Ramsey Reminder - This Friday is opening day, for filing as a Ward 1 special election candidate.

The city's elections page has all needed info, here.

Experience has been that shortly after the filing deadline the City Clerk posts names and contact info, for candidates.

So, bookmark or remember that page, with the filing deadline being end of the working day, June 7.

RAMSEY - Flaherty is ready for tenants. But are tenants ready, in droves, for Flaherty?

Sakry of ABC Newspapers writes:

The 230-unit luxury apartment and townhome complex, located at 7700 Sunwood Drive N.W., opened its leasing office May 15 and Property Manger Jessica Fimon is taking applications.

Construction is 15 percent done with 52 units of the 230 units finished, said Michael Collins, Flaherty and Collins regional property manager.

The Residence office has received a lot of calls, said Fimon.

The majority of the interest has been in the studio and one-bedroom apartments with the two-bedrooms apartments and the three-bedroom townhomes coming second, she said.

[...] Although the apartments are ready for tenants, the common spaces are still under construction.

[...] Opening this summer will be the resident lounge, club room and fitness center.

The club room will feature a commercial grade coffee machine, a large fireplace with high top tables, Collins said.

Free wifi will be offered in all the common areas.

[...] Apartment and townhome residents will also be responsible for all utilities, including usage-based water and sewer.

“People must meet certain qualifications to live here,” Collins said.

In addition to the credit check, prospective residents must also make a gross salary that is three times higher than the monthly rent and have no evictions on their credit report, he said.

Sakry writes much more, including basic pricing information. She did not provide any Flaherty-Collins web link. To read the entire item, again, this link.

Any reader strongly inclined to move there is invited to leave a comment about the key attractions leading to such a decision. Ditto, re comments from any reader wholly indisposed to consider moving there, with reasoning for such an opinion given, please.

I expect cost-benefit of the upscale mystique, vs. price, would be key factors. And how much square footage in the actual dwelling unit area do you get, at what rental rates. Back, always, to cost and benefit.

Woo, woo. Free wifi. But what's free, if you pay for a package, and get a package?

Non-individually billed wifi is what's to be there, whereas individual unit metering for electricity is likely, and Sakry reports usage based sewer/water charges shall apply. Any reader actually examining a lease with time to post briefly about terms, conditions, unique or generic requirements, etc., is asked to please leave a comment.

Ramsey - Sean Sullivan says, been there, done that. Will remain in charge of economic development. In Isanti.

This link:

Ramsey economic development candidate says no to the offer
By Tammy Sakry on May 11, 2013 at 7:00 am

Ramsey had been on the path to hire a new economic development manager, but it may have to wait a little longer.

The Ramsey City Council April 23 unanimously voted to hire Sean Sullivan as its new economic development manager.

Sullivan, who served as the city’s economic development coordinator from 2000-2012, would have started May 29, but he declined the offer May 7.

After evaluating the two positions, he decided to continue on as Isanti’s economic development director, a position he has held since 2010, Sullivan said.

Isanti, if I recall correctly, is where Sullivan lives, or closer to home than Ramsey.

Sullivan was not downsized out of employment. Rather, he left voluntarily after the council, then, had purchased the distressed remainder of Town Center out of bank foreclosure and had somehow found its rebranding meisters, Jungbauer, Cronk and Lazan of the Landform adventure; whose highpoint was substituting COR for Town Center - a change absent any tangible reason, and a non-improvement. They put up the big sign on Hwy 10, and courted Cronk's boss, Flaherty, into taking massive city supplied subsidies. Sullivan had left before any of that had advanced beyond talk. Sullivan left well before Nelson went to Wayzata, and hence failed to enjoy working in a liaison capacity with Landform, a duty Nelson embraced/enjoyed before her leaving Ramsey.

We may look forward to many Landform projects in Wayzata's future, given Nelson's knowledge of Landform and its ways and means, it being something of a surprise that none are presently touted by Landform.

There appear to not yet be active Landform projects in Isanti either.

Landform's "Project" page does have this, still even after the Ramsey contract ended, and while a more aptly descriptive heading might be "delivering lavish landlord incentives - a/k/a greasing of skids to promote subsidized rental adventuring."

What else did Cronk's insider insinuation yield, anyway? Oh, right, he was active in rebranding.

Big thing, COR thing. Cronk thing.

Bosco for Council.

After eating a copy of the Charter,
if did not taste as if saying, "Humans only,"
or "must be over eighteen years of age."
Bosco promises,
"I will chew through the opposition,
at the LWV candidate forum."

Bosco's candidacy is hanging by a tread. He's the only bare-naked potential official who lacks an Honest Abe to pay the filing fee. And that is a rule even Bosco cannot tunnel under, despite willing digging effort.

Back to reality - Sakry, this link; some detail:

Ramsey sets special election for vacancy
By Tammy Sakry on May 8, 2013 at 2:48 pm

Ramsey will hold a special election July 30 to fill the vacant Ward 1 council seat.

Candidates can file for the Ward 1 vacancy from May 24 through June 7 at the Ramsey Municipal Center, 7550 Sunwood Drive N.W. The cost is $5.

There will be no primary for this election.

For more information, call city hall at 763-427-1410.

Yes, it is clear. Five bucks to file. And Bosco without a fiver, but having already arranged for signs and a mailing. Volunteers to drive rebar are welcome, should Bosco find a fiver.

The guy who got whomped by Lori Swanson wants a shot at getting whomped by Dayton seeking a second term. A hound for punishment? Ego rules?

Him again?

Strib reports. In a roll of the dice in a gender biased race, so far a gender biased GOP primary if there is one, a gender biased general election, vs running against AG Swanson and getting a gender balanced but king-sized whomping last time.

Perhaps Michele Bachmann will decide CD6 was too much work for her to handle, and seek the state house expecting a less onerous job while balancing the gender picture and adding in a little crazy, for good measure, and to delight her cash cow fan base.

Hennepin County Commissioner Jeff Johnson. He puts up his name. He expects what?

See what he looks like, here (Google search first page returns listed this, but no "for guv" site yet).

A dog blog, but at least he is not trying to call it "a newspaper of general circulation and printed in Hennepin County" with intent of trying to huckster up legal notice table scraps (make it bark up business, since he's from the Watchdog litter (where Harold Hamilton remains senior-top-dog)). Give Johnson's blogging credit for not chasing legal notices, nor chasing his watchdog tax-tail too much.

Taxing the imagination. Lost dog. Wandering toward the Governor's residence, intent and, what else but watchful. Watch the other wannabes drop into the scene. Big contest, GOP land, while Dayton can expect no credible primary challenger. Zygi certainly has no cause to file formally for Minnesota's executive leadership (of the de jure ballot type and not with regard to de facto status shown by recent events). Besides, Zygi lives on New York's Park Avenue now, far from Minnesota. Also, Zygi and probably dislikes cold and Fahrenheit readings beginning with a minus sign. A.k.a as, "Nice Wilfare state, but I wouldn't want to live there."

Last, we will not need Bachmann for gender balance if anyone can convince Marrianne Stebbins to throw a hat in the ring (but she would lack having a watchdog in the hunt).

Flaherty - The big ugly Chicago area Flaherty rental project is open to tenants.

A Chicago Trib, local story, here. The thing IS ugly. Beyond that, tenants are moving in in dripsand drabs in part because the thing is incomplete, with developer juices flowing to get tenant cash flowing. Ramsey taxpayers have to hope it rents out as fast as units becime habitable, at extreme rates, since the more money Flaherty makes elsewhere, the less the risks of loan default on money Flaherty owes City of Ramsey:

The luxury apartment complex, with retail space on the first floor, opened to its first tenants on Friday, said Chris Kirles, vice president of development with Flaherty & Collins Properties.

The downtown project is the first major piece of a village-planned, transit-oriented district bounded by La Grange Road, 143rd Street and Southwest Highway near the Metra train station.

The move-ins were scheduled in two-hour increments, he said, which allowed for residents to settle into about 16 new units. While much of the six-story building is still under construction, 64 apartments and most of the amenities, like a fitness center and lounge areas, were completed by Friday.

Most of the 82 who have signed leases for the 295 units are expected to be in by early summer, Kirles said.

It is BIG and UGLY!

RAMSEY - Council agenda items.

Interviewing law firms "for City of Ramsey Legal Services," this link.

Ward 1 Special election planning, here. This would be of particular interest to Ward 1 residents considering running to serve on coucil. Below is a cut/paste of the item:

Title:
Consider Resolution establishing Special Election procedures and calendar for filling the vacancy in the office of Councilmember for Ward One.

Background:
The written resignation of Ward One Councilmember David W. Elvig has caused the City Council to declare a vacancy in that position. Because the vacancy has been declared, pursuant to City Charter the City Council is now obligated to schedule a Special Election within 90 days of the vacancy declaration to fill the vacancy.

State law and the City Charter provide specific direction on the special election process and notice requirements etc. The City Charter does require primary elections before regular municipal elections, however, that is not a requirement for special elections. The relatively short time (90 days) for the special election to occur makes it impracticable to schedule a primary election.

Staff has developed a calendar for the Special Election which calendar is attached to the proposed resolution for this case.

Staff request the authority to make minor adjustments to the election calendar pending final review of the Anoka County elections supervisor who has been unavailable for consultation prior to writing this case.

The link given for the proposed special election calendar did not work correctly for me, so readers encountering a similar problem should request a copy of the attachment from city hall.

Presumably after the meeting Sakry of ABC Newspapers will post an online report giving relevant detail.