General Ward Update

LITTERBIT BETTER: Well, the Litterbit Better Cleanup campaign has certainly cleaned up a good chunk of the 5th Ward thanks to many dedicated volunteers. I hope that we will all do our bit to keep it clean.

RNeighborWoods Tree Planting: I'm getting ready to plant some trees on Elton Hills Drive tomorrow, Saturday. Doing it as a board member of RNeighbors, one of the initiators of RNeighborwoods, one of the first certified Citizen Foresters, council member interested in making the city more tree friendly and beautiful, and all around sucker for a good cause.

Perhaps in your travels along Elton Hills Dr.in the last couple of days you noticed the holes dug in the parkways with trees sitting waiting to be planted. These 100 trees are to replace the trees removed due to interference with the power lines and trimming causing structural decay over the years. We're going to start planting at 8:30 on Elton Hills Dr. with a rally at the Rochester Lutheran School and wrap up at the same place with a picnic for all the volunteers. Kids and adults are welcome. Bring gloves, a spade if you have one or just come over to supervise.

EMERALD ASH BORER: I just received a note from Jacob Ryg, our city Forester, regarding the possibility of importing the dreaded emerald ash borer into Minnesota with improperly processed Taylors Wood Products. Apparently the bark hadn't been removed from the logs and could harbor the ash borer which has been devastating trees in Michgan and moving towards us at an alarming rate.

I don't have any information about this product other than what is described in the memo but thought you should know about this just in cas you use the product. I have three very nice ash trees that I'd like to keep for as long as possible and sure that some of you do as well so if we can do something to prevent an even earlier arrival of this pest then let's do it.

Thanks,

Bob

On Transitional Housing

So what if you were just released from jail or prison and wanted to get back into society but didn’t have money to buy a house or any friends or family in the area?

This is the problem that 40% of the 274 ex-prisoners released in 2006 and 40% of the 139 expected to be released in the Rochester Area face or will be facing. They are essentially homeless and may stay that way unless the already over-burdened probation officers and system find accommodations for them. By the way, there are currently 2,178 people on supervised release living among us today.

I think we’ll all agree that having a job, earning our keep, and being able to support ourselves are key to leading a healthy, productive life. Ditto for those who return to society after serving their sentences for their previous transgressions on our society.

The Department of Corrections including our Olmsted County probation office are proposing to open a “transitional” housing facility to address this need for housing. Others may follow.

An early attempt met with resistance from nearby residents. Fear of the unknown mostly. danger to themselves and their loved ones, loss of property values – you know, that sort of thing.
We, the city council, placed a one year moratorium to study the matter and formed a task force to help do this. Representatives from the Corrections community, neighborhoods, and various city and county organizations met since January.

They’ve made some pretty sound recommendations and we, the council, gave them the approval to continue through the ordinance formation and change process on the line they suggested.

Basically, the proposed home will have to come before the Planning and Zoning Commission and Council as a Conditional Use Development – meaning that it would only be approved if it met the conditions laid out in the ordinance and that it could only keep functioning if it continued to meet those conditions.

Conditions may vary depending on whether any level of sex offender would be housed on the property but basically no two houses could be within 1000 feet of each other (to keep the residential flavor of the area) and there must be at least 400 homes within a 1500 foot radius (again to insure residential atmosphere versus putting the home in a fringe area or industrial area).

In houses where sex offenders of any type might live there would be additional restrictions imposed. Houses could not be within 1000 feet of a licensed day care center, or 500 feet from a school or neighborhood play ground. We think this makes sense and is a balance between addressing the need to help assimilate these folks back into our community as helpful, supportive members of the community and addressing the concerns of our current residents.

I don’t expect to make a firm decision on this before June so let me know what you think.

I also have a lot of data on success rates, recidivism experience and can enlist the help of the Department of Corrections to address your questions, attend neighborhood meetings etc.