2005-08-12 Friday News The Friday News
August 12, 2005
THE WINE MARKETS WEB SITE IS BORN
Bob and Kristen Kowalski notified us this week that they have a web site that is now up and
running. Try it out at www.thewinemarket.us. In t heir web site, they say that their grand opening
will be in early October 2005 at 720 Main Street, Suite 101 in the Village at Mendota Heights, that
date is just around the corner, let’s hope they are right.
JUDGE METZEN TO THE RESCUE
At the request of Bill Bernard, the City’s Prosecuting Attorney, Judge Leslie Metzen has agreed to
hear all of Mendota Heights’ Zoning Ordinance criminal matters on her Community Court
Calendar. Judge Metzen currently holds this court monthly at the Northern Service Center in West
St. Paul. She implemented the court to help out West St. Paul and South St. Paul. Bill feels that
this should help expedite our zoning ordinance prosecutions, which are currently difficult to
complete in a timely fashion. The fact that the court is being held at the Northern Service Center
will also be more convenient for the violators and hopefully be more available to allow neighbors
and complaining parties to attend and have a voice in the process. The first court date was this
Thursday.
INCIDENT COMMAND TRAINING
Chief Aschenbrener left Monday to “job shadow” the liaison for the type 2 incident management
team for the forest fire that is currently burning at the end of the Gunflint Trail. The Dakota County
Domestic Preparedness Committee that Mendota Heights is a member of by a joint powers
agreement, has formed a county wide incident management team. Earlier in the year 32 EMS,
Police, Fire and Public Health personnel attended two weeks of training on incident command for
managing natural or man-made disasters. Mike reported that this was an outstanding ‘on the job
training’ opportunity for him. The West St. Paul deputy police chief and two Inver Grove Heights
Fire Fighters were also up north shadowing their positions.
MERP
Collette Jurek, Dave Callahan and Conrad Miller, stopped by City Hall on Wednesday this week to
update Sue and me on MERP. MERP is an energy/particulate reduction program, under which Xcel
will be converting their High Bridge Power Generation Plant fro m coal to natural gas. They
informed us that, with the exception of replacing some old steel lattice type structures with new
wood H frame wood structures, and replacing some of the existing H frame wood structures that
require maintenance, the electric transmission lines will be replaced on their existing H frame
structures. They also informed us that after inspecting and testing their existing 26” high pressure
gas line that runs through our city, they will make any improvements, replace the line from Eagan to
Wagon Wheel Trail and then increase the pressure in the line from 350 psi to 650 psi to be able to
supply enough gas to run their High Bridge plant. These Xcel officials are planning on attending
the second City Council meeting in September to update the City Council on these facts. Note: Due
to new law changes, Xcel no longer needs permits from the City when they make these
improvements.
RELAY FOR LIFE UPDATE
The July 25 th Mendota Heights Relay for Life raised $19,181.46 to date, with contributions still
coming in. There were 9 teams this year from the area. There were 2 MH City teams – “The
Avengers” vs the “Fire Department” (with varying reports on which was the better team).
ANNUAL PWG BBQ
Public Works held their annual BBQ this Thursday at noon. It had to be held indoors this year due
to rain, but that did not dampen the fun. It was a great time with great food – where did you guys
learn to cook like that? Thanks to public works!!!
Respectfully submitted,
Jim Danielson
City Administrator
Attachments: Just the Facts, Pipeline, City Council Agenda , Pre-Application Meting Synopsis,
SouthWest Review Article “Deal to save Pilot Knob in the works” and “Keeping up appearances in
MH” and letter from Sprint .