Agenda - Council - 08/26/2014 - Laserfiche WebLink

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NMMA will assume responsibility for overall administrative and management oversight for the Alliance. Elwin Tinklenberg — Overall project leadership, administration and management; federal and state government relations; and grass -tops and grassroots citizen education. Now in private public affairs practice, Mr. Tinklenberg is a former Mayor of the City of Blaine, where he successfully advocated for funding for the Highway 610 project. He is also a former Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Transportation and has a thorough knowledge of the agency's processes as well as professional relationships with a variety of MnDOT staff. Michael Wilhelmi — Message development, collateral materials generation, state government relations, public and media relations, and grassroots citizen involvement. Mr. Wilhelmi will lead a team of communications and media staff at Ewald Consulting. Mr. Wilhelmi is a Government and Public Affairs Consultant at Ewald Consulting. He has 22 years of experience working at the Minnesota Legislature in a variety of capacities. As a consultant, he served as the Executive Director of the Alliance for the St. Croix River Crossing, a campaign that successfully advocated for the construction of a new $640 million bridge in Stillwater. PROPOSAL DETAILS In reviewing the attached proposed Alliance 2014-2015 Membership Fee and Operating Budget start-up costs during 2014 will include creating all -new advocacy documents and online content. These costs are typical for any start-up business enterprise of its kind. The Alliance Partnership has begun the initial process of bringing the broader corridor public and T.H. 10 `users' into play through a number of public open house meetings. A key strategy for success of this `advocacy effort' will be to further engage this critical group of community supporters for this project as they can become critical advocates with decision makers for the needed improvements to T.H. 10. Generations of citizens, businesspeople and local officials in the project area have struggled to travel safely and efficiently on T.H. 10, with ever-increasing traffic counts effectively making T.H.10 less safe and less efficient for travel and commerce. Thus, this project should appropriately be thought of as a legacy infrastructure project, not just for nearby corridor communities, but neighboring cities and north -central Minnesota communities as well. This stretch of highway is critical to transportation needs for many hundreds of thousands of private and commercial drivers each and every day of the year. Making improvements to T.H. 10 will deliver significant benefits to the area's livability and economic vitality for future generations. Similar steps will be initiated activities to incorporate the T.M. 169 Improvement Plan into the Allaince work product. FIRST STEPS NMMA proposes the following `first steps' to help Alliance Partnership achieve their respective goals to successfully reconstruct T.H. 10 and connecting infrastructure for their constituents and the broader community. T.H.10 RECONSTRUCTION: CHALLENGERS AND OPPORTINITIES The T.H. 10 corridor from the northern part of the City of Ramsey to Hanson Blvd. in Coon Rapids is 9.5 miles long. Designed and built in the 1950s, the corridor is critical for not only the intrastate commerce and recreational needs of a large part of mid -Central and Northern Minnesota, but also for the everyday life of the people who live and work in the communities of Ramsey, Anoka, Andover, and Coon Rapids and to the City of Champlin because of its crucial connection to T.H. 169. 2