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 [...]
Category Archives: Miscellaneous
St. Patrick’s Day
March 17, 2010 – 6:58 am
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Made in The USA
January 26, 2010 – 1:45 pm
If you’ve got five minutes to spare today and can read only one story in the Star Tribune, make it this one: “Made in the USA”: Simple in theory, costly in practice.
The story talks about the intended and unintended impacts of a new state law that requires city governments to purchase uniforms and protective equipment [...]
Eminent Domain Outrage
January 25, 2010 – 4:21 pm
Here’s a great article on the downside of using eminent domain for economic development purposes from the most recent edition of Governing magazine, an exceptional magazine for those of us on the inside of government. I think this story is not so uncommon. Please, don’t enjoy this, but do learn from it.
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Eminent Domain Outrage in [...]
Eden Prairie Reads
January 22, 2010 – 3:38 pm
The City of Eden Prairie is a proud sponsor for the Eden Prairie Reads organization/event. We’ve been a sponsor as far back as I can remember. Former Mayor Nancy Tyra-Lukens was an early and strong supporter of Eden Prairie Reads. You can click on the link to read more about what’s happening with this year’s [...]
Helical Anchors
December 29, 2009 – 1:38 pm
These are two photos of the installation of helical anchors that will support the foundation of the new Staring Lake Observatory. The helical anchors are being used because of poor weight-bearing capacity of the mushy soil on the shore of the lake. We could have used steel or wood pilings driven deep into the ground [...]
How Far Do We Go?
December 22, 2009 – 2:24 pm
We call this building the “peony shed”. Why? I suppose because it’s a shed and it’s adjacent to the peony garden which is adjacent to the Cummins-Grill homestead out across from Flying Cloud Airport. It’s an old building. It may or may not be a historic structure. We’re researching our files here in City Hall [...]
The Science of Salt on the Roads
December 16, 2009 – 1:05 pm
I occasionally look back at my past blogs to see if I can spot trends, positives and weaknesses. One the more recent trends that I see in my work is the reliance on the Star Tribune newspaper as fodder for what I decide to blog about for the day. It’s so easy. Read the paper. [...]
SSD in the MCA
December 15, 2009 – 2:02 pm
I attended a meeting of the government committee of the Eden Prairie Chamber of Commerce this morning to talk about the City’s 20-40-15 program. The 20-40-15 program is the City’s internal conservation program which sets as goals for city government to increase the energy efficiency of its buildings by 20% and its vehicle fleet by [...]
