February - 
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Table of Contents
Mediation Services Available
to Hopkins Residents
New City Manager To Start
January 31
Mixed Municipal Solid Waste
Deposit Disclosure
A free Home Remodeling Fair featuring 75 contractor exhibits, 10 seminars, and an "Ask the Pro" booth will be held on Sunday, February 13 from 10:30 am to 3:30 pm in the Eisenhower Community Center at 1001 Highway 7 in Hopkins (one mile west of the intersections of Highways 7 and 169).
There will be a Question & Answer Booth staffed by Master Gardeners to answer your general gardening questions. Exhibitors include remodeling contractors, architects, landscapers, electricians, tool rental services, roofers, siding and window contractors, lenders, and Hopkins city inspectors. Architects and interior designers will staff the "Ask the Pro" booth and provide free, no-obligation advice to visitors; fairgoers are encouraged to bring their photos or sketches.
One-hour seminars include:
Building a deck or patio • Replacing windows • Kitchen and bath remodeling trends • Tree, shrub and lawn care • Making your kitchen work for you • Refinishing wood floors • Finishing the lower level • Native landscaping • Avoiding the pitfalls of remodeling • Cost-effective options for kitchens and bathrooms • Preventing ice dams and window condensation
There will also be demonstrations for the do-it-yourselfer on home plumbing repairs, organizing closets, and color coordinating your home. Advance registration is not required and admission is free. Food concessions will be available. This is the 13th year that the fair has been organized by several western suburbs to promote improvements to the sponsoring communities' housing stock.
Fairgoers may park at Eisenhower Community Center or take the free shuttle bus from the parking lot at Maetzold Field, 1215 1st St N (from Eisenhower, go south on 12th Ave ½ mile to 1st St, then turn right onto 1st St).
For details, visit the fair's web site at www.homeremodelingfair.com.
Mediation Services Available to Hopkins Residents
North Hennepin Mediation Program Inc (NHMP) provides a wide variety of mediation services at no or little fee for area residents. Mediation services are designed to help individuals effectively resolve disputes or make shared decisions. Mediation is voluntary, confidential, and effective.
Issues that can benefit from mediation include:
- Builder/contractor-homeowner
- Business-consumer disputes
- Elder parent care
- Family conflict
- Harassment situations (excluding domestic violence)
- Housing issues
- Landlord-tenant disputes
- Neighborhood relations
- School conflict
- Shared parenting decision-making
- Victims/Offenders
- Workplace disputes
Working in teams, mediators help parties by facilitating a conversation or negotiations in a civil and productive manner. The parties themselves determine the terms of a mutually agreeable settlement. If you are interested in determining if mediation might be helpful in a specific situation, Case Developers at the Mediation Program can help answer your questions. If you choose to pursue mediation, NHMP will contact the other party on your behalf. For more information, please call 763-561-0033.
Residents participating in the City's curbside recycling program can recycle old phone books by placing them in your green and yellow recycling cart.
Residents without City curbside recycling can drop off phone books at the Hopkins/Minnetonka Recycling Center (11522 Minnetonka Blvd). The Recycling Center is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
New City Manager To Start January 31
The City Council has appointed Richard Getschow as the new City Manager.
The previous City Manager, Steve Mielke, left in June of 2004. Since that time the City Council has undertaken an extensive process to replace him. It began with gathering information from the Council, city employees, former Council members, and others on what qualities and experience a candidate for City Manager should possess.
Advertising and recruitment took place in September and October, attracting candidates from as far away as Vermont. The City Council had two days of interviews with the candidates in December. The candidates also met with city employees, former council members, and board and commission members.
Mr. Getschow is currently the City Administrator of Lauderdale, Minnesota (since 1998). Prior to that, he was City Administrator of Hector, Minnesota for two years. He has a Masters Degree in Public Administration from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.
Mixed Municipal Solid Waste Deposit Disclosure
Pursuant to Minnesota Statute 115A.9302, which requires that a person who collects mixed municipal solid waste for transportation to a waste facility shall disclose to each waste generator from whom waste is collected the name, location, type of facility, and the number of the permit issued by the MN Pollution Control Agency (or its counterpart in another state) for the processing or disposal facility or facilities at which the waste will be deposited. The City of Hopkins (hauler), hereby discloses that the mixed municipal solid waste collected from January 1–December 31, will be delivered to the following facilities during that time period. If an additional facility becomes either a primary facility or an alternative facility during this time period, the City will provide you with updated information within 30 days.
Primary Facilities
Hennepin Energy Resource Company (HERC)
505 6th Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55405
Type of Facility: Mass Burn Waste-to-Energy
MPCA Permit Number: SW-396
NRG Elk River (NSP) Resource Recovery
10700 165th Ave NW, Elk River, MN 55330
Type of Facility: Refuse Derived Fuel Waste-to-Energy
MPCA Permit Number: SW-305
Alternative Facility
The following facility is used for disposal of construction and demolition material collected through our twice yearly Bulk Item Drop Off and weekly Bulk Item Collection.
Dem Con Landfill, Inc.
331 Akers Lane, Jordan, MN 55352
Type of Facility: Construction Demolition Landfill
MPCA Permit Number: SW-290
You may be responsible for any liability that results from contamination at a facility where your waste has been deposited. Minnesota believes that its waste management system provides substantially more financial and environmental protection than depositing waste in landfills in other states. Managing your waste in Minnesota may minimize your potential liability.
Reduce the Use Sponsors Reading Event
Parents... are you sometimes perplexed by your teenagers? Adolescents can suddenly morph into rude, unreasonable, angry, defiant, sullen, reckless, and completely unfathomable creatures. You might be asking yourself... why do they act that way?
As part of the new program "Our Community Reads," residents of the Hopkins school district and community members are invited to read and discuss the book Why Do They Act That Way? A Survival Guide to the Adolescent Brain for You and Your Teen by David Walsh, PhD. The book explains what happens to the human brain on the path from childhood into adolescence and adulthood. Dr. Walsh, drawing on over thirty years of connecting with teens as a teacher, coach, counselor, and father of three, will demonstrate how to confidently navigate the daily unpredictability of teens.
Those interested in participating should buy and read the book by March 2005 to join in discussion groups being held in February and March. Books can be purchased at the Hopkins District Community Education Office, individual school offices, online, or at local bookstores. For more information about this event or Reduce the Use, contact Michael Borowiak at 952-988-4323, or visit www.reducetheuse.org.
You're invited to hear Dr. Walsh speak at the Town Hall meeting on Tuesday, February 15 from 7:00–8:30 pm at the Hopkins Center for the Arts at 1111 Mainstreet. In addition, Reduce the Use Coordinator, Michael Borowiak, MSW, LICSW, will present the highlights of the 2004 Minnesota Student Survey results for the Hopkins School District.
Recycling collection is February 7–10 and 21–24.
Refuse collection is delayed one day the week of February 22–25 due to President's Day.
