and then also, of course, todd syrey airport managers online with us as well we'd entertain any questions council might have.

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Councilman bill howard.

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Heath I've got a couple questions, or maybe one of the guys that are online um to the general I I know the airport board has recommended approval of this to the council at their meeting last week. So I'm not doubting what they're doing, but can you explain to the general public? I mean to me a snow removal equipment sounded like a glorified garage, and this thing is project to cost over three million dollars.

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uh So a couple questions one explain why something like this is as expensive as it is, and, secondly is that is that construction cost. Is that also subject the same uh reimbursement or cost sharing as as the fee is that we're proving tonight.

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Yes, uh great questions, councilman vilhauer, as far as the cost of the estimated cost of the facility and I'll, let you chime in too mitch or todd as you see fit, but, generally speaking, this is a a little more than a heated garage, but I would compare it more to like a street facility. You've got a lot of snow removal equipment and then other operational equipment at the airport.

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That needs to be housed. It's of course, a heated structure and some some a little bit of office space and and work room for the airport staff, uh the operators that are on the airport utilize this facility pretty extensively as well. um So and I'm sorry glenn. I forgot the second.

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Second part was what what is the caution: the estimated cost sharing yes, uh ratio on the building itself? Yes,.

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And if I could let uh mike or um mitch speak to that cost here, but it would be similar to what we've seen in the past for these airport projects.

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And uh thank you glenn, um commissioner vilhauer. We uh so for that. Second part of the question um eligibility we are anticipating right now is is uh nearly 100 eligible. um That is our goal. We are uh we're certainly trying to maximize the federal participation in this facility, so um you know todd you might be able to actually speak to more there.

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There are some uh within the the federal legislature. Actually there are some considerations to uh the faa share to 100 overall for 2021 similar to what was done in 2020 uh for covert relief. um I don't think that is actually passed as of yet, but it's something that we're certainly watching so yeah. It may be something where we're at a 90 10 percent, uh like uh traditional model with uh faa and local. uh We could be looking at a you know. uh Even 100 federal share and minimal local.

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Any other questions as far as the as far as the 100 federally eligible that has passed uh just to give you an update, we're waiting on the faa to distribute the rules and regulations that go with that. That was the last cares act. uh The carissa act is what they call it.

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This won't help us necessarily on the building due to the regulations of the faa uh and the ineligible spots uh that we have in the in the sre building, but this definitely will help, and uh I guess this is all new news for everybody.

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But uh the phase two of the terminal project is mostly civil work and uh as soon as we get the rules and regulations on this hundred percent federal eligibility uh that would put phase two of the terminal, uh almost at 100 federally funded, meaning the city wouldn't have to kick in a dime uh for phase two of the turbo.

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That'd be fantastic that was todd's highway airport manager, any other questions or comments. Council.

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All right seeing none I'll look for action, all those in favor signify by saying aye aye. Anyone opposed signify by saying, nay, motion carries hey. Item b is approval of a memorandum of understanding regarding the future multi-purpose ice arena and we'll have councilman reid holine, giving a presentation first before I get a motion and when he's done then we'll do the business part later go ahead. Read.

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All right, thank you mayor. Thank you, everyone here for tonight's special counsel session. I want to say thanks to all of the special all of the city council for being here, for agreeing to have this be a special counsel meeting. I think this is a big enough issue that has been long standing over the community, something that the community wanted to hear about and it'll be a big enough deal where it deserved its own special counsel.

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Meeting with that said, I want to say thanks to members of the user groups who have kept this dream alive for literally decades now I want to say thank you to everyone who have not given up the hope, even though sometimes it has looked hopeless. I want to especially thank the members of the ice committee team, councilman, lallam, councilman, roby, councilman vilhauer and councilman buehler.

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We have put in a lot of time together. This is a team commitment. I am just the chair of the of the committee, so that's why I'm doing the presentation, so thank you for everyone, a quick reminder of why we are here. Here's a headline from the public opinion from seven years ago saying that we were trying to get that done.

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The h2o 2020 study, that was the citizen-led initiative to tell watertown what we wanted ice was very high on that list, and that is the only thing that has yet to be accomplished in this community. So it's long overdue. Also another thing is is down here for all you, vikings fans. This is the metrodome with its roof collapse. This is to represent the mace ice arena which will fall apart very soon. So if we wait, we are facing a very large repair cost or to be a city without ice.

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So there is a lot of reason to do this and act now. It is about the kids and the quality of life in this community. We all know that it's about economic development. I have a picture of minnesota because there's a lot of people in this crazy age who want to get away from politics or covet working remotely, they would love to come to watertown south dakota, but hockey being a religion in minnesota, they'd probably go to a community that has a lot of ice. It could be a good recruitment tool for local businesses.

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This is a slide borrowed from julie from the cvb. I want to say thank you. I just want to point out this down here: the average family. This is people coming into our community hockey family spends between 800 and almost a thousand dollars in their host community. When overnighting, we all know hockey is expensive. That's a lot of money coming into the community, the economic impact I want to point out here. This is currently we have six tournaments with eight teams. We could double that at least to 12 tournaments 16 teams.

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But what I want to point out to everyone is we don't just double the athletes and the attendees? We actually triple the athletes and attendees by going into those double teams. So we don't just double the economic impact we impact we triple it.

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Watertown will have a junior team. I've already been approached by several teams that want to come to watertown. Now, it's very hard to fit them, so, just very, very roughly the economic impact per season of a junior team. This is not with added revenue. This is not with people like going to the stadium buying tickets buying food buying beer going out to eat before or after just the team being in the town is going to create a half a million dollars of income every year we could have all sorts of new things.

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This is a summer hockey league. So if you notice the total per weekend of a winter hockey winter hockey weekend is about 127 thousand total per week and summer would be almost 280 000. That would be things that we could do for the community to bring in revenue, but we're already pretty well maxed out. This is a schedule and it shows that the mace is basically full from 6am until 11pm at night, every night and here's a picture of some of the kids, because if you ever had kids, this is a quality of life issue.

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You're either waking them up at 5am or putting them to bed at 11 30, and you tell me how good they're going to do at school. In that case, I also want to point out that youth sports defy economic slumps they're they are completely recession-proof. So this is a safe bet for the community.

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We could do a lot more with ice. Here's open skate. We are packed with open skate. Currently we can have curling we used to have it. We had to cancel lake area. Technical college would love to have more open, skate time for all their students. It would give them a wonderful opportunity for quality of life for themselves to be part of the community, a safe alternative to doing anything else else in the in the community. We would love to have more of that, but sadly we don't have enough time to fit everyone.

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This is the current open ice skating, so essentially we have about six hours a week at max. We could easily double triple that and fill up with all sorts of people, but let's forget about ice for a second and focus on the multi-purpose aspect of the mpi.

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So under this we would have one sheet that would basically be ice for most of the year 10 or 11 months. The other sheet would be about six months. It's hard. It's not hard to change an ice feed into other uses, and it's done often it would have ample seeding to attract great crowds for any event, some of the things the mpi could be used for this is an expo building which watertown needs if you've ever been out to the expo, building at home show or something like that, it's absolutely packed.

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So we need an expo building, there's a beer festival which we might not need, but we might want so there's weddings, there's wedding, related events, there's other commercial events like arts and crafts, birthday shows, boat, shows and hunting and fishing shows. We plan to have concerts throughout the year and there's more there's all sorts of flat floor space, lacrosse soccer multi-generational uses dance lots of other things too. We've got wrestling and gymnastics now.

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I am not saying that we will have arrow wrestling or gymnastics there, but what I'm saying is if we can alleviate the press for flat floor space in other locations by taking some other flat floor space or tournaments, we might allow more flat floor space for some of these other things like down here. The headline from kxlg is watertown. Arrow booster club is saying that they need more practice space.

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Other communities in our area are doing it already and doing it. Well, here's mason city iowa. They are succeeding. Doing this simple math says build it now we can bring in millions of dollars in revenue millions of dollars in new taxes that cycles through the economy creates new jobs, supports businesses.

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If we don't act now, we'd literally be throwing away millions of dollars. I want to remind everyone that we have a one million dollar donation from premier bank card. I'd also like to announce tonight that we have an agreement in principle with a donor to buy naming rights for millions of dollars spaced out over several years. Another anonymous donor has pledged 250 000, so user groups and private donors equate to millions more.

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That goes away if we don't build this tonight or very soon, so now that you're all reminded about why this is good for watertown, it's on with the show and while you're here a word about the ice committee's process. Fir we had four four members, then five we did our work for over a year we put in literally thousands of hours, there was no secrecy involved.

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I know that some people have some people in the council been more involved than others, but this was just us trying to do the work of a committee, because I will assure you we lace. We, we spent hundreds of hours pursuing leads that did not amount to anything. So we were trying to save you guys all the time, because our task was to come forward with one proposal and that's what we did and anything done behind.

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The scenes was done to avoid mistakes in the past, like coming out with a location before we had it secured and then just having it all fall apart. We considered eight different sites, I'm sure a lot of people are wondering how we even came up with eight different sites, but we had them and they were good. We sought input from all sorts of people and the city staff scrutinized the plan. I want to thank especially matt roby, christine bobzin, who put in a lot of work above and beyond.

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So we understood this was a unique opportunity. We figured that a city coming forward with a 15 million dollar facility. That is a gift that is not a burden that is a gift to the community, and we wanted to do a return on investment. That is spur economic development, create taxes, and we also had this philosophy where, whenever there was a problem, we did not throw up our hands and give up. We just said what is the solution? How can we get this done?

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Like other people of the wa of watertown, the ice committee was, we all had opinions on where it should go and how to pay for it. We had differing opinions, but in the end I want to stress this. Every member of the ice committee was unanimous in bringing this proposal forward.

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So here's a rendition of what the ice arena may look like here's another rendition of what it may look like another rendition of what it may look like. These are things that we've already done in the past, because watertown has been close in the past.

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This is the interior of what it could look like again different view. Architectural design. I want to stress this- is this- that you're looking at right now is not the design. The design is not yet decided. The final design will be decided by the user groups, citizens, experts, architects, developers and the city and a review team of experts that will make sure that we are doing it right and satisfying all the needs of of ice in the community, but we are not starting from scratch.

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One good thing about having so many close calls in watertown's past is. We have architectural designs from that are basically sitting in our shelves that we can at least tap for historical knowledge.

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The arena will start with two sheets of ice, one being a stadium rink. That would be the larger one and one, and that will be enough for state tournaments and a junior team.

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The year-round rink will likely have limited seating, so the smaller rink would have limited seating, because that makes it smaller, cheaper to cool, cheaper, to maintain the stadium, rink will be, and that will also free up the stadium ring to be used for other events.

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Watertown has long been working on designs to optimize, uh desi usability, so adam sullivan is here I'll mention him later. I'm no architectural expert, but some of the things that they've factored in like putting the locker rooms between the two shades of ice, so that kids and referees can be in between and they could go out this this exit or this exit or come in. So it allows usability of the locker rooms for both sheets of ice.

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At all times same thing up here with a zamboni room, the zamboni could go to both sheets of ice you're, not creating two separate zamboni rooms, you're, not creating two different locker rooms. Just because you have two sheets of ice, they've already been very smart in how they've designed this, and we have dozens of plans to build from so we we are not starting from scratch here, the location working as long and as hard as we did. We were able to leverage the mpi into what I, what this committee has decided is a wonderful location.

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So if you notice this is the lakes of willow creek edition, this is willow. Creek drive right here, there's hobby lobby, here's I-29 the ice arena will go roughly right here.

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This is the preliminary plans for the lakes of willow, creek edition. So again, here's the map that you just saw this is it broken down into the different sections.

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The lakes of willow, creek edition has already been preliminary approved, preliminarily approved by the city for development and annexation. It has already received preliminary approval by all necessary city departments. Now that's not approval, but it's preliminary they've already had to file these. The city council, if you will remember, has also preliminarily approved this development. It is. We have already deemed this a worthy development for the city of watertown, adding an mpi. There should only make this site even more desirable for the community.

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The lakes of willow, creek concept would make it a jewel of watertown development, kind of like lake calhoun or lake harriet in minneapolis. So what I want to point out here is so you have development, you have commercial space apartment complexes. The mpi here parking commercial space here, and this would be recreation, so you have the bike. You have the bike and walking path that comes out here and it would go around. The lakes you'd have like canoe, rentals and lots of other things I'll leave that to the developers to talk about that more.

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But this would be a recreation, economic development, housing, commercial development.

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It would consist of commercial space, apartment complexes, housing and recreational areas, so I want to point out. This is the ice where this would be. I want to point out right now that we have room for a third sheet if we need it. We've already started planning that this is an aerial view. Here's the ice arena right here. This is the road that's coming in off of willow creek, some of the apartment complexes, commercial property right here, commercial property here, a c-store or a bar and restaurant.

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This is housing that will come farther in the future. I want to stress the mpi or the ice arena will be built. First of all of this, this is the lynch pin. I will describe that more here's, a hotel that would be coming in at the same time. Another aerial view from a different viewpoint. Here is the mpi right here. Here's the road coming in you can see the recreational aspects there.

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The development is expected to spur at least 10 million dollars of economic development and upwards to over 50 million dollars. So part of that is see. Here's the mpi and they're going to build at the same time as they're, building the mpi or, right after it they're going to build a hotel that connects to the mpi.

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This is how you can leverage this into economic development, because the hotel itself and the commercial space would be over 10 million dollars right off the bat. This becomes very important in just a little bit because of all this. The city is able to tip this or tax increment finance. This development, this tif, will help the developer and it will help the city more on that later.

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But all of this development is contingent upon the mpi or multi-purpose ice facility going there. This does not happen. If ice doesn't go out there, so we'd be turning our back on potentially 50 million dollars of economic development. The ice is what triggers all of this to come in.

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So this is all new investment that would be on the tax rolls of watertown for generations to come.

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The ice committee has worked out a fantastic deal for the citizens of watertown the road, so that road that I keep pointing to all the dirt work and all infrastructure will be built by j j, earthworks and craig llc.

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The city is risking nothing up front other than arguably the acceptance of the development which we have already accepted on a preliminary basis.

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The developers must show beyond doubt that the site is acceptable. They have to prove it at any point. If we're not happy, we can demand a different site at that location or walk away, and we are out nothing so right now. This is where the ice arena is scheduled to be at, but if, for some reason we don't like that, we can move it over here where the hotels are supposed to be at, and that is going to be worked up into the mou where that is going to be mutually acceptable for both sides.

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So again we're protecting the city. One of the added benefits is right across the street. There is a current tif district that the city created years ago that has been kind of floundering without a lot of development, so by creating the lakes of willow creek on this side of willow, creek, which will drive economic development and also the land over here, is cheaper than the land over here might force them to lower their prices.

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It will probably spur economic development, so this will be a double win for the community of watertown or it could be a double win. No guarantees on that. The city was offered free land at the lakes of willow, creek location for infrastructure considerations. They wanted us to. They were going to give us free land and we were going to have to take on some of the infrastructure and do a special assessment, because it is more transparent and, according to our practices, we instead decided to purchase the land for half a million dollars.

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This is one-third the cost of other land in the area, so right across the street. One of the early sites we considered was right across the street. The same amount of land would be one and a half million dollars. We got this for five hundred thousand, so that's almost a one million dollar donation for from j j earthwork. So I'd like to say thank you to jamie for that.

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A lot of other incredible development is scheduled to come into the area. So right now we have living commercial amenities, restaurants, more amenities. This is all stuff that the developer has planned to come in he's here tonight. He can talk more about it, but again, all of this is dependent upon the mpi going there. The mpi is the linchpin that makes all of this happen, and this is also unique to to this location.

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We can't just pick up the mpi and put it at some other location and get this development, because it's not an open space, it doesn't have the development that has it available and it doesn't have the people that we're working with. So our crystal ball on the ice committee is about as good as yours. We can't predict the future, but this is as close to economic development guaranteed as you can get.

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So the watertown development company, which, as we all know, loves the downtown that is their mission statement. They they've been working for years to revitalize downtown and they've done a fantastic job.

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Like the members of the ice committee, they had different opinions, but when the wdc saw what the lakes of willow creek edition could do, they jumped on board and they are now vital members to make this happen. They believe in this for the entire good of all of watertown. They believe in it so much that they're going to be a central figure to make this happen.

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We are going to do this through a through a public-private partnership, so public-private partnership, you have public investment and private investment and both sides profit at the end. So in under this, under this method of doing it, the watertown development company will finance the building of the ice arena. They will own it. The city will then enter into a lease to own agreement.

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This is essentially like a rent to own, which we are all familiar with. A 20-year lease will end up with the city, owning the facility free and clear. At the end of it, this is the spreadsheet that makes it all happen. This is where we're talking about the numbers and the money. Don't pay close attention I'll break this down in just a second examining the spreadsheets spreadsheets, some things to know: here's the project cost.

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We have 14 million dollars, I'd like to point out that it's technically 15 million dollars, because we already have one million dollars that we're saving because we're not paying for the land or we're paying a less amount for the land. So the city commits to 14 million facility.

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We can get a nicer facility if we raise more money. We have some key assumptions if we assume that this spreadsheet of money is going to be handled under a four percent interest rates, I'd like to point out this could be better interest. Rates might may be better for us. Even a half percentage point on interest rate could save the city hundreds of thousands of dollars over the term of 20 years so and interest rates are lower right now, so another reason to act.

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Now we have five million dollars, donations from various entities and the city has 5.8 million dollars of cash ready to devote to the lease in an upfront payment. This will this assures wdc. It gives them the leverage that they need to go out to banks and get the financing that makes this possible because they know that the city has committed. That's the legal contract, so wdc knows, and the banks know that they will get their money back, so tiff's normally run for 20 years or longer. Here, under this development, we are only going 10 years.

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This is another way that we can almost we can do our best to guarantee development because for the developers you have to build big and you have to build fast, because that's the onl, that's the way you're going to get your money back. Normally they could space it out like build. A hotel, now build something else, five years from now and something else, ten years from now.

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Under this scenario, they have to build everything that they can as fast as they can, because then they get more money back in the first 10 years after 10 years, the tif revenue goes to the wdc, the wdc all during this kicks back some of the money to the city of watertown to help pay for it. All of this results in a lower cash cost to the city and to taxpayers.

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So look at this under this spreadsheet, a project cost of 14 million dollar facility or 15 million dollars is only going to cost the city nine million six hundred thousand dollars very enticing.

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These numbers could actually be better than predicted. Donations could exceed projections if the donations are higher, we can do a bit bigger, buy down. Tiff revenue could also be better than predicted if the tif goes better. If the development goes good, some wdc projections are came in significantly lower than this.

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Of course, things could actually be a lot worse than predicted too, and we understand that. So this is a spreadsheet that I asked christine bobsien our finance officer to put together using the most conservative numbers that she felt comfortable with.

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In the end, if you notice the project cost of 14 million still nets, a total cost to the city of 12 million six hundred thousand dollars, that is still a win for the city and for the taxpayers of watertown.

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The worst case scenario for the city is that we end up building an ice arena. We finally get it done for about the same cost as we would if we dil, if we did it a traditional way where we just picked this location, we bonded and we built it ourselves under this way. The city is also protected, because we have a stop loss for any of you day. Traders out there you can. You know that you buy a stock and if it's going down, you want to cut your losses.

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You can get out at that moment. So at any point, the city can stop the lease payments buy off the buy off the lease and just walk away. It's another way we're protecting. This does mean that watertown development company can agree with a construction developer. They already have jesse is here, but this is also what makes this all possible, because jesse can bring in a lot more development, so something for the council to consider chris shilkin, the executive director said this is exactly the deal that we approved in concept.

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We, as a city council, approved in concept last year. Only now this is a lot better, because the upside for watertown is much bigger. So the worst case scenario, we basically pay the same amount, we're best case scenario. We get a great ice facility in a prime location that generates tens of millions of dollars for the city and we do it for cheaper than what we other otherwise. Would the ice committee considered lots of factors? Here's a here's, a map of the flooding zone.

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If you notice a lot of this area, it's just two inches three inches. I want to stress all of this. To make this site acceptable to the city. All of the work is going to be done by j j before the city takes ownership of it. If, for any reason, we are not happy with the flood or anything like that, we can walk away at any time now we understand some people might want the ice in some other location, but we agree with abraham lincoln that a rising tide lifts all boats.

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This will bring a lot of people into watertown, watertown's business owners already know this understand this and have testified in favor of this. This rising tide. So, if you remember just a couple council meetings ago, we had the special event license at shopko and we had many downtown owners come and testify how fantastic it was for them, because all these people who went out to shopko still found their way downtown before and after and spent a lot of money. So here's some more on downtown.

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I will just highlight jesse craig, because he has tens of millions of dollars in his business devoted to downtown. He would never do anything to hurt it. He only wants to help it and he loves this location. Here's the chamber saying, I believe in our downtown people, they'll profit taxpayers of watertown will be protected through a memorandum of understanding.

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This is the memorandum of understanding, as matt roby has designed it so up here I'll say we can enter into it today. If we approve this, this is the parties that will agree to make this happen. I want to point out that here, j j will do all of the soil work. They will make the site acceptable to the city, and it says if at any time the city does not like it, we can demand another location or we can walk away. It also says right here: j j will install all infrastructure.

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Watertown development company will pay for it. Watertown development company will lease it back to the city. This is the memorandum of understanding. This is what I will ask you to approve tonight the timeline. If we do this right, we can get started right away. We can start construction on november 1st of this year. Have it done by november 1st of the following year, if not sooner, a review team is already in place with adam sullivan. He has been working for over a decade on different architectural designs for ice, so he has a lot of review.

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This is to make sure we do it right. That's the one thing that we've heard in this town is make sure you do it right solve everything. We have a review team of experts that they will make sure that it happens, focusing on taxpayers. The ice committee also has a plan for financing the ongoing operations. Ongoing operations are very expensive for ice, so what we would like to do is enter into a contract with a private firm that will run the facility, so they have the profit motive.

I

They will bring in more events, more concerts, more special events and tournaments. It will be better for the city of watertown that way and it better for the citizens of watertown there's more to do and it saves it actually saves the city money over what we are already currently spending on the mace.

I

So at the mace right now, the let's just say the figure is x y z as to how much we're spending on ongoing operations for the mace that will actually be dropped. So, let's say instead of two hundred thousand we're only going to spend a hundred thousand dollars. That'll be a stipend up front to the management contract than it's on them. We have confidence. This will happen. Gary weckworth is a local citizen in town.

I

He has interest in signing this document. He ran the sioux falls hockey stampede hockey in the canaries, down in sioux falls for years and like the tiff in the public private partnership. This is really only possible at this location because a management contract to come in they need it in a prime location that draws a lot of people to help fund this. We have already started a 501c3 and the title of it is build it now llc.

I

So if anyone wants to write a check right now make it out to build it now, llc donating is huge because if we have a multiplier effect, so if you donate a dollar now it actually can can go to a huge upfront lease payment that will actually lower the city's ongoing lease payments over the next 20 years. So it's almost like a giving a gift of double.

I

So in conclusion, the ice committee was unanimous. This can solve a long-term problem. It helps all of watertown.

I

It generates millions of dollars of both economic revenue, development and taxes coming into the community, and the review team assures that it is done right, a yes vote tonight, so I'm going to ask you to do a yes vote on the memorandum of understanding, because this is what we need the mou if we approve this, gives the wdc the leverage that they need to go to banks and start getting the financing that they need, but they need that mou, because that is what the city can commit to, so that the banks know that the city has its money behind it.

I

Wdc can then act as the conduit. It also gives the developer the assurance that we are likely to go there because, right now they need to start doing some soil testing. They need to assure the city that everything is handled and but they're reluctant to do so if they don't think we're going to put ice out there, because why would you do soil borings for an ice arena?

I

If we have no intention of putting a nice arena out, there and mou will at least give them the assurance that we are committed to this, and they can start doing that work. So, in the meantime, I want to stress this fifth point: the city is risking nothing we're not putting up any upfront money, really what we're risking is just losing the money of the donations and other things. So, in conclusion, just thank you for listening to that, and I urge you to vote for the member mou.

A

Thank you councilman holy and um now we need to talk about the mou, so I'd like a motion to that effect, so moved promotion by lollam and a second by bueller, and I will ask the city attorney matt roby, to tell us about the mou.

J

Thank you mayor. uh I won't uh recite every clause of the mou, but uh and uh councilman helene did a pretty good job of giving an overview, but um I'll just state. This generally. The uh the mu mou uh explains that wdc will obtain financing and acquire the location for the multi-purpose facility from j j land sales, who is mentioned as the developer of the lakes at willow.

J

Creek wdc will coordinate with craig development to construct the facility and will be the owner of the facility, and the wdc will propose for the city's approval tax, increment financing district to capture the increment that will occur. The tax increment that will occur with the commercial development surrounding the facility and then, finally, once the certificate of occupancy is issued, the city will enter into a 20-year lease agreement with the wdc.

A

All right, thank you, um council. Do you have any questions or comments for the attorney.

A

I guess there's a lot of people in the audience. If anyone would like to make a comment, I guess I can entertain that. Raise your hand if you'd like to speak.

A

Okay, just a couple minutes each then and come right up to the microphone and identify yourself before.

A

K

Hi everybody jesse craig craig development. um The one thing that we wanted to bring up, or I want to bring up, is commissioner helene commented on the fact that I've put a lot of time and money into downtown watertown and I didn't really get on board with moving the ice arena out of downtown on the original site, without replacing with something, and so I've been working extensively on working on a multi-event facility kind of an event facility for downtown.

K

I've got four different sites kind of identified right now, but it would constitute or be made up of about six basketball courts, slash volleyball courts and a trampoline park.

K

So we're working on that right now to bring families and tournaments and things like that to downtown to replace the ice arena being moved out of it potentially depending on the vote tonight.

K

So I just want to let everyone downtown all the people that live and breathe downtown that I'm not failing them in that not turning my back on downtown in any way, shape and form just looking at the amount of traffic that would bring in the parking requirements and things like that. For a 1400 seat arena it got to be very tight and there was a lot of constraints involved with that. So that's why this second site came up and I threw my support and time behind it. So any questions I have.

A

A question: how big is the site? That's solely dedicated to the ice arena and the parking for the ice arena. I noticed that there's a strip mall and a gas station that are kind of in the spot that says ice arena.

K

A

Much is just for the ice arena and its parking.

K

I'll, let jamie talk about that. I think it's just under 10 acres, correct about 9.75 acres and that doesn't include the hotel or anything like that and while we're on that subject, I mean I have been in extensive talks with a hotel bar.

K

So we got some soft commitments on that and again, we've kind.

L

Of just left, those hang a little bit are the acknowledgements and.

A

K

And as well as the um hotel.

A

Okay, councilman.

M

Lalum thanks jesse a couple quick things. One of the things that we looked at downtown was was a location that we've probably kicked around for about a year and a half when that was brought up part of part of the logistics that we ran into from an ice arena. Standpoint was simply when we lose our snow hole for our downtown snow removal as well as how do you get the people out? If we do have a junior league team that comes in?

M

Is you essentially have three roads that you're trying to get people out, as I think, with what you're talking about as far as uh the six different basketball, slash, volleyball and trampoline? I think there's people that come in and they probably utilize it at different times, but you're not having 1400 people potentially leave at one time or.

K

700 cars yeah, it's more rotating and you know we look at a jail, volleyball tournament or a basketball tournament and they're going to be utilizing all the floor space, so any of the gymnasiums with the schools, the wellness center. You know they're going to be using all of those courts when they come to town and so those families rotate depending on if they're, in gold, silver or bronze and how they rotate in different age groups. And things like that, so you look at way less of impact.

K

However, though those people all will congregate the downtown, even you know in discussions with you, know, user groups and things like that out of fargo and different communities that I've dealt with even you know, we talked about a 1400 seat, tournament, 700 cars. You know at the proposed news site those people are still going to come downtown, um nothing replaces downtown it's the heart of a city and you see the fargo dome in fargo and they can go to west acres, but they come downtown. um You know, that's where the cool aesthetics are.

K

That's where the cool vibe is. You can have a downtown park. You know that's in the works right now. All those things draw people so, but when you're looking at you know like said 1400, seat arena or a big big tournament or you know for for an arena downtown just where everyone would eat um you know, and and and things like that, I mean there's only so many. You know, hopefully in 10 years that changes, but right now, people would have to drive.

K

You know out to 212 to try to you know, find places to eat, and things like that. So that's where this just kind of fit that a little bit better at this. You know place in time.

M

And as a parent with two hockey kids, I I can tell you that we don't want to eat fast food. Every single time you go to eat either so you're going to look for some place, that's local! I know that we get asked when we or and when we go other places we ask: what's you know, what's a local place to go eat at so well,.

E

L

K

M

That, because there's unique restaurants and bars that are down well.

K

The families that come to town understand the the commitment that's made by that ice arena, and so they they repay that and they want to give to the local. You know businesses and things like that, so it's always repaid. It seems like yeah.

M

A

Other council member questions for jesse, while he's here, hey thanks, jesse thank.

E

A

Anyone else like to.

N

Speak I didn't sign up is that? Okay, that's okay!.

A

Okay, this is not the open public comment period. So, oh.

N

Okay, I get a little confused all right, I'm julie, knutson, I'm the executive director of the watertown convention and visitors bureau. Thank you, reid and the committee that worked so hard on this. I remember when I started my job a little over five years ago. The first talk my board had with me was we're: gonna have to really stay up on this ice arena thing and I have been in countless meetings, and this is really um just a really breath of fresh air from a standpoint of what I do for a living.

N

First of all, I want to say the requirements of the convention and visitors bureau obviously has to do with visitors and you've all heard that we need ample parking and ample seating. That's the big deal, but we're also in the experience business, and I think what I saw on the screen tonight, the design of that area and watching what jesse is doing downtown.

N

um I would say that that's going to be something that that will kind of blow people's minds when they pull in it once it's complete so down the road. I think that you know it will have that special experience type of feel to it. um I was kind of not that I'm a contractor or get any kind of a say in anything, but I kind of like the downtown idea anyway, but everything that everyone has said tonight makes some sense to me.

N

I can tell you from a standpoint of sports rfps for events that this is going to be. A multi-purpose venue is very important that it's going to have seating that it's going to have parking is very important and also I love hearing the idea of some more flat floor space, because venue space is also extremely important. So when I go to a summit- and I sit down and talk to, this opens a much wider, broader spectrum of people I can meet with and invite to watertown for sports type activities and tournaments.

N

The rfes ask you for the floor space and the you know that it needs to fit what they're doing and hotel rooms as of march 30th we'll be up to.

N

794 hotel rooms, almost 800 hotel rooms when the new holiday inn express and suites open, so another hotel, in addition to that, is not a bad thing, because that just opens up more possibilities to bring in the sports tourism thing.

N

What reed said about the sports, tourism and youth sports is absolutely correct and it's proven again and again that even during a very bad recession that people do not do not give up their children's sports trips, they will cancel their vacations. They'll cancel subscriptions. They'll, cancel everything, but they're still going to take their kids to hockey and baseball and whatever. So it is recession-proof, and I stand behind that and there's a lot of a lot of people, a lot smarter than me who have proven that.

N

So anyway, from a standpoint of the convention of visitors bureau more floor, space is always great. I know I worked with the hockey association, I'm putting some of those numbers together and just right off the bat, the economic impact of the commitment that the hockey association has made.

N

It's not going to pay all the bills, but it sure is great and I think that anything that has no risk you just don't find anything without any risk in this day and age. So um so I would, from that standpoint endorse or encourage everyone to consider this for sure.

A

Thank you, julie, hang on a sec. Did you have a question for dooley yeah.

M

Julie, what what are you envisioning kind of a sweet spot for hotel rooms for watertown I mean what what the cbb like to see is that is it a thousand or is it 800 or 900? You know.

N

You know last year, which was the toughest year we will ever have. We had more softball played in this town than we ever have before, and we ran out of space if we filled all of our softball fields in the summer, and just because I run the numbers on this. So I know this: we need a thousand rooms if we fill every softball field because they figure eight teams per.

N

I don't know how the math was, but I did it, but um I figured if we were to fill every softball field in town, and that was the only thing that was going on. It would need a thousand rooms, so I don't know what that sweet spot is. I think it changes from year to year, because I think that watertown just is kind of you know we had such exponential growth up until the um up until the pandemic, the first five years or the or the previous five years from 2016.

N

We grew 45 percent over the all of the years that we were in business. So it's it's been very, very good. We had a record year, 2019 2020 was to be the bbb. I was almost sure was gonna, be over a million dollars in 2020.

M

Well, and to go with to go with softball you're going to have summer hockey that potentially goes in there as well. I know that takes a few years to get into that rotation as well, but that is one of those things that they.

E

M

I do have a kid that plays summer hockey as well. They you know a tournament for them might be 50 teams.

N

Well- and I just did a chart- and I sent it to one of my board members- we were working on some different statistics and we're actually very evenly. Our occupancy is very even month to month. It goes from about 7 to 11 month to month, and so we don't have any months that are just horrible, and I think that's because you know obviously hockey has got some strength here, but I think that those are kind of the months that will fill in we've got odd months. That are our best months.

N

I mean summer, you would think, is our best month october is traditionally our best month.

M

If you host a tournament you're going to have a lot more people that come in typically, you know during the season. It's you come in for a day and you go back unless it's a rapid city or something along those lines there, where you have to travel five and a half hours.

N

Right well, but if there's, if there's something for him to do, and our downtown is getting to the point where people like to stick around you know and if the weather's, nice and the zoo is open and things like that, so we give them more to do and the longer they'll stay. Yep.

A

Thanks man, thank you. Any other console questions. Okay, your excuse, julie. Would anyone else like to speak? Go ahead, come up to the microphone.

M

Up to the mic mic.

E

My name is mike danforth and I just want to say that the previous presentations that have been made on this over the years we've all seen, those and and prior to to now when I was on the council, we saw many of them and it was difficult.

E

The plans a lot of hard work goes into them, but they were, they were just incomplete. They weren't uh it was difficult to do a complete buy-in from a council standpoint and from a community standpoint. I think of all the the presentations that I've seen over the years far and away this one has the most merit and makes the most sense.

E

I think the costs are they're exorbitant, but they're in line and the benefits that that come just besides having an ice arena a nice facility just ironically last week my wife and I were were coming from some place out east of town, and I told her. I said it's this area over here. It's so unfortunate. It's such an eyesore with so much potential out there for something to go in there and start development for the city and to clean that up and make so much of a better presentation coming into our community.

E

There's a lot of value for that outside of ice, so to tie in the ice facility, uh reed and the other gentlemen that have been on this. I commend you that I I'm very impressed with what I saw tonight. um I personally as a community member, would easily be able to support what has been shown here tonight. Obviously, the devil's in the detail, as you get a little bit farther into it, but from what I've seen tonight, I think it looks like a really good plan. So thank you guys. Thank.

A

You hey russ, come on up.

K

Hello, I'm jamie with j j land sales. I'd like to thank all the council and the mayor for calling this meeting.

K

This has kind of been a vision of mine for kind of, since we bought the property everybody kind of thought. I was a little bit off the wall, but I kind of running jesse here a month and a half ago, and and a lot of what you see is something he put together in a very short order, and it's it's really impressive, and you know I just want to give the council in the citizen's assurance when they talk about our end of what's going on out there.

K

As far as excuse me doing soil corrections or anything to be done, I mean it's. No secret there's been some filling different things out there, but we have american engine engineering and testing coming out wednesday to do soil borings.

K

So we'll have a full report on that and it's professionally done so they'll give us the direction we need to do if any corrections need to be done and just like reed said in this presentation that everything will be professionally done and up to engineering standards.

K

That's all. I have.

A

Thank you any questions for jamie all right. Thank you, jamie anyone else.

B

Hi everybody, uh my name is lucas kobat, and I just want to thank everybody for being here and um putting the presentation together. It was um a joy to watch um and I enjoyed the presentation and what I saw. I just have a couple of questions uh so, commissioner, holin, when you said um that there would be 10 million in economic development with the potential for 50 million in economic development. Is that spread out over a certain amount of years? Or when do you forecast that economic development to take place.

M

I I could take some of that.

I

I kind of promised the this was a team effort. I don't want it to ever. Look like this was my deal. This was a team effort, so I want to give the other members of the ice committee a chance to answer the questions. So I I will gladly answer the question, but I I want to give my colleagues chances too.

M

I'll take it um some of that's going to be with the hotel. That's that's looking to go in right behind it. When we talked with j, j and and craig development, they've already started talking to other groups, individuals that are looking to kind of backfill behind that, including some restaurants and things of that nature. So it's not going to be all at once. Obviously, to put 50 million dollars in in a short time frame is going to be really difficult, but hopefully that comes in the first couple years.

M

It'll take at least a year to build a nice arena, so you're kind of expecting some of that to hopefully come in right behind that you know and as well as we do have a tif, that's directly across the street on the other side of willow, creek that hopefully they you know, start to see some growth with as well, and I mean honestly that's a win-win for our community.

M

um You know it's it's. You know it's a slow thing when they started they. You know we had the recession hit right in the middle of it, which obviously slows things down. But you know if we can get revenue from that tif that we're looking to do now with the the multi-purpose ice as well as hit revenue from across the street at the other tiff that has underperformed. In our opinion I mean those are those are both wins, so is it going to be over one year or two?

M

Probably not, but it should be in the first few years they should see the a big growth and then kind of business builds business so from what I've seen around other ice arenas and things of that nature, there's businesses that will pop in around them that directly support those as well as, if you end up doing concerts and things of that nature, they're going to bring bars. Restaurants, you know clinics things of that nature.

B

Understood yeah, so when we say that the worst case for cost to the city would be 12.6 million and the worst case for economic development would be 10 million. We're potentially looking at 2.6 million in losses. Is that correct.

M

No, I don't know, I would call it a loss, we're going to spend the money for an ice arena, no matter how we look at it. So I mean the worst case scenario: it's 14 million.

O

M

Know I mean that's truly the worst case scenario. Is you just pay for the entire ice rink, which we already kind of have committed to to our citizens? So we hope that jesse did you have something um no sure.

K

So, as you'll notice around the arena, most of its apartment buildings, which is my gig, so you know I'm going to be- probably the guy that's going to be building at least one, if not all, of those projects out there. So just 172 plex is going to be close to 9 million.

K

So I run a plan to start building that, probably in the spring of 2022 um before the ice arena is completed so yeah there should be no loss to the city and, like uh commissioner helene was talking about, I mean honestly, if, if the vote is a yes tonight for the mou, all the pressure then falls on myself and jamie to correct the soil and to build this stuff. So um I just couldn't bring apartments.

K

You know down to an open field, no offense to jamie, but the whole like, like, like reid, said the the whole linchpin is that arena. So that's going to spur all the rest of the development on that. So you'll see that within probably three to four years, five years maximum, where that was all going to be completely developed out there.

B

That makes sense yeah, and so um I totally understand, and it makes sense- and it seems like a great idea.

B

One of the things is so when we say a range of 10 to 50 million dollars in potential economic development, that's going to come to town, how much of that is factored into temporary construction jobs that are going to be used for actually building all of all of the facilities and all the work. None of it.

K

That's just cost to build: that's just cost to construct those projects out there. So if you look at that major plan, the master use plan, I mean, if you look at the town homes, the apartments with condos on top the bar restaurant on the public beach area, the hotel doesn't include the cost of the arena and then, of course, commercial strip malls that are then wrapped around there, and you know medical facilities and things like that.

K

That would all just be the cost of those projects that wouldn't uh give any indication as to like the people that are working here that are living here short term, while they're working on those projects. What they're bringing the community got it? Okay, what they're spending for food groceries, gas, all those things.

B

That's helpful so that would be on top of crevices been stated, okay and then my final question is: we talked about two tiffs, uh the tax increment financing, one for where the facility's gonna go and then one across the street.

B

um Are we forecasting that we'll need to rely on both of those to fully pay for the cost of the facility or is the tif for where the facility is going to going to be enough or are both of them not going to be enough.

M

The tif is basically is a way to develop around it. You simply, you get a benefit from from the tax increment financing that goes with it to help the developers spur growth that shouldn't be directly to offset the costs, I mean we're still going to have to pay the costs either way, but the tax increment financing, the one that's across the street has been in place for me correctly for around 20.

A

Right, yes, that one's been since 2005 nine nine.

M

Eight nine somewhere in that range so that one's been there, that's just an added benefit if that grows. The one that we're looking to do here is is simply to add additional build up around it and then there's there's a benefit back to the city that comes when you have tax. Increment financing doesn't directly go to the cost.

B

Got it so to directly pay the cost that happens, how part.

M

Of it's through the naming rights and the sponsorship, and then the rest of it is paid. Through I mean we have tax taxes that come back to the city.

B

And are we changing the taxes at all? Are they staying stable.

A

They've been producing, oh, this isn't changing.

M

B

So we're not increasing.

M

Taxes, if that's what you're asking.

B

Right so if we keep taxes stable- and we are saying we're going to use the the current tax rate and the tax revenue that the city receives, are we going to have to do any prioritization in other projects that won't receive funding or receive reduced funding? Because of this project?.

A

I can talk about that a little bit. I mean the way that it's presented and if it all works out, it's less expensive for the taxpayers to move forward with an ice arena in this way.

A

If we have to bond for an ice arena, then that does come out of our project funds to pay their the interest back and pay the bond back. This is this proposal doesn't use a bond. It uses tax, increment financing, so right now, there's not a whole lot of tax being collected on that property.

A

Once it's improved, the amount of tax that's collected can be used to pay back the development and we're we're not any worse off than they were before that relieves, having to put the burden on the property tax or on our revenue sources.

A

So if it works out like we're, planning we'll be a lot better off, even if it doesn't work out exactly as planned, we'll still probably at least be the same there. You know it's possible that if nothing happens out there except the ice arena, then it might be more expensive than just straight bonding.

A

But it's it's a matter of of how we pay for that and if, if we do get at least some development, it does pay for itself.

B

Got it no mayor, that's incredibly helpful. Thank you. So if I understand correctly, the tax increment financing is the the methodology that we're using to then to offset the costs.

O

B

This development and therefore we wouldn't have to de-prioritize other projects.

A

B

Defund other projects, because of this one.

A

B

A

Of this site, there's a tremendous potential for tax increment. There isn't on the other sites, and so this that's what this site has over the other ones got.

B

A

M

Lucas, we don't get virtually any taxes off of this property period. There's.

L

M

Property tax. That really is because it's bare land so absolutely.

B

Yeah yeah, that's all I had thank you for everybody's time, mayor.

G

Actually, I'd like to chime in a couple of couple of comments from my perspective on the tip.

G

First of all, no we're not depending upon the tif across the road uh that is not backed into our projections, but if but looking at the projection, if you'll notice that we've got a safety net built in there that we, where we will not become dependent upon any of that tif revenue until year, 11 the project uh that that gives the developers essentially 10 years to get the products up and going out there.

G

So I think that's why, when reed makes reference to 10 to 15 10 to 50 million, that's because the the time element involved, but we don't become dependent upon any of that revenue until year. 11 of the way the plan has been put together. Another comment I'd like to make is anybody that follows our proceedings in the past whenever a tif comes up before us, you'll always hear me: ask the question: okay, we're losing that somebody's losing that tax revenue? Does that mean our school districts being shortchanged?

G

Is our county a center because they rely upon tax driven as well and the way tiffs work, because this is an economic development tif. Our school district is made whole through the state aid formula. I don't know how that all works at the state level, but our school district, which depends very heavily upon tax revenue, is made whole whenever there is a tif in place. That money is coming in from other sources throughout the state.

G

So we as a community or our school district, for example, is made whole throughout that tip, so we're not losing that revenue that could go to some other uh entity, such as the schools, for example. So that's an important element too, when it comes to understanding tiffs is that we are not losing out revenue for other entities that depend upon that.

B

Thank you so much yeah um I'll just end by saying I enjoy the presentation. I absolutely understand the mitigating controls that you put in place and I think it's a great plan.

A

Thank you. Anyone else like to speak.

A

All right council, some councilman roby.

L

Mitch, do you have the three charts that uh kristen and I put together? um What I'd like to do is address at least bring in the picture, our long-term debt, because that's the question, I think that comes up a lot anytime. We build something we commit to long-term dollars, so I just wanted to do a quick snapshot of that. I've got three charts they're all very similar.

L

This first one is our current debt and there's four buckets that are going to be addressed here in the blue line on this chart is our current bonds for the wellness center and the softball complex, which we're already is at what four or five years into that it's hard to believe that, but that's what the blue line is the orange line, which is somewhat confused there with the gray on the bottom. That is our bonds for the library and you'll, see those drop off in 2027..

L

That gray line is what our our state revolving funds are. Those are typically uh loans that we take and there's a number of them in there. Those are usually revolved around water type projects, storm water, etc, and then that green line shows our total debt.

L

So all those major items uh you can see what it looks like in the green line, those drop off all those due by 2035, which is still 15 years away or 14 years away.

L

So that's what our current debt looks like mitch, I'd like to go to the chart that shows the one with the bond payment additional debt.

L

Okay, thank you now. This is pretty much the same chart with the exception of the blue of the dark blue line, which shows if we were to bond out this project that roughly about a million dollars a year, and if we were to do that and bond that there is no tiff involved.

L

So this again shows our total debt, which the green line shows the total of all those items added. I want to comment that we are well within our capacity for debt. Now. I think we all take it very seriously we're adding on a project such as this one, which is a big one, but our current situation is very good and if we were to bond this out, we are still in very good shape and we're well well within our bonding and debt capacity.

L

If you'd show the third chart please, so this one is an improvement over the last one. This is why we've uh the committee is recommending this public-private partnership and because it's the way we can leverage the tiff. So instead of that dark blue line, which was the bond payments, we now have the yellow line, which would be the annual lease payment and that is showing lower because again the tif effect and our overall debt will be less.

L

If you look at the green line, so it starts out at about 3.4 and after a few three four years, it starts dropping down a little bit.

L

Now that's a lot of money, but we are still- and I want to reiterate this- we are well within our deck capacity and kristen, and I have been rounding around as of many of us about this. We want to feel comfortable in recommending this that we're not putting the city in a tough spot in the future.

L

I also want to make a couple comments along the lines of what could happen between now and the next 10 15 years. There's always going to be a surprise or a maintenance issue, or a rehab issue, you're going to see that, but in terms of large projects we got a pretty new wellness center. We've got a great softball facility.

L

We've got a great police station that isn't that old, that's already paid for the fire department was remodeled, that's paid for the west fire station is paid for the city of watertown has really done a pretty good job over many years of being conservative in how we manage debt. So I want to make the statement of the public that we are certainly watching that very closely and we are very comfortable and I'll.

L

Ask christian to chime in here to back me up, but we're very comfortable on the debt load we're working with and how we're looking at structuring this financially uh christine. Could I ask you to chime in.

D

Yes, thank you don. um So in terms of this, the one thing that this structure set up does, uh with the lease payment versus actually going out and going for more debt, is it does free up some of that burden?

D

That's placed on our fund 212, which is our capital improvement fund, um even with the conservative projections using some of those uh contributions from the external entities um and then, hopefully, within that 10 years, when we start to receive the tif revenue, um I'm kind of looking at we are able to, with our cash on hand, cover those lease payments for the first 10 years and what the graphs kind of did was.

D

They showed that we're kind of looking at that 15-year gap where we're kind of going to be tight, where we really are going to have to watch it be conservative like we are most all the time, um so that cash really goes through that first 10 years and then what will happen is, as we see and how things progress. It's going to set us up to be able to rely a little bit on fund 212.

D

If we need to to make those last lease payments that are necessary but, as don stated, um the city of war town has enough debt capacity. At this time, our debt capacity is actually governed by law. We are only able to seek out about five percent of our property's assessed value. um I don't have our 2020 numbers, but off of the 2019 values we can have almost 60 million dollars of debt. Now I don't recommend that and we're not close to that, but we are well within what we can afford.

D

So I can entertain any questions. If anybody has any.

L

And I would just summarize we don't take this lightly. I mean it's a lot of money we're talking about, but I also think that the other side equation, which is not shown here, is what can this do revenue wise and bring into the community not just quality of life, but the economic aspect of sports tourism?

L

You know and just bringing people to town. So I I just wanted to show those numbers to say to the public. We have looked how this affects our long-term debt and we can go forward with this recommendation and confidence. Thank you.

A

Thank you, councilman albertson,.

J

uh For years and years, we've looked at this ice issue in watertown for our kids, I mean I dealt with it for years. Reid said you know not uncommon. Parents are talking about getting their kids up at 5am or having them be out at night until 11 30, because of practice issues, and so on. So I've talked to I'm not sure how many parents- and I know the ones- are thrilled that we're still approaching this and we didn't kick it down the road again.

J

So I really appreciate the committee, but not, but I appreciate the committee and all their hard work, people that donate a million dollars worth of land people that are willing to come in and build property on this and uh the people that use it. Saying: hey we're gonna, give you a million dollars or we're gonna, give you time and effort or whatever else it is. You think that's not a group committee of the city of watertown.

J

It really is, and so uh I like this presentation, mike danforth, said it really well, we've heard a lot of presentations. As for this, I've been here eight years now, we've heard a lot of presentations about what it could be, and it maybe should be if we can be lucky and do this, do that? There's no luck on this one. I don't think I think the committee has captured what it's going to take to do this, and so a big thank you to everybody and to the council. Please vote yes on this mou.

A

M

Councilman lollum thanks dan, for your your kind words there reed has done a fantastic job. He's really pushed this boat forward. um You know the committee has obviously just been helping him as he goes. um The public-private partnership is really the one that kind of put us to the end of the line here, at least at the finish line, is what we're hoping for um to to have our development company, as well as a couple developers. Look at doing this.

M

We I see it as a win-win for our community.

M

You know we we have talked about this. I've had kids in hockey, for I think it's seven years now, and- and I can remember them talking about this when I was in high school, which is more than seven years ago, but realistically, what? What really kind of spurred me on a little bit more is the potential for a third sheet that they they've already committed to that there's space is there if needed, and I hope that you know someday. That's what happens.

M

I have friends of mine that are in other communities such as aberdeen, where, when they built their new facility, their hockey program expanded exponentially as well as their figure skating.

M

You know this is one where communities and people that go to these type of events. They spend the money. I I can tell you from my checkbook. It goes down every time I go, but realistically it's money well spent. The kids are really what benefits the most out of this opportunity that we're looking to do here forward.

M

I think it's a win-win for watertown. I really. If we can spur even minimal economic growth out there, it is definitely a win.

M

You know the economic impact that comes when you build a facility that brings people to town is. Is you can't put dollars to it exactly, but it's exponential is how many times they they'll that money turns over. You know it goes to the people that are in restaurants and and hotels and things like that, and then they turn around and spend it in their paychecks.

M

So it's a growth for us. It's a huge win for us from from a tax revenue. Hopefully, um and if nothing else, we we have a new ice facility and we can. We can move forward going, and you know our our kids and hopefully you know the next generation passed that benefit for years to come. Thank you.

A

Thank you. Anyone else.

A

Council right now, councilman hoyer.

O

um Just first off guys he did a great job in the presentation. I think it does cover a lot of the questions. Many of us have had um some of the things. I hope we look at as we go forward. I know we got some strip development, that's being suggested in there that doesn't really go with our land use plan that we currently have. So I I don't know, maybe we can address that a little bit, but that's ultimately up to the developer.

O

um I hope we bear in mind if we choose this location, what happened with larson recently with theirs, where the water table had come up underneath them and they didn't anticipate it when it was built, so they ended up having to do a pretty expensive repair. On that, I know that we can at least look at that and plan against that. That's always been some of the concern with the wetness of the area. It is in a flood plain. um We can put a lot of fill in.

O

Of course, we can do the things to mitigate it, just making sure that we do those things, because we can see on a state level that there have been communities where that ends up biting them. In the end, um you guys got a really built out plan. There's a lot that's going to go into it, there's a lot of hopes right now.

O

um You know I hope they happen. I really truly do hope that we get all the development we're anticipating off it.

O

It's a little hard, sometimes with willow creek, not developing the way we expected it to, but this does have a lynchpin on it and it does go along with the strong town's philosophy and everything that you always hear me harp about that when you build public amenities, things do pop up around them, so I would hope that we were able to do that. This is a little bit leap, froggy, uh there's a gap in there. If you look at the image, we don't have continuous development exactly with this, it's a little bit off from that.

O

It's not a huge jump, but there's definitely some empty land in between. We hope this triggers it.

O

I really do hope, too, with the downtown that we do see something go in that's going to have the same capacity.

O

We talk about a lot of the hope and growth that this can trigger out there in some ways it's passing up on what it could do down here too, we it sounds like we have a plan for something else to go in.

O

I hope that it truly doesn't have the parking issues that you hit with the ice, um seeing that expansion for that third sheet is part of what sells this for me, because it shows a lot of looking into the future and knowing that, if we have to increase capacity, we can do that um in any of the downtown sites. That'd be pretty tough to do so. I hope that we look at that.

O

The other thing I hope, we're careful of just having looking looked at this historically, is that we don't create another shopping mecca in another location. That then kills another part of our town. That has a little trouble with it. Sometimes um we saw what happened when the mall was built in the 80s and what that did to our original shopping area.

O

It's kind of shifted back the other way at this point in the mall struggles. Now you just, I hope, we're careful about that and have the capacity as a community to still support everything instead of uh having you know, favorites pop up or whatever, I think we're pretty good about shopping, local and going to.

I

O

Places we like and supporting what we like um yeah. I think that's really the majority of it. You guys did a great job on that presentation. It looks like you really really looked into it. um Just if we do it like we've been saying the whole time. Let's make sure we do it right, make sure we're checking all the boxes where we need to check them, and we understand too that with more infrastructure, comes more maintenance of that infrastructure.

O

So we got to be willing to foot that bill too, when it comes so we'll just have to make sure we're really really doing our processes right, but that's what I got.

A

Thank you councilman. Why.

C

Thanks mayor um again, I would uh I agree with a lot of things that you have said, michael so I'll make mine short, but I want to thank the committee and not only this present committee, but also the past committees that have worked so hard on this I mean this is 20 plus years in the making and those committees put in probably just as much as this last committee, but I think this last committee just helped us get to to where we uh tonight can go forward with with something, and I think it's going to be exciting for the community for watertown they've waited long enough for this, and I I think we're all lucky to be on this side to have this opportunity to finally say: let's, let's take that leap and and let's move forward working with private and public, I think it's a great idea of that.

C

Partnership and it'll be neat to see how that progresses and and other projects that we can do that we've in the future. You know, I think this will just continue to hopefully spur that public and private connection um the public wants this. You know uh I don't hear a lot out on the streets of this is a bad idea. It's a bad idea. I think it's been vetted for so long that I think the community.

C

Those naysayers have finally come around and said: okay yeah. This is this is good for watertown and uh I had quite a few emails and and messages from people saying move forward with this tonight. Let's do it so I hope that that that's the way it goes. I don't necessarily like the leapfrog.

C

It appears that they have a good plan and they've worked hard on this, so with the leapfrog development. Hopefully it will just continue to build out from that and that leap will be filled in rather relatively uh quickly and just we need to do it correctly and we need to be. You know. I know the public comments were, let's make sure we can have concerts and things like that.

C

Well, if we build this, we still have to realize that we can't host to garth brooks you know it's just not going to work in that facility, so we got to keep our our ideas in check with the type of facility that we're going to build.

C

So let's just make sure that we do it right. Do it right so that we don't come back and say well, we shouldn't cut that corner. We shouldn't have done this because hopefully we've learned from our mistakes on other projects in the past, where that's happened so, let's just do it right.

A

All right, thank you. Counselor manti,.

P

Okay, am I here.

A

P

uh Yeah, I'm not gonna as michael and everybody else has covered a lot of what I was gonna say so I'm um gonna just say this was a great presentation that actually exceeded my expectations, um which I'm glad because I really want this to be good. I really want this to work so anyway. What I would just like to close with is that we've talked for a long time about a gateway or to downtown from out on the highway.

P

So as I look at the map of what we're doing here, let's make this the time we do that.

P

So we've got you know big development, we've got things in the middle latc and and if we can just create that yellow brick road, if you want to call it that from the highway to downtown, I think you're going to continue to see exactly what everybody's been talking about and that's you know people tr going downtown for night life for eating, whatever it is and with the flat floor facility down there I mean we can even have um big large craft fairs or art cycles, or things like that.

P

So, there's a lot of way to draw people from the highway to down there, so everybody else said stuff I agree with, but that would be just my closing in that: let's create that yellow brick road. If that's what you want to call it to get people from 212 all the way downtown, because now we have a really good opportunity and that's how we'll fill in that space of that leapfrog.

P

A

Thank you, councilman rodemski, I'd just like to thank reid for his presentation and everybody on the ice committee. I think it was a great presentation had a lot of questions, a lot of facts.

A

A lot of in-depth research went into this and the old adage is it takes money to make money, and I think now is the time to spend the money to make some money there's a lot of good things that go out there, and this is just another tool in our toolbox to attract families, to watertown and also to promote uh potential industry to move to watertown. It's one more thing: they can look at.

A

You know as a benefit to this, and I guess the old adage is better to have tried and failed and did not try it at all. So I look forward to a yes vote on this all right. Thank you.

A

Councilman bill, howard,.

G

I'd just like to uh michael you talked about about. Excuse me about hope, a lot of hope building of this well I'd like to uh at one of our meetings last week, when we were discussing this uh and going back and forth, uh I said you know: we've looked at so many different sites, there's plus and minuses in each site, we're never going to find the perfect location, but it's time that we take that leap of faith.

G

So your hope is my leap of faith uh in this project that uh it's time we do this um we made problem. We made promise to the public when we floated our 30 million dollar bond issue. What seven eight years ago, six seven years ago, now uh to three different groups. We fulfilled two and it's time to get that third one fulfilled now.

A

All right, thank you, anyone else, I I want to say too, and this maybe got glossed over a little bit. The mou has protections in there for the city, but it's got a very clever front, loaded incentive to the developer. The developer gets the incentive from the tax increment in the first 10 years and after that it goes back to the the wdc in the city, so that really does give the developers incentive to hurry up and build now and because they they they get 10 years to get that increment. So I think that's unique.

A

I haven't seen that before. I really like it a lot and uh the fact that the user groups have stepped up and that we've got some wonderful gifts from the community. This is a collaborative effort and the the bottom line is. We could not do this without the watertown development company, and I I want everybody to understand that the development company is made up of investors from our community, putting their money in a pot making things possible working together for the betterment of our community.

A

It's our secret weapon and uh thank you, watertown development company. We can't do this without you and with that I'm going to ask for a vote all those in favor signify by saying aye aye. Anyone opposed signify by saying, nay motion carries.

A

Thank you. Everyone is there any old business.

J

Mayor, I just want to make one quick comment, just record keeping the the mou. I did circulate it to the media as required, because it's not on the agenda and I'm just waiting for an exhibit to be attached to it and then I'll get posted to our agenda within the next 24 hours.

A

All right, thank you, any new business, any liaison member reports, any announcements, councilman bill howard here.

G

Just a reminder of the public information session tomorrow evening on the 10th avenue project, what 5 30 at the wellness center is that right, oh boy, I think that's.

A

What it is uh yeah, I think, that's right: okay, um yep any other announcements.

A

We will not be having an executive session pursuant to sdcl 1-25-2 and there being no further business. I hereby declare this meeting adjourned. Thank you for coming.

A