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Jan Callison
Commissioner
6th District
612-348-7886
Allyson Lueneburg
Principal Aide
612-348-6885
Dauna Sprowls
Administrative Assistant
612-348-3168
The Hennepin County Board of Commissioners consists of one commissioner from each of seven districts. I am proud to represent Deephaven, north Eden Prairie, Edina, Excelsior, Greenwood, Hopkins, Long Lake, Minnetonka, Minnetonka Beach, northern Mound, Orono, Shorewood, Spring Park, Tonka Bay, Wayzata and Woodland.
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Southwest light rail
Understanding your property tax
 2015 Rethink Recycling
Rethink Recycling is providing the necessary tools to improve recycling at home and in the workplace. Visit their webpage to download predesigned signs or create your own custom sign. The webpage provides resources for printing specifications, signage best practices, and more helpful information for recycling needs.
Step to it challenge is a fun, light-hearted way to connect with family, friends, and neighbors, and get moving. Twenty four communities will compete to see which one has the most active residents.
Registration begins April 1 and the competition takes place from May 3 - May 30, 2015. Visit their webpage for more information and join me in making our communities active!
Hennepin County and Minnesota Indian Affairs Council (MIAC) staff have met on site and established a mutually acceptable area that will be checked for additional remains and artifacts. An agreement between Hennepin County and Hamline University is being prepared to cover the expenses of the archeological work needed to ensure all disturbed remains and artifacts are recovered and restored to their burial site. Representatives from both MIAC and the
Mdewakanton Sioux Community will be directing and participating in all aspects
of the recovery and ceremonial reburying activities as they progress.
Field work is anticipated to commence within the month of April, depending on
weather conditions, as the ground must be free of frost and in a dry condition for
the work to be accomplished. The recovery work is anticipated to take
five weeks to complete. Thank you for your patience.
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Greetings,
I hope you are enjoying my electronic newsletters, and find them interesting and informative about county activities. In addition to my monthly newsletter, the county sends various
newsletters and notifications available by email or text message. To explore the many opportunities to
subscribe or to change your preferences, visit the subscription webpage.
Please feel free to send me your comments through my feedback form on issues that concern you or you would like covered. I value your opinions.
Warm regards,
Jan Callison
March 3, 2015
Improving services for children and youth
The
Hennepin County Board of Commissioners voted to approve a proposal to allocate
more than $1.3 million to improve outcomes for children in the county. The
measure reflects initial recommendations from the Children’s and Youth Services
Comprehensive Review, which examined outcomes for children in foster care and
the child protection program. The funding will create three new areas of focus:
- The Infant Court Model ($288,000)
- Foster Care Child Care ($750,000)
- Community Specialists ($320,000)
Click here for the full press release.
Board appoints members to citizen advisory board
For the County Extension Committee (Minnesota Extension Service)
the board appointed Anthony Ware of Minneapolis and Michael Mensah of
Minneapolis.
Thomas Brooks of Maple Grove was appointed to the Human
Resources Board.
To the Library Board they reappointed Cassandra Johnson of St.
Louis Park and appointed Barbara Fenton of Minneapolis and Ann Adja of Maple
Grove.
March 17, 2015
Board moves to buy land to improve public safety
The county board approved a $1.8 million land purchase in
Crystal in order to maintain public safety standards which would be negatively
impacted by a proposed rerouting of freight trains through Crystal,
Robbinsdale, Golden Valley, and Minneapolis. The board’s purchase reflects the
significant public safety concerns involved with the railroads’ proposal,
including the simultaneous and disruptive closure of frequent grade crossings
that will sever the east-west connection for police, fire and rescue teams attempting
to help those in need. The purchase of the land located at 5170 West Broadway
is an effort to prevent the rail connection that would bring hazardous traffic
through dense residential communities that have not previously been exposed to
such traffic.
County to offer paid parental leave
The county board approved a policy to offer paid parental leave
to new parents. The county policy will be implemented May 1, 2015 and provides
up to three weeks (120 hours) of 100 percent paid parental leave to eligible
parents following the birth or adoption of a child. The policy will be used as
a tool to attract and retain employees and give parents additional flexibility
and time to bond with their new children, adjust to their new family
situations, and balance their professional obligations.
Youth sports equipment grants awarded
The county board approved $124,956 for 25 small equipment grants for
the Hennepin Youth Sports Program. The funding runs from May 1, 2015 through
April 30, 2016. Projects in District 6 include:
- City of Deephaven $9,650 for
two outboard boats, one pontoon boat and three sets of sails at Lake
Minnetonka Sailing School
-
Eden Prairie ISD 272 $10,000
for a wrestling mat at Eden Prairie High School
-
Hopkins ISD 270 $1,079 for
soccer goals, tackling dummies and pitching machines at Glen Lake
Elementary School
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Minnetonka ISD 276 $5,000 for a
playground at Scenic Heights Elementary School
Agendas and minutes of action taken by the Hennepin County Board are posted under Hennepin County meetings and agendas. For greater detail on the above agenda items and additional board actions, visit the county news release webpage.
In addition to our regularly scheduled board meetings, the board
often meets on Thursday mornings to receive board briefings. These are
informal opportunities to discuss emerging issues. No decisions are
made. Board briefings occur in the board room on the 24th floor of the
Hennepin County Government Center and are open to the public.
March 12, 2015
Southdale Regional Center
Staff
presented information about opportunities at Southdale Regional Center relating
to the service center, court and library.
As background, staff shared information about physical and other
deficiencies at the Southdale building including code concerns, aging building
systems, site issues, site circulation and wayfinding. They discussed four possibilities: relocate the service center to the Southdale
shopping center; relocate the court to Bloomington; construct a new Southdale
library on a portion of the current site; and work with the City of Edina to
redevelop the remainder of the site. Staff intends separately to bring these
items to the County Board for action.
The first item to be considered will be the relocation of the service
center which may come before the County Board in April.
March 26, 2015
Vegetation management
Staff
is proposing the creation of a gravel-bed tree nursery at the Adult Corrections
Facility in Plymouth. These nurseries,
which have been developed by a number of other local units of government in
Minnesota, provide a lower-cost source of trees with better survival rates than
conventional container trees available from commercial nurseries. Staff believes that growing this stock will
permit the county to be more proactive in responding to the significant loss of
ash trees that is expected because of the presence of the emerald ash borer.
House and redevelopment authority strategic plan
The purpose of this briefing was to update the
Board on current HRA strategic planning efforts and solicit feedback on new
opportunities in 2015-2020. As
background, staff reviewed HRA powers and county trends (growing population,
increasing diversity, aging population, sluggish wage growth and increasing
suburban poverty). It presented three
strategic plan goals: support a full
range of housing opportunities; enhance regional economic competitiveness and
build the long-term value of communities.
And it described a number of potential initiatives/opportunities that it
believes will support these goals.
April 21
Public hearing on housing programs
There will be a public hearing on Tuesday, April 21 at 1:30 p.m.
about the 2015 -2019 Hennepin County Consortium Five Year Consolidated Plan and
the 2015 Hennepin County Consortium Annual Action Plan. These are plans
required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in order
to receive HUD funds for the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program,
the HOME Investment Partnerships (HOME) Program, and the Emergency Solutions
Grant (ESG) Program.
The consortium includes the HUD entitlement jurisdictions of
Hennepin County and the cities of Bloomington, Eden Prairie, Minnetonka and
Plymouth. The 2015-2019 Consolidated Plan will include prioritized goals in
specific housing and community development categories as required by HUD.
Public comment will be solicited on the draft 2015-2019 Hennepin
County Consortium Five Year Plan and the draft 2015 Hennepin County Consortium
Action Plan for 30 days beginning April 1, 2015. For more information visit the
county’s housing plans webpage.
Southwest LRT station design open houses
Five open houses will be held for community members to view lightrail station architecture concepts and to learn about the designing process. Metropolitan Council staff will be in attendance to provide input and answer questions. To view materials or to provide comments, please visit www.swlrt.org.
Below is the schedule of meetings:
Minneapolis Stations
Thursday, April 2, 2015, 5:30-7:30 PM
Wednesday, April 8, 2015, 7:30-9:30 AM
Dunwood College of Technology
818 Dunwoody Blvd., Minneapolis
St. Louis Park Stations
Wednesday, April 8, 2015, 5:30-7:30 PM
St. Louis Park City Hall
5005 Minnetonka, Blvd., St. Louis Park
Eden Prairie Stations
Thursday, April 9, 2015, 5:30-7:30 PM
Eden Prairie City Center
8080 Mitchell Road, Eden Prairie
Hopkins and Minnetonka Stations
Tuesday, April 14, 2015, 5:30-7:30 PM
Hopkins City Hall
1010 First Street South, Hopkins
May 10, 2015 - June 27, 2015
Hopkins Library to close temporarily for renovation
The Hennepin County Library located in Hopkins (22 - 11th Ave. N.) will close for renovations Sunday, May 10 at 5:00 PM. The library is scheduled to re-open Saturday, June 27 at 9:00 AM.
The library improvements will include a new single service point, enhanced areas for adults, teens and children, and new furniture and carpet. Casual seating and lounge areas will be added, along with better access to power outlets for charging personal electronic devices. New automated materials handling equipment will streamline the book return process.
During the seven-week closure, Hopkins Library patrons are encouraged to visit other Hennepin County Libraries: Ridgedale Library is located at 12601 Ridgedale Dr. in Minnetonka; Minnetonka Library is located at 17524 Excelsior Blvd.; and the Edina Library is located at 5280 Grandview Square.
For additional information regarding the Hennepin County Library system, please visit their webpage.
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