Cottage Grove, Minnesota

COTTAGE GROVE , MINNESOTA believe all officers really need this kind of training to help with the situations that, unfortunately, are happening around the country.” The HERO Center is scheduled to open on Jan. 1, 2020. With sustainability a long-time focus, Cottage Grove has been part of the Green Steps Cities state initiative and many other environmental programs. City Engineer Ryan Burfeind tells of one intriguing project: “We have a Sustainable Communities Partnership with the University of St. Thomas, here in the twin cities. We give students real world projects they can work on and it’s a benefit to both parties; the city gets some really great projects done that we can then use, and it provides an opportunity for these students. One class worked with our Parks Department, creating interactive maps to get people out using our recreational parks and trails and such. We also had an economics class that looked at a smart controller program for irrigation systems – checked all the data and did the number crunching to see how successful that program was. We also worked with a psychology class on a very interesting project where they did a community City Engineer, Ryan Burfeind