City Government

The City of Arlington operates under the home rule charter form of government.  The City Council is composed of five council members (four year terms each) and the mayor (four year term) who exercise the legislative functions and determines all policy.  The City Administrator is appointed by the City Council and is responsible for the administration of city affairs.  Many committees (see Committees link at left) work with the council providing advice, ideas, and resources, which allows for more citizen input.

 

City Council

2010 Arlington City Council

Back Row: Ross Arneson, Galen Wills, Bob Pichelmann,

Vice-Mayor Curt Reetz, Mike Vrklan

Seated: Jim Pederson, Mayor Jim Kreft

Administrator Matt Jaunich

 

Mayor:  James Kreft

    Address:  310 E. Alden Street  Box 82
    Home Phone:  507-964-2680
    e-mail link: jkreft@arlingtonmn.com
    Initial Term:    January 2007
    Term Expires:  December 2010
    Committees:    All

Councilmember:  Curt Reetz-Vice Mayor

   Address:  309 NW 4th Avenue, PO Box 1033

   Home Phone:  507-964-5650

   e-mail link:  creetz@arlingtonmn.com

   Initial Term:    January 2003

   Term Expires:  December 2010

   Committees:   Planning & Zoning, Employee Relations,
   A-GI Wastewater, Utilities, Police

                                                 
Councilmember:  Mike Vrklan 
    Address:  200 County Rd 9 NW  Box 603
    Home Phone:  507-964-5252
    e-mail link:  mvrklan@arlingtonmn.com
    Initial Term:    January 2007
    Term Expires:  December 2010
    Committees:    EDA, Streets, MMUA Delegate, 
                           Fire Dept., Ambulance Dept., Cemetery, SMC Board
Councilmember:  James Pederson

   Address:  507 1st Avenue N Box872

    Home Phone:  507-964-5180

   e-mail link:  jpederson@arlingtonmn.com

   Initial Term:  January 2009

   Term Expires:  December 2012

   Committees: Prairie Line Trails, Finance, Public Buildings,
                      Ambulance Dept., Parks,


Councilmember: Robert Pichelmann

   Address:  107 E. Alden Street Box 613

   Home Phone:  507-964-2854

   e-mail link:  bpichelmann@arlingtonmn.com

   Initial Term:  January 2009

   Term Expires:  December 2012

   Committees: A-GI Wastewater, EDA, Public Buildings,
                      Fire Dept., Employee Relations, Streets


Councilmember: Galen Wills

   Address:  302 4th Ave. NW  Box 681

   Home Phone:  507-964-5460
   e-mail link:  gwills@arlingtonmn.com
   Initial Term: November 2009    
   Term Expires: December 2012  
   Committees:    Cable, Finance, Utilities, Library, Police
                                                


City Attorney:  Ross Arneson
   Address:  302 West Main Street, PO Box 529
   Office Phone:  507-964-5753

 

2010 Mayoral Goals

 

  • Complete our Capital Improvement Plan

Our Comprehensive Plan outlines many long-range projects that will enhance our quality of life.  Some of the projects are potentially very exciting, some necessary, and most expensive.  During the last year, our elected and appointed officials, staff, and consultants have been identifying projects and evaluating their priority.  Priority of street and utility reconstruction, park improvements, economic development projects, as well as vehicle rotation and upgrades will all be rated and included in a five year schedule.  A Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) is a capital budgeting device that will help us transform ideas outlined in our comprehensive plan into tangible reality.  It will empower our Council, staff, and committees to use multi-year budget cycles to save for projects and capital expenditures.  A CIP will also enable us to co-ordinate our capital expenditures to ensure a consistent tax levy in years to come.

 

  • Partner with Sibley East School District, St. Paul Lutheran School and Sibley County Public Health in a “Safe Routes to School” program application

Historically, the City of Arlington has been fortunate and privileged to host both public and private schools, and their very presence and long-term viability are imperative to the welfare of our community.  These schools and our city have many commonly held goals, the health of our children is but one. There has been a concerted effort in recent years by federal, state, city and school governments to improve the health of our young people.  As childhood obesity rates continue to rise, it is incumbent for all of us to fight this effort; one way our community can contribute to this goal is to provide safe pedestrian routes for our students.

 

“Safe Routes to School” is a state program, funded with federal money, designed to encourage students to walk and bike to school, and assure that they do so safely.  The program provides funding to communities for infrastructure improvements such as traffic control measures and new sidewalks/trails as well as non infrastructure programs such as educational materials and incentive rewards for participation. 

 

Last year, as part of a measure to evaluate the pedestrian friendliness of our community, the City of Arlington hosted a Walkable Community Workshop.  Sibley County Public Health and representatives from Sibley East School District were partners in making the event a success, and all entities are enthusiastic to use it as a springboard for this year’s joint application for “Safe Routes to School” funding.

 

  • Connect our city parks with pedestrian pathways and collaborate for construction of a pedestrian trail to Sportsmen’s Park.

Six years ago, the City of Arlington initiated a sidewalk improvement plan.  The project has been hugely successful—steadily rebuilding sidewalks, starting with Main Street and radiating outward.  In 2008, it was realized we needed to reevaluate the plan to examine connectivity and continuity of the sidewalks in town.  In 2009 we assessed the pedestrian friendliness of our community and created a preliminary map of possible future pedestrian thoroughfares to connect our city parks.  Concurrent to this assessment, the Prairie Line Trail Committee had been contemplating rural trail grant applications.  Through cooperation with that group, and with the foresight of our County Board, two grant applications have been completed.  If awarded, the grant dollars, would, in part pay for the construction of a pedestrian trail from Arlington to Sportsmen’s Park, and money spent by the City of Arlington in city limits would qualify as a local match for that project.  We have much work to do:  identify the exact routes of pathways in town, examine possible funding sources, including TIF money, and further collaborate with Prairie Line Trail Committee and Sibley County to ensure grant application success.

 

  • Assess the value of licensing only one solid waste carrier

Many cities in Minnesota license only one solid waste carrier to serve their residents and merchants.  Indeed Arlington for most of our history was served by a single carrier.  Currently our City Ordinance allows the licensing of three residential and six commercial waste carriers.  This allows our property owners limited autonomy in their choice, but the frequent truck traffic on our city streets adds to maintenance costs and raises some safety concerns. If the City chooses to issue only one license, proposals from any interested, qualified waste hauler would be reviewed with cost, experience, and customer service being a few of the many criteria to be evaluated.  The belief is that such a selection process would ensure lower costs and fair, consistent pricing for our residents and businesses, while possibly adding a small revenue source for our municipal government.

 

As we have recently learned, Waste Management has purchased the two other licensed carriers.  It is unclear whether this corporate consolidation will assist or hinder the examination of a single license system.  We had hoped to evaluate the possibilities over the next calendar year, but clearly the purchase will force us to accelerate our decision making.

 

  • Open communication with adjacent ambulance services to examine areas for co-operation

In 2008, the City of Arlington proudly upgraded our ambulance service.  The City, Sibley Medical Center, Ambulance Director, and, most importantly, our ambulance service volunteers have worked closely to ensure success or our newly implemented system.  Successes of our new system are as evident as the documented life saving measures our part-time Advanced Life Support license has enabled us to offer, and as latent as the increased staff professionalism, the improved day-time coverage, and the realized potential of cooperation and sharing to provide emergency health care.

 

All parties involved in the service upgrade have grown to appreciate the inumerable possible enhancements to our patient care and cost savings that partnership with adjacent ambulance services could provide.  Currently, Sibley Medical Center has satellite clinics in Gaylord, Henderson, and Winthrop, and we will engage elected officials, ambulance volunteers, and city administrations from these cities as well as Sibley County to research opportunities for collaboration.  Sped by budget constraints, collaboration, cooperation, and sharing of services between municipalities have quickly become salient necessities.  A tenuous balance of open mindedness, trust, and acknowledged parochialism will be paramount in order to objectively and collectively explore avenues to maintain and augment our commonly offered services while diligently protecting our identities as distinct communities.

Links & Documents

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Arlington City Charter

(Revised 9/08 - Effective 1/09)

Orderly Annexation Agreement

City of Arlington/ Arlington Township (1997)

  

City of Arlington

2008

Comprehensive Plan Update

2008 CPU Maps

 

  

 

Approved Council Minutes

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2010

January 4, 2010

January 19, 2010

February 1, 2010

February 16, 2010

February 18, 2010 Special

March 1, 2010

March 8, 2010 Special

 March 9, 2010 Special

March 15, 2010

April 5, 2010

April 19, 2010

May 3, 2010

May 17, 2010

May 26, 2010 Special

June 7, 2010

June 21, 2010

July 6, 2010

July 12, 2010 Special

July 19, 2010

August 2, 2010

 

Council Meetings are recorded on DVDs and available for viewing at the Arlington Public Library.

 

Council meetings are

delayed broadcast on

Public Access Channel 8

on Thursdays at

6:00 and 10:00 p.m.

 

For previous year's

City Council Minutes

please follow this link