With the AARP/Blue Zones Vitality Project drawing to a close within the next few months, the Albert Lea City Council will soon face some tough decisions about adopting the recommendations that have come forth from the project.

In January, leaders with AARP and Blue Zones announced that Albert Lea was selected to be the pilot city for the project, which aims to add healthy years of life through simple changes to lifestyle.

Nutrition and transportation experts have visited the city on multiple occasions to access Albert Lea’s networks and give suggestions, and thousands of residents have signed up to participate in personal changes.

“It’s been a fantastic eight months together so far,” said Blue Zones Health Initiative Director Joel Spoonheim in front of the council Thursday night. “When we first came to Albert Lea last November, we had studied these lessons for longevity. We’re at the point where you as a council and the planning commission have to make decisions.”

Spoonheim said the goal of the project has been to focus on environmental changes, so that once the Vitality Project is finished, people will be able to live with those changes.

“You have the ability to make some decisions that can have very long-term effects on people,” he said.

One of the decisions the council will need to vote on is how to implement transportation expert Dan Burden’s walkability report into the city’s new comprehensive plan.

A map has also been formed that identifies the important connections and destination points in the city, and the city will need to look at its subdivision ordinance when it comes to sidewalks.

Spoonheim said obesity alone in 2008 was projected to cost the average American $500 a year in medical costs.

“If you add in diabetes, heart disease, we’re talking way more than it costs for sidewalks to be put in and maintained,” he said.

He noted he knows it is a difficult decision to make concerning whether to adopt some of these policies, which may have a higher initial cost, but it is also an exciting opportunity, looking forward, of how to be preventative.

First Ward Councilor Vern Rasmussen said he thinks sidewalks build community. While there is an upfront cost for sidewalks, they last for 50 years.

“I encourage people not to look at the short-term number but to look at the long-term number,” he said. “Change is hard, but this is a change that the community needs, in my opinion, to continue to foster and mature with.”

Rasmussen said he thinks people need to look beyond the money aspect of it. During the last six months, he said, he can guarantee that there’s never been so many people intermingling and getting to know each other.

City Manager Victoria Simonsen pointed out that she is meeting with Blue Cross Blue Shield to negotiate health care costs for the city’s employees. Comparing the first months of 2007, 2008 and 2009, the 2009 statistics are 50 percent lower in the number of visits and other medical related costs.

While this cannot be attributed 100 percent to the Vitality Project, a large amount of it can, she said.

Other councilors raised the concern of having a continued partnership with AARP and Blue Zones once the Vitality Project is completed in October.

Spoonheim said while AARP and Blue Zones have helped lay a framework to make some of the healthier changes possible, there has been so much help from ambassadors and city staff as well. This leadership needs to continue to grow, so that every civic organization, workplace and other entities have their own ambassador.

He said he and the other project leaders are pleased with the stories of change they have heard. Albert Lea will soon be featured in AARP The Magazine, which is the largest magazine in the world.

On Aug. 18, residents will have the opportunity to speak out on many of the decisions the council will have to make during a public hearing with the Albert Lea Planning Commission.

During that meeting, people can speak on:

Whether to amend the Albert Lea Comprehensive Plan to include Burden’s walkability study.

Whether to amend the comprehensive plan to include a new map for pedestrian movement corridors, including sidewalks, bike lanes and shared-user paths, along with similar pedestrian and non-motorized facilities, the public hearing notice states.

 Whether to amend the city’s subdivision ordinance to require complete streets in new subdivisions, redevelopment and reconstruction areas.

“Complete streets means a system that provides for auto, truck, pedestrian and alternative vehicle travel including bicycles, scooters, wheelchairs and similar transport devices,” according to the hearing notice.

 Whether to amend the city’s zoning ordinance for the B-2 Community Business District, to add building design standards.

The suggested standards are available in the Community Development Office.

A public hearing will be held in front of the City Council on Aug. 24.

During the upcoming City Council meeting on Monday, the council will:

Hear a request from Jon Ford, executive director with the Albert Lea Housing and Redevelopment Authority, to waive the building permit fees associated with a Foreclosure Recovery Program grant that the HRA just received.

The grant, in the amount of $610,000, will be used to rehabilitate 30 homes in Freeborn County during the next three years. The grant will be used on a revolving basis.

If all of the houses are built in Albert Lea, this would equal to about $6,000 in building permit fees.

Vote whether to reorder the sidewalk improvements along State Highway 13 from Elmira Street to Fountain Street, and on the west side of Ninth Avenue from Fountain Street to Clark Street.

The project must be re-ordered because of the time that has lapsed since it was originally ordered.

Costs are estimated at about $83,000, with 7 percent being assessable to property owners and 93 percent being city costs.

Vote whether to authorize three grant agreements with the Minnesota Department of Transportation for improvements to the Albert Lea Airport.

Vote whether to approve the de-certification of TIF District 5-10, for Interstate Packaging.

The district was formed in 1999.

Hear a proclamation from Mayor Mike Murtaugh declaring Aug. 24 as Vitality Day.

Vote whether to enter into a one-year lease agreement with Albert Lea Community Theatre for the leasing of the auditorium and facilities of the Marion Ross Performing Arts Center.

Hear a request from Scott Truesdell, who is requesting the use of Katherine Island and New Denmark Park for a fishing tournament to be held in conjunction with the Ryan “Pie” Truesdell Memorial Softball Tournament.

The tournament, on Sept. 12 and 13, will also include a city versus county softball game.

Vote whether to authorize the sale of four police vehicles. Only one is driveable, and the remainder do not have a transmission or are missing parts.

Vote whether to authorize an extension of a lease agreement with Riverland Community College for the use of Snyder Field through Dec. 31.

Similarly, the council will also vote whether to enter into a new, five-year lease agreement with the Board of Trustees of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, on behalf of Riverland Community College. The agreement will be for leasing seven acres of land off of Bridge Avenue and Riverland Drive.

Vote whether to schedule a council budget workshop for Aug. 17 at 5:30 p.m.

Recognize Rick Ashling for being awarded the Waste Water Treatment Plant Operator of the Year for the state.