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02/08/2022 - Eagan Historical SocietyEagan Historical Society Meeting Notes February 8, 2022 Meeting started at 11:05 in the Eagan Room of Eagan City Hall. Members present Lynae Gieseke, Lori Tripp, Pat Geagan, Kim Hazel, Dawn Simpson, Mike Scott, Karen Mackey, Leslie Chudnoff, Joanna Foote, Mary Ellen Voracek. Karen passed out papers that itemized Dakota County Library resources that highlight Eagan’s history. The library has a new microfilm reader. Lynae will research Eagan High School yearbooks for the library’s collection. Mary Ellen brought up having a May open house at the Old Town Hall. It was decided that the open house would be Sunday May 22 from 11:00 AM until 2:00 PM. The May meeting will be spent on cleaning the Old Town Hall. Joanna will get the information in the next edition of the city newsletter. Joanna said that the Webmaster is now Colin Soderstrom, and his position is split between I.T. and Communications. For future reference, the cut off to submit articles/announcements to the city newsletter is the 15th of the month before publication. So, the 15th of February, April, June, August, October, December. Joanna will prepare contact list and distribute it before she retires. Joanna stated that the City of Eagan’s planning department has been involved with the purchase of Starks Halfway House by Kwik Trip. Past buildings have been torn down. The current building will be torn down. Pat would like to go through the building before it is torn down. ? said that EHS has all photos from Starks. It was mentioned that Starks has been a “Travelers Rest” for its entire history. Discussion about a possible historical marker at Kwik Trip if there is an appropriate location and they are willing. Kwik Trip hasn’t been good about responding to city planners, so maybe they won’t respond to EHS. Joanna suggested that someone should check their website for historical references at other Kwik Trip locations. Mary Ellen said that the auction company would have taken pictures of the auction items and perhaps they would share their photos with EHS. Mike went by Starks after the meeting and the building was empty, but he was able to get a couple of menus for EHS. Vikings Lake – small area set aside for the City of Eagan to create a park. It is 11 acres in the Southeast Corner of the property and is mostly swamp and unbuildable land. It was dedicated to the city in June 2021. Pat wanted to know if it was near the stone wall left from the Ames Mansion but that is the opposite corner of the Vikings Property from the new park. Park names that were at the top of the list are Du Nord Park, Nordic Park, Touchdown Park, Northland Park, and O’Neill Park. Polzin Park was mentioned and decided that should be close to city hall. The city council could decide a different name, which they did at their workshop. The Eagan City Council is naming the park Norse Park. Joanna provided an information sheet about EHS history and questions for its history that she provided at a meeting with Assistant City Administrator Dianne Miller and Communications Director Joe Ellickson. Miller has been selected to be Eagan’s next City Administrator in June 2022. That led to a discussion about EHS’s future and that we as a group should meet and decide how we as a group want to move forward so we could then set up a meeting with Miller. Meeting of EHS and what our organization should look like going forward was set for February 23 from 11:00-1:00 in the Eagan Room at city hall. Ideas were what EHS needs from the city, what the city needs from EHS, what we provide to the city and emphasize our value. Members that thought they could make the meeting were Lori, Pat, Lynae, Mary Ellen, Leslie, and Mike. Joanna will reserve the room. Lynae mentioned that Dianne will need to be added to The First Ladies Display at the Old Town Hall. Lori mentioned that when Joanna mentioned that the files were at Eagan, they were the electronic files because the paper files were not in the basement. We learned that the paper files were still at Mid America and need to be picked up. I did offer to go and get them. Joanna called them after the meeting, and they said that they would deliver them to city hall. EHS will have access to Laserfiche within a week. Template is available to label files which Lori, Leslie, and Lynae have offered to do. All old city records are scanned including property records, old minutes, EHS, etc. Lori brought up that she would like members to pursue the program ideas that Ted Ringberg had proposed at a previous meeting and having the records would allow us to do that. Once the research was done on various projects, we could create short informational pieces. At a previous meeting Lori and Pat were going to contact Trinity Lone Oak Church to get their historical documents for EHS. Lori updated the group that the Pastor at Trinity Lone Oak Church wouldn’t return our phone calls. Pat did call someone he knew that was a member of the church, but that person was overwhelmed with caring for his wife. If that person found anything he would contact Pat. Joanna said that Don Holtz might have Trinity Lone Oak Church information and she will get the contact information. At a previous meeting Kim said we should document how Covid affected the City of Eagan. Lori did contact the Police Chief and he provided notes about how Covid affected the PD. Joanna said that she hasn’t been authorized to write about how Covid affected city hall. Lori has scanned Pat Geagan’s scrapbook from when he was Eagan’s Police Chief from 1989-1999. Lori updated that the EHS basement office is a mess from the remodeling and must be cleaned. Lori said she will start scanning Margo Danner’s scrapbooks on the community center and the senior center this week. Joanna will reserve the Eagan Room for the March 8th meeting from 11:00-1:00. Meeting ended at 1:10 PM. Next meeting is Wednesday, February 23, 2022 from 11:00AM until 1:00 PM in the Eagan Room. Respectfully submitted by Lori Tripp