Just when it appeared that our lake might recover from the abuses of MnDOT and the neglect of the rest of our state and city government, here comes more "improvments" to 35E:
-----Original Message-----
From: Peterson, Scott (DOT) [mailto:scott.r.peterson@state.mn.us]
Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2011 3:03 PM
To: Bev Scalze
Subject: RE: MN PASS lane, 694 to 94
Rep. Scalze,
Here's additional information about the MnPASS project on 35E from the folks involved in the project.
The MnPASS lane (both directions) from St. Paul to Little Canada Road will tie into to existing lanes constructed as part of the unweave the weave project. There is no proposed widening southbound between Little Canada Road and TH 36 because four lanes exist today, but there will be widening northbound from TH 36 to Little Canada Road to add MnPASS lane since only three lanes exist today. Every effort will be taken to minimize impacts to east side of 35E in this area. A noise analysis is being done as part of the Cayuga project to determine noise levels and mitigation efforts.
--------------
From: Bev Scalze [mailto:Rep.Bev.Scalze@house.mn]
Sent: Monday, May 23, 2011 2:58 PM
To: Peterson, Scott (DOT)
Subject: Re: MN PASS lane, 694 to 94
Thanks, Scott.
Bev Scalze
State Representative, 54B
259 State Office Building
100 Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr Blvd
St. Paul MN 55155
651/296-7153
rep.bev.scalze@house.mn
"Peterson, Scott (DOT)" 5/23/2011 2:55 PM
I have already sent a request for additional information. I will let you know as soon as I hear anything.
--------------
From: Bev Scalze [mailto:Rep.Bev.Scalze@house.mn]
Sent: Monday, May 23, 2011 02:40 PM
To: Peterson, Scott (DOT)
Cc: joel.hanson@ci.little-canada.mn.us
Subject: Re: MN PASS lane, 694 to 94
Scott,
Thanks for the quick reply.
If Little Canada Road is the beginning of the MnPass project, there may be a problem. The Little Canada Road/35E intersection is at the northern end of Savage Lake. If there are any "added" lanes south of Little Canada Road, that is the section where the 10 lanes of asphalt go through the middle of Savage Lake. There would be a problem with the lakeshore homeowners on Savage Lake.
I would like to know if the plans include any new fill or asphalt to be added south of Little Canada Road in the area of Savage Lake.
Bev Scalze
State Representative, 54B
259 State Office Building
100 Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr Blvd
St. Paul MN 55155
651/296-7153
rep.bev.scalze@house.mn
--------------
"Peterson, Scott (DOT)" 5/23/2011 1:46 PM
I think it is Little Canada Rd.
--------------
From: Bev Scalze [mailto:Rep.Bev.Scalze@house.mn]
Sent: Monday, May 23, 2011 01:28 PM
To: Peterson, Scott (DOT)
Subject: Re: MN PASS lane, 694 to 94
Scott,
So then the southern limits of the "Unweave the Weave" improvements would be Highway 36?
Bev Scalze
State Representative, 54B
259 State Office Building
100 Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr Blvd
St. Paul MN 55155
651/296-7153
rep.bev.scalze@house.mn
--------------
"Peterson, Scott (DOT)" 5/23/2011 1:15 PM
Rep. Scalze,
Actually the additional lane for MnPass will only extend to the southern limits of the improvements made as part of the "unweave the weave" project. We just use 694 as the northern limit because that gives most people a better understanding of where it will be.
I will double check with our Metro folks to see if there is going to be any additional impact in that area.
Scott R. Peterson
Director, Office of Government Affairs
Minnesota Department of Transportation
395 John Ireland Blvd.
St. Paul, Mn 55155
--------------
On May 23, 2011, at 1:01 PM, "Bev Scalze" wrote:
Scott,
Regarding the proposed amendment to Rep. Beard's Transportation bill, I have a question for you.
The memo that I just received details the "added" MN Pass lane in the vicinity of 694 to 94.
I have concerns about any extra lanes in the area of Little Canada Road. The present 10 lanes of asphalt that currently run through Savage Lake, have severely impacted the quality of life and the quality of the water in Savage Lake. The people who live there have been there for a long time, some for 75 years.
Savage Lake was once one lake, with very clean water. Freeway 35E was constructed through the middle of Savage Lake, beginning in 1959. Lanes have been added since then, and the residents are outraged that the value of their lakeshore property has been severely eroded by actions of the state.
Can you assure me that there will be no extra fill and asphalt used for the "added" Mn PASS lane?
This is a very important issue in Little Canada.
Bev Scalze
State Representative, 54B
259 State Office Building
100 Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr Blvd
St. Paul MN 55155
651/296-7153
rep.bev.scalze@house.mn
May 25, 2011
May 23, 2011
May 9, 2011
Still There
In case you haven't made it out to the lake lately, the two loons are still there. If you get up and out early, about sunrise, you can hear them calling. I don't know why they haven't left, but I'm not complaining. We have as much wildlife on the lake as I can remember, including an occasional bald eagle roosting in the trees behind Gopher Electronics. The island is considerably smaller than it has been in years and nesting is more distributed than in years past. Several lake shore residents appear to have created habitat for water fowl and they are going to need it because this extended cold weather and rain has been hard on nests. We've made a few laps around the lake in our canoe and there are lots of abandoned goose eggs and blown-apart nests.
Unfortunately, our old non-native nemesis, the water lily, is about to rear its lake-killing head. Hopefully, the council will get the spraying permit approved soon so we can head the plants off early this year.
Supposedly, there was a toxic chemical (machine cleaning chemicals) dump from the high school a few years back that killed off the fish in the west lake. If the effects of that contamination are lowered, it seems to me that restocking the lake with fish would help balance the flora and fauna. If anyone has a line on how we might go about that, maybe we can get back more of our lake.
Unfortunately, our old non-native nemesis, the water lily, is about to rear its lake-killing head. Hopefully, the council will get the spraying permit approved soon so we can head the plants off early this year.
Supposedly, there was a toxic chemical (machine cleaning chemicals) dump from the high school a few years back that killed off the fish in the west lake. If the effects of that contamination are lowered, it seems to me that restocking the lake with fish would help balance the flora and fauna. If anyone has a line on how we might go about that, maybe we can get back more of our lake.
Apr 25, 2011
Spring or Not
We took the canoe out today and tried to get a few shots of the loons without scaring them off. As a photographer, I suck. But the birds tried to accommodate us and, at least, I came away with evidence if not with memorable nature shots.
With all the freeway noise, it's hard to hear the bird song from our lake, but it's out there and would be a shame to lose it. The lilies are about to make their damned appearance and the milfoil is already making a run for dominance. Hopefully we can get a head start on beating back the lilies this year and our lake will stay recreational all year.
Jan 31, 2011
"Unweave the Weave" Landscaping
The February-March edition of the Little Canada Le Petit Canadien mentioned that about $250,000 will be made available for landscaping to recover some of the damage done by the increased width of the freeway and to moderate some of the noise that came with that freeway traffic. All I can say is, "it's about time." I've monitored the sound pressure level in my backyard during rush hour and the noise level far exceeds EPA and OSHA safe limits; well into the low 90dBSPL territory.
The Canadien article suggested that the City Council has "focused on the area between I-35E and West Savage Lake in an attempt to create some natural barriers to the sound and view coming from the freeway." This is a solid approach. The extended barriers on the east side of the lake have reflected additional noise in our direction, which makes safely enjoying our neighborhood and yards impossible during much of the day. Hopefully, the character MnDOT used as an "acoustic expert" won't be involved in this analysis, since pretty much all of his guess-timates about the effects on our neighborhood from the freeway expansion and the noise barriers were so far off I'd be surprised if that guy ever attended a science class at any time in his life.
Sound absorption is a much better tactic for silencing noise than obstruction. The noise barriers have a limited effectiveness, based on height, length of the barrier, distance from the noise source and the target clients, the noise bandwidth, and the mass of the materials used for the barrier. Absorption actually converts sound energy to heat; not a lot of heat, but that energy is no longer sound. Noise doesn't bounce off of conifers. Instead, the air motion pass through the branches and leaf tissue and moving those obstacles converts sound to motion and heat.
Of course, the trees will absorb some of the carbon dioxide, lowering pollution levels. In all, this is a plan my wife and I have been advocating for almost a decade and I'm glad to see the city and state buying into it. We should all give Joel Hanson a call at 651/766-4040 or email at joel.hanson@ci.little-canada.mn.us and get the city behind this idea. With decent sized plantings, almost immediately we could have a substantially more quiet neighborhood. In a few years, this could be our view of the freeway.
The Canadien article suggested that the City Council has "focused on the area between I-35E and West Savage Lake in an attempt to create some natural barriers to the sound and view coming from the freeway." This is a solid approach. The extended barriers on the east side of the lake have reflected additional noise in our direction, which makes safely enjoying our neighborhood and yards impossible during much of the day. Hopefully, the character MnDOT used as an "acoustic expert" won't be involved in this analysis, since pretty much all of his guess-timates about the effects on our neighborhood from the freeway expansion and the noise barriers were so far off I'd be surprised if that guy ever attended a science class at any time in his life.
Sound absorption is a much better tactic for silencing noise than obstruction. The noise barriers have a limited effectiveness, based on height, length of the barrier, distance from the noise source and the target clients, the noise bandwidth, and the mass of the materials used for the barrier. Absorption actually converts sound energy to heat; not a lot of heat, but that energy is no longer sound. Noise doesn't bounce off of conifers. Instead, the air motion pass through the branches and leaf tissue and moving those obstacles converts sound to motion and heat.
Of course, the trees will absorb some of the carbon dioxide, lowering pollution levels. In all, this is a plan my wife and I have been advocating for almost a decade and I'm glad to see the city and state buying into it. We should all give Joel Hanson a call at 651/766-4040 or email at joel.hanson@ci.little-canada.mn.us and get the city behind this idea. With decent sized plantings, almost immediately we could have a substantially more quiet neighborhood. In a few years, this could be our view of the freeway.
Jan 20, 2011
Winter 2011 on Savage Lake
It's been a while, I know. Even in the heart of winter, some of our neighbors are enjoying our lake.There are snowmobile tracks all over the lake and our family uses the lake as a dog park. Whenever I begin to think about living somewhere warmer, I only have to take this little mutt outside and it's impossible not to soak up some of her love of running in the snow. Not that I actually run in the snow, but I love watching her do it.
Nov 6, 2010
Little Canada Elections
I worked for CTV on the 2010 Election Results program and was amazed to see that all 3 incumbent candidates for Little Canada's city offices ran unopposed: The results were:
I was impressed to see that about 75 city residents had the gumption to write-in their votes. That's a pretty insignificant (~1%) percentage of about 4,400 votes. However, I have always believed that "Sturgeon's Law" is optimistic, so I think this was a decent turnout of folks with initiative.
Apparently, Little Canada residents are either satisfied with city government (something my wife's 2006 city council campaign found to be unlikely) or incredibly disconnected from city government (more in line with the conversations she had with residents in 2006). Little Canada wasn't alone in municipal uncontested elections, but being in the company of other apathetic 'burbs isn't exactly a recommendation.
Apathy is tightly linked to anger and many voters were more emotionally-driven in the 2010 election than motivated by rational analysis or an understanding of the nation's pressing issues. We were passionate about some pretty strange things in this election and I've never put much faith in passion; anywhere outside of art or sports. It's only interesting there for entertainment purposes.
Our local state representative, Bev Scalze did pretty well in her race:
STATE REPRESENTATIVE DISTRICT 54B
Incumbent State Senatory John Marty won his race, too:
STATE SENATOR DISTRICT 54
Of those two battles, I'm please that Bev won as she has been consistently involved and helpful in our fight to restore Savage Lake. Senator Marty has been consistently missing in action which put me in a neutral position for his election campaign. Politically, I'm an independent voter, so candidates who display no interest in my areas of concern are pretty much off of my radar.
We have a new county sheriff, Matt Bostrom. Since I have not been able to figure out why the 2009 city budget saw a 20% increase in "Public Safety: Police" expenses, when all other expenses held pretty close to previous years, I'm hoping that Sheriff Bostrom will be more fiscally responsible than Mr. Fletcher. Fletcher had a reputation for cost over-runs in his department. It's hard to imagine a 20% ($197,670) one-year increase (from $926k to $1.124M, page 14 of the city's General Fund Summary) being justified for anything in a city as small as ours.
(Hopefully, we're not paying for the increased "enforcement" of the primary seat-belt law that has resulted in several dangerous situations on Little Canada road over the last year. That has to have been a money-maker for the county, even if it's another pointless example of Big Mommy government.)
In all, I think the 2010 election was disappointing. If we are unable to attract more than 3 Little Canada residents to run for 3 city offices in times as economically and socially critical as these, our community is in sad shape. I put some of the blame on an election system that is about as far from transparent as possible. Finding out who is running for what, before the election filing dates is, as best I can tell, impossible without inside connections. A county website posts the candidates, but it didn't come on line until several weeks after the filing deadline: http://www.co.ramsey.mn.us/elections/Other_Offices.htm. The application system is pretty simple and inexpensive, but campaign finance laws are overly-complicated and close to incomprehensible, which keeps most of us from wanting to dip a toe into local politics. We all know that is the intent of our current system and there doesn't seem to be a way out of this undemocratic mess.The cure would be for more citizens to become involved, but that isn't the current trend in the US.
| LITTLE CANADA-MAYOR | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Total | |||
| Number of Precincts | 3 | ||
| Precincts Reporting | 3 | 100.0 % | |
| Total Votes | 2784 | ||
| BILL BLESENER | 2707 | 97.23% | |
| Write-in Votes | 77 | 2.77% | |
| LITTLE CANADA-COUNCIL MEMBER | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Total | |||
| Number of Precincts | 3 | ||
| Precincts Reporting | 3 | 100.0 % | |
| Total Votes | 4471 | ||
| SHELLY BOSS | 2317 | 51.82% | |
| JOHN KEIS | 2079 | 46.50% | |
| Write-in Votes | 75 | 1.68% | |
I was impressed to see that about 75 city residents had the gumption to write-in their votes. That's a pretty insignificant (~1%) percentage of about 4,400 votes. However, I have always believed that "Sturgeon's Law" is optimistic, so I think this was a decent turnout of folks with initiative.
Apparently, Little Canada residents are either satisfied with city government (something my wife's 2006 city council campaign found to be unlikely) or incredibly disconnected from city government (more in line with the conversations she had with residents in 2006). Little Canada wasn't alone in municipal uncontested elections, but being in the company of other apathetic 'burbs isn't exactly a recommendation.
Apathy is tightly linked to anger and many voters were more emotionally-driven in the 2010 election than motivated by rational analysis or an understanding of the nation's pressing issues. We were passionate about some pretty strange things in this election and I've never put much faith in passion; anywhere outside of art or sports. It's only interesting there for entertainment purposes.
Our local state representative, Bev Scalze did pretty well in her race:
STATE REPRESENTATIVE DISTRICT 54B
Total
Number of Precincts 13
Precincts Reporting 13 100.0 %
Total Votes 15888
KEN RUBENZER 6849 43.11%
BEV SCALZE 9022 56.78%
Write-in Votes 17 0.11%
Incumbent State Senatory John Marty won his race, too:
STATE SENATOR DISTRICT 54
Total
Number of Precincts 22
Precincts Reporting 22 100.0 %
Total Votes 30058
TIM JOHNSON 13131 43.69%
JOHN MARTY 16896 56.21%
Write-in Votes 31 0.10%
Of those two battles, I'm please that Bev won as she has been consistently involved and helpful in our fight to restore Savage Lake. Senator Marty has been consistently missing in action which put me in a neutral position for his election campaign. Politically, I'm an independent voter, so candidates who display no interest in my areas of concern are pretty much off of my radar.
We have a new county sheriff, Matt Bostrom. Since I have not been able to figure out why the 2009 city budget saw a 20% increase in "Public Safety: Police" expenses, when all other expenses held pretty close to previous years, I'm hoping that Sheriff Bostrom will be more fiscally responsible than Mr. Fletcher. Fletcher had a reputation for cost over-runs in his department. It's hard to imagine a 20% ($197,670) one-year increase (from $926k to $1.124M, page 14 of the city's General Fund Summary) being justified for anything in a city as small as ours.
(Hopefully, we're not paying for the increased "enforcement" of the primary seat-belt law that has resulted in several dangerous situations on Little Canada road over the last year. That has to have been a money-maker for the county, even if it's another pointless example of Big Mommy government.)
In all, I think the 2010 election was disappointing. If we are unable to attract more than 3 Little Canada residents to run for 3 city offices in times as economically and socially critical as these, our community is in sad shape. I put some of the blame on an election system that is about as far from transparent as possible. Finding out who is running for what, before the election filing dates is, as best I can tell, impossible without inside connections. A county website posts the candidates, but it didn't come on line until several weeks after the filing deadline: http://www.co.ramsey.mn.us/elections/Other_Offices.htm. The application system is pretty simple and inexpensive, but campaign finance laws are overly-complicated and close to incomprehensible, which keeps most of us from wanting to dip a toe into local politics. We all know that is the intent of our current system and there doesn't seem to be a way out of this undemocratic mess.The cure would be for more citizens to become involved, but that isn't the current trend in the US.
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