According to a staff report in this week’s City Council agenda, Elaine Sampson and family have donated $35,000 to the new Eden Prairie Art Center. The bulk of the funds will be used to make the necessary interior renovations to allow public access to the Art Center facility. The Sampson family donated the building, located at 7650 Equitable Drive, last year. The building had been the art studio for Roger Sampson, who passed away in 2006.

Hennepin County Commissioners Jan Callison from the Sixth District (which includes a portion of Eden Prairie), and Jeff Johnson from the Seventh District along with Randy Johnson, representing the Fifth District (which includes the majority of Eden Prairie) – will be sworn in on Tuesday, Jan. 6, at 1:30 p.m. in the 24th Floor Board Room of the Hennepin County Government Center, 300 S. Sixth St. in downtown Minneapolis.

Q&A with local officials

We asked local officials to share highlights and challenges from 2008 as well as resolutions and expectations for 2009 – and their favorite free or inexpensive place to visit in Eden Prairie. The responses we received are below.

Q&A with local officials

We asked local officials to share highlights and challenges from 2008 as well as resolutions and expectations for 2009 – and their favorite free or inexpensive place to visit in Eden Prairie. The responses we received are below.

Service hours for three of Hennepin County’s seven service centers are changing beginning Jan. 1, said Kathy Schons, service centers division manager, in a news release.

“The Eden Prairie, Maple Grove and Midtown Exchange (south Minneapolis) service centers will no longer be open on Saturdays,” said Schons. “For added service, the Eden Prairie and Maple Grove service centers will open one hour earlier (at 8 a.m.) Monday through Friday, and stay open one hour later (until 7 p.m.) on Monday night.”

Two of Eden Prairie’s consultants will be discussing the state of the city’s lakes with the Eden Prairie Conservation Commission on Jan. 13.

At the commission’s regular meeting, Steve McComas of Blue Water Science and Walter Eshenhaur of SRF Consulting Group are scheduled to speak about recent projects.

By Karla Wennerstrom

 "I must have been the only one that didn't know Ron, Sherry and Brad would be running," Jeff Meyerhofer said in a recent interview about his Eden Prairie City Council run.

It’s been a whirl-wind year for Congressman-elect Erik Paulsen, who emerged as victor in a tightly-fought race in the Third Congressional District. He’s pretty much hit the ground running since election night, having gone through three orientation sessions with his fellow freshman legislators since then:

Having a ball - The Eden Prairie Foundation’s annual ball is planned for March 14, 2009.

By Renee Stewart

The Eden Prairie Foundation continued its annual grant program while distributing welcomed financial boosts to five area entities.
This season’s grant recipients include Friends of the Eden Prairie Art Center, Edendale Residence, Inc., Friendship Ventures, Forest Hills Elementary School and PROP. The programs received a total of $24,450.

* This the third in a three-part series of stories on PROP.
Click here for the previous two stories:

http://www.edenprairienews.com/news/city-news/times-changed-prop-adapted...

http://www.edenprairienews.com/news/city-news/prop-sees-ripples-tough-ec...

To learn more about PROP, visit www.propfood.org.

By Leah Shaffer