Around the City

Shirley packs it in
After 26 years in city hall, Shirley Thorsteinson is retiring at the end of the year. “She’s kind of the heart and soul around here,” city manager Gary Tomsic said of the city clerk. “We’re going to miss her greatly.”
Thorsteinson started with the city in 1978 as the public works executive secretary. “I started back in the days where you did everything, and we did everything,” she said. After the city adopted a council manager form of government she moved into the position of assistant to the first city manager in 1982. In 1991 she was appointed deputy city clerk and 1992 she was promoted to city clerk.

“She’s been there for a lot of the modern day history of our city and seen the good, the bad, the ugly and has been a positive part of the new change coming over Blaine,” said mayor pro tem John Liebert. “A delightful lady who has a loving passion for our city.”

Thorsteinson said her replacement was being recruited from the ranks of Blaine city staff and she fully expected a suitable replacement to come from in-house. Once a replacement is selected she said, “I’ll just stay long enough to see the new clerk sworn in.” Her retirement is official December 31 but Tomsic said she had a lot of vacation time to use up.
Thorsteinson said she had no immediate plans for her retirement. “I’m just going to play,” she said. The party will start November 22, when a celebration of Thorsteinson’s retirement will be part of the regular Blaine city council meeting.

Scooter law coming
A public meeting is being held to gather input from residents regarding motorized scooters and mopeds. The police department is preparing an ordinance for future consideration by city council, to address concerns raised about the safety of operators, noise, and erratic driving by the operators of these machines. Owners of motorized scooters and mopeds, riders of all ages and residents are encouraged to attend. The ideas gathered will be considered in preparing this ordinance. The meeting will be held at the Blaine community center on Thursday, October 21 at 7 p.m.