Woodbury Officials Meet with Cottage Grove Counterparts

Woodbury City Council members met with their counterparts from Cottage Grove last week to discuss issues facing the contiguous cities.

The two bodies have not met in the last five years, said Woodbury Mayor Mary Giuliani Stephens. She and former Mayor Bill Hargis, along with City Administrator Clint Gridley, met with Cottage Grove officials late last year and decided a joint meeting would be beneficial.

Among the chief items on the agenda was addressing the along the Woodbury-Cottage Grove border. There is a good deal of treated water being pumped out at the site—part of efforts to clean up groundwater contamination caused by 3M chemical dumping decades ago—and officials must decide how best to deal with it, Stephens said. The Metropolitan Council and Minnesota Department of Health will be the lead agencies on the groundwater remediation, Stephens said, but the meeting was a good chance for the cities’ leaders to catch up on the work to remove the chemicals from area groundwater.

“We’ll continue to watch that,” she said.

Regional transportation matters, including the Red Rock Corridor and , were also discussed, Stephens said. One project both cities want to see completed is an upgrade to Radio Drive. The county has backed off plans to make it a four-lane road between Military and Bailey roads, but both cities would rather see a full overhaul rather than a simple mill-and-overlay improvement, she said.

The worry is that if the county only does the smaller project the road may not see expansion for another decade, Stephens said.

Another matter that has weighed on residents’ minds is coordination of youth sports, Stephens said. Both cities would like to find a better way to work together for those programs, “so it’s not splintered and not confusing,” she said.

Overall, Stephens said it was a productive meeting. The two cities have not met in that capacity for several years, she said, and may want to again in the future as the need arises.

Calls to Cottage Grove Mayor Myron Bailey were not returned.