The Burnsville Breakfast Rotary Club welcomed Dan Kealey to their Sept. 8th. club meeting to discuss the 42nd. Annual Burnsville Festival/Fire Muster and some of the changes that have been made to the community celebration recently to be more inclusive of the changing demographics of the community. The Burnsville Festival (AKA Fire Muster) started in 1980 to highlight the unique qualities of Burnsville to visitors and residents and to promote the city as an excellent place for families and businesses. As the years have gone by, attendance has been slipping and the new committee was looking for ways to better promote it and make it an event that welcomed everyone from Burnsville! With nearly 40% of Burnsville's population now being of a diverse background, the committee felt it was necessary to make some changes to attract a wider audience. The festival now includes regional music which includes a mariachi band, Latin band, Somali dance group, ethnic food trucks, and merchandise vendors selling cultural wares. They also added an International Drink Station which will sell non-alcoholic drinks that are cultural favorites. If you'd like to learn more about the Burnsville Festival/Fire Muster, please click the link below or paste it into your browser:    https://www.burnsvillefiremuster.org/     Also, you can see some pictures of our hard-working volunteers who worked in the beer/bingo tent on Friday, Sept. 10th.   The weather didn't cooperate, but everyone still had fun!

 

     The Burnsville Breakfast Rotary Club volunteered for the Prior Lake Lakefront Music Fest on Saturday, July 9th. which is hosted by the Rotary Club of Prior Lake. Some of the positions entailed ticketing, beverage service, and helping to keep the grounds clean in the VIP area of the event. We had an awesome day for weather and a turnout of over 18,000 people! This event nets nearly $330,000 in profits which is then turned back into the community and internationally to support various causes to help people in need and make their lives better!

     One of the main focuses of Rotary International is the eradication of polio worldwide which is unfortunately still a problem in some countries in the world. The Prior Lake Rotary Club's goal was to reach $33,334 in tips from all the various food & beverage stations so that they can get a two-to-one match of funds from the Bill Gates Foundation which would then provide $100,000 for polio eradication. I have no doubt that they'll meet that goal! 

     Belonging to Rotary provides members with an opportunity to give back to their community and connect with like-minded leaders and friends. People join Rotary for many reasons, including community involvement, personal development, professional networking, and camaraderie. If you'd like to learn more about us, please check out our website and see what we do! https://www.burnsvillebreakfastrotary.org

 

     The Burnsville Breakfast Rotary Club welcomed our very own Mayor of Burnsville Elizabeth Kautz as our guest speaker at our club meeting today. She was joined by our new city manager Gregg Lindberg. The title of Elizabeth's presentation was "Burnsville Now & In the Future!" Elizabeth said that Burnsville is a city that is vibrant and welcoming to all and that it takes all of us (city residents) to ensure that we make it a great place to live! She said that Burnsville is in a strong financial position and that we maintain a AAA bond rating, and that we also did through the recession that we experienced a decade ago. Some of the success factors she touched on were the following:

- Burnsville is a safe community

- We have a state-of-the-art police & fire department/rescue squad that is dedicated to the City of Burnsville. The department handles 1000's of calls a year with an escalating number related to health calls due to Burnsville's aging population

- Burnsville was one of the first communities to add Behavioral Health personnel to their police staff who aren't responsible for enforcing the law but to help people through crises that are impacting their lives. They recently won an award from the St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce for their work in this area.

- Burnsville has been progressive in the use of body-worn cameras in their policing for about ten years which has helped capture situations that have helped in court cases and bring total transparency & accountability to the police force

- Burnsville is currently looking to purchase drones to assist police & fire to help give them information that they don't have on the ground during major public safety events

- Training is a huge and ongoing part of both the police & firefighters. It's important for all to have "muscle memory" so they can react quickly and appropriately in crisis situations

- The city is offering Opps 101 & Citizens Academy for residents so that they can experience hands-on training in simulating real-life situations that both police & firefighters go through on a daily basis

- The City of Burnsville works hard at community engagement to help residents understand any projects that would personally impact them and to get their input before projects begin. This has been well received by residents so they feel involved in the process

 

City Hall

- Elizabeth said it's very important that they pay attention to the culture inside City Hall, that it's the "Peoples House" and that it's all about service!

- The only product that they provide is water, and that pays for itself! Everything else in the tax budget is about service!

- The people who work at City Hall are public servants and are passionate about what they do! They have access to continual training through the Burnsville University which has had over 600 participants via 53 training classes so far. This provides an opportunity for them to grow and be better in their jobs!

 

Elizabeth's closing comment was that all of us (residents) need to participate in making Burnsville a vibrant & welcoming community!

 

     The Burnsville Breakfast Rotary Club held their meeting today at the “new” Burnsville Fire Station #1 located at 14275 Newton Ave. The planning for this facility started in 2015 and was a collaborative effort between the firefighters, captains, chiefs, architects & construction managers. The new station sits on 4 ½ acres and is just south of Cty. Road 42, and West of Hwy. 5 (behind Caribou Coffee Drive Through) which provides easy access to these major roads and is an area that doesn’t impact neighborhoods from a noise or traffic congestion standpoint. The station has a very welcoming façade and has a dedicated public entrance and parking area which was lacking in the old facility for visitors.

     The new fire station was built with the physical health & mental wellness of the firefighters and paramedic personnel in mind. To help these individuals process some of the tragic events they’re exposed to from fire deaths to vehicle extractions after an accident, the station has a full-time psychiatrist on duty to help them process these experiences and promote emotional wellness. The facility also provides rest & relaxation areas, a full kitchen, workout room, individual bedrooms, and many other amenities to help them make their on-duty time restful & relaxing between calls. The station fields over 8,000 calls per year with the majority of them being medical-related as the population of Burnsville ages. The typical response time is about 6 minutes from the time the call comes in to arrival at the specified location. Firefighters work 24 hours on/48 hours off shift and spend 1/3 of their life at the station.

     Burnsville is one of only a handful of cities in Minnesota that employs full-time firefighters & paramedics/ambulance services to its city, as 93% of the cities across the state are a volunteer-only model. This gives the residents of Burnsville a huge advantage of getting very quick response times due to a fire or medical emergency where sometimes seconds can mean the difference between life & death. The station will be holding an open house on Saturday, May 7th. from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. This would be a great opportunity to see this magnificent facility and get a feel for all the hard work and planning it took to make this facility a reality!