[Music] hello everyone and welcome to the council update my name is Phil jent your Communications manager here at the city of Cottage Grove uh these videos are intended to give residents uh some insight into each of our council members who they are what is happening in the community and provide an opportunity for you to hear directly from your council members with me today is newly sworn in council member Dave Clawson council member Clawson welcome thanks pH well thanks for joining me really glad that that you took some time out today on on a Friday afternoon uh to shoot this and for just those who who may not know you why don't you just tell us a little bit about yourself well I'm a almost 30y year resident of Cottage Grove I moved here in uh 1995 I became a police officer here um and in 2020 I retired from the police department and um since that time I've been uh working some uh odd jobs I'm in the hospitality industry for a while I'm currently working at the airport in a seasonal role um I've also uh after I retired I worked for a large healthc Care Corporation um doing some Home Care visits helping people helping people transition out of the hospital um things like that just to keep busy um but now I've got a whole new role uh city council member that's keeping me very very busy I David Clawson I Davidson you were recently sworn in on the city council correct yes well congratulations uh it's a big big achievement so what has been your experience so far serving on the city council well you've heard the saying drinking water through a fire host there has been I've been at several meetings so far and uh there's just a lot going on that I didn't realize that goes on behind the scenes of um decisions that have to be made keeping the City operating things like that um we've had meetings with our area legislators where we've gone over things that are important to the city that we want the state and the county uh legislators and Commissioners to uh think about us also here in the city but is there anything that's jumped out at you or any issues that you're eager to dig into or or just anything interesting that you've learned so far well I've got over 40 years in police Fire EMS so I'm hoping that I can use those years that experience and kind of offer some insight and some input into uh what the city can do moving forward and just trying to make those programs run really well one of the things I've noticed that I'm um starting to see is there is a really a big interest in kage Grove in terms of development like businesses that want to locate to our industrial park we just need a little bit of of work on the back end to try and make those things work one of the things that I really want to work towards is extending 100th Street we have to get our business park opened up a little better than it is anyone who's driven Jamaica Avenue during the day knows that it's a very busy road it's at its capacity and with the interest in the business park I really want to try and get 100th Street connected to Highway 61 and and make that just work a little better sure I think that there's a lot of really interesting opportunities that I've that I've heard about with regards to to some of that potential development in that particular project so so so thank you well council member I I do really want to thank you for your time uh today uh and congratulations on on being sworn in and so if residents want to you know hear more about you or learn more about you or get connected with you in any shape way shape or form how would they do that yep I've got uh emails set up with the city now so just dclaw at kg grov mn.gov and that's how to get a hold of me be happy to answer your questions the best I can perfect well council member Clawson again thanks so much for your time today and thank you so much for everyone for watching and as always please visit Cottage grov mn.gov or find us on Facebook X or Twitter and Linkedin for more information from the city of Cottage Grove thank you and have a great one [Music]