e n i a CityConnect l B
W W W . C I . B L A I N E . M N . U S
January/February 2014
Heros and Helpers is a Huge Success For the fourth year in a row, the Blaine Police Department teamed with Blaine SuperTarget to make the holiday season extra special for some local children. Formerly known as Shop with a Cop this year’s program has been renamed Hero’s and Helpers, and includes members of the Spring Lake Park, Blaine, Moundsview Fire Department. With the help of school social workers, the Blaine Police Department identified children from six local elementary schools who needed an extra special holiday season. Target, with the help of many of their employees, then put together a special holiday shopping event for each these children. To make the day special, Blaine Police Officers, Explorers, Community Service Officers Police Reserves, and members of the SBM Fire Department, all wearing Santa hats, picked up the children at school prior to their shopping spree. Once they arrived at SuperTarget, children received a donated gift card to complete holiday shopping for their family members. Donations from Target, Blaine city employees, the Blaine Police Federation, SBM Fire, and a private Blaine citizen, were used to fund the donated gift cards. Funds were also set aside for non-gift necessities such as food, underwear, socks, boots, and mittens. The children, many with shopping lists in hand, were paired with police and fire helpers to guide them throughout the store. They were
also treated to a meal at Target’s Food Avenue. After loading their carts and purchasing the presents, cops, firefighters, and kids gathered with Target employees to wrap the gifts. At the end of the day, Police Officers, and Fire Fighters returned the children home with bags of presents to share with their families so they could help spread the holiday cheer at home this season.
Blaine’s 2014 Tax Levy is 2.2% Lower Than 2009 As required by law, the Blaine City Council set the property tax levy for taxes payable in 2014 at its final City Council meeting of the year. The levy showed a modest increase, while the Tax Capacity Rate showed a modest decrease. The same evening, the Council levied specifically for Economic Development to maintain long standing economic development efforts. The Council also passed a modest increase in the Pavement Management levy that funds the Pavement Management Program. From 2009 through 2013, Blaine reduced its levy by $1,187,270 and the 2014 levy is 2.2% lower than the 2009 levy. When the budget process started in June, the Council’s goals were to maintain services, achieve structural balance (where revenues match expenditures over the long term), not increase the tax rate, and utilize a planned budget reserve draw. While all properties are different, the City expects to see a return of market value increases due to the improving economy. The City of Blaine continues to maintain an Aa1 bond rating from Moody’s Investor Services. This is one level below the highest credit rating a city can receive. A high credit rating means Moody has reviewed the City’s financial data and views the City of Blaine as a good credit risk due to conservative budgeting and expenditure practices, community growth, and actual and projected property values. The City is positioning itself for the future by utilizing a long range, 5-year budget forecasting model and employing new technology upgrades for continued productivity improvements. In 2013, the City
began to update the water meter system to newer technology that uses a hosted data center for water meter information, eliminating the need for additional hardware. The data travels from the home meter wirelessly to the water towers and then to city hall via a fiber-optic network. The new water meter system also ties into the utility billing software package that the City uses, creating more efficiency and accuracy in the City’s utility billing operation. Additionally, the City Council began using i-Pads in order to eliminate the need for paper Council agendas, saving hours of staff time and paper supplies. The City has continued to see growth throughout the recession, adding roughly 370 new homes this year - placing Blaine in the top 3 home-building cities in the state. Blaine also continues to add commercial and industrial tax base that will assist with maintaining the service levels necessary for a community of 60,199. As part of this growth, the City has begun planning for the new Lexington Athletic Complex located north of 109th Avenue and off of Lexington Avenue. This athletic complex will be a significant amenity for all residents. There will be fields for baseball, soccer, lacrosse, and football along with new, lighted tennis and pickle ball courts. The park will also have a playground area with a shelter and a full size basketball court. The focal point of the park will be the new building, which can be used for classes, meetings, and possibly voting. The project is scheduled for completion in 2015. In all, the City is well positioned for continued success as we head into 2014.