City Street Referendum Fails For A Third Time
Lino Lakes Voters Return Mayor For Fourth Term
LINO LAKES - It was a clear message, sent from the municipal polls last week: by a wide margin, Lino Lakes voters defeated a referendum to reconstruct a number of aging streets within the city's borders.
Seven out of 10 voters opposed spending public dollars to fund 48.5% of the cost of the city's proposed 2009 Street Reconstruction project. The $5,583,000 project would have brought municipal utilities and street improvements to West Shadow Lake Drive, Shadow Court and Sandpiper Drive.
Voters also returned Mayor John Bergeson to office for his fourth two-year term as mayor. Mayoral challenger John Freimuth, in seeking his first elected office, received 35% of the vote, or 737 votes to Bergeson's 1,353.
Candidates Kathi Gallup and Daniel Stoltz were unopposed for the two remaining council seats up for grabs. Council Member Donna Carlson declined to run again.
Although Gallup has had experience on several boards and committees in the city of Lino Lakes, this will be her first term in public office.
This will be a second 4-year council term for Stoltz; he served on the Circle Pines City Council before moving to Lino Lakes.
Prior to his stint as mayor, Bergeson served on the council for three four-year terms. All told, by the end of 2007 Bergeson will have served for 18 years on the Lino Lakes City Council in some capacity.
New council members will be sworn into office at the first regular council meeting of the new year, on Jan. 14, 2008.
Voter turnout was low, at 21% of the 10,908 registered voters in Lino Lakes. According to Jean Viger, Lino Lakes Deputy Clerk, less than half of the people who voted in each of the last two municipal elections went to the polls last week.
A referendum similar to the one defeated on Nov. 6 failed in 2003 and 2005.
The city's Charter requires voter approval of any improvement project that requires public money to pay for those improvements.
"That's the way our City Charter prescribed process works," said Community Development Director Michael Grochala. "However, the result of the election doesn't change the need to reconstruct this street and others in the city. I do think people need to be concerned about the long term tax impact of delaying necessary infrastructure improvements."