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Celebrating the public service of Russ Stark and declaring December 17, 2025 as Russ Stark Day in the City of Saint Paul.
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WHEREAS, Russ Stark has served the City of Saint Paul since 2008, beginning as the Ward 4 City Council Member (2008-2018)-including three and a half years as City Council President-and ending as Saint Paul Chief Resilience Officer in the Mayor Melvin Carter Administration (2018-2025); and
WHEREAS, thanks to Russ Stark’s civic leadership, the City of Saint Paul has moved leaps and bounds towards true sustainability during his tenure, including but not limited to the following accomplishments:
· Russ has developed one of the strongest Climate Action and Resilience Plans in the country;
· mapped the state’s first large-scale networked geothermal heating and cooling system now under construction at The Heights, a mixed-use development that will use no natural gas for heating buildings or water;
· secured Saint Paul’s place as one of 25 cities in the American Cities Climate Challenge, which provided the resources for creating the EV Spot Network: Evie, the country’s largest and only municipally-owned, renewably-powered electric carshare program, and a network of 70 public EV charging locations across Saint Paul and Minneapolis;
· deployed the State’s first all-electric fire engine, with a second on the way;
· worked with many stakeholders over a period of years to establish the City’s first citywide bike plan in 2015, which set the course for bike routes across the city, supported funding proposals, and ultimately supported the development of over 55 miles of new bikeways, including the completion of the Saint Paul Grand Rounds and the near completion of the Capital City Bikeway network downtown;
· created the Saint Paul Climate Justice Advisory Board to help ensure that the City policymakers are considering the needs of our most vulnerable populations and neighborhoods in designing climate actions;
· lowered speed limits on City stre...
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