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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 Rain gardens benefit our community Floral Park Two new employees join City Business focus: Allegra News from the City CouncilI am often asked about what the City spends the most money on from the City’s general fund in any given year. (The general fund is made up of the rev- enue from property taxes along with other smaller sources of income.) The answer is – public safety. Public safety expen- ditures accounted for 44 percent of last year’s general fund spending. Public safety includes police protection, fire protection, emergency management, and 911 dispatch services. One of the traditions in Arden Hills is to provide first rate services at budget prices. We are able to do this by partnering with surrounding communities. Arden Hills does not have its own fire department; we come together with Shoreview and North Oaks to contract with the Lake Johanna Fire Department, which provides fire pro- tection to all three areas. We do not have our own police department; along with seven other communities, we contract with Ramsey County to provide police patrol to a large portion of Northern Ramsey Coun- ty. By doing this, we are able to get a much higher level of service than if we were to provide those services all by ourselves. July 1, 2015, was a historic day for Arden Hills, the Lake Johanna Fire Department, and our partner communities of North Oaks and Shoreview. On that day, the fire department completed an implementation plan started in 2009. The Lake Johanna Fire Department finally achieved staffing of two fire stations with six firefighters in total, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. What does that mean to the residents of Arden Hills? That means, when you dial 911 for a medical emergency or to report a fire, within 90 seconds of your call be- ing answered at the Ramsey County 911 center, Lake Johanna firefighters will be in a truck responding to your emergency. No longer will they be paged at home or work and have to first go to a station and get on a truck and respond to your emergency. A small number will be on duty around the clock ready to do what they do best, save lives and property. Staffing two stations around the clock saves roughly two to three minutes per call – minutes that are vital when you need it the most. Stop in and say hi and thank all the fire- fighters for their service at this year’s Lake Johanna Fire Department Fall Open House, taking place Saturday, October 3, 2015, from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at Station # 3, 5545 Lexington Avenue North (at County Road I). There will be truck and equipment displays, and fire truck rides will be avail- able until 1:30 p.m. for kids big and small. Shifting gears, I want to welcome The Tav- ern Grill, the soon-to-be newest addition to our City. The Tavern Grill will be opening near the Walgreens in Arden Plaza some- time next spring. The City Council at the August 31, 2015, meeting approved plans for a 9,500 square foot restaurant with an attached 3,050 square foot outdoor patio area for seasonal seating. For years, one of the comments most heard in Arden Hills is the lack of high quality sit-down restau- rants in our City. The Tavern Grill will help fill the void. Hemisphere Restaurant Partners, the own- ers of The Tavern Grill, have three other restaurants in Blaine, Edina, and Wood- bury. Having been to their Blaine location before, I am excited for what this new business brings to Arden Hills. If you are curious about what the Arden Hills location will be like, visit thetaverngrill.com, and that will give you an idea of the menu and the type of restaurant that will be coming to Arden Hills. For a community of just under 10,000 people, I am constantly amazed by the amount of activity in our City. That pace will only increase as development starts on the TCAAP property. It is an exciting time to live in Arden Hills. I hope you are as excited for the future as I am! Warmest regards, Dave McClung Dave McClung City Council Member