Author: Letter to Editor

To my friends & neighbors in Eden Prairie, It’s been the greatest honor of my life to serve for the last three years as director and clerk on the Eden Prairie School Board. We built on past successes by increasing our graduation rates, making choice programming available to middle and high schoolers, creating capstone opportunities for HS students, and being good stewards of taxpayers’ dollars. We still have lots of work ahead of us in our continued pursuit of educational excellence. As I remain totally committed to this vital work, I’m announcing my candidacy for reelection to the Eden Prairie…

The Eden Prairie School District has begun seriously investigating the costs and benefits of transitioning its fleet of school buses from diesel to electric. The benefits are clear in the improved health of students, in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, and in reduction of operating expenses. Costs continue to be a barrier. Electric cars were in a similar situation 10 years ago. Leadership and monetary incentives were crucial to catalyze change. Now, as production is increasing, the need and availability of incentives has been diminishing. For example, there is no longer a tax credit for buying a Tesla, yet…

As the masks come off and the pandemic is winding down, there are people in our communities who are not experiencing the same level of normalcy that most of us are. I’m speaking of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. So many of us go to work, do our activities, shop and even take vacations, but dozens of people with disabilities in the Eden Prairie area spend the bulk of their time sitting at home. That’s not a healthy lifestyle, mentally or physically. The main reason for this waiting list is that day service and employment programs like CHOICE have…

“It ain’t over,” said Yogi Berra, “till it’s over.” This is certainly true of our prolonged battle with COVID-19. According to Johns Hopkins University data, there were 28 ICU beds in Minnesota occupied by COVID-19 inpatients during the week of July 12-18, 2021. Now, six months later, (from) Jan. 17-23, 2022, there are 264 ICU beds occupied by COVID-19 inpatients in the state. This past fall, the delta variant and the even more contagious omicron variant have accelerated an unrelenting increase in the numbers of COVID patients in ICUs and/or on respirators. This trend imposes a tremendous financial burden. FAIR…

The summer of 2021 was the hottest summer on record in Minnesota. I fear that, to our children, a summer like the one just past will be considered normal, or, maybe even cool. Atmospheric CO2 has shot up at a rate that, so far as we know, has never been seen before in billions of years, and, as temperatures track closely to CO2, we can only expect a fearful future for future generations. Many policies have been proposed to reduce greenhouse gas concentrations, and all of them are important. However, most of these proposals are limited to only one sector…

Eden Prairie proudly and rightfully touts its safety and focus on the quality of life, two closely related aspects of daily living. Yet, anyone who travels via foot or bike on Riverview Road between Gantry Way and Parker Drive is forced to walk those 800 feet IN and ON the poorly lit, narrow “country road” that now serves basically as a trunk road for drivers heading to Highway 169. There was an error at some point on the part of the city by not requiring the developer of Bell Oaks and/or Bell Oaks Estate to complete that stretch of sidewalk.…

The latest report from the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states that we are in a “Code Red” emergency situation regarding climate change.Please call or write your three representatives in Congress to make sure they treat this like the emergency that it is and do everything they can to save the planet from further damage.I, like other parents and grandparents, are extremely concerned about the future of our grandchildren and future generations. We need to do everything in our power to leave the earth better than we found it. Thomas W. SampsonEden Prairie

The Eden Prairie City Council will vote on a mega gas station project this Tuesday, August 17. The project is planned for the corner of Hennepin Town Road and Pioneer Trail, surrounded by neighborhood homes to the north, south and west. The Planning Commission already rejected the project in a stunning 8-0 vote. Typically a developer would reassess the project after such a vote. They would understand the concerns of the community and the planning commission. Here’s what the Developer failed to recognize, and what we urge Council members to consider: Super-Size What a whopper of a project! 5,200…

It’s a sunny Thursday morning in Eden Prairie. And it’s too soon for me to write this letter. Way too soon. But I can’t wait even one more night. One more night. That’s what I asked my son to give me. Just one night. I slept on the floor near his bed to make sure he would make it through one more night. Until he didn’t. Last Friday, several days after his 17th birthday, my son died from depression. Suicide. During the days before that, Jonas was cheered on by fans at his volleyball matches. He showed off waterskiing and…

As citizens, we have the privilege to vote for the candidates who best represent our views on many complicated issues. Unfortunately, our current system of extreme partisanship makes it difficult for us to do this and is built to tear us apart. The complexity of the issues and the concerns of the majority of the citizens are ignored in this self-serving system. This broken system fails us in two ways: First, it is difficult to understand the issues because of partisan disinformation and obfuscation. Second, as politicians speak negatively to and about each other, we begin to mirror this behavior…