20/20 Cold Spring Vision Team

As the Cold Spring community prepares for it's second community visioning session, 20/20 action teams have been hard at work. Since the first visioning session in June of 2004, a number of projects have been initiated and implemented by a dedicated group of volunteers. This week, a few highlights of the Tourism and Land Use action teams are being shared.
The Tourism action team partnered with the Cold Spring Chamber of Commerce and coordinated construction of cabinets to organize and display advertising brochures for local Chamber members. The attractive self-serve cabinets are readily accessible to residents and visitors and are located in the entry of the Chamber offices. The Tourism team also commissioned the writing of several historical informational pieces that were inserted in the Sauk River Chain of Lakes 2005 Area Guide. Many residents and resort visitors enjoyed reading about the history of the Sauk River, the Cold Spring Brewing Company, and the Theis family.
The 20/20 Land Use action team has also been busy since the last visioning session when over 150 community members gathered to help Cold Spring plan for the future growth of the City. One of the most popular desires expressed during the visioning session was for Cold Spring to grow in an orderly fashion and keep its small town atmosphere. The Land Use team met frequently and considered these suggestions by recommending revisions to Cold Spring residential, commercial and industrial zones. These zoning changes were discussed at several public meetings and later adopted by the City Planning Commission and the City Council. This new zoning plan allows businesses and residents to locate in areas that avoid unnecessary conflicts with traffic, noise and parking. The revised zones also allow for more affordable housing and a larger area for new businesses downtown. The population of Cold Spring is projected to double in size by the year 2020. In response to this expected growth, The Land Use team also acknowledged the need for greater collaboration with Wakefield Township and initiated joint meetings with the City and Township.
Now that the Land Use team has completed the rezoning phase and the other 20/20 action teams have completed several projects, we look forward to planning a new direction with the Cold Spring community. Your opportunity to provide this direction is available at the upcoming community visioning session at the St. Boniface Parish Center on September 18th. A complimentary meal will be served at 6:00 PM with the visioning session to immediately follow. All Cold Spring area residents and business owners are encouraged to participate. On-site childcare and transportation to the session can be arranged by calling the Chamber office at 685-4186. Spanish interpretation and door prizes will also be provided. This is a great opportunity to hear what local residents and businesses desire for the future of Cold Spring. Please join us on Monday, September 18 from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM in the St. Boniface Parish Center.

WE NEED YOUR INPUT.

# posted by Duane Kuss @ 11:00 AM 0 comments

2020 Steering Committee Aug 8, 2006 MINUTES

Present: Duane Kuss, Ken Wendinger, Rita Hennen, Nadine Schnettler, Dave
Olson, Betty Johnson, Larry Lahr (City Admin)
Kari Tripp from IF
Absent: Kay Cook, Mark Gruelson,

The agenda was approved
The financial report: no action needed since there were no bills paid or income received. The City needs to show how much it spent and then we can request a $750 matching fund request from IF for the Rain Gardens project.

Kay submitted the needed info for the first grant and is working on info that is needed for the second grant. The City needs to give her a copy of their expenses so we can give matching grant money to the City.

Ken was asked to meet with Kay and Lahr to determine how much money the City spent and for which our grant money could be used. (Since these two items cover the same territory, Ken will ask that Duane’s mtg cover these questions or Ken will met with Kay, Duane and Larry the same day to avoid duplication)

Presentations have been made to many businesses and organizations on what 2020 has done, what our future projects will be and to ask for their financial support. Rita will draft a letter to those entities requesting specific amounts of money for past or future 2020 projects. It will be signed by our Committee.

We need to do a re-visoning session to get new goals, new people involved so Olson, Hennen, Schmettler, Wendinger will meet Wed. Aug 9, 1 PM to plan this event. B Johnson is part of the committee but can’t make this mtg.

Respectfully submitted

Ken Wendinger

# posted by Duane Kuss @ 10:44 AM 0 comments

2020 Minutes July 11, 2006

Minutes of the June meeting were not sent so they will be approved at the next mtg.

The revised treasurer’s report was approved. We paid 2 months for the website at $50 per month and in May we approved $260 to be paid to D. Kuss for past expenses for the website. Total monies paid, $360 leaving us a balance of $6.95 instead of $266.95.
We will get $500 from the City once the City gets a $5,000 trail grant from HCP which will happen as soon as our grant committee completes the final paperwork.

Rita, Dave and Ken presented a revised draft of the Articles of Incorporation for a
501 (3) c. Being a non-profit will help us access more grant money than if we weren’t. At the same time it will not hinder us from apply for grants through the City. We will approve the draft after a these questions are resolved.
1. Should the 2020 name be changed or stay the same?
2. What is our purpose? We need a Mission Statement.
3. What will be our official address?
(Come with suggestions to these items at our next meeting)

Our By Laws will be discussed at our next meeting.

The Rain Gardens which we promoted has become a reality and they look great. They will effectively protect the Sauk River from pollutants and be a model for other developments. Thanks Duane, for showing us a video presentation of the planting.

Colleen Woods will not be joining our Steering Committee. We need to continue to recruit.

The comprehensive city road plan should begin to be discussed now by the City of Cold Spring and Wakefield Township and Stearns County because the City 2007 budget will be finalized in Sept. 2006. We need money to pay for consultation expenses. Ken will draft a letter to the concerned parties and will re-assemble interested people on the Land Use Committee.

Respectfully submitted,

Ken Wendinger

# posted by Duane Kuss @ 12:13 PM 0 comments

Approved Aug 8th, 2006
Cold Spring 2020 Steering Committee Meeting
June 13, 2006

Attending: Duane Kuss, Rita Hennen, Betty Johnson, Ken Wendinger, Kay Cook

1. Agenda approved/Minutes approved.
2. Treasurer’s report – Nadine and Kay working on final report to IF.
3. Steering Committee issues
A 20 media presentations: waiting for fall start ups
• Need to review sample letter to businesses
• Faith in Action and Betty applauded for carrying forward diversity issues. The Mayor, Chief of Police, and fire have had letters translated, and were given to each new resident at meeting after Mass. Forty people asked questions. This went over very well. Duane gets into the community via digilog. Betty suggested more interaction with the schools.

B 2020 Booth at Hometown Pride Days
• Of the 75 responses Duane received from his letter of inquiry all were negative.
• It was suggested that perhaps brochures and chamber information could be at the pie stand.

C 2020 Communications – the buck stops here
• Kay said that she would be willing to spearhead tracking of grants.
• We need job description for Steering Committee member, task force members
• Two people called Rita wanting to get involved. Rita will contact Colleen and Duane will contact Mel
• All steering committee members should bring 3 names of potential committee members to the next meeting. Duane will send email to all Steering Committee members to bring 3 names.

D Articles of Incorporation
• Rita, Ken, Dave and Duane will review Kay’s draft. Timing: approval of final draft at August meeting.

E Avon Hills Initiative request
• Rita motioned to table request to support funds; Ken seconded; motion carried.

F Assumption Home Trail Project
• Trails are going forward. Duane was asked to set in on a meeting discussing trail system around Assumption Campus. Is set to tie into trail around high school.

4. Committee updates
A Arts & Culture –
• Mark has no time.
• Rita says Community band will play at Hometown Pride days
• Ken will talk to Mark and Duane will talk to Scott about participation

B Land Use
• Ken is waiting for word from Larry
• Mike worked with townships; county has no funding
• Ken will try transportation issue as a way to bring township and city together
• Kay said she would try to use the Wellhead Protection opening

C Design Standards
• Larry talked about the triangle entrance to town from the east. There will be a sign on the property, GLC is designing but Keiss owns the land.

D Natural Resources
• Lois L is working on the rain gardens
• SRWD put in $25,000 and $1,781 from SWCD
• There is a meeting with Kraemer Excavating and Greg this pm looking at planting the last week in June.

E Social Action
• Adult Mental Health Services has developed resources = Cold Spring Behavioral health Clinic. Betty will bring brochures.
• They will be meeting this week. Some volunteer hours have been compiled. Assumption is taking the lead as county leader has resigned.
• Will be meeting today to estimate cost of Assumption trail; how will it be raised; who provides maintenance, etc. They have talked with school about loop inclusion. Tim, Jan and Tony are spearheading at Assumption for Wellness w/Senior Center also.
• Anticipate about $60,000 plus maintenance
• They are looking for grant sources based on intergenerational status
• Need engineering costs and Don Hickman from IF said they might be able to help with that.

F Tourism
• The Chamber is putting together new brochure
• They are looking at welcoming new businesses and new residents once or twice a year.
• It was asked if 2020 could receive some dollars from the chamber perhaps proceeds from breakfast.

There was discussion about moving meeting to second Thursday of the month.

Kay is to contact Sharon Jenson regarding Granite Company involvement in the Assumption Trail.

Ken motioned adjournment; Rita seconded; motion carried. Meeting adjourned at 10:16.

Respectfully submitted,

Kay Cook

# posted by Duane Kuss @ 10:29 AM 0 comments

Watch Quicktime Video (9 min/56 mb)

This is a follow up to a story done last week called Rain Gardens @ Lions Park. Here you'll see first had the process involved in planting thousands of wild flowers and grasses into a Rain Garden to provide both the appearance and filtering properties desired. Lois Lieser, representing the City of Cold Spring, along with Greg Berg, with the Soil & Water Conservation District, describe the entire process of preparing for and working with volunteers to facilitate the planting.

This story includes many great shots of people from around the community who helped to plant the Rain Gardens over a two day period. 40-50 persons took part in the planting and did a fantastic job in the 80 degree plus scorching temperatures. There were smiles on everyone's faces and the word fun could be heard floating through the group throughout the day.

# posted by Duane Kuss @ 6:29 AM 0 comments

Quicktime video

# posted by Duane Kuss @ 6:23 AM 0 comments