St. Louis Park, Hopkins and Golden Valley are working together to request proposals from electric scooter-share companies for this summer.
By joining forces, city officials hope they can attract more attention from vendors, and maybe get a better price or more service for their shared population of nearly 90,000.
Each city still plans to collect a per-scooter fee: St. Louis Park and Hopkins want $7,500 for the season, and Golden Valley's fee will be $3,750. The cities each want at least 20 scooters, with no more than 50 in Golden Valley and no more than 100 each in Hopkins and St. Louis Park.
Proposals were due March 24, and the three cities are expected to choose a vendor by mid-April. Scooters could hit the streets in just over a month.
Josie Albertson-Grove
Brooklyn Park
Men in Black wins violence intervention contract
Brooklyn Park has entered into an agreement with Minneapolis-based Men in Black Security to provide violence intervention services in the city for the rest of the year.
The City Council on March 13 approved a $650,000 contract with the consulting firm, which will be in effect from April 1 to Dec. 31.
The Police Department in December put out a call for proposals and three groups vying for the work made presentations at the March 13 council meeting. They included Men in Black, Minnesota Acts Now and A Mother's Love.
Several residents who spoke at the meeting supported Men in Black, which worked to de-escalate the Franklin and Chicago and Broadway and Lyndale areas of Minneapolis.
For the past two years, the nonprofit Minnesota Acts Now provided the service and was credited with reducing violent crime in the vicinity of 63rd and Zane avenues N. But Mayor Hollies Winston said the city needed a new model.
"A big part of discussion is who had capacity to work in some pretty difficult areas and get us to the 2.0 version," he said before the vote. "A decision has to be made so when summer comes we are hitting the ground running."
Tim Harlow
Hastings
City approves 71-acre annexation
The Hastings City Council approved the annexation of about 71 acres at Hwy. 316 and Michael Avenue in Marshan Township at Monday's City Council meeting, according to a memo emailed to city residents.
In Minnesota, a city can annex township land by passing an ordinance if the landowner — in this case, Best Development Company — petitions for the change and a public hearing is held.
Land Equity Development plans to construct a "lifestyle development" called the Walden of Hastings on the land. The developer's plans call for 450 new housing units — a combination of single-family and twin houses along with townhouses, senior living units and apartments. Most are planned to be rental units, though that could change. City approval is still needed for these plans.
The eastern 17 acres of the property is sand coulee land and will not be developed, the memo said, adding that the developer intends to sell that land to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
Land Equity must still complete an environmental assessment to analyze how the development will affect the area, including traffic. The planning commission and City Council will then review the worksheet and the developer's future requests, and a public hearing will be held.
Erin Adler
