votewojcik.org

1) DMC Update
2) St. Marys Tank Update
3) Core Neighborhood Zoning Approved

Here is a press release:

Riverside Concerts to receive funding from the Performing Arts Fund

ROCHESTER, MN – Riverside Concerts has been selected to receive funding from Arts Midwest’s Performing Arts Fund, funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional contributions from the Minnesota State Arts Board, General Mills Foundation, and Land O’Lakes Foundation. Read the rest of this entry »

Rochester property owners have always had an obligation to promptly remove snow from sidewalks.  This has never been an option.  Now we have a policy that will provide better enforcement and make sure that taxpayers are not responsible for clean up of others.  I am NOT willing to endanger the 40% of Minnesotans that do not drive (including my kids) because someone does not fulfill their responsibility.  Most areas will only be responded to on a complaint basis.  Read the rest of this entry »

I asked Transit Manager (and incredibly nice guy) Tony Knauer for a timeline of our contract negotiates where the city was held hostage and forced into a bad contract.  I voted against the contract with Mark Bilderback but I do not fault the 4 that voted in favor because the felt they had to.

While RCL claims that they have never made a profit, that is hidden by generous salaries, sharing allocated overhead, and above market rate rental fees.

Here is the timeline. Read the rest of this entry »

$677,000 is some serious dollars.  Note that this includes software as well as some salaried positions.

We received information that we would be voting on this at a 4 PM meeting in an email that arrived at 1:28 PM…  As such I did not feel that I had done due diligence in preparing and abstained from the vote.  I do however have a tremendous amount of respect for Chief Peterson.  There are a number of concerns and rushing our vote so that IBM can better meet their 4Q numbers seems silly. Read the rest of this entry »

Dear friends and neighbors;

Happy holidays, I hope you are having a great season.  Those of you with businesses, I hope it’s been a good week.  I thought that I would provide you an update as to what is going on with Uptown (West 2^nd street).  In short we are getting some things done in the city.  Uptown has the potential to be one of the most desirable retail locations in Southeast Minnesota in less than 5 years, but we must all work to make that a reality. Read the rest of this entry »

We have definitely found that there is a sewer issue at Orchard Hills Villas with the existing sewer line.  The issue is that previous work on Fox Chase Rd. sewer was not done correctly.  The city council has been asked to have the taxpayers fix this.  While I am very supportive of Orchard Hills Villas and think it is a great project, I am not willing to put additional taxpayer subsidies into the area.  Here is the staff note from Doug Nelson: Read the rest of this entry »

From the Post Bulletin:

Rochester massage parlor associated with prostitution arrests closes.

Factoring into his decision, Weestrand said, was Wojcik’s public statements about China Massage, which attributed personal responsibility to Weestrand himself.

“I just don’t want any more of his (Wojcik’s) PR coming out,” Weestrand said.

Now there is a quote to be proud of! Read the rest of this entry »

Everybody hates regulation, but when you have business owners like Dennis Weestrand, we can’t rely on people doing the right thing.  Dennis continues to profit from China Massage rent, though he has been made aware of human sex trafficking taking place in his building.  If you are a legit business, please take a look at the rules below and let me know if you have any concerns. Read the rest of this entry »

Per this memo from Richard Freese, the 65th street interchange is essentially dead in 2012.  Of course, since I see this as unneeded pork that takes away from the real needs at 55th street, I am just fine with that.  My prediction is that just as the $82 million that taxpayers spent on 40th and 48th Streets South failed to produce a net increase of jobs, so too will this boondoggle fail.  Sure there will be new jobs, but just as sure jobs will be eliminated elsewhere.  Read the rest of this entry »