10/27/11
After two years on the job, the City Administrator, Brian Heck, is actually taking some action to clean house at City Hall.
The 10/24 Council Meeting was preceded by a closed Executive session of Council at which it seems changes in staffing and sharing services with neighboring cities was discussed. What is known for sure is that Council approved combining two part-time positions, eliminating the Web Coordinator job effective 11/1/11. Also, the contract with Community Rec Resources to manage parks scheduling and to be the staff liaison to the Parks Commission will end 1/1/12 with the work being assumed by existing City staff. These two actions would appear to save just under $100,000 per year.
The Insider thinks more changes will come in the next month or two. It's about time!
Happy Reading!
The Insider
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Organics Recycling Update
10/27/11
Someone at City Hall must be reading this blog. The organics recycling subject came up on the 10/24 Council agenda. Council formally accepted the County grant supporting a pilot program and staff is to put the program together.
This program is fulfillment of a campaign promise of Hotvet and company. watch for it to get rammed through Council regardless of how ugly the program might be for residents.
Happy reading!
The Insider
Someone at City Hall must be reading this blog. The organics recycling subject came up on the 10/24 Council agenda. Council formally accepted the County grant supporting a pilot program and staff is to put the program together.
This program is fulfillment of a campaign promise of Hotvet and company. watch for it to get rammed through Council regardless of how ugly the program might be for residents.
Happy reading!
The Insider
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Musings and Newsings
10/16/11
Here are some thoughts from the Insider and some news items from the past two weeks.
Christmas Lake Launch Gate - The gates should be installed by the end of October. These will close the boat launch from 1000 PM to 600 AM as is allowed under the Shorewood agreement with the DNR. Of interest are comments on one fishing advocacy website that maybe someone ought to dump water from Lk Mtka into Christmas Lk to plant Zebra Mussels there. The Insider wonders how many times per month the gate will be torn off. After all, who is going to see "vandals" doing this in the middle of the night?
Organics Recycling - What's happened to the much touted (by Lizee and Hotvet) organics recycling pilot program? The City has had a grant to pay for it (from Hennepin County) for three months. Could it be that staff can't get the pilot off the ground?
Resident Survey - It's on the way to randomly selected residences in Shorewood by US mail. Looking at the draft that was discussed by Council, the survey seems pretty good. It remains to be seen if Council will know what to do with the results or, will like them. If you receive one, the Insider recommends you complete it and send it back.
Trails - Council approved adding the recently created Trail Plan to the Comprehensive Plan. Additionally, at the 10/10 Council Meeting, Council approved asking for grants for a trail segment connecting the LRT trail crossing County 19 to the sidewalk in front of the strip mall in Tonka Bay and one from Victoria to Minnewashta School along Smithtown Rd. The City is committing to pay 25% of the cost. This'll be the first test of what it'll actually cost to build and maintain new trails. BTW, the City has not addressed the maintenance issue including, cost of keeping these open in the winter.
Fiber Optics - City staff has been discussing connection of City buildings to the Carver County fiber optic network. Council has been told that the cost will be more than $80,000. Of course, no mention of what benefits come with this $80,000 of spending. Zerby has been directly involved in the discussions. It'll be interesting to hear him advocate for this when just two months ago, he managed to kill the LMCC's efforts to bring fiber optics to all of Shorewood including, City buildings.
Christmas Lake Milfoil-Eating Weavil Test - Reports are that it's a dismal failure. No wonder there have been no articles from Dick Osgood in the local papers.
Happy Reading!
The Insider
Here are some thoughts from the Insider and some news items from the past two weeks.
Christmas Lake Launch Gate - The gates should be installed by the end of October. These will close the boat launch from 1000 PM to 600 AM as is allowed under the Shorewood agreement with the DNR. Of interest are comments on one fishing advocacy website that maybe someone ought to dump water from Lk Mtka into Christmas Lk to plant Zebra Mussels there. The Insider wonders how many times per month the gate will be torn off. After all, who is going to see "vandals" doing this in the middle of the night?
Organics Recycling - What's happened to the much touted (by Lizee and Hotvet) organics recycling pilot program? The City has had a grant to pay for it (from Hennepin County) for three months. Could it be that staff can't get the pilot off the ground?
Resident Survey - It's on the way to randomly selected residences in Shorewood by US mail. Looking at the draft that was discussed by Council, the survey seems pretty good. It remains to be seen if Council will know what to do with the results or, will like them. If you receive one, the Insider recommends you complete it and send it back.
Trails - Council approved adding the recently created Trail Plan to the Comprehensive Plan. Additionally, at the 10/10 Council Meeting, Council approved asking for grants for a trail segment connecting the LRT trail crossing County 19 to the sidewalk in front of the strip mall in Tonka Bay and one from Victoria to Minnewashta School along Smithtown Rd. The City is committing to pay 25% of the cost. This'll be the first test of what it'll actually cost to build and maintain new trails. BTW, the City has not addressed the maintenance issue including, cost of keeping these open in the winter.
Fiber Optics - City staff has been discussing connection of City buildings to the Carver County fiber optic network. Council has been told that the cost will be more than $80,000. Of course, no mention of what benefits come with this $80,000 of spending. Zerby has been directly involved in the discussions. It'll be interesting to hear him advocate for this when just two months ago, he managed to kill the LMCC's efforts to bring fiber optics to all of Shorewood including, City buildings.
Christmas Lake Milfoil-Eating Weavil Test - Reports are that it's a dismal failure. No wonder there have been no articles from Dick Osgood in the local papers.
Happy Reading!
The Insider
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Mound Disapproves AIS Resolution
10/5/11
Mound's Council has disapproved a resolution that started in Shorewood. This resolution would have supported the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District as the agency responsible for AIS programs. See http://www.waconiapatriot.com/articles/2011/10/05/the_laker/news/news01.txt for the article in the Laker.
Long Lake and unconfirmed, Excelsior have approved the Shorewood resolution. Deephaven has deferred action on it.
The Insider shares the concerns of Mayor Hanus of Mound and the Mound Council about the MCWD's heavy handed operating methods as well as the limited geographic scope of authority the MCWD actually has.
The Insider observed the MCWD's handling of comments on new rules it proposed in 2010. If inadequate review time, and largely ignoring the strenuous objections of cities in the district is to be the operating mode for AIS management, the MCWD is not the agency to be responsible.
Readers should know that the MCWD levies its own property taxes. The MCWD Board is appointed by the Carver and Hennepin County Boards, but it really reports to nobody. Even the State has no operational control over what it does or the amount of taxes it levies. The Executive Director was overheard bragging that the tax base against which it levies property tax is huge and the MCWD could decide to make big tax increases to increase spending. As it is, the MCWD has staff in excess of 20 and even has its own public relations person on full-time staff. They just agreed to do a project in Hopkins which calls for purchasing about $15 million of property along Minnehaha Creek. These are our tax dollars and we have no say in how they're being spent (of course the MCWD would say they have public meetings on expenditures, but they can't be held to account for listening and their decisions).
So, Mound might be correct.
Happy reading!
The Insider
Mound's Council has disapproved a resolution that started in Shorewood. This resolution would have supported the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District as the agency responsible for AIS programs. See http://www.waconiapatriot.com/articles/2011/10/05/the_laker/news/news01.txt for the article in the Laker.
Long Lake and unconfirmed, Excelsior have approved the Shorewood resolution. Deephaven has deferred action on it.
The Insider shares the concerns of Mayor Hanus of Mound and the Mound Council about the MCWD's heavy handed operating methods as well as the limited geographic scope of authority the MCWD actually has.
The Insider observed the MCWD's handling of comments on new rules it proposed in 2010. If inadequate review time, and largely ignoring the strenuous objections of cities in the district is to be the operating mode for AIS management, the MCWD is not the agency to be responsible.
Readers should know that the MCWD levies its own property taxes. The MCWD Board is appointed by the Carver and Hennepin County Boards, but it really reports to nobody. Even the State has no operational control over what it does or the amount of taxes it levies. The Executive Director was overheard bragging that the tax base against which it levies property tax is huge and the MCWD could decide to make big tax increases to increase spending. As it is, the MCWD has staff in excess of 20 and even has its own public relations person on full-time staff. They just agreed to do a project in Hopkins which calls for purchasing about $15 million of property along Minnehaha Creek. These are our tax dollars and we have no say in how they're being spent (of course the MCWD would say they have public meetings on expenditures, but they can't be held to account for listening and their decisions).
So, Mound might be correct.
Happy reading!
The Insider
Sunday, October 2, 2011
AIS Joint Powers Agreement Marches Forward
10/2/11
As previously reported in this blog, the JPA dealing with Aquatic Invasive Species management/control was on the Shorewood Council agenda on 9/26. Readers may watch the discussion at http://windowsmedia.alphameetings.com/LMCCShorewood/092611shorewood.wmv and the 1 hour 40 minute point in the video.
This time, the City Attorney had an actual draft of the JPA up for council review. There were a few introductory remarks by the Mayor and Administrator Heck, and extensive comments by Woodruff. Siakel was not at the meeting, Hotvet didn't have anything to say. Zerby only pointed out that in one section it was unclear if the Mayor was a mandatory member of the Board. The Attorney said the Mayor was to be a member along with one other council member and the JPA would be revised to make sure this was clear.
The Insider wonders that for such an important document, creating an entirely new legal entity, why nobody except Woodruff had any comments or concerns. After all, the original idea of controlling access to Christmas Lake and having inspections of watercraft is almost lost in this JPA. The Christmas Lake Association is not even a party to the JPA, but they were supposed to be very active in operating and funding the access control and inspection program. Do you suppose there was pre-discussion and no need for comments at the meeting?
The Watershed board had not met to consider the JPA draft although one can see its Executive Director speak during the discussion. The DNR had not yet responded to the copy it was sent.
The Insider has to agree with Council Member Woodruff that this JPA is unnecessary and seems to be an attempt to create a new bureauacracy when only a simple contract would serve the purpose. Further, if the MCWD wants to be in charge of AIS why doesn't it take the lead and write a contract with Shorewood, the Lake Association and the DNR in which it is the operating entity instead of doing this JPA. Is the MCWD going to add every other city in the watershed to this JPA as it extends its AIS efforts to other lakes and streams? Maybe it plans on multiple JPA's, one with every city? This seems nonsensical to the Insider.
Of course this JPA could be Mayor Lizee's latest attempt to make herself the leader of the AIS efforts in the Lake Minnetonka area. Past attempts by her to organize the cities surrounding Lake Minnetonka have met with resounding indifference. Now she seems to have found an ally in the MCWD.
The Insider anxiously awaits the DNR's response to this JPA creation effort.
Happy Reading!
The Insider
As previously reported in this blog, the JPA dealing with Aquatic Invasive Species management/control was on the Shorewood Council agenda on 9/26. Readers may watch the discussion at http://windowsmedia.alphameetings.com/LMCCShorewood/092611shorewood.wmv and the 1 hour 40 minute point in the video.
This time, the City Attorney had an actual draft of the JPA up for council review. There were a few introductory remarks by the Mayor and Administrator Heck, and extensive comments by Woodruff. Siakel was not at the meeting, Hotvet didn't have anything to say. Zerby only pointed out that in one section it was unclear if the Mayor was a mandatory member of the Board. The Attorney said the Mayor was to be a member along with one other council member and the JPA would be revised to make sure this was clear.
The Insider wonders that for such an important document, creating an entirely new legal entity, why nobody except Woodruff had any comments or concerns. After all, the original idea of controlling access to Christmas Lake and having inspections of watercraft is almost lost in this JPA. The Christmas Lake Association is not even a party to the JPA, but they were supposed to be very active in operating and funding the access control and inspection program. Do you suppose there was pre-discussion and no need for comments at the meeting?
The Watershed board had not met to consider the JPA draft although one can see its Executive Director speak during the discussion. The DNR had not yet responded to the copy it was sent.
The Insider has to agree with Council Member Woodruff that this JPA is unnecessary and seems to be an attempt to create a new bureauacracy when only a simple contract would serve the purpose. Further, if the MCWD wants to be in charge of AIS why doesn't it take the lead and write a contract with Shorewood, the Lake Association and the DNR in which it is the operating entity instead of doing this JPA. Is the MCWD going to add every other city in the watershed to this JPA as it extends its AIS efforts to other lakes and streams? Maybe it plans on multiple JPA's, one with every city? This seems nonsensical to the Insider.
Of course this JPA could be Mayor Lizee's latest attempt to make herself the leader of the AIS efforts in the Lake Minnetonka area. Past attempts by her to organize the cities surrounding Lake Minnetonka have met with resounding indifference. Now she seems to have found an ally in the MCWD.
The Insider anxiously awaits the DNR's response to this JPA creation effort.
Happy Reading!
The Insider
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