Bloomington will send a new commissioner to the Three Rivers Park District board. Dan Rasmussen beat incumbent John Gibbs for the District 5 seat on Nov. 3. Gibbs has held the seat since 2011 and has been board chair since 2023.
With 54 of 55 precincts reporting, Rasmussen had 29,577 votes, or 51%, to Gibbs' 27,268, or 47.5%, according to unofficial results from the Minnesota Secretary of State. Both men live in Bloomington. The district also covers Chanhassen, Eden Prairie, Fort Snelling and 3 Richfield precincts.
Rasmussen is 42 and has lived in Bloomington for 13 years. He is a senior marketing manager at Xcel Energy. During the campaign he described himself as an active park user and a father. He framed his pitch around long-term stewardship: take care of the natural resources the district already has, and ask 2 questions before building anything new: "Do we need it? Will people use it?" He also called for balancing maintenance with careful new investment, and for partnerships to help pay for it.
Gibbs, 69, is a retired attorney and business executive. He ran on what he called "respect for taxpayers," pointing to property tax increases that averaged less than 2% a year since 2010. He also stressed keeping up existing parks and trails as visits to the system doubled to more than 16 million a year.
The race is nonpartisan, and the term runs 4 years. The 7-member board sets policy and oversees the budget and operations for regional parks, park reserves and trails across the western Twin Cities. Commissioners are paid $988.90 a month, and the chair gets $1,043.88. Projects in the pipeline include a planned trail linking Nine Mile Creek Trail to Hyland Lake Park Reserve.
Results stay unofficial until the election is canvassed. With 1 precinct still out and a margin of more than 2,300 votes, Gibbs' 15 years on the board appear to be over.
