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HomeMy WebLinkAboutJuly 1977Published by the Arden Association ' - No. 109 July 1977 Each of the two preceding issues of the Town Crier has started out with something about trees, so let's ' not break the pattern. This month Arden Hills said farewell to Mark Peterson, our city Tree Inspector. Mark has t%ken a job as Forester with the City of OPlymouth, supervising three Tree Inspectors and with a nice salary increase. The job here was only wtemporary anyway, so this is a real step up. Our new Tree Inspector is Stephen Flackey, CNwho is a recent graduate in forestry and will be with us at least until September 30. Maybe by then Rall the Dutch elm -disease will be gone. EI Received a nice note from Mr. Lou Perrin of ' the Presbyterian Home with a copy of their publica- R . tion So What's News? They really do see the wild- • life Wy the ekes even the geese and deer know a good place to live. ' There will be a Public Hearing on July 5 at the Planning Commission concerning plans for a Mutual Service Insurance office building to be built south of County Road N and east of Highway 51. There are a lot of things to consider here: the land would have ' to be rezoned from R-1 to R -B; Dunlap and Harriet Streets might need to be extended; traffic and parking would present problems; and possible other uses of the land should be discussed. If you're interested, please come. ' It's time for Arden Hills to begin its annual budget planning for next year. Right now, each committee and department is working out its needs for 1978. By August 5, the requests will all be handed over to the Clerk -Administrator for her to put together into a total preliminary budget. The Finance Committee will study this and make its recommend- ations, and on September 8 there will be a Public Hearing. So, if any of you feel that we are perhaps spending too much for defense and not enough for butter, this is the time to say so. The Council will approve a final budget and tax levy on September 26 or ' October 3, so make your feelings known before then. In our search for a new police chief for Arden Hills, our Clerk -Administrator has so far sent out 28 applications ---even one to Alabama; The starting salary is $18,000 to #21,000 per year, depending upon experience. Currently we have 5 full-time policemen, ' plus one temporary officer, one part-time, and one supervisor,. * * e * e ' Has everyone met Arden Hills' most pleasant plumbing inspector, 71 -year-old Winfield Kest? Our house connected up to city water in June and he was out not three hours after ' the plumber left. Pretty good for a man who had a heart attack only six months ago. I guess what impressed me most about Mr. West though was the few minutes he took to scratch my collie's ears. It's so nice to receive a personal touch when you're dealing with a , government agency. After thepluRnbing inspector, two gentlemen from Arden Hills Public Works department ' came to install the water meter. Known as Big Wayne (Wayne Brunette) and 14ttle Wayne (Wayne Launderville), they were completely stunned when I came out with my notebook and pencil. They said NO ONE ever cares what Public forks does as long as the streets are clear., water comes from the tap, and the toilet flushes. Their supervisor, Bud Johansen, , arrived in the middle of my interview and suggested the headline "Jack of all trades; master of none". In addition to installing water meters, the Public Works department plows and black - tops streets, maintains the 12 sewage lift stations 24 hours a day, repairs hydrants, reads ' meters, removes fallen trees, and generally keeps the village running. They maintain 22 miles of road, 28 miles of sanitary'sewer, and 10-12 miles of storm sever. The five employees are not highly visible because "nobody Over looks down a sewer hole". Mr. Johansen said that AH has a new power generator conning soon that can pump sewage for us in case of a power outage. If the sewage jams up for even an hour, you get over- flows and screams frcm the Pollution Control Agency. , All in all, the three men were quite efficient and entertaining, and they could probably replace Sanford and Son anytime. Reminder f ram the Parks and Recreation Department -- The summer playground program at the various parks began on June 20 and will run for six weeks until July 29. As the ' days begin to get long for the kids, it's a good deal to have these activities for them. Most of the instructors are teachers or college students, so the level of leadership is quite high. And you sure can't beat the price --it's free. Just wander over to your s3closest' park at these timess Pre-schoolers, 90 a.m. until loon, Mondays -- -- Floral Park, Ingerson Park, or Johanna Elementary; Tuesdays and Fridays at Freeway, Sampson, or Valentine Parks. Older children, ? and up, 1s00 p.m. to 4s00 p.m., Mondays and Wednesdays at Freeway, Sampson, or Valentine Parks; Tuesdays and Fridays at Floral Park, ' Ingerson Park, or Johanna Elementary. Regular attendance is not necessary, so if you missed the first week, come anyway. At the May 23rd Council meeting was another episode in the continuing saga of North- western Bible College vs. the World. The neighbors in the immediate area are called Arden ' III, and Arden III is generally opposed to the proposed new fine arts building and associated parking lot. At this Council meeting they were also nervous about having the city attorney, Jim Lynden, represent Arden Hills in court against Northwestern. Arden III feels that , Mr. Lyndon has already expressed his feelings in the matter and could not sincerely argue any other way in court. (He told -the Council to allow Northwestern to build.) The Council offered the job to Lyndon's law firm, but they 'respectfully declined', so Pierre Regnior ' of the firm Jardine, Logan & O'Brien will do the honors for Arden Hills in court. I talked to a few of the Arden III people in the parking lot afterwards and found out they are really angry over the situation. One lady said she had received a letter from a real estate company suggesting that she sell before her property value went down. I men- tioned that it didn't make much difference to me what Northwestern did; I live far enough away. She got sort of mad at that and said I would take a different attitude if it were in my back yard. I agreed and said I had fought Hunter's Park every stop of the way, only ' to lose. Her comment to that was, "Where's Hunter's Park?" Exactly. You care about a project only if it is close and affects you directly. The Council has to take the overview for the entire village. And I might add, while I am still not enthralled about Hunter's Park and the water problems it has apparently caused several ' of my neighbors, there are sure some nice people there. And very active in Arden Hills' civic affairs too. ' it I I Love Councilman Crichton and his attitude toward the Metropolitan Waste Control Commission. It seems the MWCC wants Arden Hills to pass an ordinance that would charge more money to sewer users that have a high strength sewer discharge. Mr. Crichton agrees that these users should be charged more, but strongly objects to the MWCC telling Arden Hills how to go about doing it. MWCC even told us what formula to use to figure out the payments. On the other side of the argument is the fact that MWCC probably knows more about this formula than does Arden Hills. Neverthless, it is an interesting example of the effect of the Metropolitan Council on Arden Hills. Hang in there, Charlie. The Arden Hills Memorial Day Parade, sponsored by the Arden Hills Community Service Club was a most pleasant happening. Although the morning started out on the cool side, it warmed up a lot by marching time. The parade was led by assorted costumed children on decorated bikes, Cub Scout Packs 34 -and 419, Junior Girl 'Scout Troop 1254, and Brownie Troop 901. Oce of the scout leaders whispered to me that the hardest part of the whole affair was trying to figure out who should carry the flags. The Twin City Early Ford V-8 Club provided a variety of antique cars that seemed to fascinate nearly everyone. I admired the upholstery in one convertible and found out that a lady in Cambridge sewed it for the car. That seems like an impossible job. All of the cars were obviously cared for and loved. The Johanna Junior High "A" Band sent 10 or so volunteers to give us some marching music; unfortunately all the trumpets stayed home, but the group did magnificantly without them. From the Presbyterian Home came their King and Queen, plus the 13 members of the Kitchen Band -Aides and Pam-pon girls. This last group mustheLve arrived promptly at the assembly time of 9s15 a.m., because when I talked to them at 10100, one gal remarked, "We're going to be a lot older than we are now if we doa't get goings" White Bear Lake American Legion Post 168 Clown Club marched with the parade, as did seven Vulcans from the St. Paul Minter Carnival. The Vuloans actually provided most of the real excitement of the parades As the leader, Jack Crawford, jumped off their truck to kiss a girl, he fell and the truck ran over his arm. The bone in the upper part of the arm was broken, and Vulcanus Rex made an abrupt departure from the parade. My 12 -year-old and 42 -year-old were especially interested in the racing ear that was pulled on its trailer by Greg Cole and Dick Carpenter. Dick is the president of the Mid- west Sprint Association, and Greg had raced the oar in Grand Forks the preceding night, was going to race at the Northstar track that evening, and would then race in Winnipeg the next day. Sound fun? There were supposed to be a few more of the cars in the parade, but after Grand Forks, a couple were in the shop. All in all, it was delightful. But as with so many things in life, you get out of this parade just what you put into it. If you are excited and enthused, you will have fun. The Arden Hills Community Service Club deserves thanks and praise for its work. The plans for the Town Crier Pancake House on the Southwest corner of Lexington Ave. and 694 seem to be going ahead with little dissention. The only question asked at either the Planning Commission or Couaoll meetings on this subject was if the roof HAD to be such a violent canary yellow color. And the reply was that yes, this is a part of the Image of the restaurant chain, just like golden arches and MacDonald's. Since the location is rather isolated however, nothing more was said. It was also pointed out that the roof would probably be covered with snow six months of the year anyway. Even including the roof, it's not a bad looking building. Z961 'ON Iiwaad •uuiW 'fined '3S QIVd IDYiSod 's 'n �rsdx x�ng �1D �w]B ail Another idea has surfaced for the use of the closed gas station on the Northeast corner of County Road D and Cleveland. A Best Food restaurant is in the works, planned to be 'sit-down' rather than 'fast-food'. Either way, I bet the kids from Johanna Junior High will love iti JULY CALENDAR July 5 Planning Conffiission (Public Hearing on 7130 p.m. , Mutual Service Insurance office building) 6 Public Works 7130 p.m. 7 Human Rights 7130 p.m. 11 City Council 7130 ' P.M. 12 Parks and Recreation (Meet at Trinity Lutheran 8s00 p.m. Church parking lot at 7100 p.m. for a study of Hazelnut Park) ' 13 Rice Crook Watershed 7130 p.m. 14 Finance Committee (Tenative - Call Villi►ge 7130 P.M. Hall first.) ' 25 City Council 7s30 p.m. 27 Rice Creek Watershed 7s30 p.m. All meetings are held at the Village Hall, 1450 W. Highway 96. ' * * * * Please send your correspondence tot Diane McAllister, 1200 Ingerson Rd., Arden Hills, 55112 Phones 484-0773 They say, "No news is good hews," but not when you're writing a newsletter!