NEWS

Christopher J. Burns Appointed Chair of City of Woodbury Task Force

December 26, 2013

Street Rehabilitation Task Force to Analyze Roadway Conditions and Rehabilitation Strategies

Henson Efron announced that attorney and shareholder, Christopher J. Burns, was appointed chair of the Street Rehabilitation Task Force by the Woodbury City Council (of which Burns is a member). The mission of the Street Rehabilitation Task Force is to analyze and make recommendations to the City Council on the street conditions, current city standards, ability of the funding plan to meet its standards and various street rehabilitation strategies.

A StarTribune article published November 2 provides relevant background to potential challenges that the task force will be evaluating. Overall, the task force will focus on current objectives of maintaining public roadways, past methodology of street rehabilitation funding, pavement preservation, rehabilitation strategies and recommended changes for the City Council to consider.

When asked about this appointment, Burns shared, “our current road situation presents a number of challenging problems with a potentially large price tag.  The roads are an important infrastructure and we need to balance maintenance, repair, replacement, and financing issues. This will be a big challenge, and I think we have the right people on this commission to come up with the right solution for Woodbury.”

Burns went on to state, “The task force’s fact finding and analysis will include 2 to 3 meetings a month for as long as it takes to dig into the problem, consider solutions, and make recommendations to the Council for action.” Burns shared that he is hopeful to wrap up the task force’s work “sometime in August.”

Managing partner Clark D. Opdahl commented on Burns’ service on the task force and stated, “Christopher’s pro bono and civic commitment have been recognized a number of times and it’s not a surprise to me that he is rolling up his sleeves to help address this problem and find a solution.”