Monthly Archives: January 2004

Board and Commission Recruitment

Every year the City organizes an effort to recruit new members for our citizen advisory boards and commissions. We need new members to replace the old members who are leaving thier positions. Our marketing efforts include advertisements in the newspapers, mentions on our website, and a face-to-face opportunity for citizens to meet with [...]

Eden Praire Businesses in the News

It was one of those days again where you open the pages of the business section of the Star Tribune and see lots of news about Eden Prairie businesses. Here’s a sample:
MTS is Profitable

This is Chip Emery. Mr. Emery is the CEO of MTS. MTS is a great Eden Prairie company. [...]

New Communications Manager

Here he is. Hard at work. Our new Communications Manager, Mr. Jack Sheehan:

Jack started with the City of Eden Prairie as our new Communications Manager last week. He will manage the various communications efforts the City uses to communicate the various messages we need to communicate to the world. As you can [...]

Labor-Management Relations in City Government

The City of Eden Prairie employs between 270 and 280 fulltime regular employees. of this number about 60 or so belong to a union. That union, the International Union of Operating Engineers - Local #49, represents our Street Maintenance, Outside Utilities, Inside Utilities, Park Maintenance, and Fleet Maintenance employees.
I would say [...]

Speaking Gig at the Chamber of Commerce

That’s me speaking to the Eden Prairie Chamber of Commerce at their January 2004 monthly members’ meeting & luncheon. My program titled: “2003: A Look Back; 2004: A Look Forward”. The program recounted some of the City’s accomplishments from 2003 and shared some of our plans for 2004.

One of my priorities since [...]

Habitat For Technology

Habitat For Technology (HFT) is a unique venture that started here in Eden Prairie as a joint effort of the School District, the Chamber of Commerce, Hennepin Technical College, and the City. The idea behind the venture was to create a local environment that would nuture and grow “tech” industry companies.
I snapped [...]

State Auditor Releases Muni Liquor Report

Patricia Anderson, Minnesota State Auditor
Each year the Office of the State Auditor releases a report on the financial conditions of the state’s municipal liquor operations. The report is based on information submitted to the Office of the State Auditor by cities. The report released this week is for 2002 financials. Yes, 2002. [...]

Eden Prairie Business News

There is a good story in the Star Tribune today concerning the recent purchase of a Colorado-based software company called Opitka by our own Eden Prairie-based Stellent.

Another Eden Prairie business success story is Highjump Software. Highjump has recently agreed to be acquired by the Minnesota industrial giant 3M.

Eden Prairie High School

Eden Prairie High School is quite a place. It is, I’m told, the largest high school (as measured by 9-12 enrollment) in the state of Minnesota. 900+ kids per grade level. Its size scares some kids, but energizes many others. It produces a bevy of successful kids every year.
I had [...]

New Baseball Stadium

This is a design drawing of what the Minnesota Twins Baseball Club envision for a new baseball stadium.

The stadium would have a retracable roof and seat between 40,000 and 50,000 happy spectators. The drawings below show other design views of the Twins’ vision:

This is what you’d see if you were sitting in the family [...]

It’s About the Money

Twin Cities media outlets reported today the results of the annual study on metro city property tax rates prepared by the Citizen’s League. Accordining to the analysis done by the Citizen’s League, of the 108 cities in the metro area, Eden Prairie’s property taxes on the mythical $160,000 home were $1,864 for [...]

Brrrrr….

McGruff: Please don’t take a bite out of me.

It was officially 2 degrees below zero when I walked into City Center this morning at 7:00 a.m., so, I’m just trying to think warm thoughts today.
Thinking about the person inside that McGruff suit makes me warm.
…..and the green grass helps too.

Closed Today

The Christmas and New Year’s Day holidays both fell on Thursdays this year. That meant that City Center would be open Mon-Wed, closed THursday, and open Friday for two consecutive weeks at the slowest time of the year for citizen use of our City Center services.
I determined that we would be [...]