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HomeMy WebLinkAboutminutes.council.19750630Present from the Council was Councilwoman Johnston, Councilman Parry, Councilman De Gregorio Councilwoman Pedersen, and MaYor Standley. Also present from the Planning and Zoning Commission to discuss with the CounCilmembers the uses of the Rio Grande were Mike Otte, an~ Jack Jenkins, and Roger Hunt. Present;from the iPtanning Department was Bill~Kanel,_~ity/. County Planner and John Standford. Mayor Standley felt that since they were talking about using the Rio Grande Property for a performance arts center he asked Edgar Stern from the MAA to come and show their future plans for the MAA. Stern said that they wouldn't need to use any other facility to take care of their needs an presented new plans as to what they could do with the tent. The tent would hold 1500 people in comparison to what it holds presently.which is 1200. Mayor. Standley mentioned that last year when they committed money by ordinance to do a performing arts center for the Deoole they didn't get any help from the MAA at all. Mayor Standley suggested that if ; this~fa~ility ~ere in the master plan and if they should get into this type of program and if they could expect from the arts group some support then chances are they could get their facility. Mayor Standley questioned if they would wait to do their facility until the City got theirs started so they could make sure the City was going to do it before they could justify doing their facility. Mayor Standley said that he wouldn't want to get in the position where the MAA would be ready to go ahead with thier facility but really not having too much competence in the City. He continued saying that the Rio Grande project is the Cities priority to get the master plan done which entails laying out the priority elements within the master plan and then identifying the various funding socials to identify the funding priorities and at the end of the budget session they will know what the elements are and what the priorities are. However, presently the Council is unsure of the available funding. Stern quoted the estimated cost which was One million sixty-five thousand dollars ($1,000,065.00) which does not include One hundred thousand dollars ($100,000.00) for the archetect and about a quarter of a million dollars for stage materia~ such as an orchestra, lights and microphones etc. BOND ISSUE Don Diones and Joe Barrows, two Bond underwriters from Kirchner Moore in Denver, presented to Councilmembers a new bid saying that a couple weeks ago the market had hit the right spot and that by refunding the City's outstanding unrefunded general obligation water bonds and setting up an escrow to pay off the ones that are presently outstanding they could save the City some money by having the underwriters put together a program. Diones and Barrows agreed to get together with the Finance Department and presented variOus plans and the plan which they decided to select is the best for ~he City and has gotten better. Barrows explained that at present the City has bond issues which requre alot of payments through the years. The hand out which Barrows passed out to Councilmembers showed a combined data service which explains that they have two different bond issues which are being paid on at present and pointed out the annual payments which need to be made in 1981 there is a $301,000 which is very high. The su/a of $301,000 is really about a $260,0¢ payment because the City will be having $40,000 coming in from an escrow that is running on the shortage bond issue. The payments start at $225,000 and they go up to $260,000 and then gradually fall back down to $189,000. Barrows continued to explain that the City will have a problem when they have to pay $260,000 because the rate of growth is not exactl anticipated at the time it was issued and will allow the City to add another bond issue in the year 1984 without seriously increasing the City's payments. Trying to level out the payments into a more useful repayment schedule, Diones and Barrows came up with a plan which they handed out to Councilmembers. Barrows explained the handout with an example plan. He asked the Councilmembers to look at the handout where it says one million one- hundred and fOrty thousand dollars, that is the bond issue which they propose to refund. In order to refund those bonds they will be issuing fewer bonds (they will be issuing $967,000 rather than the $1,14~,000) those are the bonds which will require payments that the City will have to make payments on now. There won't be any payment made in 1975 on the new refunding issue because in 1975 the City will be making the same payment that normally they would have been making instead of paying off the bonds; the bonds will be put into an escrow. What will happen.is the payment will be moved up 38 days. By using this plan in total dollars $61,000 will be saved. That doesn't mean alot because $141,000 of those dollars of which is a savings and in 1989 the City will reduce their payment by $141,000. Barrows said that this won't relate until it is compared. What he suggested is that if the City invests all of the money today and either come out with a deficit or a surplus'it would be equal to the increase or decrease at 7% then the City would have a savings of about $31,000, As far as total payments rather than when it is time to pay $244,923 in 1980 that would be just about the amount that the City would be paying through the rest' of the bond issue; so what it will do is get the City through the four $260,000 payments smoothly. Barrows felt that Louis Butterbaugh, Finance Director, will want to be building up to the point where the fund is still self sustaining enough to be taking care of them and whether or not she wants to do it in terms of a requirement where Barrows feels is not the issue or one that the Council opts is really the City's choice. Mayor Standley asked Louis Butterbaugh how she felt about the bond issue. Butterbaugh said that since they are leveling it at $240,000 and gradually creeping up to next year there will be payments of $226,000 in total payments and then it Will go up to $230,000 and then up to $240,000 and feels that the increase could be absorbed right into the yearl] budgeting. However, when the increase is jumped up to $310,000 and then $260,000 is what we are concerned about. Butterbaugh suggested that by leaving the additional requirement and possibly requiring a reserve now but paying that off later and since it is a short period of time between 1976 and 1981 if they put away $40,000 a year it will not increase in value enough that it will substantially lower the remainder of payments. The main thing that has to be done is to 10ok at the transfers that are coming from the Water fund into the general fund and find new general fund revenues over the period from 1976 up through 1980 so that the City can use $40,000 less of the water fund money. Butterbaugh said that this would level the payments about as low as she could possibly imagine. Mahon~ asked Butterbaugh if she thought there would be any merit in setting aside $40,000. Butterbaugh said that the City will be making payments of $220,000; $230,000; and $240,000 anyway up over thenext five years and that will give the City a period to ease into the high payments and pull the general fund Obligations away from that but thinks the City need that period to adjust. Barrows said that the market has changed and will be selling fewer bonds than originally they had intended to. It has only reduced by three but has changed it from a gross savings of $56,000 up to $61,000. Barrows said that they have a proposal for the City Council members to act on right away and they will return to a regular Council meeting with a formal bond resolution. Butterbaugh said that there are some negative factors and one of them is that the City wil2 lose their flexibility in doing this. A bond can only be refunded once but basically ther~ are options and once the issue is refunded the City won't have an option of doing it in th~ future. Butterbaugh said that there is some talk of federal legislation that will make bond refunding more restrictive and if so than this is the time to go. Butterbaugh feels that it appears that the City is trading a payment schedule that was impossible to meet for one that probably the City can meet. Mayor Standley asked Don Rodgers what he felt from the finance point of view and what the markets been doing and what he feels. Rodgers felt that it is the flexibility of refundin¢ in the future that would bother him. Butterbaugh said that Rodgers comment is based on extending the payment period out into the future and that it normally wasn't done and is usually an indication of a financial crises if it is done, Mayor Standley suggested that City Manager Mahoney, Butterbaugh and Don Rodgers get together and discuss what their perception is and let the Bondsmen put a resolution together based on their feelings. Diones and Barrows said that unless they have the assurance that the City is ready to go ahead with this they won't be able to offer the bonds and in order to make it work they had to fly down to Government Security and get the bonds to market by tomorrow, July 1, 1975. City Manager Mahoney, Butterbaugh and Don Rodgers left to discuss if they all felt that it was wise for the City to get the bonds. LEASE DECISION FOR PLASTIC TOY IN PARK Mayor Standley mentioned that on June 30, 1975 a lease had been brought in to him for the use of a plastic toy in one of the parks in Aspen. The purchase of this toy is originally $13,000 but the City can purchase it for $8,000; however people that have seen it feel that it is worth $2,000. John Stern and Ponda Patterson have been collecting funds from local people to keep it in Aspen for 60 days as a trial thing. The Council agreed that they would allow to put the toy on City property and the City would cover the insurance on it. The insurance was $50.00 a year. The people selling the toy brought their own lease in; it is drawn up between the guy that built the toy and the City of Aspen. They would like the City of Aspen to be the leasee; however, one of the stipulations in the lease is that the leasee agrees to pay the designers employee to come out to Aspen if the City should choose not to purchase the toy. Mayor Standley said that he told Mr. Fond~ that based on what the City Council has decided, there was no way that the Mayor could execute a lease identifying the City as the leasee. Mayor Standley agreed to poll the Councilmembers and is recommending that the Councilmembers do not accept the lease. It was decided not to keep the toy by the Councilmembers present. Councilman De Gregorio left at 6:30. RIO GRANDE DISCUSSION Kane said that there were two items that needed to be discussed. The Planning and Zoning Commission needs the Council to adopt a summer interim plan which is specifically a con- struction plan for this summer for the Rio Grande Property. Whit it involves is a route for the shuttle bus, a hiking trail and a biking trail. Kane mentioned that the plan had gone before the County Commissioner earlier and was given approval and they would like to get Council's approval so they are able to start construction as soon as possible. The second plan is to take up the discussion of the long range plan of the Rio Grande. Since the last study session of the Rio Grande Property, discussion between Colorado Mountain College (CMC) and the School District of their opinions for integration of facilities. A1 Bloomquist, Steve Mills and Kane had an informal disucssion of what the capital needs are of the City/County School district and CMC; and what was discovered is that not only are the needs similar but the needs are also similar geographically. The schools are located next to the Shottland site and CMC is considering moving to the professional building beside the library and by sharing space beside the library they could improve the library facilities. There is a good opportunity of integrating the Rio Grande. Kane felt that if they start broadening their conception of building space of any facility~ they have which could possibly become community i.e. City/County school district and Colorado Mountain College, and start broadening conception of sharing space ii any facility they have it creates vitality. This is only one more consideration for the Rio Grande Property. Stanford explained to Council the interim plan. The overall objective is to try and appro~ the appearance of the Rio Grande property. The Planning Department would like to include trails which the county would like to construct this summer. The plan entailed having a bike path crossing the Roaring Fork Bridge and then crossing into the Holy Cross property (the County is going to go and talk to Holy Cross about an easement). The bike trail would then be connected on to the County property which is on the other side of the river. They are also constructing an unpaved trail which will be going along the perimeter of the Rio Grande Trail. It is to provide a pedestrian horse trail linking the schools with the Rio Grande property. Stanford said that included in the plan is a possibility to be able to use the glory hole water which was a request from City Manager Mahoney in order for the City to use their water rights. The Planning Department would like to recommend stairs to be developed coming up from the Rio Grande Property. They would also like some excavation to get some ground down close to the water level and it could serve as a low key amplitheatre. It was decided to scratch moving the buses down to the Rio Grande on the interim plan due to the fact that the benefits don't outweigh the costs. The bike trail, the horse trail, excavation of dirt to the river, and pavement was passed as a conceptual plan before the study session. Kane distributed a memo which summarized the discussion and various pointes that were agreed upon at the laSt Rio Grande study session. Basically what was discussed at the last meeting was for decision processed which identified the goal of the Rio Grande pro- perty and the context of the site from three standpoints those being: 1) physical stand- point, 2) social contact, and 3) natural contact. The physical contact is the properties relationship between the Court house, Smuggler Mountain-there being a bridge between residential areas and an opportunity for off street parking and the proximity to the Shottland-Aspen Center Development and its proximity to the elementary schools and Colorado Mountain College's future planning area. Social context being an expression of the list of building space needS for public functions. The Financial context being a discussion of what kind of revenue should they be looking for--should it produce revenue at all and if it should would it be deSirable to try to use revenue production for this site to maybe aquire the Aspen One Property of do other things for the improvement of the site. There are five general questions for each use to consider those being: 1) identi- fication of the roll 2) the basic question of revenue producing versus non-revenue producing, 3) determination of a list of uses, 4) discussion of alternatives; a physical concept plan which is a translation of uses into physical development on the land the allOcation of uses to various buildings and development patterns on the land and how they can be phased which would be a discussion of financial reality and 5) the master plan. The memo summarizes that they have agreed that the Rio Grande site should serve in a limited roll for a transportation terminal. It shouldn't serve as a commercial bus statioi or a station for a taxi stand, and the master plan shouldinclude facilities for light rail and heavy rail and definately not for storage of recreational vehicles. It should be a planned use and no objections to planning for a parking structure. The dispatch facility should be in the same building as the police station which could be placed down on the Rio Grande; but not a justice center. As far as having a performing arts center it was decided that it would be out of character of Aspen and would not be realistic financially due to the fact that the performing arts is a summer function and Aspen could not house people during the winter season. Kane felt that there needed to be a more thorough discussion as to what a performing arts center is, what functions it performs, what size it would need to be and what kind of needs are necessary fOr an arts center. Kane mentioned that on July 10 he and Stanford were going to get together with the school district and Colorado Mountain College and have another discussion as to using the Rio Grande for the schools and CMC. Stanford is going to put together a concept, a physical layoUt concept on the Rio Grande's geographic situation and lay out for them all the planning considerations'which have been applied to the Rio Grande so far and give them an opportunity to think about the opportunities for shared spaces and also try to identify opportunities for which entities are particularly capital strong and operation money weak. The Council discussed as to whether there should be a performing arts center on the Rio Grande and what the uses could be during the winter. It was suggested that a co,unity theatre could use it for maybe a couple of plays every other week. Ballet West has expressed their interest in coming during the winter to do performances and has told Mayor Standley that several other performing groups have expressed their interest in coming to Aspen and performing. Mayor Standley asked Kane if he wanted to discuss some other elements as subelements of a performing arts center in terms of design such as a library within the performing arts or a community center. Kane felt that those would be separate functions. As far as using it for a City Hall it was decided that it wasn't a need. It was decided to use it for a conference center. Mayor Standley felt that the constraint is whether the City is interested in catering to them because there would have to be a feeding facility in the same building. However, it was suggested that the conference center shouldn't be a separate building and that the music students could use the building in the summer beCause it would have feeding facilities and could have conferences in the winter. Mayor Standley felt that what they should look for is to see if a performing arts center could accommodate a conference center and that what the key to getting confer~ ences in Aspen would be and if there would be a large enough facility to feed the size of the conference. Parry felt that Aspen is unique enough and that the conferences would build around Aspen. There is a consensus to haVe a feeding facility in the performing artl center which would also be used for a conference center and would be a revenue generating facility. BOND ISSUE CONT'D City Manager Mahoney, Finance Director Butterbaugh, and Rodgers returned after discussing the bond issue. City Manager recommended to Council that based on the present value savings approximately $31,000 and somewhat leveling of payments that there ~is an urgency for the Council to give a straw vote so that the bond underwriters can start purchasing the bonds. There isn't enough time to bring it to a regular Council meeting. Butterbaugh said that they would have an ordinance to the Council fOr their review at the July 14 meeting. There~was a straw vote as to whether the bond underwriters should purchase the bonds. Councilwoman Johnston, aye; Councilwoman Pedersen, aye; Councilman Parry, aye; Mayor Standley, aye. All in favor, motion carried. RIO GRANDE CONT'D Should the Rio Grande be used for a fire station. Kane said that at the mall meeting ther~ was resistence from the fire department about malling Galena street; they feel that it is an important street to gain access to the fire station. Mayor Standley said that at the last study session they had decided to put the fire station in with a joint sheriff and communication center. Community Center-Kane said that a conception of a community center is a place where all various volunteer groups and various public organizations could have a meeting place instead of relying on the Court house. There could be adult education and some special education facilities included and possibly providing a joint facility with the school district to provide adult education in the evening and some facility for school age kids during the day. Mayor Standley felt that the community center is a more design constraint than a facility constraint. Public housing-Mayor Standley felt that it was incompatible. Library-Kane felt that librarys like being in traditional places and that the City should start thinking of expanding the library. Kane suggested that maybe the City should try and go along with CMC to try and encourage them to expand by providing space for them, The Council could exert some influence and it may be helpful to get the Council's reaction on that and talk to people at CMC. Kane felt that if the library was going to serve CMC's needs that it should take on a more academic service. Kane said that the options ari for CMC to provide the space and to allow the library to move into some of their building space so that the facilities are linked together on a trail system and have the library, CMC and the Rio Grande building down in the property. Mayor Standley felt that the library really does need expanding not only to serve Colorado Mountain College's needs but also the Institute's needs. Kane suggested that the City suggest~to CMC that they invest their money into books because the City will invest money into the building space and get into a trade-off framework. City Manager Mahoney said that CMC is at a point where they want to decide whether they want to become a full Junior College facility. Mayor Standley felt that if they go into a junior college that there already is a nucleus started academic orientation out at the institute and the Rio Grande wasn't an appropriate place for a Junior College. It was decided to leave the idea of having a library down in the Rio Grande property until they get the opinion of the CMC. Museums-should be historcial building so it shouldn't be down in the Rio Grande property. Mahoney mentioned that the City is able to get peneprime July 10 if there is a straw vote. They need $6400 for peneprime, Red Mountain Base $1000, other grave $3,000, base grave $1400, electric lights $3500, Net Baseball $500, Council Salaries $2200, Total $18000. Mahoney asked for a straw vote to order the peneprime which is to be put on July 10. There was a straw vote for City Manager Mahoney to order the peneprime. Councilman Parry, aye; Councilwoman Pedersen, aye; Councilwoman Johnston, aye; Mayor Standley, aye. All in favor, motion carried. Hunt moved to adjoun, seconded by Jenkins. Meeting adjourned at 8:15 p.m. - ' ~beth M. ~l~m,~ePuty City Clerk