2008

STATE OF THE CITY

I would like to thank the Chaska Area Chamber of Commerce for giving the

City of Chaska this opportunity to address you on the State of the City of

Chaska the "Best Small Town in Minnesota".

I want to again reinforce to you how proud and honored I am to be your

Mayor, the Mayor of Chaska and to be allowed to deliver this address.

Isn't it unbelievable Chaska being named one of the "Top Ten Best Small

Towns in the United States to Live"? The criteria they used for this

accolade coincide with our vision of being the "Best Small Town in

Minnesota".

1. Affordable Housing. We have been and continue to be committed

to life cycle and work force housing. We do need to maintain a

certain mix of housing opportunities to retain being a healthy

community.

2. Plentiful Leisure Activities. An award winning community center,

a national known public golf course along with a Par 30 golf

course, an Athletic Park where 120 to 140 games are played each

year and still considered one of the best venues in the State to play

amateur baseball. I challenge you to look at our community and

gaze at the "green space" and compare it to other communities. A

definite asset to Chaska is our trail system and our various green

spaces and our many parks. We don't need to encourage Chaska

residents to enjoy the lakes, ravines, the trails, the passive parks,

the green spaces, and the river. They already enjoy them as

reflected in our citizen surveys. We just need to protect and

enhance these amenities making them even better.

3. Job Growth. I will go into this when we talk about some of our

new developments.

4. Sunny Weather. Well lots of Sun only sometimes not so warm.

5. Short Commute Time. This new Highway 212 has reduced

everybody's commute time by 20 to 30 minutes each day round

trip for those who travel it.

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6. Good Health Care Access. We already have numerous clinics with

very qualified doctors, an urgent care facility and now an

Emergency room.

7. Plentiful Cultural Opportunities. Our own History Center.

Their criteria and what we as a community would like to maintain and

accomplish through our vision are unusually close. We as a city organization

cannot accomplish our vision without a set of values intended to provide the

framework within which our organization accomplishes its vision. Those

values are:

1st is a COMMITMENT TO CHASKA

Chaska is a special community. It is unique in that it is a quality small town

within a larger metropolitan suburban area. Our commitment is to

collectively strive to make Chaska the "Best Small Town in Minnesota".

COMMITMENT TO QUALITY

As the Chaska community continues to develop and redevelop, we are

committed to aggressively pursuing quality facilities and infrastructure, city

services, recreational opportunities and private development activities.

COMMITMENT TO OUR EMPLOYEES

Our employees must be able to enjoy an exciting, challenging and fulfilling

work environment where they are recognized and rewarded for their

commitment to excellence.

COMMITMENT TO INTEGRITY

In understanding our duties, we are committed to the values of honesty,

fairness and trust. Without preserving our personal and organizational

integrity, the other values are meaningless.

Our values should never waiver from building a community that reflects our

humanity. As a community we need to make decisions that achieve the

greatest common good and reflect those values.

We have something in Chaska other communities are attempting to capture.

That quality small town feel. We need to retain this feeling. Through

growth we can improve our quality of life by adding services, creating

opportunities and enhancing access to amenities. Business and community

leaders, developers and local governments need to work together to ensure

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new growth improves the economy and the environment of our community.

This has to be our goal. We need to make decisions that are best for Chaska

not just in the present but also the future of our Chaska Community

Chaska is a healthy community not only fiscally and economically strong

but also in our community culture thanks to organizations like yours and the

people who belong and make these organizations successful. When we talk

about how our community is economically strong, you the leaders of

business both large and small of this community are a major part of how we

accomplish this goal. Thank you, each of you and your employee's for this

involvement and commitment to our community. Chaska has a history of

community teamwork, civic engagement, trust and above all optimism.

Over 157 years of history assures us these factors are present and have made

us successful. The population of Chaska, they, you are responsible for

maintaining our Chaska small town culture. It is recognized that a "small

town sense of community" can only be developed by continuing efforts of

community residents and organizations.

A priority for our community is to have a stable tax rate. This graph shows

we are accomplishing this goal. Boring is good when it comes to city taxes.

As you can see our tax rate has been very close to the same rate since 1999

and one of council's priority goals is to have these rates remain unchanged

throughout future planning. Every year this is a challenge we have been able

to meet. The funds we receive from the State of Minnesota have been

reduced substantially over the past few years. And this past year with the

reduction of building permits it has made it even more difficult but as you

can also see we again are one of the lowest taxed cities per capita in the

metropolitan area.

With that being said this year we are implementing a utility charge, user fee,

or tax whatever you would like to call it for management of our storm water.

The mandates for improving our storm water runoff and improving the

clarity of our lakes and the Minnesota River have dictated the need to

establish this as another part of our city utilities.

With these taxes Chaska is maintaining a great quality of life and providing

an excellent level of essential municipal services. We as a community

should be very proud of these facts. Our community should be most proud

though not of the amount of the taxes rather the value we receive from those

taxes. It would be terribly wrong for our community to have the lowest

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taxes and the result being inadequate municipal services. I know the value

per dollar of our taxes exceeds other communities.

New Highway 212 is the largest project to date we have been a part of. It is

being constructed as we speak and everybody is happy to report ahead of

schedule to open this next portion of Highway 212 in July 2008. This is

tremendous news for our community. It has brought and will continue to

bring opportunities and challenges for Chaska.

The new Highway 41 River crossing Environmental Impact Study is

completed and the resulting recommendation should be released for

comment soon. This crossing is important to our community it will affect

our future for years and years to come. We as a community have been as

active as possible in this study and will remain to be involved to assist

MNDOT in selecting the crossing, hopefully W-2 our preferred crossing

option which will be best for Chaska's future.

We are in our 4th phase of our street construction. This year we will

reconstruct Bavaria Road from Hundertmark Road north to Pioneer

Trail/Town Course Drive West. This reconstruction will include two

roundabouts and a trail on Bavaria Road. We will also complete Pioneer

Trail West from Bavaria Road to Victoria Drive relieving some traffic on

Hundertmark. Another project is an at grade railroad crossing connecting

Hundertmark to Victoria Drive.

The Heights of Chaska development and the vision of living where you

work will be a key component in maintaining the vitality of our community

as well as assisting those in the work force who are seeking home ownership

opportunities. This process has taken longer than was expected but we

cannot be afraid to enhance the good in this development to attain what

could be extraordinary for Chaska.

The designation of Chaska as a Bio-Science Zone is another boost for not

only our community, and surrounding communities and all of Carver County

but also will affect the Southwestern Metropolitan area. It could bring as

many as 10,000 jobs and 4 - 5 million square feet of office space. This

Zone could include up to 800 acres. We need to work in conjunction with

landowners, developers, Carver County, and MNDOT. I feel confident a

concept plan and some agreements will be completed this year maybe even

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starting the First Phase on the Northwest corner of Engler Boulevard and

new Highway 212.

What were those headlines? States First Stand Alone ER soon to Open in

Chaska. What a great addition to our community an ER with an attached

helipad for medical emergencies. Of course this will not only be an ER it

will also house primary and specialty care clinics as well as same day

surgeries and imaging services. This development could employ 100 people

the day it opens in 2010. Don't tell any body this but I heard, Ridgeview is

looking to affiliate this facility with a well-known oncology presence and

also to have an affiliation with some place called Children's Hospital. We

are really excited for this. We need to thank Ridgeview of Chaska-Waconia

for proposing this facility in our community.

Remember last year one of the dreams was Chaska University? Last year

Dunwoody came to Chaska. They offer classes in Carver-Scott Coop

Campus. We are also getting something, which could even be better than

Chaska University for our community. Ed Campus located in Chaska. It is

hard to explain this facility. It will be an innovational educational model

that leverages the power of combining dynamic students from diverse

institutions into a single campus - outfitted with customizable classroom

space and student-centric services. Ed Campus will offer state-of-the-art

technology never seen before in post secondary education. This facility

located off of New Highway 212 and Engler Boulevard will be a

compliment for our businesses currently located in Chaska and also the ones

soon to locate in our Bio-Science Zone. It should employ 200 professional

and support staff and have 350,000 square feet of classroom space, student

services, retail, corporate training spaces, lecture spaces and administrative

offices. This is being developed by Twin Cities based Metropolitan

Lifelong Learning Center and they are hoping to break ground this year.

You will hear a lot more about this Ed Campus. Time Engen is from Ed

Campus can answer your questions after this address.

Leadership and strong infrastructure draw businesses. Strong vibrant

communities are what keep these businesses. We need to continue being a

community of risk takers in seeking opportunities for partnerships,

partnerships which first and foremost serve Chaska residents but will also at

the same time serve our neighboring communities and Carver County.

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We have made great accomplishments as a community since the 1800's.

Through the decades of growth and change Chaska has remained a

community of strength and character. The tradition of living begun so many

years ago on the banks of the Minnesota River continues to this day. None of

our achievements were guaranteed. We have come to expect our quality of

life to progress throughout our lifetimes and those of our children. As a

community we need to make sure we keep getting extraordinary things done.

However we are the chief architects of our collective success. Whether we

advance this quality of life the responsibility is ours.

At this time I would like to acknowledge and thank a few of our architects

who have given their time and energy to further our quality of life in Chaska.

Bob Moeller has been very active in our community including previously

chairing our Planning Commission but we are recognizing him today for

being our representative to Southwest Transit. To Jerry Personius from our

Planning Commission, who also was a chairperson of our Park Board,

Colleen Good rich from our Park Board and from our Human Rights

Commission Abigail Haven, Wendy Zierman and Penny Tarbell. I would

also like to acknowledge a person who has a long history with Chaska. He

is a life long resident, our former city attorney, former President of Jonathan

and he has just retired as our representative, through three governors to the

Metropolitan Council, Jules Smith. They have served and for one reason or

another have decided to move on in their life. Thank you.

We could not accomplish all of this without competent staff and we at

Chaska are very fortunate to have employed this staff. They are our servant

leaders and know our mission and the decisions they make are directed

toward being the "Best Small Town in Minnesota".

Community building is based on listening, providing responsive services and

investing in our infrastructure, this will make our community a great place to

work and call home.

I am very confident in conjunction with our staff, our department heads, our

commissions, and our council making decisions with this mission and these

values in mind we will continue to accomplish our goals and maintain being

the "Best Small Town in Minnesota".

Our community needs to know our goals, our vision and our dreams and we

need their assistance to accomplish them.

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Our community needs to trust the decisions being made are made for the

good of the city of Chaska. Decisions in our community need to be made

from the heart.

Our community needs to know they need to challenge this process and

search for opportunities to assist and change the status quo: this means

learning from our mistakes and also our successes.

Our community needs to know building commitment to these actions means

behaving consistently with our values.

Our community needs to be focused on being the "Best Small Town in

Minnesota".

Dreams are like stars, you may never touch them but if you follow them they

will lead Chaska to our destiny. To accomplish great things we must not

only dream but also act, not only plan but also believe.

So dream with me now what will Chaska look like in 2020.

Chaska was named the Number 1 Small Town in the United States to Live.

How did this happen?

Our goal of having life cycle and affordable housing and living where you

work sure has paid off. 70% of the people who live in Chaska work in

Chaska. In 2008 the figure was 45%. Striving for a balance of housing

projects including work force housing for our teachers, police, city

employees, waitresses, mechanics and others has sure improved our sense of

community both by the businesses they work for and our residents who call

Chaska home.

We have expanded our leisure activities. We now have an indoor snow ski

and snowboard park, this facility also has skating for leisure and speed and

figure skating. One of our hotels also added an indoor water park on their

campus. We have added trails wherever we can and average more miles of

trails per capita than any other community around. Our passive parks have

been enhanced to make just relaxing with a picnic a unique experience.

Chaska was also voted the most walk able community in Minnesota.

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We finally achieved our goal of 1.75 jobs per household in Chaska. Thanks

to the build out of our Bio-Science Zone. Expanding the trolley bus service

in partnership with Southwest Transit sure has cut down on a lot of

commuting and demand on our road infrastructure. Now if we could just get

MNDOT to release that EIS study choosing W-2 as the crossing for new

Highway 41.

The stand alone ER now is even better than proposed, with specialists in

Children's medicine and oncology. People from Rochester now want to be

treated in Chaska. Some of those breakthroughs in medicine and other

biosciences were former students who studied at Ed Campus in Chaska.

The expansion of our library downtown enveloping almost all of City

Square, including our History Center and also houses two museums. Our

golf course and our Community Center both are still rated in the top 5 in

Minnesota.

This is just our dream of 2020. I do hope you will share your dreams your

visions of Chaska with us.

The biggest mistake we can make is not dreaming large enough. We need to

see the invisible, feel those intangibles and achieve the impossible.

To accomplish great things we must not only dream but also act, not only

plan but also believe.

A small town feeling exists first in spirit and a commitment to community.

Today as with every day we should celebrate and embrace who we are.

Chaska is committed to building and nurturing a diversified environment

throughout the entire community. We recognize a community comprised of

a wide variety of perspectives, viewpoints and backgrounds is integral to our

success. This is even truer when we reflect on our history and know our

ancestors, previous residents and previous community leaders made this

community what it is today. Our community is going to change; the desire

to care for and about where we live will always prevail. A sense of small

town spirit will live on in our hearts.

I believe one of my most important jobs, as Mayor of Chaska is to share

these values, goals, visions and dreams. There will always be new projects

to take the place of these current projects but our process, our goals, our

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values, our dreams, and our vision are what really are important to the future

of Chaska.

I started this speech by telling you how proud I am to be your Mayor. I

hope you can be equally as proud to be a business leader, a resident, or an

employee of Chaska the "Best Small Town in Minnesota".

Again thank you for this opportunity to deliver this address.

God Bless you and God Bless Chaska.