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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]