The Blog from City Hall

No, we are not opening up a new municipal drive in liquor store. Yesterday around the Noon hour a customer of the City’s Den Road liquor store was pulling into a parking spot and hit the accelerator instead of the brake. Net effect: see above. The customer drove its (I’m being gender neutral to protect the offending gender) car into our store - literally into our store.

This is what the store looked like from the inside:

No one was injured in this accident, although 10 cases of low-cost wine were destroyed. Total product lost is estiamted at $1,200. A terrific mess was made. We are going to get an estimate of the repair cost today. The store did not close. We continued doing business right through the incident, thanks to the heads-up work of our Den Road liquor store staff.

During the past twelve months or so, City staff have been working with the managers at the Eden Prairie Center on a proposal that would provide the City with some municipal office space at the Center. The City was granted some preferential access to office space when the City provided TIF funding for the renovation of the Center four years ago. The photo above is of the construction project that renovates the City’s new office space. That’s our new Facilities Manager, Mr. Paul Sticha. Paul is the project manager for this project.

The City’s new office space is on the very bottom level of the Center. General Growth likes to call it the “Boutique Level”. It’s too nice to call the “basement”, so I won’t. It’s good space in a great shopping center. The City’s new office space, especially when proposed usage is taken into consideration, is in a very good spot.

The City will be moving its Housing & Human Services division out to this space. There are three fulltime employees in that functional area for the City. They will operate from this new office space. The space will also accommodate new office space for our Police Department, which has a regular service function at the Center.

The City’s agreement with General Growth (owner of the EP Center) allows the City to occupy this space for under $10,000 per year. The City is financing the renovation of the space with a $75,000 tenant improvement allotment from General Growth and some previously allocated funds from the City’s annual Community Development Block Grant program.

The new office space also includes meeting space for public space. We are looking forward to the opening of the new space. We hope the public will enjoy the new space as well.

This is George Schell and Joan Rumford accepting a proclamation at the City Council meeting last night that was read by Acting Mayor Ron Case recognizing Senior Awareness Week in Eden Prairie. George is a member of our Senior Advisory Council. Joan is the Chair of our Senior Advisory Council.

This is Carla Kress. She is the staff member in our Parks & Rec Department that coordinates the operations of our Senior Citizens Center. Looking over Carla’s shoulder is Gordon Williams. Gordon is a volunteer driver for the Senior Center. Gordon was recently recognized for this voluntarism by the State Farm Insurance Foundation. The foundation awarded Gordon its “Good Neighbor” award. They also donated $500 to the Senior Center in Gordon’s name. The Council took time to also recognize Gordon for his efforts. He is a good guy.

We were happy this week to welcome back Jeff Cordes to our staff. Jeff has been gone since July 2003 when he was deployed with the Minnesota Natioanl Guard to Bosnia & Herzegovnia for a peacekeeping and security mission. Jeff worked for the HHC of the 34th Infrantry Division of the Minnesota National Guard. Jeff works in our Parks & Recreation Department as our City Forester.

While we are glad to welcome back Mr. Cordes, we are sad to see Officer Lynn Morrow leave. Lynn has been with the Police Department for 15 years. Most recently, her assignment was Eden Prairie High School where she served as a School Resource Officer. This is a photo of Lynn with Chief of Police Dan Carlson at her farewell reception.

The City of Eden Prairie played host to one of eight local presentations of the Metropolitan Council called “Walkable Communities Workshops”. The objective of the workshops is to educate Minnesota citizens about what they can do (and how they can do) to make their communities more “walkable”. This is a photo of Mayor Tyra-Lukens, who also participated in the four hour workshop, welcoming the 25-30 participants of our workshop.

This is Danette Moore. Danette is a Planner in the City’s Planning Division. She coordinated this event on behalf of the City. She worked with the Met Council; coordinated the venue; handled the local publicity; and did all the little things it takes to pull off an event like this.

I’d like to thank ADC Telecommunications for hosting the event. ADC has a beautiful facility and they have been supportive of the various walkability improvements that the City has implemented in and around their campus.

I just got back to office after spending my morning at Eden Prairie High School. Here’s the official news release explaining an incident that occurred at the high school today:

“This morning at approximately 7:55 a.m., Eden Prairie High School began a lock-down. Police were called when reports of a person carrying a gun was seen in the building. All students and staff were immediately put into secure locations for their safety.

At approximately 9:15 a.m., police took into custody a person whom they believe was the person carrying the gun. Police are continuing to search for the possible weapon. Eden Prairie High School has been canceled for the remainder of the day. Students will be sent home via school buses by 10:30 a.m. today. For safety reasons, students will not be allowed to return to lockers to retrieve any personal belongings. If students have car keys with them, they may take their vehicles. An announcement will be made on the District’s website when students will be allowed back into the High School to pick up their vehicles and personal belongings. Please continue to check the website for information regarding after-school activities.

I must commend the quick action of our Police Department today. Their response was critical in successfully to resolving this situation. I will also commend the response by the School District. They implemented their emergency response plan and everything went according to the plan. The end result of the City and School District working cooperatively on this incident was that no one was injured in today’s incident.

You will no doubt be hearing and seeing more information about this incident over the next several days. The City and School District will host a 3:00 p.m. joint press conference today in City Center. Until then, that�ƒ‚’s all on this issue for now.”

Our communications coordinator for this incident was Stephanie Grant. That’s her in the photo below. She’s on the far right with the blonde hair and black top. She did a very good job in communicating with the school district’s communications staff and the large group of media that were assembled for the event.

This is a shot of the media and parents waiting anxiously to find out the details of today’s incident. At this point, they know that the alleged perpetrators are in police custody, but not much more than that. So, there’s a fair amount of anxiety in the air.

When the District and Police staff determined that it was appropriate to release the students from the lock down situation, they directed them all to the EPHS football stadium to give them more instructions. This is a shot of the entire EPHS student body in the home bleachers of the stadium.

This incident could have ended tragically today, if not for the quick action of the Police and the cooperation of the School District. It’s not a good thing that happened today, but it was handled competently and safely, and sometimes that’s all you can ask for.

That’s Jeanne Zetah in the blue dress. She is the Director of Community Educational Services for the Eden Prairie School District. In the dark blue suit, that’s Roy Terwilliger, President of Community Bank Eden Prairie, and former long-time State Senator representing Eden Prairie and Edina in the Minnesota State Senate. Roy’s bank sponsored the breakfast portion of today’s meeting. (They sponsored last year’s too.)

I attended the 2004 Annual Community Education Partnership meeting today at Pax Christi Church here in Eden Prairie. This event is held each year by the Community Education Department of the Eden Prairie School District. The event is designed to bring together a broad cross section of the community to discuss an issue of interest to the community. This year’s subject was a discussion of intergenerational connections and programs in Eden Prairie.

This is Nicole and Antonia Trovato. Nicole is a Brownie Scout leader. Antonia is her daughter and a Brownie Scout herself. She is also a student at Forest Hills. Nicole and Antonia spoke to the group today (of about 120 people) about their experiences in Girl Scouts. They did a great job!

This is Joel and Jacob Young. Joel is a Cub Scout leader. Jacob is a Cub Scout. They spoke about the importance of scouting and how it has played a positive role in the community, and in their personal lives. They did a great job of communicating positive messages about scouting.

The Community Ed Partnership Breakfast is always a good opportunity for the City, School district, Faith community, and Charitable community to touch base and discuss issues of mutual concern. It’s good to remind ourselves, and others, that we all serve the same community.

Browning-Ferris Industries (BFI) formerly managed a solid waste landfilling operation in Eden Prairie. While the landfill has been closed for almost a decade, BFI must still operate the site to maintain environmental control over the former landfill. BFI also operates a transfer station at the site. The transfer station has a permit to operate issued by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA). BFI recently petitioned the MPCA to allow them to expand the intensity of their transfer station operations here in Eden Prairie. The proposal would expand the number of trucks going in and out of the site; the amount of waste being transferred at the site; but would not expand the current foot print of the current transfer station at the site.

A transfer station is a simple concept. A packer truck is the waste hauling truck that operates door to door in your neighborhood. That truck serves that purpose well. But as population has expanded, landfills have been pushed further and further away from our cities. Packer trucks are not efficient vehicles to travel long distances. So, at a transfer station, a packer truck backs into a building and dumps its load on to the “tipping floor”. A loader then moves the waste around and prepares it to be transferred into an over-the-road truck for hauling to a landfill.

This the shoot that the over-the-road (OTR) truck backs down to have the garbage loaded into the top of his container:

You can fit the contents of three packer trucks hauling municipal solid waste into an OTR truck. If we are talking about construction and demolition (C&D) waste, the ratio can sometimes reach 8 to 1. An OTR truck is a much more efficient and safe way to haul waste of any kind over a long distance.

Another interesting activity going on at the former BFI landfill in Eden Prairie is the recovery of methane gas from the landfill. The methane is created by the decomposition of the buried waste in the landfill. There is a series of underground collection pipes throughout the landfill. You can see examples of the above-ground piping in the background of this photo:

Just a few years ago, BFI captured and burned the methane. Now, BFI captures the methane and turns it into electrical power at a small on-site generation plant. They produce enough electrical power there to run their entire on-site operations. They sell the excess electricity to Xcel Energy through the grid. This is a photo of the generation plant:

Handling and disposing of solid waste is part of modern life. Somebody must do it. I wish it could be out of sight and out of mind, but it cannot. I think that BFI, in general, is doing a pretty good job at minimizing the impacts of their operations on their neighbors in Eden Prairie. The City will work with them to see that that continues to happen in the future as well.

Gee, it was a busy week this week. It’s been a long time since I have gone a week without blogging. Among the things that I was involved in this past week were the following:

- Prepping for an important meeting between the City’s Heritage Preservation Commission and the Eden Prairie Historical Society. (The meeting is on Monday, April 19th.)

- Prepping to present the City Council with my recommendation on the program implementation for the City’s Clean Air Task Force. I am scheduled to present the proposal to the Council on April 27th.

- I had several atypical employee matters this week. Fortunately, Karen Kurt (our HR Manager) resolved them all, but not without my counsel and contribution.

- I performed the annual performance evaluation for the Chief of Police Dan Carlson. It was very good. He is doing an outstanding job as our Chief.

- I met with Mike Barone, the Assistant to the City Manager, to review two studies that he is very close to completing. One is an evaluation of the performance of our criminal prosecution attorney. The other is a salary study of elected officials in comparable cities.

The biggest thing for me this wee, however, was that the City Council performed my annual performance review. It was a 360 degree review. Input was gathered on my performance from the Council, my peers in local organizations, my direct reports, and a large group of employees (33 of them, I think). The performance review was coordinated by Mr. Harry Brull of PDI.

Humility is important to me. The review, however, was very good. The Council likes my work. My employees like my work. That is important to me. I like working in Eden Prairie. So, it looks like I’m set for another year here.

Good.

I’m pleased to announce that Ms. Janet B. Jeremiah, AICP, of Victoria has accepted my offer to become Eden Prairie�s new Community Development Director. Ms. Jeremiah, who is currently the Planning and Zoning Supervisor for the City of St. Louis Park, will assume her new duties on May 3, 2004

The Community Development Director position existed in our municipal organizational structure in the 1970’s, 1980’s and for most of the 1990’s, but its duties were combined, by a previous City administration, with the Finance Director’s duties in the late 1990’s into a position called the Service Area Director for Community Development and Financial Services. This position was held by former City Director of Management & Budget Mr. Don Uram. That title was part of a reorganization that I initiated.

When Don left the Director of Management & Budget position last year, I reorganized it again to split the “public finance” duties from the “community development” duties. I did so with a look to a more traditional organizational structure - which produced the traditionally titled: Community Development Director position.

The Community Development Director will be a member of my senior management team. That team currently includes Police Chief Dan Carlson, Fire Chief George Esbensen, Director of Public Works Gene Deitz, and the Director of Parks & Recreation Bob Lambert. The Community Development Director will, among other duties, coordinate and supervise the activities of the following divisions: Planning, Assessing, Economic Development, and Housing & Human Services.

Among the things that I liked about Ms. Jeremiah was her recent experience managing the $130 million Excelsior & Grand redevelopment in St. Louis Park, which is phase one of the 125 acre Park Commons town center project. Excelsior & Grand integrates 85,000 square feet of retail space with 40,000 square feet of office space and 660 housing units. If you haven’t seen this project, I want to encourage you to see it. This type of project is in our future in Eden Prairie. The Excelsior & Grand project was awarded the 2001 City Business Journal�s �Best in Real Estate� award, and honors from professional planning and community development organizations.

Ms. Jeremiah is a 1983 graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is completing her Masters of Planning in Public Affairs from the Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota, and is accredited by the American Institute of Certified Planners, (AICP). In addition to her work in St. Louis Park, Jeremiah has held community planning positions in Brooklyn Park and Bloomington. She has won more than a half dozen awards for her planning and community development work in St. Louis Park and Bloomington. She is also past chair of the City of Victoria’s Planning Commission.

We are fortunate to have attracted someone of Ms. Jeremiah�s experience and ability to our team. She has a great professional background in the area of urban redevelopment, and I think that is a talent that we are going to make great use of in Eden Prairie during the next decade.

This is the Riley Jacques Barn. It is located in Riley Lake Park. In 2003, the City approved a rehabilitation project for this barn to remodel this building into a facility that is usable for the public and for the City to use a new programming space.

As of March 31, 2004, the project is approximately 20% completed. Here’s a summary of the project to date:

- footings are completed
- santary sewer has been roughed into the building
- windows are 90% installed
- roof is complete
- plywood flooring in the loft is 80% completed

I will be touring the site tomorrow with a small group of Councilmembers. I took this photo on a cold winter’s day. I am looking forward to seeing the inside of the barn as well.

The Congressman

We were honored this morning at our Eden Prairie A.M. Rotary Club to have U.S. Congressman Jim Ramstad as our morning program speaker. Congressman Ramstad has represented the Third District of Minnesota for 7 terms. He has a very high level of support among his constituents of the Third District. Here’s a very recent photo of Congressman Ramstad in Washington DC with representatives of the Eden Prairie High School band who were touring Washington earlier this month.

The Pheasant

Just a couple of quick shots I took this morning from my office window when I got back from my Rotary meeting with Congressman Ramstad. This pheasant was perched on the ledge outside my window. I can’t recall ever getting this close to a pheasant before. I was literally inches from him when I snapped these two photos.

The Kid

Four years ago today my family and I were hunkered down in the Station 10 waiting room at Abbott Northwestern Hospital waiting for our then 12 year old son, Turner, to come out of heart transplant surgery. The surgery was a success and four years later Turner (see above) is now 16 years old and doing all the normal things that a normal 16 year old boy normally does. Normal is good.

We would have lost him without the heart transplant. We thank God everyday for everyday we’ve had with him since.

No, not Florida, or Cancun, or South Padre Island. Not even Arkansas. I spent two days of a short spring break last week in Iowa visiting my son at Central College. Central is located in the small town of Pella, Iowa - about thirty miles southeast of Des Moines.

This is my son, Toby:

Toby doesn’t usually look quite this festive. He is dressed in authentic Austrian leiderhausen (spelling?) to represent the country of Austria as part of a Study Abroad program at Central. Toby is a freshman majoring in German and is planning a study abroad trip to the University of Vienna in two years. Toby plays soccer outside and Halo inside. I think he spends more time playing Halo than he ought to, but that’s just me, I guess.

Pella is a nice little town. It was founded by Dutch settlers and still retains a strong sense of its Dutch heritage. The town is well kept. The main industries in the town are Pella windows and Vermeer industrial products. Central College is also important to the town as a source of culture.

It was warm there. South-central Iowa is typically about three weeks ahead of southeast Minnesota in terms of Spring. Pella hosts a big tulip festival in early May. I saw tulip shoots coming out of the ground last week. The locals were a little nervous that the flowers might come out too early.

Well, it’s back to work. It’s good to be back.