[Music] we're working really hard right now to help businesses and residents through what's a really unstable time and uncertain time you know it's it's uh it's unfortunate but man i'll tell you blaine businesses restaurants residents are resilient i've been so impressed by the number of restaurants and businesses that are still fighting to work and develop and want to open new restaurants and want to you know keep moving on forward with development and just just shows i think how resilient uh you know the the people are and man we have got we've got a lot happening on the development side of things we've got a lot happening on highway 65 momentum on on fixing those inadequacies which will open up our entire city and really blaine then becomes the gateway to northern minnesota as well so a lot to work on and man we're just rooting for the pandemic to end as soon as possible and you know for people that can you know vaccinate safely and for everyone else to stay healthy and get the city and businesses and residents you know back online several brand new restaurants breaking ground opening up coming you'll start to see the plans for those coming forward there is development that is uh scheduled uh in that lexington corridor right now some more retail space restaurants hopefully grocery some office space on that lexington 109th area and then we have proposals coming before the city council large commercial industrial uh around the 35w area you know big big developments i think three three different buildings 000 square feet you know just really the opportunity and possibility for you know a lot of jobs uh in a great part of town so a lot in the works and i'll tell you that is one of the things that is so impressive to me right now despite all the uncertainty uh developers and business owners and restaurateurs are betting on blaine and we're excited for that and we think they should right now we're going through our our police community survey our police department under great leadership of chief padani our our police department really wants to know how can we be a partner and be a fabric of the community and not just be another department or not just serve the community but really be a part of the blane community we want to know how our police department can conserve you better and and be a positive impact and influence on our community the biggest thing is is man we're just pulling for our our youth sports to come back online we know that sports in in the city of blaine is a huge deal uh you know especially with the national sports center so we're really hoping that youth sports can come back online and they have been we just want to be able to see more and more of that open up and then really getting ready for the pga tour to come back to blaine it was such a disappointment to not be able to have the fans out man i'll tell you that inaugural year was just such an amazing tournament uh you know just showcased blaine so well and and the players just played their they're out of their minds they you know it's just a fantastic tournament we are uh just so excited to to be able to host that again this year and we are you know just really hoping that comes off strong and that we can have the the fans in attendance and that we can have all the activity in and around the area you know i mean that is one of the the larger events you know that we'll have and then you know the the national sports center if we can have and host that junior world cup again i think will be a huge a huge deal brings people from all over the world to the city of blaine to the state of minnesota that's the catalyst for that and so again we want to showcase blaine and we want to welcome those soccer players and their teams and families from from all over the world so i've lived in blaine for almost 20 years now my wife and i we have uh three beautiful biological children we have one beautiful foster daughter they are ages 12 to six and so we're we're busy with the you know as much as we can the sports schedule and school schedule and uh you know just having a lot of fun as a family together and um you know that's where we spend a lot of our time is you know in and around the city as a family and look forward to hopefully this spring and summer being able to to be out and about a little bit more i served eight years in the minnesota legislature and so really got a great understanding of you know who the city of blaine really is and you know really grasping firsthand the potential that the city has while i was serving in the legislature and when this opportunity came up you know it was an opportunity i think for me to sit there and say you know what i i see and believe in the potential that this city has i see everything that it can be does it does it work with my family schedule with work schedule and do the people of blaine agree with the vision that we can set forth honored that they they responded so well and overwhelmingly to say yes let's move forward let's take a bold vision and help blaine realize as much potential as possible and so i'm just excited to have this opportunity and really looking forward to you know helping blaine maximize his [Music] potential [Music] you