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Current Events
- Election Updates: There are 4 council candidates and 2 mayor candidates. General election is Nov 5th. Click here for list of local candidates.
- If you or people in your area want to meet and discuss current/future topics related to the city, reach out to me to set up a time to visit. (email, phone call, or in person)
- As you're driving on the river road by Stephens' park, you'll notice construction on the south side of the road. That's the new central water system treatment facility in progress.
- Many of you are familiar with the phrase "rural look and feel" or "rural character." Dayton residents have said this is important to them and I agree. It's even in our mission statement. We've had a couple work sessions on the topic and I believe it'll result in a list of ideas we will be prioritizing for the future. If you have ideas, please let me know.
Item K (Survey Results)
A few months ago, the council hired a company to conduct a phone survey of our residents. Their intent was to survey 400 residents (statistically a high number), 109 questions, and about 15 minutes each. The residents were evenly split between the 3 voting precincts, ages, and length of time in the city. We recently got the results and this item was to discuss the results. I’ve attached the results here. Here are some key items:
Q6, 89% felt the city was headed in the right direction (I agree!).
Q24, 57% felt their taxes were still too high (we’ve done a lot of work here but I also agree there is still room to come down.
Q31, 71% support reducing speed limits to 25 MPH on residential streets.
Q33, evenly split between people wanting a single trash collection company and not. I do think that it would have been important to get costs in here though we were told they typically see the same result.
Q80, 90% felt there should be nothing changed about Heritage Day (although I’m not sure why this question was even in here since it’s not a city function).
With regards to the 3rd fire station...
- Q27, 52% were not concerned about fire response time and 37% had a minor concern (this is the reason the fire station is being pushed).
- Q29, what they would be willing to pay per month for that station... 37% said $0, 45% were ok with the next amount $10.
- Clearly this question was written poorly given 82% were in the first 2 bins. My guess is the real number would have been closer to 5 or so. That leaves about $60 a year which puts the amount for a station at about $6M or so. The current estimate is $20M for the station.
- Given the disparity between what residents want to pay, the estimated cost, and the lack of concern on response times (and the fact we’ll likely have 4 full time FFs next year to further reduce response time), I have a hard time with the city planning on a fire station for 2028. That plan would mean we’d need to start in the next year or two with the design work.
HERE are the results. I would encourage you to distribute them to your local Facebook groups.
Item L (Water and Sewer Rates)
Every year the council goes over the water and sewer rates to ensure they are set to handle current and future costs of the system
Item M (Park Dedication Distribution)
A few meetings ago I had mentioned that we needed a policy that would give us some guidelines on how much of the Park Dedication money was allocated to neighborhood parks and how much to regional parks. This defined that. The split was decided to be 75%-25%. We also agreed to direct staff to look at the dedication amounts for both parks and trails to make sure it would pay for the build out of the parks.
Item N (Park Improvement Projects)
In 2022 we found that the amount needed to complete the 2 pedestrian bridges in Elsie Stephens park was simply too much money. The estimate for the south bridge was close to $600k from what I remember, and that was voted down by the council. In the meantime, due to the county road turn lanes being put in, that bridge ended up being a box culvert instead of an ornamental bridge. That meant a much cheaper bridge at about $40k.
This item was to get bids on the north bridge. The north bridge was also supposed to be an ornamental bridge. The estimate is $250k. It may be due to the poor design documents, but it doesn’t look like something I’d spend $250k on. I did ask why we don’t do the exact same type of bridge (box culvert) and I was told it can’t handle the water flow. I’m not sure how much water we’re talking about but even in a torrential rain I can’t image a box culvert wouldn't easily handle that.
We ok’d going out for bids but I’m going to need more convincing before I’m ok with that much park fund money being used on this instead of something else.
Item O (Bounce Pillow)
This item you need to see to appreciate. It’s basically a 20x30 foot air-filled pillow. Click HERE to see what it looks like. It looks like something everyone would enjoy. My only concern was maintenance. We instructed staff to go ahead and get estimates but it’s looking like about $25k.
Item P (Land Purchase Agreement)
Given that we have a few new city facilities that are currently on the plans or contemplated (city hall, 3rd fire station, fire training center) staff has been keeping an eye out for 6 or so acres of land for a few years. We authorized them to hire a broker to look for property and this item was to approve moving forward with a purchase agreement. The last 4 or so budgets have included money and that should cover the cost. The property ID is 2912022440002 and it’s the 3rd property on the north side of 117th east of French Lake Rd E. I’m not too impressed with that location as I would prefer government buildings be more towards the industrial area but, the earliest the city will do anything there is 2028. And as I mentioned above in my survey comments, I think we need to push that fire station out and it’s possible a better solution for a location will present itself in the next few years.
As always contact me with concerns or questions.