Bjorn Skogquist, always a citizen, progressive, and always responsible.

I have written, here, about how attentive to the twenty-first century Anoka's gaining a wind turbine is. In stark contrast to talkers Anoka, under Mayor Skogquist, is acting. And acting progressively. A smart man, and a smart town.

I have used this image previously, to good advantage. It was prescient.



Now this Strib online news.

Anoka mayor sets sights on county board; other races set
By PAUL LEVY and LORA PABST, Star Tribune staff writers
Last update: July 15, 2008 - 9:45 PM

Bjorn Skogquist -- the four-term Anoka mayor who was 22 years old when he first filed for candidacy eight years ago -- filed Tuesday for the county commissioner's seat that Dan Erhart has held since 1982.

Eugene Rogers, a longtime Coon Rapids resident, is also running.

Four candidates filed to run for mayor of Anoka, prompting a primary. Erik Skogquist, 24, filed for his brother's seat.

The two other county commissioners' races are also primary-bound. In the fifth district, incumbent Scott LeDoux, of Andover, is being challenged by Becky Fink and Daniel A. Nelson, both of Coon Rapids. In the sixth district, incumbent Rhonda Sivarajah, of Lino Lakes, will face Kevin Ryan, of Stacy, and Patrick Davern, of Lino Lakes.

Skogquist, who said he has pushed historic preservation in the city of Anoka and helped establish housing standards, was just 4 years old when Erhart became a commissioner.

For everything there is a season, a time. A time to cast away stones.

I sincerely hope Mayor Skogquist, in running, will press for detail as to why a 1.2 acre patch of land crammed right next to a loud and extremely busy pair of railroad tracks was acquired by the County, for over a half million dollars per acre, when it was not a location-dependent use, and when that use, a County-owned morgue, did not add a single penny to Ramsey's needful Town Center tax base.

It was a lose-lose situation for Ramsey taxpayers, and county taxpayers. I think Mayor Bjorn Skogquist should have forestalling needless waste as a point of his campaign.

If the fact Jim Deal was seller is at all at play, as a deciding factor in the purchase going down, then the issue of possible cronyism could also be raised by Mayor Skogquist as a question begging an answer.


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For those interested in the dinosaur extinction question, there are over a hundred thirty-one thousand Google returns, including one University of Vermont geology professor's favored extinction theory, with the lead photo a part. When I first used the image Google returned over a million hits; so they are tuning and changing their retrieval algorithms.