THE DAY GRINCH TRIED TO STEEL BLACK DOG

ON Tuesday, August 22, 1961, the "Grinch" announced to the public, plans to "steal" Black Dog. In this case, Grinch was the City of Bloomington, stealing was annexation and Black Dog was the highly, heavily taxed Northern States Power Plant in Burnsville. Not only was Bloomington going to annex the power plant, but is was going to throw the "bedroom" township of Burnsville as well.

There was no prior notice of this stunning coup which was passed by action of the Bloomington City Council at their regular meeting that Tuesday. The action led to almost three years of uncertainty regarding the future of Burnsville and took the two communities and their fights to the State Supreme Court.

Why was Black Dog and Burnsville such a plum? The tax rich power plant represented 75% of Burnsville's tax base and could offer the same benefits to Bloomington. In fact, the annexation overnight slashed the mill rate in Bloomington in half from 50 to 22 mills. The incorporated land area of Burnsville offered 25 square miles of land prime for development. To combine this area with that in Bloomington would create the largest city in the state.

Who engineered this sneak attack? Ray Olsen, Bloomington city Manager, was certainly highly instrumental in forming the plan by working for a year, before the official action, with behind the scenes planning and secret discussions with NSP. The council action on August 22 merely set the stage for the first fight to come. Bloomington petitioned the Minnesota Municipal Commission for the annexation of Burnsville before Burnsville even knew it. Petitioning was not necessary for the 159 acre plant since, under State law, up to 200 acres of unincorporated area can be annexed simply at the request of the owner. NSP, indeed made the request.

Was Burnsville willing to allow Bloomington to add $231,000 to their tax coffers overnight and be a complacent party in the merger with their neighbor across the river? You bet your Irish whiskey not!

About 500 Burnsville residents attended a hastily called meeting in the Town Hall on Wednesday, August 23, 1961. This was h highly representative cross-section of the residents since the population of Burnsville was officially 2,716 in 1960. Consensus was they were gathered not to join Bloomington, but to fight it.

Town Board Chairman, Wallace Day, said, "I'd heard the council (in Bloomington) smelled, but I didn't know it was that bad." Anticipating the legal battle ahead, David Grannis, a South St. Paul attorney, was hired to represent the township. It was hoped that Dakota County would lend its full support in the defense of Burnsville.

On Wednesday, August 23, a pamphlet was distributed door to door in Burnsville by a group of the League of Women Voters from Bloomington. The pamphlet sought favorable reaction from the residents and gave four reasons why NSP was convinced Bloomington should "share in the economic value of the Black Dog Power Plant". The plant then had an assessed valuation of ten and a half million dollars. The four reasons mentioned are as follows:

*Bloomington then had 25 million dollars of industrial-commercial development under way and would have one of the strongest economic bases in the metropolitan area by 1970.

*With this powerful economy, Bloomington could provide all urban services at a low and stabilized 22 mill rate indefinitely.

*Bloomington's "experienced" government would be in a position to give assistance and cooperation to adjacent areas.

*Since the power plant would remain in the Burnsville school district, the gain form NSP taxed to Bloomington would be relatively small.

The next day, a large number of Burnsville residents returned these pamphlets to Bloomington, depositing them on the steps t=of the City Hall.

There was considerable talk of boycotting the Bloomington merchants, then the prime shipping area for Burnsville residents. The residents rationalized, however, it was not the merchants who were causing the furor. There were individual cases of people withdrawing funds from banks in Bloomington and vowing to never cross the river again to shop.

The annexation proposal certainly had a cohesive effect on the people of Burnsville. A petition was signed by 465 Burnsville residents after a canvas of only one day. The petition was a move to incorporate Burnsville into a Village.



URGENT

The BURNSVILLE CITIZENS LEAGUE is striving
...to maintain our independence
...to develop and plan our own community
...to continue to govern ourselves.


We have a good start...but we need YOU to make the BURNSVILLE CITIZENS LEAGUE permanent and forceful.

An organizational meeting will be held at the Burnsville Town Hall, Thursday, September 14 at 8:30 P.M.

ATTEND THIS MEETING!

We need every citizen of Burnsville Township.

WARNING: ANNEXATION TO BLOOMING IS A REAL DANGER!


________________________________________________

Yes, I want to be a member of the Burnsville Citizens League. Here is my $1.00 membership fee for each adult in my family. I'll be glad to help.
Name
Name
Address
Bring this membership blank and your dues to the meeting, or if you can't come, mail it the Burnsville Citizens League, 1569 Circle Drive, Savage, Minn. ________________________________________________

The Burnsville Citizens League, with Ken Gray as Chairman, was formed with its primary goal of disseminating material regarding the annexation and its secondary goal--to continue to insure the independence and orderly growth of Burnsville. Two other groups were formed to combat Bloomington. These were the MinnDakota Citizens Committee with S.E. (Sil) Enright as Chairman, and an associated finance group to serve as a clearing house for funds and ideas. These last two groups were organized as temporary committees to exist for the duration of the emergency.

After the petition was presented to the Minnesota Municipal Commission, the Commission found itself deluged with townships requesting incorporation so a similar "rape" of their communities would not occur. Presenting petitions were Burnsville, Orchard Gardens, Inver Grove Heights, Lakeville and Eagan. Sitting on the Municipal Commission were Joseph Robbie, Chairman, F. Robert Edman and Robert W Johnson.


Burnsville seemed to be almost as stunned by the method of the annexation as by the fact of the annexation. The absolute secrecy of the year-long plans was necessary according to Bloomington City Manager, Olsen. He said, "If the people would calm down enough to just sit down and study this thing in detail, they might find that Bloomington is not a bunch of scoundrels and actually has far more to offer than it will gain." Olsen also said that the "Township is definitely a liability to Bloomington in the short run."

Support came to Burnsville from all over the Twin Cities and even from Bloomington residents who, by a large majority, were opposed to the merger. Backing Burnsville were the School District, the Dakota County Board, local and city newspapers and the overwhelming majority of the Burnsville residents.

A restraining order was sought on September 6 by attorneys for Burnsville, to enjoin Bloomington from putting the Black Dog annexation ordinance into effect. On September 8, Judge Roy Nelson signed a temporary restraining order until a hearing could be schedule.

A mass meeting was held in the Burnsville High School gymnasium on September 7. Although invited, Bloomington and NSP officials failed to appear.

A suit was filed by a group of taxpayers against Northern States Power Company and Bloomington, on behalf of the township. Spearheading this group were Martin Gallagher, Frank Galligher, Henry Sjobeck, Warren Kelley and Enous Gallagher. Another suit by attorney Jerome Daly, as a stockholder of Northern States Power Company, who claimed the action was taken by the company contrary to and without the stockholders approval.

A hearing was set for October 9, regarding the annexation of the township of Burnsville. The MMC had no jurisdiction in the Black Dog annexation under State laws. Another hearing was set for October 11 to discuss the proposal of the incorporation of Burnsville.

Prior to the time set for the official hearings, meetings were held regularly to keep the citizens informed on the day to day actions taken to fight off the "Grinch". The Burnsville Citizens League distributed newsletters to the citizens and the issue was kept alive by continuous copy in the city and local papers.

Residents turned out for the hearings wearing of the green. Most wore a shamrock to show they were from Burnsville and supported the Burnsville viewpoint. To further show support, a petition signed by 1,700 Burnsville adult residents opposing the Bloomington merger and supporting the incorporation was presented to the MMC.

The hearings, like the whole issue, were orderly, but emotional. The Mayor of Bloomington, Gordon Miklethun, testified that the action was in the best interest of Burnsville and tried to counter charges that Burnsville would not be fairly represented as part of Blooming with its 4,000 residents to Bloomingtons 50,000. In spite of a canvas which showed Bloomington residents opposed to the merger by a 2-1 margin, Milethun said "the big majority is wholly in accord with the annexation of the Black Dog Plant." He also said the "emergency" under which Bloomington acted to seized the plant was that incorporation of Burnsville appeared to be imminent.

Patrick Connelly, Town Clerk and a 50-year resident of the farming settlement, said he had it figured. "All Bloomington wants is our side of the river valley. They want to preserve their side for homes and develop our side for industry. They don't care about the rest of Burnsville.. They think they have Black Dog and want the rest of the lowlands. It's a money-making deal."

After two days of hearings in the incorporation, the MMC retired to study the diversity of rulings it could hand down. The problem was further confused by the incorporation petitions presented to the MMC which affected Burnsville. Options available to this body were to grant either the Bloomington or Burnsville petitions, to divide the township, giving part to Bloomington and incorporating part as Burnsville, and/or to add parts of other townships adjacent to Burnsville.

In a city paper after the hearings, it was reported "it will be weeks before residents of Burnsville will learn the fate of their township." These weeks turned into years!

The hearings were over in mid-October, 1961. In January, 1962, another temporary injunction was granted by a Dakota County District Judge enjoining Bloomington from annexing the Black Dog plant. After this injunction, Bloomington appealed to the State Supreme Court.

In May, 1962 the MMC issued an interim ruling stating it was "dissatisfied with four requests for incorporation from Lakeville, Burnsville, Eagan and Inver Grove." They withdrew to further study the issues. In March, 1964, the State Supreme Court ruled that Bloomington's annexation of Black Dog was mull and void. The court ruled that Bloomington had misused its emergency power in adopting the annexation ordinance and that "it is apparent that the primary and only purpose of the annexation was its (Bloomington's) desire to acquire additional taxable property."

This Supreme Court action cleared the way for the MMC ruling on the incorporation of Burnsville. On May 6, 1964, the commission issued the order for the incorporation of Burnsville with parts of Eagan and Lebanon townships and set the date for election which was to be June 16, 1964. The June vote approved incorporation by a vote of 909 to 625, despite a 4-1 opposition to the MMC decision to include parts of Eagan and Lebanon in the incorporation. After the vote, actions were taken to remove these portions from the newly incorporated village of Burnsville.


Following are some footnotes to this incident in the history of Burnsville;

Mayor Miklethun was overturned in his bid for reelection in 1961.
Burnsville has enjoyed an orderly growth, to a population in 1976 in excess of 30,000, without the expertise of Bloomington.
The Black Dog Power Plant had continued to be a major source of the assessed valuation of Burnsville and has increased its capacity and valuation. Its familiar stacks now muff non polluting discharge over the Minnesota River Valley.



Who was Black Dog, anyway? The plant was named for a Sioux Indian Chief whose village was located where the plant now stands. According to legend, this chief got his name from his habit of running on all fours to attack his enemies and hitting them over the head with a heavy club. Younger braves, disgusted because they were hit on the head by Black Dog's club when they tried to woo the tribe's maidens, eventually set Indian dogs on him. The dogs attacked so viciously that soon there was not enough left of the Indian Chief to fill the smallest size burial mound.

So ended Black Dog and so ends the fight of the "Grinch" who tried to steal the Black Dog Plant.

Barb Puch










ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 1809-1865 SPEECH. 1854

No man is good enough to govern
another man
without the other's
consent