The Blog from City Hall

If you have driven by the Purgatory Creek Recreation Area recently, you will notice a lot of activity. There are projects going on in the South West Metro Transit Hub area. There is a new 240 unit apartment complex going up. The City is constructing a new park at the corner of Technology Drive and Prairie Center Drive.

And then there is that trail project.

The City and the Riley-Purgatory-Bluff Creek Watershed District are cooperating on the construction of a new trail system that will, when completed, completely encircle the Purgatory Creek Recreation Area - the large wetland area in the middle of our town. The project is slated to be completed by next summer at an estimated cost of $1,800,000. The City and the Watershed District are cost sharing the project 50/50.

The photo below shows a view of the wetland from behind the Flagship Athletic Center. What looks like a newly constructed berm in the middle of the photo is part of the new trail system.

These two photos show different segments of the trail. The first picture is behind the Flagship Office building. The second is near ADC along Technology Drive.

In addition to encircling the wetland, this trail will also have a segment that extends down the Purgatory Creek valley and connects with the trail system that encircles Staring Lake. This photo shows the work being completed on the segment of the trail that goes under Anderson Lakes Parkway.

Many real estate experts will tell you that the trend of people wanting live in urban-like settings in the suburbs is a trend they expect to see continue into the near future. This type of housing goes by many names, such as neo-urban, etc.

In Eden Prairie there is a wonderful example of an urban setting in the ‘burbs. The Hartford Commons project is directly east of the Eden Prairie Center. You can see the development’s sign [see below] from Prairie Center Drive. It is a collection of ubran rowhouse developments along an internal network of narrow streets with sidewalks. There is a small park in the development with a beautiful shelter feature. There’s a photo of that below too.

Enjoy the convenience of rowhouse urban living in Eden Prairie. It’s here!!

This is our former Director of Management & Budget Don Uram. About a month ago, Don left the City of Eden Prairie after 18 faithful years of employment to accept a position with a private non-profit organization called Research Triangle, Inc. (RTI). Don’s first assignment with RTI was to go to Iraq and help them rebuild their national governmental financial infrastructure. Quite an assignment, indeed!

We recevied word from Don this weeked along with the attached photos. It’s good to hear from Don, and we’re glad he’s safe. Here’s what he had to say:

“Sorry it has taken so long to communicate but e-mail has been difficult since I feel like I have traveled all over the country. Initially I was told that I would be assigned to Basrah but I have since moved to Samawah. So far my travels have taken me from Minneapolis to Amman, Jordan via Frankfurt, Germany. From Amman I flew into Baghdad and spent 5 days there. Next we drove to al Hillah and then on to Basra. This is about a 6 � 8 hour drive across the desert (harsh environment). See attached pictures. The mosque is in Baghdad. The pool picture is in Amman. I spent the next 5 days in Basrah and now I am in Samawah. Finally started to do some work on the new government. Fortunately the team leader here has a lot of experience in international development because I am starting out at ground zero (clueless). I have to admit that it is hard being here coming from Eden Prairie. The culture, weather (I can�t describe how hot it is here), living conditions, food (no low-fat yogurt or vanilla ice-cream), health and security all make it hard. Plus being isolated doesn�t help. Right now we are working about 6.5 days a week and about 10 hours a day. Our team leader (Alistair Blunt � British) summed it up by saying 1 day of work here is like a week in other places. I have only been here two weeks. Can�t wait to see how I feel in a month.”

That’s all from Don for now. I’ll share more from him as he updates us.

That’s Marlys on the left with her son Mark and her new grandson Alex. City staff bid Marlys a fond farewell yesterday after 27 years of faithful and productive service. Marlys was the Administrative Assistant in the City’s Parks & Recreation Department for the last 25 of her 27 years here. Marlys was a hard worker who was dedicated to her role in helping to produce a park and open space system here in Eden Prairie that is second to none in the Twin Cities. She saw the department grow from a small town Parks Department to a modern suburban city Parks & Recreation Department. She saw a lot of change.

Marlys gave 27 valuable years in service to her fellow citizens. We’ll miss her, but wish her the best as she sets out to spend more time with her son and grandson.

Good luck and God bless, Marlys.

I attended a meeting this week at the United States Courthouse in downtown Minneapolis to discuss reliever airport security. The meeting was called by U.S. Attorney, Mr. Tom Heffelfinger. In the photo below, that’s Mr. Heffelfinger on the right, and Mr. Tim Anderson, Director of Operations for the Metropolitan Airports Commission, in the middle.

Mr Heffelfinger called this meeting because he is concerned about the apparent lack of coordination of security at the Twin Cities reliever airports. The reliever airports are small airports that are part of the Metropolitan Airport Commission’s airport system. These airports help “relieve” congestion at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport by providing places for smaller aircraft to operate. There are reliever airports in Eden Prairie, Lakeville, Lake Elmo, Crystal, St. Paul, and Anoka County.

The meeting was attended by city officials from cities that host reliever airports. In addition to me, Eden Prairie was represented by Mayor Nancy Tyra-Lukens, Councilmember Sherry Butcher, Police Chief Dan Carlson, Police Captain Rob Reynolds, and Fire Chief George Esbensen. There were representatives attending this meeting from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, FBI, Transportation Safety Administration, MN Department of Transportation, MN Department of Public Safety, Joint Terrorism Task Force, and the Metropolitan Airports Commission - among others. In short, it was an important meeting and we were all there to discuss reliever airport security.

The discussion led me to conclude that each of the appropriate parties has prepared itself to address airport security, each in its own way. However, I also think it’s fair to say that the various parties could imporve reliever airport security by coming together and coordinating their respective plans.

In fact, that is what Mr. Heffelfinger wants us to do. Eden Prairie has volunteered to serve as the model reliever airport to develop a template for reliever airport security that could be used at the other relievers in the MAC system. We are going to get going on this project right away. Mr. Heffelfinger wants us to complete the project and report back to his office in about 60 days with a finished plan.

It’s a daunting challenge, given the number of agencies and private businesses based at the reliever airports, but we will give it our best effort.

Eden Prairie is a municipal liquor town. The City holds a monopoly over the sale of off-sale (i.e. - you buy it and take it somewhere else to drink it) beer, liquor, and wine. The City uses its status as the off-sale retail liquor sales monopolist to further two primary objectives.

The first is the better control the distribution of liquor into the community. Without the need to race to the bottom price, the store can be actively engaged in enforcing liquor laws, presumably more active than a private store that must always be conscious of making a profit.

The second is to increase non-property tax revenues. The City returns all profits generated by the sale of liquor back to the public coffers. We use these funds to fund our Capital Improvements Plan (CIP). The CIP is where we plan to build streets, imporve parks, build trails, etc.

This is Tammy Wanchena. Tammy is the Ass.t Manager of the liquor store next to Rainbow Foods. She is very good at her job and won one of the City’s three awards last year given to employees for excellence in customer service.

This is Mitch Dean. Mitch is the Manager of our Liquor Operations. Mitch is a sharp guy who brings a good private-sector orientation to this job. He is innovative and driven to produce good profits for the citizens of Eden Prairie.

Commissioner Dan Salomone is the State’s Commissioner of Revenue. This is him:

I had the opportunity this week to participate in a meeting this week with Commissioner Salomone, who was the guest of the Municipal Legislative Commssion. The group he was speaking to consisted of the City Managers from Plymouth, Minnetonka, Bloomington, Edina, Eagan, Apple Valley, Burnsville, Shoreview, Woodbury, Maplewood, and, of course, Eden Prairie.

This is a good shot of Minnetonka City Manager John Gunyou in the foreground, Edina City Manager Gordon Hughes in the middle, and Woodbury City Manager Barry Johnson in the background listening intently to the Commissioner:

Commissioner Salomone is an interesting fellow. He is an old-timer. His description, not mine. He has been around government, especially state government, for over 35 years. He’s seen the management and trends and political winds go full circle. He is a straight-shooter. I believe he is honest and candid. Tough qualities to maintain working in such a political environment for so many years.

Commissioner Salomone told us a number of interesting things. He is not very optimistic about an optimisitic state economic forecast in November 2003. He said the Governor will not endorse any tax increases in 2004. He said the Governor will be receptive to development incentive proposals in 2004.

He told us that he was realtively pleased with the ways that cities have gone about cutting their budgets in response to the $330,000,000 decrease in Local Government Aid and Market Value Homestead Credit aid to cities in 2003-2004. He said he was very confident that the State would return Market Value Homestead Credit revenues back to cities in 2005. The audience was respectful, but a bit skeptical, about that one.

It was a good meeting. I’m sure that I can speak for the other City Managers there when I say that we appreciated the opportunity to meet with the Commissioner in small group setting. He’s got a tough job. He does it pretty well.

This is Karen Kurt:

Karen is the Human Reources Manager for the City of Eden Prairie. Karen is ablely assisted by Lisa Rund, Jayna Kalkas, and Wendy Schmitz.

Karen has been with the City for almost one year. Prior to joining the City, Karen worked for Minnesota Technology and the City of Roseville in HR leadership positions.

Karen has been a great find for the City. We had over 200 applicants for our HR Manager position. She rose to the top because of her previous experience in both the private and public sectors, her educational background, and her willingness to take on the HR Manager position as we imagined it in Eden Prairie.

I have a vision for the place that I believe the Human Resources Manager should play in an organization. I believe that HR should function as a service function for the operating departments. It should be a servant, not a master.

That does not mean that we ignore the advice and counsel of the HR Manager. In fact, if a Department Director plans to ignore or revise the advice of the HR Manager, the Director better have a pretty good reason for that. It’s not something we do lightly.

Karen excels because she has the respect and trust of the management staff of the City. She wields power within our organization without having a lot of formal organizational power vested in her position.

She is valuable to our organization, and we’re lucky to have her on our team.

I had the honor today of delivering the official welcome to the 2003 National Institute on Recreation Inclusion (NIRI). The NIRI conference was meeting at the Radison South Hotel in Bloomington. The conference was attend by 150-200 recreation professionals from around the country who are active in the area of “recreation inclusion”.

Recreation inclusion is shop-talk for the practice of inclusion of people with physical or mental disabilities into publicly provided recreational programming. Eden Prairie started a recreation inclusion program in 1988. It includes approximately 250+ people per year in the City’s recreation programs. Some of these programs are modified to be inclusive, and some are not. The challenge of inclusion is to create interesting recreation programming that is inclusive of both disabled and non-disabled citizens.

We have a terrific TR (therapuetic recreation) staff in our Parks & Recreation Department. Below are two staff members who are involved in TR activities now, or who worked in TR in our department.

That’s Nicole White on the left and Nicole Weedman on the right.

Two of our TR staff in our Parks & Recreation Department were responsible for brining the 2003 NIRI Conference to the Twin Cities:
current employee Carla Kress and former employee Tria Mann. They planned and organized this national conference with assistance from the cities of Bloomington, Edina, and ARC of Hennepin & Carver counties. They worked very hard to make this happen, and they did a great job.

That’s Carla on the left and that’s Tria on the right.

They made me feel included. Thanks!

State, county, and city elected officials, without exception, viewed MnDOT’s recent announcement of how it planned to spend $850,000,000 as a big success for the southwest metro area, especially Eden Prairie.

A good story in yesterday’s Star Tribune, however, puts a different perspective ont he coming highway projects. This story is about the future improvement and upgrade to Highway 212.

This is an aerial view of the current ending of highway 312, the temporary name for what will ultimately be renamed hgihway 212 when it opens on its new route:

This is a good photo because it shows the current termination of 312. It looks stark.. It looks unfinished. The future improvement project will begin at this point and continue west into Carver County.

Eden Prairie resident Greg Olson is quoted in the news story.

I’ve talked with Mr. Olson about this project. In my conversation with him, I believe he realizes the project is going to happen, but he just wants to make sure that its impact is minimized on his neighborhood. That’s what any neighborhood leader would do. My staff and I are going to meet with Mr. Olson and hear his ideas. The City has some “pull” with MnDOT officials. It’s limited so we’ll have to use it carefully and strategically. If we complain about everything, we’ll get nothing. That sort of thing.

First Day of School

On another, more happier note, yesterday was the first day of school for most public school kids in Minnesota. Here’s a shot of the happy Neal brothers (Ethan on the left, Turner on the right) as they depart from home on their first day of school.

I don’t know how was more excited, them or their parents.

Oh yes I do: their parents!