April 30, 2018
April started off with the Winter of 2017/2018 holding on for dear life. Late into the months we still had freezing temperatures, however, just in time for May we are finally starting to see warmer temps return.
The City council is currently planning our fifth street project. The City Council had an opportunity to hear from our City Engineer about the current status of the fifth street / trail project. The council also was informed about the status of the other infrastructure projects that we are pursuing this summer. The council has chosen to put off some work until after Marigold Days since the work to be preformed is along the parade route and we do not want a construction zone setup during of festival. The City's Engineer is planning to present more details on all the projects in an upcoming council meeting.
Minnesota Mayors Association
I had the opportunity to attend the Minnesota Mayor annual conference this past weekend. This year we meet in Perham Minnesota up by Ottertail. This years conference was well attended, and I had the opportunity to speak with some Mayors from the our surrounding areas, large metro cities as well as some very small community Mayors.
The Mayor of Perham took us on a tour of a local creamery where we learned about cheese manufacturing and the various other milk products that are derived from milk. In today's market the cheese product is a secondary product when compared to the value of a high protein power that can be derived from dairy. We were told that just one process within the plant contained over two miles of stainless steel.
We also toured Barrow of Fun where we saw a potato chip manufacturing plant. This plant had some very interesting automation, including a vision inspection machine that could pick out one burnt chip in a bunch of 1000 chips and kick it into a scarp bucket. We also visited their new school construction project as well as a local craft brewery.
After our tours we came back and we had several break out sessions. We talked about lessons learned from 9-11 and we also talked about the value of CERT teams (Community Emergency Response Teams) incident command and the proper role of local policy makers. I came back with some ideas to start a conversation with Sheriff Rose and explore how Kasson and Mantorville can work together to have a plan ready for possible incidents that may come up.
AT&T Update
It was a cold snowy Wednesday in the middle of April but that did not delay the planned start of the AT&T equipment installation. After several years of discussions and planning Mantorville was one of the first sights to receive the new smaller foot print equipment shed. The new shed is about 6 foot square and is a much welcomed addition compared to the old shed which was several times larger. After all the equipment has been setup, there will be landscaping placed around the shed and the equipment on the water tower will be painted to mach. In exchange for providing a home for AT&T antennas the City will receive about $12,000/year. The project will help AT&T, add an additional revenue stream for the City and increasing the competitive options for cell coverage in Mantorville. I have uploaded a picture of the snowy install on my blog site at MayorBradford.BlogSpot.Com.
Spread the Love
This past winter we had an opportunity to travel to Arizona and meet up with Abby's parents. While in the Apache Junction area we stopped at a local burger place and were eating outside. The table next to us had a young couple, teenage children and a grandmother. The grandmother was having a discussion of how we all need to show more love and respect to one another. The older teen asked his grandma, "Even those guys over there?", to which the grandma said yes! I am not sure if he was attempting to prove his elder wrong or just trying to comply, but he looked at my mother-in-law and said "Hey, I Love you" to which my mother-in-law replied, "Thank you, I love you too". We had a great conversation with these "new friends" and I realized just how easy it CAN be to make the world a better place. We focus so much on what offends us, how different "those guys are" and what is wrong with our fellow citizens that we loose our focus on what is great. I was happily surprised by how easy it was to span differences with some common curtsies and respect. So my Challenge to you for the month of May is this, "spread some love and look for commonality!
Yours in Service
Chuck Bradford
Mayor, City of Mantorville
MayorBradford.BlogSpot.Com
