A push for change turns mavericks into The Man

If any two men in Minnesota feel bemused today to hold the jobs they hold, they are Pete Ewals and Tim Lies.

"Two weeks ago," says Lies, "in the grocery store, it was 'Hiya Tim, howya doin'?' Now it's 'Hi, Mr. Mayor.' And then a instant later -- 'Say ...'"

Last fall both men were outsiders -- even, in a quiet sort of way, revolutionaries. They were part of a small band of uneasy souls meeting a couple of times a month in the shell of a historic brewery in Jordan to dream up a different future for their part of western Scott County. A future with fewer Taco Bells and more history and character. One that resisted mass suburbanization and sought to preserve enough farmland and open space to make them forever feel like rural places.

Today, instead of fighting "The Man," they are The Man. Ewals succeeded last fall in ousting Jordan's longtime mayor. And Lies, this spring, was appointed to the same job in Belle Plaine after the elected mayor died.

Is their ascent to power the sign of some sudden turnabout in western Scott County? Have the go-go years of Scott County as a developer's dream been replaced by a New Age reappraisal?

Naw, they agree.

Ewals, 49, sees his victory as less about him than a result of discontent at a high boil over high taxes and detachment from voters' wishes. "The council wasn't listening," he said. "I kept hearing, 'It's time for change. He's had a good run, but...'"

And he is but one voice on a city council that hardly subscribes to all his visions. "I'm not sure we understand each other," he confessed.

Lies' mandate is even more uncertain. He actually lost last fall in a quest for a City Council seat. Indeed Scott County Commissioner Barb Marschall made a point of mentioning that during a board meeting when she learned that the City Council had chosen him from a field of several candidates to be appointed the mayor.

Lies, 51 (the name rhymes with "lease," by the way, so skip the jokes; he's heard them before) does not apologize. "The 'big winner' got 45 more votes than I did," he said.

Being mayor, both men now choose their words more carefully than they might once have. But they are a pair of chaps with strong views. And they leak out forcefully from time to time. Lies speaks with a sigh of "the boom-boom years" in Scott County, a period that most of the county's civic elite is proud of.

"A developer comes in and leaves," Ewals said. "They aren't doing it for the city. They're doing it to make money. We need to look at the character of the land and leave the character there that makes it unique."

"Belle Plaine and Jordan are not cheap places to buy anymore," Lies adds. "It's not a cheap house when you're paying $250 a month for gas. And we've not seen the last of $4-a-gallon gas."

If the two men in some ways seem to be rowing against the current, public opinion polls show that in some ways they are in sync with it. Polls of counties like Scott, Carver and Dakota always find an aversion to rapid growth and a love of rural and small-town living.

For all the nostalgia around small towns, and dislike of "sprawl," they admit, towns like theirs are dying in western Minnesota. Proximity to the Twin Cities remains a source of strength. They just want to see jobs in town, so that people live local lives, rather than treat their towns as starter places, short-term launch pads for young families who aim to end up in Eden Prairie.

They want to think in terms of unique features of the two towns: Jordan perhaps as an antiquing center, while Belle Plaine functions as a place with tremendous access to natural features including major parks and a revitalized Minnesota River.

"It would be awesome to be able to get on a bike in Jordan and bike to Belle Plaine along the river," Ewals said.

Each man has lived in his town for more than 20 years without ever ceasing to feel "new in town," though Ewals adds, "It does help that we've been here awhile." Lies grew up in south Minneapolis, but his mother grew up in Belle Plaine.

And of course, for all the gripes they've voiced in the past, they're finding that being mayor means a lot of demands and a lot of little things to watch over, as opposed to great dreams.

"There isn't a night," Lies says, as his friend smiles and nods, "when someone isn't asking for some of your time."

David Peterson • 952-882-9023