Moving Forward

 May 6, 2013

April was a busy month for the Mantorville city council. The council meet four times in the month of April to go over financial planning, updating some ordinance, hold a local board of appeals session and to select an option for our wastewater treatment plant.

The city of Mantorville has a financial rating of “AA-“ which is good news for our citizens because this will allow us to bond at a lower rate for projects. A lower bond rate means that any project the city bonds for will have a lower cost per citizen and will continue to help the city reduce the tax burden on our citizens.

After some long meetings reviewing the agreement for the option to Kasson, reviewing the cost of the various options and an on-site tour of the Kasson facility, the city council decided on a five to zero vote to partner with Kasson for the cities wastewater treatment. Some of the considerations that determined the council’s decision were:

1)    Mantorville has a space limitation for “expansion” at our current site.
2)     Legal agreement provides ample protection for both communities.
3)    On going cost for plant operation is lower for a “shared” plant.
4)    Potential lower environmental impact.
5)    The cost difference of one million dollars.

Now that an option has been selected the city has a good understanding of what the financial implications for our wastewater treat will be in the coming years and we can move forward with other projects.

The Mantorville EDA will be holding a public meeting to solicit input from citizens on what the city should look at for projects to be funded with the “sales tax” revenue coming from the City of Rochester. The city of Kasson choose to donate their money to the “Destination Medical Center” project which the State Legislature, the City of Rochester and Mayo clinic are working on. The Mantorville EDA has already been presented with some options for consideration and we would like additional input from our citizens. This money can only be used for “Economic Development” activities and the state has a exact definition of this terms which the City of Mantorville will have to comply with. The public input session will be held on May 7th at 7:30pm in the Mantorville city council chamber. Anyone wishing to share their opinion on the subject will be given the opportunity to address the commission. The EDA will consider all the options, conduct any needed additional research and eventually make a recommendation back to the city council. The city council will then make a final determination on which projects best serve the community and make plans for the project execution.

 Please visit my blog at MayorBradford.BlogSpot.com for updates this month, I will be adding some additional articles on my blog answer some common questions I look forward to reading your comments on any of my articles.

 Feel free to contact me at my email address of MantorvilleMayor@Gmail.com or add a comment to my blog at MayorBradford.BlogSpot.com I look forward to hearing your ideas and comments.

Yours in service,

 Chuck Bradford
Mayor, City of Mantorville