Since kicking off Eagan’s sustainability initiative in 2022, the City of Eagan, together with the Sustainable Eagan Advisory Commission (SEAC), has been busy with a myriad of efforts, including:
- Gathering community input
- Beginning work on our climate action plan
- Replacing select City vehicles with electric vehicles
- Purchasing a recycling truck for our parks
- Incorporating clean energy into the new Eagan Art House
- Including sustainability features in the Eagan Community Center renovation
- Starting a reusable bag program at Eagan Market Fest
- Successfully completing the first year of the Sustainable Eagan Academy and planning year two
Sustainable Eagan Academy
Open to all community members of high school age and older, the Sustainable Eagan Academy began last year when the SEAC first conceived of the program.
Commission member Sara Patrick helped spearhead the effort and ensured high school students would play a part. Besides attending, student speakers will address each of this year’s sessions.
“Today’s youth have a vested interest in a sustainable future,” Patrick says. “Adding these voices to the sessions enhances their value, provides an opportunity to bring diverse perspectives to the discussion, and leverages the strength of our community.”
Besides high schoolers, attendees come from all age groups and backgrounds, says Gillian Catano, Eagan’s sustainability coordinator. “The Sustainable Eagan Academy is an excellent way for all community members to deepen their understanding of sustainability issues and to help impact the local environment,” she says. “We really value collaboration with residents and stakeholders.”
Attend 2025 Sustainable Eagan Academy Sessions
The academy’s free monthly sessions are 60–90 minutes on select Thursdays at 7 p.m. from January through May. No registration is needed — just come ready to learn and engage.
- Jan. 30: Waste Reduction & Recycling 101
- Feb. 27: Electric Vehicles
- March 20: Food Waste
- April 24: Tree & Plant Preservation
- May 29: Solar Energy
For locations and more details, visit cityofeagan.com/sustainableeaganacademy.
Making Progress on Climate Action Plan
To address changing environmental conditions, a group of Eagan residents, City staff, partner agencies, and sustainability experts have been putting a great deal of time into creating Eagan’s climate action plan.
During their first meeting in August, participants learned climate action goals, plus the steps to reach a final plan.
“I joined the planning team because it’s an exciting opportunity to shape Eagan’s future,” says community member Sigrid Lindholm. “It’s important to engage in this work with our neighbors, residents, and city employees to arrive at a plan that’s equitable, actionable, and sustainable.”
The Minnesota Valley Transit Authority (MVTA) is one participating partner agency. “Collaboration is essential to reaching meaningful sustainability goals,” says CEO Luther Wynder. “By sharing insights on sustainable transportation, MVTA is proud to be part of a shared journey that aligns with our commitment to a sustainable, vibrant community for generations to come.”
Catano says it’s energizing to have a collaborative group focused on Eagan’s sustainable future. “We’ve done a lot to prepare for this part of the work and seeing the group collaborate and engage on the big questions has been so rewarding.”
Stay Informed
The draft plan will be available for public comment in February. Visit cityofeagan.com/climate to stay up to date. For more news on sustainability, join our email list at cityofeagan.com/subscribe
Exchanging Ideas, Sharing Perspectives
“What can each of us do to ensure Eagan is an inclusive community where everyone thrives?”
That’s the question that the City of Eagan is inviting community members to explore with us in the year ahead.
Around the dinner table, at after school clubs, on bleachers and in break rooms — people are already sharing their unique joys, hopes, fears, and frustrations. By coming together to have these conversations as a community, we can work together to identify the small, specific actions we can each take to build an inclusive community where race is not a factor in anyone’s ability to thrive.
With the help of skilled facilitators from the Finding Human Institute, the City will participate in the discussion alongside residents and community members.
Intimate Gatherings or One Big Party! How Do You Like to Get Together?
These conversations aim to bring residents together in comfortable settings to exchange ideas. Some groups may choose to host small gatherings and invite their neighbors, colleagues, friends, or family. Others may prefer to show up and join a table at the Spring Summit in April, where they can meet and connect with new people. Anyone can contribute a few comments when they catch the community conversations booth at a coffee shop, Eagan Market Fest, or another city event.
Regardless of format, we’ll start by discovering what it looks like when people thrive— what are we doing, where are we, and who are we with? From there, we want to understand better the barriers that stand in the way — what keeps us from thriving all the time? Finally, we’ll work together to determine actions that we can take to reduce those barriers and ensure Eagan is a place where everyone thrives.
Young Voices Shape the Future
Eagan is the 11th largest city in Minnesota with just over 69,000 people. Nearly one in three people who call it home are people of color. Almost half of the children here are Black, Indigenous, Latino, or Asian.
This has long been a community where many people choose to remain or return after growing up here. To really be an inclusive community where everyone thrives, we need to ask students what that means for them.
In January, the City will do just that. High school students from all three districts in Eagan will come together at a student summit to exchange information, share personal stories and experiences, honestly express perspectives, clarify viewpoints, and develop solutions to common concerns. Through dialogue, participants will grow in understanding and may decide to act together with common goals.
Talk to Us!
Meaningful community conversations start with a desire to learn from others. Sharing our varied experiences and perspectives is the first step toward creating a community where everyone thrives. Together, we can commit to dismantling racism in our neighborhoods, workplaces, schools, and city.
Visit cityofeagan.com/rei to get involved by attending or hosting an event, inviting others to participate, volunteering at an event, or joining the steering team
Access to Democracy Celebrates 25th Year
Access to Democracy, Eagan TV’s longest running community producer-led program, celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2024. Available in over 30 Minnesota communities, the half-hour talk show lets viewers hear directly from experts from a variety of fields, including politics, academics, and medicine.
During a Q&A, longtime show host Alan Miller offered insights about the program’s past — and its future.
Who was your most memorable guest over the years?
It’s hard — after over 3,000 interviews and numerous specials — to pick favorites. But [I’d say] Justice Paul Anderson, with his incredible knowledge of the law and passion for justice; Senator Jim Carlson, with his encyclopedic knowledge of Eagan history and Dakota County; and former mayor and GOP spokesperson Pat Anderson, for our spirited dialogues over decades.
What topic that you’ve covered do you think is the most valuable for the public/viewers?
The topics of most interest to viewers are the political ones, with people from both sides of the aisle, where guests have a half hour to respond in meaningful answers and not merely 10-second sound bites as with the larger network shows.
What has been your biggest challenge?
The biggest challenges have been staffing and getting volunteers. Initially, I had some of my media students from Minneapolis College when I was teaching. Mary Dahlke has been our studio director for decades, and we couldn’t have existed without her. The crew at Eagan TV has been there in countless ways. Our webmaster Avi Meshar, who has been there since the beginning. My wife, Sharon, who’s given up much of our time as a family as well as pitching in for years. And finally, having to move locations several times and still manage to maintain consistency. And then, I can’t omit COVID-19, which did its best to drive us off the air. But with everyone pitching in and a temporary switch to Zoom, we only missed two scheduled shows.
What does the future hold for ATD?
I feel very good about ATD’s future. I’ve stepped back at age 90. And with my time and attention on a new show, Writers Corner, Steve Francisco, Bill Raker, and Sharon, along with those folks mentioned above, have shown that the show is on solid footing for the future.
To sign up to volunteer with Access to Democracy, visit cityofeagan.com/volunteer.
Fire Department Uses Data Dashboards to Improve Performance, Shape Training, and Focus Resources
When Fire Chief Hugo Searle joined the department in 2021, he began studying existing data to learn about trends in the department’s call volume, call locations, and other department activity.
“The data we had was good, but it was very limited,” Searle says. “And I know we collect a lot more data than that, because every single call we go on, every single inspection we do, every single public education event we do, every single training we participate in — we collect data on who’s there and what they did.”
So Searle set out to fully train his staff on data entry. “This way, we could start to get good data in, which would give us good data out,” he explained. Some information used today is pulled into the system automatically from GPS in fire vehicles and from emergency calls, while other data is entered by staff after each call.
Dashboards Make Data Digestible
En route time is an important measurement for firefighters. That means as soon as a call comes in, the clock starts running until the responders are out the door and on their way to the incident. Ninety seconds is the goal for the Eagan Fire Department.
In the past, if you’d asked an Eagan firefighter how long it took to be on their way, the answer would’ve been anecdotal. Today the department can provide a precise, data-backed response.
“Back then, we knew we were responding quickly, but no one was timing the run to the truck,” Searle explains. “Now, we’re able to track our response times down to the second.”
Additionally, the time is displayed on screens throughout the station, which rotate through visual data from all six station dashboards. Each was created by St. Cloud based Emergency Service Perspectives, begun by Brian DesLauriers, a former
volunteer firefighter.
“We used the data to make visual graphs before, but someone would have to create that graph each time,” says T.C. Schellinger, assistant fire chief and point person for data and dashboards at Fire Station 2. “We could always pull reports, but the dashboards make it visually appealing, easy to understand, and automatic.”
Using Data to Make Decisions
Using data is a new approach for fire departments, and Searle would like this approach applied throughout the state. “Eagan is a forward-thinking, best-practice, and modern data-driven fire department,” he says. “We’re making data-driven decisions daily with good data that supports what we think is the right thing to do.”
The dashboard displaying en route times was instrumental in reducing those times, but data can also be used to make strategic plans.
As a result of using data to analyze call type and location, a specialized truck now operates out of Fire Station 2 to handle less serious medical calls across the city. Named for the types of calls it responds to, the “alpha-bravo” truck is designed for specific types of calls that don’t need the heavy equipment on other fire vehicles. This keeps those larger, specialized vehicles available for more serious emergencies.
The use of this dedicated truck has been so successful that the department recently added a second alpha-bravo — this time at Fire Station 1.
What Do the Dashboards Show?
The department has six dashboards today, and plans to create more. Eventually, the goal is to create some public-facing dashboards for the community.
- Incidents (what is called in and when?)
- Key performance indicators (how are we doing?)
- Outreach (who are we educating? where and when? and on what topics?)
- Training (hours, assignments, types)
- Inspections (building, permit, alarm inspections, and more)
- Oversight (quality assurance, recorded reports, etc.)
Winter Events in Eagan
Community Tree Lighting
Tuesday, Dec. 3 | 4:30–7 p.m.
Eagan Community Center | Free
Enjoy live music, hot chocolate, kids’ crafts, a luminary walk, free entry to The Blast and tot gym time, a visit with Santa and Mrs. Claus, and our Indoor Market. The tree lights come on at 5 p.m.
New Year's Eve (Noon) Dance Party
Tuesday, Dec. 31 | 10 a.m.–noon
Eagan Community Center | Advance tickets $8–10/person. Tickets at the door $12–15.
Ages 2 and under free
Ring in the new year with the whole family at the ECC’s dance party. We’ll have a ball drop, games, prizes, snacks, and tons of fun. Register at discovereagan.com.
Frosty Festival
Friday, Jan. 10 | 5:30–7:30 p.m.
Trapp Farm Park | $5/person
Slide into winter with a ride down the snow tubing hill at Trapp Farm Park! Enjoy music by a DJ, a bonfire, s’mores, hot cocoa, snowman building, photo opportunities, and more. Bundle up and join the winter fun. Tickets at discovereagan.com or onsite.
Family Ice Fishing Event
Saturday, Feb. 1 | 1 – 3 p.m. | Holz Farm | Free
You don’t need a fishing license or fishing experience for this special event. We provide equipment and bait while supplies last or you can bring your own. Call the weather hotline
at 651-675-5511 for program updates. Bring a bucket or lawn chair to sit on; dress for the weather with winter clothes, boots, and sunscreen.
Tropical Beach Party
Monday, Jan. 27 | 1–3 p.m.
Eagan Community Center | $8/person
Enjoy a tropical beverage and snacks while listening to “Absolutely Elvis.” The King of Rock and Roll will take you on a journey back in time with fascinating facts, humor, and song. Grab your friends and dress in your tropical attire. Register by Jan. 21 at discovereagan.com
Skate at Eagan Civic Arena
Skate year-round at the Eagan Civic Arena’s two indoor, regulation-size ice sheets. We offer open skating, Club Sk8, open hockey, birthday parties, skating lessons, and room rentals. Learn more at cityofeagan.com/eagan-civic-arena.
Eagan's Indoor Market
Select Wednesdays | 4–7 p.m.
Eagan Community Center
Get your favorite goods and support our local growers and producers. Follow @cityofeagan on Facebook and Instagram to see what products and vendors will be available each week. You can expect baked goods, frozen pork, canned goods, honey, cheese, sauces, body products, and more! Visit cityofeagan.com/marketfest for details
Be Salt Smart
It only takes a teaspoon of salt to permanently pollute five gallons of water. So, pick up a smart salting cup at your local hardware store, a City building, or the local library. These 12-ounce cups hold enough salt to cover 250 square feet.
How to Be S.M.A.R.T About Deicing
S Shovel snow from walks and driveways before it gets compacted and turns to ice.
M Moderation. More salt doesn’t mean more melting. An average driveway (1,000 sq. ft.) only needs four 12-ounce cups of salt.
A Apply less. Excess salt can wash down storm drains to lakes and ponds.
R Reuse. If salt or sand is visible on dry pavement, it’s no longer doing its job and will wash away. Sweep it up for reuse the next time it snows.
T Track the temperature. When temperatures drop below 15°F, most deicing products don’t work. Instead, use a small amount of sand to reduce slipping.
Learn more at cityofeagan.com/salt-smart.