Living In Carver County Minnesota

Policing has changed radically over the past several years. Bad policing makes the news and affects public opinion, making a hard job, even harder to do and a challenge to recruit new officers. Given the fact that the Carver County Sheriff's Department are responsible for policing everywhere in Carver County except Chaska, we thought an update from Carver County Sherriff Jason Kamerud was due....

Chaska City Manager Matt Podhradsky discusses the recent improvements to Hwy 41 and the impact to local businesses including Cooper's Grocery Store. We discuss the role and limitations cities have in determining which specific businesses come into the city. We also discuss some of the background story on the old Oakridge Conference site (aka; Costco site) and what is in store for Chaska going forw...

Did you know the worldwide headquarters of a faith organization is located here in Eastern Carver County? The Eckankar Temple is that huge piece of land located at Hwy 5 and Powers Blvd in Chanhassen. What is it? What do they believe? I sit down with staffers David Maloney and Heather Davari for a discussion about the history, beliefs and practices of followers of Eck. I invite you to listen with...

Back for another visit is long time Chaska community advocate Bob Roepke to discuss happenings in Chaska and broader Carver County Minnesota. Bob has a great deal to be thankful for and we discuss that in detail and as always, Bob drops a ton of wisdom for anyone wanting to make a difference in their community. We also talk about some important changes happening downtown Chaska with Cooper's G...

Thank you for your interest in Living In Carver County Minnesota and our hyper-local podcast. What started as a bit of a lark is now in season 6 and we've been humbled by your feedback and inspired by your feedback and guest recommendations. Our lofty objectives are to educate listeners about local events, happenings and introduce them to the people who make them happen. We try to do that in a...

Grecia is the Executive Director of Latino Voices, an organization formed in 2019 with a mission to connect and inform the Latino Community in Carver County with resources, news, events, and activities that will improve their livelihoods and give them opportunities to thrive and succeed. Grecia and her team also help people in our local communities and organizations learn about the Hispanic Cultur...

The origin of this business is an incredible story of faith, grace and the impact of someone seeing the value in a person even when they are at their lowest. Kris's personal story is one of trauma, addiction, recovery and ultimately, paying it forward. Kris and Rachel have big goals to give people a chance to be seen, cared for and a chance to break away from a path of generational addiction and p...

I just love this what this organization is doing to help kids who have been permanently removed from their birth parents by protective services and who are currently in Foster Care, waiting to find their "Forever Family". They do this by producing an individual video that showcases these kids with their personalities and interests out front and center.  These REELS are then shared on social media,...

"Elections matter" seems to be plastered all over the media these days.  The elections that have the most direct impact on the day to day lives of voters are arguably the local races such as city council, school board seats and county commissioners.  You get taxed, you get services.  In Eastern Carver County, one of the commissioner seats on this year's ballot is for District 1 between incumbent G...

What Minnesota institution of higher learning has the highest ROI (return on investment) on tuition dollars spent relative to earning??? Dunwoody College of Technology has been turning out highly productive workers since 1914 and according to several metrics, has the best return on investment for your educational dollar.  President Rich Wagner talks about the innovations, initiatives and prog...

Bob Roepke is a local legend for his extensive community involvement dating back to the early '80s.  Bob and I visit about the leadership qualities he likes to see in elected officials as we come into 2022 elections next month.  His life is an example of service to the community and he loves to talk about developing future leaders who can inspire while at the same time respecting others that have...

Jill Zieroth discusses the future of the family dairy farm in Minnesota.  The MDI comes along side the farmer with a full menu of support and expertise ranging from nutrition to planting cycles, veterinary care to financial management. If you care about where your food comes from regardless of political affiliatiation this is an important role so that these farms don't all end with some faceless c...

Amanda Bloomgren loves llamas and promises if you are nice to llamas, llamas will be nice to you. In addition to llamas, Amanda has a soft spot for supporting causes that build support networks for young adults in crisis. She's tying the two together at the Carver County Fairground on October 8th. Join Amanda at Llama Rama, a fall festival where you can not only walk a llama, have a drink, shop an...

Have you ever thought about being a foster parent? Good :-) Carver County Foster Care Supervisor Clint Mack explains what the needs are here and how you can be a foster parent so you can support kids and families.  Opportunities beyond being a host family include being a "respite care" family who helps out when a break is needed.  One other very cool way to help is through "Forgotten Ini...

Chaska High School Football Coach Bryan Dahl on developing great humans, doing daily hard stuff and oh yeah, winning a lot of football games. Bryan is an inspired leader who is a tremendous asset to the community.

Welcome to Season 5. I wanted to thank everyone who has been a guest, a listener, a talent scout, a encouraging voice and of course a few critics. You all matter to me and I'm grateful. Also, I wanted to share a little thing we did for my son to establish a credit rating before he headed off to CO to be on his own. It's works pretty well if it is an option for your family.

Denis Halleron knows the car business after a lifetime of experience owning, operating multiple service shops and working for various dealers and he shares that wealth of experience with me on this episode.  What's going on with cars these days?  Why are lots so empty? What do people mean when they say; "Global supply chain"? What do dealers make? Hybrids and EVs; good things?  How about service s...

Ryan Siebert has been Chief of Police for a couple of years now and he has settled in nicely even though arguably there has never been a more challenging time to be in law enforcement.  We discuss the right reasons for becoming a public servant and how sometimes, for whatever reason, people lose that desire to serve and things go badly as we see time and time again with law enforcement all over th...

We are going to talk about transportation. Okay, don't check out on this episode because this was a really interesting talk about the complexities of building and maintaining the critical transportation requirements of the state's fastest growing county.  We had a real expert and we were able to get into the weeds a little bit and I learned a lot on this talk.  Lyndon Robjent has a fascinating bac...

Khai Tran is a busy man.  (Especially for a guy who is supposedly retired.)  He is the Executive Director of the Community Foundation for Carver County.  He is also the founder and board chair for A Better Society organization.  Khai helps explain what a Community Foundation does and what it makes sense for charitable giving and what types of opportunities are available for citizens to give to thi...

Charlotte Zielin is Mental Health Coach who takes her clients beyond therapy.  Her method involves not just dealing with the issues around the source of the trauma but going beyond with a strategy to equip her clients with the tools and distinctions to function at their best going forward.  We discuss the way those things work together on the this fast-paced conversation.  She is fu...

My guest this episode is Sue Schmidt.  Sue is with New Beginnings and it is one of those places you've maybe noticed out of the corner of your eye and you maybe thought it must just be another day care place.  It is far more than that and we are fortunate to have the facility located in our community.  Sue Schmidt is the lead teacher at New Beginnings, a place for young teen Moms to get educated o...

Pastor Greg Snow has been the pastor at St Johns in Chaska since coming out of the seminary, first as a Vickers and then as Pastor. He is heavily involved in community outreach programs and was one of the original leaders that were involve with starting Love Inc here in Carver County. St Johns is one of the three historic churches in town and the only one with an elementary school.  We talk a...

Tina Stofferahn of MRCI discusses the many services they offer for people in the community with special needs get trained, develop interpersonal skills, find employment, and continually get educated about a myriad of things.  They do amazing work.  I have several friends who have family members as clients of MRCI and the work they do changes lives.  (I know that can be an overused d...

Cory Whitmer- Mustard Seed Landscape and Garden Center gives some great tips for those of us without a green thumb that we can implement to have a better looking and healthier yard. Cory knows his stuff and has seen enough mistakes to cut right to the solutions for easy to use ideas. Cory is a friend and Renaissance guy who in addition to being Obi Wan for yards is also an accomplished brewmaster...