WILLMAR -- The Willmar City Council on Monday night designated the source for matching funds for the F-14 Tomcat project.
But the council took no action on a motion to help ease a $44,000 funding shortfall at the Willmar Public Library.
The council approved a Finance Committee recommendation to tap excess revenue from building permit fees as the source for the city's F-14 match of up to $25,000. Private contributions have raised $31,715 toward an estimated $51,700 cost.
At the Dec. 4 meeting, the council voted to contribute the match but had not designated the funding source.
At the Dec. 11 Finance Committee meeting, city staff recommended the match be taken from the excess permit fee revenue.
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Besides designating the funding source, the council accepted the committee's recommendation that the match be used for displaying, as well as demilitarizing and transporting, the retired naval jet fighter from Minneapolis to Willmar. The fighter will be displayed at Willmar's new airport.
The vote was 7-1 with council members Denis Anderson, Doug Reese, Ron Christianson, Bruce DeBlieck, Cindy Swenson, Rick Fagerlie and Jim Dokken voting in favor, and Steve Gardner voting against.
Language designating the match for display purposes had not been part of the initial motion approved at the Nov. 27 Finance Committee meeting when the committee acted on the 2007 city budget and levy.
"I propose we stick to the initial motion'' to demilitarize and transport the F-14, which would bring the city's match to about $18,000, said Gardner. He suggested giving the remaining $7,000 to the library as a good faith effort to help solve the library's funding problem.
"It seems reasonable to believe that there is a serious shortfall in library funding regardless of its cause,'' said Gardner. "We're being rightly looked at as an entity at least partially responsible to help solve this issue.''
Library officials told council members on Dec. 3 that the library would close for up to eight weeks if the deficit cannot be resolved. Mayor Les Heitke blamed the shortfall on reduced state and federal funding.
Gardner offered a motion to table the F-14 funding issue, but the motion died for lack of a second.
Anderson, the Finance Committee chairman, said the library deficit and the F-14 were different issues and he did not want do to a temporary fix for the library.
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"If we're going to do something for the library after we see what needs to be done, we need to have a full and thorough discussion of what we want to do for the library, understanding that everything we do this year is the base line for (local library funding) next year,'' he said.
Reese asked if the "display'' language represented a change of proposition.
"Yes. I think some of us -- I included -- were of the opinion on that night that we were thinking that we were going to include displaying, but it wasn't reflected in the minutes,'' said Anderson.
"It was discussed at length: Do we want to include any of the excess funds going for display? It was an add to clarify the intent, yes,'' said Anderson. "At the Nov. 27 meeting, I thought it had said display. Nothing was written that says display. That's why we added it. I firmly believed we would use up to $25,000 to get it here and display it.''
In an interview Tuesday morning, F-14 Tomcat fundraiser Pat Curry said more money will be needed for display costs.
In other business, the council:
- Voted to begin the process of issuing bonds to pay for improvements in the Water View Business Park in southeast Willmar. Much of the cost will be paid by the developer, Duininck Bros. Inc.
- Approved the final plat of Hidden Valley Estates, a residential development of 41 lots located south of Fourth Avenue Northwest and west of 33rd Street Northwest.
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- Renewed Sunday on-sale liquor licenses for the American Legion, Blue Heron on the Green, Eagles, Holiday Inn/Green Mill, VFW, Applebee's, El Tapatio, Grizzly's, Kandi Entertainment Center and the Elks.
