03-02-98 CCM - Laserfiche WebLink

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Mayor's Report March 2,1998 1. I attended an Open House for North American Wetland Engineering on February 20. A great deal of progress had been made on the acceptance of constructed wetland technology in Minnesota. Some 70 sites are under development in Minnesota, and the PCA is expected to remove the experimental designation from these waste water treatment systems this year. In addition, detail changes in design requirements, such as the amount of separation from mottled soils will be made. The Open House was a good event - and an unsolicited comment from my wife was that the Planning, Parks and Village Commissions should be again exposed to the technology. 2. I hosted the Elected Officials Meeting of School District 622, on February 4, and circulated the minutes a few days later. 3. On February 24, I sat in on the meeting of the Parks Committee of the Lake Ehno/Baytown Consolidation study. Baytown park activities are passive relating to walking, nature observation and some hunting on DNR lands. Several bike routes are identified on the shoulders of County Roads 67 and 21, as well as a dedicated route within Cloverdale Farm. There are no public Park facilities, although the DNR has identified a 198 acre site adjacent to Oak Park Heights as a public wildlife management area. There was a great deal of interest in creating a trail through Baytown, into Lake Elmo and up to Sunfish Park, returning east to Baytown and back down to the small piece of Baytown which lies along the St. Croix. It was felt that this was a project which required active planning following consolidation. 4. On February26, I attended the discussion on Minnesotan Transportation policy at the Landmark Center. Curt Johnson of the Met Council, Richard Stehr of MnDoT and Representative Alice Hausman were the speakers. There was a strong emphasis that transportation problems were likely to increase within 10 years and that a consolidated road and rail system was needed. Road construction costs were prohibitive, and commuter rail costs per mile of track were considerably lower. The questions related to carrying capacity and system user friendliness both of which would have to be addressed for a rail system to be effective. MnDot was working with the Met Council to squeeze more productivity out of the existing road system,improve bottlenecks and provide some expansion. None of these studies could address how the needs generated by urban sprawl were to be met, and commuter rail systems and dedicated bus lanes were likely to have more attention in the near future. Curt Johnson emphasized that there will be no real change until people get involved. Past policies in road construction will not work for the next 25 years. Consequently, the Met Council will sharply constrain growth at the edges, and would aim to provide incentives to incorporate more population