Fred Heinonen
Scandia Area Reporter

Three ninth grade geography students from Stillwater Junior High School on Jan. 16 presented the Scandia City Council with a firewise community assessment on the northeast section of the former New Scandia Township.

The students rated the homes in that area for vulnerability to fire danger. Among factors considered was accessibility for fire fighters, fire fuel within 30 feet of buildings and building materials.

An overall report will inform the city and residents of the most critical fire dangers in Scandia. A thank you letter will be sent to Matt Doneux, Kacey Strandemo and Carl Berwald for their exemplary performance.

Land study

Local ecologist Karen Schik persuaded the city council to apply for funding to study land protection planning.

This relates to the new upcoming comprehensive planning committee and the Embrace Open Spaces organization.

Ordinances

At the meeting last week, the council voted to adopt Ordinance 95. It establishes fees for planning, zoning and development related applications.

A draft ordinance regulating gambling in the city was updated and will be reviewed at the Feb. 20 meeting.

Park & Rec

The city will start running recreation programs for the parks and recreation committee as requested by Dave Smith, acting chair.

An upcoming hayride scheduled at Bunker Park Stables was denied because of a recommendation against a requirement to sign a waiver.

Staff reports

Washington County Sheriff Deputy Chris Howard reported last week he is investigating three residential burglaries that took place on 185th Street N. on Jan. 16.

Fire Chief Steve Spence reported that the Washington County 800 Mhz radio requirement is now delayed until May or June of 2008.

The delay will allow more time to maximize grants and organize the remaining funding. Spence mentioned problems with recruitment and retention of volunteers.

He questioned if the city could encourage or require maintenance employees to be volunteers.

City Administrator Anne Hurlburt reported getting about 40 logo contest entries from about 30 artists after some late media exposure.

City Engineer Tom Peterson presented the recent Department of Natural Resources environmental studies related to the 2007 road improvements for the 205th and 197th Streets.

Concern was voiced about paving an improved 16 percent grade on 197th St. The area citizens will be informed of a special meeting Feb. 7 to decide if these projects will go forward.

Communications

Hurlburt expressed the need to update the city website to be more readily updated and useful to the public in many ways.

It could allow subscriptions for meeting minutes, registrations for programs, and news alerts etc. The council endorsed continued evaluation and purchase of GOV OFFICE (which is very popular with cities) from the Minnesota League of Cities.

An attempt will also be made to reserve similar web addresses and register the website with Google.

The city council decided to plan on producing semiannual newsletters on April 1 and October 1 and supply appropriate information to the media after meetings.

Committees change

The number of advisory committees has been reduced from 10 to seven by terminating or combining four and adding two new committees.

The road committee was put under the capital improvement committee. The rural landscape preservation committee was put under the new comprehensive planning committee.

To volunteer to serve on city committees, an application form and more information on the committees, is available at the city office and on the city's website at: www.ci.scandia.mn.us or call Anne Hurlburt at 651-433-2274.

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