River Falls was founded in 1848 by Joel Foster. In 1885, 140 years ago, the "City on the Kinni" became an incorporated city. Abraham Andrews was the first mayor. It is not known what happened, but with life expectancies not much greater than a barnyard cat in 1885, Mayor Andrews served a whopping four months in office. Andrews isn't even the shortest tenured mayor, however. That title belongs to Gene Meyer who served for one month from April to May in 1972. There has been only one female mayor in town in 140 years. Katie Chaffee served one term from April 2000 to 2002.

There have been 34 mayors in the history of River Falls; however, seven of those mayors served two separate terms. Some of the last names still have a presence in town. Rocky Branch Elementary is parked on Bartosh Lane. John Bartosh was born in River Falls in 1885 and started a 20-plus year milk delivery business in 1920. Bartosh was the first person in the area to use motorized vehicles for his milk business. Legend has it, in over 20 years in business, Bartosh only missed a total of two days of milk delivery. Bartosh served as mayor from 1943-50 and then again from 1952-56.

Maynard "Spike" Hoffman, the namesake for Hoffman Park, was the longest serving River Falls’ mayor serving from April of 1956 through April of 1968. Hoffman's mayoral streak was the longest in town history until current Mayor Dan Toland, who just completed his 13th year as mayor. He ran unopposed, once again, and is now beginning his 14th year, a Brett Favre-like streak in America's Dairyland.

The life-long Packer fan was born in St. Paul 62 years ago, but he had an aunt and uncle living on a farm just outside of River Falls. His brother was attracting some mischief in the big city when Toland was 14.

"My parents wanted to get him away from that, so we moved out here, which I thought was fantastic," said Toland.

A 1980 River Falls High School graduate, Toland began a long career in the grocery and meat cutting business in high school. He worked at Isaacson's SuperValu carrying out groceries and later cut meat at Erickson's (now Family Fresh). Then he made the jump to running a meat department at Rainbow Foods in the Cities.

"It was a union job, so I thought I was really moving up in the world," said Toland.

After a decade of commuting, Toland ran a meat department in Hudson from 6 a.m. until 2 p.m. Then, he hustled across the river to Bayport and worked for Andersen Windows running a paint booth from 3—11 p.m. for a couple years.

"I was young," said Toland. "The sleep didn't matter."

It didn't matter to Toland, but Andersen's said he needed to pick one job or the other. He picked neither in 2005.

"After 30 years in coolers," said Toland, "I thought I'd just help my wife with the business."

Joni and Dan Toland own and operate Pearson Florist and Greenhouse on Elm Street in River Falls. Dan has also been moonlighting at Phillips Medisize in Hudson as a manufacturing engineer technician in the research and design industry.

"A friend of ours came in the store one day and was trying to get Joni to run for mayor," said Dan. "She was never going to do it, she doesn't have the time. He left and we were laughing and giggling about it, but a couple days later, I started to think about it and thought it'd be fun. I didn't know that much about how the city worked."

In April 2012, Dan Toland ran against incumbent Mayor Don Richards, who had just completed year number nine in office. Toland won by seven votes. There was a recount. And another recount. A month later in May 2012, Toland was named mayor of River Falls by an official count of nine votes.

Richards and Toland squared off two years later in the next two-year election cycle and Toland won by a few thousand votes in the 2014 election. Minus a handful of election day write-in votes, Toland has officially run unopposed since.

"There's multiple ways of looking at it, but I always just say nobody else is dumb enough to do it," said Toland.

Scott Morrissette has been serving on the River Falls City Council for 15 years.

"I'll admit Dan and I are friends outside of city council, but I'll tell you he's honest," said Morrissette. "He'll tell you exactly where he's at on a topic. It may not be what you want to hear, but he'll tell you his position and I think that's important. If you look at how many times he's run unopposed, that alone should tell you a story."

No story encapsulates small town politics better in River Falls than the great chicken debate seemingly occurring every five to six years.

"I'm all in favor of chickens being allowed in the city limits as long as they're deep fried or grilled," said Morrissette. "I'm apparently the poster boy for anti-chickens."

According to Morrissette, many of the estimated 150 residents in attendance at that city council meeting years ago didn't find his light-hearted comment humorous.

"It was just a madhouse," said Morrissette. "So we vote and decide not to allow chickens in the city limits and then the place empties out. The next item on the agenda was a $25 million capital improvement project. It was all laid out and nobody said a word. Everybody's fired up about chickens and nobody cares how we spend $25 million."

Morrissette said he came to realize the residents trust the council and Toland to make those decisions regarding if the city building needs a new roof or a new fire truck or police car.

"My wife gets mad every time we say no (to chickens)," said Toland. "She would love to have chickens. With the price of eggs during the last year, I'm surprised it hasn't come up again. I've been waiting."

Something Toland didn't wait too long on was the improvements made to Glen Park.

"He said 'that park is tired,’" said Morrissette. "It's our oldest park in the city and Dan said, 'we really needed to do better,' and he was instrumental in getting the Glen Park plan moved forward. Nobody is against parks, but we had to figure out how to pay for it."

The City of River Falls secured a grant for a portion of the cost.

"We need a new pool, too, but that will cost $2.5 million," said Morrissette. "There is community groundswell for a warming house and a sheet of ice for use during the winter."

Toland doesn't give the title of longest tenured mayor one second of thought. He says, "I'd have been tarred and feathered and sent packing years ago if I didn't have the phenomenal staff pointing me in the right direction. It's the staff that have made this city a great city to live in."

One of the first complaints he received when he became mayor was the lack of downtown Christmas lights.

"I went to Kevin Westhuis (utility director) and said, 'this is embarrassing, what can we do?' Kevin turned it into what it is now. It’s phenomenal,” he said.

Connectivity with the residents, especially on social media, is a priority for Toland. The State of the City Address in early March had him donning a white wig and dressing up as "Doc Brown" from Back to the Future to hammer home the theme and direction.

"That's all Tyler (Mason, City Communications Coordinator). You think that was funny," said Toland. "Wait until you see what we're going to do for the park pool opening."

You read it here first, reports out of City Hall are predicting Mayor Toland in a swimsuit on social media.  

"We want to connect with the citizens as much as we can and humor and fun is the way to do that in my opinion," said Toland.

"Dan is passionate about the city and he really does genuinely care about where it’s headed," said Morrissette.