Ninth Strret Stop Signs

The City Council has been looking at speed and safety issues on 9th street The City Engineer has shared some Minnesota Department of Transportation (MNDOT) studies that show that speed tends to be an issue on streets that drivers feel have excessive stop signs. So as phase one of our attempt to address some of the speed issues the City will be working with the County to reduce the number of stops going down ninth street. Please pay attentions as these changes occur until everyone can get adjusted to the new traffic patterns.

Thank You Stage Coach Days Volunteers

Thank You to all the volunteers that worked so hard to make this years SCD a success. I really enjoyed the Baking Contest and it was very hard to choose a single winner. After the judging we auctioned off the top three best pies for charity. Thank you to everyone that come down to bid on the winners. I did want to include a picture from this weekend.

Pie Judging ; Photo Spencer Bradford

Happy Fourth of July

Fourth of July, 2018

Fourth of July

I hope everyone enjoyed the fourth of July.In 1814 Fort McHenry was relentlessly bombarded by the British. The pounding was so sever that

according to quote on The Smithsonian's web site that has been attributed to Francis Scott Key, the author of the Star Spangled Banner "It seemed as though mother earth had opened and was vomiting shot and shell in a sheet of fire and brimstone,". The attack lasted so long and was so intense that no one expected the Americans to survive. When dawn finally broke the American flag did still fly over the fort. The British had not taken the fort and the determination of the Amnerican soldier was reveled to be unwavering. What Keys did not know at them time when he wrote the poem that later became our National Anthem was that several times during the night the flag pole had been struck and fallen and each time another man would venture fourth, right our flag and more often than not meet their own fate. It is this legacy that we celebrate each year on the fourth of July. While this battle took place in September, many believe this to be a critical turning point in the war. This year when you see those rockets bursting in air during the fireworks display, remember what those bright colors and loud booms truly represent. For all the patriots that have continued on in the Tradition of Fort McHenry and placed themselves in harms way to be vigilant for all of our freedoms, THANK YOU! Know that for you, our faithful defenders, that with each burst in the sky this fourth of July that we are thinking of you.

No heavy trucks on 5^th

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.

Stage Coach Days

Thank You to all the volunteers that worked so hard to make this years SCD a success. I really enjoyed the Baking Contest and it was very hard to choose a single winner. After the judging we auctioned off the top three best pies for charity. Thank you to everyone that come down to bid on the winners. I did want to include a picture from this weekend.

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!

Township blocking 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. 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.

Mayor's Blog

I have a blog that I keep updated. There is a link on the City's web site to my blog which is located at MayorBradford.BlogSpot.Com. In my blog I have additional articles, photos and updates that do not make it into my periodic article. Please check out the articles on-line and add a comment if you so desire.

Yours in Service

Chuck Bradford
Mayor, City of Mantorville
MayorBradford.BlogSpot.Com

Stage Coach Days Celebration

June 22, 2018

Plein Air:

The Mantorville Art Guild will once again hold their annual Plein Air event during this years Stage Coach Days. The Plein Air event is an opportunity for artist to showcase their painting and drawings and help promote the artistic community within Mantorville. Contact the Mantorville Art Guild for more information.

Costume & Fashion Show:

One of the more unique offering during the Stage Coach Days celebration is the annual is the Costuming Day and Fashion Show Luncheon. This is a great way to show off your great period attire and promote Historic Mantorville at the same time. Even if you don't have period attire this is a fun event to come down and witness.

Mantorville Melodrama:

The Mantorville Theater Company is presenting one of their melodramas again this weekend. This summer the MTC is presenting scripts written by local writers and entered into their script contest. These are fun theater where audience participation is strongly encouraged. The MTC is also offering a Melodrama Summer Camp, this is a fun way for our younger actors to start learning the fine art of Melodrama performance. Refer to their web site for more information. The MTC web site is www.mantorvillain.com/summer-melodrama-season

Pie Contest:

One of the event I am really looking forward to this year is the pie contest. Local bakers and chefs are busy now preparing yummy pies for this years contest. I along with some other community leaders have been asked to serve as judges. This is always a fun event but very difficult to choose one winner! Come down to Mantorville this Saturday at 11:30 and watch the fun as we try to determine the best pie in Mantorville.

And So Much More:

This years SCD also include a Horse Pull, Live Music, Historic Displays/Exhibits and wrap up with a vintage baseball game on Sunday. I hope to see everyone down in Mantorville this weekend as well celebrate the summer season and our historic heritage.

Yours in Service

Chuck Bradford
Mayor, City of Mantorville
MayorBradford.BlogSpot.Com

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.