Back Again in '08
'08 will be GREAT!
Well so far so good. Got the Kiwanis Wells Fargo Hockey Festival behind me, behaved myself on New Year's eve, got back on my treadmill (well, twice this week), and besides having a sewer backup before Christmas in the Northern Hills area, things are looking good.
We've also grown to over 100,000 population on New year's day. With the annexation of the Marvale addition over 1000 residents joined our ranks to push our population to over 100,000 according to our Director of Planning, Phil Wheeler -- and Phil is not known to be wrong in these matters.
The PB had a very good article on January 2 and in it there were references to "City of the First Class".
Since then I'd had several people ask me about this and just what does it mean. We've always said and known that we're a first class city so what's this about?
We're still trying to figure it out. See, its a Minnesota State designation and there are many statutes buried in State Statutes that apply to a "City of the First Class" but they're interspersed in the books. There's no one source for us to go to as the last city to become a City of the First Class was Duluth and that was in 1935!
We've got until about 2011 or 2012 before we'll see any effect or need to take any action but in a proactive move we commissioned a work effort last summer under the guidance of the Charter Commission and our City Attorney's Office to find these statutes so we could get a heads up on what faces us.
It was a tremendous piece of work and you can see the results on our home page. Go on line to http://www.rochestermn.gov/departments/administration/projects/firstclass/firstclasscity.asp
The Excel worksheet "Master Table of Statutes" can be downloaded. The statutes are identified and broken down even to the department level. We even have those statutes identified that affect the County and School District -- why not as long as our researcher was in there.
If you see something interesting then click on the link and you will go on line to the actual full statute in the State's books. Pretty neat!
Anyway, I thought you might be interested in what happens behind the scenes.
If anything interesting happens I'll be in touch otherwise Joan and I are off to a much belated visit with kids and grandkids in Florida. We plan to leave on Jan 14 and return on the 29th. I'll be checking e-mail from time to time but don't plan on being compulsive about the matter. Hope you understand.
Bob
Well so far so good. Got the Kiwanis Wells Fargo Hockey Festival behind me, behaved myself on New Year's eve, got back on my treadmill (well, twice this week), and besides having a sewer backup before Christmas in the Northern Hills area, things are looking good.
We've also grown to over 100,000 population on New year's day. With the annexation of the Marvale addition over 1000 residents joined our ranks to push our population to over 100,000 according to our Director of Planning, Phil Wheeler -- and Phil is not known to be wrong in these matters.
The PB had a very good article on January 2 and in it there were references to "City of the First Class".
Since then I'd had several people ask me about this and just what does it mean. We've always said and known that we're a first class city so what's this about?
We're still trying to figure it out. See, its a Minnesota State designation and there are many statutes buried in State Statutes that apply to a "City of the First Class" but they're interspersed in the books. There's no one source for us to go to as the last city to become a City of the First Class was Duluth and that was in 1935!
We've got until about 2011 or 2012 before we'll see any effect or need to take any action but in a proactive move we commissioned a work effort last summer under the guidance of the Charter Commission and our City Attorney's Office to find these statutes so we could get a heads up on what faces us.
It was a tremendous piece of work and you can see the results on our home page. Go on line to http://www.rochestermn.gov/departments/administration/projects/firstclass/firstclasscity.asp
The Excel worksheet "Master Table of Statutes" can be downloaded. The statutes are identified and broken down even to the department level. We even have those statutes identified that affect the County and School District -- why not as long as our researcher was in there.
If you see something interesting then click on the link and you will go on line to the actual full statute in the State's books. Pretty neat!
Anyway, I thought you might be interested in what happens behind the scenes.
If anything interesting happens I'll be in touch otherwise Joan and I are off to a much belated visit with kids and grandkids in Florida. We plan to leave on Jan 14 and return on the 29th. I'll be checking e-mail from time to time but don't plan on being compulsive about the matter. Hope you understand.
Bob
Labels: City of First Class
posted by Bob Nowicki | 6:27 PM
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