Fifth Street Weight Limit

In the past the City has not been overly concerned about heavy traffic on fifth street since the road surface was in such poor condition. A couple of years ago we finished a section of fifth street and we are planning on doing more this fall. The new road surface was not designed to carry more weight than the road was originally designed for; therefore, it is important that we now help people understand that the road will be damaged if large heavy vehicles travel up and down fifth street heading east from downtown. There has been some confusion recently about the weight limit signs, the road is posted at 5 tons and this is total vehicle weight, not a per axle rating. The City wants to keep our new road in perfect condition as long as possible, and by following the weight limitations for our road we will more likely be able to be successful. Thanks for understanding.

Primary Elections

August 14 is primary election day in Minnesota. In Minnesota we have an edorsing process. During endorsement, a candidate is chosen from a number of candidates to run on a given party's ticket for a particular office. If one of those candidates chooses to not honor the party's endorsement, that candidate can then “force a primary” if this happens then the party's candidate is chosen from the names presented on a primary ballot during a election that is a few months prior to the general election. The candidate that chooses to challenge an endorsed candidate will often campaign saying things like “we don't want a few political elite choosing our candidate”. How are these “political elite” chosen then? In March of an election year, we as Minnesotans, go to our local precinct caucus where we talk about issues and ideas that are important to us. The causes is attended by your neighbors, this is the smallest population division for political purposes, these are the people you see every day. During the caucus, we choose some individuals to represent us at the County convention, where the ideas we spoke about at caucus are collected and prepared to be presented to the State Party. The County convention then chooses people to represent us at the Congressional District and State Conventions. The “political elite” are those neighbors we choose to talk to the candidates, do research, consider our concerns and represent our views when selecting a candidate for our party's endorsement. Too often the non-endorsed candidate has connections to out-of-state financial tools and feels that they can outspend the endorsed candidate and simply buy an election. I find it very intriguing when this happens and when that same candidate then talks about political insiders. This year both major parties (DFL, MNGOP) have primaries in both the First Congressional District as well as the Governors race. This year both parties have the ability to determine if the individual voter believes in our grass-roots endorsing process, or if our elections are up for sale. I strongly encourage everyone to vote this August in one of the two parties primary elections and reaffirm our commitment to the endorsing process. Your Choice Minnesota!

Thanks

Chuck Bradford

Mantorville Township Blocking Safe Trails

During the Township meeting on June 4th, The City of Mantorville shared an area of cooperation with the Township. The City of Mantorville is working on a local sidewalk up along fifth street. There was an opportunity for the Township to enjoy some cost savings by working with the DNR on a trail segment along fifth street past Mantorville. The Township said that not only were they not interested in cooperating, they were going to make the road even wider so that a trail would never be able to be added within the current right-or-way.  When asked if they had any interest in helping kids from those existing development have a safe path into the city the Townships reply was "Not at this time".

The City of Mantorville, the DNR and the Stage Coach Trails association will continue to work on finding safe, enjoyable recreational opportunities and identify alternative paths.

Chuck Bradford
Mayor, City of Mantorville

Quick Trails Update

The Mantorville City Council is planning on adding a local sidewalk / trail along fifth street during our next phase of road construction. We are talking to the Mantorville Township next week and are looking for area of collaboration on a trail that will lead into Mantorville that could eventually be linked to the region Stage Coach Trail.

Annual business appreciation

Every  year the Kasson-Msantorville school district sponsors a business appreciation breakfast. This year the breakfast was held at the end of last month (April 24). Superintendent Mark Matuska shared some very interesting facts about the seventh annual event. The business within and around our community have donated around half a million dollars over the seven year history of the event. Last year alone business contributed over $160,000 to school related projects. Each year the KM students create posters to thank each business and those are displayed during the breakfast. Mantorville City Council member Ryan Christensen's class created a poster thanking the City and Mrs. Pagels class created an additional poster thanking the Mayor. I have attached a picture of these posters below.

Mrs C. Pagels Class Poster

Mr Christensen's Class Poster

Max Craft's Eagle Project

May 19, 2018

This past weekend one of the Eagle Scout from the Kasson Mantorville area was able to complete his Eagle project and organized a "Ribbon Cutting Ceremony". I had the honor of kicking off the remarks for this celebration and I wanted to share a picture from this event.

Max Craft Eagle Project dedication

Hatch Access for Water Tower

New Antennas installed

I have been asked how the new antennas get to the top of the Water Tower. The tower has a hatch just below the basin and this allows access from the outside into the final stairwell up through the center of the basin to a hatch on the top. After final work and during our inspection I will post some additional pictures from the top of the water tower.

Decommissioning Work Starts at Old WWTP

Decommissioning Activities at WWTP

May 02, 2018 : The work to remove the old equipment and facilities at the old Mantorville Waste Water Treatment Plant started on May second. The photo to the right show the crane being used to remove the old basin and fiberglass domes.

A Frosty Start but Toasty Finish

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.

Fifth Street Update
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

Hey, I Love you

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 just common curtsies and respect. So my Challenge to you for the month of May is this, "spread some love and look for commonality!

AT&T Install a reality

Setting the Footings

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.

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 you can see from the picture below, 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.

2018 MMA Annual Meeting Attendees

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.

April Showers

March 27, 2018

Kindness is its own reward

I have posted an experience that occurred a week ago on my blog and I wanted to share it with the rest of my neighbors. On Friday night we went out for dinner. Abby and I both had a nice steak dinner and the kids each selected something good as well. When we were ready for the check the waitress did not come over for a little bit, and when she did finally come over she told us we were good to go and that our check had been picked up by the table next to us. The waitress asked if that was one of my friends and I told her no. Since we all know that if you receive a Random Act of Kindness that it brings bad karma if not repaid, so while looking for my options to pay-it-forward I decided that part of my repayment would be to issue a challenge for my neighbors. I know Mantorville residents love to volunteer, donate and help others. Here is my challenge to my fellow residents. Look for an opportunity to do something nice for someone else, it doesn’t have to be buying dinner maybe it is simply spending some of your time helping someone. I assure you I will follow up on my pay-it-forward of a RAK and I encourage each of you to start a brand new chain and not wait for the opportunity to repay a RAK.

Cell Coverage

If you have followed my blog or read many of my past articles, you will know that we have been pushing to get an antenna array on top of the water tower to increase the options available to Mantorville residents for their cellular service provider. We were informed that AT&T has plans to start the installation of the equipment early this spring. We are looking forward to our partnership with AT&T and welcome this expanded service coverage. I will post pictures of the ground breaking and keep everyone posted as to the progress.

Bus Stop Security

The City has installed a wireless security device in the bus stop on Bergmann drive. We hope that this device will help deter any future vandalism. The bus stop is for the benefit of our students while they wait for a ride to school. Vandalizing these structures is causing harm to a facility designed for the comfort of our students and the City is committed to taking the necessary steps in order to protect these assets. Please respect our community and protect our mutual assets and report any observations of damage or vandalism to the Sherriff’s office.

Yours in Service

Chuck Bradford

Mayor, City of Mantorville

MayorBradford.BlogSpot.Com

Random Acts of Kindness

Tonight our family went to Texas Road House for dinner. We all had a great dinner. There was a cute little kid across form us that keep looking at us. We smiled at him and his dad. We exchanged smiles throughout our meal, and they left before us. We patiently waited for for our check and finally the waitress came over and told us that our bill had been paid. This was a great unsuspected surprise. We had a long talk on the way home about how we can pay-it-forward. I encourage all of us took look for ways to pay it forward. You don't have to buy a family of four a meal, but look for easy ways to help someone else. I think we can all learn from this experience and use it as an example of how we should act towards one and other. My Challenge to you this week is pay it forward. Look for ways to help someone just because it is the right thing to do.

Yours in Service,

Chuck Bradford
Mayor, City of Mantorville

Muligan Stew on the Ides of March

The "Ides" of March, 2018

Pot Holes and Road Work:
The is watching the conditions of the roads and the pot holes that spring up every year. The City does have a plan to look at some of the roads in most need next year and will be preforming some road projects. Look for more details on the 2018 road projects in a future article.

Bridge Lighting:
A few weeks ago the City replaced some broken lights on the bridge over the river. Two days later those lights were broken again. When we installed the new lights we did notice that the globes did not match well with those that were faded so the City Council determined that we would order all new globes so that everything will match. These new globes will be installed as soon as they arrive.

Remember Mulligan Stew:
Every year the Mantorville Restoration Association conducts a “Mulligan Stew” and auction. This year this event will be held at the Hubble House on this Thursday March 15 from 4:30pm to 7:00pm. This auction is a fund raiser for the MRA and an opportunity for some nice items to find a new life. Individuals or organizations interested in making a donation for the auction are encouraged to contact City Hall for more details. I hope to see many of our friends and neighbors at this event.


Yours in service,

Chuck Bradford,
Mayor - City of Mantorville
MantorvilleMayor@Gmail.Com
MayorBradford.BlogSpot.com