I joined the other candidates for Cottage Grove City Council at the Cottage Grove SWCTC & Bulletin Debate on October 5, 2010. Watch it below!

I went head to head with the other candidates for Cottage Grove City Council at the League of Women Voters Council Candidate Forum on October 4, 2010. Learn more about my views by watching below!

There was a debate recently and Jon Avise at the Bulletin did a nice article on it. Here is some of it below:

On a night where there was actually much consensus amongst the handful of Cottage Grove City Council candidates seeking a pair of seats up for grabs, there was disagreement on an issue that’s already been decided by the City Council in its current incarnation: whether or not now is the time to build a new multimillion dollar city government and public safety building.

Whether voters use the views of the five candidates — incumbent council member Pat Rice, Angela Chambliss, Tanweer Janjua, Derrick Lehrke and David Thiede — as a litmus test when they step into the ballot box on Nov. 2 is unclear. But the candidates made it clear at a debate sponsored by the League of Women Voters on Monday night when asked where they stand on the planned building....

...Thiede argued that “at some point, you’ve got to listen to the experts.” That, said the former planning commission chair, means moving ahead with the project, which city officials say will not impact taxpayers’ pocketbooks.

Click here to read the full article.

Elizabeth Mohr from the Pioneer Press wrote this article discussing my run for Cottage Grove City Council.

Scores of candidates have filed to run in the Nov. 2 municipal elections in Washington County. The filing period ended at 5 p.m. Tuesday….

...In Cottage Grove, four candidates are vying for two city council seats: Tanweer Janjua, 46, an unemployed architect; Derrick Lehrke, 31, co-owner of the financial consulting company RightWay LLC; Pat Rice, 50, an incumbent and a circulation district supervisor for the Pioneer Press; and Dave Thiede, 54, a solution developer for IT Solution Development.

Click here to read the full article.

Jim Anderson at the Star Tribune wrote this article as an overview of the candidates running for office in South Washington County.

As the state confronts a $6 billion budget deficit and cuts in funds returned to local governments again looking inevitable, some communities will see big changes in leadership as tough decisions are made.

Here is how the local ballots look…

...Cottage Grove: Five are running for two City Council seats. Incumbent Pat Rice is running again. Angela Chambliss, Tanweer (TJ) Janjua, Derrick Lehrke and Dave Thiede are the others.

Click here to read the full article.

I had a fantastic time walking in the Cottage Grove Strawberry Festival Parade on Saturday, June 19 this year. My wife Cindy, my two boys Matt and Dan, and my daughter Sarah were all there to walk with me, as were many of my close friends! It was great to see so many friends and familiar faces, and to meet many of you for the first time! You can check out the video below to see me and the Vote For Dave Team preparing for the parade.

ARE THE BEST THINGS ABOUT COTTAGE GROVE AND THE THINGS THAT NEED IMPROVEMENT?

... ABOUT THE COMMUNITY CENTER
I think a Community Center would be a great amenity for our Community. A place where children and adults can gather to have fun and communicate  BUT
it needs to something that our residents want and will use!
The task force has a good mix of people from our community looking at different issues associated with a new community center.
We are working with the YMCA to do a survey to see what a large number of you think about what features the community center should have and what you would use and, as with anything, how much you would be willing to pay for those amenities. MAKE SURE YOU PARTICIPATE WHEN ASKED!  IT IS VERY IMPORTANT. IF YOU ARE NOT ASKED TO BE PART OF THE SURVEY GIVE ME YOUR INPUT OR IF YOU KNOW SOMEONE ELSE ON THE TASK FORCE GIVE YOUR INPUT TO THEM. WE NEED AS MUCH INFO AS POSSIBLE FROM THE COMMUNITY TO MAKE THIS SUCCESSFUL!

...ABOUT THE CITY HALL
Dave Thiede I have also taken a tour of the Public Safety facility. You walk through offices to get to someone elses office, what once was observation rooms are now offices or storage. One of our primary goals needs to be making Cottage Grove a safe and pleasant city to live in and the tools and facilities of the Public Safety group is paramount to that.
BUT I am a business and operations person and believe in structured decisons. If you look at the alternatives -
1. We could wait, but in a few years interest rates will go back up, the timing of bond maturity will not be beneficial and most likely the cost of money and new construction will be higher and taxes will have to be raised. Not very financially sound.
2. We could try filling up vacant property but the thing to consider is that remodeling is ALOT more costly per square foot than new construction, you are trying to squeeze things in a shell that is not optimized for the function, (in the case of the Home Depot building) you are having to buy or lease the building and removing it from the taxable property list and in a few years you are scrapping all that has been done and paying a higher price for the new facility. Not really a sound option.
3. The current interest rates are at their lowest in history AND the timing is right on the maturity of bonds AND the construction industry is looking for work making the cost per square foot at it's lowest point in years. It also satisfies our directive of NOT raising taxes.
So if you sum it all up it is one of the most advantageous times to build a new facility and the City Council and City Admin have done their homework and recognize this and done the job the homeowners have asked them to do in planning for and taking advantage of the timing for this facility.
If we do not take advantage of all these factors now, we will most likely be saying in 5 years - "Gosh we should have done this 5 years ago"

... ABOUT 3M AND THE INCINERATOR?
As with the water - without a doubt our air must be clean to breath.
Again we do need to have confidence in what the experts tell us.
I believe the city has done a good job negotiating with 3M to monitor the situation to make sure the emissions coming from the incinerator are no worse and continue to get better (as they have been) over the last few years.
3M also needs to make sure that all possible accidents are accounted for so that a catastrophe like what happened in the Gulf could not happen here. And the MPCA needs to make sure 3M is in compliance.
We have a few industrial companies in the area that have more hazardous processes and while they are economically good for our communities we need to look closely at all the factors when courting a company to come into our community and whether the nature of their processes are worth the risk.