2004-07-16 Friday News
The Friday News
July 16, 2004
Parks Commission Discusses NURT Trail
Trail alignment options for the proposed North Urban Regional Trail (NURT) were a topic of discussion
at Tuesday's Parks and Recreation Commission meeting. Representatives from the Dakota County
Planning Department presented three trail alignment options to the Commission and sixteen residents
whose homes are located along the North Frontage Road of Highway 110 and had been invited to attend
the meeting to participate in the ongoing design process of this County project. The unanimous
recommendation of the Commission members and the residents at the meeting was that the trail should be
located between the frontage road and Highway 110, identified as Alternate #1, and that the trail, in the
"tight" areas should be eight feet in width and widen to ten feet in areas where the right-of-way widens
out. A four foot high guard rail was recommended in lieu of the chain-link fence shown in earlier plans
and plantings of taller native prairie grasses, on the highway side of the guard rail are intended to "soften"
the hard lines of the guard rail. A typical cross section of the proposed design shows the frontage road
with no curb/gutter on the south side, a four-foot wide gravel shoulder, then an eight-foot wide
bituminous trail, then a two-foot wide section of surmountable concrete curb/gutter with inlet grates to
collect storm water runoff, then the four-foot high guard rail, and a fourteen-foot wide ditch up to the
existing bituminous edge of west-bound Highway 110 driving surface.
Fishing Derby
This week’s big event was the Fishing Derby, which was held on Wednesday evening at Rogers Lake
Park. The weather was perfect and the fish were cooperating. There were 50 young anglers who caught
131 fish – mostly bullheads, but lots of sunfish, some bass and one walleye were also caught. Simon
Babin won the prize for most fish caught – 15, Jared Kluck, age 7 had the biggest fish at 4 5/8 oz.,
Sidney Stockton , age 9 and Kaitlyn Hollerback, age 5 were dual winners of the casting contest (10 and
under) and Nate Moline, age 12 won the casting contest (11 and over).
The volunteers who helped pull this off were:
Scott Seaton and his girlfriend – fishing pro who ran the casting contest.
Cliff Timm – donated tackle boxes
Missy Hickey – donated worms
Dick Spicer – weighed and measured fish
Tom Bertrand – Check in and score keeper
July Wonick – setup
Kathy Swanson – check in and Pictures
Katie Ganglehoff – Casting Contest
And of course the whole event was put together and run by Park and Rec Programmer Teresa Gangehoff
– another great job Teresa!
Par 3
Oral arguments were presented to the Minnesota State Court of Appeals this week over the Par 3 lawsuit.
Mendota Heights was appealing the unfavorable ruling by Judge Lacy at the District Court level. Cliff
Greene and Jessica Schwie were hired by the League of Minnesota Cities Insurance Trust to represent the
City. Cliff told me after the hearing that there were lots of questions of him from the Judges. The Appeals
Court now has 90 days to make a ruling.
Respectfully Submitted,
Jim Danielson
City Administrator
Attachments: Just the Facts, Pipeline, City Council Meeting Agenda, Planning Pre-Application Synopsis,
Fishing Derby Pictures, NURT Phase II map, TwinCities.com (Pioneer Press) Article “City considers jet-
noise suit”, Star Tribune Article “Jet-noise plan scaled back” Appreciation letter from resident and AMM
News.