Sep. 10 -- EAST GRAND FORKS -- The East Grand Forks City Council discussed remodeling its Community and Economic Development Office during its work session Tuesday.

The discussion of the remodel started when the Grand Forks-East Grand Forks Metropolitan Planning Organization contacted the city to ask if it could rent out additional space in City Hall. The MPO's office is located next to Community and Economic Development and a remodel could provide additional revenue for the city and greater efficiency. Also, the

city is preparing for a new economic development director starting in a few weeks.

"(The MPO) wanted to get some more storage back and have a larger office for their director," Community Development Director Nancy Ellis told the council. "We're not optimizing City Hall space well right now, particularly the admin office and our office."

The MPO's lease agreement is also up for renewal this year. Currently, the MPO pays $2,663 a year, or $13.45 a square foot, for office space, and Ellis has proposed increasing the rent a dollar or $1.50 a square foot. Better use of the space has been discussed by the council in the past to provide additional revenue streams.

"There's a lot of large open space that we think that we could make better use of," Ellis said. "We're just making more efficient use so that we can use it a couple of different ways and open it up to another government entity if they ever wanted to come in and rent space from us."

Additionally, many of the offices in the building haven't been remodeled or updated since the building was constructed in 2001. As part of the project, aging office furniture would be updated and the space would be better configured to accommodate the workflow for the offices.

The total estimated cost of the remodel is $39,050. Much of those costs are to reconfigure the flow of the current MPO space into space used by the city. The MPO also wants to regain more storage space being used as an office.

The council also reviewed the preliminary budget. Currently, it's proposed to set the preliminary levy with a 10% increase with the final levy being set much lower. According to Finance Director Karla Anderson, she would feel more comfortable having it set at 10%, as there are many unknowns regarding the sales tax vote outcome and

. Many on the city council said that they would like the see the preliminary levy set lower.

"It would be nice to be able to come in a little more aggressive at this point and then deliver much lower, of course," said City Council member Brian Larson.

The council has until the end of September to pass a preliminary budget. Truth in Taxation notices will be sent in November and then a public hearing and final budget passage will occur in December.

In other news, the council:

* Reviewed the crossing project on Bygland Road to finally close out the project. The project was substantially delayed due to many of the new crossing signal parts arriving months after being ordered.

* Received information about absentee voting from City Clerk Megan Nelson. East Grand Forks residents will be able to cast a ballot at City Hall starting Sept. 20 for the November general election. More information about voter registration and locations can be found on mnvotes.org