City of Bloomington, MN City News - Archive 2011 - 2013, 17 Aug 2011

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From YouTube: Bloomington Today: August 17, 2011

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On this week's Bloomington Today we'll find out the 2011 Primary Election results, take a look at the final phase of the naturalization project outside Civic Plaza, and spend a day with the Bloomington Bomb Squad while they conduct an explosive training exercise.

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Welcome to Bloomington today, I'm kailyn real thanks for joining us. Thousands of Bloomington residents turned out for the August ninth primary election for city, mayor and council member at large, and the results are in 4029 residents cast their vote at one of bloomington's 32 precinct locations, the two who will advance to the general election for the council, member at large seat are Tim bossy and my Clayman bus. He received two thousand six to nine votes, layman received 1267 votes and for city mayor.

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The primary election winners were current Mayor, Jean, Winstead and Hans Andersen Marilyn said received 2778 votes, while Anderson received 1074 votes. This city's general election will be held on tuesday november eighth, just to remind everyone. Offices up for election this year include mayor council member at large, as well as council members for district 3 and 4 to see a complete list of candidates sample ballots and more. You can find all that information by logging on to the city's website.

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We brought you news on the last episode of Bloomington today about a chance for residents to learn more about the south loop district today, we'd like to remind residents of the open house and give them some incentive to offer city officials. Your feedback before you head to civic plazas east parking lot on Saturday August twentieth to find all your locally grown fruits, veggies and flowers at the blue leaves and farmers market make a quick pit stop in the city hall lobby.

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It's there that city staff will be on hand to answer questions and take comments about the city's new South Loop district plan, browse illustrations and watch a short informational, video about the future land uses bike and pedestrian trails and more residents who watched the video are then invited to participate in a non camera feedback booth, which allows city officials to hear just what people think of the plans for the south loop district. In return.

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For your time and honest opinion, the city will reward participants with a token to be used towards farmers market products at any future market. The market runs from eight a.m. to 1pm, with staff on hand again from eight a.m. to 11am. People who live work or travel in and around bloomington may need to adjust their route a bit as another bloomington bridge is undergoing some rehabilitation.

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Old shakopee road spanning highway 77 will be reduced to a single lane. Beginning monday august 22nd, as a project to improve the life of the bridge, is set to begin concrete drainage and sidewalk updates are all a part of the to-do list, as well as curb repairs to some areas of the bridge. Sidewalks on the south side of the bridge will be closed to pedestrians and the loop from westbound old shakopee road to southbound highway 77 will be closed during the closures. Motorists and pedestrians are asked to follow posted detours.

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The bridge rehabilitation is expected to improve driving conditions along that stretch of old shakopee road, while expanding the bridges life span. The entire project is expected to be completed by late-september of this year. Last week on Bloomington today we answered the question as to why large areas of the lawn at City Hall have been left to dry out. For those of you who didn't hear, Civic, Plaza and Bloomington Public Works is undergoing a naturalization and prairie restoration project.

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Last week on Bloomington today we saw City maintenance crews mowing the grass set to be naturalized. As short as mowers would allow. The week of august eighth crews from prairie restoration inc were out with tractors, pulling a till device used to break up topsoil and uproot any remaining sod right.

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Now, they're just stirring up the soil whenever you plant, whether it's grassy or prairie, grasses or wild flowers, whatever to get good germination, we need good what we call seed to soil contact. In other words, when the seed goes in the ground, we need to have it stay in contact with the soil. Otherwise the seed will dry out and won't be viable and won't grow. Large.

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Shoots are then placed on the back of the tractors to dispense the feed, pellets and then crews go to work covering and then recovering the areas that will soon be beautiful, natural habitat. However edwardson says, while the area may not look like much now in about a year, it will hopefully be flourishing. This.

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Fall and in the next spring, it's probably not going to look like a lot is happening as it relates to the prairie grasses and the wildflowers it takes a year, or so, at least before things start to grow in the plants that we really want to come in. Every.

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Naturalization project has to start somewhere, though, take a look at these photos taken in 2005 near the beginning of the naturalization of the area around civic plazas storm water pond. This is what the area looks like today. Native grasses and wildflowers are significantly taller and the area is providing a wonderful habitat for insects and animals alike. After the seeding straw is laid down to hold the seeds in place and the final step gets underway. Plugs and seedlings are then hand planted to give the area a jumpstart to the growth city.

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Officials believe will follow in the coming months. 5,000 plugs and all were introduced to the grounds of civic, plaza and Public Works. Now that the naturalization is complete, edwardson said he's excited to watch what it grows into its.

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Prairie, grasses and wildflowers that we may have seen you know hundreds of years ago. You know just across the whole country in the Prairie, so we're we're trying to recreate some of that and we're certainly trying to be more environmentally friendly and sustainable by not having to to ultimately irrigate this use. Irrigation water, fertilize, weed control, all those things we can really eliminate a lot of what we call inputs. If we have naturalized planting bringing.

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Native grasses into your yard is a great way to minimize maintenance, while benefiting the environment. Rain gardens also provide a fun and appealing way to spruce up any yard. We're looking forward to seeing the progress of this naturalization project at Civic, Plaza and Public Works. We see it in the movies huge explosions engulfing a building or a city street. The Bloomington bomb squad deal with the threat of such explosions. Every time they're called out to a job.

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Many may wonder how you stay sharp when it comes to such a dangerous job and, like anything practice, makes perfect. Take a look at the bloomington bomb squad, conducting a training exercise with several other agencies. Recently, any type of explosive from a firework to a high-powered bomb has the ability to be unforgiving and oftentimes deadly. No one understands that fact like the members of the Bloomington bomb squad, as they are one team out of just a handful in the entire state. Taking on this dangerous job. There's.

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Four teams in the state of Minnesota there's a Minneapolis bomb squad, st. Paul, us and then Crow Wing County has a bomb squad and between the four of us we take different districts of the state or different sections of the state and we respond to any needs throughout the state. Rep.

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He and his team were approached by Dakota County several weeks ago to help stage an emergency situation at the apple valley transit station. In mid-august they.

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Asked for our assistance in preparing a bus to be a prop for their exercise, and that asked that we put some explosives on the bus and get it ready to to be a proper, their exercise and basically blow the bus up. Several.

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Agencies from around central and southern Minnesota gathered to see the Bloomington bomb squad in action. The team is not only skilled in defusing, potentially harmful explosives, but can assist in safely detonating a bomb like in this case. There are four high-powered explosives on this bus that will be used for a real-life prop for the obvious teams exercise. Take a look at just how much force is behind those for explosives.

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The bus seems to swell and then retract, with that nation windows are shot out hundreds of feet. The emergency hatches are blown out of the roof. There is a large hole in the side of the city, bus and anything inside that wasn't metal has been incinerated.

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The bus was moved to apple valley, transit station, where emergency personnel practice how they would respond if a bus was actually rigged with explosives. This.

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Is stuff that's going on around the world and dakota county is putting this exercise on to help their first responders police officers. Firefighters know how to deal with this type of a situation if ur, when it actually occurs, keep.

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In mind that this was a training exercise, but any and all practice working with explosives is crucial to the Bloomington bomb squad in their effort to ensure safe and quality protection to not only Bloomington but anywhere. The team is called it's now time for a short break when we come back, we're joined by Bloomington Police, Sergeant Chuck gollop, to discuss this year's national night out, as well as check back on a traffic enforcement group. New to Hennepin County stay with us. So.

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Welcome back everyone. We are now pleased to be joined by sergeant Chuck gallop supervisor of Bloomington traffic investigation and crime prevention units welcome, hi,.

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Thanks for having me, he.

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Well, we're going to talk about a big event that just recently happened in Bloomington, an August second, hundreds of neighborhoods around bloomington were out celebrating with their neighbors for a good cause. Tell us a little bit about the event I'm talking about well.

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This is kind of our big event: the police department annually its national night out- it's always the first tuesday in august and as it was this year, so it's a huge event and it has participation from everyone in the police department. It's quite an event, perfect,.

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Well, this year marked the 28th annual national night out work and before we get into the specific numbers from this year, tell us a bit about last year's event. I know it was record-breaking yeah.

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Last year we had 375 registered parties, which is huge, we've grown every year this year. We kind of stabilized for a number of reasons and the weather I think on that night was a factor but 375 last year, pretty big number yeah.

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Absolutely how many people and neighborhoods were involved this year well,.

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Again, when I talk about those registration numbers, those are the people who signed up as for registration packet and said they're going to participate in the event this year we had about 325, so I'm still a very good number. If you consider those neighborhoods are maybe an apartment complex, maybe a couple square blocks, that's a huge portion of our population participating.

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Absolutely well, but tell us, run us through, say, you're, a neighborhood participating for neighborhoods that maybe haven't been involved, or maybe are thinking about getting involved next year. What is it they just get together in lawn chairs out in the yards or what what happens well.

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I think the concept came from blue we're taking the night back, and so it's an evening where neighbors can get together, socialize to an extent get to know each other talk about happenings in the neighborhood talk about crime prevention strategies get a visit from might be a council person or a police officer, a firefighter ambulance crews. We have a huge number of public servants, our cert team and they're out visiting all these party, so all but about 20 parties are getting a visitor from their local government. Wow.

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Very neat, you know you kind of just highlighted it, but tell us specifically who stands to benefit from something like this. You know. Is it just kind of the social aspect or what's the bigger picture I think.

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When you talk about any crime prevention strategy, it talks about, we talk about getting to know your neighbors breaking down those communication barriers, not being afraid to call the police. If you see something that's suspicious, if you get to know your neighbors and we'd, be surprised how many people don't know their neighbors to an event like this, you get to know your neighbors and you know what patterns are normal for them. You feel more comfortable fighting crime.

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So basically, it's encouragement to get you know if you see something at your neighbor's home, don't assume it's normal, always absolutely.

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And that's the point: we really hammer home with these meetings. It's so often we get calls maybe the next day or day or two later I heard. My neighbor was burglarized and I saw suspicious van and I didn't feel like call and I I didn't think it was important. I didn't wanna, bother you well, that might have been the burglary suspect and ultimately, in many cases they are so we want to encourage people again to communicate, understand what patterns are normal and don't be afraid to call the police absolutely.

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Whether it's a potential, burglar or not, are you're wanting people to not be afraid to pick up the phone absolutely.

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No calls to small let the dispatcher decided, but something we don't need to send someone on more times than not. We will head from juveniles out late at night bill suspicious solicitors without permits anything call, because ultimately, this could lead to a very good thing for police department. Absolutely.

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Well, you know this year has come and gone, but another big year tell us how people can get involved next year. We really want to even up the numbers, even more so absolutely.

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If you go to the website, you click on the police department and under events. The neighborhood watch program is listed there. It also talks about national night out, but you want to start by forming a neighborhood watch group and most neighbors may have one most neighborhoods rather may have one so make sure your neighborhood doesn't have an established one. It.

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You can certainly get one started as a block captain there's some great training we offer throughout the year to our block captain's, and we put them in touch with us on a regular basis, which is helpful for us and them absolutely.

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Well and all of that information again is available on the city's website. You know there's links up there and how to get involved with any of these things. Neighborhood watch block captain that type of stuff, so one switching gears a little bit. One thing that we have covered on the show before you've talked to us about the hennepin county traffic enforcement group remind us what that is. Let.

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Me change my hat. Okay.

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Now my traffic enforcement.

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Head on yes, the other unit I supervise, as you mentioned, is the traffic investigation unit and under that wing, I guess I'm involved with the hennepin county traffic group, and we created, as I've talked before, about this countywide enforcement group. We take now 15 communities and pool those 15 communities, flood an area with 15 officers from 15 departments and send the message that traffic safety is a priority for each community individually. That.

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Number is up from last time. It.

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Is yeah we're up to 15? Now? U of m signed on as well all.

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Right well tell us a bit about some of the events that you've been covering. I know. This is something that was started in May, so you've been doing this all throughout the summer. Tell us about some of the the most memorable events. Memorable events, I think.

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Our biggest one is probably the one in Minneapolis I was our kickoff and I was. It was linked to some problems. Minneapolis had with some pedestrian fatalities, some bike rider fatalities and we really send the message by enforcing pedestrian biking and seatbelt law and was very successful. We wrote 200 some tickets in eight hours arrested several drunk drivers. That was probably our biggest one, but we've had events from an example via Hamill rodeo up in Medina corcoran area, and we had 12 departments up there working.

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We arrested a bunch of drunk drivers leaving that event, and it really did a good job of sending the message that we're not going to take drunk driving. Last weekend, we work the crystal frolics and just again, some more DUI and traffic enforcement around their community event, and it's it's great for those communities that might not be able to have 12 15 police officers. Work traffic send.

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That message well, that was my next question. Are you your obviously seeing the saturation and officers making a difference in these communities? What is the feedback been so far that you that the group has received well.

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The administrators, obviously from city administrators, the police, administrators love it it's again, it's an opportunity for them to be a force multiplier and have just huge numbers, sending the message. The feedback for the officers love it. It's something different. Their work in different communities.

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Trying their skill set in a whole different area and it's just kind of fun, they're, very productive details very.

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Cool well any upcoming events in Bloomington. We can expect to see a saturation of officers at absolutely.

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We actually, there are a several scheduled in Bloomington web of detail and 494 a detail, 100 a detail and 169. Those are junior traffic details, but the big one is we're. Gonna have a kickoff where we're going to work a lot harder with our bus company this year doing for school, bumps school bus, stop arms and we're going to bring a bunch of agencies in and we're going to follow buses around and tag drivers who are disobeying those flashing school bus lights and really send the message that that's a zero-tolerance offense for us.

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Message needs to be sent well, we'd like to thank sergeant Chuck, all for being here with us today, if you'd, like more information on national night out or the Hennepin County traffic enforcement group block captain meetings, anything we talked about here today. The city of Bloomington website is a great resource for that. It's now time for short break, we'll be right back.

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Welcome back, everyone, do you know a child who is outgoing artistic and never afraid to express themselves if so, listen up just because school is almost back in session, doesn't mean the fun and educational activities are coming to an end. The Bloomington theatre and arts center has a full range of year-round classes available for area youth, embracing the importance of artistic expression, creativity.

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And fostering creativity and helping kids to develop their imagination is such an important part of learning process, and so often you know our education system. We focus on very important. You know, reading writing, arithmetic, you know all of that, and at the same time, though, I really feel that the Arts is exercise for the mind for our young people, and so it's a it's a wonderful thing to be able to help, facilitate and provide arts programming for kids. Here in Bloomington, we.

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Sat in on the first day of an improv camp offered at Civic Plaza for youth grades, 7 to 10 small class sizes and a teacher with lots of theatrical experience, make a recipe for success. As the kids began, Annunciation exercises and rhyming games to help them think quickly on their feet or improvise. We.

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Have one of our teaching artists, who is an actor here in the Twin Cities coming in to teach improv it's kind of like a whose line is it anyway for kids learning.

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The artistic trade of improv acting is an important component to this particular class, but seeing the kids mingle and form friendships with their peers. They may not have had a chance to know otherwise, while keeping the often dwindling, theatrical arts alive and relevant is equally as important. Sometimes.

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You'll find school systems offering more or less arts programming, depending on what resources they have available, and so what we found is that performing arts in the school system right now has been lacking, and so it's a niche that we feel we can fill by offering theatre programming to kids of all ages. The.

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Bloomington, theatre and arts center also offers a full range of adult classes, including photography, clay and glass work to find out more details on programs offered to residents of all ages, you're, just a click away. Log on to the city's website a keyword, search, BTW AC, then click on the link for the Bloomington theatre and arts center Mark Twain once said that age is strictly a case of mind over matter.

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If you don't mind, then it doesn't matter but like anything as the years go by certain details about various things can get fuzzy and in an effort to keep residents and motorists a bit safer, Bloomington Human Services has teamed up with AARP to offer several driver safety, refresher courses for adults, 50 and older. These classes cover basic driving education fundamentals like identifying signs how to drive in various weather conditions and high crash areas on any given roadway. Instructor Dorothy queen, says horses like these: keep the aging population young in a sense any.

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One of us on the road knows that there are people driving that are not safe for the rest of us, and so hopefully, if we refresh their memory, that of the people in the class, they will attempt to use the new skills and, as we age our ability to do some of the things we did at age. 30 are it's not the same queen.

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Says 18 our class is required through AARP, then this for our refresher course is needed every three years you aren't just brushing up on your basic, safe driving skills. However you're getting a discount on your insurance rates as well. Don't worry if you miss this class. Human Services has several more scheduled for the month of September, also join Human Services on Saturday September 17th from 1 to 5 p.m. they're hosting a course called car fit which actually gets your vehicle directly involved with the safety process, has trained. Volunteers, take participants, ages, 55 and older.

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A 12 point checklist designed to reduce blind spots, help eliminate injuries in case of a crash and get mirrors and seats, adjusted correctly to fit you for more information on either program contact, bloomington human services at 95, 2563, 4948, and that's all the time we have for today to get more information on city projects, parks, road construction and events visit. The city's website to check out past bloomington today shows or other city productions visit, bloomington's youtube channel, accessible right from the city's homepage.

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That and so much more is online right now at wwc, I, bloomington MN us if Facebook or Twitter, is it your thing sign up for ease, subscribe to, have updates, sent right to your email or cell phone. This is bloomington today, a presentation of the city of Bloomington communications division. I'm kailyn real thanks. So much for joining us.

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