I drove by the Windsor Plaza development today. If you have had the chance to drive by this site during the past few weeks, you’ve seen four plain looking concrete towers. Those are the elevator towers and stairwells for the new development. They’ve been sticking out of the ground now for quite a while.
But this [...]
Monthly Archives: April 2008
Windsor Plaza Marches On
April 30, 2008 – 1:31 pm
Saying Thank You
April 29, 2008 – 12:52 pm
It’s important to say “thank you”. that’s what we did last night at our annual Board & Commission Recognition Banquet. We hosted the banquet in the Garden Room here in City Center. It was a nice event. A good time was had by all, I think.
I did some of the emcee duties this year, but [...]
Property Tax Legislation Pending
April 28, 2008 – 9:53 am
There are several property tax bills being considered by the State Legislature that are of interest to citizens and city governments in Minnesota. I pleased to report that one of the bills that I talked about last week - a new economic development tool being considered to help subsidize a parking ramp for the new [...]
Funding Parking Ramps at the Mall of America Phase II
April 23, 2008 – 2:22 pm
There was an excellent story in yesterday’s Star Tribune entitled “Will megamall deal usher one in for the Vikings?”. You can click that link to read the story by Mike Kaszuba.
The story explains a proposal being considered by the State Legislature to allow the City of Bloomington to assist the owners/developers of the Mall of [...]
The Great EP Pitch
April 21, 2008 – 12:00 pm
Every year we have Records Review Week during the same week as Earth Day. It’s a week that we spend time and extra effort cleaning out our files, which means filing stuff more precisely or throwing a lot of stuff away. I prefer the latter category. Our City Clerk Kitty Porta would prefer me to [...]
We’ve Got An Art Center
April 17, 2008 – 4:42 pm
At their meeting this week the City Council accepted a gift of a building from the Sampson family that will serve as the City’s future Art Center. The Council’s action means that City staff and the City’s Arts & Culture Commission can now move forward in the planning effort to get the Art Center ready [...]
Big Meeting
April 15, 2008 – 2:44 pm
I attended a big meeting yesterday at the headquarters of the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) in St. Paul. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the prospects for the future improvement of the I-494 - T.H.169 interchange given the State’s new transportation bill generated new funds for MnDOT. We wanted to see if [...]
The 2008 EPy Award Winners
April 11, 2008 – 8:50 am
Each year I have the privilege of presenting our annual employee awards, which we call the “EPy’s”. We had our recognition event yesterday, and the 2008 winners are pictured to the left. Click on the thumbnail photo to see it in larger scale. Get a good look at these folks, because they’re some of the [...]
State Provides $100,000 For Vets Memorial
April 10, 2008 – 8:58 am
Congratulations to the Eden Prairie Veterans Memorial Committee. The Committee, along with our locally elected state officials - Senator David Hann, Representative Erik Paulsen and Representative Maria Ruud - were successful in garnering a $100,000 appropriation in the State’s 2008 Bonding Bill. The appropriation will be used to continue the progress of building a Veterans [...]
The Costs of Conflict
April 9, 2008 – 11:34 am
I would like to think that here in Eden Prairie we run a middle-of-the-road city government organization where conflict is generally addressed and resolved maturely and professionally. Those two attributes are displayed in our City Council meetings and by City staff as we do the business of city government here in Eden Prairie.
Other cities do [...]
Turner’s Heart Birthday
April 7, 2008 – 7:43 am
On April 5, 2000, I got the Big Call while I was shopping in the middle of the grocery store. I had a cart full of groceries, but my son Ethan and I ditched it and ran full speed out of the store out to my car like a couple of petty shoplifters about to [...]
TJ Waconia in Eden Prairie
April 3, 2008 – 3:51 pm
There was a very interesting story in the Star Tribune today about a residential property development company called TJ Waconia. The story told in the newspaper is of the City of Minneapolis’s lawsuit against the company for some alleged shady real estate practices in north Minneapolis. Read the story at this link: “Minneapolis sues firm [...]
Transit Tax Approved by Hennepin County Board
April 2, 2008 – 2:57 pm
The Hennepin County Board of Commissioners approved the imposition of a new county-wide sales tax yesterday, as reported by the Star Tribune newspaper. The 0.25% sales tax, which would add one cent to a $4.00 purchase, will a dedicated source of future capital transit funding. For Eden Prairie, this means that the future Southwest Transitway [...]
The Lowly Fire Hydrant
April 1, 2008 – 12:11 pm
People generally don’t think much about the lowly fire hydrant. It’s just there. Quiet. Unobtrusive. Residents don’t really need it, until they really need it.
Fire hydrants are important. They are equally important to the Water Utility side of our business as they are to the Fire Suppression side, but most people don’t really think about [...]
