1. According to an article printed in the Savage Pacer, Shakopee’s White Castle was robbed.
Thieves sure are dumb. Everyone knows that those burgers are cheap and no one eats there anyway–except Nils ;-)
2. A picture from 35W near CR-42 of a spin out due to this week’s snow storm.
My father was visiting to help out around the house in prep for the baby’s arrival. He was supposed to fly out Wednesday morning but changed his reservations until Thursday. Good thing because at 6 AM when my wife and I tried to get to work (early) we got stuck 10 feet from the house in a snow drift. I had to shovel the car out and then push it back into the driveway. Fun times. The road was plowed at 7:45 AM but the didn’t clear the huge pile of snow in front of my driveway so I had to spend 25 minutes digging out a slot to get the car through. They finally came around at 9:30pm to do the rest. My driveway is still partially blocked. What do I pay association dues again for?
3. Thisweek reports that Farmington’s City Council tabled discussion about the ice arena until January 19th so that the recently created task force has a chance to complete its own assessment of the arena situation. We’ve covered this topic before.
4. The Savage Pacer reports that two Burnsville HS students (17 and 15 mind you) robbed an 18 year old Savage man after getting off the school bus. According to the article the two, “allegedly followed him, knocked him to the ground, punched, choked and then threatened to kill him. ”
Seriously, how was it even worth it? A couple of dollars? What the fuck is wrong with kids these days?
5. Thisweek notes that Farmington is looking for volunteers for a variety of citizen advisory committees including the Parks and Rec Commission and the Planning Commission. Plenty of other spots open if those don’t catch your fancy.
6. The Pioneer Press reports that a Maple Grove woman swindled $20,000 from an Apple Valley based group for mothers of twins, triplets, etc to pay her own personal expenses. After a lame attempt to pay back the money ($980 of it) she stopped and never deposited another dime.
I realize it’s a tough time but maybe asking for help instead of just outright taking it would be a better option?
7. Thisweek mentions, almost in passing–much like the Council did on Tuesday, that $410,000 was passed as part of the levy to pay off PAC debt. While taxes didn’t go up, serious cuts occurred to make the $410,000 available. Charlie Crichton was the only councilmember to dissent.
Watching the video “President” Gustafson (that’s so scary to type) pushed this all through without much discussion and seemed to trip up Dan Kealey who appeared to have some questions to ask about the EDA process. What a sham(e). HAVE SOME BACKBONE YOU FUCKING PUSSIES. Stand up to that stupid cunt already you would?
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So that’s it for this week’s roundup. I’m mainly interested in your stories about the storm on Wednesday. You get stuck, you see anyone else get stuck, have any pictures of the event to share? I’d also like your input on Burnsville’s EDA passing $410,000 in funding for the PAC and Dan Gustafson’s deplorable actions in getting it to go through without discussion. Do you think that it’s fair for $410,000 to get thrown that the mess that the PAC has become without at least a chance to tell the public what it was for?
Well, whatever you have to say about any of the topics above go ahead and comment on and let’s hear what you have to say!
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December 11th, 2009 at 7:58 am
Re: Item #4 – What is wrong with kids.
1) Hopped up on sugar cereals
2) Todays cartoons are riddled with violence. bring back the dog damn Smurfs, not hte NEW adventures of the Smurf’s, but OLD school runs..
3) Parents do not PARENT, MENTOR, or TEACH. They’re too busy either A) sitting at home sipping scotch and watching senseless reality show after the next, or B) working their ass off in this economy to keep a car, a house and food on the table.
In short – Not enough parents like you’ll soon be, who would more than likely rail the kid with the blunt end of a 2×4 if they fell out of line.
December 11th, 2009 at 8:05 am
Wednesday, the big snow day was no trouble at all! Thursday, the day after? that SUCKED! BIG TIME.
OK Mr and Mrs R- Next time we’re anticipating a blizzard call me and I’ll come by in the am and give you ride downtown in the truck. Door to door, can’t beat that!
December 11th, 2009 at 8:49 am
Our association uses Meadow Green Lawn & Landscape (http://www.meadowgreenlawns.com/) out of Lakeville and we’ve been really happy with them. By the time we woke up Wednesday a main path through our complex two cars wide had been hastily plowed so we could at least exit/enter once we got through the 15 feet of snow in front of the garage. It didn’t take them long to come back and take care of the snow in front of our garages and shovel out the pathways to our front doors, and they returned for a third trip Thursday just to fine-tune areas where they had cut corners before. It’s pretty rare that we get a storm overnight and aren’t cleared out by around 6 AM.
December 11th, 2009 at 8:51 am
Joey, we’re on our third (I believe) snow removal/lawn care company. With the rising prices related to fuel a while back and other costs, the association has moved to try and save the residents money (our rates are rising to $150+ this year–we started at $100 when I moved in 2004).
I would assume that with lower costs come lower levels of maintenance.
December 11th, 2009 at 9:01 am
I’m the treasurer for our association and based on experience here, you probably aren’t paying enough in association dues to begin with. It’s a classic problem: a builder starts the rates dirt cheap so residents move in because, “Hey, I don’t have to pay much.” Of course, they fail to realize they also don’t get much if they don’t pay much and that upkeep will be necessary. Their cheap dues might cover basic services (“basic” being a loosely-defined word) but you won’t get squat for a reserve fund. As soon as that new roof and siding and blacktop resurfacing are needed, you get hit with a huge assessment because your association has no reserve funds for it. Or, in order to build reserve funds they skimp on other services. We’re at $178/month. Honestly, we should be at closer to $200/month.
December 11th, 2009 at 9:07 am
We’ve been hard hit by people who don’t pay their dues too. I know some of my neighbors were behind 10s of thousands of dollars.
December 11th, 2009 at 9:22 am
Ouch, that’ll hurt. We’ve got a few people who are behind but nobody is more than $3,000 behind and 1 or 2 of those homes is in foreclosure, so nobody is paying on them anyway until the bank takes over. We’ve been pretty strict with late payments though (we follow up with a letter once they’re over 30 days late and file a claim in conciliation court if they get more than a few months behind). It seems to help…we’ve only had to actually go to court once (that drive to Hastings sucks…gotta love the fact that our courthouse is on the opposite end of the county from most of our residents) since they’ve always paid up before the court date. It sucks though. You hate to see someone struggling to make payments on everything else and then getting hit up with the association going after them. But someone’s got to pay for their lawn care, snow removal, home insurance, trash removal…
December 11th, 2009 at 9:37 am
#2,
how’s that four wheel drive working for you?:)
bb
December 11th, 2009 at 9:49 am
The plowing in my development is similarly lacking. I think they might have made a pass through the main road really early Wednesday morning, but it was still pretty bad. When we got home on Wednesday (around 6:00 or so in the evening), the main road was plowed, albeit very poorly, and the driveways still weren’t cleared at all. They didn’t get to everything until late Wednesday night.
In our case too, it’s a cost issue. My association is also using a new service this year, and they’ve always been up front about the fact that yeah, they could pay more for faster plowing service, but don’t want to. While I respect their wanting to control costs (our dues have been $175/month for the last couple of years, up from $145 when we bought our place in 2004), they also have spent money on shrubs, rock beds, and other landscaping that I would rather see go to more practical uses. I don’t see the point in paying a company to clear my driveway when I have to shovel it myself anyway because they won’t do it fast enough.
December 11th, 2009 at 10:02 am
Looks like I picked a great day to be in Miami. It was 85 and sunny where I was on Wednesday.
December 11th, 2009 at 10:26 am
Hey, I enjoy sliders when I can get to WSP. It is a great late night snack.
December 11th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
Our neighborhood gets plowed at the perfect time – as soon as we’ve cleared the driveway. You know, so that they can block us back in with a huge wall of rock-hard snow.
December 11th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
I know a 15 year old that was happy to sleep in with a snow day. I was just about to go upstairs and get her up when the phone rang from District 196 announcing the snow day. I double checked on KSTP and sure enough, no 5:30 am wake up for the princess. I went back to bed, too. The snow blower didn’t work for Mr. Robinson. Luckily, the snow was of the lighter variety. I pretty much hate snow and cold.
December 11th, 2009 at 9:48 pm
woodz wrote:
I think those are all very popular (and possibly accurate) theories as to what is wrong with kids these days. For the sake of discussion, I offer the following comments.
1) Hopped up on sugar cereals
When you think about it, most of us were hopped up on sugary cereals in the 70′s/early 80′s. Back then they put the word “sugar” right in the name (“Sugar Smacks,” “Sugar Crisp” etc)!
2) Todays cartoons are riddled with violence. bring back the dog damn Smurfs, not hte NEW adventures of the Smurf’s, but OLD school runs..
Bring back the violence in cartoons? Really?! Watch an old episode of “The Bugs Bunny Show” or “Tom and Jerry”, or heck, even “The Smurfs” (creepy Papa Smurf lives in a forest with a whole bunch of comrades that he didn’t father, yet they all call him ‘Papa’ and only one chick lives there with them? And they are hunted by Gargamel??) I would argue that cartoons from our time period were equally violent, though it was ‘all in good fun’ (unless you’re Wile E. Coyote). They don’t even show these old cartoons anymore because ‘they are too violent!’ (Side note – you can occasionally find an old episode of “Tom & Jerry” on one of the cartoon networks)
3) Parents do not PARENT, MENTOR, or TEACH. They’re too busy either A) sitting at home sipping scotch and watching senseless reality show after the next, or B) working their ass off in this economy to keep a car, a house and food on the table.
I don’t know about all that…my parents were pretty busy trying to survive in the late 70′s/early 80′s recession. I was scared to death of my parents – if I fucked up I was going to get my ass kicked….or even worse, ‘disappoint them.’ If I fucked off in school, the teacher would kick my ass, then call my parents so they could kick it in the evening. Now, I’m not advocating corporal punishment and I’m DEFINITELY not trying to start the whole spanking vs. not spanking debate, but I think it isn’t fair to make it seem like parents were a lot more involved when we were kids. Ever hear the phrase ‘helicopter parenting?’ While there are PLENTY of parents that meet your initial description, there are also a lot of parents that are TOO involved, and that isn’t always good either.
December 13th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
Since I live in the same association as you, Bill, I am in total agreement about the frustration that can come due to improper plowing. Remember that one year when they had the big huge trucks, bobcats, and people who actually shoveled our patios? That was a loud, but good year.
Now, not so much. Ryan knew that he wasn’t getting out of our association and chose to work from hom. Lucky he didn’t have an important meeting, right? We did venture up to Cty Rd 42 at one point during the day and it was a struggle to not get stuck in our association. Did you see the Mercedes that had to leave a note on their car in the middle of 158th? Isn’t that even a city street?