The Blog from City Hall

It’s inefficient and generally a poor use of resources, especially in a metropolitan area, for every community to staff its emergency services for every eventuality. We found that out again just yesterday when our Fire Department worked with our neighbors in Edina and Hennepin County to rescue an employee working at a construction site here in Eden Prairie fell into a 30 foot deep manhole. The photo above is a picture of the man immediately following his rescue.

See the Firehouse.com article titled Emergency Crews Rescue Worker After 30 Foot Fall Into a Concrete-Floored Utility Vault by freelance journalist, Mike Coen of Hopkins who reported the account of the incident from the scene. There’s a slideshow of 23 photos accompanying the piece.

Good save everybody.

Here’s a clip from the article:

“Fire Chief George Esbensen, while enroute, requested the Edina Fire Department on auto-aid, for their Special Operations Team. The team made up of on- and off-duty members of the combination department, is one of four state sponsored teams outfitted and trained to handle a variety of special rescue situations.

Edina was dispatched and responded with Fire Chief Marty Scheerer, Assistant Chief Darrell Todd and six on-duty firefighter/paramedics.”

Sept 2 update: Eden Prairie News article: Firefighters help rescue worker from 30-foot hole

The frozen subsoil under the now-removed floor of ice rink #1 at the Community Center has now been thawed. The subsoil was frozen to a depth of 10 feet in several places. It took more time than we hoped, but now that the thawing is complete, the construction of the rink floor freezing system can now begin.

We expected the contractor to start today, but they are completing another project and will roll into our project first thing tomorrow morning. The contractor, Commercial Refrigeration, Inc. of Hibbing, has their materials and labor here in Eden Prairie. My staff spoke with them today. They are ready to roll.

This project hit us at an unfortunate time. Ideally, it would be a good project to design in the fall; bid in the winter; and start as soon as hockey season is over in the spring. Unfortunately, we discovered a significant leak of both freezing and insulating chemicals this summer during an inspection. Federal and state environmental regulations would not permit us to ignore what we saw. We had to act.

We could have taken the rink down for the winter, but asking the community to focus all of its ice demands on one sheet of ice would not have worked. We took the risk and got the project going. We accelerated all the project time lines and agreed to pay premium costs in order to get the project completed before November 1st.

It looks like we might make that deadline, but it’s going to be close.

Yes, Eden Prairie is still growing. Here are the facts to back it up straight from the Metropolitan Council ranked by growth from 2000-2003; with their respective population growth from 2000-2003; then shown by their rank in metro population growth from 1990-2000:

1. Blaine 4,948 [25]
2. Maple Grove 4,913 [8]
3. Eden Prairie 4,424 [4]
4. Shakopee 4,399 [14]
5. Lakeville 4,395 [2]
6. Plymouth 4,344 [5]
7. Prior Lake 3,745 [27]
8. Farmington 3,184 [21]
9. Apple Valley 2,891 [12]
10. Woodbury 2,866 [1]

The Star Tribune and the Pioneer Press both had good articles about metro population growth in their respective papers today.

Eden Prairie actually led the metro area cities in the number of households added from 2000 to 2003, but our relatively low household size, in our single family stock, kept our total population growth size down from being even higher. Eden Prairie’s new population estimate puts us just over 62,000.

Is our continued growth good, bad, or otherwise? You tell me. Our growth is beginning to slow. We can see that all ready. We are looking for an ultimate top end population in Eden Prairie of between 65,000 and 70,000. We’re almost there.

I snapped a few pictures of our newest park today: The Purgatory Creek Recreation Area Park. It’s at the intersection of Prairie Center Drive and Technology Drive. The City and the Purgatory Creek Watershed District will host an Open House and Dedication event at the park on Saturday, September 18th. More on that later. Enjoy the park.

The view from the shelter looking north:

A close-up of the park shelter:

Our new park fountain:

A view looking west:

A view looking east:

A view of the future Jean Harris Memorial Gathering Bridge:

I took my first ride on the Hiawatha LRT this weekend. I got on at the Ft. Snelling park & ride, which is currently the end of the line. I rode with three kids to the Metrodome to see the Twins whip the Indians 5-1. The trip to the Dome was about 1/2 full, but the train back to Ft. Snelling at the end of the game was 101% packed. It cost $3.00/person. It was great. I know that LRT still carries some political baggage with it in the Twin Cities, and I think it is too early to tell if the LRT will positively impact freeway traffic congestion. But I can also say that I can’t wait to ride it again.

Here’s some more info on the Hiawatha LRT, courtesy of the Metro Transit website:

The finished Hiawatha line will be 12 miles long connecting three of the Twin Cities most popular destinations: downtown Minneapolis, Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport and Mall of America in Bloomington.

Opening: Major park-and-ride lots: At Fort Snelling and 28th Avenue stations. Partial service between the Warehouse District and Fort Snelling began June 26; full service to the airport and Mall of America begins in December.

Metro Transit projects its ridership at 19,300 per weekday in 2005 and 24,600 per weekday by year 2020. The Light-rail vehicles are 94-feet long and manufactured by Bombardier. There are 24 of them. A train may consist of two cars coupled together. Each car has four doorways and can hold 66 seated passengers plus standing room for 120. Inside each car are four luggage racks and four bicycle hangers. They are electrically powered and have a top speed of 55 m.p.h.

Service levels are:
- Rush hours: Every 71?2 minutes from 6 to 9 a.m. and 3 to 6 p.m.
- Every 10 minutes from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
- Every 15 minutes from 6:30 to 9 p.m.
- Every half hour from 4 to 6 a.m. and from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m.

The LRT connect with the feeder bus service. 46 Metro Transit routes will connect to 14 rail stations with timed transfers. Twenty percent of rail customers will arrive at their station by bus.

You can purchase a fare card through an automated fare machine at each LRT stop. There are a variety of fares and the information is clearly posted at each machine. There is no turnstyle to go through to get on to the train. It appears to be on the “honor system”, although you must be able to show your ticket if you are asked by a Metro Transit worker. If you can’t: Big Fine.

If you have the opportunity to ride the LRT, don’t pass it up. I found it to be a great experience. It’s an experience we might see more of in the Twin Cities in the future.

The subject of weblogs is picking up more attention in the mainstream media. I thought the bloggers got a considerable amount of attention at the Democratic National Convention in Boston earlier this month. Maybe they’ll get the same treatment by the Republicans next month.

I wanted to share some of the outside attention that my weblog has received from people I don’t know:

http://www.windley.com/2004/07/27.html
This is Phil Windley’s Enterprise Computing Weblog. I don’t know Phil, but he seems to know a lot about weblogs.

http://radio.weblogs.com/0110120/2004/07/26.html#a1418
This is Dave Fletcher’s Government and Technology Weblog. I don’t know Dave, but he too seems to know his way around a weblog.

http://bloombergmarketing.blogs.com/bloomberg_marketing/2004/08/blogsall_about_.html
This is a weblog from Diva Marketing. The CEO of Diva Marketing is Ms. Toby Bloomberg. I’ve had several e-mail conversations with Toby about my blog and why I do it. She likes it alot. She likes Chief Carlson’s too.

http://www.publicus.net/new.html
This is just a slide from a presentation to the national government of New Zealand that was presented by Minneapolis e-deomcracy expert Steve Clift. Mr. Clift likes my blog. He used it as part of his presentation on local government communications to the government of New Zealand earlier this year. To see my smiling face, check out his July 22, 2004 posting about his presentation in New Zealand. Page eight, near the bottom.

Office of the Deputy Prime Minister
I also had the opportunity, arranged by Mr. Clift, to be part of team that presented to representatives from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in July. We discussed weblogs and how they be effective communications tools for local government officials.

So, while the weblog is certainly not the most important thing on my plate, it is part of my overall strategy to make local government more responsive and accountable to my citizens, It’s also fun to do.

This is Cirsium arvense, more commonly known as Canada Thistle. The Canada thistle is a 2 to 5 foot (0.6 to 1.5 meters) tall forb with deep, wide spreading, horizontal roots. It is distinguished from other thistles (Cirsium spp.) by its deep-running perennial rootstocks, more slender stems, and small compact heads. Plants are tall and lax, with few flowers, on sites that are shaded most of the day.

In North America the Canada thistle occurs approximately from latitudes 37degrees North to 59 degrees North. It does not survive in the southern United States. It is thought to be native to southeastern Europe and the eastern Mediterranean area. It now occurs throughout Europe, North Africa, Asia Minor, and across central Asia to Japan. It is also naturalized in South Africa, New Zealand, and southeastern Australia.

The survival and spread of this species is due to the highly successful vegetative propagation carried on by the creeping horizontal roots which survive winters (yes, even in Minnesota), and continue to give rise to numerous aerial shoots year after year. The plants can survive indefinitely through the root system. The shoots emerge in the spring when the mean weekly temperature reached five to eight degrees Centigrade.

Why the horticulture lesson today on the Canada thistle? Or is it botany? Well, whatever it is, the Canada thistle is a nasty, noxious weed, according to Minnesota state law. The City has an obligation under State law to remove it, or cause it to be removed, when we acknowledge its presence. That might sound easy enough, but when you consider the hundreds of individual acres that are owned by the City, you can get an idea of the challenge and cost of this obligation.

We handle the removal of Canada thistle through what we call “passive enforcement”. If we receive a report of it, we will investigate it and enforce the law accordingly. We do not, however, go out and patrol for it. Maybe we ought to, but we are not staffed or budgeted to do that on private property, let alone public property in Eden Prairie.

If you want to get rid of your Canada thistle, here’s what you can do:

Response to Herbicides: Effective control can be achieved by using several broad-leaved herbicides that do not harm grasses. For more site specific control recommendations, please refer to the latest edition of the Pacific Northwest Weed Control Handbook.

Response to Cultural Methods: Planting competitive crops, such as alfalfa and forage grasses can be very effective in controlling an infestation of Canada thistle.

Response to Mechanical Methods: Repeated tillage at 21-day intervals for about four months can be effective on minor infestations of Canada thistle. Repeated mowing to weaken stems and prevent seeding is also effective in low level infestations.

For more information on the Canada thistle, check out this link. Most of my science info in this post was lifted right out of this guy’s article.

This isn’t the best time of the year to kill Canada thistle. It’s probably already propagated. But is there really a bad time of year to kill a noxious weed? I think not. Have at it. Get a jump on them for next year.

The Eden Prairie News ran a story today about our upcoming filing period for the two open spots on our City Council. One of the Council spots is held by Councilmembers Sherry Butcher. Councilmember Butcher plans to run for her seat again. The other seat is currently held by Councilmember Jan Mosman. Councilmember Mosman is not planning to run again, so we will have at least one new person, for sure, on our City Council starting in January 2005.

In addition to the filing information in the EP News story, City staff have also organized an educational opportunity for potential Council candidates. The session will be held on Wednesday, August 25th at 5:00 p.m. at City Center, 8080 Mitchell Road. The session will consist of brief presentations from me and the City’s senior management staff, which consists of the Police Chief, Fire Chief, Community Development Director, Parks & Recreation Director, and the Public Works Director.We will give short presentations about current and future issues the City will be facing. We’ll also do a little Q&A at the end.

My hope is that we will attract citizens who are, perhaps, on the fence about running for City Council. We will provide them enough information that they can use to make an informed decision about whether or not to run for office.

Maybe it’ll work. Maybe it won’t. But we’re going to give it a try.

Every Wednesday morning following a City Council meeting on Tuesday evenings, I have a staff meeting with my senior management team, which consists of the five department directors (Police Chief, Fire Chief, Director of Community Development, Director of Parks & Recreation, and the Director of Public Works), the City Attorney, and my Executive Assistant. We debrief the Council’s actions from the night before and discuss matters of general concern in the organization.

This morning we took our meeting on the road. Usually we meet in the Prairie Room at City Center. This morning we met at the J.R. Cummins Homestead. Here’s what the homestead looks like from behind (I did not get a photo from the front):

The J.R. Cummins Homestead is located at 13600 Pioneer Trail. It was built for John and Mattie Cummins in 1879-80. For most of its life the home was the center of a 300 acre farm. Cummins was a widely respected horticulturalist and experiemented with many different flowers, fruits, nuts, and other agricultural plants.

A subsequent owner of the property, Martin “Pappy” Grill, sold a piece of his land for the construction of the original landing strip to the American Aviation Company in 1943, which they later named Flying Cloud Airport. The Metropolitan Airports Commission purchased the Flying Cloud Airport in 1948. The balance of the farmland and house were purchased by the City in 1976 for parkland.

The interior of the home features some new furniture that was recently donated to the Eden Prairie Historical Society. There is a new dining room table, which is where we held our staff meeting this morning:

and a roll top desk that was originally in the home and has now been refurbished:

We are still examining long term care options for the Cummins Homestead with the City Council, the City’s Heritage Preservation Commission, and the Historical Society. It is a difficult issue to resolve. The costs to rehabilitate the home are substantial, but allowing it to deteriorate unabated is not a sound policy either.

The Cummins Homestead is an important landmark in our City’s young history. It’s open for public view several times during the year. Check our website for more details: edenprairie.org

In advance of each City Council meeting, the City staff prepares a preparatory packet of information for the issues that will be on the Council’s meeting agenda. We call it the “Council Packet” for short. It includes information on the background of every item on the Council’s meeting agenda, including the staff’s recommendation on each item. Council Packets are almost universal for City governments. Every City I know of uses a Council Packet-like concept to prepare its elected officials for official meetings.

City staff generally submit their materials for the Council meeting by the Wednesday prior to next Tuesday’s Council meeting. The packet goes into pre-production on Thursday. I review the packet before it goes to final copy on late Thursday or first thing Friday morning. After I approve the packet, it goes to the final production stage where it grows from one copy to 24 copies. Following the completion of final production, a City staff member delivers it to Councilmembers’ homes on Friday afternoon. Councilmembers have until Tuesday night’s meeting to read, understand, and form a position on the various items they will pass judgment on at their Council meeting.

This photo above is a Council packet in the pre-production stage, right before I review it for final approval. This photo happens to be of the August 17th Council packet. It is a relatively modest Council packet of 168 pages. We make 24 Council packets for the five elected Council members, various staff members, and a few others. Total paper consumed to print this Council packet = 4,032. Our July 20th meeting had a packet of 216 pages for a total paper consumption of 5,184 pieces of paper. And yes, everything is double-sided.

In addition to the paper consumption, there is also 20 hours of staff time that goes into the production and distribution of the Council packets. This figure does not count the staff time consumed by the preparation of the documents that go into the Council packet itself. I’m talking about just the copying, collating, reviewing, distributing, etc that goes into making 24 copies of a 100+ document every two weeks.

We are in the later stages of introducing a new technology to our Council Packet process. We are making the leap from paper Council Packets to paperless Council Packets. We will now produce the Council Packet electronically and distribute it to the Councilmembers via e-mail on new laptop computers. The Councilmembers will bring their laptops to the Council meeting and work from the electronic copy of the Council Packet during the meeting as well.

In addition to cutting personnel and supply costs, the new paperless packet process will allow us to make changes to our information more quickly and to update the Council with new information at the meeting easier. We will also be able to post the Council Packet on our website so that it is available to the public in its entirety, for free at their complete convenience.

We have a Council meeting tonight. At tonight’s meeting we are starting the transition from paper to paperless. Tonight, we’ll have both versions of the Packet available. September 7, 2004 is our target night to go completely paperless. Wish us luck.

In the city government business, it can be difficult to interpret exactly what citizens are trying to tell me. They know. Each one of them knows exactly what he or she means when they tell me No, Yes, or Maybe. But from my side of the conversation, it’s seldom that simple. Here’s an op-ed commentary piece that I wrote for our local newspapers on the subject. Enjoy.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Eden Prairie News, August 12, 2004
Eden Prairie Sun Current, August 12, 2004

Discerning Public Opinion
It�s 2004 and it�s an election year. Now that Minnesota is officially defined as a �battle ground� state, we will soon have our fill of national, state, and local political debate. The process of submitting the choice of candidates for public office to the citizenry to decide by secret ballot voting is a core value of our American representative democracy. In the eyes of most citizens of our country, this process has served our country very well over the past 228 years.

On the other hand, the process of submitting public policy options to the citizenry to decide by voting is not enshrined in the founding documents of our country. It is an addendum to our democratic process that has been added in the relatively recent past. I think it�s fair to say that we are still trying to works all the bugs out of this aspect of our democracy.

On May 11, 2004 Eden Prairie citizens spoke and decided a matter of local public policy. They spoke collectively through the act of voting. On that date, a little over 5,000 citizens voted in a special referendum to decide whether the City of Eden Prairie should issue $22,500,000 of bonds to finance the construction of a number of parks and recreation improvement projects around the City. About 2,000 of them voted Yes, while the majority, about 3,000 residents voted No.

When citizens are asked to decide the fate of public policy issues, they must make a number of complex and interrelated judgments about the question or questions they are being asked to resolve. Instead of simply asking whether they would prefer one candidate or another, they are asked to do much more. They are asked to judge whether or not a particular project is needed; whether the proposed cost of the project is reasonable; and then whether the proposed increase in taxes in too burdensome or not.

The laws of our state say that the decision of the majority decides the issue, but, like most things in life, there are a number of gray areas, especially in a situation like the May 11th referendum. Was it the total size of the bond issue? Was it the list of projects, or a particular project? Was it the timing of the election? Was it the single question format of the ballot? Was it all or just some of the above?

I believe it is important for the City to have a more precise understanding of what exactly the voters opposed. There are many theories why the referendum was voted down. All of them are based on anecdote and instinct. And while I do want to dismiss anecdote and instinct as viable ways of discovering truth in the world, it is important for the City to have more reliable empirical information upon which we can base future decisions about our community�s parks and recreational facilities.

The City must now form a new policy direction and go forward. In a few weeks the City will be sponsoring a survey of a random sample of voters to try and determine what influenced their voting behavior on this issue on May 11, 2004.

We are listening to what you have to say. The upcoming survey is another example of the City Council�s desire to solicit your thoughts and feelings to help us plan for the Eden Prairie�s future. The message isn�t always easy to hear, and it�s not always clear, but we are doing our best to listen to all voices and to make public policy decisions that will be acceptable in the eyes of a broad spectrum in Eden Prairie. It won�t be easy, but making good public policy seldom is.

Once again it was time to send son #1 off to college. Toby is going back to Central College in Pella, Iowa. This will be his second year there. He’s looking forward to it. We’ll miss Toby at our house, but this is the way it was meant to be.

Here are our three steps for letting go for another year:

Step 1: Pack car.

Step 2: Remind/Annoy Him to Call Home After Arriving Safely.

Step 3: Wave Goodbye

Adios Toby. See you at Thanksgiving.

U.S. Congressman Jim Ramstad, Mayor Nancy Tyra-Lukens, and County Commission Linda Koblick get ready to cut the ribbon for the grand opening of the new Eden Prairie Resource Library. The new library will host its official public grand opening on Saturday. We’ve waited a long time for this library, and I can tell you that it was worth the wait. Until you can get there yourself, here’s a short tour:

The new library is located at 565 Prairie Center Drive. It is located just west of the old library site. This is an exterior shot of the building. The County added the domed roof feature to an otherwise regular commercial box building.

Here’s what that dome adds to the interior of the library:

The old library was 15,000 square feet. The new library is 40,000 square feet. It holds a total collection size of 154,697 items. There are 190 parking stalls in the parking lot on a total site that is 4.42 acres.

The new library has a public meeting room with a capacity of 80 people:

The library is partially powered by a natural gas fuel cell that combines hydrogen with water to produce electricity. It is a pilot project made possible by Hennepin County, 3M, CenterPoint Energy, and the Minnesota Office of Environmental Assistance.

One of the things that I found most interesting about the new library was the innovative way they process books. Books and other items you return to the library find their way automatically to this conveyor line:

Which reads the library’s bar code on the item and sends it down the conveyor

where it is automatically kicked off the conveyor line and on to a waiting cart:

where a human being will then take it to its rightful place in the stacks. Amazing!

We are lucky to have this new library. Hennepin County Commissioner Randy Johnson was instrumental in keeping this project moving when it could have dropped off the County’s priority list many times. Thanks Randy.

So get to the library. You’ll be glad you did.

It’s not always all about the money, but it’s budget time again here at the City, so, for a couple of months here, it’s mostly about the money.

City staff will present a preliminary budget for 2005 to the Council at the Council’s August 17th workshop. We hold a 60 minute workshop with the Council prior to each Council meeting. The workshop format allows City staff and City Council to be a bit less formal and to have constructive dialogue about the many issues we deal with in city government. Our official Council meetings are not generally a good format for this same kind of give-and-take, back-and-forth dialogue. The workshops are educational. Council meetings are more legislative and judicial in nature.

Unlike a Mayor-Council government, like Minneapolis where the Mayor prepares a budget and then tries to get the Council to go along with it, Eden Prairie operates as a Council-Manager government. In our form of government, City staff prepare a budget and seek Council approval of it. We have a good idea of what the Council is hoping to see in our budget. We try to prepare a budget that we think they will approve. Unlike Mayor-Council governments where the budget can be a major source of political infighting, our budget process is not developed under premise that seeks to reward political friends and punish political enemies. Our budget is based on financial and management goals and objectives, which the City Council has previously signed off on.

In Eden Prairie, we operate on a two year budget cycle. We prepared, and the Council approved, a budget for 2004 and 2005 in late 2003. So the 2005 budget we are going to present to the Council is largely a budget that they have previously seen and approved. The only differences to this version of the 2005 budget are that we have updated revenue and expense numbers based on the new information.

Generally, City operations and services for 2005 will be at the same level they are at in 2004. The only exception to that is in our Fire Department. We are getting ready to build our 4th (and probably final) Fire Station. In addition to the capital costs of the building, we will also need to add about 15 new volunteer firefighters.

For 2005, staff are recommending a budget that increases our 2004 budget by 2.9% to a total of $32,400,000. This budget proposal requires an increase in our City property tax levy of 3.3%. The median value home in Eden Prairie of $310,000 would see its City property taxes increase by an estimated $30.00 in 2005 if this budget is adopted. Here’s what other cities have tentatively announced they are going to do with their 2005 tax levy:

Brooklyn Park + 9.7%
Richfield + 5% to 8%
Coon Rapids + just under 5%
Champlin + 7.5%
Minnetonka + 4.5%
Plymouth 4.85% + 10.06%
Anoka + 4%
Maple Grove + 6.22 to 8.04%
Eden Prairie + 3.6%
Minneapolis + 8%

The Council takes a look a the full budget proposal for the first time on August 17th. The Council must adopt a final budget for 2005 before December 31, 2004. I think we’ll meet that deadline.

I did a Meet & Greet yesterday with David Lindahl, the City’s Economic Development Manager, and two members of our City Council, Sherry Butcher and Phil Young. We met with officials from Foster Klima & Company. This is the 94th local business that we’ve visited on our Business Meet & Greet tour. We are closing in on #100. We are looking for that one sometime in early September.

We met with Doug Flink and Lee Ann Youngquist from the company. As we do at all of our meet & greets, we really start with an open agenda and let the company pace the meeting as they see fit. Generally, we talk about why they are in Eden Prairie; if their business is growing or not; their general observations about the community; and end up on what, if any, experiences they’ve had with City government. Like almost all of our previous meetings, this one went quite well. They like it here. Experience with the City has been limited, but generally good. They plan to grow here too.

Lee Ann Youngquist talked to us about a program that she is involved in at Foster Klima, through its affiliation with Guardian Life Insurance Company, called Girls Going Places.

The program seeks to provide more development opportunities for girls to learn about business and entrepreneurship. Lee Ann is business making connections in the Twin Cities, and especially in Eden Prairie, with female business leaders to try and successfully launch the program in the Twin Cities. If you are interested in the program or want to help out, please contact Lee Ann at Foster Klima. I’m sure she’d welcome your interest.

I wish her the best. Girls Going Places. Sounds like a very worthwhile endeavor, indeed.