On May 31st neighbors, block club members, block club leaders and public officials got together to discuss ways that everyone working together can make Dayton’s Bluff a better place to live. The weeks before the meeting was planned a number of crimes and the tragic death of Sergeant Vick acted as a wake up call for our community. Many neighbors were ready to work on helping improve their community.
   The meeting started with a welcome and introductions of the public officials. Then. Community Organizer Karin DuPaul thanked everyone who has been working on improving Dayton’s Bluff including the neighbors who have been working on neighborhood issues for years, the Police Department, Code Enforcement, our City Council, and the Mayor’s office.
   Next, Karin requested that the meeting be one in which we focus on solutions to our problems, not on the problems themselves.
   Here are some suggestions shared by concerned neighbors:
   1. License landlords as businesses.
   2. Ask that police officers to write a report on every call to problem properties, because making a complaint and having a written report about the call is helpful documentation of the incident.
   3. Section 8 housing program should take in account the number of police calls when evaluating eligibility of clients.
   4. Call police and report loud noise and the loud use of profanity.
   5. City should reinstate the Houses to Homes Program, which got vacant houses back into owner occupied home ownership.
   6. Taking back our streets.  Let’s be visible and be accountable for our own kids.
   City Council President; Kathy Lantry - responses and suggestions:
   1. She will talk with the Section 8 Program about notifying them about problem properties.
   2. Licensing landlords is not the answers.  A license can be reinstated, when they fix the property. Better to improve and use of the Rental Registration Program.  It is more effective.
   3. Place a bond on landlords of problem properties.
   4. In order to hire more police and fire fighters and increase hours at Recreation Centers we would be facing a 2% property tax increase. Will the citizens be willing to have the tax increase?
   5. Hold quarterly meetings with city official and area residents.
   Police chief John Harrington on how to take back our neighborhood:
   1. Nothing is going to happen overnight
   2. Let’s go old school - calling parents about their children.
   3. Gangs and drug dealers don’t like witnesses. Get outside and meet your neighbors, be seen.
   4. Block Clubs and getting to know your neighbors are the key to taking back our neighborhoods.  To start a Block Club call Karin at 651-772-2075.
   Andy Dawkins Director of the Neighborhood Housing and Property Improvement Department, formerly Code Enforcement:
   1. Area sweeps of problem properties, alleys, cars and yards will be done in targeted areas over the summer.
   2. For rental property the owner/management name and phone number must be visible on the property.
   3. Neighbors must report problems to code enforcement.
   4. Call Citizen Services 651-266-8989 with Code Violations.  If things do not change call Andy Dawkins at 651-266-1900.
   Don Johnson was the representative from the Mayors office.  Mayor Randy Kelly did not attend:
   The mayor has asked his staff to work on neighborhood concerns.
   Two days after the meeting the Mayor announced a new program called Operation CARE (Comprehensive Area Reclamation Enterprise), which will focus on criminal activity, problem properties and nuisance behavior in the Lower Bluff as well as other areas in the city. Neighbors are hoping that this will help improve the neighborhoods in Dayton’s Bluff. If you are interested in getting involved in your neighborhood or starting a Block Club call Karin at 651-772-2075.

Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary Grand Opening

Photo by Karin DuPaul Lisa Falk, Cat Fish, and Denny Thompson at the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary Grand Opening. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo by Dennis Thompson State Senator Mee Moua speaking to visitors at the Bruce Vento Nature Sancturay Grand Opening. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo by Dennis Thompson Horse and wagon rides in the Bruce Vento Nature Sancturay at its Grand Opening.

Transit Fare Increase to Address Shortfall

Be Your Own Boss

   Have you ever wanted to start your own business?  Or, have you started one and are realizing that you need more education to make it successful?  If so, sign up for the Dayton’s Bluff Neighborhood Entrepreneur Training and Support Program.  This program helps start-up and young businesses on the East Side.  All East Side entrepreneurs are welcome.
   Class training lasts approximately 16 weeks and includes topics such as operations management, marketing, financial management, one to one assistance with creating a successful business, and preparing a business plan.  Those who successfully complete the course and locate their businesses in target neighborhoods are eligible for ongoing business support services. 
   Some of the businesses that people who took the course have started include graphics, photography, food service, restoration of wood furniture and works of art, custom floral design for weddings and events, and exterior and interior painting. 
   The course is sponsored by the Dayton’s Bluff Community Council and the Neighborhood Development Center.  There is a small registration fee based on a sliding fee scale.  The next session will start in September and class size is limited.  Please call Karin at 772-2075 for  application.

What's Going On Out There?

Regional Parks Map is Updated and Available

Summer Garden Tours

  Greening Dayton’s Bluff is planning a number of walking garden tour in Dayton’s Bluff this summer.  There will be two tours in July in the 5th and Forest area and one in the 6th and Maple area. We will look at a number of beautiful gardens. Call Karin at 651-772-2075 to register and get the location of the starting point.
   Generally ten to fifteen Dayton’s Bluff people go on the tours, looking at the beauty and getting new ideas for their gardens. If you would like to have your garden on a tour or have one of these tours in your area call Karin at 772-2075.  

Move Your Body

Dayton's Bluff Community Recreation Center

Vacation Bible School

Ode to Reason

by Mary Petrie
   I consider myself a practical sort of person, full of reason and common sense. Certainly my daily habits would reflect such a well-grounded disposition:  I’m organized down to the minute some days, with a mini-van stocked for emergencies that include toddler clothing changes or the plummeting blood sugar of a nine-year old boy. 
   Between managing a busy household, raising three children, and nurturing a career, there’s little room for nonsensical leeway.  My laptop and desktop computers are networked; children’s summer gear is lined up, army-like, in the garage.  If a child’s fall doesn’t involve blood or bones, it’s not an injury, no matter how loud the scream.   I oversee my life in purely practical terms, operating on good old common sense and efficiency.
   There’s one fatal flaw in this self-narrative, however.  I am wildly – hopelessly – superstitious.
   Fervor for all things inexplicable probably began with my Catholic girlhood: I believed if I didn’t pray for my soul before sleep, I would certainly never wake up in the morning.  I took to a rosary like most children take to ice cream or hopscotch.  There was no calm grazing for four-leaf clovers – I mapped out my territory and got serious, magnifying glass and all.  If a traffic light turned yellow before my bike made the curb, this meant spaghetti for dinner; stay green, and we’d be served up burgers.  Life had a logic that had nothing to do with reason recognized by others, but with a system of signs and symbols useful only to me.
     So imagine my reaction when I had a dream about winning the recent $250 million Lottery.  Imagine my reaction when I reported said dream to my husband, John, who excitedly concurred that he too was having dreams – daydreams – about that jackpot.  Good enough for me: this was a Sign.   Although I hadn’t bought a lottery ticket in years, I knew I was meant to win – and win big.  If not the jackpot, well at least something in five figures.   
   Despite such clear writing on the wall, the Saturday deadline rolled around and I never quite got around to purchasing that ticket.  I found myself at my friend Alan’s birthday party as the final hour approached.  9 p.m. was the cut-off and here I sat, pondering a second glass of wine at 8:30.    I mulled over my dilemma with another guest, only to discover that he too had received a Sign about the jackpot.  He was going to win, and win big.  The guest pulled the precious slip of paper out of his pocket, showing me how the numbers lined up with four children’s birthdays.
   Poor guy.   Sad, to live out such delusions and share them with others.
   Me—I was newly determined to cut the party and buy my ticket to freedom.   Mingling my way out the door, I was shocked to discover that the enormous lottery was indeed the topic of considerable conversation.  Nearly all these people had tickets in hand!  Not everyone had Signs to give them hope, but there were dreams and wistful sighs aplenty.   Even as I was hopping into the car, Alan’s son Eliot asked me to buy him a ticket.  He’d pay me back, he promised.
   I quickly did the math and negotiated a deal:  I’d front for the ticket if he promised me $5 million, after taxes, if he won.  I could live with that, but could he?  His eyes darkened and brow furrowed, calculating.   He asked,  “How much is the jackpot after taxes?”  I estimated.  We squared off and finally agreed that $5 million was a fair trade-off for my buck and the two-block drive.   Generously, I offered the same if I won.   Why not?   
   Alas, the appearance of this article means that I am not basking in the Caribbean sun, either on Eliot’s dime or my own.   And upon further reflection, it’s clear that I misinterpreted the messages sent my way:  the lottery I am meant to win must be in the future.   Yet there is an unfortunate dearth of details surrounding the specifics of when that date will arrive.  So I may just have to tinker with my tightly strung schedule and include ‘buy one lottery ticket’ as a weekly item.  After all, four dollars a month isn’t much to pay for daily dreaming, lost in a stack of books on a beach.
    I oversee my life in purely practical terms, operating on good old common sense and efficiency.

Letters to the Editor

Buckthorn Should be Removed

   Buckthorn is an invasive non-native shrub that was introduced to North America during the 1800s. Buckthorn was planted as a popular hedge material. Even though buckthorn makes a nice full hedge in a yard, it also makes an impenetrable, messy thicket in parks, roadsides, forests, and your neighbor’s yard.
   Each buckthorn fruit produces 2-4 seeds that remain viable for up to six years! Birds eat these buckthorn fruit and then deposit the seeds everywhere on the fly. Because buckthorn tolerates shade, full-sun, drought and bad soil, it thrives just about anywhere. As a result, buckthorn quickly moves from pruned, well-kept yards and invades other areas.
   Buckthorn is detrimental to the health and future of forests, prairies, wetlands and parks. It reduces biodiversity, destroys wildlife habitat and out-competes other important native plants, completely changing the landscape. For these reasons, in 2001 the Minnesota Department of Agriculture declared both Common and Glossy Buckthorn RESTRICTED NOXIOUS WEEDS. Sale, transportation, or movement of these plants is prohibited statewide by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture.
   Still, buckthorn is easily found throughout Minneapolis and St. Paul as well as in every county of Minnesota. Just look for buckthorn in late fall when the native trees and shrubs have dropped their leaves. Buckthorn still has its green leaves often into December. You will not miss it!
   Imagine a piece of land that is one enormous thicket of buckthorn. There would be no diversity of plants, nowhere for songbirds to nest in the lower canopy, and only one type of fruit for small animals. This is what is happening to our urban woodlands. For more information call Karin at Greening Dayton’s Bluff 651-772-2075, or visit the Friends of the Parks and Trails of St. Paul and Ramsey County website at www.friendsoftheparks.org/removal.html for a buckthorn removal guide.

A Short History of Dayton's Bluff

By Steve Trimble
Chapter 7:  Full Development in the 1880s

"There is little doubt that Dayton’s Bluff, now so near the city… and which is so finely adapted for fine suburban homes by a succession of terraces, will be speedily covered with dwellings for merchants and railroad men to whose places of business it is so near and so accessible."
           Pioneer Press, January 7, 1882

   1882 marked a take-off point for the full development of Dayton’s Bluff that occurred during the decade. Large numbers of houses were being built and the land filled in as part of a citywide real estate boom. Parallel commercial construction, such as corner groceries, stores and taverns, accompanied the increased home building.
   According to a newspaper source, around one hundred and fifty new homes were built in the neighborhood between 1882 and 1884. By 1892 the number had gone up to almost four hundred added during the ten-year period. Generally, larger and more elegant structures were put up in the Lower Bluff, while moderately priced homes predominated east of Mendota.
   There had been earlier construction, but there was still a lot of open land that could be subdivided into lots. These remaining sites were rapidly filled up with ambitious building by homeowners and investors who engaged in speculative building. Sometimes the older mansions with their large grounds were split up.
  New plats for lots were drawn upon the landscape. Some were designed for the elite, others for working class families. Thompson’s subdivision, for instance, was filed with the city on March 7, 1885. According to the Pioneer Press, it consisted of twenty-two lots between Hudson, Plum, Maria and Hoffman, now called Mounds Boulevard.
   In May of 1883, an area real estate magazine called the Inland Architect and Builder reported that Adam Gotzian, a local businessman who owned a shoe factory, among other things, started to build twelve houses on Dayton’s Bluff. They were going to be sold on monthly payments to laboring men and he was considering building thirty more at a later date.
    Many of the smaller homes still stand in different areas of the community. The Zahn House, located at 889 Margaret is a fine example of the worker’s cottages. It dates from around 1882.  Zahn, a skilled cigar maker, died at a fairly young age, leaving behind his wife and several children. She lost the home in 1891, but was able to rent it and keep living there until 1897.
     Another structure that is typical of the many homes built for workers near the East Seventh Street industrial district is located at 1087 Ross. Built in 1885, it was originally owned by William Smith, a foreman at the Minnesota Terra Cotta Works, a factory located two blocks away. At the time Smith built, Phalen Creek flowed through the west side of the property. The foundation and the two chimneys were made of the terra cotta — a hard, durable kiln-burnt clay from the factory. Unfortunately, little is known about the family’s story.
   The Minnesota Terra Cotta Lumber Co., where Smith worked, was located north of Seventh Street near Earl. It made a unique kiln-burnt product that was lighter than brick.  The factory could process twenty-five tons of material every day.  The terra cotta was made of clay and sawdust and could be nailed and bored like wood, but was claimed to be much more fireproof.
    One of the most splendid homes built in the mid-1880s was that of Adolph Munch. Located today at 653 East Fifth Street it is one of the best examples of Queen Anne architecture in St. Paul. There had been an 1871 Munch house, but it burned down on Jan 5, 1884. Five months later, architect Emil Ulrichi was hired to design a new home that was completed in the fall. 
   The family came from Germany and had originally been in the Taylor’s Falls area, coming to this city in the 1860’s. He ran a lumbering company until he became president of the Volkszeitung Printing and Publishing Company, which produced a German language newspaper. The structure was put on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.
   One descendent remembered some of the times in the house.  Because of the size of the lawn, it was a natural gathering place for children. The wooden stairway down from Hoffman was a special treat. Families entertained one another. The family had an “at home” day every Thursday. There would be preparation of baking and cleaning. Linen dust covers were removed from the furniture in the formal front parlor.

Photo courtesy of the Minnesota HIstorical Society Young women of Dayton's Bluff German families sometime in the 1880s.

   Like today, the edge of the bluff was a good place to spend a holiday. The Munch household always had a traditional Fourth of July party. The lawn was dotted with Japanese lanterns and carriages crowded up in the turnaround. Every summer there were ice cream socials among the lilac bushes and oak trees.
   The Munch family members were prominent within the close-knit German community that developed in Dayton’s Bluff in the 1880s. There were other groups, such as Yankees and Irish, but the Germans were a highly visible group at the time. As was often the case, they were eager to establish a church to serve their spiritual needs.
   In the Spring of 1881, Assumption Church in downtown announced the start of fund raising for a Catholic church for Dayton’s Bluff Germans. There were meetings with Archbishop John Ireland and an architect named Bassford was hired to head up the job.  The wooden frame church was dedicated on December 7, 1881 and two weeks later, the first service was celebrated. 
       A Catholic educational effort was not far behind. By September 1882, work was beginning on the church’s new school. In November 1883, four sisters of Notre Dame arrived to start the school which started out with 83 students. The school is still going today, now part of the Trinity School, a cooperative effort of several Catholic congregations.
   There was a German language daily newspaper, headquartered in St. Paul and headed by Dayton’s Bluff residents. As the population grew, so did local German-owned businesses and commercial structures.

Photo from "Picturesque Dayton's Bluff" by Smith & Horst Schornstein Grocery Store at 707 Wilson, built in 1884.

   One of the well-frequented establishments was the Schornstein Grocery. Still standing at 707 Wilson, it was originally an 1880’s grocery store and saloon. There was also a sizeable room in the upper stories used for receptions, dances and other gatherings.
    Of course there were groups other than the German who were making their own contribution to the neighborhood. In 1883, for instance, one hundred and fifteen residents started the Atlantic Congregational church at Bates and Conway. The Irish would soon establish their own Catholic Church at Fifth and Forest. In 1884 Catherine Miller built a four-story grocery store and flats (apartments on upper floors) at Maria and Fifth. All of them, some in newer structures, exist today.
   Because of the increase in families with children, a new public school was needed to replace the small McLean school. Named Van Buren, it was built at Conway and Maple in 1881. It had a mere four faculty members and only went to the fourth grade. The following year, eight rooms were used and classes went up to the seventh grade. There was already need for an addition in 1883, which added four rooms and four years later, another eight rooms were added on Maple Street.
  As the population grew, the remnant rural culture began to disappear.  A group of Dayton’s Bluff people complained in 1884 when “the pound master made a clean sweep of the cows grazing on the commons yesterday and deprived the whole community of their last night’s milk.”  However, a year later area residents at a meeting voted to ask the city council to extend the “cow limits” six blocks further out on the bluff.
    Some aspects of the community’s agricultural past continued, however.  Most of them came in the form of specialty undertakings, such as the floral business run by English immigrant William King, who settled in Dayton’s Bluff in 1872.
    He and his wife Bertha (Miller) purchased five acres of land a little east of today’s Earl and Pacific, which was then outside the city limits and built a small house with a kitchen, a parlor and three bedrooms. The bathroom, naturally, was in a separate out-building.
  In 1866 the Kings platted the land into lots, but they did not sell well and they still owned most of them as late as the 1920’s. Even after Pacific Street was graded to King’s house, it took many years for city water to arrive. All of the hundreds of plants had to be watered by hand from a pump.
  A granddaughter said that King “was not a big man, very distinguished, soft-spoken, always immaculate, with beard and moustache; the typical English gentleman.... Dinner was always an experience at Grandpa’s house.”
   “The table was always set in ‘English style’ with the plates all stacked up at one end,” she remembered. “The plates would then be passed to Grandpa, who sat at the head of the table, carving the meat and placing the food on each dish.” King finally retired in his late sixties and died in 1922, at the age of 77.
    As was the case in other cities, the rapid growth in the 1880’s often placed a strain on an aging urban infrastructure. The new residents, especially the growing middle class, wanted to have better city services for the booming area. To help this happen, they formed the first of many neighborhood improvement associations—The Dayton’s Bluff Citizen’s Union. 
    St. Paul papers noted the group. “Attention appears to be somewhat more attracted to Dayton’s Bluff,”  said the Globe in November, 1885. It mentioned that the union was pushing for improvements such as electric lights. “This is an indication,” the article read, “that the people of the bluff are alive to the importance of having something done to bring that part of the town into prominence.” 
    In 1885 Dayton’s Bluff was successful in its quest for electric street lights. They collected the five hundred dollars that was needed for the poles and wires from contributions. After that, the city agreed to pay for the cost of the lighting.
   But the group had more than lights on their agenda. They wanted city garbage collecting, a landfill on Seventh Street so a better bridge could be built, an area fire station and improved street car service, “especially on opera nights.”

Photo courtesy of the Minnesota HIstorical Society Old Seventh Street Bridge; area landfilled in the 1880s.

     The people of the Union met every week or two “to talk over matters pertaining to the interest of the ward.” For one issue, they hired an attorney to speak for the group and the papers reported that around five hundred people showed up in front of the board of public works.
   The need for a Third Street Bridge was a major focus in 1885. The route was dangerous because “railway tracks… cross the lower portion of it in such numbers as to render it positively dangerous to life and limb.” Some felt a twenty-four foot bridge was enough while others argued for thirty-two, with footpaths on each side. “The discussion then became very heated, and for about five minutes no one save Mr. Kelly could be heard.
   “‘Why ain’t the Alderman requested to meet with us?’ inquired Mr. Kelly,” a paper reported. The chair of the Union’s committee on streets said that all the Aldermen had been invited a number of times “but they have never responded,” said the chair.
   “‘Well, I’ll appoint myself a committee of one to notify the alderman we want, and if he don’t show up at the next meeting, I’ll ask for his resignation. I don’t fool much with these aldermen,’ said Mr. Kelly.” 
   Whether or not it was because of Mr. Kelly’s threats, there were some victories for Bluff residents. At a November 1885 meeting, it was reported that the fire department had been in the area installing alarm boxes and that in a week they would have a hose cart.
   In addition, the first section of the Dayton’s Bluff water works system—used for fire fighting—was completed, protecting the Bluff up to Maple. In a test, it could throw a stream of water 150 to 160 feet. There were twenty-seven hydrants, the Pioneer Press said, and “the applications for service connections from the bluff are coming in more rapidly than expected… if the demand keeps up the force engaged in putting them in will have to be doubled.”
   The Seventh Street fill, finished in 1884, and the Third Street Bridge, completed in 1887, kept the neighborhood’s building boom going until the early 1890s. By the end of the decade, they were a fully developed community that was self-sufficient but more connected with the rest of the city because of improvements in the bridges and roads going from the East Side to downtown.
    People were quick to boost the area even before the transportation system was completely improved. Just prior to the completion of the Third Street Bridge, there was an 1886 notice in the Pioneer Press that probably holds as true today as it did over a century ago. Written by the A.D Warner Real Estate Company, the advertisement read:

"The property known as Dayton’s Bluff is to-day by long odds the cheapest residence property in St Paul… It has been, up to within the last years, almost inaccessible.... now that the Third Street Bridge is being erected it ought to increase rapidly to prices asked and gotten for property equidistant in other directions. There are hundreds of beautiful building sites on the Bluff commanding a lovely view of the whole of the city, and the river, in both directions.… Get some Dayton’s Bluff property by all means."  

Probation Officers: The Unseen Law Enforcement Agents

by State Rep. Sheldon Johnson
   Ramsey County Probation Officer Dave Kosciolek knows that protecting the public is his first priority.
 “Every day as I go to work, I review in my mind the most serious offenders on my caseload. It is my job to hold these offenders accountable, and I take this mission seriously,” he states.
   P.O. Kosciolek is one of my colleagues in corrections. As a fellow probation officer, I know that supervising offenders has become an increasingly difficult and challenging task. Historically, Minnesota has been a national leader in effective probation practice. However, growing caseload size and the ongoing mandates for additional probation services are beginning to seriously jeopardize the ability of probation officers to successfully supervise offenders.
   Unlike states such as Wisconsin, which has almost three times as many persons locked up, Minnesota relies much more on community supervision. In fact, there are about 127,000 offenders – juvenile and adult – who are under community supervision.
   When I first started working in corrections over 30 years ago, a probation officer’s caseload size averaged around 40 to 50 clients. Currently, it is not unusual for a probation officer to have a caseload well over 120 persons.  In the case of the “lower risk” offenders, such as some one with three or more DWIs, caseloads can skyrocket to as high as 400 to 500.
   Probation officers are often the unseen law enforcement agent in the criminal justice system. However, the work performed is vital to preventing further victims of crime – and a return to jail for the criminal. The probation officer’s knowledge about the offender, crime committed and resources in the community can pave the way to helping the offender make a successful adjustment to his or her home, job and community.
   It should be a cause for concern for all of us that probation caseloads in Minnesota are exceeding the national standard by over twice the recommended size. According to the Department of Corrections, high-risk offenders in most of our counties receive too little direct, face-to-face contact per month. Although crime in Minnesota has declined over the past 10 years, the number of offenders under supervision continues to rise.
   The legislature’s increased attention to crime has also resulted in added responsibilities for probation officers. For example, new crime categories and enhanced penalties may have benefited public safety but have also increased the length of time offenders are under supervision.  And, mandated tasks for probation officers now includes DNA testing, compulsive gambling assessments, victim notification, domestic abuse assessment and investigations, neighborhood impact statements, and registration and assessments of sex offenders.
   In addition, the growing number of women and girls in the offender population has created new issues and needs that often require more of probation officer’s time and energy. Smaller caseloads are especially important with these offenders to sensitively address these multiple issues and help put an end to the cycle of crime, poverty, chemical dependency and abuse.
   All of these issues – unfunded legislative mandates, more offenders, longer supervision times and new needs — put tremendous pressure on probation services.
   The solution lies partly in the State adequately funding probation services from a long-term perspective.  Community supervision is much less costly and a much more effective correctional model than one that emphasizes incarceration. Remember, almost all prisoners get out eventually. Minnesota needs to make sure probation officers have the time and resources to keep our communities safe.
   Contact State Rep. Sheldon Johnson at: Minnesota House of Representatives, District 67B, 229 State Office Building, St. Paul, MN 55155, (651) 296-4201. 

Special Session: Some Things are Worth Fighting For

Sixty people attended the 10th Annual Dayton's Bluff Progressive Dinner on May 21st.

Free Handyman Services for Residents in Need

Dayton's Bluff Community Council Board Members helping out at the Annual Neighborhood Sale on June 11th included Council President Jacob Dorer, Jean Comstock, Kris Karlson and Erin Stojan.

Avoiding Weekend Warrior Aches and Pains

by State Rep. Sheldon Johnson
   Here in Minnesota we value hard work. That’s why I was so glad to see us reward people working on the lower end of the wage scale with a long overdue increase in the minimum wage.
   As of August 1, 2005, the minimum wage will increase from $5.15 an hour to $6.15 an hour for most minimum wage earners. This will mean an increase in pay for 128,000 low-wage workers, 73 percent of whom are over the age of twenty. 
   This is a matter of fairness for low-wage workers. The buying power of the current minimum wage has decreased 20% since the last increase, and even with the increase, the minimum wage still falls short of a living wage. But the increase sends a message to those low-wage workers that we value the work they do.
   This also will provide some additional income to those who need it most. They, in turn, will spend it on the essentials in life, providing a boost to the economy. Over the past few years, 14 states have increased their minimum wage above the rate of the federal minimum wage. Of those states, over half are outpacing the national average for job growth.
   The bill does recognize that an increased minimum wage could pose a challenge for some of Minnesota’s small businesses that struggle on tight profit margins. In order to eliminate any unintended negative consequences, the bill allows businesses with annual gross sales of $625,000 or less to pay a minimum wage of $5.25 an hour. 
   The passage of the bill was truly an example of how working on a bipartisan basis and agreeing to compromise can help move along policies that are good for the citizens of Minnesota.
   Contact State Rep. Sheldon Johnson at: Minnesota House of Representatives, District 67B, 229 State Office Building, St. Paul, MN 55155, (651) 296-4201.

Volunteer Opportunity: Interpreter

   Assist human services staff to effectively and efficiently serve non-English speaking clients by translating and reverse translating Hmong, Somali, Oromo, or Spanish and English and perform related duties as assigned.
   Volunteers must be at least 16 years of age. Contact Ramsey County Community Human Services —Volunteer Services at 651-266-4090 for additional information or e-mail to: volunteerservices @co.ramsey.mn.us.