RAMSEY - Siting of the VA clinic is official. Private enterprise prevailed, with help from city officials. I wonder if Met Council will claim any of the credit?

Below is a lengthy excerpt from Strib; but go to this link for the entire report:

Ramsey gets new VA clinic -- The $9.95 million building will include outpatient facilities for primary care, mental health and services such as physical therapy.

By ALEX EBERT, Star Tribune - Last update: July 20, 2010 - 9:34 PM

After months of waiting, the city of Ramsey has emerged as the winner of a new veterans' clinic that will serve the northwest suburbs.

"We've been waiting on pins and needles," Ralph Heussner, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, said of the decision that has been more than a year in the works.

The $9.95 million contract went to PSD LLC, which will build the 20,000-square-foot clinic in the 7400 block of Civic Center Drive.

Groundbreaking is set for late fall, and the department hopes to open doors to the outpatient clinic before August 2011.

Originally, the intent had been to have the clinic operating by the end of this year, but the process turned out to be lengthy, [...]

The clinic will give veterans an alternative to trips to VA hospitals in Minneapolis and St. Cloud.

Developer Jim Deal, who operates PSD with his wife, Pam, said he was "kind of surprised" and wasn't expecting the announcement now, after what seemed like months of delays. "It is a great shot in the arm for the city," he said.

Ramsey Mayor Bob Ramsey said the clinic will be a great addition to the city's business center, especially the "COR," a 410-acre development the city hopes will become a thriving retail and business sector.

"It's another reason to be in Ramsey," he said. "Great news for vets in our area."

The clinic will be twice as large as similar facilities. It will provide primary care, mental health care and some specialty care such as physical therapy and audiology. It is also expected to have a pharmacy.

If this is a situation as it appears, a private-build effort but with a long-term lease to the VA, that would be best for Ramsey since it would put the building into the tax base. Strib reporting is silent on that point, hence it is unclear whether it is that way, and/or whether TIF was a factor.

Any reader with knowledge is invited to post a comment with detail.

Even if exempt from the tax base, or tax base effect is delayed via TIF, the decision is good news for Ramsey. It clearly is better news for us if the thing, (as soon as built), is added to the tax base, since in general public buildings go untaxed.

Best news - this is good for veterans who have waited some time for this situation to be resolved.

Construction should be an economic stimulus and hopefully if done as a private venture it will be built under prevailing wage arrangements that can keep everyone happy. One expects the VA to have a major voice in that specific decision-making.

________UPDATE__________
My understanding is Mayor Bob Ramsey is a Bosnian War vet, and he worked hard on the effort to have one of the two Ramsey Town Center sites selected. He can correct me if I got the war wrong, but the hard work's been there as a certainty. I briefly met Kurt Ulrich today and he indicated the arrangement should be one where the building contributes to the city tax base. ABC Newspapers report, this link.

Emmer's corporate hucksters. With Target doing this and deserving a boycott, and Walmart being Walmart, where should we shop?

The "Emmer is loved by big corporations" story has grown legs. Target is doing this probably over Emmer's position that low-end job compensation, in Emmer's ideal world, should stay low - suggesting what workers trying to make ends meet can expect if they let this disaster get elected governor. City Pages, a full story here, offers this opening screen shot:

Read the entire item at City Pages.

That the thing has grown legs is evidenced by Daily Kos picking it up; this link.

Polinaut on the FOX 9 - Rasmussan poll results showing that any of the three DFL governor candidates in the general election is more respected by polled voters than the loudmouth anti-worker GOP offering; this link. I bet those numbers, that source, are more favorable to Emmer than if the polling were done by another outlet. Early polls are dubious. I trust, however, my unofficial poll of my household, the result being that we all think Emmer is a Pawlenty clone, gone bad in the cloning process, and turned out nastier, louder, and worse.

_____________UPDATE____________
Actually my brother-in-law says Pawlenty is nastier, just more sneaky about showing it, hence more dangerous, while Emmer's more of a buffoon. I think on reflection my sister and I agree. That then is the household poll result.

Ramsey Town Center has a farmers' market now. At "rhinestone commons" the notice says. A '"rhinestone" is a phony jewel.

It is too bad a more convenient place was not chosen, such as the old city hall site, which was close to being centeralized in Ramsey, so all could reach it most conviently. Anyway, here's the flyer for the thing at the Ramsey Town Center:

As always, click the image to enlarge and read. And if you've any questions, call the phone number listed on the city's flyer.

Sidebar "About me" section has been updated.

The opening sentence is modified to reflect a current situation. The remainder was edited to shorten it. I think it is already indirectly clear from recent posts critical of other candidates that they are not my choice and that I support Hendriksen. I have made that explicit. I surely hope that he is one of the two primary finalists for the District 1 office. Should that not be I shall wrestle a bit with remaining options, but I expect I already know how I would think things out, if necessary. A good informed turnout Aug. 10 should keep Hendriksen in the contest. That is at least my hope and expectation. Other candidates have cabals of support, or appear to me at least to have affiliations that a good turnout can overcome. People need to really look at and think about the options.

___________UPDATE__________
One thing needs clarification - the three of four with generally known GOP ties and leanings. Andy Hillebregt, I do not know. Hendriksen, who I back, unfortunately has not yet seen the light on the road to Damascus and is not DFL, but while an actual conservative in many ways he does not caucus with any bloc. Matt Look, he caucuses with Bob Ramsey, Mike Jungbauer, Harry and Jen Niska, and Abeler's recent ultra-far-right primary opponent Huizenga, so go figure if he's not vanilla new-far-extreme-Emmer-rightwing GOP down the line, to the COR. Steffen, a Carlson HHS appointee, in 1993 resigned to run for Congress, GOP primary. Ventura of IP appointed her to Met. Council, Pawlenty of GOP reappointed her to more Met Council where she sat for years until quite recently (in case you do not recall), while DFL'er Jim Deal hosted her recent Ramsey Town Center fundraiser at one of Deal's buildings. All things to all people, a woman for all seasons, a chameleon, a liquid of fixed volume but taking the shape of her container? You tell me.

I'm not saying she's dumb. Just that she had to have her handlers write on the bottom, "See other palm for more."

It works for short Palin speeches. For longer ones she has to go backhand. Or run through the palms twice, three times, it would be indistinguishable from her norm. Source: this link.

A snapshot of some of the folks who brought you Tom Emmer. I see some Ramsey names on this list. It is good to know who is who.

This link.

And what does the party of Emmer and the party of NO have to say on jobs policy?

They offer warmed up leftovers; trickle down is fine with us, trust us, it will work. Or it has so far for those on top trickling. Trickle down seems un-American to me. Michele Bachmann should seek to have it investigated. She is the GOP's foremost authority on un-Americanism, I am told. Too heavy, way too heavy on the eye makeup, the aged should know better, that real people do not look that way, but ---

______________________
Hat tip to Dump Bachmann for the photo.

The party of NO shows its stuff.

If there is going to be a revenue shortfall, the party of NO says let it be. They are against a balanced budget.

More than that, they come across as super-scared, and reacting like a cornered snake, about Tom Horner, who is not a devil at all, but simply one of the handful of remaining moderate Republicans. Horner, because of that, had to leave the GOP and go IP.

This screenshot, from MDE:

Voters should give the Emmerites what they want - if they are to be the party of NO, give them a resounding NO at the polls. Only the ballot box can dislodge the extremists who have captured the GOP.

And why would I want a kinder gentler GOP?

Because the Dems are now nothing but a bunch of entrenched Eisenhower Republicans and until the GOP reinvents itself as open to the middle of the existing narrow right-wing range of political discourse at play today, the Dems can be as egregious as they want and still win. IF the GOP reforms then the Dems will have to, and a move to the left in that camp is way, way, way, way overdue.