Aeschliman brings passion to BP

Melanie Aeschliman is as passionate about small towns as she is about the governments that run them – and that’s saying a lot.

Blooming Prairie’s new city administrator has been on the job for about six weeks, and while she’s still feeling her way around, it’s clear she likes what she sees.

Aeschliman has well over a decade of experience working in state and local government, “and that really helped me form my passion,” she said.

“What I love about local government is when you’re in the right atmosphere, and if it’s run right, the design is beautiful,” she said.

The design includes “the ability of the people to elect their council members to represent them; for a city administrator to bring forward the pros, cons and options for council to make the best decision – I really love that.”

So why Blooming Prairie?

“I’m a Minnesota girl, born and raised in Rushford,” Aeschliman said. “I decided when I finished my master’s degree, it was time to rethink and reshift so I could finish my dream and realize my goal of being a city administrator.”

When she saw the job opening in southeast Minnesota, “I dug in and researched, read the history – and thought it would be a perfect location.”

Her husband Lance, she said, “has always supported my career, and he said, ‘you want to go home. Let’s go.’”

It hasn’t gone exactly according to plan.

“Our goal was to get right here in Blooming Prairie,” Aeschliman said, “but the housing market wasn’t going to let that happen.”

The sale of their home dictated some of the timing, as well. In the end, the family landed in Waseca.

Their son Aiden, 13, will be an eighth grader this fall. Aeschliman said the past few years have been hectic, from COVID to her classwork for her master’s degree to moving from Alaska to moving to Minnesota.

Aiden, she said, will continue to be homeschooled this year, then start high school at Blooming Prairie.

Her own homework includes continuing to familiarize herself with the city’s wants and needs.

“I give a lot of accolades to my predecessor,” she said of Andrew Langholz, who left the role after more than three years to assume a similar position in Spring Valley.

“He created a capital improvement plan that we need to continue to expand,” Aeschliman said. Though the city’s next bond doesn’t fall off until 2028, “there are a lot of things that can be addressed so we’re ready when we can move ahead.”

She’s already heard about a few different issues, like people wanting a bathroom in City Park – and people who say “no, don’t, because we’ve had damage to it.”

“I need to hear those things, so I’m aware,” she said, “but things like that need to be weighed against sidewalks and other infrastructure. It doesn’t fall on deaf ears, but it has to be managed. It’s not always a hard ‘no,’ but you want your local government to be fiscally responsible.”

The CIP is the tool used to implement a city’s comprehensive plan.

“The comprehensive plan is the steering wheel” for a community’s future, Aeschliman said. “It’s not my vision for the city; it’s the people’s vision. It’s my job to take that and bring things forward for the council, because I don’t make the decisions. They do.”

When she was director of assessments for the Kenai Peninsula Borough, in Soldotna, Alaska, Aeschliman got to experience the strong-mayor form of government. She’s also dealt with the council-mayor form, and as tax director in North Dakota, she worked for county commissioners.

“Along the way, I have had my taste of each form of local government, and working for the state, as well,” she said of her strengths. “There is where I learned, you know what? I think I can do this.”

She plans to continue her online teaching job at the University of Alaska Anchorage, where every fall, she teaches a business curriculum.

“It’s my opportunity to help the youth understand the duties and responsibilities” of being part of local government, Aeschliman said. “We do scenarios about situations that may occur, daily operations, and appropriate, reputable resources to use to run a local government.”

She enjoys it, she said, “because it’s my opportunity to impact our future leaders.”

The leaders she’s working with now are “an amazing mayor and council members,” Aeschliman said. “I feel very fortunate; they’ve been very receptive and very respectful so far.”

The hard work is coming, she acknowledged, including addressing the cannabis policies within the city, mitigating the groundwater contamination along U.S. Highway 218, and updating the pedestrian crosswalks on the highway despite the state pushing the work back to 2025.

But she likes it – all of it.

“It’s really like coming home,” Aeschliman said. “In small towns, people watch out for each other; they genuinely have the best interest of the community at heart.

“I am really, really happy to have been selected,” she said. “I’m honored. It’s been great.”