Author: Mark Weber

An Eden Prairie nonprofit dedicated to keeping alive the stories and artifacts of U.S. military aircraft is without its showcase museum and searching for a permanent home at Flying Cloud Airport. Wings of the North (WOTN) may be best known for its annual Air Expo, when restored vintage airplanes fly in and out of Flying Cloud Airport. It has also built a large collection of wartime art, uniforms, and aircraft and has also borrowed from other collections across the country. Almost all of that is currently in storage, as WOTN in August lost its lease of five years at Club…

Eden Prairie city officials have agreed to take over control and management of Eden Prairie’s oldest cemetery. At the request of its current caretakers, Eden Prairie Cemetery – like Pleasant Hill Cemetery before it – will come under the city’s control on March 1, folded into the Parks and Recreation Department. The cemetery at 8810 Eden Prairie Road, nearly 160 years old and the resting place of many pioneers, is forecast to have positive year-end financial balances of between $5,000 and $15,000, even when city staff time is taken into account, according to a financial analysis by the city. That’s…

The Eden Prairie City Council has directed city staff to make tax-increment financing (TIF) a part of the final-approval documents for The Ellie apartment project proposed along Eden Prairie Road at Lincoln Lane. The decision Feb. 8 ensures that the financing tool, frequently used by cities – including in Eden Prairie, for several other apartment projects – will increase the number of apartments with lower rents, part of a broader effort to meet affordable-housing goals in the metro area. Using TIF, a city diverts a portion of a project’s increase in property taxes to support a public improvement, in this…

The City of Eden Prairie is being asked to provide tax-increment financing (TIF) assistance to The Ellie apartment project proposed along Eden Prairie Road at Lincoln Lane as a way to increase the number of apartments that will have lower rents. The proposal is among the items the Eden Prairie City Council will consider at its meeting Tuesday, Feb. 8. TIF is a common financing tool that allows a city to divert a portion of a project’s increase in property taxes to support a public improvement, in this case lower rents. If approved, the plan would help make 60 of…

At just seven homes, the Lincoln Lane neighborhood along County Road 4, just north of Smith Coffee & Café, isn’t big by Eden Prairie standards. But it’s deep in Eden Prairie history. The families that lived there in the 1960s and beyond included Eden Prairie High School’s (EPHS) basketball coach, a future Eden Prairie mayor, and kids who would stick around to become an Eden Prairie teacher or police officer. Evening games of “Kick the Can” were common, and the local Little League baseball program may have originated on Lincoln Lane. At one time, a few horses were kept in…

The annual “State of the City” program presented to business leaders Thursday, Jan. 28, had a weathering-the-storm tone and even an occasional overcoming-great-odds vibe. It featured Eden Prairie City Manager Rick Getschow and Superintendent of Eden Prairie Schools Josh Swanson providing updates on 2021 accomplishments and what’s ahead for the city and schools. Eden Prairie Chamber of Commerce President Pat MulQueeny also spoke. His organization hosted the event at Central Middle School. The storm and great odds, of course, are the COVID-19 pandemic of nearly two years. It had a sizable presence in the chamber of commerce and school district…

Eden Prairie City Council members have been told to prepare for much higher construction costs to replace a 40-year-old, cement-block warming house and multi-use building at Round Lake Park. A project the city thought would cost $1.25 million two years ago may cost as much as $2.1 million, Parks Director Jay Lotthammer told the council Tuesday evening, Jan. 18, although the city won’t know for sure until construction bids are reviewed in several months. Construction costs across the Twin Cities and the country, for that matter, have gone up sharply for a variety of reasons, including labor shortages and supply-chain…

Three Eden Prairie High School seniors who have been friends since middle school are behind a fundraising concert on Sunday, Jan. 16, that will benefit The Bridge for Youth and its work with homeless teenagers in the Twin Cities area. Karina Papa, Sreya Patri, and Anna Maristela have organized the concert, which is at 5-6 p.m. in the EPHS Performing Arts Center. There, ticket holders will hear performances of music ranging from classical to pop, from singers to instrumentalists. Tickets are $5 each and can be purchased online. Donations can also be made online. Gift cards and certificates donated by…

A sign that light-rail transit (LRT) construction is influencing development in Eden Prairie is a large apartment project called Blue Stem North, endorsed Monday, Jan. 10, by the city’s planning commission. The 425-apartment Blue Stem North project at 6901 Flying Cloud Drive would not be within walking distance to existing shopping, city parks, or schools. But it would be within walking distance to the Golden Triangle LRT Station, one of four LRT stations planned for Eden Prairie and one located in the job-rich area of northeastern EP. It would also be another entry in the city’s transit-oriented development (TOD) zone,…

Eden Prairie should build on the anti-bias and de-escalation training its police officers and firefighters currently receive, according to a Race Equity Report prepared by the Eden Prairie Human Rights and Diversity Commission. That and other recommendations presented to and endorsed by the city council on Tuesday, Jan. 4, are meant to tackle racism and other inequities that may have grown as Eden Prairie has become more diverse over the last three decades. The report also recommends work to make city staff and leadership more diverse and city programs more inclusive. The idea of looking at race equity in Eden…