Latest News

By Bob Cockriel, President, APWA-MN

It’s now the middle of June and things are as busy as ever throughout the chapter. 

By way of a brief recap, we had an excellent turnout for our Spring Conference, with over 180 members and speakers taking part in this event. Our National APWA President, Larry Stevens (and wife Janna) and Region 6 Director, Chuck Williams were also in attendance and participated in the Wednesday night kickoff session. Read more about the conference here. Our Conference Planning Committee has already started meeting to plan our annual Fall Conference, having recently met for the first time. 

In recognition of National Public Works Week this year, which was celebrated May 17-23, 2015, our chapter requested and received a Public Works Week Proclamation from Gov. Mark Dayton. Many of our member cities celebrated that week locally with open houses and other community engagement opportunities. Take a look at a couple of videos put together by our members, highlighting their efforts to reach out and connect with their communities.

Currently, we have many organizational things going on such as actively recruiting for a replacement for our current delegate, Angela Popenhagen, whose term expires at the end of 2015. All of our members should have received an email blast the week of June 7 announcing this. Hopefully you did, and for those interested in being considered, noted that letters of interest will be received by the Chapter Administrative Assistant until July 6. View a list of the duties and responsibilities of the delegate position, as well as the selection criteria to be used by the Executive Committee to select our next delegate.

Some other interesting things to note: our Young Professionals Group has been active in scheduling several technical tours this year, such as the very successful Green Line Technical Tour on April 18, as well as the upcoming St. Croix Crossing Technical Tour on Thursday, June 25. There is still time to sign up for that tour, which has a June 23 signup deadline. 

Also, our Environment and Sustainability Committee invites you learn more about how you can to participate in a cleanup event being held at Lake Hiawatha Park on Sunday, July 26. 

And last, but certainly not the least, our Membership & Special Events Committee is busy once again putting the finishing touches on the arrangements for the Annual Summer Golf Classic. This year it is being held at Bunker Hill Golf Course on Thursday, July 9.