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On a hilltop overlooking Lake Minnetonka, Wayzata's new civic campus features copper roofs, big windows and patterned brick walls. There's a bigger library, roomier police and fire departments and a new city hall featuring a community room with a gas fireplace and a slide-out dais that converts the place into City Council chambers.
But today's ribbon-cutting and smoothly coordinated architecture mask a $9.2 million financial patchwork that is paying for the project. The sources include saved-up tax proceeds, interest, municipal liquor-store surpluses, rent from antennas atop the city water tower, a major private gift and, after a squabble that reached the Minnesota attorney general's office, tax-increment financing.
Because of changes in state revenues and policies, Wayzata's formula might prove hard for other cities to follow - including Minneapolis, which is trying to pay for a new downtown library. But Wayzata, a city of about 4,100, offers an example of persistence and flexibility over more than a decade of financial twists and political turns.
The process took root 14 years ago, said David Frischmon, the city's finance director. Officials weren't sure whether to renovate the aging complex of municipal buildings or tear it down and build fresh. But either choice would cost a bundle, so the city started squirreling away money.
Mayor Barry Petit said he's aware that State Auditor Pat Awada has criticized such municipal reserves.
"Some say it's not the role of government to save money," he said. "But how else do you come up with the resources to do those special things?"
Nearly two...