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2 Winter 2013-14 Hello Lake Elmo! With my first year as Mayor coming to a close, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for providing me the op- portunity to serve our city. While it has certainly been a lot of work, it has also been a pleasure in many ways, and I have learned much. Getting to know many of you has been a treat. The following items are progress made by the council and staff that I am particularly proud of: • Kept the tax rate flat. Our presentation to Moody’s maintained our Aa2 rating. • With the hard work and commitment of our staff (par- ticularly Mr. Dean Zuleger, our City Administrator), we continue to make improvements in our core city func- tions. •The Council has committed to maintaining orderly and productive meetings. The Council’s adoption of “Speak Your Peace Civility Project” has reaped posi- tive and impressive results. • We improved relationships with our surrounding partners. Two examples: first, partnering with Oak- dale for a sewer project on Lake Olson; second, with our encouragement, the Department of Transporta- tion made improvements to our downtown Highway 5 conditions. These changes will culminate in 2014 with the addition of a stop light. • With sewer now extended to downtown, relief will soon be available for homeowners with troubled sep- tic systems. When these tired system are offline, val- ues will go up and our environment will be all the bet- ter for it. • Created policies that insist on “100% developer pay” formats. These new policies minimize the city’s finan- cial exposure and encourage the successful comple- tion of projects. • New Public Safety, Finance and Human Resource volunteer committees have been established. These provide private-sector knowledge and insight to pub- lic-sector arenas. For a more detailed account of the City’s accomplish- ments in 2013, see the “Accountability” annual report, insert in this newsletter. You can be confident Lake Elmo is headed in a posi- tive direction. Finally, I’d like to thank and acknowl- edge the members of our park and planning com- missions. Their quiet efforts are paying off in a very tangible way. In closing, I hope the holiday season brought you wonderful gatherings of friends and relatives, pleas- ant memories of loved ones past, and the continued blessings that this country continues to bestow upon us all. Mayor Mike Pearson The Mayor’s Corner Regional News Woodbury building and development contractor Greg Watson is passionate about the potential for rapid transit in the Gateway Corridor between Wood- bury and St. Paul. He tells his story, and his daughter’s, in a new video that can be seen at www.TheGate- wayCorridor.com. The video points out the conse- quences of not addressing population growth and corresponding growth in traffic congestion. Transit users, busi- ness leaders, policy experts and pub- lic officials describe how rapid transit will benefit them as it addresses the problem. More than 300,000 people live in the corridor today. By 2030, the popula- tion is expected to swell by 30 percent (90,000 people) and the area is pro- jected to add 30,000 jobs, according to Washington County Commissioner Lisa Weik, who chairs the Gateway Corridor Commission. “With seismic changes such as popu- lation that could double in a certain area, we need to make sure that our infrastructure is robust,” Commission- er Weik said. The Gateway Corridor would serve 11 stations with all-day transit service, while providing a focal point for more concentrated development as the re- gion grows. The Gateway Corridor Commission, comprised of local elect- ed officials, business and commu- nity leaders, is currently conducting an environmental study. During this phase, either bus rapid transit or light rail transit will be selected as the pre- ferred choice. The project is seeking $5 million in bonding from the state in 2014. More information is available at www.TheGatewayCorridor.com. New video introduces benefits of rapid transit project in the Gateway Corridor Rapid transit options are being considered to meet demands of expected population growth in the East Metro.