[music] Welcome to Agenda Edina, a program summarizing the actions taken at city hall that affect you most. I'm your host, Dorothia Marty. The Adina City Council wants to hear from residents before deciding whether to move forward with a potential local gun ordinance. The discussion comes after the August mass shooting at Annunciation Church and School in Minneapolis, which prompted several Minnesota cities to call for updated gun laws at the state level. Some cities are exploring their own ordinances. But under current state law, known as preeemption, cities cannot enforce local gun regulations. Earlier this fall, St. Paul approved a gun violence prevention ordinance that would only take effect if the state changes that law. Their ordinance would ban assault weapons, large capacity magazines and binary triggers, prohibit untraceable ghost guns, limit firearms and sensitive public spaces, require clear signage in public facilities, and outline enforcement authority and penalties. Edina city attorney drafted a similar ordinance for the council to review, but city manager Scott Neil said staff could not support it because it would be uninforcable under current law. >> The preeemption uh by the state government is is pretty pervasive. I mean, it doesn't leave a lot uh of options for for cities. So, we're trying to study those and see what maybe other communities have done uh other communities in Minnesota, maybe other communities outside of the state. Council members agreed to first hear from the community. A public hearing is scheduled for January 6th, giving residents a chance to share their views before any action is considered. You don't have to search through dusty archives to learn about the city's captivating past. You can experience it. The Edina Historical Society opened a new permanent exhibit last month called Edina from farm to city. And it's already connecting visitors to days gone by. Edina TV shows us how [music] the show is about to start. Thank you for your cooperation. [music] >> People learn history better when there is that tactile element of you can see [music] the artifacts. You can see the history and you can be near it. >> Objects people used in their daily lives long ago have a new purpose to tell a story. As you're searching through the collection and you find, oh my gosh, we have a gear from the Adina Mill. What was this gear used for? Where in the mill was it located? And then we go down a rabbit trail of learning about how on earth do mills work. >> These things all have a connection to the city's past and its residents, pioneers who called this land home, >> beginning with that Native American presence and into the European settlement. >> Modern neighborhoods replaced farm fields and gave rise to the nation's first indoor mall. And we also have the original Santa bear as well. It's uh very nostalgic for a lot of people. >> Take a seat in a chair from the Wooddale School auditorium and see vintage drive-in theater intermissions going back to the 1950s and study a replica of a fire department office from the 1960s. >> It came out better than I hoped. We had to make a lot of compromises. There were things we had to leave out. Um there was initial plans to do uh certain sections that we just decided were too broad. Uh we wanted to be very specific on on certain aspects of the story. >> On November 14th, [applause] these doors to those stories opened for anyone with a curiosity to explore or immerse themselves in the past. >> Yeah, I think anybody who lives in Edina, it's kind of nice to know about the history. um because it's really a relative recent history that that Edina has developed the way that it has. >> Visitors can simply look around or take a deeper dive into each object through the digital exhibit. >> You can really experience it through several different lenses. >> An exploration from the mid 1800s to the Edina community today >> when really it is a human experience that these are real people who were part of history, people who lived, people who breathed, people who ate. And when you see those objects, that really solidifies for you that this is something that they built, that they used, that was part of their lives. >> Please come back and visit us again. >> I'm Dan Carpenter for Adina TV. >> One of the new interactive exhibits allows visitors to take a mugsh shot using vintage equipment from the Edina Police Department. The Edina Historical Society is located at Arnison Acres Park. Admission is free during business hours, which are 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Tuesdays and 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Thursdays. The city is still committed to making the new 43 acre Fred Richards Park a wetland preserve, but officials are no longer pursuing the formal wetland banking process. In 2023, the city council approved seeking a wetland mitigation bank at the park. A mitigation bank is a restored or enhanced wetland area that can be used to offset impacts to other wetlands. Over the past few years, the city submitted three full applications to regulators. However, each was denied because the evolving park designs couldn't meet all of the program strict requirements. Last month, staff recommended withdrawing from the application process, saying further attempts would likely be costly and unsuccessful. Even so, the design of the 43 acre park will continue to center on creating a high quality wetland preserve. We're working with native and um climate resilient plantings. So, they're going to be some upland areas, so you're going to see some wild flowers. Um, you're also going to see some of the wetter areas, so some of what people typically think of as the wetlands. So, the cattails and the sedges and and the rushes. Um, so a little bit of uh variability in all the different ecotypes. Um, but one other piece too is we're taking all of what's existing and removing any invasive species. So, you'll probably even see there's some buckthornne behind me. Um, those will all be removed as part of this process. Um, and a sustainable native habitat will be put in. Also last month, the council awarded a contract to HNU Construction for early earthwork, marking an important step in moving the 17.7 million project forward. Thank you for watching this episode of Agenda Edina. I'm your host, Dorothia Marty. [music] >> [music]