Gramentz highlights challenges New Ulm faces

By RON LARSEN

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- While aging sewer lines, roads and economic development expansion will be top challenges into 2002, New Ulm's new city manager, Brian Gramentz, has brought himself quickly up to speed in dealing with this year's issues.

"We've got a situation of aging sewer pipe that needs to be replaced," said Gramentz who has been at the city's helm since June 4. "There are too many roads out there that consist mainly of little patches, and economic development expansion ranks right up there as the second most important concern.That will be addressed at the City Council's work sessions coming up Oct. 23 and 30."

Gramentz who adopted a "look-and-learn" attitude when he first came to town sat down with The Journal Wednesday to not only give a glimpse of what is ahead but also to discuss progress on a wide range of issues currently before city government.

'Referendum' projects

With the city anticipating awarding bids for the construction of the new Fairgrounds Community Center and the remodeling of the Senior Center and Vogel Arena, all of which is budgeted to cost $11.7 million, Gramentz believes the city is well prepared to build the so-called referendum project within budget.

"We've structured the project so by setting up the base bid and then adding on the alternates, we'll be able to look at the bids, find out what the costs are and then basically stop when we reach our limit," Gramentz explained. Bidding the whole package and then having to cut is really a hard thing to do."

The city also has another safety valve for staying within budget.

"When we reach our budget amount, we may decide there are things that are capable of waiting a year or two years until we can find another source of revenue," Gramentz said. "This might be in operations money or replacement money so that we can fund some of those things at a later date. These might be things like separation curtains at Vogel Arena, between courts and the running track which can be bought and hung up anytime. There are some equipment in the concessions stands area we can buy anytime, but you need to have the power outlets, the countertops and things like that.

"Maybe, given the economy, the project will go ahead under budget, and we'll get everything that's designed. That would be great, too, but we won't know exactly until the bids come in where we stand."

Gramentz isn't concerned a great deal about the current economic downturn jeopardizing the city's debt servicing through reduced sales tax revenue.

"Over the life of the bond issue, we have anticipated there will be some high and low points in the revenue stream," Gramentz explained. "By taking a conservative estimate of the revenue, you can run into situations where the economy takes a downturn, and you're not substantially hurt."

Hermann

Monument Lions

Having the cast-iron lions put in place on pedestals on Hermann Monument has brought the city close to obtaining the $400,000 matching grant from the state.

"We've had some discussions to try and finalize the money transfer and some correspondence where we will be working out the details," Gramentz said. "One of those is to have the (Minnesota) Historical Society representative (Charles Nelson) come and actually view the lions on site so he can then sign off on that if he deems it appropriate. Then, we have some things we need to deal with that were in the original law, like the interpretative center and things of that nature. Generally speaking, there's some clean-up paperwork that needs to be done, some planning that has to occur, and we'll be working on that over the next month."

As far as the lions matching Hermann the statue, Gramentz is pleased with the outcome.

"If you stand outside the fence, you can't tell the difference," Gramentz said. "They look pretty sharp."

As far as the deficit of $775,000 in the Hermann base restoration fund is concerned, Gramentz said, "That is a paper deficit. All the bills have been paid, so it's just a matter of making an accounting transfer to arrive at a zero balance."

Poor Farm Aftermath

Gramentz said the city is watching whether boarding up the Poor Farm building site solves the problem of trespassers entering the building.

The city lost a legal fight this summer to have the building now owned by builder Jon Hartley of Lafayette razed and removed because it constituted a "public hazard."

District Judge John Rodenberg remanded the case to the city council after determining the order to demolish wasn't properly signed, nor was the council action in issuing the order properly recorded. In addition, the judge found the building inspector had overstated the hazard that the abandoned building represented.

"The basics that came out of that ruling were that in order for the city to request an extensive tear-down and removal, the city should have considered a solution that was midway, somewhere in the middle that didn't require a total tear-down," Gramentz said.

"The city council has to decide if there is a nuisance, and if there is a nuisance, what is the minimal amount of work necessary to abate that nuisance. The worst-case scenario is to tear it down, but is there something in the middle that could be done by the property owner to abate that nuisance?

"If at some future date, that doesn't solve the problem, there may be something else that maybe required to be done, but we need to go step by step and try and solve the problem at its lowest level. So, we're in a process now of seeing if boarding up the windows solves the problem."

Gramentz said he's not aware of any other orders that may have been issued improperly.

"This is a pretty rare case. I'm not aware that there are any other deficiencies in the process, but, at the same time, if we're made aware of that situation, we'll deal with them as they come up."

Local Government Aid

Legislators -- and the governor -- have questioned whether municipalities are giving the changes made in local government aid and property tax reform a chance, and waiting to see the "real numbers," before crying foul.

"I think they're right," Gramentz said. "I think there are some communities are going to be hurt financially by the legislative efforts to make local property taxes better for the citizens of Minnesota, and there are some that are going to get helped. I personally want to see how the numbers actually shake out before we say this is good or this is bad." Preliminary analysis indicates the City of New Ulm doesn't have much to complain about, Gramentz said.

"That's what the initial reading is that we are one of those communities that are benefitted. Some communities with populations over 10,000 got special consideration so those communities tended to end up on the plus side rather than the minus side. So, generally speaking, we anticipate the city of New Ulm to come out OK."

Even though the city is coming out on the plus side, it will need to increase its 2002 levy perhaps by as much as 4.5 percent.

"New Ulm will need to increase just because things we're doing in 2002 we didn't do in previous years or plan to do in 2003 and on. So we're looking at 2002 and what do we need to fully fund everything we've put in our budget for 2002," Gramentz said.

"So some communities may get more money from the state and reduce taxes; some cities may get more money from the state and increase taxes, and some may stay the same. Each community has to work through that," Gramentz continued.

"What I'm concerned about is I think the state has to do the same thing. We can't have the state Legislature turn around and say 'OK now that community got helped too much, and this one got hurt too much.' Now they are going in next year and jockey it around and try to equalize those issues. It's one thing to sit back and ask us to let it happen and then see what the ramifications are, but the state also has to do that so that what happened has a chance to really fine-tune itself. Then go from there."

Economic Development 'Landlocked?'

Gramentz acknowledges having the Minnesota River and the Municipal Airport to cross to provide public utility services to future development presents a challenge.

"Certainly, the city in owning its utilities is in a good position to subsidize those costs to attract economic development," Gramentz explained, "but there are a whole host of issues that have to be considered. Is it worth it in the long run to go to the expense of extending services a great distance? Another issue is that we have it in our ordinance that we can't offer these services beyond our incorporated limits.

"So, these and other issues are the type of thing the city council will be considering at its work sessions later this month."