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Postal Customer ECR-WSS PRST STD U.S. Postage Paid St. Paul, MN Permit #1962 I n s i d e Arden Hills, MN . 55112-5734 Middle Rice Creek Restoration Plans Outlined Perry Park, Arden Hills’ First Road Construction and Local Businesses A Bark & Rec Day – What’s That? News from the Mayor A s your mayor, from time to time I surf the internet to see what is new or updated about our City. It is one of many ways to keep in touch with what is going on. Sometimes I find news that is surprising, and other times it is simply updated figures on a variety of items. This month I would like to share some of the things that I have discovered recently. A few months ago Kate Brown became the Governor of Oregon. What you may not know is that Governor Brown is a 1978 graduate of Mounds View High School. It speaks well of the education she received from the Mounds View School District. She still has family in the area and returns to the Twin Cities to enjoy our many amenities. Arden Hills is the home of a semi-pro football team, the Titans of the Northern Elite Football League (NEFL). The team’s home field is University of Northwestern. The University is actually half in Roseville and half in Arden Hills. Our two cities share master planning approval for the University campus. Technically, I believe the new athletic field is in Roseville, but the internet says the team is based in Arden Hills. See http://www.northernelitefootball. com for more information. Sperlings (http://www.bestplaces.net/ city/minnesota/arden_hills) indicates that our median home cost is $283,700 and increased 8.9 percent last year. The City certainly keeps track of the median home values; however, the increase this year is very strong from a historical perspec- tive. Unemployment in Arden Hills is 4.1 percent versus the national average of 6.3 percent (at the time of reporting). In terms of school funding, we spend more than the national average per student per year. There are 19.1 students per teacher, which can vary from year to year. The graduation rate is 97 percent, which is 8 percent above the state average. In terms of median family income we rank in the 94th percentile in the state with a me- dian family income of $84,757. Only one other Ramsey County city ranks higher, that being North Oaks. According to http://www.areavibes.com/ arden+hills-mn/livability/ our City ranks 20th in the state in terms of an overall livability score. We are given high marks for amenities, education, housing, employ- ment, and a low crime rate. We receive low scores for cost of living, which is 17 per- cent above the state average, and weather, due mainly to air quality. Based on the 2010 census, there were 9,552 people, 2,957 households, and 2,019 families residing in Arden Hills. The racial makeup of our City was 90.3 percent White, 1.7 percent African American, 0.2 percent Native American, 4.9 percent Asian, 1.0 percent from other races, and 1.9 percent from two or more races. His- panic or Latino of any race was 2.8 percent of the population. Of the City’s housing units, 1,065 were developed during the pe- riod of 1970-1979, representing one-third of the homes in our community. Many people know the TCAAP facility was built initially to supply ammo for World War II, which for the U.S. started after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. What is not commonly known is that TCAAP was started in Au- gust of 1941, well before the attack. This fact is commonly overlooked since both occurred in 1941. At its height in 1945, TCAAP employed 26,000 people, more than half of them women. Our “Rosie the Riveter” made bullets. In terms of history, the name Arden Hills comes from two sources. The word Arden came from the name of a large farm in the area called Arden Farms, which was built by millionaire Joseph Hackey in 1906. The name Hills came from the topography of the area. Mounds View got its name from its view of the mounds of sand and gravel, including the glacial kame (hill) on TCAAP. One of the former roads on TCAAP was named after Mounds View. I hope you have found these items of interest. If you have other interesting facts, please send me an e-mail at dgrant@cityofardenhills.org Sincerely David Grant Mayor