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2002-09-27 Friday News The Friday News September 27, 2002 th 11 Annual Fire Awards th At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, the 11 Annual Fire Safety awards will be presented. The Fire Safety Awards program recognizes those firms which consistently and conscientiously emphasize the importance of fire safety in the work place. The following firms are to receive an award in 2002: A.R.R.T., Ecolab, General Pump, L.C.S. Metal Stamping, Mendakota Country Club, Minnesota Knitting Mills, Patterson Dental Supply, Somerset Country Club, Specialty Equipment, and Tempco Manufacturing. In addition, two new plaques will be presented to the following firms to acknowledge their work in creating a fire-safe atmosphere: Brown College and TAJ Technology. Congratulations to these Mendota Heights businesses! Plaque of Appreciation to Jill Smith On Tuesday, Mayor Mertensotto will present a plaque of appreciation on behalf of the City of Mendota Heights to former City Council member Jill Smith, who served as the Mendota Heights Representative on the Blue Ribbon Panel. When MASAC disbanded, the Blue Ribbon Panel was established to develop a new MSP noise committee framework. Three community and three airport user representatives were appointed by their respective constituencies to serve on the panel. The community members on the panel were Barret Lane- Minneapolis City Council member, Jamie Verbrugge – Eagan’s Assistant City Administrator, and Jill Smith – former member of the Mendota Heights City Council. The airport users on the panel were John DeCoster – Northwest Airlines Regional Director of Airport Affairs, Bob Johnson – member of the Minnesota Business Aviation Association, and Pete Levermore – UPS Airport Properties Representative. The work of the Blue Ribbon Panel, with Jill’s involvement, resulted in the formation of the new MSP Noise Oversight Committee. Teamsters Negotiation On Monday, City staff met with the Public Works Union Steward John Boland and Teamsters Business Agent Ron Enger to begin contract negotiations for 2003. We will meet again in November after the Council budget workshop and once the health insurance rates are in. We are hopeful that a contract settlement will be reached st before January 1. CDA Final Plans and Developers Agreement On Tuesday, the City Council will review the final plans for the CDA senior facility in the Town Center Development. The Concept plan was presented to the Council in August and received rave reviews. The building is mainly stone, brick and stucco and features French balconies. The Council will also consider the developers agreement with the CDA on Tuesday night. Once the plans are approved, the CDA will solicit bids for construction with the intention of breaking ground on the building in November. Mendota Heights Livable Communities Grant Application Progresses to Next Round Good news! The Livable Communities Demonstration Account Advisory Committee met on September 23rd to complete its preliminary evaluations of 38 applications and make its first cut. After much discussion, the Advisory Committee decided to invite 20 of the applicants in for a question and answer session. I'm happy to report that the application for the City of Mendota Heights was one of those applications. I will appear before the Livable Communities Board in October to answer their questions. The grant awards will be made in December. Jeans Are OK for United Way It’s United Way campaign time again and the City of Mendota Heights has a strong tradition of caring for our community through the United Way. As we did last year, October is “Jeans are OK for United Way” month. The employees donate $1.00 to United Way for everyday that they choose to wear jeans to work in the month of October. It’s a fun way for the employees to participate and raise money for this organization. If you would like additional information about the United Way, their website is www.unitedwaytwincities.org. Automatic Door Openers for City Hall The 2002 Budget includes funding for the installation of ADA compliant automatic door openers at both the upper and lower level main entrance doors to City Hall. Funding for this improvement would come from the City Hall Fund. Guy Kullander received proposals from three companies for the work and is recommending that the Council award the work to the lowest bidder, Roy C., Inc. The Council will consider this item at the meeting on Tuesday night. Appointment of MSP Noise Oversight Committee Representative For more than 30 years at the Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport (MSP) the Metropolitan Aircraft Sound Abatement Council (MASAC) provided an airport noise forum comprised of an equal number of community and airport user representatives. In October of 2000, the airline members resigned from the Council citing concerns that the organization had become an unbalanced community advocacy group. A Blue Ribbon Panel was established to develop a new MSP noise committee framework. Three community and three airport user representatives were appointed by their respective constituencies to serve on the panel. The panel discussed several topics related to the specific elements associated with a new organizational framework that addresses both airport user and community concerns. The panel developed a recommended framework for the new MSP Airport Noise Oversight Committee that was approved by the MAC Commission. The Committee will have twelve members with six airport user representatives and six community representatives. The community representation will be defined as those communities within or touched by the most recently developed and submitted Part 150 65 DNL Contour (Eagan, Mendota Heights, Minneapolis, Richfield and Bloomington). There will also be one ad hoc member that represents the other communities (St. Paul, Inver Grove Heights, Burnsville, Apple Valley, Sunfish Lake and St. Louis Park.) The airport user, airline and pilot members will be determined by the MSP Airport Airlines Affairs Committee (AAAC), with one vote to each of the following—a scheduled airline representative, cargo carrier representative, charter operator representative, chief pilot representative and Minnesota Business Aviation Association (MBAA) representative. The City of Mendota Heights is provided with a voting position on the NOC. We recently received a letter from MAC Executive Director Jeff Hamiel requesting that the City appoint its representative and an alternate. The first meeting of the NOC is anticipated to be in late November. Meetings will be scheduled every other month during business th hours at the MAC general offices. At the September 17 City Council meeting, the Council asked staff to put this item on the agenda for the first meeting in October. At that time, the Council would discuss interested individuals and appoint a representative and an alternate to the MSP Noise Oversight Committee. Heights Highlites The fall edition of the Heights Highlites is in progress. This edition will contain biographies of all of the local election candidates, as well as general election and City news. Watch for this latest edition in your mail in early October. Final Thought “ The real moment of success is not the moment most apparent to the crowd.” -- George Bernard Shaw Respectfully Submitted, Cari Lindberg Administrator Attachments: Pipeline, Just the Facts, Planning Synopsis, City Council agenda, Sun Current articles “Man charged in fatal car crash in Mendota Heights,” “Former MH council member files for mayor.”