CR 10 is focus for newly elected Mounds View council members
Incumbent Sherry Gunn and Gary Meehlhause will begin serving their four-year terms on the Mounds View City Council in January.
In the Nov. 6 race for two council seats, Gary Quick received the third highest number of votes, and incumbent Roger Stigney came in fourth.
Sherry Gunn
“This time around, I was very humbled by the fact that I had the most votes out of the four candidates,” Gunn said. “It was a surprise.”
Of her time on the council so far, Gunn has most enjoyed working for and with the residents, and working with city staff, who she said have the city’s best interests at heart.
“We’ve got wonderful people in Mounds View, and it’s a joy to be able to serve them.
“I think our big focus (the next four years) is going to be County Highway 10 and trying to figure out something to do with our foreclosures and vacant homes and buildings that we have in our community – how we can get them filled,” she said.
To the residents who voted for her, Gunn said she wants to thank them for their support and believing in her.
“Hopefully, I can do a great job for them,” she said.
Gary Meehlhause
Meehlhause said he thought he had a good chance at earning a seat on the City Council.
“All three of the other individuals obviously had name recognition in the community, but I did the most door-to-door campaigning of anybody,” he said. “As I worked through the community, I was receiving a lot of positive reaction from people and that led to me feeling that I had a real good chance at it. … I felt that I had done everything I could have possibly done to try to make myself a viable candidate that the residents of Mounds View would consider.”
Meehlhause said the main reason he ran for a seat on the council is because he wants to see the city continue to move forward, and his focus will be redevelopment along the County Road 10 corridor.
In addition to improving the corridor’s appearance, he said bringing in more businesses will expand the community’s tax base, which will reduce the percentage of tax revenue that residents provide to the city.
Stigney, who is concluding his fourth term on the City Council, said he didn’t invest a lot into his campaign this time around.
Roger Stigney
“I wasn’t contemplating running in the first place, but I thought I’d just throw my name in as an option,” he said.
Of his 16 years on the council, Stigney said he enjoyed when taxes didn’t have to be raised and finding ways to pay for street projects without special assessments and raising taxes.
He also noted when the city brought in Medtronic, and that “pot of money” has enabled Mounds View to defer taxes to residents.
“I hope the council will not squander all that money real fast,” Stigney said.
“I thank all the people that supported me in the past, and I thank the ones who voted for me this time,” he added.
