As the MPRB Turns…

Highlights from the May 17, 2006 Park Board commissioners meeting:

When last we left our band of commissioners the District 2 lad had put aside his run for congress to pursue the heart of his fair lady (the daughter of the District 5 commissioner) and had, according to the District 1 Commissioner, been accepted. During their meeting of May 17th their old habits began to surface. During the meeting of the Admin and Finance committee the staff brought up a construction permit issue at Mill Ruins Park that the superintendent felt was too sensitive of an issue to be handled by the staff. Construction problems at Mill Ruins you may be pondering, but alas no. Just read this link to the study report…

http://www.minneapolisparks.org/mprbnas1/global$/shared/board%20staff%20reports/2006-05-17/ADMsr2.pdf….
Oh that’s right it doesn’t work. Didn’t before the meeting and still doesn’t. Well if you had been there you could see that it has only location to do with Mill Ruins Park. CROWN HYRDO by any other name is resurfacing and doing test drills into the historic milling area just a stones throw north of their previously coveted site. The CROWN HYDRO permits came under discussion and were passed by the Admin and Finance committee to proceed as they will also “check for pollution”. Since the Standards and Conduct committee still hasn’t worked out the issue of if it goes through committee must it go to the board with a vote and if it is voted on in committee must it actually go to the full board the permits will be issued. And while we are on the topic of Standards and Conduct I should mention that during their study session Commissioner Nordyke repeatedly mentioned that it is going to be difficult to base the Superintendent’s Evaluation on the tasks he has met since during his tenure as both interim superintendent and superintendent (now a total of nearly 2 1/2 years) as he and the President of the Board (the above mentioned non- congressional candidate) have never made the stipulated Superintendent Work Plan that lists the goals he is to meet. They are suggesting that maybe there will be a survey of the commissioners, the superintendents co-workers ( many working as his appointees) and the superintendent himself… SWEET. From reading the Superintendent’s monthly reports I imagine his survey will be filled with exclamation points galore!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The presentation on the programs offered in the parks this summer was very nice. I’d suggest going to the website http://www.minneapolisparks.org and then searching. Good luck. On a related note.. I attended a meeting of the Above the Falls Citizen Advisory Committee (AFCAC), and Park Planner Nick Eoloff mentioned that the Holcim Cement site was sold to a higher bidder.