3-City Cooperation Meetings - 2nd meeting (2/24) results

Thanks to Council Member Woodruff for the following:

Hello Insider,

Since I think your blog is a useful tool to promote dialog about what's happening in Shorewood, I'll be sending my thoughts on various topics.

I attended the 3-City Cooperation meeting last night (the 2nd meeting on this topic).

Shorewood was represented by the Mayor and all four Council Members as well as five staff members. Tonka Bay was represented by its City Administrator. Excelsior had Greg Miller from its Council, Its City Manager and two staff members. The Mayors of TB and Exc were absent (had been at the prior meeting) each citing medical reasons for absence.

It was disappointing to have no other council members from TB and Exc. This calls the question of the level of commitment of these two cities.

The group was lead through a review of the results of the prior meeting followed by ranking of the items. The result was a short list of "projects" believed feasible to undertake and which were assigned to the City Administrators/Manager to pursue.

The good news is that the "projects", in my mind are mostly rational and may have tangible benefits to all parties. One example is: sharing road salt storage.

An example of a "project" not adopted is: formally designating Excelsior as Shorewood's downtown. I'll leave it to readers to decide if they can assign any tangible value to something like this for the residents of Shorewood.

So, while the apparent urge to merge cities legally or de-facto seems still in place in the minds of some Shorewood Council Members, it's not on the front burner for any action. I'd be thrilled to hear about this merger idea from residents of any of the cities.

There was no discussion about having another meeting. The Administrators/Manager were tasked with starting work on the chosen projects immediately.

I'll forward the "project" list as soon as minutes area available.

Dick Woodruff
Council Member - Shorewood