November 2014

Selling a home isn’t a game for the faint of heart. It may be challenging at times and it may try your patience. If you are aware of common problems that occur, however, you can avoid them and make the entire process a lot easier.

Let’s take a look at three of the most critical mistakes that we often see home sellers make and how to avoid making them.

 Overpricing the Home

 When a buyer’s agent is searching for suitable homes to show his client, he’ll enter the buyer’s criteria into the Multiple Listing Service database. The first thing most agents do is narrow down the home search by price.

 What happens then when you overprice your two-bedroom, one bathroom home is that it will come up in searches by agents that are looking in a

CrossFit Blaine is located in Blaine, MN. The community’s goal is to help people that want to change their lives. It’s for people that want to take their fitness to the next level one day at a time by working towards goals, working with coaches and becoming part of the CrossFit community.

CrossFit Blaine is located all over the Twin Cities North Metro. No matter you fitness level, CrossFit Blaine can coach you at your experience level and help push you to grow. Here is a look at CrossFit Blaine.

What is CrossFit?

CrossFit is an intense fitness program designed to incorporate Olympic lifts with exercises like plyometric jumps using non-traditional weightlifting equipment like sand bags and climbing ropes. Participants are challenged by having

The Northwest Suburban Integration School District is recognizing Coon Rapids High School’s Biomedical Sciences Program as a magnet school. The Board voted on October 15th to add three new magnet schools to its ranks, which included the two International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme schools of Fridley, Hayes and R.L. Stevenson elementary schools plus the biomedical program at Coon Rapids. Here is a look at why Coon Rapids was chosen for this and what it means to be a magnet school.

What does it mean to be a magnet school?

For Coon Rapids High School to become a magnet school, this status means that any of the eight member school districts of Northwest Suburban Integration School District can apply to attend. If they are accepted,

Anoka County Housing and Redevelopment Authority questioned a Habitat for Humanity policy last September and now are approving $247,804 to be reallocated for federal affordable housing. The housing authority tabled the request from Habitat for Humanity to find a scattered sites, single-family home ownership program from the proposed 2014 Twin Cities Habitat’s Huset Park townhomes development, but it was cancelled after the proposal was rejected by the Columbia Heights City Council. There were some issues and here is a look at what happened.

Issues

One of the concerns of the proposal was that the president and CEO of Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity, Susan Haigh, is also the Metropolitan Council chairperson which made for a conflict of interest.

What’s going on in Blaine, Minnesota on Thanksgiving 2014? Lots.  Let’s start with a topic near and dear to my heart: FOOD! And then another topic I’m fond of: WINE!

Dining Out on Thanksgiving in Blaine

Instead of spending the evening of November 27th splattered with turkey grease and smelling of turkey smoke, if you’d rather be pampered , make reservations instead of dinner.

Now reservations at this point -- in Blaine at least -- are impossible.  Most Blaine restaurants are closed. Carol’s of Blaine is open but completely booked for the traditional Thanksgiving meal, but they are happy to serve up their yummy pumpkin pancakes that morning.

So, gather up the family and head out for a good old Minnesota downhome Thanksgiving breakfast at

Schools at Coon Rapids are using a classroom management strategy called ENVoY to keep classrooms in order, less noisy and more engaged in learning. ENVoY stands for Educational Non-Verbal Yardsticks which is a strategy for communicating without words. It’s working great in elementary schools. Teachers that have become certified in it call it “purposeful talk“ and say its bringing consistency into the classroom. Here is a look at the classroom management and the improvements being made.

All About ENVoY

There are eight demonstration teachers in the district that have allowed educators to observe the seven gems associated with ENVoY. The gems are used for making classroom management easier, helping with relationship building and bringing that

Blaine’s City Council has approved a 42-home project and open space contract this past October. The preliminary plat and conditional use permit was approved in May 2013 for Ryland Homes by the City Council stating that they can construct 177 single family homes at the development of Legacy Creek’s Preserve.

The addition would be situated at the area of 129th Avenue and Legacy Creek Parkway.  The city council also approved a two-year contract for continual management of open space with Prairie Restoration Inc. Here is a look at what the approved contracts entail.

Open Space Contract

The open space contract with Prairie Restoration is $28,500 and will cover work for the fall of 2014 and 2015. The improvements are going to help aid in controlling

Anoka County Highway Department is requesting federal money to work on seven projects through the Metropolitan Council’s regional solicitation process. The council administers the solicitation process every year for federal aid, transit, highway and trail projects.

Anoka County Board’s Transportation Committee did sign off on the recommended projects for the highway department in Coon Rapids, Ham Lake, Ramsey, Andover and Anoka. If funding is approved it would be available for the 2018-2019 fiscal years. Here is a look at the projects.

Traffic Projects

The goal is to reconstruct and expand the area of Bunker Lake Boulevard from Jefferson Street to Highway 65. They want to improve safety and capacity on Coon Rapids Boulevard from Avocet St to

I would be so remiss if I didn’t thank all of our friends and clients for showing up to The Great Pumpkin Giveaway that we held last month at Lakeside Commons Park in Blaine.

We had well over 3,000 people in attendance and, since we donated $1.00 for every pumpkin given away, we ended up donating about $2,000 to Stepping Stone Emergency Housing. And we have YOU to thank for this.

Stepping Stone is special to Team Lindahl so we try to organize events as often as possible that will directly benefit the organization. In case you aren’t familiar with them, Stepping Stone is the only adult homeless shelter in Anoka County.

It provides a temporary roof over the heads of about 60 men and women. They call the folks that stay with them “guests,”

Last spring, the ISD 15 School Board voted and approved a five-year plan and funding for developments in the St. Francis School District. This plan included approving Transformation Systems, LLC as the vendor for the projects. Here are some of the things that can be expected in the near future.

The World Cafe Event

On September 24th, the ISD 15 hosted an event to get ideas from the community for the future of the district. Some of the questions asked had to do with the qualities of the graduates of St. Francis High School, along with the upcoming challenges for the next few years.

From the community feedback the district staff and community members were split into three teams to work on a vision statement and goals for the development of the