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All above names were recommended for Council approval May 5, meaning requirements had been met.

Standard bureaucratic red tape though wasn’t the only item on the Council agenda. Also included were several proclamations, related to Building Safety Month, Public Works Week, Police Week and Peace Officers Memorial, Economic Development Week, Historic Preservation Month.

As to the Police Week Proclamation, the proclamation states that May 15th is designated as Peace Officers Memorial Day, while more than half of 264 officers who died in 2020 had their passing related to COVID-19. Though no names from Minnesota will be added to the National Law Enforcement Officer’s Memorial in Washington, D.C. from 202, the City of Cottage Grove is proclaiming May 9-15th as National Police Week, with May 15th itself proclaimed Peace Officers Memorial Day.

Also to be covered in Council business, meanwhile, was the approval of a one-year contract by the City of Cottage Grove with the South Washington Watershed District for Erosion and Sediment Control Inspections. Required through the City’s MS4 permit, the inspection of construction sites to ensure compliance with State regulations is meant to protect water quality by preventing “sediment and other pollutants from washing off construction sites into streets, storm sewers, ponds and water bodies.” Based on mutual interest in the water resources of the area, the two “political subdivisions of the State of Minnesota” (one the City, the other the Watershed District) is to be entered into pursuant to Minnesota Statute 471.59,” said statute referencing a joint exercise of powers by the two governmental bodies, per the website of the Minnesota Legislature.

Also up for Council attention on Wednesday May 5 were a historic preservationist award to the late Herb Japs, a man committed to local history.

“Herbs unfortunate passing late last year was a shock to all who knew him,” the packet notes, “including his colleagues at the ACHP,” the last an acronym for the Advisory Committee on Historic Preservation. With 6 years of service as the Planning Commission Liaison to the ACHP (from 1997 – 2003) and 17 years of service on the ACHP itself (from 2003 to 2020), the award was due to be presented to Herb’s friend and colleague on the ACHP, Joe Gall, on behalf of Herb and his widow Janice.

Alongside the award for Mr. Japs was a Planning Commission for Jerret Wright to fill an unexpired term on the Planning Commission, which term ends February 28, 2022.

Finally, to round out the partial Council report for May 5, the City was due to approve a deed with McHattie’s and lot split at 6329 Jewel Bay, using Resolution 2021063 to do so, with a future trail corridor potentially in the mix.