Happy St. Patrick’s Day everybody! It’s going to be a beautiful day for a parade in St. Paul today. 60 F and sunny in March in Minnesota. What could be better?
For those of you new to St. Patrick’s Day, you can click on this link for more information about this special day for those of [...]
Author Archives: Scott Neal
St. Patrick’s Day
March 17, 2010 – 6:58 am
“Filling up fast”
March 16, 2010 – 3:00 pm
That’s what’s happening with our summer Parks & Rec programs. Online registration opened up last night at 12:01 am. Between the hours of 12:01 am and 5:00 am our online system signed up over 500 registrations for summer programs. These are registrants who, five or seven years ago, would have been lined up at City [...]
Paycheck Planning
March 12, 2010 – 2:28 pm
Here’s an interesting story coming out of the University of Minnesota today:
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Calendar quirk will cost U of M $41M in payroll
by Tim Post, Minnesota Public Radio
March 11, 2010
St. Paul, Minn. – Because of a once in a decade quirk in the calendar, employees at the University of Minnesota will receive an extra pay check in [...]
Liquor Store Sales Results
March 11, 2010 – 12:53 pm
Yes, the results are in…for 2008. The results I’m referring to are results listed in the State Auditor’s annual Analysis of Municipal Liquor Store Operations for 2008. Yes, 2008. The results are a little stale, but that’s the best they can do, I guess. Anyway, here are some of the notable findings about our operations [...]
A Lost Decade?
March 10, 2010 – 9:57 am
That’s Peter Harkness. He founded a magazine in 1987 called Governing. I got my first job as a city manager in 1988. Mr. Harkness is still doing his thing at Governing. I’m still doing my thing as a city manager, except I’ve moved three times since then. He hasn’t.
Governing is a good source of balanced [...]
Liberalized Fishing Rules in Eden Prairie?
March 3, 2010 – 11:59 am
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has opened four lakes in Eden Prairie to what they call “Liberalized Fishing.” The lakes in Eden Prairie that are included in the DNR’s announcement are Staring, Duck, Rice Marsh and Smetana.
Liberalized fishing is allowed when a fish population is endangered due to the lack of oxygen available [...]
The Forecast
March 2, 2010 – 3:25 pm
State Economist Tom Stinson and the Commissioner of MN Management & Budget Tom Hanson held a press conference today to tell us that the State’s budget outlook improved slightly since their last forecast in November. In what’s known as the “February forecast,” the state is projected to have a $994 million deficit for the current [...]
Sponsorships
March 1, 2010 – 1:33 pm
We have a successful system here of soliciting private donations and sponsorships for city sponsored programs and facilities. In fact, in 2008, the City of Eden Prairie was the recipient of over $570,000 in cash gifts and sponsorships in the Parks & Recreation sector of our operations alone. I won’t go into a long list [...]
Unfortunate News for the 494-169 Interchange
February 18, 2010 – 8:17 am
Got some unfortunate news yesterday from the Minnesota Department of Transportation regarding the future upgrade to the 494-169 interchange:
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Wednesday, February 17, 2010, 11:25am CST | Modified: Wednesday, February 17, 2010, 12:07pm
St. Paul Union Depot lands $35M in stimulus funds
Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal – by Alex Ebert Staff writer
St. Paul Union Depot will [...]
How Many Times Do We Have To Tell You?
February 17, 2010 – 3:26 pm
The City and the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) live by an agreement called The Final Agreement that regulates the operations of Flying Cloud Airport. One of the more important provisions of the Final Agreement for the residents of my fair city is the provision that sets out the voluntary noise mitigation program. The program is [...]
Who Taxes You?
February 11, 2010 – 11:36 am
The State Legislature is back in session in St. Paul so that means the talk of taxes is in the air. The State collects too much or not enough, depending on your point of view. Income taxes. Property taxes. Personal property taxes. Corporate taxes. Excise taxes. Gas taxes. The list goes on and on.
The tax [...]
Recognizing Successful Progress
February 9, 2010 – 2:10 pm
It’s not uncommon for us to hear some form of the following “observation/allegation” each year when property owners receive their annual property tax statements:
“I know a guy who knows a guy who has a house in Woodbury (or Burnsville or Bloomington or Shoreview, etc.) with the exact same valuation as my house here in Eden [...]
You Just Never Know
February 5, 2010 – 12:46 pm
There is a story in today’s Star Tribune – click here for the story – about an arrest of a property owner who leveled a shot gun at a forestry contractor who was inspecting a diseased tree in her backyard. The Strib story is mostly correct, except that the contractor wasn’t there to remove the tree. [...]
Walmart*
February 3, 2010 – 6:42 pm
It’s 6:25 pm. We just finished a special meeting of the City Council. The purpose of our special meeting was to consider the final approval of a development agreement for Walmart. Walmart has been working on a plan for a major upgrade of their Eden Prairie retail store. Tonight, they got their final approval on [...]
Blog Recognition
January 27, 2010 – 8:08 am
An organization called Careers in Criminal Justice has a website and that website has a blog called Justice City, USA which has named the Eden Prairie’s Police Department Blog one of America’s Top 50 Criminal Justice and Criminology Blogs! It’s a very nice recognition of the effort our Police Department makes to communicate with our [...]
