St. Louis Park honors Fire Captain Mark Nelson; council accepts small park and nature-center donations

The St. Louis Park City Council recognized Fire Captain Mark Nelson for more than 24 years of service to the city — describing a career that included deployments to Hurricane Katrina response, the I-35W bridge collapse and regional wildfire incidents — and accepted several small donations to city parks and the Westwood Nature Center at its Jan. 6 meeting.

Mayor Mohammed opened the recognition, reciting Nelson’s service history and awards and noting deployments to Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the I-35W bridge collapse in 2007 and regional wildfires in northern Minnesota. The mayor said Nelson had responded to about 10,000 calls for service and cited his role on Minnesota’s urban search and rescue team.

Fire Captain Mark Nelson addressed the council and said he was “humbled by this recognition,” thanked his family and colleagues and described his intent to continue teaching in retirement. The city’s fire chief, speaking for the department, said Nelson’s reputation extended beyond St. Louis Park and praised his professionalism and teaching contributions.

The council then accepted a set of donations and grants listed in the meeting packet. Those items included a $1,000 donation from American Legion Post 282 to the Westwood Nature Center, a donation from a resident listed as Andrea Naimosman (amount listed in the packet record as $235 and $100 in differing lines; the record is ambiguous), an $8,000 donation from Pat and George Folks for park enhancement and program needs at Westwood Nature Center, and a $300 donation from Linda Mel for a memorial tree replacement at Wolf Park. The council recorded its thanks and approved acceptance of the gifts.

Procedural business at the meeting included approval of the Dec. 10 minutes without amendment and approval of the Dec. 2 minutes as amended after council members identified corrections. Consent items on the agenda were approved by voice vote. The council also shared communications announcing yard-waste and tree collection Jan. 6–24, a community “disco” ice-skating event Jan. 17 at The Rock and the National Day of Racial Healing on Jan. 20.

No ordinances, resolutions or budget appropriations were debated or adopted in the portions of the meeting recorded in the transcript; actions taken were recognition, acceptance of donations and routine procedural votes.