The Blog from City Hall

Last Thursday, the City of Eden Prairie held a retirement party for Police Chief Dan Carlson. (See the album of 30 more party photos.)

I captured the audio of four speeches. Click play to listen. Drag the slider to the segment you want to hear.

• Deputy Police Chief Rob Reynolds
  0:00 to 4:50 (Rob’s speech got cut short at the end when he accidentally knocked the audio recorder off the podium.)

• Fire Chief George Esbenson
  4:50 to 10:40

• City Manager Scott Neal
  10:40 to 16:00

• Police Chief Dan Carlson
  16:00 to 28:10

• Father Tim Power
  28:10 to 32:45

Subscribe to the podcast.

Subscribe with iTunes.

Councilmember Ron Case has served the citizens of Eden Prairie as a member of the City Council for twelve years. I had a chance to sit down with Ron and three of his four kids last week to record a podcast for today about what it’s like to be the child of a City official. Ron also had a chance to say a few words about his tenure and possible upcoming plans.

You can cruise the photos while you listen to the podcast. The photo o the left is a shot of Ron at his last Council meeting on December 19. The photo to the right of that one is of me with Ron’s wife Kathie. Kathie attended Ron’s final Council meeting and said some nice things about him during the public forum part of the meeting. We snapped this photo of her at small reception we held for Ron and the Mayor for following the meeting. The photo to the right of Kathie Case is from the day that I recorded this podcast. From L-R in this photo are: Sam Case, Kiersten Case, me, Ron, and David Case. The photo on the right is Ron’s official Councilmember portrait taken in 2004.

Today’s podcast is shorter than last week’s 1/2 hour extravaganza. Enjoy!

Click play to listen. 4 minutes, 17 seconds

Subscribe to the podcast.

Subscribe with iTunes.

It’s been awhile since I last podcasted. No real good reason for that, other than it adds a couple of steps to the blogging process. I like doing a podcast and I get great reviews on them. I’ll try to be more regular about that in 2007.

I had the great opportunity today to do a joint facilitated podcast with three guys that I hold in high regard. That’s Chief of Police Dan Carlson in the photo on the left. Today was Dan’s final day in the office as the Chief of Police. He is taking some vacation over the next couple of weeks and retires on January 22, 2007 after 25 years of service to this community.

In the photo to the right of that one is Chief Carlson and Fire Chief George Esbensen. They have a great rapport. You’ll hear this in the podcast. To the right of that photo is my blog adviser Griff Wigley. Griff is also a blog adviser/coach to the two Chiefs as well. The photo to right is just the four of us in mid-podcast in my office. Thanks to our Communications Supervisor Pat Brink for snapping these photos today. (Click photos to enlarge.)

Chief Carlson is getting ready to move on. Today’s podcast is about him, primarily, and his decision to move on. We also talk a little bit about Dan’s next gig in life, which is going to be new initiative that he developed called Public Safety Ministries, Inc. I’ve included the link so that my readers can see Dan’s next venture in life. It’s something that he’s been passionate about for a long time.

So enjoy the podcast, and please join me in extending your best wishes to Chief Carlson on his mission in life. Cheers to you, Dan. Good Luck!

Click play to listen. 31 minutes, 30 seconds.

Subscribe to the podcast.

Subscribe with iTunes.

Something happened (the e-dog chewed it up?) to last Friday’s blog entry titled Podcast #8: A tour of three suburban downtowns, as only a few photos were included.

They’re all there now. Apologies for my goof.

I took these photos on a tour we took this week of three downtown/town center projects in the Twin Cities. My podcast describes the tour and aspects of each development.

Click play to listen (8 min, 22 sec).

Subscribe to the podcast.

Subscribe with iTunes.

Woodbury’ Woodbury Lakes

Burnsville’ Heart of the City

St. Louis Park’ Excelsior and Grand

I recorded Eden Prairie police officer Bob Barli’s presentation on child internet safety at the Eden Prairie Rotary last week.

You can't miss it if you live in or travel through western Eden Prairie. The construction of Trunk Highway (T.H.) 212 is marching forward from Eden Prairie to points west in Chanhassen and Carver County. I was out there the other day and snapped these four photos. My podcast today is a solo effort providing some context to these photos. Enjoy!

Click play to listen (5 min, 43 sec).

Subscribe to the podcast.

Subscribe with iTunes.

On Wednesday of this past week, Mayor Tyra-Lukens and I were honored to have State Health Commissioner Dianne Mandernach join us in our City Council Chambers to present us with the official Governor’s Fit City recognition plaque. While she was here, I convinced her to join the Mayor for their first ever podcast. Click the photos to enlarge and listen in to see what the Minnesota Commissioner of Health and the Mayor of Eden Prairie have to say about the Governor’s Fit City Program.

Click play to listen (2 min, 22 sec).

Subscribe to the podcast.

Subscribe with iTunes.

On March 30, 2006, Eden Prairie was official recognized by the Minnesota Department of Health as one of Governor Pawlenty’s Fit Cities. Here’s the text of the announcement we made on our website:

Read the rest of this entry »

I took the opportunity this week to sit down and talk with two of the City’s Recreation Division staff members, Beth Degree and Nicole Weedman, about a program they run together called Girls on the Run.

There are two things I’ve always liked about this program. First, I like the catchy program title. Kind of provocative. It makes you want to find out more about the program. And second, I like the way this program integrates physical fitness with other important life lessons for young girls.

As the father of three boys, I know nothing about parenting young girls - except that I think it must be more difficult than parenting young boys. Beth and Nicole, as young women themselves, know the challenges that young face and teach the girls strategies for addressing many of those challenges in this program through the discipline (and fun) of physical fitness.

That’s enough from me. I’ll let the Beth and Nicole explain the rest. The photos are from the program ending race that took place last weekend. Enjoy Girls on the Run.

Click play to listen (3 min, 2 sec).

  Subscribe to the podcast.

  Subscribe with iTunes.

City Manager Scott Neal and I launched the city's podcast today. Topics covered:

• The World Cup
• The Mayor's trip to China
• Recognizing administrative assistants

Click play to listen (8 min, 20 sec).

  Subscribe to the podcast.

  Subscribe with iTunes.