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HuttCast
Balancing Growth, Safety, and Identity: Sarah Van Asten's Vision for Dayton
What if a city could grow rapidly without losing its charm? Join us as we unpack this with Sarah Van Asten, a dedicated candidate for City Council in Dayton, Minnesota. Sarah shares her strategic vision for managing Dayton’s expansion while preserving its unique character and economic vitality. By highlighting critical areas like understanding Met Council policies and prioritizing community needs, she offers insights into innovative solutions for balancing growth with sustainability, including resource sharing with neighboring cities to ensure fiscal responsibility.
Maintaining safety without compromising privacy is a delicate balancing act. Discover how Dayton’s Police Department has managed to keep crime rates low and how community watch programs could amplify these efforts. We look into the FLOCK camera system, examining its role in law enforcement and the accompanying privacy concerns. The conversation is an eye-opener on how technology can impact both public safety and personal privacy, urging us to find a middle ground that respects individual rights while keeping communities secure.
Could agritourism be the key to Dayton’s distinct identity? Explore how this city can leverage its agricultural heritage to boost economic development and create jobs. We also tackle pressing infrastructure issues, such as water systems and internet access, essential for supporting current and future residents. As traffic congestion and road safety remain challenges, we discuss strategic collaboration with authorities and creative funding solutions. Finally, Sarah addresses the complex relationship with Hennepin County, advocating for a fair distribution of resources while ensuring the community gets the services it deserves.
Thank you for listening to this episode of HuttCast, the American Podcast. We hope you enjoyed today's discussion and gained valuable insights. To stay updated on our latest episodes, be sure to subscribe to our podcast on your preferred listening platform. Don't forget to leave us a rating and review, as it helps others discover our show. If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for future topics, please reach out to us through our website or social media channels. Until next time, keep on learning and exploring the diverse voices that make America great.
Welcome to the City of Dayton's Question and Answer.
Speaker 2:Sarah Van Asten is here and we're going to start out with some questions, sarah, Hello, my name is Sarah Van Asten and I am running for City Council for Dayton, Minnesota.
Speaker 1:There are some questions that were posed and came off of the survey.
Speaker 2:I mean, I wasn't one of the special people invited to answer the survey.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was on that survey, so we took the. We took the questions that were people had quick concerns about and we're throwing them on this here right now. So the first one is growth or management. How will you control Dayton's rapid growth to prevent overdeveloping and preserve the community's character without sacrificing economic opportunities?
Speaker 2:Well, there's some big changes coming down the line from Met Council and one of the first things will be to understand exactly what their new policies mean. At the last planning commission meeting we were discussing it and it was pretty clear that we're not sure yet as a city exactly what the rules are going to be, and no one does. We're all kind of still navigating this. It's not technically adopted, it's still open for comment until October 7th, so part of it will be to see what actually comes out of that. But it looks like there may be some ways to follow the letter of their law, so to speak, and still follow the spirit of our community so that we can find ways to limit development whenever possible. But the reality is there are certain places that are zoned a certain way and put in the staging map in a certain way that if a property owner wants to develop, there's not really much the city can do to say a flat out no. We can guide it, but we can't prohibit it. But for me what that means is, when we've got other spots where we do have the ability to say no, that we need to whenever we can. I think we need to really be cognizant of preserving our green spaces, our farms, our agricultural land as much as possible.
Speaker 2:And, just like I said, a lot of changes are coming from Met Council. So I'm not sure in this moment. What we've done in the past may not work in the future. So it's hard to have a firm answer until we get our heads wrapped around this new Met Council rule. But I have some ideas about how we can do what they're asking us to do and still limit growth.
Speaker 2:As far as the economic side of things, I've never really heard a solid answer for why we need to develop the people who I know who are a little bit more gung-ho on our development. Usually the reasons they give me is because, well, we're going to build out anyway and it's inevitable. And to me that's not a reason to rush headlong into it just because it's going to happen. And no one's ever given me a really strong argument for the economic side of things. I'm not saying there isn't one, I've just yet to see it. So I think there's a way. If we budget appropriately, thoughtfully, we can limit our growth and still meet all of our financial needs as a city.
Speaker 1:Excellent. Now number two taxes.
Speaker 2:Excellent. Now number two taxes. What specific steps will you take to reduce or prevent further tax increases while maintaining essential city services? New to city leadership and city government, but I'm not new to leadership. I have held leadership roles in my profession for decades and one of my biggest pet peeves is when we get a new administrator in and they just come in with all of these ideas and all of these changes and they think they can just fix everything for us and they don't take time to really understand our history and why we do things the way we do, what has worked, what hasn't worked and why. And without knowing those things, I'm not going to be able to come in and just be like here. This is what we can do and everything is fine now.
Speaker 2:So my first step would be to really understand the whys behind the budget. I get the numbers behind the budget. As a mathematician, I definitely understand the numbers, but there's always whys. Why did we make this decision, why didn't we make this other decision? And a lot of those whys are in the background and the average citizen doesn't know what those are. So I really want to dig deep into why our budget is the way it is before I can make any sort of sweeping changes, generally speaking, based on that feedback from that survey.
Speaker 2:Most people are relatively happy. Obviously, I don't know anyone who would be sad if their taxes went down. Pretty much everyone is unhappy when their taxes go up, but it's kind of hard. You can't have a steak dinner for hamburger helper prices. So it's really about prioritizing and thinking about what is actually the most important thing for our current residents. How do we prioritize that and get that into a budget in a reasonable way?
Speaker 2:Money, things like sharing resources why does Dayton and Champlin and Rogers and Otsego all have to have big, expensive equipment that only gets used once or twice a year? Is there a way we can share that equipment and share the cost? Is there a way we can share services like fire or police or other ways to work together? In some of the communities where I grew up, it was a similar situation where there were several small communities and they found the best option was to actually combine all of their police forces together and make a single police force to serve all of the communities, and that made more sense budget-wise. I'm not saying that is our solution and that's where, like I said, I have ideas, but I really would need to dig deeper into the why we have or haven't done the things we've done in the past. Before I can just say this is what we're going to do and this is what's going to make it better.
Speaker 1:Next, public safety. How do you plan to reduce crime, reckless driving, and what specific metrics will you use to measure success in improving public safety?
Speaker 2:what specific metrics will you use to measure success in improving public safety? Once again, I would need to do a lot of research and working with our current police and fire to see what they think the issues are. One of the things that I think is really important is to understand the underlying issue. Are we dealing with bored teenagers that have nothing better to do? Are we dealing with our community members from either our own community or neighboring communities that are economically disadvantaged and don't feel like there is a legitimate way for them to make money? Or are we dealing with national organizations that are purposely following the national builders because they know there's easy things to take?
Speaker 2:Each one of those has a different solution and without knowing what the ultimate cause is, we can't fix it appropriately.
Speaker 2:But I do know that, compared to many other communities, we're actually doing pretty good, considering how much Dayton has grown.
Speaker 2:Our crime has not grown in steps, so to speak, which you normally would expect. So our police department is doing really good work already and it is important to understand the good work that has already been done and how we keep doing the good stuff and how we support them in doing the good stuff so that we continue to keep those numbers as low as they are Because they are actually, quite frankly, compared to many other communities, pretty good. I had a really nice conversation with one of our police officers about the community watch programs he has going on and he wants to expand those and get more people involved in community watch programs or neighborhood watch programs, and that's like one example of a way that we have a good program that we can expand and make even better. And I think that's where we really need to lean into working with the people on the ground doing the good work and figuring out how to support them and expand the good work they're already doing.
Speaker 1:Okay, have you heard of the FLOC program, the FLOC camera system? Are you in favor of that?
Speaker 2:I don't have enough information to have a solid answer. Can you tell me more about that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, most cities are employing this camera system that watches every license plate. It's an AI camera system.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And Champlin has three of them and they're planning to go to about seven or eight of them. In most cities, if you have an Amber Alert, they can track the vehicle coming in and out of every city nationwide.
Speaker 2:That's one of those things where I get a little concerned about how that information can be used beyond what we intend. I think there could be a lot of unintended consequences for stuff like that. Privacy is important to me, but law and order is important to me, and that's that finding that balance between the two.
Speaker 2:I don't want to live in a police state, and I don't want to live in a surveillance state where everyone is tracking my every move and everything I do. That makes me very uncomfortable. But I also feel like people need to, you know, follow the rules and obey the laws and do the right things, and if there's an Amber Alert, obviously we want to find that child. There's no question to that. It's really thinking through the consequences of what does it mean to be tracking our citizens that much and that closely? How do we protect that data and make sure it's not used inappropriately? And how do we protect the privacy of our residents? That's just as important.
Speaker 2:People have a right to privacy, and so I would need to learn a lot more about those programs and particularly the safety on the other end of how do we store that data. How do we make sure other organizations there are so many criminal organizations out there that have amazing technology. I would hate for them to be able to come in and get that data if it's not stored appropriately. How long is it stored? I have a lot more questions on that one before I could possibly have a firm opinion. I have concerns, but I could see how it could be beneficial.
Speaker 1:Right? Well, the chair of EDA brought it to the council last year and it was quite a thing. Okay, all right. Next question Infrastructure. What immediate actions will you take to ensure Dayton's infrastructure and city services can handle current and future growth without compromising the quality?
Speaker 2:Again, a lot of research needs to happen. I need to dig deeper into where we've spent our money, why we've spent our money in the certain areas we have. What do the residents actually want? I think that's a big one. Sometimes there are individuals who can be very loud with their needs and in the end, they only represent a very, very small portion of our population and are requiring a lot of our resources. So it's really important to figure out exactly where our resources need to go, where the issues really are. It's one of the reasons why that survey that was done, which I think was. There's a lot of very awesome information in there, and I think that's where we have to dig deep into what infrastructure is actually needed by the vast majority of residents, and maybe not just one or two individuals who happen to be very loud about their needs, which there's nothing wrong with that, because that's how we know to look in the first place. But I think sometimes this is something I've discovered in my own you know my professional leadership sometimes the people who are very loud and have a lot of concerns, and so I put it. You know I would put a lot of effort and energy into solving this issue, only to discover that for the vast majority of the people I represented, they didn't really care, and so I want to make sure we're really focusing on what's important to the major portion of Dayton residents.
Speaker 2:I do know water is a huge thing. Internet oh my gosh, is internet a huge thing? I'm not exactly sure what our solutions are for that, but as someone who only has one internet option and it is very expensive I would like to have more choices. So I do think things like internet, water, roads which is its own question coming up. These are things that are important and we have to look into, and I'm not sure I know cities have tried to do their own internet options and have gotten sued by the national companies, the national broadband companies and the like. I again have to look into what has worked. What communities have managed to make a difference in getting internet to their residents. What did they do? How can we duplicate that? Lots of good work has happened around this country and there's no reason to reinvent the wheel. What really has to happen is we have to find the communities that have done these things successfully and ask how did you pull that off? We'd like to duplicate that here.
Speaker 1:Local economy. How do you plan to attract business, create jobs in Dayton and what industries would you target to diversify the local economy?
Speaker 2:So this would be one where I would rely heavily on our EDA and what work they've already done and is in progress. I think we do have to find that balance between what our residents are willing to be neighbors to versus what our resources can support, versus what the market supports. So, for example, where I grew up, we were a paper mill area. I mean, every city had its own paper mill and that was a lot to do with the natural resources and where the paper trees were and rivers and lakes and all this kind of stuff. So certain times there are certain industries where you need particular resources to support those industries and we can't go after an industry if we don't have the resources to support them. On the flip side, people also want to have like we have more. We're mostly a residential community and agricultural community and so there's people living everywhere and, you know, might not want to be a neighbor to something. Cannabis comes to mind. I feel like cannabis is going to be a growing industry and there could be some real economic benefits there. But do we do Dayton residents want to live next to cannabis businesses? That's a question we have to figure out before we want to, you know, maybe go one way or another. There's there's that balance between what what is a good natural fit for our resources, versus what do you want to be neighbors for, versus what the economy you know what the market will actually support. On the flip side, I do think that dayton is special and unique in that we still have a lot of our green spaces, we still have a lot of agricultural land. We still have a lot of our green spaces. We still have a lot of agricultural land. We still have a lot of farms and hobby farms and homesteads that our neighboring communities don't have, and I would like to really support and lean into that. Like Dean's. Pumpkin Patch is an institution. People travel to Dayton for that. We should be capitalizing on those people. Like there are people who purposely come to our city to go to Dean's. We should have more things for them to do while they're here. Right, we should have more restaurants. We should like really focus on that. We could become like agritourism is a growing industry and we, I think, are positioned.
Speaker 2:A lot of people when I tell them where I live, they look at me with, like I kind of recognize Dayton, but why? And then I'm like it's, I live across from Elm Creek Park Reserve and I'm like, oh, elm Creek Park Reserve, I, we love it there, we go there all the time and it's like we have people coming to our city for these things. We should find businesses that compliment the reasons people are already coming to our city instead of trying to. We don't need another target. We don't need another cub Foods.
Speaker 2:They're great, they're good businesses to have, but that's not special or unique or different. Everybody has a Cub. Everybody has a Target. Nobody else has Elm Creek Park Reserve, nobody else has Dean's. These are the things that make us special and I think we really need to think about how other businesses can be complementary to our really special, amazing things and how do we attract them and support them, and think about how we can position ourselves in a way that stands out from all of our neighboring communities, because we are special and we should be using that to everyone's advantage within the city. We should all be benefiting from how awesome and amazing Dayton is.
Speaker 1:Environmental concerns. How will you tackle Dayton's flooding, stormwater and managing drinking water issues with a measurable, long-term solution?
Speaker 2:So this is another one where I think there's a lot of experts that I would need to lean on, particularly for the water, the storm drainage, flooding, all that kind of stuff. There's a lot of information there that I don't have at this moment in time and I would need to learn more this moment in time and I would need to learn more. I've also been told and I need to fact check this, I guess that there was at one point a plan to do a joint water thing with some of our neighboring communities. I believe Corcoran, Rogers, Otsego, I believe, and us were going to do a joint water thing and the state was on board and there was money involved and it was going to be great, and then it died. Why did it die? That's what I would want to know, and was it as far along as this person led me to believe? There's a lot of information there, but I know water is a huge issue getting quality drinking water, but also controlling water when it rains and the reality is our weather is getting more extreme. We went from several years of extreme drought to extreme rain this year and we need to be positioned to handle both extremes. We need to have a good solid water preservation system in place to think about how do we preserve our water when we're in our drought situations, and then we also need to think about how do we manage it when we have too much.
Speaker 2:And the other kind of big underlying thing that I don't think anyone has a handle on or at least no one that I have met or talked to has a handle on is the drain tile. The reality is much of Dayton was agricultural land and much of that had drain tile put in which affects how the water moves underground. But most drain tile is not recorded anywhere, and so when you have a developer come in and they come and start ripping these things up, they change the way the water is moving underground in very unpredictable ways that can have devastating impacts on their neighbors, and that is not okay. And so we've really got to get a handle on that, particularly since we have so much drain tile that has been put in and there's so few records of it.
Speaker 2:I think one thing that we could do along those lines is I've heard now on the planning commission several times when developers come through, sometimes they're required to do an environmental study and sometimes they're not. I think they should always be required to do an environmental study, and I think they should always be required to do a water study in particular. How is their buildings and their roads, and all of their changes to the topography, how is that going to affect the way water is moving on and under their land, and how is that going to affect their neighbors? I don't think we've really pushed that, and we need to because, like I said, there's a lot of things happening underground with our water that we can't see, and flooding can just devastate a home or a community, and we need to be proactive about it instead of being reactive about it.
Speaker 1:Traffic and congestion. What concrete measures will you implement to address traffic and congestion in an unsafe driving and how will you enforce these changes?
Speaker 2:implement to address traffic and congestion in an unsafe driving, and how will you enforce these changes? So, again, this is one where we have to work in partnership with a lot of different organizations. Right, so we control city roads, the county has county roads, the state has state roads, and then there's 94, of course, and there's different players for each of these roads and different people who get to say yes or no, or to bring money or not bring money. And we need to have a solid plan, and that's one thing I have discovered on the planning commission. There was a road plan that's published and that went out the window for reasons that I don't know yet. I would like to know, I've asked, but there's not been a new plan put in place, and we need a solid road plan in place for all of our roads.
Speaker 2:One thing that I've heard a couple of different times now is well, that's a county road, we can't do anything about it, or that's a state road, we can't do anything about it. That's not a satisfactory answer to me. I think Dayton as a city needs to know itself what it wants. We need to have our own plan. This is what we want for all of our roads, and then we go to the people who have control of those roads, whether it's the county or the state, and say this is our plan, how can you help us implement it? And then we've got to work with our state representatives and our state legislators to get the money to do this, because I've also heard that our state representatives have said, yeah, we'd support you, but we need a plan to support. We can't come up with the plan for you. You need to have the plan and then come to us and say this is what we need and then we can support you, and that, I think, has been missing. So we need to sit down and really get a firm, solid road plan in place.
Speaker 2:I've also heard that a lot of work was done already on the Fernbrook issue. I've heard a lot of. I drive on Fernbrook every day, so I get it. There's an issue on Fernbrook and I was told that after those studies and the reports, they do have solutions and it's roundabouts but they're expensive and we don't have the budget for it.
Speaker 2:So again, I think a lot of work has been done that either has got sidelined for one reason or another and we have to go back and see what work has been done, what plans have already been made or researched and what has prevented them from happening? And then, how can we move past that? How can we get them moving forward? Do we need to seek out grants? Do we need to work with our state legislators? What do we need to do to get these plans in place? But Dayton has to take the driver's seat, so to speak, in all of our road and congestion things. We can't just be passive passengers waiting for the state to come in and fix our problems. We need to take control of that and really push on all the different players to get what we need for our city.
Speaker 1:Last question is kind of an on-the-fly question. Would you support a disconnect from Hennepin County as Dayton?
Speaker 2:I don't know enough. I've heard rumblings along those lines that Hennepin County, that we pay a lot of taxes to support Minneapolis and we don't get a lot of the benefits from that. I don't know enough about what I know. I pay a lot of taxes and I know I get a lot of services. I haven't really dug deep into who exactly are giving those services.
Speaker 2:One of the first thing that pops into my head is you know, the county has an amazing library program, but we don't have a library. So like we're paying for that, but we're. You know we have to go to neighboring communities. But maybe the answer is not well, let's ditch Hennepin County. Maybe the answer is let's make sure we're getting our full share of the resources that Hennepin County has to offer. That might not be.
Speaker 2:You know, if we haven't done our part, I can't turn around and blame Hennepin County for not giving us our fair share if we haven't asked for it or pushed for it or advocated for ourselves. So that's one of those things where I would need to dig a lot more into how much we're actually paying in Hennepin County taxes, what services Hennepin County is actually giving us and what would that mean to switch? What are the actual impacts of that? Because a lot of times we can make these changes and they can have some major unintended consequences, and I would hate to do that. I don't know enough to tell me oh yeah, we should do that or no, we shouldn't do that. I need to know a lot more about exactly why we've landed where we've landed in terms of not necessarily getting our full resources from Hennepin County and how we can, maybe if there's other ways to fix that. My name is Sarah Van Asten. I'm asking for your vote for Dayton City Council.
