CITY MANAGER’S OFFICE
WEEKLY MEMORANDUM
TO: Mayor Rines, Councilors and Department Heads
FROM: Jeffrey Kobrock, City Manager
DATE: July 23, 2004
RE: Weekly Memo
Meetings for the Week of July 19, 2004
Housing Comm. Thurs., July 29, 8:30 am, City Hall
Council Meeting Thurs., July 29, 7:00 pm, City Hall
Capital Weekly
Gardiner made the front page of the Capital Weekly this week with a very nice article recapping the recent history of successful leadership to catalyze important investments in the community. You can go to www.capitalweekly.com or find a copy locally.
FY 05 Budget Adoption
A second reading of the budget is scheduled for July 29. At the first reading Council gave me direction to strike a balance among these priorities; either decrease or stabilize the mil rate, build the undesignated fund balance in recognition of the dramatic reduction in resources posed if the Palesky measure is adopted, and restore cuts that were made to the Capital Improvement Plan items in the budget. I believe we will be able to achieve significant progress on all these fronts as new value is looking fairly strong at this writing. I will have full details on these options available for our discussion.
WWTP
We will consider a bid recommendation for the wastewater project at the upcoming meeting. Chuck Applebee has been straining even his substantial creative problem solving abilities to bring the Phase II bid within budget. Although the low bid was not too far outside projections, this project has been so ambitious from the beginning that solving even this five percent variance is challenging. Chuck has given us a detailed update on the process in the packet, and after some more research will have a final recommendation ready for the Council meeting.
Palesky
Gardiner resident Christopher (Kit) St. John has written a thoughtful piece about the Palesky proposal that I have included in the packet. Kit not only heads up the Maine Center for Economic Policy, but is an economist by training.
Council Picture
We will take a picture of the Council at the July 29 meeting so that we can update the website. Remember that you will be posing for the entire world to view!
In this packet
04-29-Appropriations Enterprise Accounts
04-35- Recreation Department Stabilization
04-36-Appropriation Johnson Hall
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