City Council - Regular Meeting

Welcome to Agenda Edina, a program summarizing the actions taken at City Hall that affect you most. I'm your host, Dorothea Marty. The Salvation Army is one step closer to opening a retail store and warehouse in Edina. Last month, the Edina City Council approved the land use applications needed for the project at 4200 West 76th Street. The organization plans to remodel the existing 28,000 square foot building, creating a thrift store, warehouse, and indoor donation drop-off area. The retail portion of the store will occupy more than 18,000 square feet, with the remaining space for storage and distribution operations.

The thrift store that you're... Looking at today is how we fund our program. We serve the most vulnerable of people who struggle with substance abuse. Folks don't have to have insurance, no government funding. People who have run out of options like that are who we serve. And we self-fund completely through generous gifts of donations from people who want to give up their clothing or their household items. And you're right, we process them on site and then we merchandise them in our store and offer them at a discounted rate to people who enjoy thrifting or people who want to save money.

The Edina Senior Center is a central hub for activities to assist the aging community. And now a program focused on sharing an appreciation for literature and coffee has received national recognition. Edina TV looks at how the center connected with a local business for books and brews.

One thing you should expect from Edina seniors is that they don't slow down. It keeps the Edina Senior Center's recreation supervisor on her toes.

So initially the program started out being more of a space for people to go and read that wasn't at the Senior Center.

Because many seniors are still active in the community and don't normally use the Edina Senior Center, Nicole thought outside the box.

So I approached Edina Coffee Roasters to see if they would be willing to partner on a few different programs.

Nicole and I just started talking about just general interests that we had, and reading happened to be a shared one. And we thought, well, maybe there's something unique that we could do with that. And that's how Books and Brews came to be.

Traditional book clubs will choose a book to read and have discussions about it. But Nicole saw these get-togethers blossom into something more.

Over time we kind of transformed into being a group that just shares books that we're reading and conversing and enjoying one another's company over the two hours.

One of the best books is actually life-changing for me.

Everybody has a chance to share. You're always going to get fun stories and that also I think is one of the special things about it. You learn about other people and their life and the journey that they've walked.

And now, celebrating their one-year anniversary, Books and Brews has been nationally recognized.

I'm very proud of this program and the partnership that we have built with Edina Coffee Roasters. So I had submitted for the Programs of Excellence Awards through the National Council on Aging. We were notified recently that we were chosen as honorable mention for the social award category.

The Council's National Institute of Senior Centers has an annual Programs of Excellence Awards. It cited the partnership between the Edina Senior Center and Edina Coffee Roasters as an outstanding example of how a social connection with other older adults strengthens a sense of belonging.

Our business is making sure that we're connecting with other individuals in the community and organizations. And if there's ways that we can partner together or collaborate, we want to do that. That's super fun for us.

I am so proud of this program and where it is today versus where we started out. Just seeing the variety of people and their life experiences coming together and the intellect and the conversation, it brings me so much joy.

Thank you for making that happen.

For Edina TV, I'm Kenneth Gamow.

To learn more about Books and Brews and other programs, visit the Senior Center in Grandview Square or edinaseniorcenter.com. The city continues to explore ways to make railroad crossings safer and potentially reduce train horn noise in some neighborhoods. Residents living near the Canadian Pacific-Kansas City rail line have reported more overnight train traffic in recent years, bringing increased noise from train horns. To better understand possible solutions, the City hired SRF Consulting to study seven railroad crossings in Edina. The study found that safety improvements at several crossings could eventually allow for the creation of quiet zones, where routine train horn use is limited. One potential quiet zone in northern Edina would require coordination with the City of St. Louis Park.

We could potentially do up to four separate quiet zones. One at Dewey Hill right behind me, Vadley Lane, Hanson Road, and then the northern ones all have to be together and we have to partner with St. Louis Park if we actually want to create a quiet zone there. And the reason for that is that they're within, they're closer than a quarter mile, the northern ones. The other ones are separated far enough where we could do independent quiet zones and all of this has to happen after all of those safety improvements are completed.

Depending on the location, the recommended improvements are estimated to cost between $1.4 million and $3.5 million each. The projects have been included in Public Works' proposed capital improvement plan for 2027 through 2030, but funding has not yet been identified. One project that is complete is the Vernon Avenue and Highway 100 interchange reconstruction. Vernon Avenue reopened to traffic June 26th, marking the completion of more than $28 million in transportation improvements in the Grandview District. The project was designed to improve safety, mobility and connectivity for residents, businesses and visitors traveling through the area. The City of Edina thanks residents, businesses, and commuters for their patience throughout construction and looks forward to the benefits these improvements will provide for years to come. That's all for this episode of Agenda Edina. Thanks for watching. I'm your host, Dorothea Marty.