Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout1990 December•. •,. Mill I am 1 irk Many Cottage Grove merchants are sponsoring holiday food, clothing, or toy collections for those in need. A partial list of local collection points follows. Please be generous! Cub Food: Toys for Tots; deadline Dec. 14 chil -First Bank: Toys for Tots (new unwrapped toys for any age "Mitten and Sock Tree" (new mittens and socks for kids or adultS); deadline: Dec. 19 Hampton Bank: Food collection for S. Washington County K -Mart: "Angel Tree" (for children who may not otherwise get a Christmas gift) Salvation Army Bell Ringer Salvati Rainbow Food: Santa Anonymous toy collection (suggested toy�� by age groups are posted in the store) g inyder's: Toys for Tots (new unwrapped toys for any age chil d); ♦ ad D ec. 17 S. Washington County Volunteer Services: FOOD, CLOTHING, TOYS. POSTAL PATRON Carrier Route Presort Bulk Rate U.S. Postage PAID Permit No. 1 Cottage Grove, MN 55016 LOCAL POSTAL PATRON z 4 City of Cottage G rove City Hall: 7516 80th St. S. Cottage Grove, MN 55016 Open 8 -4:30, M -F ......458 -2800 Police & Fire Emergency.... 911 Police Non - Emergency ..... 458 - 2811 Building Inspections ..458 -2804 Ice Arena ............. ..... .458 -2845 Public Works ... ...... ....458 -2808 Recreation ..... ............ 458 -2834 Fire Hall 2 ...... ............ 458 -2809 Mayor ........... Richard Pederson City Council ........ Bill Buth, Jack Denzer, Lyle Puppe, Jill Seacrist City Administrator Kevin Frazel! Arena Manager.... Tim Johnson Building Official ........ Jim Beane Community Dev .......Gary Berg Finance ................ Diane Archer Fire Chief .......... Denis Erickson Parks, Rec ....John Fredrickson Police Chief ,...... Dennis Cusick Public Works ....... Les Burshten Editor ................... Margo Doten •, � Mayor's Column ...........2 Water, sewer hikes ....... 3 Adopt -a -Park ................ 3 New Bldg. official .......... 3 City Scenes .................. 4 Water temp linked to disease .........................5 Old Cottage Grove .......6 Tree lighting photos ...... 7 Holiday giving ideas .....8 by Kevin Frazell City Administrator Cottage Grove homeowners recently received their "Notice of Proposed Property Tax for 1991 "from Washing- ton County. The notice showed the city's proposed property tax levy to increase five percent for next year, while our one -year population change was indicated at .3 percent. While it is true that the city's proposed gross tax levy increases by five percent, the very good news for property taxpayers is that most of this Increase will be offset by growth in the city's tax base from new construction, along with increased receipts from the metropolitan Fiscal Disparities Program. It is expected that individ- ual property owners will see very little change in the city portion of their property tax bill for 1991. The proposed General Fund budget for 1991 is $6,282,914, up less than one percent from 1990. Continued on Page 2 Students from a Siberian high school are spending the semester at Park Senior High, and recently visited City Hall fora City Council meeting and reception. The students and their twoteachers presented the city with a book about Siberia, a Russian pipe, and a piece of Russian art. The presentation was followed by a reception, hosted by the city, which included a cake (upper right) that read "Welcome to Cottage Grove" in the Cyrillic alphabet. Happy Holidays to all Council, staff, residents/ by Dick Pederson Mayor of Cottage Grove A very special thank you to everyone in- volved in the First Annual Cottage Grove Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony. Lighting a community tree for the holiday season is something that's been at the back of our minds for some time, and we're grateful to the Cottage Grove Area Chamber of Commerce for joining together with the city in sponsoring Tars... Continued from Page 1 However, what appears to be a very modest increase at first glance is largely due to changes in accounting for certain city activities. Once these are cor- rected, real expendi- tures are actually up about 4.3 percent. Proposed significant changesfor1991 include the addition of two police officers, two street maintenance workers, and a secre- tary for the city clerk's office. As indicated in your mailed notice, the city will be holding its "truth in taxation" hearings on Wednesday, Dec. 12, at 7:30 p.m, at City Hall. City staff will give an in- depth presentation on the ceremony. Council President Ann Jorgen- son, and John Walker, Kevin Sicard, Marlys Denzer, and Jerry Ennis worked on the Chamber committee that helped make this possible. From the city, we had hard work from Les Burshten and Wilmer Holz from the Public Works Department, and from Greg Niles, Joe Long, Mary Marty, Boni Schroeder, Charlie Thomas, and John Klinkhammer who put the Christmas lights on the trees. Thanks, too, to Jan Gilbertson, the choir director at Park Senior the proposed budget and the city's financial status. Citizens unable to attend are encour- aged to watch the presentation on cable television Channel 12. At the conclusion of the presentation and public discussion, the Mayor and City Council will either adopt the budget tax levy for 1991 or continue the hearing to Dec. 19. As a final note, the .3 percent population growth is a statistical fluke of the way the Metropolitan Council is calculating population in light of the 1990 cen- sus! In reality, Cottage Grove has been consis- tently growing at about 1,000 residents or five percent per year. High, and to her singers for their great music. And I want to especially thank Santa Claus for his surprise visit to the tree - lighting ceremony. Park Girls' Soccer The city is very proud of our Park Senior High girls' soccer team, which won the state Class AA Girls' Soccer tournament. They've done an outstanding job. Con- gratulations to these fine athletes and their coaches. Officer Tuchner Special congratula- tions to Police Officer/ Paramedic John Tuchner for his heroic actions in rescuing a mother and son from a Newport apartment fire (see picture, page 4). It's people like him who set such a great ex- ample by going well beyond the call of duty. We appreciate his courageous actions. Old Cottage Grove We as the Council and city staff are very pleased with the meeting we held in Old Cottage Grove in late October. It was very productive. Eighty -five people were in atten- dance, and some good ideas and recommenda- tions surfaced. We are now in the process of implementing some of the recommendations. This was a com- plete plus as far as we're concerned. We'll be having four or five more meetings in Cottage Grove neigh- borhoods in the next year. Soviet Students We appreciate and applaud the student exchange program between Park Senior High and schools in the Soviet Union, and thoroughly enjoyed meeting the Russian students who visited a City Council meeting last month. They were a bunch of bright, friendly kids and we really support this program. Commissions The Council, staff, and commission members held a day- long meeting on Nov. 10, and came up with a number of recommen- dations for revising the commission structure to meet the changing needs of the city. More information on this will be available soon. Holiday Greetings On behalf of my wife Maxine and myself, I want to wish a very happy holiday season to the City Council, administrative depart- ment heads, and supervisors and all city employees. Without a doubt, the city employ- ees are one of our greatest assets in Cottage Grove. And to all residents of Cot- tage Grove: our wishes for a very happy holiday season! NZ . • .•- • Continued from Page 6 amplified by the ad- dresses of guest commentators. The first town meetings were held there, and for some years it was also known as the Precinct House. By 1871, when formal village platting took place, the nucleus of the inland village had been established at Old Cottage Grove. The village had always been and always would be residential in character, but its strategic cross- roads location in the midst of a bustling agricultural district made it a focal point for the movement of goods and the provision of services. Village platting began a process that replaced one settlement system, the New England rural village, with another, the Midwest farm trade center, which served the economic needs of its agrarian neighbors with feed mills, black- smith shops, dry goods and hardware stores, hotels, druggists, and farm implement dealer- ships. The farm trade center also fulfilled its civic responsibilities with churches, an enlarged schoolhouse, and a community dance hall, successor to the old lyceum. The overwhelming impression of the Old Cottage Grove that existed and which persists today is that of a relaxed rural neigh- borhood. The private lots in the original plat are commodious, wooded, with large setbacks from the street. At the same time the residential lots are frequently punctuated by outbuildings which knit them together into a continuous yet rhythmic assemblage of struc- tures that undulates back and forth along the streetscape. The main houses presently line up at roughly consistent distances from the street, while outbuild- ings are placed irregu- larly in back. The architecture of the houses as a whole is quite sensitive to the scale of adjacent structures and contrib- utes substantially to the character of each building. Main Street (Lamar Avenue) in Old Cottage Grove is a chronicle of major and minor architectural styles that passed through Minne- sota, depositing Itali- anate, Greek Revival, Queen Anne, Colonial Revival, bungalows, and other relics. The fine homes built in the mid- 1800's by the Yankee gentry estab- lished a precedent that has been actively followed by the village's elite to this day. ❑ Old Cottage Grove: rural village and social institution by Robert C. Vogel City Historic Preserva- tion Officer The rural village is one of the greatest American institutions, perhaps the greatest, in the sense that it has played a greater part than any other in shaping public senti- ment and giving charac- ter to American culture. Such a place still exists today in eastern Cot- tage Grove in the historic village that we today call Old Cottage Grove. Surrounded by lush farmlands, the embryo village of Cottage Grove grew up in the 1850's. A deep wooded ravine provided the natural western limit of the village and dictated its spinal development pattern. The track of the Military Road from Point Douglas, which would later be designated Main Street (it has since been renamed Lamar Avenue) followed the eastern edge of the ravine, finding its way up and down several small knolls, which still give a pleasant aes- thetic undulation to the otherwise straight thoroughfare. Old Cottage Grove was founded by people who tended to view the village as a social institution, a bastion of community values, and Old Cottage Grove fulfilled its civic respon- sibilities in schools modeled after those in the original settlers' hometowns. The first classes were taught in a log cabin: the first schoolhouse was raised in 1852. Cottage Grove would even be consid- ered as a prospective site for Carleton Col- lege. The basis for the social function of the village lay in the homo- geneity of the town's early inhabitants. Most of the original settlers were Yankees or New Yorkers, with a sprin- kling of Irish and Germans. They tended to be young and male: a substantial portion of the Cottage Grove households of the 1850's were made up of single males, and the courting rituals of the bachelors provided a ready -made basis for social gatherings, which may have been under- taken all the more earnestly because single men outnum- bered women of mar- riageable age. The logical focus for social gatherings was the church. The local Methodist congregation, served in the early days by circuit riding preach- ers, erected the first church in the village in 1855. The First Congre- gational Church, organized under the auspices of the Home Missionary Society in 1858, built a fine Greek Revival meeting house in 1866. Like the public school and Congrega- tional Church, the Cottage Grove Lyceum was a direct import from New England. Popular societies for adult literary and scientific education had their roots in the American Lyceum movement that swept through New England in the 1820's. The Cottage Grove Lyceum was organized in 1852, and installed the first circulating library in the county in 1855, published its own newspaper, and spon- sored debates which were sometimes Continued on Page 7 On Dec. 12, 1990, the City Council will consider increases to the water and sewer rates. Increases are necessary due to escalating service costs and charges to Cottage Grove for sewage disposal from the Metropolitan Waste Control Commission (MWCC). MWCC charges will increase 12 percent in 1991. These charges are 68 percent of the total sewer operating budget. The proposal includes a five percent increase in water rates and a 10.5 increase in sewer rates. If you have any questions or would like to receive additional information, please contact Diane Archer, City Finance Director, at 458 -2821. Current Proposed Minimum up to 15,000 gallons $17.85 $18.75 Usage over 15,000 gallons .85/1000 .90/1000 SEWER RATES Commercial Minimum up to 15,000 gallons $22.50 Minimum up to 10,000 gallons $24.90 Usage over minimum $1.25/1000 1.38/1000 Residential Flat rate per quarter $28.50 $31.50 official, Ron Noecker named inspector Jim Beane has been named Chief Building Official for the City of Cottage Grove, and Ron Noecker was hired to replace Beane as the city's Building Inspector. The appoint- ments follow the recent retirement of long -time city employee Everett Anderson, who had been Chief Building Official since 1974. Beane has been with the city since July, 1988, as Building Inspector. Before joining the city staff he owned and operated Beacon Builders, Inc., in Cot- tage Grove, and from 1968 to 1983 worked in the Carpenter/Mainte- nance Division of the Metropolitan Sports Commission. Noecker, who worked for 24 years with Nordling Construc- tion of North St. Paul, most recently served as a Building Inspector for the cities of Inver Grove Heights and Hastings. Anderson was responsible for the inspection of all new construction in the city during a 16 -year period when Cottage Grove more than doubled in size. 0 `Adopt -A -Park' starts in city The Parks, Recrea- tion and Natural Re- sources Commission is spearheading an effort to get local clubs and organizations interested in adopting a park in our community. The program will involve a commitment of groups to remove trash from designated park sites twice each year. Some clubs and organi- zations may wish to go beyond the scope of this program and make contributions to the parks system. Organizations involved in the program will be recognized by the city through the installation of signs mounted at park entrance points. Any organization interested in participat- ing in this program is asked to contact the Parks and Recreation Department at 458- 2808. In this season of good will, please remember the Goodwill Attended Donation Center in the Cub Foods parking lot. The Center is open everyday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m, and will accept donations of any good - condition household items as well as re- cyciabies. E When energy conser- vation became necessary in the 1970's, one of the •o•••••••••••••o••••o••o•o•••• first sources of consump- • Happy 7 y • tion to receive attention HGZpp y Holidays ays to all! was the hot water heater. • ® Lowering the temperature ••os•••••••o•••••••••••o.••oo• of hot water being supplied to a building would save fuel needed to heat the water and would thereby save money. Indeed, just like turning off unused lights and sealing cracks in walls, lowering water tempera- tures could be easily understood by everyone as a sensible way to reduce American dependence on foreign energy sources. Dangerous economy Recently, however, a study conducted at Ohio State University has shown that when the water temperature is too low, the hot water heater can become a breeding ground for the deadly bacteria that cause Legionnaire's Disease. This frequently fatal illness — named for an outbreak that killed 34 American Legion conven- tion -goers in Philadelphia over an eight -day period in the summer of 1976 — is actually a virulent form of pneumonia that strikes without warning and can be easily misdiagnosed until the sufferer is beyond help. Scientists at the Disease Control Center in Atlanta believe that multiple deaths in at least seven other states should also be attributed to outbreaks of Legionnaire's Disease. In the panic - filled weeks after the Philadel- phia deaths, a number of theories were suggested to explain the strange ailment. Some people believed a foreign govern- ment had launched germ warfare against the American Legion; others speculated that the bacteria were transmitted through food or beverages consumed by the conven- tioneers; still others suspected the air- condi- tioning ducts at the convention hotel. As time passed, though, researchers were able to prove that the bacteria —officially known as Legionella pneumono- philia — live naturally in freshwater lakes and streams. Since fresh water is extensively used in municipal water systems, attention then turned to tracing where and how the bacteria could build up to dangerous levels. The Ohio State University study focused on six campus buildings all supplied by the same municipal water main. In four of the six sites, the water temperature had been reduced a decade ago from '140° F to 110° F as a conservation meas- ure. In the two other buildings, the water temperature was still maintained at 135 to 140° F. Lower temperatures foster bacteria The Legionella pneumonophilia bacteria were found in the hot water tanks of all four buildings where water temperatures had been lowered, but not in either building where the tanks had stayed at the higher reading. The research team identified the building where the bacteria were found in greatest concen- tration and had its water tank flushed with 160° F. The double action of hot - water flushing and restoring the higher tank temperature did the trick. None of the dangerous bacteria had returned when the tanks were checked again in six months. How hot is safe? The researchers drew a simple conclusion: when hot water temperatures are maintained at 110 to 120° F, conditions are ripe for a buildup of Legionella pneumonophilia, but when the tanks are flushed with hot (160° F) water and then kept at 135° F to 140° F, the bacteria are eliminated. If you have lowered the water temperature in your home's or company's supply tanks, you may want to discuss the new findings with the Cottage Grove Department of Public Works. The Ohio State study seems to show that while lowering the water tank temperature does save energy, the resulting health risk can make such a conservation measure unwise in the long run. Published by National Fore- men's Institute, 24 Rope Ferry Rd., Waterford, CN 06386