[Music] welcome to agenda Idina a program summarizing the actions taken at City Hall that affect you most I'm your host dorothia Marty hi James hueland do mayor Jim huband and council members Carolyn Jackson and James Pierce officially began their new terms by taking the oath of office at the city council's first meeting of the year I city clerk Sharon Allison swore each of them into their offices on both the city council and Housing and Redevelopment Authority the trio was reelected in the 2024 general election their four-year terms will expire in January 2029 the city council met with its legislative delegation from the state earlier this month sharing priorities for the 2025 legislative session Edina has five priorities specific to the community the city seeks money from the state for interchange improvements at Minnesota highway 100 and Vernon Avenue West 50th Street and critical infrastructure repairs in the pump house of the Edina Aquatic Center the city is asking for a sales tax exemption for projects at Brar and Fred Richards Parks the city is also asking for a change in tax increment financing or Tiff legislation to extend the rule to start projects within 5 years of approval to 10 years for two Tiff districts in the greater Southdale District finally the city is asking for a change to state law to better protect Municipal Employees with enforcement functions the current law recognizes the need to protect certain employees whose jobs make it more likely they will be the target of assaults by escalating charges from fifth to fourth degree assaults when they occur against peace officers firefighters school officials and public employees with mandated duties the current law does not extend to employees required to enforce administrative codes rules ordinances and laws as part of their job duties such as building officials utility workers and Municipal liquor store clerks a legislative agenda that is adopted and approved uh by a city council uh is that City council's statement to the state legislature of what it wants to see accomplished in the upcoming session things that they want to see changed uh new things they'd like to see introduced it's it's a way that you can kind of put it all in writing and be clear to everybody involved what the city council wants the 2025 regular session of the Minnesota Legislature began January 14th from tackling flood risks to enhancing infrastructure r spiters work has a lasting impact on Idina recently the American public works association's Minnesota chapter named Ross Bitner the city's Engineering Services manager Public Works manager of the year with 12 years of service to the city he's been recognized for his dedication and innovative solutions Edina TV takes a closer look at how bitner's efforts continue to improve life in our community this is the first of its kind in Minnesota Weber Park is home to a large pond popular with four pod here's a whole bunch of ducks and feathered visitors the duck was trying to get up onto the ice here and then here's a whole bunch of ducks but this Pond is also doing important work we just had a a storm a few days back and the pond paused its normal pump down process so it's actually holding water about a foot higher than normal right now this is called smart infrastructure and it can prevent damaging floods in the Morningside neighborhood it makes a forecast of how much water is going to be coming and then it'll actually pump down ahead of time the Morningside flood infrastructure project was named environmental project of the Year by the American public works Association Minnesota chapter we're just over a thousand members primarily Engineers uh working for cities the counties and States it also selected Engineering Services manager Ross Bitner as manager of the year Ross is just a fantastic guy really committed to the industry not just within the city of Edina but the entire industry advocating for storm water type projects environmental improvements um just to make sure that he leaves his position and leaves the community in a better place than when he started none of the work really happens alone you know it's fun to work on uh these teams and with the spirit of Public Service uh driving us what we do is make sure that you know normal happens every day in a community work that often goes unrecognized so the apwa celebrates projects that are making a difference and the people who make it happen it's easy to push the processes that were in place before you uh Ross doesn't do that he's willing to dive into the details talk about what works what doesn't and really push some of these initiatives that we need to a lot of times they're hard expensive create a lot more work but they do leave the world in a better place than when he started Bitner says for those entering the engineering field working in the public sector comes with lasting rewards what we build uh is here on the landscape and our successes and our failures are right there in front of the community so when you really get a project that's a hit that uh connects with what the community wants um you know you couldn't take this away from people because uh it's really uh it's knit into the fabric and in a community built largely during the post World War III boom years there's a lot more work to do we want this community to be thriving you know 20 or 50 years hence so uh we we have a lot to do but uh yeah it's a it's for a good purpose and uh it's about keeping the community strong I'm Dan Carpenter for ad TV the city estimates the now completed Morningside flood infrastructure project avoids $150,000 per year in Damages J uary 10th was one for the history books at Brar Arena on that day the Hornets sold out the 2000 seat West rink for the first time in the girls hockey team history Idina alumni Laura Horton and Lindsay sorum organized the event with help from peers in minanga to celebrate the progress in girls hockey this month marks 30 years since the Edina and Minnetonka girls hockey teams joined the Minnesota state High School league the idea really came about last spring when myself and another Min tanka mom kind of got together and said want to be incredible for these two uh programs to sell at a regular season game and it kind of started as a sellout idea and it is absolutely transformed into something much bigger than that more importantly organizers viewed the game as a springboard to Spotlight the importance of mental health through Sophie Squad Sophie Squad is a Minnesota nonprofit dedicated to holding Brave conversations and providing resources to student athletes contending with mental health challenges and stigma they typically do this at games and other events in collaboration with local teams like Edina we've been selling cookies all sorts of apparel sweatshirts things like that so we just thought it would be good for the girls to spread the message about mental health awareness also more people learn about Sophie Squad and realize what an awesome organization they are and choose to do games in honor of Sophie admission to the game was free thanks to tradition mortgage thank you for watching this episode of agenda Edina I'm your host dorthia Marty [Music]