Tonight I watched the Burnsville City Council meeting which had a lengthy agenda which included yesterday’s post about the addition of an expensive roundabout where one does not belong and also the consent agenda which included the approval of the entire amended 2009 budget. As I have been covering for several months, these cuts were vital in order to make the city run properly and keep taxes low but unfortunately through poor decisions made by the Burnsville City Council, some unimportant items were not cut or not cut enough while others were sliced so far that it is creating a growing problem in the City of Burnsville.
Due to various factors, including a handicapped police department, Burnsville has seen an increase in serious crime that includes arson, murder, robbery, and residential burglary among others. Even with this sharp increase and the choice of nearby cities choosing to avoid cuts and in some cases beef up their public safety abilities, Burnsville’s City Council led by Mayor Elizabeth Kautz, felt that it was imperative that they still cut police department staff in order to make money available elsewhere.
From the Burnsville 7/7/09 Agenda Packet (page 18):
c) Council consensus to modify proposed reductions to HOC beautification to implement what was presented as Option 2 (flower baskets in core area only) and Option A for lighted trees and snowflakes (LED lights, add timers, reduce trees by 15, and shorten season), with reduced assessments in proportion to the amount of service that is being reduced
With this decision, the Burnsville City Council saved only $43,000 in 2010 instead of the $140,000 (it costs Burnsville residents $70,000 a year for Heart of the City beautification) it might have in both 2009 and 2010. While keeping these pointless snowflakes and buckets of expensive flowers clearly visible from the mayor’s condo is obviously a priority for the mayor and her friends, the $100,000 would have been much better spent covering public safety positions to either control arson or crime in Burnsville (page 20 of the agenda packet linked above).
Do you believe that the Burnsville City Council acted appropriately in cutting public safety while continuing to provide ~$100,000 in funding for flowers and fake snowflakes or do you think that the items should have been pulled for discussion prior to being passed as part of the consent agenda? Whatever you feel, go ahead and comment on as people need to be heard on the dangers rising in Burnsville due to the poor financial decisions made by the City Council.
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July 8th, 2009 at 11:40 am
Well, on the bright side, if you happen to be stabbed or shot in the HOC, you will have beautiful flower baskets or illuminated snow flakes to look at as you bleed on the street.
July 8th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
Chad, do not forget the HOC beautification is providing a beautiful backdrop and working environment for the prostitutes, drug dealers, and level III sex offenders that have made the HOC their home!! Kelley Francis Lorenzo, 26, who is to live in the 12800 block of Nicollet Av. S. Come on Bill, this money is a small price to pay so that you drive through the HOC and think, this is such a beautiful area and pay no attention to the hookers, gun fire, retail vacancies and level three sex offenders.
July 8th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
Speaking of vacancies, I noticed that Saturn is now gone. Not in the HOC, but one more big business gone from Burnsville.
July 8th, 2009 at 3:18 pm
Hmm, maybe the Minnesota Valley Humane Society should look at the Saturn property as well and then really put the Mayor on the spot and see if her rationale is truely that she will not vote to move the MVHS into a possible tax revenue property or if it is truely her position that she does not want to rezone the industrial area on CR42 for the MVHS, even though Camp Bow Wow or whatever is in that area on CR42. Naw, she would rather let the properties sit as vacant eye sores than fill them with occupants delivering valued services, even if they do not generate tax revenues.
July 8th, 2009 at 3:18 pm
I have a Saturn from there, so I got a little postcard. They moved in with the Bloomington Saturn. I would say there probably wasn’t much that could be done, as it was likely due to the recent sale of Saturn.
July 8th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
At one point the assholes at the Burnsville Saturn location sent my car to Bloomington to be fixed because they were inept. It’s really no big stretch or surprise that they consolidated the two.
July 8th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
Dawnmarie, I agree, there was probably not much the city could have done, although possibly the Bloomington Saturn could have closed and moved into the Burnsville Saturn, as its located near several dealerships with easy access from the interstate.
I dont know, I am not really blaming anyone in Burnsville for it closing, but it is another empty store front, and one more lost employer.
July 8th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
Apparently a bunch of us had or have had Saturns, since I got that card too for ours.
Well, at least they didn’t rebrand them as Penske.
July 8th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
Plus, you can stretch one arm toward the Mayor’s balcony and call out, “Elizabeth! I’m coming to join you Elizabeth.” Because surely it’s heavenly wherever Elizabeth is.
July 8th, 2009 at 8:31 pm
The Burnsville council should initiate the “Volunteers in Service to the HOC”. This would be another one of those 501(C)3 nonprofits that City Hall loves to set up to carry out its agendas. This organization would water the hanging flour baskets, hang the snowflakes erect and take down the Commons Park Christmas Tree. They would also act as pedestrian crossing guards at the corner of Nicollet and 126th street, and any other needless projects that would save the Burnsville taxpayer hundreds of thousands of dollars within the heart of the city……. Yes they can cut the grass and take care of ALL landscaping too……… Just think, we could bring our police department back to full strength. AND rehire the park ordinance enforcer to go after the trail idiots with their unleashed dogs. And speaking of those trail idiots……. PICK UP YOUR DOG SH#@T!!!!!!!!
July 9th, 2009 at 9:17 am
Nice, another casualty on the horizon in the Burnsville Heart of the City, creating another vacancy?
http://www.thisweeklive.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=10320&Itemid=29
This is good for the tax payers, at least the county is looking to be good stewards of our tax dollars specific to the license center, but why did they put the license center in the EXPENSIVE HOC LOCATION in the first place? If I am not mistaken it was at the Burnsville Transit Station space prior to moving to the HOC mall next to Cub. Is expanding the Bunhaven Library really the best use of our tax dollars during these trying economic times?
Government planning. This is my favorite oxymoron.
“Taking a long-term view, staff suggested moving the license center from the expensive ($56,000 per year) Heart of the City rental space into the library, and asked for direction regarding a proposal to put the library’s $5 million, 10,000-square-foot expansion and renovation plan five years ahead of schedule.”
July 9th, 2009 at 9:23 am
A more hilarious oxymoron, is having the Drivers License Center in the pedestrian friendly Burnsville Heart of the City!!
July 9th, 2009 at 9:24 am
“IF THEY WANT A DRIVERS LICENSE THEY CAN WALK!”
July 9th, 2009 at 9:38 am
Thats pretty funny.
I am sure there were strings pulled by the mayor to get them to move into that location, so it has to be a painful slap in the face to have them move out.
That said, its criminal that the Drivers License Center was ever in such an expensive location. I am sure there are other store fronts in the city they could operate out of for a fraction of the cost, even if the Library or other city buildings are not an option.
July 9th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
With all the commercial vacancies in Burnsville, why on earth would the license bureau elect to move in with the library? No amount of remodeling will cure the Burnsville Library of thefts from the cars parked in its lot and from bags/purses inside not to mention the fleet of thugs who congregate there.
Spending public money to pretty up the place doesn’t disguise the problems.
July 9th, 2009 at 10:00 pm
LL Reader, you bring up a good point about the library and the thugs that congregate there. I frequent the Burnhaven and Galaxy Library quite a bit. Once I have found the materials I am seeking I find myself taking inventory of the patrons and their activities. During my first inventory, I was happy to see several people leveraging the computers, thinking to myself that they are using these resources for educational purposes, research and writing papers etc. Well, upon further investigation of just standing behind people as if I was waiting to use a PC when they were finished, it became clear that the use of these PCs had very little to do with anything educational.
July 13th, 2009 at 9:05 am
Interesting….I live south of County Rd 42 near BV Center, SuperTarget etc….you know, the area where the businesses are actually contributing to the tax base? I have yet to see a hanging basket of flowers near me. Hmmm, Mayor Kautz should head up to Linder’s in the former Rainbow parking lot and load up during their 50% off sale if she wants them so badly in her neighborhood. We can’t even get the city to manicure the medians on Southcross Drive and County Rd 42 or remove weeds. More people come to the Cty Rd 42 area than HOC yet they see what I can only describe as “blight” compared to what that ghosttown HOC has. Flowers in baskets, beds of flowers in the medians, holiday lights, lit up snowflakes….must be nice to be Queen.
July 13th, 2009 at 9:12 am
I live not far from the BV library (Southcross area) and I don’t take my son there. It’s like a flop house instead of a library. I go to the Savage library in Scott instead.
July 13th, 2009 at 10:29 am
Jennifer, both great posts.
It is really sad to hear that about the Library. Perhaps the Mayor should visit the library now and then??
Its also a great point about the differences between BV Center and HOC. Far more people visit BV Center than the HOC, yet all that money goes to make the HOC pretty.
Its a crime really.
July 13th, 2009 at 11:42 am
Just out of curiosity (I’m not a flower person), do those flowers in the HOC pots live through the winter, or are they just thrown away at the end of the summer and replaced each spring?
July 13th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
what kind of flowers are they? i suspect E.K. has a team of landscapers that dig them up in the fall and plant new ones on the spring.
bb
July 13th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
The hanging baskets are a yearly thing for sure. I dont know about the rest of it really.
Somewhere on here I saw prices. I want to say $90 per basket?
July 13th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
49 year old Burnsville man repeatedly has sex with 15 year old girl at a Burnsville hotel.
Thursday, July 9, 2009 – Jose Soto-Miranda, 49, of Burnsville was charged today for allegedly having sex with his girlfriend’s 15-year-old daughter several times in the last two months.
Sun reports this story but do not see it anywhere else in the Star Tribune, Pioneer Press, or Thisweek.
http://www.mnsun.com/articles/2009/07/13/breaking_news/294bv16sexcharges.txt
As I pointed to below, rapes in Burnsville are double what they were year to date in CY2008.
http://www.burnsville.org/DocumentView.aspx?DID=69
I understand that these may not be the easiest stories to write and publish but this is news that needs to be reported.
July 13th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
Heck if you want to add more to your story give an update on status of Kelley Francis Lorenzo who had an address of 12800 block of Nicollet Avenue S. right near the Heart of the City and new upgraded Water Fountain in front of the PAC. As of 12/26/2008 he was no longer under the strictest of watch by the county and was no longer required to wear an ankle bracelet. Does he still live there? Has he had any incidents since he was released? Do us all a favor and report on these offenders so that the citizens of Burnsville and surrounding communities have the most recent accurate information to keep our cities safe. Maybe interview the Chief of Police in each city to get the latest most accurate information so that both parties agree on the content but at least educate the residents on an ongoing basis, every 6 months or so with the current status of these sexual offenders in our communities.
July 13th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
Glad this information is on the Burnsville website.
http://www.burnsville.org/DocumentView.aspx?DID=1021
It is however 15 months old and should be updated and should be referenced more frequently, either by the newpapers or in the quarterly Burnsville newsletters that go to the residents.
July 14th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
The baskets are $90 a pop? We can’t get the city to invest $150 in a few gallons of Roundup for the weeds on 42 and they spend $90 per for flowers?
This extreme horticulture in HOC is getting out of hand.
July 14th, 2009 at 10:55 pm
At the city council meeting they said that the flowers are 94 dollars each. They are usually mostly petunias, which means, wit, that they die.
Gee, I’d put some baskets together for 75 (or they could shop around and get them for about 25).
July 14th, 2009 at 10:56 pm
What should we do with sex offenders?
July 14th, 2009 at 10:56 pm
Yeah but you’re not friends with the mayor.
July 15th, 2009 at 10:08 pm
Wouldn’t a Friend Of Elizabeth be a foe? ;-)
June 22nd, 2010 at 10:16 am
They’re back!!! Remember those very expensive flower baskets in the Burnsville Heart of the City, and the gator driving city employee every morning watering the flower baskets? Well, as of this morning they are all back.
Hey, we need to beautify the HOC and oh yeah your taxes are going up by 5.5% because we have cut everything to the bone!!
Try again Mayor, I think there are several additional cuts that can be made before you raise our taxes one cent!!
June 22nd, 2010 at 10:33 am
TL, they probably won some six-figure “Construction Zone Beautification” federal grant. Besides, it’s good for the mental health of the guys jackhammering up Burnsville Parkway. I can’t wait for the first rear-ender to happen. “But officer, I was just so dazzled by the marigolds I missed the 675 gigantic blaze orange traffic barrels and that Buick I just blasted into.”
June 22nd, 2010 at 10:46 am
I have seen mention of the Burnsville Pkwy construction a few times. Can anyone tell me the point? I always thought it was one of the better streets in town. Certainly not the most needy in terms of repair. Just another pet project of the Mayor? Or was there something actually wrong with it?
June 22nd, 2010 at 10:50 am
Chad,
From my limited understanding of the topic, they do a certain length of road repairs in the city every year in order to keep up with what needs to be done. In times of budget constraints they have to limit that mileage to something which lives within their fiscal range.
Now, I don’t know about the condition of Burnsville Parkway compared to other areas around Burnsville as I don’t regularly drive, let alone in Burnsville but I’m guessing that due to the high traffic volume that area has that it’s probably an area which needs more care than some others.
In addition, it also probably does get priority due to the mayor and her desire to keep the HOC (coincidentally where she lives) ‘beautiful’. People need to get to her PAC and with all the white table cloth restaurants and they certainly don’t want to get their BMWs, Lexuses, and Jaguars banged up with potholes now do they?
June 22nd, 2010 at 10:58 am
Chad, that stretch of Burnsville Parkway was in rough shape, especially as you got east towards the golf course.
I am curious about the project costs though. It looks like they are doing a lot of brickwork in the boulevards and concrete treatments. To my untrained eye, it looks like more than just the standard tear it out and pave it up.
Maybe the cost is the same but I’d be interested to hear what the dealie-o is.
June 22nd, 2010 at 11:03 am
Yeah, and that Buick that was rear ended was stopped to let the 10 year old cross the street to get a cookie at Subway and the Buick then hit the 10 year old. The ten year old was told that they had to wait until 8:45 for the two city employees to finish their daily cleaning of the water fountain of all the trash and human waste. Question, how many city hours are spent per day cleaning the water fountain and watering these plants?